Progress Steady Now

I'm almost to the point where I can begin constructing pages for the mini-album.  I shiver with a girlish nervousness simply thinking of sitting down and beginning the first page.

I own a fair collection of Cricut cartridges; like everyone else, there are the go-to favourites.  There's still so much uncovered possibilities in these cartridges; options available that have only been skimmed.  For instance, I tried to make a card and envelope from one of my cartridges, and the effort was a miserable failure.  This was in the early days with the Cricut, when getting the image I selected was magical.  A few more hours under the belt, and I'm looking at some of the functions best left alone until now.

In the upcoming (and future) project, there are dozens of tags and envelopes to make.  Though willing, the thought of constructing all these by hand, with only a limited supply of  "hard" dies was painful.  I pulled a dozen or so cartridges out to look at again and found (duh) that there were literally thousands of possibilities with the Cricut.  The amount whittled down to three primary and a couple more secondary cartridges to work with.  More interesting to discover was that some of the cartridges contained complimentary images to others.

Martin, at the least bit of prompting, hung the six-foot wire rack today.  The hope was to transfer all the punches from the the shoe bag to the new rack..  He had no sooner packed the electric drill before I began moving punches.  The result?  Ugly.  This will never work for what I imagined.  Never.  Had it been in the closet I could have lived with a little bit of ugly, but this is front and center of the entry into the room.  Aaack!  Instead, I've began loading the rack with "pretty" items taking valuable closet space.  Such as:  tatting thread, glass jars with colourful contents, all the bright colours of glitter and stickles, Tattered Angel bottles, etc.  That takes care of the short shelves, but the wider spaced shelves on the bottom half stay empty for the time being.  In the meantime, most of the punches are scattered between the table and closet floor.

Decisions, decisions...  The SSD Annex hosts another 75% sale Tuesday through Friday this week.  The scope of the 75% off is rather limited, but 10 sheets of name brand, heavy weight paper for $1.00 is worth the trip.  There's more, but won't know what until getting there.  Now it gets tricky.  TM also brings out a new line of products at 66% off this Tuesday.  The problem is money.  Martin generously offered $50 split between each sale, because I'd already spent my allowance.  What he may or may not realize it how hard it is to walk out of either for less than $60.  I could be extra sneaky and take him with me!  He's worse than I when it comes to, "Oh, you could really use this.  Right?"  Yes, I think so is the only reasonable reply.  Honestly, there's not much more in supplies I need for now, but the hunt is highly addictive.

Time to wrangle up the punches!

G45 & Breakthrough

I've studied Graphic 45 papers, psychology, and its philosophy intensely for almost a week now.  I think I understand the company.  There's a reason beyond incredible graphic designs that make this paper unique; someone either at the company or hired by such studied scrapbookers practically under a microscope.

Nothing about this brand intimidates. I've began cutting away and there's a beauty in doing so.  I'm so impressed with the company I already purchased the full line of the ABC Primer collection for Martin's hallmark childhood album.  Around the end of May I'll order the Magic of Oz collection to highlight my lovely granddaughter's "Scare Crow" professional shoot.  Maybe someday I'll actually pick out a few pieces of "regular" paper to scrap a page or two... but for now I'm having a blast learning to work with G45, including cutting out less than 1/2 inch butterflies for adornment.

So far my mini-album progress has advanced only to selecting coordinating buttons, ribbons, paint, chipboard, and pulling quotes out of my original baby book, now falling apart at the seams.  Much of the next week will consist of cutting out elements.  Hopefully, it will eventually begin to look like "something" instead of the mess currently on hand

Early Organization

Something clicked watching so many G45 scrapbooking videos.  Planning a page up until very recently was a very involved and mind exhausting process.  The other day I needed to quickly scrap a Futsbol series.  (Before the pictures were accidentally misplaced)  It took precisely 35 minutes from need to conception to completion to pull the page together.  Better yet, it's one of the best LO I've done.  Suddenly, the layering, framing, colour use, and element choice has become almost automatic.  I can spot "wrong" in nothing flat.  Not that I'll never commit the same crimes again, but I know it when it's there.  Oh, but should all design go so smoothly in the future.

