On-Line Crop

Check the On-Line Crop happening at Your Memories By Design!

These ladies sure know how to put a crop together. Clear your calendars and get out your scrapbooking stuff, you're in for one sweet ride. I know what I'll be doing all weekend!

Make sure you take a tour through their shop for some yummy goodies too!
They make the BEST scrapbook embellishments.

Organizing my Scrapbooking Stickers

One of the hardest things to organize, in my mind, are stickers. I have so many of them and to remember what you have is sometimes near impossible.

To help me stay organized, I started with a 2 inch binder and a bunch of page protectors. I put a piece of white card stock (the same size as the page protectors) in each of the page protectors. Then I proceeded to sort my stickers by theme.

Yes, this can get very tricky, but I tend to have certain themes I scrapbook by so that helps. For example:

• Winter
• Spring
• Summer
• Fall
• School
• Boy
• Girl
• Camping
• Cooking
• Plants & Flowers
• Valentines
• Easter
• Sports
• Halloween
• Christmas

Etc.. you get the idea. I recently switch to actual dividers for each of the topics but I used to just use labeled sticky tabs. Now you start putting your stickers in the page protectors. I’m usually quite generous with my space, I don’t like to over lap stickers over top of each other inside the page protectors that way I can see everything I have. The white card stock makes the pages easier to turn as they are stiffer and helps you see the stickers better.

Depending on where you buy your materials from, you could probably have this all set up for less then $10. I used an extra binder I had laying around, page protectors and dividers from the dollar/discount store and used white card stock from my scrapbooking stash.

What I once avoided, I now love grabbing my sticker binder for inspiration. And my kids love looking at all my “pretty stickers”. Happy Scrapbooking!

Goal for the New Year

The new year will be here before I know it... yes, I'm planning for Christmas already. I even have a few gifts hidden around the house. ;)

First thing in the new year, I'm going to hand make some cards for every occassion so that way I'll have them ready. When a special occcassion comes around, I always find myself too busy to be able to make cards for those special people in my life. What about a last minute birthday card you need for a close friend? They'll never know you forgot if they receive a home made card that looks like it took hours.

I like to make a list of all the special occasions then cross them off the list as I go:
January - cousin's birthday
February - Valentine's Day, parent's anniversary, grandmother's birthday
March - daugther's birthday
April - son's birthday, Easter
May - Mother's day.... etc

You get the idea. I've even made my Christmas cards months in advance since when the cold months do get here, I'm much to busy baking, decorating and spending time with the family.

Colder Weather coming our way...

With winter around the corner, I'm getting ready to head in to my scrapbooking room and do a bit of scrapbooking. I just couldn't bring myself to scrapbook too much during those beautiful summer days with the weather so nice. Winter is long enough thank you. And I've got alot of pictures to get scrapbooked!

So I'm starting by getting everything organized. I'm sorting my photos by theme and looking at my supplies. Darn, looks like I'm going to have to do a little shopping. :)

Don't you just love shopping for your hobbies? First, to make a list of what I need.. but don't forget to keep your eyes open for new and wonderful products. I'm still totally addicted to that grundge board. You've gotta check it out.

(and a little tip? stock your freezer with some pre-made suppers for those days you don't feel like doing anything but scrapbooking!)

Happy Scrapbooking Ladies!

Spring is Here!

With Spring comes many different reasons to celebrate. Between Easter, my son’s birthday, my daughter’s birthday and just the fact that summer is on its way and winter is over, what better reason is there to celebrate.

Besides, it was time to pull out those bright and festive papers. There are some great new papers out this season and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on them and start cropping.

Some of my favourite of course, include Bo Bunny and of course there’s Three Bugs in a Rug. Match up some funky embellishments from YMBD Etsy site, and I’ve got some inspiring spring layouts I can’t wait to show off.

Organizing Your Scrapbooking Supplies (con’t)

4. Sorting my paper

New

I purchased an expandable scrapbook file folder that perfectly fits my 12x12 pages.
I categorized my pages by themes: spring, summer, fall, winter, boy, girl, Christmas, Halloween, birthdays, school… etc. These categories work best for me, so you’d have to figure out what’s best for you.

I also keep a section for just cardstock.

I find my file folder is great for crop outings. I just grab my case and go!


Scraps

I also have an expandable file folder for my scraps, but not a 12x12 one. It fits a full sheet length wise, but not in height. But I’m not too concerned since my scraps are usually not that large anyhow. I have the sections divided up by color: white, yellow, orange, red, pink, purple.. etc. I also keep a few sections for patterned paper, tho these are a little harder to divide up.

It’s so nice reaching for my folder, opening it up to the color section I need and digging through until I find the perfect color. And what a great way to save money. There have been many times that I’ve found just what I needed without having to cut up a brand new sheet for one little piece.

Hope this helps!

Organizing your Scrapbooking Supplies (con't)

3. Embellishments

I have to admit, I do fish. Although not as often as I would like. It's a great family activity, but my husband just raised his eye brows at me when he saw me dump out my tackle box and started organizing my scrapbooking supplies in it. You would be surprised how versatile these tackle boxes are. I organize my embellishments, which include embossing thread, buttons, metal embellishments, paper clips, gems and many other things. They are great for sorting all those little things you just can't scrapbook without. Most tackle boxes allow you to customize the size of the slot which is great! I've got 6 boxes so far, and my husband knows nothing would make me happier then to get another one. :)

I get so excited when I get a new tackle box. I crack open a bottle of wine and get comfy for an evening of sorting my embellishments and filling my tackle box.

I also have a tackle box full of brads (seperated by color) and and one for eyelets. It's so great to have these seperated so you don't have to dump them all out to dig for that perfect color.