You know how right before the new fall season of TV shows comes on, and you’re hearing about all the great new shows, and you can’t wait to watch them, and every show you’ve always loved and been watching seems so dull and boring merely because you have had a taste of the new stuff and you want more??? (Phew, that was surely a run on sentence!).
Well, that’s how I’m feeling about scrap products right now. I went scrap shopping today, with my 40% and 50% coupons in hand, and knowing that my local craft store had 25% off the entire store. I was in the mood for some serious swag, I tell ya’. First, to the LSS and my only really good finds were the new issue of CK, and some cute/cheap papers from their Half Off table. Their shelves weren’t empty, per se, but there was nothing “new” like there is every other time I go, about once every month or two. Then to Michaels to use my 2-day only 50% off coupon. Again, I came up pretty empty and had to struggle to find something to use the coupon on. I got a cute MAMBI page kit (all page kits were already 40% off) then walked around that store for 10 minutes trying to find something I wanted that was Coupon Worthy. I finally decided on the Making Memories medium-sized storage jars, which will fit on my MM Embellishment Shelf.
I have no idea what I’ll put in them, but $5 instead of $10 was a transaction I was obligated to make. Heck, I’ll use them in my pantry to store sugar if I have to. Finally, I went to the craft store. The acrylic stamps I went there for were out of stock:
For a gift, I picked up the K&Co. Wild Saffron paper slab, tag set, and photo mat set. This is one of my favorite lines ever and I already have most of it. My friend keeps admiring it, so guess what she’s getting for her birthday?
Everything was 25% off, which was already a good deal, but then the cashier gave me 40% off the paper pad “because there was a coupon this week” (which I had in my purse, but thought I couldn’t use because of the storewide sale). So, that was a good buy…$16 worth of Wild Saffron for $9.50.
Other than the CK, the only find of the day that made me all perky was noticing that the craft store now sells……BAZZILL!!!!!!!!!!!!! Okay, is that enough exclamation points to communicate to you how stinkin’ happy I am??? I LUVLUVLUV Bazzill cardstock but my LSS was the only place to get it (other than online, which I don’t usually do b/c I like to buy it by the sheet and match it to papers I have). They sell Bazzill Canvas and Bling for 75 cents/sheet, In Stitch’z for $1/sheet. I buy sheets when I’m there to match whatever patterned paper I buy. However, in my world, one can never have enough Bazzill. So I was crazy-excited to see 5 racks of it at the craft store. They sell Canvas and grasscloth for 59 cents/sheet, Bling for 69 cents/sheet, and With an Edge (scalloped, etc) for $1/sheet. So I got about $10 worth of Bazzill which cost me $7.50 with the sale. The only “newer” stuff they had was all the Valentines stuff, most of which I didn’t like this year, like the Daisy D’s and Wild Asparagus stuff.
I spoke with the cashiers at two of the stores, and yes, they are anxiously awaiting new items from CHA. The LSS said she ordered things from 15 different companies, some of whom they’ve never carried in the store before. So, like the store owners, I will patiently wait for all the new goodies to arrive. Amend that: I will WAIT, but not patiently, because I wanna see the new stuff NOW! Just hope the big reveal of all the new scrapbook products from CHA won’t be as disappointing as the new fall TV shows have been in the past few years, LOL!
PS: Have you noticed that I’m getting dangerously close to hitting the 100,000 blog hits mark? Wow, that just kills me!
Unless it’s super dooper special like that RENDEZVOUS RELEASE, I’m adding new CHA-W 2008 sneak peeks to THIS POST. Just added My Minds Eye, American Crafts (both get a thumbs up) and Daisy D’s (thumbs down).
For the Scrapbook Obsessed, you could say that CHA time is even more anticipated than Christmas, Mother’s Day, and your birthday all smushed together. I mean, am I right?? Well, it’s that time again and the excitement to see all the new products is building. FYI: CHA Winter 2008 is being held in Anaheim, CA on February 10-13. The keynote speaker this year is financial diva, Suze Orman. According to the press release, “Orman will help attendees understand how their relationship to money affects their businesses and lives.”
