Scrappin out loud

Monday, December 28, 2009

New Year's Eve Layout

I am taking a mini vacation.... My kids are out of state with their father, my boyfriend is out of the country on a military mission and my brother and nephew are at my house, so, I went the the boyfriend's place for some quiet time, alone. Sometimes, its nice just to get away from the every day stuff. I finished my weekly assignments for the class I am taking at Villanova University, I watched my soaps and I took a nice long nap. I have one more week of recovering from surgery before I have to go back to work. I plan to hang out here for a few days, so, until I am back at the scrap room, I wanted to share with you some old layouts I have on my computer. Here is is a New Year's Eve layout, it's from 2007. Back then, I was huge into swaps, and this layout was made from items from a swap on a yahoo group. I havent done that in so long, I really should find another group, I love to get my hands on fabulous new ideas buy trading things with other scrapbookers, I really learned a whole lot of new, charming techniques and I really think I expanded my scrapbook horizons through trading scrapbook elements with others. I also met some amazingly talented scrapbookers, way back before blogging was in.

Recycle your holiday trash

Are you cleaning up all the trash from the Holidays? Do you have wrapping paper all over the place? Check out this article from About.com for inspiring ideas to use up your Holiday trash!

Birthdays and holidays are a great source of materials that can be recycled into rubber stamping projects. These 'treasures' would otherwise be thrown away, so not only does recycling greeting cards such as Christmas cards and birthday cards, wrapping paper, gift bags and boxes etc provide an excellent source of materials, it is also very environmentally friendly!

Many different types of materials can be recycled into rubber stamping projects. Here are a few ideas:
Greeting Cards

Both the front and back of greeting cards such as birthday cards and Christmas cards are easy to recycle into rubber stamping projects.

* Embellishments - If the card has embellishments or other adornments attached to it then carefully peel these off for reuse. Often all that is required is a dab of glue to give them another lease of life.
* Back of the card - The back of a greeting card often contains a large plain space and this is perfect for stamping on. Images can be stamped onto this, cut out and attached to other rubber stamping projects.
* Front of the card – Use a paper punch to punch out shapes from the front of a card. This is a good way to make a lot of embellishments for cards in a wide variety of colors and textures. Both the front and back of the card can be used in other stamping projects by simply adhering a piece of paper to it to cover up a picture or writing.
* Tags – Greeting cards can be cut up to make gift tags. There are many templates that are ideal for using to create gift tags of all shapes and sizes.

Gift Wrap

Even the most tatty pieces of gift wrap can be used in rubber stamping projects! Discarded pieces of very worn gift wrap can be used as scrap paper. Gift wrap that is still in good condition can be cut or punched to make shapes to use as embellishments or added to a piece of plain cardstock to use as a backing paper for a projects.
Gift Tags

Gift tags are also suitable for recycling. Use a gift tag as a template to cut further tags from, attach paper to a tag to cover pictures or writing and stamp onto this or turn the tag into an 'altered art' project.
Gift Bags and Boxes

Gift bags and boxes are perfect for recycling. Simply add a few rubber stamped images or embellishments to give them a makeover. Rubber stamp a gift tag to complement this and this will give a pretty coordinated look.
Ribbons and Bows

Embellishments like bows and ribbons are perfect for recycling into rubber stamping projects. These can be added to projects as embellishments or simply reused when wrapping a gift or card.

Organize your cards and special days for next year

Have a bunch of cards you made this year, how about organizing them in a binder or notebook, with all your important dates in it, You could even go as far as writing personal messages, addressing and putting a stamp on the envelope, ready to go. I know you have tons of cards like I do! Organize them for next year now then you can just grab them and mail them when the time comes!

clipped from scrapbooking.com

Start planning now for the upcoming year of special events so you’ll be organized and ahead of the game. You don’t have to stress because tomorrow is someone’s birthday and you forgot once again. Make a calendar of special events to hang in a central place where the whole family can see what’s coming up. Your husband won’t even have an excuse not to remember your anniversary anymore.

If your New Year’s resolution is to get more organized, take our advice and start now so you can have a successfully crafty year bringing smiles to everyone around you!

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*Hostess incentive includes 12 Fancy Pants Designs transparency overlays. Party orders must be $150 in net retail sales (excluding tax and shipping),
party order must be submitted between January 1, 2009 - January 31, 2009

A Valentines Project

I am starting to work on a few Valentines projects already and I havent even started scrapbooking Christmas pictures yet! But, I came across a little board book from dollar tree or target or something, it was only a dollar, wherever it is from... Anyway, I have a bunch of papers from last year and I am trying to limit my spending on scrap supplies, since I have almost two entire rooms of supplies. Isn't it so hard to resist with so many beautiful papers and ribbons and buttons and flowers out there....

I decided to start using up my stash. Since I am also working on a 2010 goals, I am trying to find an obtainable goal for scrapbooking. I would love to say that I am not going to buy anything for an entire year, but, is that really possible? I don't think so, I mean, I wouldnt last a single paycheck, would I? I plan to apply to some design teams, in hopes that I can get some beautiful freebies for my stash, you know, to keep my designs fresh.

Of course, I have to keep getting my Memory Works monthly kits, so I cannot stop buying those, I need those for the business, right? Is this starting to sound like justification? I have to buy glue too and while I do have some flowers and buttons, I surely dont have enough for a year.....

So, I am going to attempt to to come up with a realistic, obtainable goal, that limits the amount of stuff that I can get, while still creating fresh designs.... I mean really, how many paper scraps can you accumulate. I tried to go through them and get rid of some, you know a New Year, lets try and get started with a fresh scrap pile, but I just cannot bare to throw these beautiful papers away.... What about you? Are you planning any scrapbook goals?