Yaaay! (+Scrapbooking)

So I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Today, shortly before 1pm, I exited the testing room for my final written exam towards my masters. In a few weeks that final results from all 3 written exams will be posted, and we will receive our "invitations" to the oral exam. But until then I have a little breathe time. I think I will give myself a few days before I start prepping those two final topics. I feel pretty good about the written exams, not good, as in: I did well, but good as in: I passed. Hopefully that feeling will be validated in a few weeks.

I feel pretty spent though. I have had a headache for the last few days, and have been plagued by dreams about me missing the exam because of oversleeping. I know my boyfriend has had to put up with a little nervous attitude of mine, and for that I am thankful.

One project I had to entice me like the proverbial carrot on a stick was the prospect of making a scrapbook of our trip to China. I had never really scrapbooked or even knew what it was until last year. It seems to be really popular among military wives. (Military wives are very crafty. I mean, they can sew, quilt, knit, scrapbook...it's pretty impressive). So I was bitten by the scrapbooking bug. And I made my boyfriend a small scrapbook of pictures of me (very self-centered) to send to him while he was deployed. Then after Christmas I made a scrapbook for my grandmother of all of our Christmas pictures. Now I want to make one for myself.

Last week while on post I convinced my boyfriend to buy me piles of magazines (have I mentioned what a sweetheart he is), and among my selection of Marie Claire, and Cosmo and co. I made room for my very first scrapbooking magazine: Scrapbooks etc.

I was flipping the pages for some inspiration when I came across a layout that I really liked. It was a square grid of 25 square pictures of the scrapper's vacation to Hawaii. And she called it “Views of Hawaii”. It was marvelous, because she was able to use all those pictures that she found kind of cool, but really don't justify being a page of their own.

(I am probably risking getting a Cease and Desist letter here.)

Although one could do it the old fashioned way, cutting and sticking together 25 small photos, I was sure that she had done this with a computer. I was trying to figure out how to do this, but realized I would probably need some expensive photo-shopping software which I don't have. I do however have GIMP, which is the Open Source, i.e shareware photo editing program.
Yesterday I had lunch with a friend who is a photographer and is starting to learn Adobe Photo Shop. And I asked if she could help me, and she gave me a few tips which I was able to use in GIMP...and voilá!

I present you with my version: Views Of China. Well...it isn't scrapbooked yet, but the photos have been slapped together.

I will be getting this printed out in a larger size online (super cheap).

It occurred to me that this would also look great in a picture frame. I think I will definitely do more of this in the future with many photos that on their own wouldn't warrant framing, but with many others make a nice collage.

(I know someone who will get a kick out of this out of this post and be teasing me in my crafty
endeavors...*wink wink*, Jenny.)