Where has the time gone?

Hard to believe that it is the end of the year.  I started this blog almost a year ago.  There has been some change in my life, I'm still teaching at the local community college and now I'm Children's Ministry director at my church.  It has been a crazy year but a great one.  Needless to say I haven't been scrapbooking as much as I want to.  I have completed 2006 and I'm half way through 2007.  I have kept my scrapbook room clean and usable which is a huge success.  I wanted to get back to my blog and inspire you to hang on to projects and know that sometimes they will get pushed aside but it is important to pick them up and get passionate about them.  Check back for some pictures and ideas to come.

Bows, bows, bows

Seeing the sunshine today, although snow on the ground, inspires me to think about bows. I have seen many wonderful ribbons at the stores and want to investigate how to store ribbon. The great thing about ribbon is that it can be cheap and add a lot to a paper in a scrapbook or great a wow factor on a card. Currently I use a hat box and basket to store them. I'm going to do some research and see some better options and keeping in mind that I have limited space and limited $$$.

Here are some sites I have looked at:
www.cropperhopper.com/ribbonclip.aspx
this would be good storage is I had the time to wrap the ribbon up all nice and didn't have a lot of ribbon.
http://www.craftainers.com/
A lot of good ideas here but I have issues when the ribbon is all hanging out. I can see my kids pulling on it and unwinding the ribbon. I like that I can see what I have.
www.amazingpapergrace.com/amazing-ribbon-storage/
One of my favorite ideas. I don't have as much ribbon as Becca, but very creative idea. I'm going to try to figure this out in the next couple of days and show you the progress.

Valentine's day gift for hubby

Here is a quick post to show you the gift I gave my hubby. I gave him a coffeee mug that he always borrows of mine. I decided to fill it up with hearts, cut from my cricut, that said reasons why I love him. This was pretty creative for me and it felt great to give. What did you get for Valentine's day?

Close to 1000 hits!

Wow after a little over a month of blogging I'm almost at 1000 hits. Kind of cool. Quick update.... it was a lot of fun to have 20 2nd graders make cards for kids in need. One little girl wrote" I know what it is like to be sick. It is no fun" She then made a smiley face and put a whole bunch of great stickers. She is a girl that has probably been in the hospital more then she has been out. It was hard to let the kids use some of my stamps and things. mOst stuff survived. One stamp got a lot of little finger prints on it but it makes me smile when I look at it. They did a great job and I'll mail them in the morning. They were so into it and they really wanted to cheer up these kids. Chat soon, going to scrap tonight and make some Valentine's day stuff. I'll share what I'm making my husband after I give it to him just in case he's reading.

Another busy day

Sometimes it feels amazing how much one can squeeze into a day. I have a small fraction of time today for myself and I thought I would work on December 2006. Crazy snow pictures. Winters aren't my favorite but I do like the pictures and the paper for scrapbooking. I guess there is a positive to winter!!!. Here is the layout:

It is hard to see but I embossed the snowflakes with white and silver. It looks good in person. I still have to work on my picture taking to show you the layouts. I will add journaling on the purple paper later.

New fall layout

Here is a new layout that I created for my favorite season to scrapbook, the fall. I stamped the leaves with a versa mark pad and then chalked them. I used a versa mark pen from stamping up to help mix the colors. I used pop up dots to give it a different look.

On a side note... so excited I just heard a bird. Oh how I miss them in the long winter months. Thanks, bird , for reminding me of the spring that is sure to come.

New card

Here is a picture of a new card I made this past weekend.

I haven't been keeping up with making these cards for sick kids, but I have four made. I'm room mom for my second grader and I think they are each going to make a card for these kids. It is so important to remind kids how lucky and blessed they are. God made each one of us special and it is important for us to help others, even if it is with a "smile" card! I'll let you know how it goes.

I thought of these kids last night as my youngest was sreaming because of a treatment she received yesterday for bumps on her legs that has left her in blisters. I had a hard time handling it. How do these parents with really sick children get through this? I said a prayer for them yesterday. It makes me so sad.

Quick update

After surviving the stomach flu with the family (I got lucky and avoided it) I'm getting the yuck out of the house. I think I'll be back in business at spending some time scrapbooking and creating. I did finish two layouts and also another card. Pictures to come! Enjoy the day!

Oh no!!! My camera!!!!

I wanted to post some pictures today of layouts I have been doing and a few cards I created but I just realized that my husband took the camera with him on a campout with the girls. I guess I can't be too mad because at least he is taking more pictures for me to scrap. I hope to get through a few pages today. I just ordered a new cartridge for my cricut. Very excited. I LOVE my cricut and can't wait to use it more. Enjoy your Saturday!

Been awhile....

I know it has been awhile... Here is what I'm up to. I just finished scrapbooking a friends Christmas cards. Every year I put all the cards(pictures) she received from friends and family in an album. She said that she knows how hard it is for parents to get those pictures and she doesn't want to throw them away. It turned out cute. A very quick and easy project if anyone is looking for somewhere to start and is overwhelmed with their personal albums.
I made another few cards and a few scrapbook pages in my albums. I'm at November 2006. I hope to finish 2006 by the end of the weekend. My husband and two oldest are gone on a camping weekend so I think I'll have some late nights by myself. Let me know your projects. I know some of you are really working on your albums. Let everyone know, be proud and help motivate. Post a comment. Pictures to come.

Kid cards

Here is something that I thought you might want to think about doing. Here is a blog that I follow that makes cards for sick children.

http://jennifermcguireink.typepad.com/

I started making a few cards and hope to get my children involved. It is a beautiful thing. If you want to get together and make a few cards, I'll help you!!

Finally more pages

Well I finally worked through the birthday page. Again, I'm not too excited about the page, but it is o.k. Here is the funny thing, I went to go put the page in the album and it is too big. The paper I used is 14x12. Where did I get that size paper. How frustrating. Now I have to trim and be more creative on a difficult page. I guess birthday pages and me don't get along.

I have also posted a fall page that I like. Here is the thing, I love doing fall pages. I love the colors and the pictures. Hope you like it.

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.