Mrs. Geek

Episode 25: Magical Story Hour | Capturing Magic

via capturingmagic.me

I had such a blast recording this episode of Capturing Magic. Have a listen.

Keeping the magic close.

It is no secret, I love all things Disney. I display it proudly with the this decal on my car, along with the three stick figure people of Dr. Geek, Baby Geek & myself. (Although they are starting to chip away, I've told Dr. Geek that we must go to Disneyland to get more decals, he told me we could buy them on-line, I told him that was crazy talk, why purchase something on-line when you could go to Disneyland instead?!)

One thing that has set me apart is my iPhone case. I saw a company at MacWold in 2010 and immediaely placed an order when I got home that night! Uncommon makes awesome phone cases. They have a gallery you can choose from or you can upload your own image. I searched my iPhoto gallery and selected this image of the castle for my iPhone 3G.

It was a hit, even a cast member at the Character Breakfast a the Plaza Inn was impressed with the case.

When we upgraded to the 4S last year I ordered a new case with a different image.
I didn't love it as much as my original case. The sky turned out to be much too dark for my taste, but it is still an awesome case.

Last year I completed a survey for Uncommon and was given a $10 off coupon. I decided to create a new case. I got a little bit fancy. I used a collage program from the Apple App store to create an image with a total of 10 pictures from various trips we've taken. I scanned the park map as a back ground that you can see peaking through a few areas. I really love how this case turned out. The one bummer is that I was constantly tweaking the image to make sure it fit the dimension of the case -- making sure heads weren't cut off etc-- that I forgot to include one of my most favorite pix of Dr. Geek & Baby Geek in Toontown. Oh well I'm sure we'll be upgrading our phones at some point in the future so I'll have another opportunity to create a new case.

 

Some of my favorite Disneyland memories

I've recently discovered the Capturing Magic site. It is full of awesome resources for just about all things Disney -- the parks, how to get the most out of your stay and how to record the memories once you return. After listening to their podcasts and catching up on some posts, I  decided to recap my favorite Disneyland experiences.

 

2005

Dr. Geek & I go to Disneyland for the first time together. This was also the 50th Anniversary year. Dr. Geek grew up on the opposite side of the country and had only gone to Disneyland once when he was about 9 years old. The telling moment in our trip planning was when he asked "do they still have ticket books?" We had a great trip highlighted by adding gold ear hats to our growing collection.

2007

I had a training conference at the Disneyland Hotel (I know rough ) that coincided with our anniversary. Since Dr. Geek is a major foodie, I booked us reservations at the Napa Rose. We sat at the chef's table which made for a very fun evening.

That same trip we made reservations for preferred seating for Fantasmic. That year they closed the balcony on the Disney Gallery and created the Dream Suite so the preferred seating was in front of the Haunted Mansion. After having to wait nearly two hours for Fantasmic the first time, Dr. Geek declared that preferred seating was the only way to go! On this trip we added the blue & silver light up ears to the collection.

 

 

2008

I once again attended the training conference and it was the same week as our anniversary again. Earlier in the year I had a conversation with someone about Disneyland and favorite trivia etc. During the conversation the topic of Club 33 came up. Through this conversation we were able to secure reservations to the Club for our anniversary dinner. It.was.AWESOME! It was one of those once in a lifetime experiences that I still can't believe we had. Luckily we have the Mickey Ears with the logo to prove it, along with a few pictures as well.

 

 

 

2009

We spent the week of spring break at Disneyland. I always like to go into the park for a few hours on our last day. I tell Dr. Geek that it helps with that Post Disney Depression you feel when you leave the resort and you see other people excitedly heading towards the park. It also helps to go to the park for a few hours to wait out the Rush Hour traffic in Orange County & Los Angeles. On this occasion we decided to try the California Adventure Sequway tour. It was an awesome tour. We got to ride sequeways through out the park in the 3 hours prior to the park opening.

 

2010

This year the big promotion was "Give a Day, Get a Disney Day" if you gave a day of volunteer service at a select organization you got a free ticket to one of the parks. Dr. Geek & I, along with some of our close friends all gave a volunteer day so we went to the park together. This was an interesting trip for us. I was about 30+ weeks pregnant at the time. Thankfully it was overcast for most of the day so I was spared the blazing July heat. The friends we went with had a 7-year-old and a 3-year-old. The 3-year-old and I were ride buddies since we has he same ride restrictions. It was a great trip, until Dr. Geek came down with the stomach flu. We purchased Baby Geek his first Mickey Doll. It has a sweat shirt covered in their 2010 logo, we felt that was an appropriate choice since he was born in 2010.

