Scrapbooking is important. Except for when it’s not.

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You may not know this about me, but I LOVE scrapbooking. It combines so many things I love to do and think about that in some ways I think it has taken over my life. And that’s probably a good thing.

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My own interests have been pointing me at scrapbooking for a long time. I have had my own camera since grade school, and I have been writing for just as long. I always loved hearing family stories and gossip, and I did a bit of genealogical research as well. And I wouldn’t be a member of my family if I didn’t make something with my hands. My particular bent involves paper and ink. If I can stamp on it, write on it, or stick paper on it, I am a happy girl.

The page that went bad ;)

The wonderful thing about scrapbooking is that it combines all those things into one big, messy, creative, expressive miscellany of personal meaning. And the thing about scrapbooking is that it is entirely personal. The reasons any of us do it, the techniques we use, the products we fall in love with, the stories we choose to tell, are all a result of our own personal inclinations and history. Which makes this a very inclusive and accepting hobby.

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Which leads me to why scrapbooking is important. This is how you can tell your story. The story that matters to you. You get to decide how to present it, you get to decide what to emphasize, you get to decide how much or little to do. It’s YOUR story. And by your story I don’t necessarily mean that it is about yourself. (Although who else is qualified to tell that part of your story?)

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So it’s your story. But scrapbooking is also a way to become more present and appreciative of your daily life. Think about things like Ali Edwards’ Week In The Life project. Who knew minutia could have that much meaning? But it does. It all matters. It’s all interesting and valuable, if you look at it in different ways.

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Those are the two things about scrapbooking that really bring home how important it is to me. But they also help me realize how unimportant it is as well.

life is good

Living my life, and being there for my family is more important than a piece of paper any day of the week. While they may appreciate the pages I’ve made that share my love for them, they appreciate hugs, kisses and chicken nuggets a whole lot more. If I don’t share my love now, it won’t have any value to them later.

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That makes scrapbooking so much easier. I don’t have to be perfect, or even pretty. I don’t have to agonize over which paper to use and how big a photo I should print. I just use what I have and go on. It’s just paper. It’s only words. And I can always go back and do another page if I don’t communicate my thoughts well the first time around.

 It’s only when a page is done that it becomes love.

LOAD May 2010 Day 31

Copic Markers vs Watercolor Pencils

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I have loved stamping for a very long time. One of my favorite things to do was use some colored pencils and a dove blender pen to create lovely little scenes. As I used to say, stamping is coloring for grown ups! Until I had one student say to me she hated coloring. That is so sad. I have always found coloring to be very relaxing 🙂

At any rate, I like to color in my stamped images. I like color!
I have been hearing about copic markers for a few years now. Two? Three? A while anyway. And I wasn’t too interested. I have plenty of markers. And I love my Dove blender pen. Absolutely adore it. I didn’t need to spend more money on yet another set of markers, when what I have works.

Except I like to try out new trends and techniques. After all, I teach this stuff. I should at least have a passing familiarity with it, right? At least that’s what I told myself when I found myself at Hobby Lobby today looking for copic markers. I wasn’t planning on buying anything except some kind of craft project for the kids. But I noticed a how-to video on the clearance rack on working with copics. Hobby Lobby carries copics? Let me check them out!

So that’s how I found myself with a handful of copics in the check out lane today.

After I got home I puttered around, then decided I really should see if these markers are all that they’re cracked up to be. First I had to decide what image to stamp and color in. My favorite tree? Sure. The versamark chalk ink pad was a little dry. Tried my Distress ink pad. Much wetter! How do they stand up to a dove blender pen? They both bleed. Back to the drawing board. I couldn’t find my archival ink pad, but I did find my Palette. That did the trick. But when I tried to stamp them on the opposite side of the page, the linen texture kept me from getting a good impression. Okay then. Time for a different stamp. What to use, what to use? Oh yes! New stamp from Studio Calico. Love these circles!

A note about stamps and getting a good impression. You need a fairly smooth cardstock. I’m using the back side of a linen paper from marco’s papers that I absolutely adore. Rubber stamps give you a crisper image for the most part, but if you use a foam pad under your paper and do NOT press too hard you’ll get a nice image with polymer. If you look closely at the left hand image, you’ll see a little ghosting of the ink, from me pressing too hard.

