Not Really a Second Post for the Day

This isn't really the second post of the day.  In my excitement over the hall yesterday, and not desiring to forget anything, I posted the blog previous to this in my Myspace blog.  Today I transferred the post to here; a more appropriate setting.

I've spent nearly twelve hours re-organizing paper and paper scraps.  To accommodate for a hefty but handy pre-sized paper cuts, some of the smaller dies had to be consolidated.  So too with other tools, but it will be worth the effort in the end.  Not administering enough organization torture, I labeled every bin and drawer.  Needless to say, after only twelve hours into the project, the room looks as if a paper bomb went off.  I really need to track how often I go through these two-to-three day organizational fits; it seems I do this at least every other month.  But wait!  There's more accomplished today...

For my coloured pencil collection, I saved an old coffee tin.  Yes, it's totally filled, but this collection goes back at least twenty years.  Back when the boys were kids, and I was a Camp Fire leader, I put all the crayons in a coffee bin and decorated it with a wallpaper scrap and crayon wrappers; the exterior decoration lasted virtually forever.  Each "play" coffee can had a unique decoration so they could pull the can and know what was inside at a glance.  The coloured pencil can has served well, but it was nothing to brag about.  It really bothers me when a container I use is ugly.  With some help for my great helper, we decorated the coloured pencil bucket with very pleasing results.  I added a pencil sticker on the label after taking the picture, which adds that much more cuteness.

Sometime early last year I found a small plastic accordion folder in Hobby Lobby's clearance section.  It originally sold for $10, but because it had a busted carrying strap, I picked it up for $2.00, I think.   We buy cat litter in boxes that have sturdy plastic handles.... just about the size needed to repair the accordion folder.  A match made in heaven!  Better than that, the new handle is of better plastic quality than the original.  All due credit goes to Martin that thought to marry the two.  He's one smart cookie!

I picked up a black painted wood frame with a mysterious slot in one side for 50 cents while at SSD.  Playing around with it, we discovered the slot perfectly accommodates a scrapbook page.  Martin wants me to go back and pick up as many as ten, should they still be there.  His idea is that we (yes, he likes to help scrap sometimes, too!) design decorative holiday pages to display for the various seasons.  He also wants me to display a few scrapbook pages around the house instead of photographing them and throwing into an album.  It will take an hour to make the round trip, so I hope it's worthwhile.  Maybe call to find out before leaving the house?  Nope, there might be new stuff on the floor tomorrow.  As much as he thrills over this prospect, he has yet to see what scrapbookers are doing to deep-framed art canvases.  I can put together a piece of art to hang on a wall for under $10 for what departments stores sell at $20-30, and can do a better job of it.

Probably not this year, but perhaps next, I take this hobby to the next notch and try to sell cards at the farmer's market.  I've gotten very good with cards, but don't feel I'm up to the commercial level yet.  I've always been crafty, but never considered ever making a profit from it.  Who knows?

75% Off Haul

Oh. My. Goodness!

The warehouse portion open to the public wasn't as large as it might be in the future, but was still larger than their flagship store.

What did they have? What not, indeed?

12x12 sheets @ 3/$1.00, including some Graphic 45 papers... Most of these run between $1.00- 1.50 each in the store.

An area with assorted size papers and envelopes. Pick up an extra large 20x20 inch Ziplock bag, and as long as the papers fit and the bag zips, pay $3.00 total.

Sticker and chipboard packages, varied between $0.25 and $.75 each pack.

Small tags regular price...about $2.50 for less than 20, today's find, 100 tags for $0.50.

Ribbons for $.25 per roll.

A sealing wax monogram stamp, something I've search the world over, (well, for awhile, anyway) all of $2.00

Christmas, Easter, and Halloween decor... way, way cheap!

Little decorations to spice up the home decor... even less than cheap.

I bought everything that I wanted and could possible use, but despite that, I barely put a dent into any of the inventory. I came out with a goodly sized box (estimated at 12x12x24) almost filled to the top with paper, and a large reusable cloth bag... stuffed and overflowing.

This was the very first day the warehouse was open to the public. The everything 75% sale ends Friday. They are thinking of opening the warehouse a couple of days each week, but prices will only be cut to 50%.  Even so, this delights my treasure hunt obsession.

