Welcome to my scrap room

A Whole Day To Play

What do you do when you have a day off from work, no laundry, no errands, and your child is at school?  Scrapbook of course!  My day began at 8:00 AM and as you can see I am still going…..with lots of coffee.  I have to stay awake so that I can sleep tomorrow, to go to work tomorrow night so here is what I have done so far.

Well before we begin let me introduce to you someone that has just recently decided she can grace the Scraproom with her presence…

Callie the Calico Cat.

She normally would not be caught dead in my room but as you can see she is wrapped up in Radar’s blanket so she must feel like teasing the dog. 

Now back to scrapbooking

These photos were taken during the week we were in Florida for the last Close To My Heart Convention in 2008.

I have Gatorland finished, Sea World is next. Wish me luck because I am trying a new technique with Stickles and if it works I will share.  Oh look at the time, it is 4:00 am maybe I should try and get some sleep while the Stickles dry. Wish me luck because you guys know sleeping is considered “optional” when I get my scrappin mojo going.

Oh yea, the papers that are being used in these layouts are Sarsaparilla Level 2 and if you like it you can always order it online by hitting the button on the right side of your screen.  Happy Scrappin’.

Getting ready for more Scrappin

Well I have over 300 photos to get processed before I can begin the art of scrapbooking again.  Last night I made piles and sorted by theme (birthday, Christmas ect) All of these photos are for 2009 so I am not having to worry about mixing years together.   Here is my system for keeping my photos organized before scrapping them.

Photos and Journaling go into envelopes, these get filed by month  

Here is a peek inside the accordion file that I use for each year or theme album.  I normally scrap by year but vacations get their own albums.

Any larger memorabilia gets placed with the photo envelopes.  I will make a note on the envelope not to forget I have larger items to scrap also.

While I was getting ready to send photos over to Snapfish for printing I made a point of printing doubles for the photos that are going to be in the FAMILY 2009 album  and KAELA 7th GRADE album.  I will also make sure to print the journaling  for 2 times for these photos also.  There is really no point to trying to journal the same set of photos 2 different ways if they are going in 2 separate albums.

Here is a sample of how I get the journaling pre-done before scrappin my photos.  I get all of the pre-work done so that I am not so rushed to get all of my photos in to albums.  I do not have to worry about forgetting details because I have already written them down.  I feel I can take my time on the creative side once I get the story finished and my photos are properly stored.

I print the “story” for each group of photos on one sheet of vellum and cut it into squares (4 per page).  This is a good standard size for my pages.  And I love that the vellum will match any layout I decide to do in the future.

Well back to processing for me.  I want to play later on today.

Hearts For Haiti! February 1-28, 2010

Order any textured cardstock combo pack at full retail price and receive a second textured cardstock combo pack of your choice FREE. Eligible packs include:

• X5747 Basic
• X5681 Spring Harmony
• X5745 Summer Celebration
• X5669 Autumn Harvest
• X5670 Winter Cozy

For only $14.95, you get two packs of 12” x 12” textured cardstock (a great deal at about $.30 a sheet!) and Operation Smile will receive $2 US to benefit the urgent, important cause in Haiti. 

Note: You may choose a FREE textured combo pack that is the same or different as the full retail combo pack.

Dates: February 1-28, 2010
Featured Product: 12” x 12” Textured Cardstock Combo Packs
For Customers: Order any textured cardstock combo pack at full retail price and receive a second textured cardstock combo pack of your choice FREE. Eligible packs include:

How do I order?:  Online of course… Press the Close To My Heart button of the right side of your screen.

There is no limit! You can buy as many as you want, and get the second free! Customers can have multiple qualifying textured combo packs on one order and receive multiple free textured combo packs.

Donation for Haiti:
From February 1-28, 2010, our textured cardstock combo packs are buy one, get one FREE—and with every offer purchased, Close To My Heart will donate $2 US to Operation Smile’s Haiti relief efforts.

Operation Smile is always a fantastic charitable partner—offering free facial reconstruction surgeries to needy children throughout the world. They’ve currently marshaled their medical teams and resources to provide emergency relief in Haiti, and the donations given as part of Hearts for Haiti will be used exclusively for Operation Smile’s efforts in Haiti. For more information on their on-the-ground response, you can visit www.operationsmile.org/haiti.

See pages 100–101 of the current Idea Book to view the available colors and details about the textured cardstock combo packs.