 

2012

I've been telling Dr. Geek that I wanted to be on a Disney Cruise for my 40th Birthday, but since I've been at home with Baby Geek that wasn't in our budget. Our splurge was the Grand Californian. It is a beautiful property and you can't beat being able to walk right on into the park, but I have to say that the Disneyland Hotel is still my favorite of the propery hotels. It was so much fun to bring Baby Geek to the park. We got Baby Geek his first set of ears and I got the Happy Birthday set.

We don't have another trip on the books just yet, but it's just a matter of time. I can't wait to make more memories with Dr. Geek & Baby Geek!

Another re-design

This was my first major attempt at designing a paper piecing with SCAL. In the past I've taught a few variations of this design as a mini book at a local scrapbooking store. This was before I had my Cricut and SCAL so I used CM cutting templates, punches and QuicKutz dies to create the pieces and then showed the students how to put it all together. I printed out clear Avery labels with the letters so they could have the correct font. Most often the studnets would ask me to hand write "The Happiest Place on Earth" and "Est. 1955 because they liked my handwriting.

Once I had SCAL I sat down and designed the piece using the basic shapes and a few fonts. Now I have some Cri-Kit pens and used them so I no longer need to hand write "The Happiest Place on Earth" and Est. 1955. I've also merged the font with the boxes to utilize the negative space and not have to worry about small pieces getting lost.

Finally to add some dimension I used foam squares to raise the letters off the sign. I'm really happy with how it looks and am seriously considering adding it to my Etsy store.

On my scrap table

This past weekend I had lots of fun with my Cricut and SCAL! I created 3 paper piecings.

Two were reworkings of my own designs and one was using an adorable set from Lettering Delights.

First up is the re-work of my Retro Disney World sign. The first version had a much bigger base and the letters were lost and looked to be floating in air. I'm much happier with this design. I think it really makes the design much tighter and gives a better sense of dimension. Oh who am I kidding with this fancy talk.... it just looks better!

And the winners are...

Congrats to Cindy, you have the 4 Parks page topper coming your way and Taylor the Vintage Signage is all yours! Thanks all who stopped by my litte blog. I'm thinking about listing these page toppers on my Etsy store, any thoughts?

 

A big user error for this post. I thought I published this last evening, it helps if I have the status set to publish now instead of draft. My apologies.

Give-a-way!

Since I've gotten such positive feedback for the Disney World paper pieces I've decided to have a little give-a-way. I haven't been to DisneyWorld yet (hint, hint Dr. Geek) so I thought I should share the page titles with those that could use them. To enter leave a comment letting me know which title you want, Vintage Signage or Four Parks. I'll draw the winners Sunday afternoon.

Vintage Signage

Four Parks

Good Luck!

oh and yes you may enter twice if you want a chance at both titles

Creative afternoon

As I was researching logos to create a Retro Disneyworld paperpiecing I came across this image and remembered I had a font that had the same icons. Ah ha! Another idea was born. I got my geeky crafter hat on and started playing with fonts today. One of the main things I realized right from the start....

THERE ARE A TON OF TINY PIECES IN THIS LOGO!!!!!

I knew I did not want to be cutting and gluing minuscule pieces of paper, because they always tear, or get lost or don't cut completely. I made as much use of the negative space as I could. I did have to cut out a few tiny pieces in the blue and red but that was a small price to pay for peace while crafting. I also had to save four tiny pieces of white on the Epcot logo but I used the larger piece as a "gluing mask" and that was pretty easy to glue down.  Overall I'm pretty happy with the results. What do you think?

 

Colorful layout

Ever since our return from Disneyland in January the idea for this layout has been forming in my brain. I used this sketch from Sketchsupport.com. I love thier sketches, awesome ideas, and examples AND detailed instructions including cutting sizes and placement. Love that!

Dr. Geek returned from a trip to home depot one day with a stack of paint chips from the Disney paint line. I have him well trained! I used one of those as an embellishment and used the title I cut from Sure Cuts A Lot and sprayed with Glimmer Mist.

I love how it all came together!

Disney Paper Piecing

After I posted this Retro Disneyland paper piecing on the Disney Scrappers board many wanted to see something similar for Disney World. I got the inspiration for the Disneyland piece from a T-Shirt I bought during the 50th Anniversary celebration. I have yet to go to Disney World so I wasn't sure what would work.  I did a bit of searching around the web and found this pin that had a similar look. I used a few fonts and the shapes in the Sure Cuts A Lot library to create this: