I’m so freaking exhausted…

but I can’t sleep.  Isn’t that always the way?

I overcommit.  I overextend myself. I always have. I think I can do these grandiose things… then I crash and burn, spectacularly.  Like the time I got a III on my oboe solo.  At DISTRICT.  Because I was trying to take an oboe solo, a clarinet solo, a vocal solo, play in 4-5 ensembles, and accompany 4-5 other people.  I think the only I at state I got that year was my vocal solo, out of all that! Ridiculousness to ever expect that much of myself, and that was 20+ years ago.  Why do I keep doing this to myself???

 

Summer is almost here…

And I’ve been perusing some summer schedule ideas…  I like schedules.  For an impulsive, lazy girl such as myself, I need them to keep me on track, otherwise, I would lay around in bed all day and let my kids watch unending loops of Clifford and My Little Pony and we would all die in a glorious heap of gogurts and dried cheerios.

We have a summer bucket list, one that we will be working on all summer…  We also have a summer honey do list, and we, well, mostly my husband, will also be tackling that all summer…  but there will be plenty of days where we get to stay home and chill. And for those days, we need a schedule.  For everyone’s sanity. :)

I used this clock generator to create my schedule!  Fun to play with!

Remember Paper Bag Albums?

These were such a staple of the crafting world for awhile… :)  Even though their heyday has passed, I’ve been known to pull them out now and again as a fun gift or project.  This post features two fairly identical albums that I created for my son’s daycare teachers at the end of his first full school year with them as a baby.  I included a card that described how they could add pictures of their own kids to the pages and inserts.

Lots of lovely texture, that’s my favorite part of paper bag albums!  This is an older album (these pictures are from 2012!), but I still love the style I used and the lumpy bumpiness I used to decorate the front cover.

The interior pages featured simple layers of cardstock, patterned paper, and journaling cards, and featured some simple stamping and embellishment.

Had to make sure to use some real buttons with the super cute button patterned paper.

Paper tearing, photo corners, staples, all these “older” trends are still some of my favorites, when the moment is right. ;)

You can also see a few of the inserts sticking out the open paper bag ends.  Here’s a better look:

Again, I kept it all simple, and added matching cards for each teacher.  I’m feeling inspired enough that maybe I’ll try to tackle one for my DD’s daycare teacher this May!

TFV!

Scrappy Backgrounds

Last year, I decided I was on a mission to use up my scraps.  I have YET to realize this goal. :)  But I found a process I have really enjoyed, and wanted to share.  First, I was inspired by this article by Rockester.  (It’s an older article, and the pictures are missing, but you can get the idea by reading it.)  I liked the idea of monochromatic layouts–I typically struggle with these, but like the simple look of them.  Around the same time, some online scrappy friends were discussing The Perfect Collection concept by Shimelle Laine. Basically, it’s taking a collection pack and chopping it up into commonly used sizes, then creating backgrounds with the pieces.  Shimelle also used to do a series called Starting Points on her blog, where she would create a background, and challenge her readers to make a layout on top of that background design.

SO.  A big soup of ideas coalesced in my head, and this is what came out of it!  Scrappy Backgrounds. My goal was to only make backgrounds, a la Starting Points.  I was not going to be creating layouts from start to finish. I would keep these backgrounds for quick scrapping later on down the road.  This allowed me to use my scraps and be creative, without pressure to find the perfect photos RIGHT NOW.

First, I sorted my scraps by color family.

Then, I chopped up my scraps into commonly used pieces, a la The Perfect Collection. If I had specific ideas, I paired punches or other items with the trimmed scrap piles.

Then I put them together.  First as monochromatic, colorblocked layouts, a la Rockester.

And eventually, I began scraplifting looks I liked from Scrapbook Generation, or just ideas that popped into my head that I wanted to try out.  Again, all with scraps.

I have a whole range of colors, and while most of these ended up as one pagers, I made sure to do a couple of 2 page backgrounds, too.

In a later post, I’ll share how I go from one of these to a finished layout!  TFV!

