Until I can get back to working on my own scrapbook room makeover and posting about it, I thought I’d share this with you: A wonderful scrap room redone by LAURA VEGAS. I’m so envious of her Expedit shelves, trestle table, and that scrapping island! Wow, lucky girl. If money were no object, I would use all the same components she did (except white instead of black), and arrange my goodies in the same way. A scrapper after my own {heart}. Here’s a tease…Enjoy!
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Showing: 121 - 140 of 187 ArticlesDiary of a Scrapbook Room Makeover: Part Two
I’m slowly making progress on the big overhaul of my scrapbook room. If you’re not caught up, you can read the PROLOGUE and PART ONE, if you like :) But the Prologue is important reading; it’s where I tell you what happens if you make a smart ass comment about how much crap….erm, STUFF I have. Yes, I have a lot of paper. No, you can’t shop here. Yes, I have a life. Blah blah blah….
So, I’ve done lots of furniture moving. This is going to take awhile, so get comfy…
1. Unloaded everything from the desk – underneath, off the top, and in the drawers – and moved it about 2 feet closer to the sliding glass door. I didn’t repack the office supply and computer-related stuff I had in the desk cupboards; need to find a new home for all that. It’s in a pile here somewhere…
2. Unloaded all the DVDs, videos, and board games from the oak cabinet and moved them into a cabinet in the guest room/new play room. Moved a bunch of toys that were along the wall into the new play room. Moved the oak cabinet to the wall where the toys had been. Moved the Scrap Rack to the oak cabinet (temporarily, I think…). Moved office supplies, and office machines (fax machine, transcription machine, etc.) from guest room to bottom of oak cabinet (where movies and games had been). This cabinet is going to be Office Stuff Central…unless I change my mind.
3. Emptied out the legal filing cabinet, moved it from a back wall to align with one edge of the L-shaped desk, and refilled it with the same stuff I had in there before, which are greeting cards, school supplies, and more home office stuff. I gathered scrap magazines and idea books from various places around the house and piled ’em up.
As you can see, it’s time to purge these again. I usually do this about once a year but, yeah, it’s been awhile. A friend that I scrap with recently finished her project of pulling pages and ideas from her magazines and organizing them into page protectors in a binder. I’m so jealous….it was great! So I’m deciding now if I have the time, patience, and devotion to do the same thing. Purge or make “the perfect idea binder,” THAT is the question.
As for all those idea books….I don’t think I’ve EVER gotten rid of an idea book. Something about throwing away a book that I paid $15 to $40 for is much harder than a $5 magazine. But I should look through all my idea books and maybe toss some older ones. I’ll bet I don’t even “scrap like that anymore” for some of them, huh?
4. Moved the table that I’d been using for scrappy stuff (okay, to dump things on…) over to the area by the storage cubes. This will be the famous Homework Table.
5. Moved the couch and coffee table from in front of the desk to behind the desk by the back window. The original plan was to put it flush against the wall and lined up directly under the window (I’m all about symmetry, baby!). But once I got it there, the couch seemed kind of squished over into the corner and the coffee table was somewhat blocking the walkway to the back part of the room. So I tried the couch at an angle, and I liked it. Bonus: It creates a hidey space behind it for ugly stuff, lol. And I felt so “HGTV” about it, too.
6. Unloaded just about everything from 10 Store in Style cubes (see couch pic above), moved the cubes to the opposite end of the room, and reloaded them pretty much the same way. The SIS cubes are now on the wall that the oak TV cabinet used to be on. This is the area I talked about where I have to keep a walkway to get to the slider, so the cubes are a good thing to put here. They fit nicely and I can stack more on top someday if need be (God forbid!).
I first thought about configuring them like this, with a kind of “turn the corner” at one end….
…but decided not to. The positives were that it would be a little different-looking, and it would create a handy little empty space back there in the corner to store crop totes or something. But the negatives were that it made the walking path a bit too slim, and put the cubes right next to the cord for the blinds. And when I put embellishment jars on top of the one by the door, they would block the light switch. No super big deal, but I just decided to go with putting them all flush against the wall, like this…
All this furniture moving happened way back on 9/10 (it’s now 9/27!), so when I say “making slow progress,” I’m not exaggerating. It took me awhile to remember and write all this down, the order I did things in. It was quite the feat of engineering to move things AROUND the room while still having everything IN the room. I apologize for any dark photos but most of my madness occurs late at night after everyone has gone to bed. Man, you should’ve seen the wide eyes of my husband and kids when they came out the morning after all this! They were like, “You moved ALL that by yourself!?!? The couch???” and I’m all, like, “Desperate organizers take desperate measures.” (Like, totally…I did all that “like” stuff just to annoy you). Then the daytime photos are overly bright because of the sun coming in all the windows, so I can’t win, lol.
Once the furniture was in place, I’ve just been slowly putting things away, whether within this room or the other parts of the house where they belong, and below is what the room looks like as of today.
Down there is the new back half of the room, with my cool slanty couch, and my corner of chaos. The couch was my dad’s before he passed away so it’s sentimental. Luckily, it’s also functional so I have an excuse to keep it always and forever. That big tub is all the paperwork from my two scrapbook businesses, MEMORY WORKS and Calla Memories. I can get rid of most of it. I just need to go through it and save some paperwork for tax records and such.
The white shelving unit has all my mini album stuff – supplies and some completed albums – but I want to get rid of that shelf and find another way to store my mini album kingdom. That’s actually a shoe shelf so I’m hoping to then move it into my closet and use for, oh, I don’t know…..SHOES???