Oh, did I mention everything brought home cost right at $60? Oh, yeah! Not the $240 the supplies would have cost full price.

Now, whew, I have to find a way to organize all the new paper from the fill-it and seal-it bag; the goods there had six different sizes, not including the tags. Ye-haw!!!

Ca-rot Top

I've been wanting to scrap this page for a long time now.  The only problem is the quality of the picture.  The back lighting from the bathroom window probably caused the extreme shading of the photo.  This is really disappointing, but was done before I began working on my photography "skills."  Don't think the same mistake would be made today, or at least would hope not.

The page is about a silly idea we came up with after cutting the top of a carrot that had greenery left in place.  The thought was that if we planted it, we would have a nice carrot at then end.  It got really bushy and healthy looking for about 2 months, but suddenly wilted.  The time was right for my helper to harvest.  After a hefty tug, all that came up was a green bunch of wilted leaves.  No carrot.  No roots.  The whole episode turned into a very fun memory... hence the desire to document the event despite the lousy photo.

Entering contests on CSI.com's site has opened me up to using colours in a way I might not have thought before.  I still lack real courage, but this is a learning process! 

About six months ago I stumbled upon an adorable pet-themed paper pack on sale.  The pages were absolutely adorable, but until this project I had no clue where to use the paper.  Now unleashed, there's many, many projects that come to mind using this paper.  This is how it goes with most all the paper pads bought along the way. As a side note... although the camera doesn't capture it, the rabbit is actually flocked.

I created the flower and carrot sign for embellishments.  The banner in the top right and the title located at the top left are commercial products.  The carrots are the crowning achievement on this page.  I used the Cricut to cut the shape, but the paper I wanted to use wasn't large enough to accommodate the full shape I had to start with, so in the end had to trace and manually cut the actual cutout onto paper originally planned for use; all done with very satisfactory results.  I then generously inked the carrots and leaves, and if I don't say so myself, did an excellent job on shading.

My Carrot Job

The most demanding aspect in presenting scrapped pages into digital images is capturing the true colours.  For that, I'm still experimenting with lighting techniques.  Too much light and the photo turns out washed; too little and all is dimmed (as in this case).  I believe setting up a shoot in diffused sunlight works best.  I may have found the solution for taking perfectly square photos for cropping.  There is an adapter to the tripod that extends an arm that in turn holds the camera directly over the center of the subject.  The centering is most critical for cropping; any deviation in angle distorts captured lines.  These devices run anywhere between $35-60, but Martin thinks he can build one for under $10.  The question at that point is when he'll have time to get to do it.  I'll give him two months after the promise, but if there are no results, it's off to the store for the extension bar.

Punch Drunk

I went to JoAnn's this past Friday in small hopes of finding We R Memory Keepers brand new Lucky 8 punches.  I hoped there might be just one.  Foolish faith.

While over in their Fiskars punch area I happened to see a clearance tag on a small corner punch.  Lacking a goodly supply of these, I snatched it up.  The punch was originally listed at $12.00, but was marked down to $2.98.  WOW!  What a deal.  Initially it appeared I'd come in too late in the sale to take advantage of other great deals after seeing so many of the arms with clearance tags empty.  Undeterred,  I began looking more closely at the clearance tags.  They didn't hang on the front of the arm, but each was pushed against the back wall.  The search was on!

In the end, I found: 1 regular shape punch, 2 small corner punches, 2 3-in-1 emboss plus punch, 1 4-in1 emboss and punch, 1 medium squeeze punch, and 3 different border and corner punch sets.  Oh!  And a Sizzix Original dye.  Over $150.00 retail value, I spent less than $50!  A 66% savings value!!!

In the past, I've hesitated over buying corner punches.  They just seemed so dog-gone expensive.  At the same time, I've also felt the loss of these tools, especially when matting photos.  Small rounding and large rounding was to the largest extent of photo and matting ability before now.  While nice, there's just so much creativity to be had.  Between the newly acquired tools, and the couple of other punches I owned, I now have the ability to create no less than 18 corner designs.  And that's before combining punches for extra depth.

