Order from Nothing

Gosh, it's been almost 18 months now that I've began scrapbooking.  How far I've come!


How easy it is to forget the process of building skills and inventory along this path.  I've asked fellow crafters how? and when? and what order?  Then get the vaguest of answers.  How great it would be to keep a running commentary about how to build a workable inventory so that the general list could be shared with others just starting out. An attempt.

1. Paper, paper, paper.  Buy in pads, the quickest way to build a diverse inventory.  Buy card stock and paper, because you will learn there is a huge difference in function.  Buy paper only when on sale, preferably at 50% off or more.  Don't buy anything you don't like... the paper will be pushed to the back and a year later you'll still not like it.  (There are exceptions to this last part, but they are rare and few.)
2. Stickers.  The simplest and less costly embellishment.  Take advantage of sales, again, never at full price.  When buying for a specific layout, and the stickers are on sale, pick up at least another package you'll probably use (or that you think pretty) so you don't end up running to the store and paying full price during the next project.
3. Begin to build an inventory of "must have" tools.  A paper trimmer is absolutely essential.  Designate common household items such as rulers, and coloured pens as scrapbooking ONLY.  It's no fun having to track down equipment every time you want to sit and scrapbook, especially when time is a factor.
4. Invest in mixed batch of adhesive types.  A tape runner, acid free liquid glues, and sticky dots go very far.  Purchase the expense applicators such as an ATG gun only after comfortable knowing you will stick with the hobby.
5.  Stamps & Inks.  Whenever possible, buy stamp sets over a single wooden stamp, for several reasons.  Individual wood stamps take up more space, are generally very occasion/function specific and offer no variety to the occasion.  The same "Happy Birthday" stamp gets old very quickly.  Begin an ink inventory beginning with very basic colours, blacks, reds, green and blue.  Pick up a different colour at every opportunity.
6. Punches.  Begin with a circle punch, the most basic.  There are so many punch systems and types, any direction after that is best left to the user.

That sums up the very basics of inventory building.


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This hobby is still very thrilling, exciting and new.  There's so much to learn and so many ways to express thoughts and feelings.  Each day I sit down in anticipation of what can be learned or accomplished. 

TP & Thinking

Finished the inside cover of the mini-album celebrated yesterday.  Yeah!

I saw somewhere (surely on YouTube) someone planning on a vacation and creating an album in advance of the trip to journal and stuff memorabilia/other scrapbooking materials inside as the vacation progressed.  Hmmm, I think.  Very organized.  Without even knowing I'd already "thought" about the concept, the mister came in the room all excited one evening after seeing someone mention a way of keeping all the maps, receipts, and other travel information organized and at easy reach throughout a trip.  His method included sheet protectors with all relevant information contained inside each page protector that could be moved back and forth within a notebook as needed.  That really got me to thinking.  Hmmm (with emphasis this time)  We're going on a week-long vacation next month, with as close to a planned agenda for each day as I care to get.

This force me to put down the boy's childhood album... again. 

In anticipation of this trip, and with these new ideas floating about, today I began putting together a custom made mini with lots of pockets, sheet protectors, journaling spots, and assembling this in such a fashion as described, using a little bit of each method that best suit our needs.  All will be temporarily bound so that each page can be arranged and rearranged, or in case something unexpected comes along during the adventure.  Since we roughly know all the major spots we're hitting, it's easy enough to put a loosely themed page together for the event.  This is pure genius at work.  By the time we get back, all I'll have to do is select the postcards, receipts, tickets, etc, and the order the pictures we like, mount them, and finish binding the album.  That simple!  No need to fret about compiling an album after the event... and a good way as to not procrastinate the project into 2016, or thereabouts.  What a lifesaver!

Pictures of this work of wonders to follow.

Lots of Smiling

Well.


(With a huge grin on my face...)


I did it!!!  I designed my very first mini-album cover.  And it ain't half bad. 

The Beginning

Of course, there's the back and everything else left to be done, but for most of that it's all laid out either on paper or in this rattling marble up here.  

I sound a little excited yet?  Oh, I am.  Everything I've created before this was fairly copied stitch by stitch, page by page.  At least in my case, this is the way it works.  So I've taken all the lessons learned thus far (many, many) and apply them to one of the most special items I'll ever own... beautifully presented photos of the wonders of life; childhood, raising children, love, babies, and everything special imaginable.  But this - this - is the first mini coming straight out of my heart, into my head, and preserved in paper for decades to come. 


Graphic 45 has several new lines of paper coming out to be revealed over the next few weeks.  Too early to buy, but not to early to slobber over, either.  I now possess the ABC Primer, Playtimes Past, Little Darlings, A Proper Gentleman, Communique, Botanicabelle, Fashionista, and most of the On the Boardwalk and Le Romantique lines.  I plan to get the latest Halloween Happy Haunting, and the newest - Nutcracker Sweet - lines in the next month or so.  G45 will release their other newest lines, so I'll probably want those as well.  Though I'll happily cut it, it's still enough to just flip through the papers and admire the colours and images.  So far as I'm concerned, it would take some really special type of paper pack to entice me into purchasing a different line.  

Who could resist working with Christmas scrapbooking pages such as these?

I, for one, can not and shall not resist at all.  Too bad I just finished the 2012 Christmas mini a couple of weeks ago!  Maybe for a Christmas past?  My fingers already itch.

Gone Too Far

Taking a break from working on the most recent mini-album, I got to thinking...