The basket on top of the white shelves contains letter stickers, which were all nicely sorted by color at one time, and easy to thumb through when I scrapped. Then….I discovered THICKERS. Dun dun dun dunnnnnnnn! I use Thickers lots and I buy Thickers lots. I have a Thicker addiction and I hope there ain’t no cure! But, yeah, I need to go through that basket and purge some old alphas I’ll never use. Like the first major set I bought oh so many years ago, of punch out alphas (I think they were by COLORBOK) in every color and pattern known to man (including plaid and leopard!), in a bubble font, a lollipop font, etc. Eek. Perfect for the kids to use on school projects but NOT for my scrapbooks).
The black boxes are POWER SORT BOXES from CREATIVE MEMORIES and that’s where most of my printed photos are. But photo and memorabilia organization is an ever-changing and never-ending project/battle for me. I’m not even gonna’ GO there right now. The white cubes they’re in are ITSO brand from TARGET. As you can see, I had more photo boxes than Itso cubes, so I bought another Itso from Target when they were on sale recently. (If I remember right, I paid $12 instead of $20). You can see it on my desk in the next photo.
Below is my mess of a desk, and my flooded floor (flooded with scrap crap, that is). There’s the new Itso cube, and one of my new 3-drawer JET MAX cubes. Actually, “new” is relative since I’ve collected 3 of these units over time from MICHAELS using 50% off coupons. I’ve just never put them together, knowing I had this big re-org project coming up. Recently I assembled one and, man, are they a pain in the asset! Don’t get me started. If you’ve put these together, you know what I mean. (I feel sorry for THIS poor scrapper!) I’m dreading the assembly of the remaining 2 but I shall do it, I shall.
I’ve done a little more work on the Wall of Cubes and this is how they look as of now…
The cubes themselves were already pretty organized before I started this crazy project, as they contain the staples of my scrapbook world: Bazzill cardstock sorted by color, die cut/shaped papers, extra page protectors, scrapbook projects, etc. Most of the vertical files by CROPPER HOPPER are sorted by manufacturer and include patterned paper and all embellishments from that company. They could use some tidying but for the most part, the vertical files are good as they are. The gingerbread jars on top, however, are another story. When I first got them way back when on Craigslist (read about it HERE), I had them organized pretty well, but over time I lost control and just started throwing new things in with no rhyme or reason. I’m going to do a post soon about using 2 of the jars for my chipboard letters. There’s one full of flowers, and the rest I plan to use for random embellishments by color. I also put my ribbon jars back on my cubes…ribbons are sorted by color. I love my cubes and jars…they’re my favorite part of my scrapbook room. Can’t wait til I get this part totally done! My pretties, LOL…
So, that’s where I’m at for now. Thanks for sticking with me. I promise I’ll get done eventually, but real life has to come first, so it’ll continue to be slow progress. But progress is progress, right?
Diary of a Scrapbook Room Makeover: Part One
Okay, time for Part One of hopefully many posts in my scraproom makeover diary. You can read the Prologue HERE about why I was skerred to write about this in the first place…
I suppose I should start by explaining my current scrap space situation, and why it was time for such a major “makeover.” For about 6 or 7 years now, my scrap space has been shared with my kids’ play room, which consists of the majority of their toys, games, and puzzles, a TV with VCR and DVD player for watching movies, and a couch. The couch is perpendicular to the wall and kind of splits the room in half. Behind the couch is where my scrap space is. I have a large, L-shaped office desk and matching file cabinet, a table, and 10.5 STORE IN STYLE cubes like this….
…mostly open cubes but a few with doors or drawers. Then I have 2 of the 4 sets of shelves along the wall (some of my books [yeah, the other thing I hoard] and the kids’ stuff is in the other 2), and various Iris carts, containers, and mish-mosh storage items. I also hide a lot under my mondo-desk (wink).
As you can imagine, this was already a lot of stuff and two busy purposes to fit into one room, even though it’s good-sized. I have always liked sharing my space with the play room because the kids and I hang out in there a lot together. Or at least we did, until it also became “the dumping ground room.” That was not supposed to be the plan, LOL! Look, I’m a busy mom. Due to this stupid economy, I’ve been working 50-60 hours a week. The kids do sports, I do Bible study, I sell Memory Works, clean, do constant laundry, take care of a puppy, blah, blah, blah. Not making excuses, just explaining how this all got out of hand. I simply haven’t had time to focus on an organized home, as I can barely function on the 4-5 hours a sleep I get per night as it is. So anytime something new enters the house and I don’t have time to make room for it in a closet, or get rid of something else to make room for it, it gets dumped in the scrap room/play room. Ugh. (Hint, I’m preparing you for the photos so you don’t go into a horrible shock).
Here’s my other problem…I’m an admitted pack rat. I’m trying to reform and I certainly don’t want an intervention by my family, so I’m always working on it and fighting it. I get occasional bursts of energy where I purge the pantry, clean out my bookshelves, fill garbage bags with old clothes, etc. But admittedly, things have gotten out of hand in the last year or so. Well, I’m plenty sick of it and it’s time to make it right. Other than the sheer clutter, one thing that really bugs me and has to change is that the kids play area has to be moved. You have to walk through their area to get to mine, and to get to the sliding glass door to the backyard. No matter how much I nag, a fact of life is that they WILL leave toys, books, puzzles, etc. on the playroom floor…right in the path to those two places. And it’s their play area, ya know? They should be ABLE to leave out projects they’re working on, Monopoly games in progress, or art work interrupted, right? I’m just tired of stubbing my toes on all of it. If I step on that little shoe from Monopoly in my bare feet one more time…why I oughta!…..