Okay then, time to color!
I started with the copics, and used a pouncing motion to color in the image, light to dark for each group of colors. Then I went dark to light to blend them together. Two interesting things I noticed about copics. One, they spread a little as you lay them down, but not very much, so they’d probably be great if you wanted to get really detailed coloring. And two, as you lay them down over each other, they sort of pick up the other color, without muddying up your marker tip. That was nice. Oh and here’s a third thing. I went over them a number of times, and they didn’t raise the nap of the paper or tear it like markers can do if you get the paper too wet. Although they did threaten to bleed through.

The second circle I colored with watercolor pencils. The left side I used a dry blending technique, which let the texture of the paper come through. You can cover up the texture by using a heavier hand, but I was just being lazy and didn’t want to get my pencil sharpener out. The right side I colored by laying down three stripes of color, and then used my blender pen to blur them together.

Which technique do you prefer? I think I like them all 🙂

Oh, and you can blame this lady for me buying the copic markers. It’s all her fault! 😉

Status Report

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My to-do list is certainly not shrinking. Last month was super hectic, and I managed to miss a number of things, in spite of having them on my agenda. (I suppose it would help if I had them in my agenda on the correct day.)
Every day has been very busy, but because of the nature of the things I am doing, I have to frequently switch gears. I finally got one thing on my to-do list checked off today: Ethan’s room has been decluttered. Well, except for the two boxes of books and the trunk full of toys that need to be carted up to the attic. But that’s 5 minutes work, unlike most of the other tasks that keep piling up.
So let’s list this month’s highlights, and see how I do getting them done.

1. More cleaning and decluttering. I think I’ll tackle Simon’s room next. And then the dining room and back porch.
2. Painting. I still need to paint the hall, but Jonathan put his last coat of spackle on today, so I should be able to get to that this week.
3. Replacing the paneling in the downstairs bath. What’s there now is just ugly. I hope what’s under it is okay, so I can have beadboard paneling on the bottom and paint on top, but we’ll see.
4. Yearbook. I’ll need to place the order this week, so we can have it before school gets out.
5. Another PTA meeting. And RIF, because last month didn’t work for the kids. Can you say state testing? I think I hate state testing.
6. My craft room! I have left this to last, and have been piling more and more stuff in there as I find more things that should probably live there.
7. There’s more, like this month’s open house and scrapbook social, but those are fun things comparatively speaking.

I just want to be done.

I think I need some curled up with a silly book time, but I’m under a self-imposed time crunch, so it will have to wait until all the big projects are on their way to done.

Speaking of big projects, can anyone recommend a good housecleaning company?

Josefine and Henry

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josefine and henry, originally uploaded by Heather’s treasures.

This may look like a page about my niece, but it’s really for my sister. Now if only I had a picture of her playing with Henry…

Lots of Plate Juggling

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Tomorrow is the start of another round of LOAD. I am glad it is starting again, but I expect this month to be much more stressful than past LOADS have been.
In no particular order, here’s a brief list of the things that May will bring:

  • Simon’s birthday
  • Jonathan’s birthday
  • Jason’s birthday
  • PTA meeting
  • make PTA schedule for next year
  • figure out how to fit in a school board budget presentation for our parents
  • run another round of RIF (reading is fundamental–I love this program!)
  • teach 3 more classes of a beginning scrapbooking class. Also something I love and look forward to.
  • Open house at JoAnn’s to try to get more students to sign up for classes
  • Scrapbook Social the last Monday of the month. Another thing I love.
  • Coordinate roofers, painters, and basement waterproofers to finally get done the work we’ve been wanting to do on the house for years.
  • Interior painting, cleaning and decluttering. While I love my orange hall, I know most people won’t really appreciate the color. And I have more books than most people want to look at as well.
  • All so I can try to put the house on the market by the first of June.

Doesn’t look like too bad a list right? LOAD’s totally doable, right?

