Did You Know?...Tips About Stockpiled Scrapbooking Supplies Part 5

This is the final post of my  multi-part article where I been sharing tips and tidbits concerning stockpiled scrapbooking supplies. I really learned a lot from a very wise crafter who did some amazing mathematical calculations to determine time and use correlations of her craft room supplies to arrive at how long it would take to use up her current supply.  

•  Did you know that one ABC sticker sheet usually makes only two titles before is is 'cast off' by most scrapbookers? Over half the stickers are then wasting away in binders or storage and clogging up precious storage space--never to be used again. Perhaps using your stickers as shown will give you some relief from the guilt of the previous statement. 

• Did you know that people will pay $1 each for two punched flowers and a brad or pop dot? (Think Jolees, K and Co, and Paper Bliss) Do it yourself for a fraction of that. It takes only pennies to make a stacked flower from your scraps and chalk the outside petals..... I know you have scraps and brads, eyelets or pop dots! LOL Pay yourself about $20 to $40 an hour and make a few dozen sets instead of buying them.

DYI Paper Flower Tutorial

• Did you know that stamping your own twill ribbon with phrases saves you $2.00 a yard? How many pre made ribbon yards do you have that you need to use up? Wording ribbon usually works out to 1 foot per page. If you have a stockpile of 20 yards of worded ribbons of all kinds, that means you better get cracking and make 60 pages before you buy more!!

Here are two links for tutorials to try this out. Link 1 Link 2

We've learned quite a lot from our calculator inclined scrapbooking friend but what I like to remember most though is:

Did You Know?...Tips About Stockpiled Scrapbooking Supplies Part 4

Today as we continue to reveal details in this multi-part article about stockpiled scrapbooking supplies I hope you'll find these facts an figures helpful and perhaps even inspiring. What originally made me think about MY stockpiles of supplies was that I  had come across these figures in a scrapbooking article on a now defunct site a number of years back. It shocked me and made me laugh all at the same time. 

Sweet girlfriends, especially those of you who like to plan and organize, I know you have wondered these thoughts yourself but just did not have the information.These calculations and insights are for all of you sweet girlfriends with the plan and organize bug... Yes I agree, they are truly important. (Because friends share all the juicy details, right?)

• Did you know there are about 500 free sketches online? Here are just a few links I have come across. Lots are free online to print and refer to, or for ideas for crop parties. Scrapbooks etc sketches Scrapbook.com sketches 52 Sketches 52 Weeks

• Did you know that shopping once a week at the scrapbook store costs most scrappers an average of $25.00 each trip? 

(And most of those have enough items at home already to make 1000's of pages.) $25.00 times 52 weeks a year means $ 1300 spent per year.

• Did you know that sticker letters cost an average of $3-$5 dollars a sheet now? Buy black so that later you can mix and match later your partial sheets for 'mixed font' titles. It will save you at least a dollar a sheet to BUY BLACK! Why? Because you will eventually get more many titles per sheet that way! Hmm so you are not thrilled with black? 

(Well  I'm thinking for those of us who have wanted to justify our purchase (past or present of the electronic cutter, yippie the cost of masses of sticker sheets has made the cutter practically pay for itself, right?!)

Or if you just aren't into the idea of buying an electronic cutter, how about this as a solution to all those orphan stickers.

Did You Know?...Tips About Stockpiled Scrapbooking Supplies Part 3

Have you been following this multi-part series as I reveal the details I learned from a very wise crafter who did some amazing mathematical calculating to determine a time and use correlation for her craft room supplies?  

What made me think about my stockpiles of supplies originally was that I  had come across her very informative (and funny) scrapbooking article from a now defunct site a number of years back. It was all about stockpiling scrapbooking supplies.

I realized scrapbooking is contagious...I caught this bug from my friend Cathy who spread it to many others including my friend Viv and we haven't been able to shake it. Oddly we have caught a second wave of this bug and it manifests as a need to organize all this stuff. We have almost as much fun organizing our "stuff" as we do playing with it.  

• Did you know that the average gel and writer pen ink longevity INSIDE a pen is one year before it is generally dry or unusable? (Use them up before they DRY up!)

• Did you know that playing music when you scrapbook helps your creativity and productivity?

• Did you know that starting with a format saves you 20 minutes PER PAGE?

 A favorite method of mine is to use Trish Morris method called Assembly Line Scrap Booking or ALSB for short. I am able to put together whole albums quickly with her techniques!

Did You Know?...Tips About Stockpiled Scrapbooking Supplies Part 2

Recently I began a multi-part article where I shared some Tips and tidbits about Stockpiled Scrapbooking Supplies. We've all seen our girlfriends craft space and slowly shook our heads thinking how long would be before SHE would run out of supplies. Why would I be contemplating such a thought? Well of course because I want to connect for some shopping therapy! 

