Showing posts with label Scrapbooking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Scrapbooking. Show all posts

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Craft Tools: Paper crafts

The paper part of scrapbooking and cardmaking might make you think that this hobby would be less expensive and less space consuming. That might be true for normal people, but do you honestly know any hobby lover who is normal?

Here are four shelves almost exclusively dedicated to paper crafts. The two containers on top have ribbons for embellishments, the little crate has bottles of paper flowers and the book called Sentiments is an idea source for what to say in cards. The next shelf is all paper, and the following two are more embellishments, ink pads, paper cutters, envelopes, scraps too good to toss, glues, tapes and Lord only knows what else!

The bottom shelf holds some of my stamps and Sizzix dies. I have a Sizzix Big Shot and a Cricut that aren't on the open shelves.

Don't tell Bill that these are both die cutters. He might think they do the same thing and having both is unnecessary.
Hey, he has more than one wrench, right?

The stack of drawers on the left holds these stamps

On my counter sits this box bought at a yard sale two years ago. It looks like a tool box, right? Well it is. Sorta. It holds my tools.... more rubber stamps.


This clipboard was decorated in a class and holds ideas of things I intend to make. If I hadn't taken this picture when I first brought it home, you would not know what it looks like. It is a little too full at the moment to photograph.

This bag holds the basic tools and is easy to move to another room, to the cottage or to a class.

Some cards are simple to put together, others take a bit more time.

I have made many of these accordion fold picture holders for family and friends.
And this waterfall card is another favorite of mine.
Bill would like you all to buy stock in Joann's and Michaels. He is proud of me for stimulating the craft economy. He doesn't know about the new Hobby Lobby that openned near here. I think I can speak on his behalf...buy stock in that company too. Photobucket

Thursday, March 12, 2009

I should have done this years ago.....

I should have done many things years ago.

I should have initiated an exercise program that would have strengthened my back so that something strenuous like sneezing or picking lint off the floor wouldn't occasionally cause muscle spasms.

I should have gone back to Weight Watchers when I had gained 10 pounds instead of being embarrassed and convinced I could do it on my own this time. You don't need to know how many years ago or pounds ago that was.

I should have scrapbooked my sons' lives as they were growing up. But scrapbooking wasn't the big hobby that it is today, and no one considered there would be whole stores dedicated to scrapbooking. If you told someone 25 years ago that there would be a scrapbooking store next to a nail salon (not a beauty parlor!) in a strip mall with either a nation wide coffee shop or an adult novelty store with full window displays, let's just say they would have laughed in your face. But I digress. Often.

My little boys are 6 feet tall and decades old. The one thing I did right with most of the pictures over the years was to write the date and event on the back of them. The older stinker got a scrapbook last fall that covered birth through graduation with a few pages of his days in the Marines at the end. I sorted the younger stinker's photos at the same time, but needed a break before starting again. Younger stinker bought a house and I did a small scrapbook that chronicled a surprise party we had for him along with the before and after pictures of his house. There are lots of photos of father and son working together on his house that make my heart swell and my eyes leak.

A week ago I decided to plunge into the birth through graduation scrapbook for stinker #2. My pages look nothing like the wonderful pages displayed in scrapbook stores or on the blogs of dedicated scrappers. I have too many photos over too many years for that kind of detail. The boys don't know that someone else would have done it differently. They just know their mom loves them.

Who wouldn't love this face? These pictures were taken when stinker #2 was three years old.
He still likes to sleep on the couch, but don't tell him I told you.

At the rate I am going, I should have this project done by Easter if I stop reading blogs, cooking or cleaning. I've given up the last two this week, but it hasn't really helped much.