We’re within 2-3 weeks of Anthology’s release, which is Lisa Bearnson’s new line with Youngevity/Heritage Makers.
I posted a couple sneak peeks HERE and will continue to post them periodically, with new ones scheduled to be released each Monday and Thursday until The Big Day.
Here are some collages of sneak peeks:
– The albums and cardstock I posted about before, along with a storage item from the Hangin’ Around card kit.
– More peeks of how kit items will be packaged and you can keep them stored on a bookshelf, if you wish. Regarding the folder, you can see a place to take notes as you work on your project – layout, photos to gather, photo sizes, special notes, etc.
A sneak of a layout kit along with a sketch. Anthology monthly kits will come pre-cut, packaged in a poly bag, and with a storage solution included as the packaging.
– A look at some of the embellishments that will come with kits along with a peek at the Anthology CEO bag (see more about CEO below).
“These cards are from the Hangin’ Around Card Kit, available in September . . . It has supplies to create 20 cards in a variety of styles (with multiples of each style), plus envelopes, foam squares, and more. Plus, many of the embellishments are self-adhesive and the card bases are sturdy like ones you’d buy from a store.”
“The cards in this Make & Shake Card Kit are as fun to make as they are to give! This kit also makes 20 cards in several designs (with multiples of each design) and includes envelopes, foam squares, and more. And just like the Hangin’ Around card kit, you’ll find adhesive-backed embellishments and sturdy card bases.”
“As a side note, this kit is exclusive to the CEO kit so if you want to make and shake, you’ll need to buy the Anthology CEO kit! [That’s the big kit you purchase to be a CEO; it costs $499 but you receive a kit exceeding that in value which you can use for yourself, use as a demo, or re-sell for full retail and make a profit].
. . . Remember, you’re not seeing everything, just a little peek at what you’ll find in these kits. Also, there are limited quantities of each kit, so once they are gone, they likely won’t be ordered again, so make sure you order your favorites as soon as they are available.”
On the conference call I participated in, there was a Q&A panel where it was confirmed that the:
– cardstock is 12×12 (no 8.5 x 11)
– products are acid-free, lignin-free, buffered, and archival safe
– embellishment types will vary from kit to kit
– the kits will all be around the same price point
If you want to follow along on your own, make sure to check out the HERITAGE MAKERS blog and LISA BEARNSON‘s blog. Also, you can subscribe to this blog, join my free newsletter (both in the upper right sidebar), and follow me on TWITTER and PINTEREST.
I think what I’ll do is post on Twitter/Pinterest with the sneaks from Monday 08-03-15, then post them here along with Thursday’s on 08-06-15.
So far, I’m loving the clean look, bright but not too bright colors, and included storage solutions. What are YOUR thoughts on what you’re seeing of “Anthology”?
From April 6-12, 2014, Michaels is having one of their BIGGEST sales of the year! Check out their ad and coupons HERE.
I for one am happy because they’ll have Iris 12×12 scrapbook cases for only $2.99 (reg. $8.99).
Over time, I’m converting all my scrapbook storage that was in open baskets on my shelves to these closed cases. Love that they’re see-through.
Scrapbook albums and Recollections craft storage are 60% off! Maybe I’ll finally take a chance on a Project Life album at THAT price! {I’ve heard they’re not very sturdy. Do you have a review?}
Scrapbook paper pads will be $9.99 (reg. $19.99).
And Plastic Scrapbook Storage will be 50% off.
If you wanted to implement my PROJECT LIFE CARDS or WASHI storage ideas, now would be a great time to buy up some of those cute plastic shoeboxes or 6×6 Iris containers!
I know you love a good scrappy bargain as much as I do, so I had to share. Hope you find something fabulous. Happy Shopping!
PS: Would love to hear what you pick up at Mike’s. Please come back and let us know!
I was at MICHAELS today for the first time in a long while. I had a 3-pronged mission:
1. Get my kids another craft or two so I don’t go cray-cray before Thankgsgiving break is over.
2. Use the 40% off coupon in my wallet.
3. Buy my annual bag of cinnamon-scented pinecones. It’s just not the holiday season here without them :)
So I accomplished all 3 missions, actually combining #2 and #3 by using the coupon on a $10 kids’ craft. Got my cinnamon pinecones … mmm, the car smelled so good on the way home. Oh, and these jumped into my hand so I had to get them, too:
They’re called “Elizabeth Brownd Christmas Sequin Adhesive Gems” by K & Company. They are so pretty and sparkly in person!
So while I was at Michaels I also saw some new storage items that could be used for scrapbooking organization and my favorite one was THIS (I’m linking to another site because I can’t find it on Michaels.com):
There was no price on the shelf but it looks like they retail for about $50 … which is steep for sure … unless you have a 40% or 50% off coupon, girlie! Or wait for all their scrapbook storage to go on sale as it often does.
So many of us scrappers use Iris bins, carts, and drawers to store our crap … erm, I mean, SCRAP stuff. I love how you can personalize the front of these drawers, even the handle! You could put in fabric or wallpaper that matches your room decor, a photo collage of your favorite people, or even a 12×12 scrapbook page with room to spare (we just gotta’ figure out how to work around that knob handle being right in the middle of our artwork, lol). You could also add a label of what’s inside.
Anyway, just wanted to share a few of my Michaels finds! I hope you have an amazing and blessed Thanksgiving surrounded by family and friends … and yummy food!
ANDREA aka scrapcrazed at 2PEAS posted a thread about these cute storage boxes she found at DOLLAR TREE and she’s got the girls quite abuzz…
Aren’t they adorable? I think we could all find plenty of uses for these around our houses or in our scrap spaces. If you don’t have time to read through the whole thread, here’s a synopsis:
~ They measure “approx. 5.5″ wide, and 9.25″ long from front to back. And they are 5.25″ deep,” and are made out of plastic.