So I had the bright idea to not only purge and re-organize my scrap space, but to move their play space to the guest room. We’ll move their toys and games, and get rid of some along the way, too :) Their TV and movies can also be moved, which will at the same time provide a TV in the guest room for my mom to watch when she comes to stay with us. This is a semi-tangent…but the way it is now, their playroom TV is about 15 feet away from the living room TV, so when the grownups are trying to watch something, we’re often competing with the kids’ TV. It’s kind of funny, the battle of the dueling remotes…we can’t hear, so we turn up our volume. Then they can’t hear, so their TV goes louder, and before you know it, the house is very LOUD. Now their TV will be farther away and behind a door, so we can now watch R-movies with “the language” and not constantly have to push mute for fear they’ll overhear, and they can watch SpongeBob and his annoying, nasally laugh to their heart’s content, LOL. By the way, I {heart} Patrick….
So. Decided. Playroom stuff moving to guest room. which means that my scrap space has room to expand and breathe. However, as much as I want the kids to have their own place where they can shut the door and watch a movie, or be able to spread out with their games, I also want them to still “need” to be in my scrap area sometimes so we can spend time together. And wouldn’t it be nice to have somewhere else for them to do homework, etc. other than the nice, oak dining room table? Why, yes. Yes, it would! That’s why I’m going to repurpose my scrap table into a Homework Table for the kids, and keep it in my scrap room. They’ll still have a place and purpose in my area, which is really cool. Also, I’ll still have the couch in my scrap room (erm….the cleaned off, easy-to-lie-down-on couch…) so they can come and chill, read a book, tell me about their day, whatevs.
I think I’ll utilize what used to be the DVD/game cabinet (see pic below) to store office supplies, etc. and free up more room in the guest room, where all that stuff currently resides. I used to keep this kind of stuff in a cabinet in there, which will now house the TV and games. Make sense? Just a straight swapperoo!
Being the anal, plan-ahead, worrier type that I am, my wheels are turning about what furniture to move where and how to store what. I pull out some graph paper and draw a diagram for my “new” scrap room. See, I’ve always had to call it a “scrap space” before, but now I can say “scrap room.” Yeah! There are two things I need to work around initially. The sliding door to the backyard means I have to keep a decent walkway available in that area of the room. Also, there are four 5-shelf cheap-o bookcases lining one wall and they need to stay put. They’re mounted to the wall with brackets, as we’re in earthquake country, and I’m not in the mood to unmount and remount those stinkin’ shelves. Besides, this room has a vaulted ceiling and the shelves are on “the tall wall,” also a long, solid wall, so that’s the logical place for them anyway. The best part about the shelves is that by moving the toys and stuff off of them, I’m gaining almost a whole shelf unit for my scrappy stuff….niiiiice. I’m going to move some of my books out of the guest room, and make one whole set of shelves for my books, too.
After 2 tries, I come up with a good room diagram for how want to arrange things. Now, I can drift off to sleep, and dream about someday scrapping in a more open and organized space….Oh, wait, I can’t sleep yet. I have one more thing to do and I can’t procrastinate any longer…
I guess now it’s time for the thoroughly embarrassing photos. I needed DH to move the TV for me when he had a moment, so that’s the only thing missing from the original (highly cringe-worthy) status of this room. Gulp! Here you go…
This is the wall to your hard left as you enter the play room area through the open doorway from the dining/living rooms. You can see the slider I’m talking about to the far right. The TV sat on top of that oak cabinet, and it’s filled with games and DVDs. All those pieces of stacked wood are to construct the hutch that goes with my desk, but I decided not to use it after all, so all those pieces are going in the attic. Those old toys are trash and we’ll see if we can use the plastic baskets for toy storage or something, or maybe to hold outdoor toys in the garage?
As you will see, this is the room to dump plastic containers that have rotated out of use. And I don’t know if you can see them, but behind the hutch pieces and then leaning toward the door frame, there are pool cues. Yes, pool cues. Growing up, my grandparents had a pool table in their rumpus room. Every time we’d visit them, all the kids would play pool. When my grandpa, then grandma, passed away, my mom asked what I wanted from them to keep I chose were the pool cues, among some other things. We had a pool table at the time (in this room, in fact) and I wanted to remember my wonderful grandparents and how much fun I had at their home whenever WE played pool. So, even though I have no practical use for pool cues now, I haven’t been able to get rid of them. I have such a hard time letting go of sentimental things like this. But I will. I’ve decided to take photos of them, and scrap this little story about them….and let them go. See? I’m learning…. Okay, time for another upsetting photo…
This actually disgusts me to look at, how ugly and horrible this room is. Here’s the couch we can no longer sit on, because things just get dumped here: A box of wedding china, a globe, boxes of toys given to us, pictures that need to be hung, a box of sentimental baby items I want to keep, newspaper with an article to scrapbook, a DVD to put away, another empty plastic bin, an empty Memory Works box to break down and recycle, etc. Behind the couch is my L-shaped desk with an over-full ScrapRack (major purging will happen there!). Man, don’t be surprised if I delete these photos from the post when I panic…this is TOO embarrassing!
Okay, deep breaths, deep breaths! It’s going to get all better, with time, hard work, and patience. Someday soon, I’ll look back at these photos and laugh. Right?
