What Happens When Your Bestie Leaves Town

You get bored. Real, real bored. I typically try to organize, or do something to distract me from scrapping while shes gone, but the brat was gone for 4 days. There was no way I was going to survive this. So, I finished up a few layouts for my moms photo albulm.

I am really loving what resulted in a series of unfortunate mistakes. I had a ton of photos from my last visit with my grandmother. The pages in this book are 7 1/2 x 5 1/2 and I couldn't really crop the photos. On the left hand side I stuck together a mini albulm and used a random closure clasp I found in an obscure isle at Hob Lob. The embossed flowers are hard to see. I used a copper-ish metal color for it.

The right side is a plain ol envelope and a daisy I inked up and embossed with interferance blue UTEE. The photos are attached together with a big ol eyelet with ribbon tied through it. There is a tag behind the photos for a spot for journaling.

I still need to distress the backgrounds a bit more, but I enjoy the end result.

I can't wait till tomorrow when Saramae finally comes over for a REAL scrap session!

Gluing Faster Than the Speed of Slow

I got home from work last night, and after being referee for all the injustices that happened in my house while I was gone, I sat down in my nice comfy chair to finish mashing paper onto bags. I finally got all the inserts done and rearranged some pages to make more sense. I realized I left a big ol bag open on the back cover, I kinda like it. I think I may leave it open. I’ve got to trim up the edges and smear ink all over it before I can work on the covers. Next stop, embellishing!

I got a decent haul at HobLob and the dollar store yesterday. I found these awesome ornament wire hooks, but they were all swirlie and cute. I think Ill use them for closures or clips or something. Come to think of it, I should have bought more. They also had regular paper clips with precious pewter charms on them. I think I have sufficiently cleared the clearance section of the two closest HobLobs. I’ve only been finding random stuff. I did run across some hard ware pretties in the wood isle. I found pretty metal hinges and handles and clasps. I paid full price, yes, *I* paid full price for these items, all 1.47$ not even a coupon. I felt like living life dangerously! I’m stoaked to figure out how to use these. I won a few new lots on eBay too, jewelry toggles, for book closures!!

I’ve been scraplifting a lot of amazing ideas lately. I think my current favorite person in the world is Marion at www.apeiceofcraft.com. Not only is she cute as a button, but her ideas and style are just stunning. I wish I could make my hodgepodge clearance-crazy eye work like hers. :) I’ve got a notebook full of random crap I’ve jotted down from my adventures in Google Videos. (way more productive than food network or TCM) I need to put them into practice. Geez, I don’t know how some folks can sit down and bang out an album in one day. Even a mini one!

Aside from the garden book and photo mini for mom, I’m thinking about throwing together a quick book kit for my sister, who also is a scrapper, but doesn’t have much time for it since my unbelievably handsome nephew graced us. J I think she will appreciate the grunt work done, and just be able to sit down and do the fun decorating part and adding pictures.

November 22, 2009

Scrapmania

Its chaos in my home. I have so many new toys to play with, even *I* am overwhelmed with options.

I started on a paper bag mini album for my mother this week, and changed my mind half a dozen times on how the book should be configured, bound, and closed. I settled on a configuration then stared at it for another day. My typical scrapbook sessions simply require photos for inspiration. Since this book is to be dedicated for my mother’s gardening design plans, that routine got thrown out the window.

I decided to try layers. Layer 1 = Binding Book. Layer 2 = designer paper. So I grabbed my beautiful papers. Well, the ones I could find at least. And chose a selection of pretty flowery, butterfly’ish, gardeney prints that I knew my mom would love. I also found a big piece of pleather that would do well for binding. That may be Layer 3, don't know for sure yet.

I am in the middle of coordinating and selecting papers for each page, while watching Google videos to learn more techniques, steal more ideas, and figure out more ways to get this book to be beautiful. All the while eyeballing the mini photo book I started a month ago for moms Christmas present. The more I learn, and the more I do, the less cool that one is looking to me. Ugh, I hate my advanced learning curve sometimes.

November 21, 2009