That’s what I keep telling myself. But I’ve already given myself permission to NOT do a page every day this month. Because, in the end I want to make pages that my kids and I want to read. Not just because I’ve set a goal for myself. So if I have no stories to tell on a really difficult day, I am NOT going to make a page. Because after a day of painting or cleaning or packing, I may not have any words left to add to my pages, and I find that words are one of the most important pieces of scrapbooking for me.

Not the “go for it!” attitude you’re accustomed to hearing from me? Au contraire. I am going to try. But I am giving myself permission to keep it fun. If LOAD becomes a chore rather than a reward this month, I am going to take my own advice and remind myself there is no “should” in scrapbooking. I love LOAD, and I want to keep it that way.

A little video show and tell.

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I’ve been thinking about making a video showing you around my tiny craft room, and finally made one today. Simon helped a little bit by holding the camera for me in the beginning. Every time I see my craft room on film, I am struck by how dark it is. There’s actually more light in the room than is evident, but it is really my little crafty cave.
Please forgive all the ums and pauses. I am not good at speaking off the cuff. (However I can type a mean sentence!)

…and now February is fully LOADed.

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Did you do it? Were you able to complete a layout every day? Most importantly, did you have fun?

Goodbye Thomas

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Good bye thomas, originally uploaded by Heather’s treasures.

I packed away the Thomas trains after Christmas. Ethan hasn’t played with them for months, and while Simon loves the movies and books still, he hadn’t pushed a train around in months either.

I think I was the saddest to see them go. Ethan used to pore over the Thomas catalog, and obsess over the various trains that weren’t yet in his collection. He didn’t get them all (although you wouldn’t know it by the picture I used) but a train and some kind of track or building every birthday and Christmas for 6 years really adds up. And then after Ethan felt like he was too old for Thomas, he got very excited about buying it for his brother.

Simon, although he loves the stories and movies, never really got into Thomas like Ethan did. He was more into Hot Wheels cars, which he still plays with.

So the trains are in the attic. I’m saving them, with the hope that one day Ethan and Simon will have kids of their own, who will love Thomas as much or more than they did.

Git’er done!

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LOAD 211 13, originally uploaded by Heather’s treasures.

I just thought I’d walk you through how I put together this page. While it’s nothing perfect, it’s a pretty solid page, and my process might help someone else get their own pages done.

I started by picking a photo storage binder at random. It just happened to be from the first half of 2008. I thumbed through it and came across these photos. I’ve already used them in a vacation mini-book, so they were ready for some other story. Perhaps, since I’ve been mentally preparing myself to get some writing done, I was reminded of how inspiring the Winchester Mystery House was both as a visual treat, and a story inspiration.

So, photos, then journaling idea, next? Papers! All the botanical details reminded me of the Basic Grey kit I picked up from Michaels last year, so I pulled all the pieces, except for the kraft cardstock and the Making Memories journaling spot, from it. I decided since I had 5 pictures I wanted to use I needed to do a two page LO, and since a 12×24 LO wouldn’t photograph that well, I went with 8.5×11 so I could scan it. I then trimmed the photos to get rid of unnecessary clutter, shuffled them around till I came up with a pleasing arrangement, and then taped the pieces down.

Finally I wrote my journaling, and then added the title. There was a sticker sheet staring me in the face, and I racked my brain to come up with some way I could use something from it. If I don’t use it now, it may never get used. So, once again with the architectural details on my mind, I added the flower and flourish. Looking at it now, I may add more stuff along the right side, and under the hinge photo. Then again I may not. I’m not into second guessing myself.

Hope that was somewhat helpful or interesting! Now back to LOAD!

christmas in nyc

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christmas in nyc, originally uploaded by Heather’s treasures.

Sorry I haven’t been keeping up with the daily pages. I’m trying to not spend too much time online… Yeah that’s not working out so well.

At any rate, I had fun with a bunch of papers from the December Studio Calico kit. If I sewed on my pages, I would totally have sewed an edge on the black brackety piece of paper.

Oh, and the little tiny “i” and “n” are from some rub-ons I bought in 1988. Yes, 1988. Apparently I knew I was going to want them SOME day.