Friday Night Scrapbook Randoms #3
It’s the Friday night before a Saturday of cropping, yahoo! Yeppers, I’m going to crop with some friends tomorrow, from about noon to 9pm. I’m working now, and I haven’t even packed yet so it’ll be the usual, me scrambling to pack my crop bags late the night before, hoping I’m remember everything and putting together some semblance of things I can use to make actual layouts with, lol! I am the WORST about packing ahead for crops. The magic package I talked about HERE did indeed arrive today, and I’m so excited to look through it all. Since I’m busy anyway, I’m saving it to look through with the girls tomorrow. If I can resist…
One of the new things I got was the “AMBER ROAD” theme set from PINK PAISLEE. I saw something today that made me love it even more…CHECK IT OUT! And THIS TOO. Isn’t she amazing and ever-so-talented? Love what she did with Amber Road…
Saw this over on 2peas and wanted to share it with you. I had bookmarked this link a long time ago but forgot all about it, so I’m glad it was posted again….Free printable graph paper, ledger paper, binder paper etc. for your scrapbooks ~ you can make some super cool journaling spots, for one! LOOKIE HERE
This useful computer tool was also posted by a Pea: SCRAP BY COLOR color matching tool It takes the colors from your photos and gives you color swatch matches to use in your scrapbooking. Love it. Thank you, ROSALYNN!
About THIS, all I can say is WTH?
I will leave you with THIS. Talk about a scrapbooker’s dream trip! Ali, Karen, and Jenni plus that amazing place. Wow. Wish I could go…
Before my crop tomorrow, I’m going to the beach ~ it’s a family tradition, Coastal Cleanup day ~ so it’s my two favorite things in one day. No, not litter and cigarette butts, silly! The ocean and scrapbooking. Hope you have a great weekend and get some time to scrapbook to your heart’s content.
Diary of a Scrapbook Room Makeover: A Prologue
I’ve scrapbooked for 8 years, and had a scrapbook space in my home for about 6 or 7 years. In that time, I’ve bought more organizational items and reorganized my stuff more times than I can count. Although my amount of supplies, tools, and completed scrapbooks have increased a bunch during that time, my amount of scrap space has not, and I was feeling really cramped. So, the time has come for a major re-do, not only to my existing scrap space but it’s affecting two other areas of my house as well.
I have to say, I’m somewhat hesitant to start posting about this subject, for a kind of dumb reason. Like many long-time scrappers, I have LOTS of stuff. Lots of scrap stuff. Lots of photos and memorabilia. Lots of other stuff in my scrap area that doesn’t even belong there, but it takes on the identity of scrap stuff because it’s been dumped there and looks like it belongs, LOL. But this is what’s going to happen: People are going to read the entries about my room re-do, see the photos off all my “schtuff” (as NOEL JOY likes to call it), and person after person will say, “Wow, you have a lot of stuff!” or “It’s like a scrapbook store!” or “When can I come shop your stash??” or “Does one person really have that much stuff?!?!”
For some reason ~ and I know it’s irrational because who cares “what people say?” ~ but those comments really bother me. I think mostly because I take them to have an undercurrent (or heck, a blatant, outright message) of “Why in the HAY-ELL do you HAVE so much stuff?” and “It’s ridiculous to have as many supplies as a store would have!” Even if the comments aren’t intended that way, that’s how I tend to read them.
I’ve seen these types of comments on my own blog when I’ve re-orged before. I’ve seen them on the blogs of other ladies who’ve shared their lovingly organized scrap spaces. I’ve heard scrappers trashed on message boards: “She must be in massive debt,” or “She needs to get a life.” {I remember this one poor girl that was bombarded with things like, “How many bottles of Primas does one person need?!?! You are disgusting.” Crap, maybe she was on the DT for Prima and they were all free samples for her to create with, biz-natch!} Anyway, just hurtful, damaging things are sometimes said. There are also funny things and sarcastic things that probably meant very little to the person saying them, but to the person who’s being talked about . . . it can be a big “ouch,” kwim?
When people comment on my amount of scrap stuff, I always feel the need to defend myself, to explain, to justify. Yes, I have legitimate reasons for having such a good stash. But, no, I’m not rich, I don’t spend recklessly, I’m not spoiled, I’m not in huge scrap-debt, and I don’t need to get a life. I have a wonderful life, thankyouverymuch! But I also have feelings and misplaced guilt and sensitivities and, most importantly, JUSTIFICATIONS! :) {Ha ha, I had to throw that in there, didn’t I?}
Another thing that bothers me about those comments is that they are totally missing the point of the person ~ say, me, for instance ~ who has taken the time to not only re-do their space, but to take photos along the way and then write about the experience. The point isn’t to show off the massive amount of supplies we have, or to hear how much we remind the reader of their LSS. The point is to share organizational ideas. When I post about my process, I want people to ask organizational questions, inquire where I got a certain storage unit, or to compliment me on how cleverly I’ve arranged everything {‘cuz I’m needy like that}.
I don’t want to hear about my plethora of supplies. Yeah, I HAVE A LOT. That’s why I’m organizing them. Duh.
So that’s why I’m hesitant to start this whole process. NOT the process of reorganizing, ‘cuz that’s a done deal. That’s already happening, baby! And I’m thrilled about it. But I’m leery about sharing my “diary” here on the blog, because I’m afraid off those comments I’ll get that I know will hurt my feelings. Sure, I can delete the ones I don’t like….it is MY blog, after all! But I like to leave comments standing for the most part, and don’t censor my blog comments unless they’re spam or really super offensive. I’m a straight-up person with nothing to hide (well, isn’t that ironic?) so if readers do make those comments I so dread, I’ll most likely leave them there for all future readers to see. And I will want to yell at them, “But, but, but wait!” Yet I promise, I will bite my tongue and forge on. Even though I have an entire post practically written in my head called, “In Defense of All My Scrap Crap.” You know, where I get to ‘splain myself before you assume I belong on A&E’s “HOARDERS” or “CLEAN HOUSE,” hanging out with mah gurrrrrl, Niecy Nash, LOL!
