Obsessions and Addictions

Do you have an Obsession or Addiction? 

I've heard friends talk about their chocolate obsession... others say they have a favorite Latte addiction... Others are into being a Gym Rat so much that yup I believe they are also obsessed- even addicted to that adrenaline rush. I'd have to say that as obsession's go I am coming  pretty close with my love of Youtube's varied topics!

 

No matter what your need or interest, I have found it on Youtube. 
Need a little happiness? Check out babies laughing.
Need to feel close to animals? Wow you can watch newborn eaglets in the nest! 
Are you trying to repair your broken appliance? Yes I learned how to repair my microwave by watching Youtube!
My Youtube topic list has grown so long I cannot find the correct topic when I want to save a great video. Hmm, now have duplicate topics. Yikes! 
Really though, I love, love, love Youtube! 

I can be watching a demonstration of a unique new gadget one minute  and then another moment see what people around the world do with plastic containers to repurpose them. 

A recent favorite though is the  arts and craft trade.There are many great demonstrations showing  exciting and new products and how to use them, also new ways to use products that have been around for a while. Today I was watching one of my favorites. A show demonstrator, Tim Holtz at Creativation 2018. Tim was showing off their new color additions to the Alcohol Ink line. I would use the old advertising jingle and say "You've Come A Long Way Baby"! 

I've bought and used alcohol inks before.... Sadly they would evaporate so fast I'd only get a few uses from it. They were fun but some of the redesigns that Tim demonstrates pumps me full of enthusiasm to go out and buy this whole set AND the cool tin to keep it in!! Another item I have not used before was discussed, Yupo paper, a synthetic paper. I am excited to try this product. Check out the video, if you are obsessed with creating paper arts, a collector of new and fun craft and supplies or just enjoy surfing Youtube check out this video below.

So-oo any friends want to explore some of these newer Alcohol Ink techniques? Come on over, "Lets Play."

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!

Graduations Mean Summer is ALMOST Here

Hi Friends! It's been way too long since my last posting,our summer is nearly here. We've had lots of celebrating going on which for a crafter means cards, projects and ideas galore. I've celebrated family and 8th grade graduations, birthdays then high school graduations  for both family and friends. I love all the parties and celebrations, how about you? 
The photos above are oldies...2004. Yes Mikeal, we were all rooting for you when you graduated! Look how young you looked Mike :)

Ok so to start of all the graduate activity here is my darling granddaughter Megan graduating from 8th grade. We're so proud of you Megan!

With all the whirl of activity I've been visiting one of my favorite sites for ideas, Pinterest. Do you Pinterest? If you love it as much as I do be sure and follow me and follow the boards that interest you :) I love it and spend way too much time surfing and sharing ideas there. These days it usually is where I begin with a project or even to develop my ideas...I always say "one good idea leads to another" :) So please let me share with you my recent crafts.

Megan's Card

Megan's card is created from a stamped design and hand watercolored.

Just because I love sowing off my sweet grandkids I 'm throwing in a pic of my grandson Evan who was really quite ready to leave the ceremony...

now please?

Kendall's High School grad card

We also celebrated with our friends the Liu's...their daughter Becky graduated from High School and they through a party for her. Her mom Lisa made these incredible crepes from scratch...I didn't take pictures but I sure wish I had...for two reasons.Lisa's creps and all the toppings were really something AND she also made an incredible tribute wall out of photos for Becky. Below is the card I made for Becky.

Beckys card 

Our friends the Zenes's also had a graduate...Way to go Carter!! Here is the card i made for him.Shhhh I haven't got it mailed to him yet. They stopped by the day I was making the cards, LOL. 

Carter's Grad card
My grandnephew Andy graduated High School this year, we're so proud of you Andy!

I had fun making his card- Sorry I forgot to take a picture and this one was taken at the celebration.  I also made a photo album for his High School memories and I also missed taking pics but thanks to Tatiana, here are a couple photos.

Since making these there have been even more celebrations and fun reasons to create but for now I hope you enjoy seeing what I've been up to and reading my post.

Moving Handmade Card Designs To Your Scrapbooking Layouts

When I first moved to Utah I was amazed at the number of people who were into scrapbooking. My interests were in the paper arts, rubberstamping and cardmaking being the main focus of my attention. Our neighbohood is is a very friendly group and that first week I had many kind people inviting me to sewing groups, hiking and walking groups, and the like. It lead to an invitation to teach my skills to a local group of likeminded women.  I thought on how I could bring together my love of rubberstamping and the paper arts and combine it with the strong scrapbooking influence of the area. What I came up with was an idea to design a rubberstamped card for each class then translate that basic card design into a scrapbook layout. Below are a few examples of the class projects where we did just that...rubberstamped card designs and then similarly I moved those ideas to scrapbooking pages.

Below are several class projects to show you how the whole idea worked out.

Cowboy Up Scrap page Layout

Cowboy Up Scrap page Layout and Card

Embossed Reindeer Card

Snow Much Fun scrap layout

To Our Fathers scrap page and card



My Heritage layout and card design.