Accordion Style Mini-album and Fall madness.

 Can you believe this mess?  This is what my Scrap Shack looks like right now!  YIKES!  October through December are typically absolutely crazy for me.  With pumpkins, Brady's birthday, workshops, gatherings, craft shows, and my annual Crop & Shop for a CURE (which is happening this weekend!!!!!) my craft room stays pretty busy.  Wish I had more time to actually craft, rather than all of the preparation!!!!  It wears me out, but I love it!  Kind of like March Madness for basketball. . .this is Fall Madness for Scrapbooking!

Here is one of the projects I have prepared for this weekend.
It is an accordion style mini-album and it makes a perfect gift!  It can sit open on a mantle or a shelf.  This one would work for a wedding, baby, anniversary, family, or many other special things!!  I still have a couple of things left to do to it, but I was afraid if I didn't take a picture now, I may run out of time!!!!!!

CTMH Supplies Used:

Silhouette Paper Pack~Polka Dots (retired)

Colonial White Cardstock

Black Cardstock

Sky Cardstock

Desert Sand Ink

Bamboo Ink

Colonial White Ink

Opaque Pearls

Liquid Glass

3-D Foam Tape

Other supplies:

Slice Machine with Wedding, Animal Crackers, and Noteworthy Cartridges

I used the Liquid Glass to secure the small opaques.  Most adhere just fine, but I knew that this project was probably going to be picked up and looked at a bunch and I didn't want to lose any of those cute little gems!  So, I took my embossing stylus and a paper piercer.  I set all of my pearls out where I wanted them. Then I took the paper piercer and picked up or moved the pearl.  I dipped my embossing stylus in Liquid Glass and put a little dot where the pearl had been.  Then I used the paper piercer to move the pearl back into its spot.  It didn't take very long and I know the Liquid Glass will make the pearls very secure!  

I also have completed a few more mini-albums that I will hopefully have a chance to post later!  

I used a Level 1 Kit, My Stickease, and the 6x6 accordion album (as shown above) to make them and they turned out really cute!

Felt

I love CTMH's new Heart Felt die-cut . . here is the Whimsy Collection. . . . Look at ALL of the shapes you get!!! The colors are Butttercup, Garden Green, an Tulip!!! The other colection, Wonder, has Chocolate, Olive, and Twilight!!!

It is hard to tell how many shapes you actually get from the small picture in the Idea Book. . . .so I thought I would punch them out.


Pretty quickly I had a helper. . . helping me punch out all of the shapes!! Look. . . he is concentrating so hard, he even has his tongue stuck out!


He was determined to get them all done. . .one small shape at a time!


There are SO many fun things you can do with felt!! I am working on a couple of cards right now. Come check out my artwork I will have ready at the Crop & Shop next weekend in Richmond! OR check here afterwards to see pictures!!!

Can I just say. . . I LOVE my Clubs??!!!!

I seriously do LOVE my Clubs!!! My Sunday Scrappers Club met yesterday and 6 of the 8 girls were there!! We ALWAYS have a great time!!! They are a bunch of fun girls and I really look forward to our Club meetings!!!! We made a two-page layout. . . sometimes I also do a Card or special technique too, but we didn't have time at this meeting!!! With a new catalog and lots of dates to go over. . . plus a lot of catching up to do. . .we ran out of time fast!!!!

I try to alternate the projects. . . one month we will do scrapbook pages and the next month we will do cards or some other fun project!!! a

Here is a list of items we used to make the pages. . . all are CTMH. . .
Animal Cookies Creative Basics
Honey Cardstock
Tulip Cardstock
White Daisy Cardstock
Headline Alphabet
Spot On Backgrounds stamp set
Comments Stamp set
Sans Alphabet
Flip Flaps
Tulip Ink
Dutch Blue Ink
Honey Ink

Techniques used:
Stamp Kissing (on the title)
And Flip Flaps

This is the second page of the layout. . . so sorry for the poor picture and the glare!!! I had to leave it in its page protector because of the Flip Flaps. . . they are in the bottom right corner. . . and are adhered to the outside of the page protector, so as you are flipping through the album, you are able to flip through the extra pictures as well!!!!

Flip Flaps opened up


This is the first page. . .


Stamp Kissing up close. . . I used the Headline Alphabet and Spot On Backgrounds for this technique!!! I LOVE the background stamp sets, because you can do SO much with them!!!!



Kathy putting her page together!


Sharon


Tracy and Lisa hard at work!


Gloria's niece. . .isn't she a cutie?


Gloria. . .


Karley. . . just dying to have her picture taken!!!


Gloria and her niece.


Each gal received a New Catalog and a fun little goodie from me!! Tucked inside the catalog was an order form and a Calendar page. . .we spent half an hour just going over ALL of the dates for events this Fall!!! We had a heck of a time keeping it all straight, but I think we got the job done!!!