I’ll keep adding any product previews or news I find to this post, so keep checking back (most recent entries will be on top). Please let us know what ya think, what ya might buy, what ya must have, and what ya won’t buy even with a 40% off coupon at Michaels…
And away we go!!!
DAISY D’s
I usually LOVE their stuff, one of my favorite brands, but…
Sorry, me no likey at all…
AMERICAN CRAFTS
Lots of their usual bright, cheery, easy to use stuff. There’s so much, I can’t post it all here. Just CHECK THIS OUT ~ it’s all laid out very nicely!
QUEEN & CO
This is from Q&Co’s blog; make sure to read the fine print!
“Introducing… the NEW Valentines line….
Queen & Co is excited to announce the arrival of our new Valentine products. Included in this release are new 3/4″ Felt Ribbons, two new Clear Stamps sets plus several fun styles of brads! Products are starting to ship this week. Look out for them in stores soon!
(note that these are not our CHA Winter releases – these are an extra mini release …keep an eye out for CHA releases soon!)”
UNITY STAMP COMPANY (new company!)
See everything on THEIR BLOG
This is so embarrassing. After all my bragging about organizing my scrap space earlier this year (it was THIS POST), it’s a mess again. Holy cow! I think it’s even worse. Yeah, I just looked at the Before photos from last time and it is much, much worse now. My excuse is that I started as a scrapbook consultant this year and now, in addition to all my own stuff, I have to ‘keep stock on hand’ of Memory Works products. At any given time, I also have boxes of orders here until I distribute them. But, that being said, the real reason it’s a mess is because I haven’t kept up on it. I didn’t create a solution before I had the problem. And I’ve kept buying new scrapbook supplies while hardly using any. Okay, here is the disgusting evidence:
This is as you walk into my scrapping area, which is the back half of a larger room with the kids’ play area in the front. As you can see, the walkway is closing in on itself and I can barely walk through there without losing body parts. The box of red albums is a Daisy D’s Year in Review and Christmas album. I’m doing a class/party on that the week after Christmas. There’s my little Lexmark standalone photo printer that I got at Target for $25 on Clearance. I tried to use it once, got frustrated when it wouldn’t print anything but green photos, and it has sat collecting dust ever since. Although I did recently buy that Lexmark-specific photo paper (it’s sitting on top of the printer) to try again before I toss the thing out the window. The blue bins I bought last month to try and better display my products at crops, etc. (will be a separate post about those later). Until now, I’ve been using a big clear Rubbermaid container and small, white plastic baskets to display things. The Rubbermaid is just plain ugly and the white baskets are cute enough, but the sides are too low and everything just kind of flops over and won’t stand up for customers to look through it. You can also se my XXL tote and another smaller one (don’t remember what that one is called). I load them up with MW products when I go to crops and it’s nice because they protect everything from dust and getting bent in transit, and the XXL is on rollers so I can really carry lots of stuff. The problem is then I have no room to take my own crop stuff (tool kit, page kits, etc.). Needing a solution to that problem. The cream tote is all my Memory Works catalogs and paperwork. Well, I shouldn’t say “all”…there is another huge white binder of stuff in my home office. The black box is a Creative Memories Power Sort box full of photos and memorabilia from my Europe cruise. That was in 2006 and I’m only about half way through the album (if you don’t count journaling, of which I’ve hardly done any). Everything in the Power Sort is getting dusty because I can’t put the lid on or it will crush my brochures, menus, etc. To the far right is my shelf which has stayed pretty organized, mainly because it’s packed and there is nowhere to put anything else. But it needs work, for sure. The two ziploc bags on the floor are my templates, CM cutting system, Coluzzles, etc. They used to go on that shelf but they got kicked out when I bought some new blank albums.