But, ya know, I’ve explained myself before and no one wants to hear it, let’s be honest. They just want to tell me how much stuff I have. You know it’s true! Remember this post and, when you see those comments in the future, come back here and say, “Erika, your ESPN was working. You were right.”
The most common way by far that people come upon my blog is from searching for “scrapbook room” or “scrapbook organization.” It’s an immensely popular topic in Scrap World, as we scrappers acquire all these fun goodies and are curious how others have their pretties arranged and their scrap spaces decorated. I ADORE looking at photos of and hearing about others’ scrapbook rooms and storage ideas. So, yes, I will bite the bullet, take those comments as they come, and eat Double Stuff Oreos to dull the pain. Because I do want to share this project, this adventure, with anyone who wants to listen. I hope I can be of help to readers, whether it be to give storage ideas, provide inspiration to re-org your own space, or even just give you something to read while you drink your cuppa Joe in front of the computer in the morning.
Stay tuned, scrappy organizers….the journey is about to begin :)
Scrapbook Shopping Quickie
I’m in the midst of a MAJOR scrapbook room / home office / play room switcheroonie and reorganization and purge. I’m taking pics along the way and will post a series of blog entries coming up….
This may be old news for some of you, but my Michaels just started carrying DISTRESS STICKLES by Tim Holtz. Yeah, finally! I’ve been a huge fan of STICKLES forevah! {Although, as scrappers wanting to finish a project, “waiting for the Stickles to dry” has become our version of watching paint dry…}. Anyhow, have been wanting to try these. I got a 3-pack; I think they were around $6 but I had a 1/2 off coupon. Sweeeeeet….
ETA 9-11-09: Found the LINK to Distress Stickles at Mike’s, and here is the pack that I got. This is the only choice they had, but the website shows a total of 4 combo packs so hopefully my Mike’s will get the other 3 eventually…
Also, the Peas are talking HERE about some Tuesday Morning finds. Let’s just say Making Memories “Whimsey,” Pink Paislee “POP FASHION,” and lots of other stuff.
I finally found the new issue of Scrapbooks Etc…you know, the first issue with the CHANGES I talked about before. I’ve been thumbing through it the last couple nights and I’m taking note of the changes I like and don’t like for a future post. What do you think of the new format?
Messy Scrap Rooms, Scrapbook Product Trends, and Stamp News
Tell the truth…Do you qualify to enter the MESSIEST SCRAPBOOK ROOM CONTEST? Deadline is 8-24-09 and you could win a $50 gift certificate.
Check out the TOP BUSINESS TRENDS AT CHA-SUMMER 2009. To sum up the trends: Eco and cheap-o….err, I mean….cheaper! Not cheap as in shoddy, just more affordable to all us broke scrappers, LOL!
I’m so excited for my AMR friend, KELLIANNIE. I’ve bragged about her mad cardmaking skillz many a time, and she’s an awesome illustrator, too, who has gotten into the stampmaking business. At one time, she made her own stamps for sale, and now she’s had designs picked up for manufacture by a major company, UNITY STAMP COMPANY. Her dragonfly stamp is included in USCs August Kit of the Month, which you can order (or just drool over) HERE (hers is #6, the dragonfly on the top right….so pretty!).
Kelli posted about it recently HERE and one of her designs, a double lilac bloom, unbeknownst to her til now, was even at CHA! I tell ya’, there are some big shots hanging out over at AMR. You might want to join up so you can schmooze with them.
Our own JOSCIE CUTCHENS even had a page published in the latest Memory Makers issue. Look for her on page 66. ETA 8-14-09: To clarify, it is the latest and it is the last :(
Speaking of AMR, there will be a SCRAP CHAT HOUR tonight at 8:30 pm CST (that’s 6:30 for you PSTers like me). The topic is sharing scrapbooking tips we’ve learned along the way, so come join us. I’m sure you could teach us, and learn, a thing or four. Also, we have the ongoing BOOK OF ME (aka BOM) project and would love you to join us. Abby gives us layout challenges, we throw around ideas and ask questions, and share our finished layouts. It’s a very good thing to do for yourself….don’t you deserve it?
So, tell me about your messy (or perfectly organized) scrap space, and/or your thoughts on the latest scrapbook trends.
Heidi Swapp Tote-Ally Cool Tote at Tuesday Morning
I got this a couple weeks ago but wasn’t able to load the photos to my computer until now. I heard these are still at some TUESDAY MORNING stores so I thought I’d show you what a great deal they are.
Here’s what the tote looks like. I chose this blue pattern but there were others, too.
A close up of the price tag, so you can see what a mega deal this is….and a list of what’s in it (hope it’s readable, though blurry…sorry).
And here are all the contents…
Honestly, I bought this for the bag more than anything. I’ve been looking for a large and cute tote to carry all my MEMORY WORKS stuff in, including catalogs and products. This will be perfect because it zips closed so my things won’t get damaged or dusty; it holds the heaviness of the catalogs because it’s sturdy; and it even has lots of cool pockets inside and out to hold my calculator, pens, scissors, blank price tags, etc. The tote alone would sell for about $30.
And I love HEIDI SWAPP embellies, so that’s just icing on the cake.
Scrapbook Organization: Punch Storage
A while back, ANGIE on the AMR message board asked how we all store our punches, so I took a pic of my awesome, high tech punch storage system {insert eye roll here…}. I also have my handy little Xryon “X” ADHESIVE MACHINE and Pebbles Inc. RIBBON IRON in there, too.
