Reorganizing

Well my scraproom is probably condemnable at this point. However, the reorganizing is out of necessity. I've discovered that the shelf brackets weren't mounted to the studs. I'm not sure why we did that, because my dad is pretty much the do it right the first time kind of guy. Anyway, the drywall anchors were pulling at the drywall and when you have literally hundreds of pounds of paper and scrapbook supplies on those shelves... well let's just say you don't want it crashing down on you. So since I was pulling everything down I decided to reconfigure my wall organizers and patch nail holes and touch up paint. Now that my boys are getting into somewhat of a routine, I figured if I have time to paint my gameroom I can find some time to scrapbook after they go to bed :)

Itching To Get Back Into Scrapping

With all the adorable pictures I've taken of our new baby Andrew and Sean I'm itching to get some pages and mini books done. Sean will go back to school next week and hopefully Andrew will continue to be as easy going. I've already purchased his baby album it's just waiting for pages to put in it.

Scrapping On The Back Burner

Well the nesting kicked in about four weeks ago and I'm busy sewing up a storm. That means my scrapping and mixed media arts have taken a back seat :(

Carpet cleaners are coming this weekend to do a good cleaning before the baby gets here in less than two weeks.

Hopefully once I get into a routine with the new baby I can get back to creating. I'll have two sweet boys to scrap now :)

Soul Restoration 2011 Has Started!!

Soul Restoration by Brave Girls Club has officially started. One of my scrapping girlfriends turned me on to it and I couldn't be more grateful. It's a 6 week online coarse about restoring yourself through letting go, truth, and creativity. I started getting ready this weekend and normally y'all see pictures of my clean & organized studio... well here is a photo of what it looks like in true use. It will look like this {maybe worse} over the next 6 weeks. I'm truly enjoying it, as it will be my last creative hoorah before I deliver our second baby. {Who knows what life will be like til I get back into the swing of things}

As part of the journey we have journals. I took a mixed media art sketchbook and decorated the cover. It will be filled with art and journaling throughout this process.


If you haven't registered for this session, it is already closed. However, they will be having another one in the spring. {http://bravegirlsclub.com/} It is a commitment... expect to spend 2-8 hours a week working on the homework and projects or you're not going to get out of it the full experience. I can't wait to tell y'all more as I go through this journey.

Making Your Own Journals - Putting It Together

Here are the rest of the direction to finish up making your own journals. If you missed the other portions you can reference my earlier posts or visit Heather's blog. As soon as I'm through my current art journals, I'll be making my own stash. This will feed my other addiction... fabric - LOL

http://heatherscustomsewing.blogspot.com/2011/01/tutorial-book-binding-putting-it-all.html

Sean's 7th Birthday

I was trying to find a cute invite for my son's birthday party and happen to have a coupon for Shutterfly. I decided to give them a try. These came out SO cute and with the coupon I got 25 invites for less than $10 delivered. What a deal!!!

Camo Command Chocolate Birthday Invitation

Happy birthday to you. Birthday wishes by Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

Soul Restoration - Brave Girls Club

So excited for Soul Restoration. It will be my last class/event before the baby gets here. Then I will be on a bit of a creative hiatus til I get used to a new baby in the house.

http://www.bravegirlsclub.com/onlineclasses.html

Making Your Own Journals

I LOVE journals and sketchbooks. I don't know what it is about them, but I could just buy up tons of the pretty books at the bookstore. However, they can be VERY expensive.

I saw this post on the Mod Podge Facebook page and had to share since I LOVE journals. I really like this because I can make custom sketch books for my son Sean that fit his personality.

Part 1 - Making the pages http://heatherscustomsewing.blogspot.com/2010/12/tutorial-book-binding-creating-pages.html

Part 2 - Making the cover http://heatherscustomsewing.blogspot.com/2010/12/tutorial-book-binding-creating-cover.html

Organizing Paper

When organizing your paper stash you have to decide whether you will go horizontal, vertical, or both. How you work and what kind of space you have will help determine that. I use both methods. I store my solid color cardstock horizontally using the ROY G BIV (for the colors of the rainbow). It makes it easy to find coordinating papers. I like the trays by Display Dynamics found here:
http://store.scrapbook.com/dd-st-011.html?w=perfect+paper+stackable+paper+trays


I store my patterned paper vertically using the Cropper Hopper vertical paper files that come with dividers. You can finds these at Michael's and Hobby Lobby. I usually wait for their sales and get them for at least 40% off. I prefer these for my patterned paper, because they offer many options for sorting them.



I sort/separate my patterned paper in several ways: by theme, by manufacturer, and by color



Theme is my first sorting method. Since there are certain themes I know I will work with this makes it easier later for me to find them. Plus I can store the scraps for those themes there, instead of my scrap file. Here are some of the themes I use:

Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter (with subcategories for the holidays that fall in those time frames. A holiday will get it's own file if it's one that I scrapbook a lot, i.e. Halloween and Christmas)
Baby
Party
School
Specialized (these are themes of my interests... for me that's birds, owls, and because of my son robots, pirates, and monsters)


After I've put my papers that belong to a theme away, I sort my remaining paper by my favorite manufacturers. I only do it for my favorites or ones I have a large amount of. I tend to favor Cosmo Cricket, October Afternoon, Little Yellow Bicycle, BoBunny, just to name a few. So I have a file for each of them.


Any pattern papers that don't fit the categories above will be sorted by color. Color is always my go to organization method, because it makes it easy to coordinate for pages and projects.


Lastly I store paper packs and page kits separately from my other paper. When I'm not feeling particularly creative I go to these paper packs and kits. I have found that sometimes when I confine myself to a set pallet or base of supplies it forces me to work on techniques, which ultimately lead me to feeling inspired for another project.

Scraproom Organizing

With the new year approaching the buzz all around is "getting organized". I love looking at photos and pictures of eclectic ways to organize scrapbook and art supplies. Just wanted to share some of my favorite photos:

Some of my own ideas:

I found this wire bird cage at Ross for about $10 and bought little hooks that I attached underneath to hold my misting and inking masks. This would also make a great piece for hanging ribbons from.

This is a wine rack that I also found at Ross for about $12. I found the glass jars at Ikea. You can use any glass or plastic container as long as it's the same size as a standard wine bottle. It holds all my markers neatly and I can see what I'm looking for.