Organization Has Started

Well I've started organizing my room. My room wasn't a complete mess but I needed more storage. I was able to purchase a small white 2 shelf bookcase from Walmart for $15. What a deal. I posted a picture of my new addition. Very excited! I may have to rearrange some of my stuff a little bit but I thought I would show you were I am in organizing.

In terms of scrapbooking projects I'm on September 2006, my daughter's 8th birthday. Birthday page layout are always my worst. I'm not sure why. If I go look back at my old albums, it is always the birthday pages that I don't like. So I always get all worried that "here comes another birthday challenge. Let's see what I do with it! Check back!

Scrapbook room

Just a few words of encouragement about your scrapbook spot. After many hours of research on line and magazines, I can't express how you MUST find a spot to call your own to scrapbook, if you are really wanting to scrapbook. Find a closet:), table, small spot, kitchen corner, cart table in your bedroom, corner of the basement, a spot by the laundry room, etc.. When you find that spot, decorate it the way that will inspire and keep you happy. My room is my favorite color. I also love white cabinets. My husband painted the cabinets. I also wrote a few inspiring words on the wall. After looking at other scrapbook rooms, I now have a few ideas of how I can change my room to make it better. I have some old school curriculum on the floor and I need to get it out of there.

Here is a picture. This area could be used much more efficiently. I have a few ideas and my goal is to have the space cleaned up by next weekend. I'm going to give myself a week. Keeping checking back to see what I've done. Comment back about your space or ideas I should do about my space.

Please pass along this blog to freinds that scrapbook or people that want to scrapbook.

Happy Scrapping!!!!

How to scrapbook with children around

I know the title sounds like I could be lying, but it is true. Here is what I did today, I thought when my 3 year old was at preschool I would get a quick oil change, come home and scrap. WRONG!! The oil change took over one hour, ugh! I barely got to the preschool in time to pick her up. After lunch, I told Megan it was time to scrapbook. She was so excited. Although I didn't want her in my scrapbook closet :) I did put some paper and stamps on a table outside my closet. She lasted there a few minutes, saw her doll house and played quietly there. I was able to turn on my music, Christian, and sing. Megan was singing, playing in the doll house and I finished the putting together of three pages and finished another page from start to finish. I felt refreshed. I can't believe I'm on September 2006. I'm moving quick. See you CAN scrapbook, you just have to share a little. I'll post pictures after basketball practice tonight.

A Quiet Day

Today was a busy day which made it a quiet day scrapbooking. I was able to finish journaling on three pages, yet to attach it to the pages. I also designed my next layout and have to attach the pictures. At first I was disappointed with what I didn't get done today but I think I actually did more then I thought. We will have busy days with activities but if we can just do something towards are passion then we have success.

Funny thing..... So many people have asked me when I have the time to scrapbook and laugh at me when I suggest they can get some scrapbooking done. I will admit that it can be hard to get anything done with three kids in the house. Today I wanted so bad to get my next page done. After soccer practice with my oldest, we got home and I had them all doing homework and dinner in the oven. I thought 'this is a good time for me to quickly run downstairs and look at my layout'. WRONG!!! Every time I ran downstairs someone yelled "MOM". They either needed paper, glue stick, or they were bothering each other. I tried four times to leave the kitchen and attempt to scrapbook. After the fourth time I laughed at myself and thought,"did I really think that was going to happen?" It finally got done and I like my layout.
If you like this blog, comment and pass it on. More tomorrow.......

Some Favorite layouts

I decided to show you some of my favorite layouts from 2004. Feel free to use any ideas you want.

• I like this layout because I got creative and used ribbon and beads. Adding something simple, like circles, is also very easy to do on a page and gives it a finished look.





• I love using patterned paper. The swimming page layout is very simple but I like the page because of what it shows. I just mounted the pictures on white card stock and added little metal embellishments





• 5x7 layout is one of my favorites. I was able to capture my daughter and her look. I also love the color combination I used. I usually try to squeeze a lot of pictures on one page but this one needed to be on its own. Whenever I look at this page I smile.




• The Christmas page is a lot of fun. I used a great patterned paper and some mitten embellishments. The letters I backed with square paper so they would stand out on the page. I also used a cute little velum saying. Again easy but fun!

These are just some of the pages from one album. Not sure why I chose 2004 album, but that is what I grabbed. I hope to finish up pages today and research more things for you. Happy Scrapping!

Photo organization 101

Today is a good day for me to look at how I organize my photo's. It is hard being so behind to get "caught up". I'm very lucky that my husband does an awesome job at downloading the photo's and organizing them on the computer. Let me tell you what he does so that you can start off the New Year on the right photo organization:

• Import pictures from the camera card
• Folders are created in our pictures file on the computer
• Folders are labeled by year and month. Basically we have 12 folders per year.
• Then we clear the camera card
• We back up the photo's to a separate hard drive every now and then so we won't loose any of them.

I then take over from there. So today, I printed( I'll explain in a minute) Nov 2006, December 2006 and June 2007. I had to organize the photo's I had already printed a few months ago. I don't print a huge bunch at a time because then I will get overwhelmed. I organize the photo's by month in a small file folder, $1 at Target. Once I start a certain month, I then separate them into the pages I'm going to do. My albums are done by year. I have years 1998-2005 done and almost 2006 done!!!!

I decided to print my pictures through snapfish today because they have a sale (I love a sale !!) 50 prints for 50 cents. Hurry because this expires Jan. 7th. It didn't look like I could pick it up at Walgreens and get the deal so I had to ship. You have to pay for shipping but it was a good deal. Just some thoughts right now. I hope to post some pictures this evening.

Organization

Well, lets talk about scrapbook organization. I did some research, remember science is my background, and I have found some great ideas to get people started with getting back to scrapbooking. Here are a few:

From theoriginalscrapbox.com I really love the EZ view. This is a desk that you can see what is inside drawers through the top. Sounds kind of weird but I thought it was a good deal, $495. Not bad to have. I also like the Workbox. This is a little bit more money but this is a nice piece that would look good anywhere, especially in small spaces (Karen this would be great for you).

In terms of supply organization the Cropper Hopper has some great ideas. I use the Cropper Hopper Vertical paper storage and this works nice, although it is hard to see all of my patterned paper at times. To store stamps, I use old wet swiffer boxes. It is great because they have a lid and they can be stacked. I use baskets to store my ribbons and small supplies.

Because of my scrapbooking closet, I have a lot of cabinet storage. My husband used our old kitchen cabinets, painted them, and bought a scrap of counter top, and the is my scrapping place. Today I plan to get a page finished that I started yesterday and two other pages journaled . I have a poll on my site, on the left side, about journaling. If you have a moment check it out.

Have you set a side a place to call your own yet? If you have then start some organizing today.

Tomorrow I'll give some insight to getting your pictures organized. I'll let you know what I do and where might be a good place to start. If you have a minute leave a comment and let me know your thoughts or talk about your space.