It’s just a nylon tote I picked up ages ago at Michaels, but it’s good quality and has held together well given how packed I have it and how heavy it is. I think it was by Crop, Paper Scissors but the tag and receipt are long gone, so I’m not sure. I can’t find a photo online anywhere either, which is bizarre.
Anyway, here is why I like my punch storage:
1. It has handles and I can easily take it to crops, where I share them with everyone. {Punch love cannot be contained, and should be shared in the interest of world peace}.
2. Because it’s not hard-sided, there is some flexibility on where I can cram…ahem, PUT…punches of different sizes and shapes.
3. It was inexpensive.
The only con:
1. It is full.
Yet I don’t feel like I’m done buying punches. Not sure what to do about this dilemma yet. Yeah, I should probably stop buying punches. Hey, it’s not my fault. They keep coming out with new ones that are soooo cute. And with a coupon or sale, they are way cost effective for the use I get from them.
How do you store your punches?
Scrapbook Rooms Galore
Check out THIS post on ScrapScene….lots of links to scrapbook rooms, including updated photos of STACY JULIANsroom. Lots of fun stuff and great ideas.
Scrapbook Organization and Scrap Randoms
HERE is a link to a great article about organizing your scrapbook supplies in ways that are eye-pleasing.
HERE is why you should watermark all photos and layouts you post online….unless you WANT to be the Christmas family in a foreign country, LOL!
I {heart} Cathy Z’s sense of HUMOR…
Great article on RUBBER vs. ACRYLIC. Oh, get your mind out of the gutter! I’m talking about stamps. Sheesh. You people.
Cool SONG by The Frames, another lovely discovery made while watching So You Think You Can Dance, my favorite show at the moment. HERE is a video of Karla and Jonathan’s performance. OMG. Beautiful. Gorgeous. Touching. The premise is two strangers who meet, have instant attraction, but cannot be together. Check it. You WILL be touched…
ETA 6/20/09: Thanks to Meaghan who left a comment letting me know there’s another version of this song and HERE it is. I’m now officially a HUGE fan of Glen Hansard and The Frames, his Irish band. I’m spending way too much time watching various of their videos on YouTube. Anyway, I gather that Glen, the lead singer of The Frames, wrote “Falling Slowly” with Marketa Irglova and it’s also part of the movie they starred in called “Once.” Hope I have that straight….Enjoy :)
Cropper Hopper to Organize Mike’s $1 Stamps
Okay, part 2 of getting organized with the Cropper Hopper goodies I recently bought at Tuesday Morning. Here is what I started with…a bunch of Michael’s $1 acrylic stamps in baggies, kinda sorted by Series, in a 12×12 Iris drawer. NOT a good arrangement. Again, every time I opened the drawer, it got jammed up. As anal as I was about keeping the sets together when I first started “collecting” them, now I don’t care and would rather have them sorted by topic.
And how easy was that? I cut index cards down a bit to act as dividers. Nothing fancy, just wrote ’em in by hand. I cut the tops off of each stamp package to allow for easy use. I had originally planned to take them out of the package altogether but when I tried that, the stamps alone were so little, it seemed like they sunk way far down in the drawer. Man, I was SO ready to throw more packaging away, LOL!
Here’s what it looks like with the drawer closed. Nice. Compact. Dust free. Love it. I’m hoping I’ll use them more now that they are so nicely organized.
That drawer is pretty packed though, so now the question is, “Do I buy more storage drawers…or quit buying Mike’s stamps?”
If you know anything about me, you know the answer to that question…{wink}
Organization of Card Making Supplies
In THIS post, I showed you the new Cropper Hopper storage I got. I decided to use the binder storage to get my cardmaking supplies in one place and out of the Iris drawers I had them in. The problem with the drawers was mainly that the blank envelopes and cards would get jammed when I opened and closed the drawers. Also, nothing stacked in there very nicely and it shifted around, not staying very organized. So here is a photo of what I started with – 2 Iris drawers of cards, envelopes, rub-on books, stamped images, etc.
Actually, I realized when I was all done (or thought I was!), that there was another Iris drawer so it's not pictured here but the finished product has THREE drawers worth of stuff, yay!
Here is how one side ended up, with most of the blank cards and envelopes in the 4 pockets. I like how they have closing tabs so they don't get all yucky or dusty.
Here is how the entire opened binder looked when I was done.
Here is just the right side, with larger cards/envelopes, card sentiment stickers, etc. To make it work for my stuff, I had to cut out some of the dividers. The top section started out with 12 small sections and I cut out 6 of them to create a space large enough for my items. In the bottom section, I cut out the 2 vertical dividers (it originally had 3 sections) to accommodate my larger cards and envies. I just snipped them out with scissors right along the crease, careful to not make holes.
Here's the trash pile when I was done, from taking everything out of it's cellophane packages, ribbon off spools, etc. To me, that is room SAVED, baby!
I hope you enjoyed my card making stash makeover. Have you done something similar?
And stayed tuned...tomorrow will be my Mike's stamps storage revamp!
Cropper Hopper Organization at Tuesday Morning
Made my monthly trip to The Big City and here is what I found at Tuesday Morning…
There were a lot of ANNA GRIFFIN packs – huge ones with 12×12 paper and tons of embellies to mini album kits.
Here were some fun EK SUCCESS punches that were very tempting (but I resisted…can you?). These ones are a pacifier, arrow, and speech bubble. There were a few other shapes, too.
