Too Much Time

I somehow injured myself Thursday afternoon, and am still on the mend as of Sunday.  There's not much to do during recovery but sit in the most comfy chair in the house; a chair that, by happenstance, resides in the craft room.  (Bed rest can become quite painful after long stretches.)

And so, stuck in the craft room all weekend long, I spent the time trying new techniques; which has paid off handsomely... and organizing project where possible.

I completed the rooster/shot reminder page.  There's a few areas most would call mistakes, but since it's not going anywhere but the inside the house, they remain as is.

Cute & functional medication reminder

At long last, I played with the chipboard available from my considerable cereal box collection.  Pre-cut chipboard costs unimaginable pennies at the craft stores.  I have Cricut, Cuttlebug and many Sizzix Bigz dies on hand.   Both Cricut and Cuttlebug claim the ability to cut light weight chipboard, but until now, I've never put either to the test.  The Cricut worked wonderfully.  It requires a very stick mat and three multi-cuts.  The selected image came out crisp and clear. The same goes for the Cuttlebug.  I shouldn't've doubt, but the tendency to protect the equipment overrules challenges.  I've also saved a fair amount of "white" chipboard from Sweet-N-Low packages that will finally be put to great use.

I also picked up my tatting materials, neglected for months now.  Surprisingly, it all came back quite easily!  The reason for review stems from the desire to use homemade lace on the mini-album planned.  How sweet a touch this offers.  Fortunately, I have the perfect pink, green, cream coordinating threads already on hand, but will need to search for baby blue and yellow; a far harder challenge than imagined.  I can knock out several inches of lace in under an hour, so now I have something to do when there remains not an iota of creativity in store.

Loosely related to tatting was beading again.  This, too, will add a personal touch to any layout in mind.  Gosh, the only skill not put to use was using a floor loom to weave a carpet or something.  :)

On to organization...

It only took a month, but every single scrap of paper bought at the 75% clearance sale last month is now put away and sorted.  This took much, much longer than should have.  But the exercise proves need for more storage solutions.

An essential tool for any scapper would be a clear pocketed, hanging jewelry bag hanging in a closet of or the back of a door.  Small rubber stamps, bottles of embossing powders, ink pads, small packages of bling, tatting shuttles, ribbon scraps, and any number of small crafting items fit nicely in these relatively inexpensive bags.  Target has a line of very sturdy organizers, and during a sale make them down-right cheap.  At present, I only have one, but will pick up several more over the next few months.

After reading the post, it's scarey what gets done when my body is up to task!

More Ways to Save

I've mildly ranted about the cost of storage; mildly, because it's part and parcel of the craft.  I'd like to share today another nifty way to save money while keeping scrapbook items organized.

Over the year I've grown quite the patch of flowers... paper and silk primarily.  Between Cricut, dies, and templates there's almost an endless assortment.  I also enjoy crafting three-dimensional paper ribbons and embellishments.   Like everything else, it didn't take long before a system had to be put in place to accommodate the collection.

I've saved six stacking plastic ice cream half-gallon buckets.  They're scatter throughout the craft closet.  Some labeled, some not.  Even still, they all look the same at a quick glance.  So I've decided to colour code the containers so that in an instant I'll know a particular bucket contains flowers, brads, etc.  Red indicates flowers.

Organizational Work in Progress

 

 

 

 

No, not exceptionally pretty in this DIY project, either; however, I'll probably attach a large flower on each side and the top of the lid to pretty it up a little bit.  The image will also assist as a visual clue to others who like to sneak into the closet and design something wonderful for me!  (This happens often, much to my great delight!)

In time, I'll have a colour coded embellishment organizational system in place.  There might be acid content concerns for hard-core scrappers, but for my purposes, it should work fine. 
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When meeting Martin's mother for the first time she pulled out a decades old scrapbook.  A woman ahead of her time.  I could tell she rightly held this as a prized family possession.  The amazing part of the physical scrapbook was that despite the decades, and despite a lack of concern of the obsession we have with acid and lignum today, the book had not deteriorated.  Yes, there was some fading and yellowing, (in my opinion perfect seasoning) but the overall quality remained excellent.  It's probably a good idea to construct albums with perpetuity in mind, but as I've just described, it might not be as critical an issue as some make it to be. Maybe.

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Yet another recently finished page!

Silly Night

Christmas Eve
December 24, 2011

Sharpies & Photos

Altering photographs is scarey business.

I attempt to decorate photos  only on prints that can easily be taken to the local photo shop and have them printed again.  Never, never, never on original prints dating back years.

Today I played with a print recently back from Walgreen's and decided to use one of the journaling templates bought, but rarely used.  The template is plastic if that makes any difference at all.  For the colouring medium, I decided on a Sharpie Marker.  (Sharpie has such a great range of colour you would never expect, usually found in the art department of a craft store.)

Not the greatest idea I've come up with!  The ink sets on top of the print and the moment the template moved the ink dragged with it.  Fortunately, I was able to save the print because the ink sets on top of the print instead of quickly absorbing into the photograph paper.  This is a mixed blessing.

I would have been much better off using a regular ink pen.  Yes, I know:  standard ink is bad for photos.  Bad.  And so, my first attempt of decorating photos with ink was a partial failure.  Live and learn, right?

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The Peach Keen Stamp set arrived in the mail today.  My first project using these stamp will surely involve anthropomorphizing a soccer ball, since the next scrapbook page involves documenting this winter's Futsol games.  It's safe to say there will be many uses for the stamps throughout the hobby.  Now I'm dancing around waiting for next month to buy the animal faces.  I did decide that eventually the monster faces are a must.


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Getting down the right photography skills is a process and world into it's own.

Another projects finished in the past week:

Feeling A Little Snooty, Page 2

Peach Keey Stamps

I've wanted a Peachy Keen Stamps stamp set for months now.  Today (ta-da) I purchased my first set.  (Now to wait forever to them get to the house.)  This site has to be the best collection of face stamps available.


I ordered the original set, which is a good start.  I also bought an acid/lignum-free white pen to colour in the eyes. 

 

But, oh, how much more they've put out; human, animal, Halloween and many more faces in every size and expression imaginable.  They've even come out with die sets with two different face stamps per die... and they are adorable!

I can only imagine it would take a small fortune to own all their products.  I'll have to be very selective with my inventory.  I think I'll stop at the assorted face stamp set and one assorted animal face set.  Or more.  It depends on my mood.  (I did put a set of acrylic block set with the rounded grips in my wish list for next month's order.  All are currently 90 degree edges.)  They even have stamp sets that coordinate with various Cricut cartridges. Along those lines, MyPinkStamper.com has designed word stamp sets that compliment Cricut cartridges, but I've yet to buy from there, either.  To own fully integrated Cricut cartridge, word and face stamps is a dream come true.

When I receive my next allowance payout I am 100%-positive-sure buying a border template set from Kiwi Lanes.

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Over the past several days I've filled my time by finishing scrapbook pages and have created a few more.  There's no feeling like putting a page in the scrapbook knowing there's no more work to be done.Here is one of the latest pages:

Now that I'm getting the hang of photographing the 12x12 pages I'm sure to post more!

*** Whoopie: My new Spellbinders Edgeability set arrived in the mail today.  :D