And this is the way I've built a huge inventory in such a short time, by taking advantage of really great deals.  They almost always come in bulk of one tool or element.  If I buy one, and find others, I stock up.

There's still one of the WRMK Lucky 8 punches I really want, but the last purchase ate this month's remaining allowance.

Before ending the discussion of punches, I found posted somewhere a nifty tip about how to know whether a particular punch in the store is not already sitting in the closet, or punch bin, whichever applies.

For every punch bought, punch an index card with the new punch.  Each card then gets a general round punch so each card as acquired can be added to a opening/closure ring.  When heading out to a craft store, take the entire ring.  Then, when wondering whether the punch on the shelf is something already owned, all it takes is pulling out the ringed set and flipping through the punched cards

Punch Ring - Organization

I've taken this idea to a higher level and write the brand name and title of the demonstrated punch to make putting together the "supplies used" sheet easier to write up after the page or card creation.

(Sorry for the mess.  Actual scrapbook page creation in progress)

Dean's Gift

My great-aunt, Dean, left to my care all the genealogical data she'd complied upon her death.  It may be that she saw my interest in the subject, or, being childless, left it to the one relative she knew loved her unconditionally.

Her nephews confiscated all the considered collection upon her death.  Rumour had it Dean had information linking the family directly to the Cherokee or Choctaw tribes; and not one of them were going to trust anyone else to register one without registering all.  Years later, after all the materials were scoured over, the inheritance began filtering to its intended repository.  Apparently, no treasure was ever gleaned from the scrutiny of very selfish men.

Dean was a prolific writer, if nothing else.  It's still possible that one small informational tidbit might be buried within the boxes of materials; however, everyone missed the greatest treasure of all!  Dean faithfully wrote down all the stories passed on to her from her mother, who had been passed down stories of her mother and grandmother.  That's five generations of history!!  The largest (and I suspect most examined) journal contains over 900 pages of handwritten text.  She also wrote another six or seven journals, which only containing about 100 pages each.  Only!

I've had all the material now for well over 15 years now.  At one point I had transcribed almost 200 pages of the handwritten text, and... well, a computer crashed.  I was able to salvage everything but the first 90 pages.  That incident tampered the energy invested in the project to that date.  I've since gone back and re-typed the first 30 pages; but darn it, there's only so many hours to each day.

I turned 50 the other day.  As much as the 45th birthday bothered me, this one was infinitely worse.  (At this point, I don't suspect any others will be of much concern.  Old is old.)  The beginning of a new decade on this earth has caused me to sit down and re-evaluate the directions of the remaining time allotted.  It's worth the effort to finish this project and somehow manage to publish the finished work.  I'm not wanting to publish for fame or fortune, but for certain prosperity.  If not I, then who?  Schools are no longer teaching cursive writing, and full generations - if ever again - will be unable to decipher the texts without specialized training.  I have at least one hour each day to devote to this project... if I'm very careful.

My maternal grandparents are part of the full telling, but their role ends early into their adulthood.  The smaller journals tells a story of her life.  That leaves most of my grandparent's stories untold, and nothing includes my mother's generation..  

I'm a little ambitious.  What if...?  I tell my life story and include it as part of the generational saga. This would become a story recording over 150 years of family history.  There would be a 1.5 generational gap, but this certainly doesn't mean it can't or shouldn't be done, to be appreciated by some distant descendant of mine.  How incredible if the generation after me (be they sons or nephew or niece) added their story, and so on.

Before my mother died, I begged her for her life's history.  In an effort of compromise, I told her I'd be willing to accept a sanitized version; all to no avail.  It's here that I have to stop and wonder whether I would be able to do the same thing asked of my mother.  There are many regrets and aspects of my life, that in retrospect, would not be so family friendly; especially the teen and early adult years.  Could I offer an accurate glimpse of this life while leaving most of the stories to the reader's ability to read between the lines?  Or could I simply hold back this portion of the story, to be released upon my death?  I've heard dead people don't embarrass so easily!  :)  And thinking along these lines, perhaps this is the same reason Dean guarded her stories until after death!