The cute shot reminder LO hangs on the icebox and has done wonders to prompt medication action in good time.  More than that, it's caused me to look around the room to find the "blah" areas and throw something together to spice it up.  In less than 10 minutes this evening, I brought back to the craft room the small, plain Crystal Light plastic container we've used for a couple of year to collect Box Tops for Education and Campbell's soup labels until delivery to school.  It blended into the counter space, but the visible contents always made the container appear a tiny bit disorganized.  To the results:

A little "pretty" for the kitchen counter

Breakthroughs are one of the best parts of the art!  It's what drives us.

Not all Goes as Planned

Feeling much better now, thank you.  There's still no clue as to what happened.

Much to my amazement, there are areas in life where paper, though decorative, doesn't enhance.  The coloured pencil container - previously coffee container - came out splendidly.  So, using great leaps of imagination and motivation, decided to decorate a few other recycled coffee tins.

{Before going forward with the story, it's necessary to note my husband is a closet garage hoarder.  Only the garage.  He'll come back and say it's my fault... blah, blah, blah.  It most certainly is not.  It's that I finally gave up trying to organize the area, only to find it totally junked up weeks later; wasted effort.}

Finding a particular item inside the garage is a daunting task.  Not quite impossible, but we've lost 16x8x7 tents in there.  I'll give credit and say he has a loose system of grouping like items in a particular part of the garage.  He loves my homemade fire starters for BBQ and camping.  He said he'd run out recently, and could I make some more?

This is where the story gets crazy.  Why, we'll never know, but I decided to melt the paraffin so it would store neatly in three cans (first duh).  Task finally completed, I  though it would be nice to paper the exterior of the can to serve as a visual cue in the virtual wasteland.  It finally hit me!  Getting the paraffin out of the coffee cans would require heat... lots of it.  Not so good for paper.  What a total and complete flop.  Live and learn!  Is that funny, or not?

_______________________________________________

For my baby pictures mini-album, I'm currently studying every aspect of what makes a page work, or not.  Since the album cover and pages will be created from cereal boxes, you can only imagine the intense labour required.  From scratch!  I only hope it begins to come together before the end of the year.

I gathered my baby pictures from all sorts of stashed areas yesterday, then decided which pictures to use.  A huge task in and of itself.  Now I have a good idea what size pockets to create.  That's it so far.

The inspiration for all of this comes from a video from YouTube, from a user calling herself, Monkeydreamz1. Everything she does are pieces of art.   Of course, I'll need to make many, many adjustments, beginning with painting the pages pastels instead of the bold black she (appropriately) uses in this video.  I'm still looking forward to the project; but maybe because I haven't done anything but find pictures and collect chipboard, no labour as yet.

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!

Stuff

My husband began a new diabetic medication, though while not insulin, does require two injections each day.  He handles the morning dose just fine, but not so much with the pre-dinner shot.

I've decided to venture beyond scrapbooking proper and make a cute little 9x9 framed page to hopefully prompt his memory before dinner.  Going all out, I'm working with colours and sizes never used before.  It should do the trick; if not as a visual reminder, then as new splash of colour in a very monochromatic kitchen.

When I first began using the Cricut I counted a well-cut image miraculous. I stayed very, very basic with the cuts, and came to the point of frustration where I almost decided to sell the kit and kaboodle. Time and practice has refined enough to get the image I want every time.  There's enough confidence to now have fun and play around.  And... I no longer fear cutting the pattern on 15 different pages to get the results desired.  The differences between the first successful cuts and what's put out today is remarkable!  While still plenty of room to improve, it ain't half bad.

A Cricut Rooster

Thus far, I've given the mini-albums a mile-wide divide between them and me.  No way, never going to happen!  (That pesky word: never)  Finally, at long last, I saw one of these, putting to great use the beautiful Graphic 45 paper.  To put it simply, I was awestruck.  This is what scrapbooking is all about!

Graphic 45 Mini Album  at YouTube.  I am going to shamelessly copy every little detail demonstrated in the video.  I'll practice all the different techniques on less expensive paper, so maybe there will be two in the end... maybe three or twenty before getting it right?

During a total mental meltdown last night, I created a list of all the scrapbook paper/card stock packs.  The list includes the manufacturer, size, dominate colours, coordinating accessories on hand, and special features such as maps, stamps, tickets, etc.  There were almost 50 packs accumulated thus far... this is on the frightening side of paper obsession.  This list does not include single patterned, themed papers, or special bonuses like vellum and transparencies.  There must be a totally different approach to the 7 inch stack of primarily unsorted paper.  Perhaps tomorrow I'll inventory the paper kits on hand; another 5 inch stack I've lost the ability to instantly recall.  Stamps will have to follow at some point soon; just trying to think of the most effective way to accomplish/organize the system.