Scrap My Stash Project #1

So, remember this decision? To scrap my stash down? Well, I started with my 6×6 pads.  I refuse to pay full price for these, so I have acquired most of these at Tuesday Morning or Big Lots for $2-3 apiece.  That number astounds me because of the sheer number of projects I can get out of these!  These are a good value, but really, I have no need to make the huge number of cards and layouts that they would require to actually make a dent in them, so I’m not convinced they were all a good purchase, even with being fairly cheap.

So, without further ado, here’s my process for using up a 6×6 pad!

1) Purge what I won’t use.

My typical process with a 6×6 pad is to bring it home and immediately flip through the pad and remove any sheets I know I won’t use.  I generally RAK these. So that’s one pass through I’d already completed, pulling out some paper nearly two years ago when I bought this.

2) Scrap a layout.

Next, I want to use each paper pad on at least one layout.  For this particular pad, I’d already used it on this layout. Excellent, I’ve got a head start!

3) Scrap a batch of cards.

Then, I aim for at least a dozen cards.  This is easily accomplished with templates like this one at Operation Write Home, which is what I used for this card set. 6×6 pads are really excellent for cards due to the size and small scale of patterns, so that’s why I shoot for a dozen. I added some coordinating cardstock, a stamp set that matched the style, and some type of fiber–in this case, jute.

4) RAK the remnants.

When I had finished the cards, I RAKed the remnants of the pad.  Yes, I still had plenty of paper! So that’s a total of 2 RAKs, 1+ layouts, and 12 cards for $2-3.  I think that’s okay! But I’m glad to have one less sitting in my stash.

Here are some card close-ups:

Very simple, just how I like ’em. ;)

Bridal Shower Cards–Simple, Subtle, Stunning

I love these die cuts, aren’t they amazing?  I wish I could tell you the name of them, but I received them as a RAK.  As soon as I saw them, I knew they’d be perfect for some upcoming wedding showers I had been invited to, and also knew they wouldn’t need much to make a pretty card.

I used Distress Inks (Chipped Sapphire and Dusty Concord) and a blending tool to created the gradient background.  Then I dripped, dropped, and splotched some Pearl Glimmer Mist all over it for a shimmery droplet effect to imitate a starry night sky.  Some crystal Stickles in the streetlights, a stamped “Best Wishes” on the inside, and done. :)

TFL!

 

Scrapping my Stash

I had humble beginnings.  A shelf in our bedroom.  Which quickly grew to overtake half of our living room in our tiny one bedroom apartment.  Fast forward to a house, with an entire ROOM, which I had no problem filling.  When I had to condense down to half a room and share with the guest room, I actually found it liberating to purge my stash.  There were so many things I no longer loved or wanted, or had bought because they seemed necessary or an amazing deal…only to be clutter and trash, later.  So I gladly let things go, fit all my stash on my Expedit, and moved forward with that mindset.

That helped a lot when I downsized again, this time to three shelves in our kitchen pantry, as the guest room became my daughter’s bedroom.  I scrapped there for a year and a half, when I was suddenly granted a corner of our basement family room.

This corner should have been more than enough space.  And it is, or was.  But with the increase in space came a small increase in our cash flow, and thus a huge increase in my scrap stash. The thing with scrappy shopping is that it really doesn’t take much money to buy supplies.  There are always sales, coupons, discount retailers, buying secondhand, etc., and it is too easy, I think, to acquire a whopper of a stash. I am back to feeling overwhelmed by my supplies, not inspired, and all I seem to want to do now is shop and re-organize to fit it all, a vicious, unending cycle.  I want the feeling of productivity and creativity and inspiration to be flowing again in my hobby.

My first BANKIT haul from ScrapbookGeneration.com. Now I’d like to actually USE some of this yumminess, not just store it!

So, I am setting out to systematically work my way through my scrappy stash.  This is going to take years, probably, as I don’t get to scrap all that often, only in small chunks of time carved out from guilt and unending household chores.  But here I go, I WILL do this, I WILL tame my stash, curb my shopping impulses, and actually USE my supplies to create, which I know from past experience is the most empowering and joyful way to experience my hobby.

It all starts with an inventory!  Click here for a separate page where I will itemize my scrappy stash and link to posts where I share what I did with those items.  I’m excited to try this, and I hope it will inspire someone else, too!

TFR!