What about a scrapbook filled with photos of all my scrapbook pages? 

Where does it end???  LOL

New Haul

In an incredible feat of restraint, I made the full scrapbooking run yesterday... and spent only my $80.00 weekly allowance.  Yes, a show of pure restraint.


I would have done much better had TM had not had another two G45 retailer sets out for sell.  There were four more pages from the "On the Boardwalk" collection, and the first four of the "Le Romantique" set.  {My mind begins spinning thinking about how certain elements of the "Proper Gentleman" and the "Le Romantique" collections could/will work together for a wedding, early relationship, or Valentine's Day album.}   Other than a tin of metal hinges, bookplates, and sliders picked up, now that I know how much I'll use these in other projects, that concluded the TM experience.

We had to run to the local TM to purchase three battery operated, personal misting fans. If we are to camp in Texas at the end of July, and we are, wet is absolutely essential.

Hobby Lobby has ribbon 1/2 priced this week.  Four new rolls.  A Sizzix keyhole with key die, regularly priced at $20.00, mine at $7.00. It took almost three albums to realize I was using Tim Holtz,'s Tea Dye instead of Vintage Photo ink.  I kept wondering why my shading came out differently from the examples... well, beginning this next album, that's fixed, because now I own both.  I added one gorgeous golden Prima flower package to the growing floral collection.


The TJ Maxx was a total bust this trip, but that's the nature of discount versus craft stores.


JoAnne's wasn't much better.  Every item I went in for was already sold out.  Not the black StazOn die I've finally committed to using.  Not the 12x12 paper storage drawers.  And not the paper pad I needed to refill.  

There had been many, many numerous clearance items marked down as much as 80%, but it was as if someone had taken a buggy and cleared every rack of every single item.  I'll certainly stock up on certain items, and pick up an extra or two of something I know can be traded or sold, or wipe a shelf out knowing it will be immediately replaced (TM) but whoever did this did so with the mind of absolute selfishness, without regard for others.  It covered every item in the store, across every crafting row to just be a happenstance run of hundreds of buyers.  If I figure out who's doing this, I'll cruelly mark their eBay site as the NWA greedy gut; because if this should show up on eBay it will be marked up by at least 60%.  

We did, however, find a couple of reusable/dishwasher-safe, plastic screw topped Coke bottle to carry drinks in the car during the next few months. 


Internet haul.  I finally managed to find and purchase three magnet sets.  The company I'd purchased from last week refunded my money two days later and informed me the items were temporarily out of stock.  No way!!  As of yesterday, they were still waiting.  That's now remedied.  And, Kiwi Lane Designs has another of their great 2-3 day sales, so I purchased another template set.  These come in so handy it's difficult to imagine putting together a project without them.  Call this one set 4 of the series.

Not strictly considered scrapbook materials, but closely related, were a pair of gold earrings at Sears - they were on sale; however, not included in the $80.00 earlier stated.  Nickle-plated and inferior metals have been causing all sorts of problems lately.  Reckon it will take a while... and many more sales... to rebuild a suitable earring collection again.

This and a major clothes shopping spree for the Miss mad for a very fun, and very long, day of hitting the stores.

Playing with Denim

My helper and I tore up a pair of smaller sized bluejeans, among many other materials, to make all sorts of clothing for Bear, a muchly loved "baby."  At the end, there was still a small basket filled with bluejeans scraps.  Since I'm in the midst of creating a little boy's mini, denim might come in right handy for the project.  Before today I'd cut strips of the material as "ribbons" for Martin's ABC Primer mini;  but that was the limit of my experimentation with denim and scrapping.


Pulling out a couple of items/tools close by I first attached a scrap onto a piece of chipboard, and brayed it tightly down to dry. Once relatively dried, I ran the chipboard/material through the Cuttlebug with very impressive results.  Finally, I used the Big Bite to punch a small hole in one corner and then set an eyelet.  Wa-la!  Instant tag.  This has huge potential!  If denim worked this nicely, there's no end to adaptation possibilities.

Denim applied to rough-cut chipboard

The question remains as to what process will best keep the material from fraying.

I haven't taken photos of a denim related experiment yet.  One would think by looking at others work, flowers are as key to scrapbooking as paper.  Flowers have their place, but not so much on more masculine pages.  I've cut circles out of the material at 1/2 to 1/4 inch decreasing increments and stacked the pile to make lollipop flowers. The stacks can be as simple as 2 layers glued upon one another or as many as the creator wants to apply. Apply a proportional button or other embellishment to the center, and wow-za! Not-so-feminine flower embellishments.  The next chance to sit down and play again, my great helper and I will cut circles out of a contrasting fabric and build the floral embellishment with layers of a daintier material sandwiched between the denim. 

Pictures forthcoming.  Also included with be Bear's new fashion wardrobe!

Fiskars

Fiskars, usually a very reliable brand, puts out a series of decorative photo corner punches.


These are the singularly absolute worst punches a person can own.  

1. The buyer is left to guess how much mat allowance to properly fit the photo
2. Getting the exact corner alignment is a matter of  hope, the guides are impossible to see
3. The punch can not be turned over in order to remedy the second point
4. It takes standing over the punch to depress the lever, which explains the third point

I own so many of their craft products, but I have to rate this one: 1 on a scale of 1 to 100




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On a slightly different note, 2 of 4 layouts completed!

Yeah, the whole photography issue.