Here is the set up for the ladies! These tables will fit 6-8 and I have two more tables that will sit 4. We try to keep this Club around 10 people.


Here is a board with all of the measurements needed to cut the paper for the project. I used to type it all up for them, but it is just easier to refer to the board!!! Just like teaching school. .. I even get to write on the board!!!!!

The Scraps. . .

This is what I organize my Cardstock Scraps in. I love this cart!! Each of the containers are a bit bigger than 12x12, so my big scraps fit in here too!! I have them organized by the rainbow. . .or Roy G Biv. My top drawer is for white and off-white. My second drawer holds other basic colors like blacks, browns, and tans. Then I have a Red/yellow/orange drawer, a green drawer. a blue drawer, and a pink/purple drawer.




Here is a drawer pulled out. . .


I love this system, because my scraps don't get all bent up. It is relatively easy to find the color I am looking for. And I am saving cardstock! If I need a small piece of a certain color . . .then I just search through the appropriate bin instead of cutting up a large piece!!!!

And lastly, here is Brady on his very first day of Pre-school. It was raining cats and dogs outside, but it luckily slowed down a bit and allowed us to make it to school on time! I will have more pictures posted on my other blog www.meredithburgess.blogspot.com

Organizing Ribbon. . .

Another rainy day and another day of sharing pictures from the Scrap Shack!


I love jars and baskets. . .as you will see as I share more pictures! The above picture is of my Canisters full of CTMH ribbon. . . I keep the different color families in each of the different canisters. This is not convenient if you are an "on the go" scrapper, but is sure does look cute! I do most of my crafting at home, so I like to be able to see my stuff and I like for it to look cute! The other canister is full of Glitter . . something I love! This is new to my room . . . .I needed a spot for my glitter and of course they look beautiful displayed!

This next picture is of locker baskets I picked up at a flea market on top of my metal cabinets. I absolutely LOVE the locker baskets!!! The first one is of all my Bulk Close to My Heart Ribbon. . . like to have it all in one spot, so I know exactly what I have. I have to keep my CTMH stuff and my other Scrapping supplies pretty much separate. . .it just works easier for me that way. And the other two locker baskets have some Halloween things I picked up at a Garage Sale. . .and the last one has Chipboard letters.


And this last picture is of some Other ribbon I have that I have wrapped around embroidery Floss bobbins. I picked these up at WM after my cousin Sara shared this tip with me. It is perfect for those of you who scrapbook away from home, because it is very easy to take with you!! AND it allows you to see what ribbons you have at a glance!



I read somewhere that it is easier to store things if you get rid of the packaging they come in. . . I know that the packaging is sometimes as cute as the product itself. . .but I have found for most of my embellishments this is true! Now to find a way to store all of my chipboard letters. . . this is something I have been thinking about for awhile, but I just don't know how to incorporate yet!

I have one more place I store ribbon, but I didn't have a picture of it for some reason. . . I will share it at a later date!

Organization has begun. . .

As I warned several days ago. . . I was itching to do some cleaning/organizing around my Scrap Shack Studio and my house. Well yesterday was THE DAY! It rained all most the entire day. . .I awoke around 5:30 to the thunder. . . I ran to unplug my computer (I am always scared that my much beloved computer is going to be struck by lightening!). . .anyway. . .no one else was up and I was wide awake, so I made me some coffee and dove right in! It helped that I left the computer unplugged for most of the day AND that my internet didn't work until late in the evening! This saved me from distractions!!

Brady did have his very first day of Pre-school. . .so I had to break to take him and pick him up. He absolutely loved it and I am so excited for him!!!!

Anyway, back to the organizing. . . .so the first picture I am going to share is of some of my Close to My Heart embellishments. I do have the My Accents Organizer too. . . but it is full and most of these embellishments won't fit. They are too big or I have too many of them to fit in a container. I had this little organizer already, so I decided to use what i own. I love having everything here in one place that I can just grab and look through. The only down side to this and upside to the Accents organizer. . . is that they sometimes mix together. The bottom of each section isn't completely sealed off, so some of the little doodads do escape!!!! But, it was fun. . . I like organizing my stuff as much as I like using it and shopping for it. I tell my hubby that this is a three parts hobby. . . Actually doing it, buying it, and organizing it!!!!!

But seriously. . . .I do like to organize my stuff every once in awhile. It helps me remember exactly what I have. . . It helps me use what I have. . . I am also able to purge some of the older items that I know I won't use. . .

I will be posting different organizing pictures over the next few weeks. . .with pictures of my space and the scrap shack included. If you have trouble locating the posts or just want to see them all in one spot. . .just scroll down to my labels and click on Organization or Scrap Shack Studio (or something similar)