After you walk in my scrap area and take a left, you’re looking at the window and my desk. That stack of paper with the black and white Jenni Bowlin on the top (love it!) is my December kit from Memory Works Express. I had it out of the box to look through it and never put it away. Under that are some other recent purchases: K&Co. Wild Saffron slab; DCWV cardstock pad with the jagged edges (what’s that called?), and two SIS tool packs that are empty. I had all my acrylic stamping stuff in one of them and it got full, so I bought an identical one when they were on a great sale at Tuesday Morning. Then I found the black tote at Michaels (you’ll see it later in the tour) for 40% off and moved all my stamps into the tote. Not sure if I’m liking it, so while I decide, the empty blue tool packs sit empty. The ribbon jars on the right look fine ~ I’ve managed to keep up with my ribbon this way, just tossing in any new ribbon I get right away. The large white box and another stack under the brown box (that you can’t see here) are picture frames from Costco that I bought about two months ago. Okay, let’s be honest, it’s been more like six months. I HATE the picture frames I have around my house right now and keep saying I will redo them, but there they sit. It just seems so intimidating to figure out which pictures I want to put in which frames, get them enlarged and/or converted to black and white, choose which pictures go where in the house, and hang them. I’m procrastinating big time on that one. The basket on the top right is full {bursting at the seams} with letter stickers. Even though I have a Cricut, I can’t seem to stop buying alpha rub-ons, Thickers, chipboard alphas and sometimes even sticker letters. Although I’m proud to say I don’t buy those much anymore because I know I won’t use them; I have years’ worth to use already. Although most of my letters are at least in one place (that basket), they definitely need to be purged and organized.
This is the top of my legal size filing cabinet. Inside is actually very organized, with all my greeting cards sorted by event; receipts, instruction books, etc in files; and office supplies like printer paper, extra cartridges, etc. Again, ribbon jars look good although they’re dusty on top. I purged magazines and idea books last time I did The Big Cleanup and now the stack is back! New magazines, idea books and other books that need to be purged or put away.
Here is the heart of the space, where i actually scrap, my L-shaped desk. With the missing front trim that never got put on because we didn’t follow the instructions properly when we put it together from the box. Once the desk was together, waaayyyy too much trouble to pull it apart again just to add some silly little trim. Anyway, you can see my black tool pack which holds many of my essentials – various adhesives, stylus, stapler, etc. The papers on top are envelopes from Christmas cards we’ve received so I can update my address list. I mean, really, that doesn’t even belong in here and that’s what happens a lot. If I want to straighten another area of the house, I just put things in here. Voila! We have a mess! On the right side are sticky notes and mailing supplies; my new ToteAlly Cool totes (larger for punches, Stickles, etc and smaller one for Cropadile, pens and scissors); the ever present Diet Coke. In the back are recently developed photos that have nowhere to go so I keep stuffing them back there. To the left is my ScrapRack which is very organized but too full so, see, the little K&Co. tags are falling out of the Christmas section. And my glorious new Basic Grey Magnetic Mats and faithful Cutterpede paper trimmer.
Here is my little corner with my stereo (new Pebbles Inc. Ribbon Iron on top cooling off because I just used it); high dollar printer and scanner that I never use; random Mike’s and Target stamps for long-overdue RAK’s; baby wipes to clean acrylic stamps; and my labeler which surprisingly gets a lot of use in my space. I’m very organized about being disorganized! The desk drawers have computer equipment, font and software CD’s, etc and are very organized but I don’t seem to go in there very much, so maybe that stuff could go elsewhere and open up some space for scrap-related things? The cupboard side contains my Cricut, mats, and cartridges on top, a bin with electrical cords, phone cords, power strip, etc on bottom. Again, why is that stuff in here? I do have an old laptop on my desk that I just use for journaling but I hardly ever use the accessories anymore so they could go in a closet or something. See, progress already!
Here is the rest of my desk. There is the black Michael’s tote I told you about. All my acrylic stamps, ink pads, alcohol inks, stamp cleaners, etc are in there. Behind the tote are: a bucket of Prima flowers I’m borrowing from a friend, my ink pens in Creative Memories Pen Holders, and random new products that need to be put away. The Colorbok paper pads under the black tote will be for sale, but I need to log them in my computer first. The pile on the left is mostly the stuff from my Secret Santa (thanks again!) and the right side pile is memorabilia to file and a new notebook for scrap ideas, to do lists, etc. (First entry should be: TO DO ~ Clean up your damn space!).