It doesn't get any simpler than this, but the dowel rod was finally hung in the closet (amazing dead space remains!) with three evenly spaced curtain rod support screws.  Most ribbons fit on the rod, but a couple more spools will necessitate another row.

I ordered my first Cricut Cartridge since December.  It was on the list and at the right price.  What's up with eBay charging as much, or more, for these cartridges as can be bought in stores?  I wouldn't have nearly the collection if most of these were bought at (usually) less than $20.

At long last, I want to offer praise to our Lord Jesus for answering a prayer thought unanswerable.  Well, I knew He would!  The answer came in the form of yet another miracle, but my God always does it in style.  Thank you so very much, eternal praise for your faithfulness.

Cricut Mat Rescue The One That WORKS

I've watched way, way too many YouTube videos talking about the best method for removing the yunk off a a less-then-sticky Cricut cutting mats.  There always seem to be many arduous steps involved in the process, not to mention extreme commitment of time.  Some claim these steps are easy... anyone could do them with great results.  Well, I've tried all the methods and they all involve WORK!

Have I ever mentioned how handy my husband comes in at the oddest moments? He stood back and watched yet another promised technique utterly fail.  He walked out of the room and came back in with a bottle of of GOO GONE, and said, "try this."  I did.

I generously sprayed the mat and let it sit for a minute.  I took paper towels to remove almost all the oogie-gooy glue and tiny bits of paper scraps .  I re-sprayed the mat, and one more wipe produced a virgin mat... except for all too-deep cuts.  No kidding, this took less than five minutes, start to finish.  I washed they mat with dish washing soap and hung it to dry; ready to spay adhesive.

After cleaning the first set of mats - well overused by this time - using this method, subsequent cleanings became a breeze.

Some might panic and say, this harsh chemical will harm the mats.  I've now processed each mat four times, and nothing gets harmed... and cleaner much quicker

______________________________________________

Successfully completed the pastel-based ocean page.  Thus far, I've only captured a fair representation, but it's not worth submitting anywhere but here.

Page Theme Issues

I'm still studying differences between good, great, and wow-za pages.  And learned a couple of things today.

When putting together a page I pull out all the possible paper combinations, dies, stickers, stamps, etc I expect to use, or possibly use.  Without exception, one element will capture my fancy and, wrong as it is, I'll walk on hot coals to incorporate it.

I'll use the project currently under construction to demonstrate this point.

The page features a trip to the ocean.  The colour scheme runs to pastels.  I also wanted to blend shabby chic with just a bit of whimsey.  (Probably my first mistake)  The element I fell head over heels in love with was a couple of starfish cut from a die, and stamped with a truly adorable face.

Blurry, but a fair representation for this purpose

Cute as buttons.  So far, no problem with page assembly.  The starfish works well with the photo matting demonstrated in the photo.  There are two photos featured that go on the page, one each for the right and left side.  I set waves consisting of four layers of papers to create a bottom border for the page. (I cut and chalked a few fishes to appear to be jumping in and out of the waves.  Darling!)  The title will go in the upper right hand corner, and I plan to use three separate journaling boxes between the space of the two photos.  So far, all works together very nicely...

But this is where this "hooked on an element" becomes a problem.  I need "something" that binds the two pictures, and creates another layer of depth for the journaling boxes; perhaps a large strip of paper, 12x4 inches.  When I laid the thick mid-line border across the page, I got "blah."  I then began playing with one of the Tim Holtz masks picked up the other day.  Love at first sight.  That was the answer!!  Except it wasn't.  The chalked image creates a very formal setting.  Not at all within the theme, nothing whimsical about it; however, I really, really want to use it.

A much smaller image than the mask I would use, but it's easy to see the formality.

So that's a huge chunk of my problem... choosing two non-complimentary elements to a page.  I usually justify using both and calling it "mixed," but it's not.  It just proves my lack of experience.  Maybe someone with much more experience could pull it off, but I can't with goodly results.

Since I'm more than three-quarters finished with the page, it will have to be the flourish to go.  This will be a first.  It's a start in the right direction, however.

For now on I plan the page theme and keep cute away from formal.  It can't hurt!