Scrapbook Saturday or How Could I Possible Get All This Done?

I recently found a whole Saturday to get away with my scrapbooking supplies loaded in my car and head over to my local Archivers for a 12-hour scrap marathon. The despair that comes from walking by the half-finished scrapbook page day after day in my work room became too much for me to handle, so I was forced to take action. It wasn't difficult to convince a couple of friends that this day just had to happen. (So sorry to K. who really paid the price for her scrapbooking obsession and ended up in the emergency room instead the scrapping room. It is a fear that many of us have - outsiders shaking their heads unable to understand how any one person could possibly have that many "craft supplies" in their car. Even though the car was damaged, her supplies were recovered without loss.)

Unpacking my scaled-downed supply pile was great motiviation. I was able to jump right in and start working on my prepped pages. I had spent the last few months selecting pictures, matching papers, ordering the left and right pages, and finding sketches, and now I was going to actually get down to business. It was fantastic!

It was such a great  day. I was able to put together all of my Christmas pictures. I have my new commitment to completing the journaling, and it was a motivator to try my handwriting a little more. I never did break out the Cricut. The lack of electrical outlets in the workroom made it more of a hassle than I needed. Instead, I was able to make use of my letter and sticker stash. Except for the glitter white letters for the "Snow Fun" layout that I had to buy while I was there. Sometimes you just have to give in to the call of the store.

I seemed to have lots of two-page layouts, but it was probably because the holidays seem to generate so many pictures. I did complete a page that is unusual for me: a one-page layout with only one photo - nothing more fun that the Thanksgiving centerpiece.  Besides, there tends to be no really interesting pictures at Thanksgiving in our family - mostly of food.

Thanks to all you who have been visiting - I hope you have been enjoying my layouts and projects. 

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Isn't It Supposed To Be Christmas In July? or I Am SO Far Ahead This Year

[Let's Take a Sleigh Ride, 2009]

It used to be that when the July scrapping weekend would roll around, I would be prepped and ready to go with my Halloween and Christmas pictures. Powering through the weekend, cranking out layout after layout of fall leaves and pumpkins followed by green and red overload, I felt so accomplished when I was done and finally looking at January pictures.


[Winter Slide 2008, sketch from PageMaps]

As a pathologically chronological scrapbooker, I measure my level of accomplishment by how far behind I am from the pictures I took TODAY. My standard is six months. It's normal for me to be working on my Fourth of July pictures in January. There are some hiccups that throw me off my game like the year I took so many Christmas pictures I had to make a separate album. That's right - 27 12x12 pages chronicling the endless holiday season of 2005. But check out my sweetie girl in "All Tangled Up in Christmas" and tell me you wouldn't feel compelled to snap a couple of extra photos.


[All Tangled Up in Christmas 2005]

There was also the year I rebelled and did all of my fall and Halloween layouts out of order because I read a magazine article that gave me permission to "scrap what I liked." It was a little disconcerting to scrap out of sequence so I avoid it whenever possible. Yeah, I have issues.

This year was shaping up to fall right along the six month timeline when I was revisiting my summer pictures this winter. Then yesterday as I was finishing up the last of my pre-prepped pages (photos and papers matched up and stored together in a plastic page protector-I know, I already admitted I have issues), that the next stack of pictures I needed to work on sorting were for Easter.

I checked again. That couldn't be true.


[Christmas Morning 2008]


[Ice, Ice, Baby 2009, sketch from Sketches R Us]

I tried to figure out what could have happened. How could I have missed months of photos? Careful review of my pictures (digital and printed), my calendar, and my memory made it clear that I had completely covered fall and winter. First was the realization that I only had four layouts for Christmas. I really cut back on the picture-taking (could be that my camera was being troublesome).


[Hey, Santa 2008, sketch from Cherie's Sketches]

After I got a new camera from Santa, I picked up the pace a little, but the wicked-cold days of Minnesota winter offered fewer photo-ops, and I ended up with just these highlights from January and February.

March was easy, since it was only my vacation pictures (OK, there were 187 of them, but I put them in a mini-album rather than my big album.) I will save that scrapping adventure for next time.

That brings me to where I am now - it's only June and I am starting on my April stash. That's closing the gap to only two months. Hey, it's not really bragging if it's true.


[Cake, Candles & Party Hats 2008]
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You Don't Really Want to Buy That or Adding Stitches to My Pages

"Oh, you don't want to buy that."

That's the response I heard from the sales associate at JoAnn's when I asked where to find the portable, hand-held sewing machine.

"It's terrible. You don't want to ever sew with it. That's why we don't even carry them anymore. Everyone just kept returning them."

The disturbing thing was, I really did want to buy it. I had my 40% off coupon of the week, I had read all the online reviews, I had wandered through all the parts of the store, and I still wanted it. I was committed to owning it. And the more she denigrated it, the more I wanted it.

There was a time when I would look at pages that had stitching on them, and think, "That's crazy. Who wants to put paper in their sewing machine?" I do have have sewing machine. It's old and stubborn, but works great for the two times a year that I take it out of it's built-in cabinet and fire it up to make curtains, pillows, or mend jeans. Other than that, it just sits in the corner and holds random jigsaw puzzles of Hello Kitty and fairy adventure books. Using it for scrapbook pages just seemed like a lot of extra work.

After a while, I did want to have the look of the sewing on my pages. So I used the stickers that looked like stitches. Then I used rub-ons that looked like stitches. I even made faux stitches with markers. I thought about hand sewing, but discovered paper doesn't forgive the way that fabric does. Besides, it was too much like sewing those cards with yarn I remembered from elementary school. I poo-poohed the stitching embellishment as long as I could, but finally it got the best of me.


[Christmas Fun 08 - not only did I use my stitching for the first time, I also tried out my $.49 cent pink stapler for the ribbon border.]

That's when I decided there had to be a small portable machine that might work for sewing on paper. I jumped online and searched for handheld sewing machines. I read user reviews of a few different models. I pick low cost one that sounded like it might actually work. But, alas, my search as JoAnn's was fruitless and discouraging. When I got back home I ordered it online. (Red Cordless Sewing Machine) Now that's the only way you can buy it. Maybe it's JoAnn's way of avoiding the pitying looks one would receive in the store when buying it in person. Now I can be anonymous in my seemingly foolish purchase.

When it arrived, I had my doubts, but the test runs on the paper were exemplary. True, I would never see the stitches lasting beyond a single use on actual fabric, but for paper, fantastic! Of course, the true test will come when I want to change the bobbin, but with the assistance of the enclosed directions written in what I assume is clear and concise French, I will be just fine. No one has to know I even own, especially the helpful staff at JoAnns. Read More...