For me, this is where I hit the motherlode….CROPPER HOPPER STORAGE !!! I had always wanting these when they first came out because I love vertical bookshelf storage for my scrappy stuff. I own stock in CH VERTICAL PAPER HOLDERS, ya know. But these items were out of my budget (because I am super cheap, yeah).
But I picked up the 2-drawer/4-pocket binder ($8.99) which I plan to use to organize my card-making supplies. I don’t have a ton but right now they’re in some Iris drawers and not very well organized. The 3×3 embellishment drawer ($2.99) will be the perfect way to organize my Mike’s stamps finally! I’m really excited about that one. They’ve also been stacked in an Iris drawer…til now, LOL!
Here you can see the retail prices, and what a great deal Tuesday Morning has on them…
Here is what the inside of the pocket binder looks like.
When I get some schtuff inside my new storage, I’ll post pics and see what you think. Have you found any good deals at TM lately?
PS: Stay tuned for the next episode of Shopaholic Obsession….er, I mean….Scrapbook Obsession….when I’ll show you what’s new at Mike’s and what I picked up there….
Scrapbooking Stuff at Big Lots
I’m sure this isn’t a very big deal for most of you. But for someone who’s main scrap shopping opportunities are Michaels, Target, and Walmart, you have to understand my excitement. WE JUST GOT A BIG LOTS!!!!!
I have always been so jealous reading those lovely, enabling message board posts about ‘the finds’ everyone has at places like Archivers (never been there), Joann’s (don’t have any), Hobby Lobby (nopey, nopey), and Big Lots. So now, I’m at least 1/4 of the way into that exciting world. And luckily for me – She of the Empty Wallet – it’s the most bargain-minded store that came to my ‘hood. So forgive my overdoing it with the photos but just thought I would share all the scrappy stuff I found at MY – yes, MY – Big Lots the other day.
LOTS OF STICKERS, MAT STACKS, and AMERICAN CRAFTS EMBELLIE JARS
QUOTE STACKS….for Cinco de Mayo…Hey, you never know!
8.5×11 CARDSTOCK PACKS
PHOTO STORAGE BOXES
A BIG HONKIN’ SCRAPBOOK KIT – I heard a lady in the aisle say that she saw this kit at Costco for $40, but it was only $25 at Big Lots. And there was only one.
TEEN KITS, CHRISTMAS KITS….
COLORBOK GOODIE BAGS – Tons of misc. stuff for only $12….”$100 value!”
SCRAPBOOK STORAGE OPTIONS AT A GREAT PRICE – I was eyeing those 3-drawer things but I have to see if the dimensions work for my space.
A PRE-DONE SCRAPBOOK – Hey, I’m not opposed to them as long as they are cute….great timesaver! And you can add embellies to make it your own.
CUTE 8X8 ALBUM FOR 5 BUCKS….
YOU 3-RING SCRAPBOOK LOVERS MIGHT BE INTERESTED IN THESE – I didn’t recognize the brand but the quality seemed good and you can’t beat that price!
LOADS OF 8X8 AND 12X12 ALBUMS!!!
CLOSER LOOK AT AMERICAN CRAFTS RUB-ON BOOKS….
… and AMERICAN CRAFTS ‘ELEMENTS’ RIBBON, AND PRESSED PETALS ‘CHIP CHATTER SHAPES’….
AS SEEN ON TV! THE CRAFT LITE CUTTER – I assume that’s a great price if you’re in the market for one…
A CLOSER LOOK AT THE DIE CUTS WITH A VIEW 12X12 ALBUMS – A stunning $8 each! Even the turquoise velvet one…
AND HERE IS WHAT I ENDED UP BUYING: DCWV ‘Old World’ album ($8), AC red ribbon (it was unmarked so she gave it to me for $2), AC ‘Happy Birthday’ rubons, great for card making ($2), Pressed Petals ‘Chip Chatter’ letters in metallic green and red; I’m thinking Christmas layouts ($2 each), DCWV ‘Pocket Full of Posies’ mat stack ($3), so pretty, and metallic words ($1 each). All that shizzle for under $25. Made out like a bandit, I’d say.
Personally, I don’t care if something is NEW or HOT or JUST INTRODUCED AT CHA! If it’s “old” and I like it – and I get a great deal on it – I’m a happy girl. If you’re the same way, don’t forget to check out your Big Lots once in a while. You never know what you’ll find….
Organization System for Acrylic and Rubber Stamps
There is a stamp storage product by STAMPENDOUS called “Storage Solutions.” They come in Thin ($2.49 retail), Thick ($2.99 retail), and Thicker ($3.49 retail). Here is a picture of the Thin one, so you can get an idea:
Here is a demo video that shows you the different sizes and how to use and store them.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IboLMWfLs3M]
What I like about these:
1. You don’t have to index your stamps – a time consuming process – because you can see right through the cases to your stamps
2. You can tie ribbons on the handles or otherwise color code the holders to see at a glance the type of item you want to grab, e.g. rubber stamps, greetings, or inks
3. They sell for an affordable price – I’ve seen many stamp storage systems that add up to be rather costly but these are reasonable
Seems like a great stamp storage system if you’re in the market for one. Huge shout out to KELLI for showing these to me!
Give us your review or thoughts!
Scrapbook Organization: Alphabet Storage
I have a sweet internet friend who always points out cool online things to me, and I usually snag her ideas and blog about them. We were messaging back and forth the other night about THIS post on typos (or typo’s, as you prefer) in scrapbooking magazines. She asked if I had seen a layout over at Pink Paislee with a typo or mistake in the title, and I hadn’t so I went looking for it.
