ScrappingTips

Wes World

 

Video clip of my buddy Wes, AKA Mr. Scrapped-The-Movie, doing an interview at the FujiFilm booth during the Arlington Great American Scrapbook Convention.

Video Clip from The Great American Scrapbook Convention

 

 

Missouri meets Texas

Cropping At The Convention

 

East Coast croppers don't fret if you missed the Arlington Great American Scrapbook Convention, there's another one coming up next week in Chantilly, right outside of D.C.

Making Memories at the Great American Scrapbook Convention

 

Live from the floor of the biggest scrapbooking convention

Great American Scrapbook Convention Wrap-up

Just got this post-Great American Scrapbook Convention email from my friend Wes, who attended the show:

Hey Michelle, I'm back home from a week in Texas... what a blast! Fujifilm brought me down to meet and greet people at the Lone Star Scrapbook Company in Houston and to the Great American Scrapbook Convention in Arlington.

As near as I can tell everyone had a gas. I think these scrapbooking ladies are a lot wilder and adventurous than we give them credit for. The convention people let me give away some merchandise during the scrap parties. Just to make it interesting instead of drawing one name I decided to draw two and make the ladies race for the free T- shirt. I called their names, they stood up and shouted GO while launching off the stage. Wow --  who would think these mild mannered scrapbookers could get so riled up and competitive?

One of the coolest things I got to do at the convention was just being able to run around with a camera taking pictures of people and then printing them out pretty much on the spot. I had to come up some quick photos for some sample layout pages so I asked people if I could take their pictures. I ended up printing doubles of all the pics at the Fuji kiosks and bringing copies back to all the ladies I photographed.

I don't know what the physiological mechanics of the situation are but there was something about just walking around taking pictures of people, printing them out and bringing it back to them within a couple of minutes that just made everyone real happy. They knew I was doing it for "work" and they knew Fuji had kiosks just sitting there for anyone to use and print free pictures on but they still lit up when they got their picture.

I figure people got happy because taking a picture is all about you showing interest in something. It's like saying to someone hey, take a look at this specific thing. Focus on this. And when someone sees a picture of themselves that you took it's letting them into your thoughts in a way. It's an expression of how you see them.

I've also got to say there really is something different about having a printed picture and just a digital image stored on your camera or hard drive. If Fuji had just hooked me up a digital camera to take people's pictures and I promised to email them to them later it would have been a totally different vibe.

Having a tangible photo that can't be deleted and isn't in a file of a thousand or so images on a computer is a real different animal. It's the purest sense of imagery. It's innocent; it can't be manipulated like a digital image can. It's face value and not as pretentious because you can stick it in a frame but you can also stick it to your fridge or tuck it in the visor of your car, maybe use it as a bookmark. You can see it with your eyes AND with your fingers.

I didn't mean to get all metaphysical on you. I just thought it was a cool experience last week and I am the luckiest man alive to be able to have done it. Scrapbooking is still a new world for me, and i know I'm not what most people would figure is the typical scrapper but there was a very cool connection happening at that convention. Everyone was so welcoming that I couldn't stay un-connected.

Sounds like a good time was had by all, I'm still totally bummed I couldn't make it. Oh, well, there's always the next Great American Scrapbook Convention, in Chantilly, Virginia, June 23-24 2006. That's just outside of D.C. and not too far from me -- so I might just get to go to that one. Fingers (and toes) crossed!

And check out more photos from GASC by clicking right here

 

Live from the Great American Scrapbook Convention

Video clip direct from the Great American Scrapbook Convention, being held this week (June 8-10) in Arlington, Texas. Look at all the wonderful stuff!

The Great American Scrapbook Convention

Wes Thomsen was all but dragged kicking and screaming (okay, and laughing) into the amazing and addictive world of scrapbooking.

The way he tells it, he was happily mocking a scrapbooking friend about her hobby and she dared him to try making a page or two. He did, and it all might have ended right there but Wes' fertile and fevered film-maker's mind quickly saw the potential for a documentary on scrapbooking.

Flash forward a few months: Now he's just about finished with the movie, which is titled "Scrapped" and is due to debut in early August. Judging from the clips I've seen it presents a really unique look at all the different kinds of people who scrap and their motivations for doing so.

And a funny thing happened during the filming; Wes actually started to see the point of scrapbooking and even admits to getting a kick out of making his own pages these days (Okay, so he has been known to shoot the occasional layout with a gun and I suspect he's seriously considered using roadkill for embellishments on layouts documenting his motorcycle trips, but to each their own, right?)

Wes is attending the Great American Scrapbook Convention in Arlington, Texas this week, and he'll be showing a trailer from "Scrapped"during the big crop till you drop party that's scheduled for Thursday, June 8th from 6:00 PM to midnight. So if you're attending GASC, don't miss the party or the preview.

And Wes has faithfully promised to keep me updated on all of the goings-on at GASC -- which is being held at the Arlington Convention Center -- so those of us who couldn't attend the show (like me, sob) can at least get all the news straight from the convention floor.

Pre-Show Snapshots

These photos are from the day before the show opens. Looks like Wes is already having big fun. Here he's engaging in a little male bonding with Nate, a waiter at a nearby restaurant. Nate's from west Texas and Wes says "Is this the last bastion of masculinity before my plunge into the feminine abyss that awaits?"

 

Uh-oh.... looks like his exposure to the "feminine abyss" is indeed having an influence on Wes, who says "This photo was taken at a beautiful location at the hotel across the street from the convention center that was obviously made for wedding photo opportunities, etc. I thought I'd try to pull off a Daisy Duke kind of pose. Not particularly sensuous?" (It's all in the eye of the beholder, Wes.)

 

Thankfully it looks like Jeanne Wines-Reed has managed to calm Wes down. Jeanne is the founder of the Great American Scrapbook Conventions and Scrapbook Retailer magazine. And as if all that wasn't enough to keep her busy, Jeanne became Group Publisher of  the Memory Makers publishing franchise last January. Memory Makers is celebrating its 10th Anniversary in 2006 and was the first major consumer scrapbooking magazine offered on the newsstands back in the days when everyone no doubt laughed like loons at the idea of making a magazine for scrapbookers. Jeanne is known within the industry as "The Ambassador of Good Will for Scrapbooking" and it seems like everyone who meets her is impressed with her enthusiasm and love for the art of scrapbooking. She obviously also has a real gift for soothing very perky convention attendees.