(click the catalog on the right sidebar)

Sponge Dauber Storage

How come when I start a “Research Project” I end up spending money? While viewing other blogs I learned that you can keep one sponge dauber with your coordinating stamp pad so that when you need to use that color for lets say edging you have a sponge dauber ready for use.  The consultant that gave me this idea (I forgot her name) kept her daubers in with her stamp pad storage. 

I am not able to do this because of the rack that I have my stamp pads in, so Mike and I were trying to find a way to have one dauber per each stamp pad color that I own and have it readily available for use.  While brainstorming Mike was talking about a peg board with post sticking out at an angle…. Duh a spool rack!  So I Googled “spool rack” and Amazon.com came to my rescue again.

Yes, I know that you can wash them but that wears them out and I always make a mess in the process.

This rack holds 60 spools but since CTMH comes out with new colors every couple of years I wanted to be able to expand so I ordered 2 of these.  At $15.00 each Mike said he could not build it any cheaper.  Mike will be able to mount it on the wall for me and I will be able to label each spot so that I know what color is being used.  Now back to research…..

Studying ways to build a crop space

I am starting to research ways to build my crop space and once again I find myself referring to the book I used to design my original scrap space in 2004.

If you are interested this book is still sold at Amazon.com

I forgot all of the wonderful information that this book has that is still relevant.   We all still have printed photos from the “before digital” time, we have negatives, and some of us even have slides.  It is proving to be a great refresher course on photo storage.  Speaking of Storage, now we have to worry about Digital Photo Storage.

Here is a quick re-fresher on why it is a good idea to do back-up’s from the book.

Top 8 Reasons To Do A Backup

• Power Surges
• Hard Drive Crashes
• Human Error (hello a blonde lives here)
• Hackers
• Theft
• Natural Disasters
• Magnetic Interface
• Electronic Viruses (been there done that)

So while I continue my research / design on my new Crop Space, I think  I will have Mike work on a back- up.

I am having a ton of fun but I also have to remember to go to bed tonight, I have a Crop Night planned for tomorrow!  YEA!

I’m Still Here

I am in the process of sending 342 photos to Snapfish for printing.  As soon as they come in I will be able to start scrappin again…..

Until then, this weekend is CROP NIGHT / January 30, 2010 at 6:00

I hope to see you there!

Veranda Workshop Cards Are Complete

After running errands this morning I was finally able to sit down and finish the Veranda Workshop Cards.  Having the workshop pre-cut worked like a charm and I was able to put 5 cards together very quickly.  The workshop makes 6 cards but my lunch fell on the last card. 

It may have taken me a couple of days to complete this workshop, I love the effect.  Now I have 5 cards ready to go, that will be one less trip to the “card store” and because I make them myself they are full of love. 

A Couple More Checkbook Covers

I was playing on Saturday morning and came up with these additional checkbook covers.  I think Kaela and my mom are going to be very happy.  Kaela will be using hers for her savings account.

If you are coming Crop on the 30th you will be getting a clear checkbook cover and cutting directions to make your own.  Please RSVP that you are coming to crop so that I can save a seat for you.

Another Checkbook Cover

This one is for my Mother in Law… she is doing the Dave Ramsey thing and loves Frogs so why not combine the two.

And here is the backside

The same color where used on the frog as the one I made for Mikes cover.  I hope she will like this one too. 

Jenny’s “Color Me Monday” on Friday?

Well that did not take too long. I did an Google search for the measurements of the checkbook covers and being a blonde I started to laugh when I read to “use the clear checkbook cover for your template”  Ok, now I am starting to feel stupid! 

The colors are:

• Cocoa Cardstock (Basic color family)
• Crystal Blue Cardstock (Winter Cozy color family)
• Garden Green Cardstock (Autumn Garden color family)
• Hollyhock (Autumn Garden color family)
• Exclusive Inks Cocoa stamp pad
• Black embroidery thread
• “Diamond” Stickles

Kaela is standing behind me telling me that the hiking boot sticker does not match the Hollyhock or the Crystal Blue, but this is Mike’s checkbook cover and I did not want to go toooo girly.  He wears hiking boots everyday and this just fit to me.   

I have not placed the finished artwork into the cover yet because the stickles are still wet.

  I think he will love it, and since tomorrow is 24 years since I started spending his money somehow this little gift is perfect for the 24th anniversary of our first date.