I'm mulling these ideas currently.  I've never lived an extraordinary life, nothing tangible changed by my existence on the world (except a few lives perhaps?)  Yet, the historian urges began early in life and through one means or the other, I've documented much of the happenings while here.  It wouldn't be a mean fete to pull it all together in the time remaining.  I'll decide at the end of the week whether to tackle the project.

In the meantime, I'll re-start transcription efforts beginning Monday morning.  The most consuming question here is how - HOW, I ASK! - to format the history to a scrapbook format.

Adhesives, Photography & Lessons Learned

I've selected some of my best pages (best in my opinion) and began photographing them.  Certainly a skill set of its own!  I've noticed some of the pages set out in the house as temporary decorations throughout the year warped.  Too much heat?  Not enough support?  Really, there was no clue as to what factors, or combination therein, cased this discernible warping.  The largest concern was that once warped the page could not be straightened or photographed properly.

I just LOVE the internet.  There's absolutely no question that anyone can ask that the internet can't provide an answer.  However did we live our lives without it? A couple of inquiries solved the riddle about warping.

The key seems to involve the amount of adhesives used on the page.  The more glues, the more certainty to warp.  Well... that's a problem since almost everything on the page requires taking down onto the page. 

Early on I understood different sorts of glue were on the market, and many not suited for scrapbooking due to acid or other chemical content.  Fortunately I have a niece with years of experience in the hobby pound this information into my head before I ever picked up a pair of scissors, and nothing was ever ruined or threatened by paper- or photo-toxic adhesives. 

Without a little experience in this craft it's difficult imagining how many, many different types of adhesives are available specifically for scrapbooking. There are dimensional dots that raise an element off the page.  There are liquid glues for paper-to-paper bonding.  Glue runners, where a line of rubbery glue bonds many types of elements together.  All stickers come pre-glued.  And finally, for purposes of discussion, there are glitter glues.

(Upon reflection the previous two paragraphs probably been posted previously... if so, whoops.  It's not as if anyone happens on to the page anyway.)

So!  Is it the weight of the glues or the types of glues that cause the warping?

The project in question begins with a heavy paper, or what I consider card stock.  In this case I used the Cricut to cut out "Give Thanks" in 3 inch letters to mount on the page.  (Side note:  the size of the script was primarily determined by the skill set I had at the time in working with the Cricut.  Today I could easily bring that down to 1 inch.)  This element was also heavily decorated with glitter, since this was my first work with the stuff and I wanted to experiment.   And, because the glittered element was never to actually come into contact with the photo page, I cheated and used regular Elmer's Glue from a bottle.  (Covering a 3 inch phrase with glitter requires a whole lot of glue!)  There were several dimensional stickers added to balance the height of the overall page.  Finally, since the page was created to decorate a holiday table, it was placed on a plate holder for a full month.

When described as such, retrospect tells me I probably did everything possibly wrong to the page.  The tip offered here is:  watch the use of glue and the quantity used.

Live and Learn!!

_________________________________________

In a huge departure of my buying philosophy "never pay full price for anything," I did just that.  Not once, but twice!


Paper companies come out with full lines of accessories in almost all collections.  This usually includes: 12x12, 8x8, and sometimes 6x6 inch paper pads, individual sheets, stickers, chip board sets, perhaps coordinating ribbons, alphabet stickers, stamps and possibly more.  The longer a collection has been out in the market, the harder it is to find many of the accessories.  Thus and therefore, to assure the option of buying collection accessories, it has to be bought early on, and usually at full price.  This lesson came painfully when I found an older collection and discovered nothing but the one pad and a sticker set remained.  That was after I conducted the most extensive internet search possible.

Graphic 45 specializes in nostalgic 1920-30's images in incredible colours.  It's a great paper to work with be that scrapbooking, or in creating home decor; some pages are nice enough to frame as is.  It also runs on the expensive side.  Thus far, I found the paper line too intimidating to use in everyday scrapping.  What I have worked with has been found at greatly reduced prices with limited accessories, if any.  This year they came out with a line called "Little Darlings."  It was love at first sight.  I knew this was a collection applicable to so many pages I want to scrap, but had not found paper to do the intended photos justice.  I bought the FULL line, except the 3 different stamp sets and the 8x8 paper pad; however, I bought extra copies of some of the accessories.  I all but fell over when the price totaled over $50, but every scrap of this stuff will be used for years.  I may go back and make up for the accessories not originally purchased my next allowance cycle.