What made me think about my stockpiles of supplies originally was that I  had come across this very informative (and funny) scrapbooking article on a now defunct site a number of years back. It was all about stockpiling scrapbooking supplies and OH boy did it have the details. The kind of details that says "hide the credit card" so I thought and I thought to myself don't let my DH see this, he'll veto every visit I plan from now until  the apocalypse. 

But for you my sweet girlfriends, especially those of you who like to plan and organize, I will share the authors calculations and insights (because friends share all the juicy details, right?)

But dear friends, lets be real...over the holidays our favorite stores have amazing sales and of course our families need gift suggestions anyhow, right?  So let's keep all these calculations and wisdom in perspective! 

• Did you know that one tin/set of 100 eyelets makes and average of 20 pages? (And how many sets of 100 do YOU own?)

• Did you know that many paper packs and multi sheet slabs usually have 10-20% of their patterns that will not suit you within a pack? (one sheet in 5 may not be to your taste so don't keep it in the stash--share!)

• Did you know that each sticker sheet you own will do approximately a two page layout? If you have binder full of stickers it will equal about 300 pages to use them up?

• Did you know that each yard of fiber you own will make 1-2 pages? 

• If you own a skein of knitting yarn, they contain between 100-200 yards of fiber? At that rate it will take you 100-200 pages of JUST THAT SKEIN to use up that yarn ball on layout pages? SHARE!!

Did You Know?...Tips About Stockpiled Scrapbooking Supplies Part 1

Today begins a multi-part article where I will share some tips and tidbits about stockpiled scrapbooking supplies. 

What made me think about my stockpiles of supplies originally was that I had come across this very informative (and funny) scrapbooking article on a now defunct site a number of years back. It was all about stockpiling scrapbooking supplies and OH boy did it have the details. The kind of details that hint at "Don't let my DH see this, he will veto every Scrapbook Convention I plan to attend for the next 7 years." (Attending those conventions means an automatic increase of my craft supplies by 10%)

But for you my sweet girlfriends, especially those of you who like to plan and organize, I will share the authors calculations and insights (because friends share all the juicy details, right?)

 

• Did you know that an inch of pattern paper is estimated to be 100 sheets or 75 finished pages?

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• Did you know that one inch of cardstock is roughly 50 pages finished? How many inches do YOU have? How many pages do you do a year?

• Do you have over 12 inches (1 foot) of cardstock or printed paper? Do you realize that is enough paper for 1000 pages? Are you stockpiling for someday when you already own enough paper to do thousands of pages?
  
  
  
   Does it still count it it is well organized?
  
  
  

I'm pretty sure I could provide supplies for a scrappers retreat!

Some of my favorite creative expressions have come from using up scraps. Here is a really wonderful idea for using scrap ribbon and then an idea for how to incorporate them into a finished project. Enjoy!

Ribbon Flowers for Scrapbooking - How To Make Ribbon FlowersRibbon Flower Layout

Dig into the your ribbon stash and make these beautiful flowers for your next scrapbook page. Simple, quick stitches and a few supplies are all you need to turn any piece of ribbon into a fabulous flower that you can use to embellish a scrapbook page layout. The ribbon flower shown here has been layered on top of a patterned cardstock flower that was created using one of the cute sketches available on About.com Scrapbooking under Flower-Patterns.

Supplies Needed

To begin, you will want to gather the following simple supplies: 6 or more inches of ribbon, thread, sewing needle, scissors, buttons, and adhesive (double-sided foam adhesive tape, fabric glue, or tacky tape).









Slip Stitch the Ribbon

To get started, thread your needle and fold over the thread so that you have double strength; knot the end a few times to give you a nice big knot on the end. Stitch a running stitch (just in and out) along one edge of the ribbon.








Gather the Ribbon

Once you have stitched a few inches of the ribbon, gently pull the thread as you slide the ribbon down the thread to gather the ribbon. As it gathers it will naturally form a circle. Continue stitching and gathering until you have enough ribbon gathered to complete a circle.







Stitch the Ends of the Ribbon

Once you have a gathered ribbon circle that you like, fold the end of the ribbon back to meet the other end of the ribbon. Pinch these together as you add a few stitches to hold the circle in place and tie off the thread. Use scissors to trim the ribbon right below your stitches to complete the ribbon flower.





Completed Ribbon Flower

When the flower has been stitched, gathered, stitched closed, and trimmed, it will look like this on the front.










Add A Button to the Ribbon Flower

Finish off your flower by adding a button to the center. The button shown here is from EK Success and comes with foam adhesive on the back so that you can just stick it on. Foam adhesive squares, tacky tape, or liquid fabric glue would all work well for attaching the button to the ribbon flower.