And lookee lookee what I found on the PINK PAISLEE BLOG while I was lost….a stupendous Wall of Alphas!!!
HOLY MOTHER OF GOD.
Once you get past the total Eye Candy aspect.
And then you quit hating the lucky bee-yotch that owns this yummy wall of scrap goodness.
Then – and only then – do you step back and say to yourself, “Wowee, that is one cool way to store alphas.”
Just thought I’d share.
I personally couldn’t get away with an Alphabet Wall. I’m more from the school of thought that says, “Hide and compact the stash as much as possible so husband has no clear idea how much money I have spent on said stash.” But that’s just me, LOL.
JUMBO RIbbon Ring ON SALE!
I got this e-mail from Melissa the other day and she said I could post it to the blog:
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Goooooood afternoon!!
I wanted to let you know that my new JUMBO Ribbon Ring tags have arrived! They accommodate ribbon up to 2” wide and right now they are ON SALE! If you don’t have a lot of wide ribbon, you can hang four or fivepieces of 3/8” ribbon side by side on these new tags. How cool is that?
To celebrate this new product launch, our Ribbon Ring Starter Set and Ribbon Ring bundle of 90 are ON SALE too. Today is a good day to organize ribbon.
Go to www.ribbonring.com to take advantage of these awesome deals!
Melissa Bickle
President, Chicory Chic Inc.
3550 Broken Tee Drive
Hood River, Oregon 97031
541.387.2442
www.ribbonring.com
tame your ribbon.
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Here’s a photo of the new JUMBO (yes, I must put that in caps every.single.time) Ribbon Ring. You likee?
I’m Goin’ A-Croppin’ Tomorrow
Yay, yippee, woot woot!! It’s been quite awhile since I’ve either held a crop or been to one. Actually, this weekend was APPOSED ta be an annual scrap retreat with my mom and 4 friends. But the dear friend who usually organizes it is going through some personal stuff and couldn’t handle the planning this year. I offered to take over the reins but the other girls were gone on a SCRAPPING CRUISE so I couldn’t reach them in time to reserve the lake cabin for the retreat. But since my mom was coming down anyway, I called one of the retreat girlies this week and said, HAY-AYYYYY! Why don’t we just have a croppy Saturday at your clubhouse? And she was all for it. Thus….I’m goin’ a-croppin’ tomorrow. And I couldn’t be happier. Well, okay, technically I COULD be happier. I could already be at a crop RETREAT but let’s not split hairs, shall we?
So it’s about 8:45 on Friday night and I just finished packing for my croppy Saturday. I’m getting pretty good at packing for crops. I’ve learned that it does not pay to take every thing I own. Rather, I figure out 1 big project I want to work on {this time it’s finishing up the Santa Cruz part of my San Francisco/Santa Cruz trip album}, and all the things I need to work on that project. In this case, it’s the 12×12 album with enough empty page protectors to hold the pages I’m going to complete, and an Iris clamshell case with all the papers, embellies, and Thickers I’m using for this album. Then I usually bring maybe 4 or 5 other sets of photos that are of similar theme, colors, etc. and then a paper stack and chunk of embellies/letters that I can pull from for these layouts. For tomorrow, I have photos of a birthday, a bike race (Lance Armstrong’s race came through our area yesterday!), the kids playing with the puppy, and a Superbowl party. Do you see what these event photos might all have in common? Yep, bright mostly primary colors. So I’m taking the American Crafts “Celebration” paper stack that I just got (talked about it HERE), a “kid’s life” stack, several kinds of primary and black or white letter stickers, and a handful of colorful embellies.
The one place I guess I overpack is with cardstock ~ I always pack all 3 Cropper Hopper vertical files full of Bazzill ~ because I cannot STAND being at a crop and not being to find the exact right shade of background cardstock I need. Usually, I take my Baby Bug (little Cricut) and cartridges but decided not to this time. Maybe someone else will bring theirs and if they don’t, I can get by with the Thickers and such that I’m bringing. Finally, and most importantly, I always take my Cropper Hopper Flat Pack and a mini Tote-ally Cool Tote with my often used tools, adhesives, scissors, etc., my 2 Basic Grey Magnetic Mats, and my Ott Lite. This time, I also threw in a few border punches, and my “baby X” Xyron adhesive machine. So, miracle of miracles, I got all my stuff into my XXL, Crop In Style shoulder tote, and a small rolling tote. Wish me luck that I didn’t forget anything crucial! Although the great thing is that, at crops, everyone is more than willing to share anything you might need.
I’m really looking forward to tomorrow. Not just for the creative opportunity to make some fun layouts, and the accomplishment I’m going to feel when I finish my travel album, but the time I’ll get to spend with my mom and my friends, just gossiping the day away, laughing, listening to music, having a nice dinner, and coming home feeling de-stressed, refreshed, and gung-ho to keep cropping in the coming weeks. Going to crops always gets me motivated in my scrapping again and I’m really needing that right now.
Have a wonderful weekend, dearies!
A Scrapbook Room with Major Storage Options
THIS awesome room belongs to famous stamper/scrapbooker Jennifer McGuire (designer for Hero Arts, featured monthly in Creating Keepsakes magazine, etc). She is so talented. I was lucky enough to take a Hero Arts class from her at CKU many moons ago and still use a lot of the techniques she taught. But anyways, enjoy her awesome room. She is so very organized and I love the red/white/beige colors, which are warm enough to make you feel creative but it’s all clean enough to not be distracting. I think she’s very generous to take all those photos and video of her room to share, and taking the time to detail everything she has in there. What a resource ~ thanks Jennifer!