Then I found a completed layout from scrapbooking.com featuring a different company line.  I used restraint and didn't go all out and buy the full collection, but did purchase enough of the coordinating supplies to pull together a couple of antique photo pages.  Again at full price. 

This is the type of post (very chatty) where there's not much I can't do for the day.  Obviously, this is one of those days.

I couldn't resist putting an image of the collection here!

Graphic 45 Little Darlings Main Image Page

Inventory Building

One of the best ways of building a paper supply quickly is to buy paper packs.  These packs range in paper counts between 24 and 80; the larger the number, the more papers there are to choose from.  You can also figure the higher number packs will probably contain paper; the lower the number, the likelihood of card stock contents.

What's best about any pack, whether paper or card stock, is that papers within that pack will always coordinate.   Probably the most important consideration while building an inventory

Most packs of any count run about $20.  I never pay for anything full price.  Hobby Lobby, JoAnn's, Michaels, regularly put these on sale for $10.   Regularly means between twice a month, but certainly once each month. (I can't vouch for scrapbook specialty shops because we only have one (boo) in our area and they are so pricey I can't afford to shop there very often; and when going, only hit the 50% off table, but drool at the rest!)  Most often when the paper packs are on sale, the racked individual papers are included in the sale.  However, there's no guarantee you can get more than one project out of each page later down the road.  I do often buy these papers for accent pieces needed from time to time.  Since the already packaged packs are still on the shelves, I can go down the aisle with the pack at home and pick out coordinating sheet papers.

For the first year of scrapbooking I tried to take advantage of as many of the sales as possible.  Buying one pad at a time feels as if it takes f-o-r-e-v-e-r to build an inventory.  I'm more fortunate than most since my husband is very supportive of my hobby, and allows a generous budget with most of the "extra" money that comes into the house.  In a one year period I managed to purchase 27 paper packs in as many moods and themes as possible; some of the packs in places never believed to carry scrapbooking supplies, and usually for pennies on the dollar.

For those with a Cricut, or similar machine (now that there's different brands out in the market), an important consideration when buying paper is how well it stands up to the rigours of automated machine die cutting, and to a lesser extent when using an embossing machine.  An inferior paper will never stand up to detailed cutting with the Cricut.  Going about it the wrong way, I ruined pounds of paper trying to put it to purposes it clearly isn't designed.  That's never the case with superior grade paper and card stock.  It takes some practice to figure out what works and what doesn't.  I can assure you the rack paper at Hobby Lobby will not stand up to the test!!!  I wish I had kept a list of which brands work the best with the Cricut, but not yet.  Off the top of my head I can vouch for K&Company, Graphics 45, and We R Memory Keepers, and Creative Memories among others not so close to immediate thinking.

The last word about paper probably should go without saying.  I keep ALL my scraps organized by colour.  I don't know how many times when looking for a particular colour I've discovered papers from different packs coordinate with another.  I "try" to indicate on the cover of the packs when this happens, but that's another organizational weakness.

This year March is National Scrapbooking month.  I'm hoping some of the specialty on-line shops (that normally only have bi-annual sales) come out with special discounts during the next few weeks.  As the motto goes:  more bang for the buck!

Taking it Up a Notch

I've made the leap!  I actually entered a scrapbook page contest at http://csicolorstoriesinspiration.ning.com/main/embeddable/list, Case #8.  Not sure when the winners will be announced, but I think sometime this next week.

To complete the project, I used many of the techniques picked up along the way including:design, story telling, die cutting, Cricut Expression cutting (the goalie glove... got it right the 1st time for the 1st time ever!), matting, inking, stitching, stamping, and adding personally created embellishments.  It's hard believing the list isn't a comprehensive list of techniques picked up along the way.

One of my proudest achievements for this projects was working under a strict time-line. 

Even should I warrant an honourable mention, that would be enough for a first contest attempt.  There's no real prize for placement in the contest save for recognition and bragging rights. 
So this is my entry for all it's worth:

Pure Star Power, documents 1st soccer tournament