Wow, okay… Seeing your mess in a big full color photo is even MORE eye-opening, even MORE embarrassing and shocking. Deep breath. Count to 10. Breathe out through the nose. Yoga breaths, yoga breaths. Okay. I’m back. This is the table to the left of my desk (the far side of it is near the walkway we already saw). I brought this table in the last time I organized, thinking it would be extra space to work on big projects, sort my photos, or have a friend over to crop. Yeah, right. It’s become a primo dumping ground for the stuff I guess I just used to leave on the floor. On the table you can see more gingerbread jars which I’ve been dumping various embellies in that either need to be put away, or are prizes for crops. The 12×12 stack back there is mainly paper to file or put a price tag on. The white baskets I was using to display my products ~ one is empty, the other has in it two Memory Works Express Kits from May 2007. One is mine, one is for sale. There are papers and embellishments in a super large Ziploc, including a box of glitter chipboard letters from K&Co. which I need to keep bagged together to sale and/or act as a sample of the kit. The problem is that each of these kits comes with an alterable project and this one was a small paint can. I mean, jeez, how to you even store that?? I guess my lame answer is, “In a white plastic basket.” Down below the table are my very organized page kits in a white plastic crate, another jar, and a Target bag with a flattened postal box and some acrylic stamps to sell once I get them in the computer and price tags put on. At the bottom middle of the photo are two cardboard file boxes on the floor. Hiding under the bag of Figgy Pudding Card Kit stuff (with cards in progress) is one project box (album, papers, embellishments, photos and souveniers from a big trip we took in, yes, 2005). The other is a project box for my 2006 cruise album. Neither has even been touched in months, except to add or take papers from. What you can’t see is that the entire space under my desk is filled with bins of my old photo storage system (remember THIS POST about how I was going to re-do that?), altered projects to make (photo cubes, shadow boxes, etc.), and Christmas presents. I’ve been shoving gifts under there all year because it’s the perfect hiding place. Everyone is scared to come over here! Seriously, my DH sends the kids in to grab the wastepaper basket once in a while or he just yells over to me, “Hey, how’s your trash? Bring it here if it needs emptied, please.” Smart man. Very, very smart man.
This is just a close up of the jars on the table, and you can see the blue basket in the background where I’ve put some of the paper packs I have for sale. They are elsewhere in the house, but I have a total of two large blue bins (like the one on the table), two medium sized green ones, and two small blue ones. They are all filled with MW products for sale. The baskets themselves are organized, but I have nowhere in my scrap space to put them.
So, I have survived the ultimate in humiliation by showing you my ‘crap’ area. I mean, SERIOUSLY?? SERIOUSLY?? And why am I subjecting myself to this, you ask? Because that’s what it takes for me to get to work and get this place cleaned up again. Last time, I entered an Organization Challenge on the CK Message Board. This time, I’m sharing it here on my blog. Now I’m accountable (I mean, if you guys out there really care??) and I WILL get organized again. I’ve come to this conclusion: Now that I’m a scrapbook consultant and have to keep a lot of extra products and paperwork around, this space just isn’t big enough anymore.
Part One of My Plan: My wheels have been turning about how I can re-work this space, maybe somehow utilizing our guest bedroom/office also. I already got DH’s approval to get rid of the old king sized bed in there that takes up half of the room, yet only gets used about four times per year when my mom visits. (No worries, Mom, we’ll findya another place to sleep!).
Part Two of My Plan: I have two weeks off from work for the holidays. Granted, I could get busy with my ‘from home’ jobs, I have at least one scrapbooking event, and we may go out of town for a few days. But I think this is a great opportunity to spend some time getting my scrap area organized…once and for all…um, yeah, right! Do I have your support? You got any suggestions for the dilemmas I’ve shared? I challenge YOU to organize your scrapbooking area over the Christmas break, so post in Comments if you will join me. I would love it if you sent me some photos I could post of your before/after or link us to your blog showing same. DEADLINE IS SUNDAY, JANUARY 6, 2008 (‘cuz ya gotta have a deadline or else you won’t do it!)…
