It's All About the Glue, I Mean the Adhesives...

When I first started scrapbooking, I had a really nice gluestick. It seemed like it would be all I needed. Sure, my fingers got a little sticky, but I was just gluing pictures and background paper. Very simple. How could I have been so naive and so wrong?Then I was faced with the challenge of a button and some ribbon. The gluestick, no matter how awesome, just couldn't do the job. That's when I looked around the workroom of the scrapbook store, and I realized there was an entire adhesive mileu that was just beginning to touch my awareness. First was the mini glue dot-so much power packed into such a a tiny little flat circle. The roll seems never ending so I could feel free to use as many as I want. There's no such thing as too many mini glue dots. From there I borrowed a few pop dots from someone. These little pre-cut pieces of double stick foam raised the item on the page to create layers and dimension. What about those little tiny die cut letters? I spent 20 minutes individually cutting out the 1-inch letters for a title; now I had to glue them on the page. Use the glue pen, of course-precision glue, but lots of sticky fingers. (It would be two more years before I entered the, "Oh, duh! A Xyron!" reality.) With those basics in my tool box, I decided to jump the canyon and got my first tape runner. This was so cool! The speed. The control. The clean fingers. The wipe off removal of excess. It just couldn't get any better than this. What!? And it's refillable? Woohoo! Until I actually had to refill it. What a speed bump that was. A few months later and I was still adhesive-challenged at refill time. I could go on and on about my trials and tribulations, but suffice it to say that I continued to carry the glue stick for the times when my frustration hit it's peak, and I tossed the entire runner, refill, box, and the little square of folded directions with a diagram violently into the bottom of case with a string of very, very bad words. Took me a long time, but now I can run through the refill process and be back to the layout in less than a minute. I do admit that I do have a gummed up permanent tape runner tucked in my tool box, but my removeable is almost two years old and still running strong. Four years later and along with my tape runners, mini glue dots (still awesome!), pop dots, and glue pen, may horde includes the much needed vellum dots, big glue dots, big Zots, Zips strips, liquid glue, and the 1/8 of inch double-sided wonder tape (can't face ribbon without it). And I don't want to forget a quick shout out to the the amazing Xyron. Without doubt or hesitation, I need them all.
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The Book of Inspiration

Where to get ideas? Sometimes I sit and stare at the pictures sitting on top of the paper and wait for the layout to jump up and slap me. Rarely happens. The truth is I love to look at other people's great layouts and scraplift them. Sketches are one of my favorites things. I get really jazzed by the concepts and work to make it my own. For a while I felt like I was doing something wrong. The group that I scrapped with always seemed to have a steady flow of original ideas for layouts and embellishments. I was the only one with idea books and magazines. Then I started reading about scraplifting and seeing invitations to take layouts, design elements and techniques and apply them to your own pages. I hate to turn down an invitation.



I look through magazines and scour the internet to find examples of great ideas. At first I tagged the pages in the magazines, but they got so bulky. Sometimes the magazines had so many single photo layouts, that I skipped over a lot of examples. I always have way to many pictures to focus on too many single photo pages. I decided to start cutting out things I liked and and keeping them in what has been dubbed "The Book of Inspiration." It started out organized and labeled: layouts, techniques, mini-books, tags. I put the examples and sketches in plastic sheet holders so I could flip through it quickly. Lately the Book has become quite cumbersome. Since I only add to it and never take anything out, it's now overstuffed and exploding. Right now I have at least 30 pages of examples and pictures that they are all jammed in the front. At the last two crops I just thumbed through the loose pages until I found what I needed.

As an post script, I was surprised when I one evening the Book of Inspiration offered me nothing even after three trips through every page. Then I reached over to put a completed album back on the shelf and opened it up. Even though I had completed the album over a year and a half ago, looking over it reminded me of things that I hadn't done in a long time. Crazy, I know - I scraplifted from myself. Doesn't mean I've given up the Book of Inspiration-it's only going to get bigger.