~ They reportedly come in “solids in white, pink, kiwi and light blue. The prints are the kiwi with the ovals and kind of a turquoise with squares. The prints are sort of retro.”
~ Some are having trouble getting the bottom snaps to line up. I don’t know if they are packaged up but if not, maybe try and make sure they snap together BEFORE you buy them. The Peas are saying something about Dollar Tree having a no return policy although you can exchange.
Let us know if you get any of these cuties, and how you’re going to use them!
In my last POST about all the new Jetmax storage items at Michaels, I mentioned that I had a hard time putting one of their 3-drawer storage cubes together…so much so, that I was dreading putting the remaining two cubes together. EILEEN on AMR just asked for storage cube advice in a thread over there, and this was my answer so I figured I’d post it here, too. I also have some storage cube recommendations.
Of the Jetmax brand, all I have are the 3-drawer cubes and the problem I had is the “wood” is so thin, that if you don’t get the teeny screws for the drawer sides in there exactly straight the first time, you never will (believe me, I tried). So then I had to really push super hard on the screwdriver to get them to go in. Mind you, I had to use the teeny screwdriver so there’s nothing to pad your hand while you’re cranking down on it either. You could use a cordless screwdriver of course, but ours doesn’t have a tip that small. There were 4 screws per drawer so I went through this struggle 12 times. Then I went to slide the drawers into the cube (which was also a pain to assemble), and they wouldn’t slide in until the screws were COMPLETELY flush with the sides of the drawers or even recessed a bit. More cranking on the tiny screwdriver and by that time my hand was already bruised.
All that said….maybe I’m the only dummy in America who wouldn’t just go buy a tiny cordless screwdriver head for this one project, LOL! It also takes 2 sets of hands to assemble the cubes themselves, holding the sides perfectly perpendicular to each other while screwing in the tiny screws while you can’t brace it against anything to accept the pressure. Does that make sense? I’m sure some would find these things easy to assemble, but I sure didn’t….
The Store in Style brand is wonderful and uses a much easier cam lock system. You can literally put together the cube itself in 5 minutes. They’re also sturdier and larger, but more expensive. I don’t know if Joann’s or anyone carries them where you could use a coupon. I got them with coupons “back in the day” when Mike’s carried Store in Style.
You might also look into ITSO plastic storage at Target. The cubes take no assembly per se, other than sticking little pegs in each corner (if you want to stack them) to bind them to each other. They have all kinds of drawers, baskets, shelves, and such and you can really customize it. I have 3 of those ~ just the plain cubes ~ that I stack my CM Power Sort Boxes in. If I had known about Itso before I invested in the Store in Style, I probably would’ve done my whole wall in Itso. It’s cheaper and more flexible with the configurations you can do. Here are some Itso REVIEWS; two of them are from scrappers!
Anyway, there’s some more info and photos of all 3 types of cubes HEREand at the bottom of THIS post. If you’re in the market for scrappy storage, I hope that helps ya!
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?
** YAHOO!! I sold it on Craigslist this past Friday!! Thanks everyone :) **
Here are pix of my Clip It Up by Simply Rene, along with instructions and accessories (scrapbook supplies not included, of course):
The black tabs and white sticker labels are so you can divide your categories up. I never had time to put them together, but it would be cool to sort by category (rub ons, letters, stamps, etc) or subject (outdoor, Christmas, kids, etc).
I paid retail for it at a local craft store:
Base Unit $60
Cover $24
TOTAL $84
Will sell both items for $70 including shipping (US only; will ship elsewhere if you pay the difference).
Here’s the story: I used to sell scrapbook products at crops, but I’m no longer doing that. The Clip It Up was used to display items at 2 crops; the rest of the time, it sat untouched and covered on my scrap table. I love it, actually, but I have such good storage systems already going for my scrap stuff that I really don’t need it any longer. But I highly recommend the CIU as a way to store any kind of embellie. I’ve heard of people using it to store anything from stickers to rub-ons to their entire acrylic stamp collection. It’s wonderful for putting your things out where you really see and will use them, instead of hiding away in some kind of storage container.
The black cover is great and keeps the dust off your stuff. I have just the Base Unit, so I tuck the excess cover length under the base and it REALLY keeps the dust and light out. But if you want to add the Upper Tier later, the cover will ‘cover’ the entire thing.
First right of refusal goes to a friend at AMR who was looking for a good price on a Clip It Up, which is what finally prompted me to list mine for sale. If she doesn’t want it, it’s up for grabs! You can leave a comment here or e-mail me (addie is in my About Me page).
Thanks to a post by VERONICA/Miss Onigur at CKMB, I found this cool new storage line that is at or will be coming soon to a Target near you…and it looks perfect for scrapbooking storage. Can I hear a WHOO HOO?!?
It’s called ITSO and here’s a pic of the storage cube, which measures 14.75 x 14.75 x 14.75″ and costs $26 for a set of 2.
Here’s a LINK to what they called Craft Room and there are 5 items there, including these Storage Drawers (2) which cost $50 for both.
It says it’s made of “sturdy plastic” so I’m wondering if this system can hold up to all the heavy papers, punches and other scrap crap we tend to load it up with. Oh darn, guess I’ll have to buy a cube to find out, LOL!
If you want to take a look at the entire ITSO line at Target, HERE is the link. After cruising around their offerings a bit, here are a couple more of my favorite items…not just for scrapbooking storage, but for anywhere in the home.