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Scrapbook Weekend Getaway

Catch and Release [May 2007]

Just got back from another outstanding weekend at CJ's Creative Cottage. Every visit to CJ's is great. The accommodations are super - lots of great cropping space, good lighting, excellent tools. The computer and printer are new. I really like the printer; it is a true 12x12 color printer. I thought it was awesome to be able to print directly onto my full layout even after I had glued down the background papers. (See "Worms and Olivia" below.) I've been visiting the Cottage for about three years now and have NEVER been disappointed. There are fun new Cricuit cartridges as well. I know I should just break down and buy more for my own Cricuit, but I do enjoy trying them out ahead of time. The Cottage is only 35 miles from home; just far enough to feel like I'm getting away and close enough that I don't dread the trip. I spent the last couple of months getting prepared by selecting photos and matching them up to paper. It may sound dreary and tedious, but it is one of the parts of scrapbooking that I really like. I especially like separating it from the actually time building layouts. I like to savor the decision-making. Laying out all the pictures from an event and sorting out the "must have in a 5x7" from the "never see the light of day" pictures. Once that's done, I pick the paper. I LOVE this part. I am a paper freak. Getting a chance to browse through the florals, strips, circles & dots, and holiday & theme paper is very engaging. It reminds of the paper I have purchased ("What was I thinking?") and gives purpose to the money I spent. It also lets me lounge and dilly-dally on the choices; something that I feel guilty about when I am actually cropping and gluing. It's just feels luxurious to hem and ha over three shades of green knowing that when I'm sitting there on the marathon weekend of cropping, the decisions have been made and path set. For this weekend, I had over 30 layouts prepped. That is pretty ridiculous, I know, but I knew that they would never go to waste. It's all about me FEELING organized. I did finish 17 pages over the weekend. A little disappointing because it is fewer than the last weekend I was there. However, I do like the results.

Most of the layouts were from summer. I felt like I spent a long time scrapping pictures from Fourth of July vacation.

Summer Splash [June 2007]

Big Fish [June 2007]

Morning's Catch [June 2007]

Golf with the Girls [July 2007]

Driving Lesson [July 2007]

Worms and Olivia [July 2007]
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Friday Night Crops

I had signed up for Friday night crops at the scrapbook store which were great. I learned a lot and had access to every supply and tool possible. Most of the time I went by myself. Mostly because I'm an introvert, it was very relaxing and helpful to eavesdrop on the more experienced scrapbookers. I was always amazed by the sheer quantity of stuff that most of the women not only possesed, but actually brought. I had a shoulder bag and box for my scissors and glue (yes, I had gluesticks; it would be a couple of months later before I could actually make the dotto glue runner work.
It was fascinating to listen to everyone talk about their projects, tools and families. The room was filled with women who seemed ebedded in this world of endless photos and die cuts. It always seemed the time moved too fast and there was one more idea or layout to work on. I learned and was inspired by seeing all the layouts on display, browsing through the shelves of paper, working with the die cuts, watching others build their pages.

Here is one of the first pages that I completed at one of the evening crops. It doesn't look like much, but it did capture the original wallpaper border for the nursery and one of my favorite pictures of my husband bringing Baby Olivia home.


Welcome Home [May 2003] Read More...

How it all started...

Fun in Sun [August 2003]

It was four years ago, I was a new mom with a seven-month old, a ton of pictures stuffed in a box with an unused baby book, and a bad-mommy guilt complex the size of hippo. I knew the baby book was inadequate. I wanted something that I could customize. I had seen snippets of scrapbooking around, but didn't really know what it was about or how to go about it. A friend at work invited me to a class at local scrapbook store. (Yes, I do hold Lisa O. totally responsible for my scrapbooking affliction.) In the class we made a Christmas mini-album. It was a good time; we used four types of paper, a little ribbon, buttons, and stickers. I got a terrific overview of the basics and ended up buying quite a bit before I left the store. It was an awesome store, by the way. I had never seen so much fun paper and doo-dads. There were trays and trays of embellishments for sale individually. I loved that! I didn't have to buy a package of 25 pink baby footprint brads. Over the next couple of months I bought loads of stuff to put together my daughter's first year babybook. I signed up for many Friday night crop sessions and committed myself to trying a new technique or tool each month. By the time my baby Olivia turned 1, I was putting the finishing touches on the last pages of her book. No kidding! It was done one month after her birthday, everything from ultrasound pictures to her birthday party. I was hooked on scrapbooking and there was no turning back. I'm totally in. Now, a few years later, I'm still spending too much money and too much time with no regrets.

A few of my favorites from Olivia's first scrapbook.





Is That My Cracker [January 2004]

Easter Morning [April 11, 2004]
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