I had a little trouble with the circle on this one. I used the outside of a bowl to place the buttons but next time I will draw a line with pencil and then place the buttons. Because of the different sizes, they didn’t line up as nice as I wanted them to. This is a very different layout for me because of the colors but they worked well with the photos and I’ve almost used up this paper packet now.
There is still time to submit your layout at Scrap Our Stash. You have until April 29th.
On June 7, we will be creating the Claire Scrapbooking Workshop on the Go Kit. If you are in Club, this is the time to order. You need to order by May 3 by contacting me or joining the correct gathering on my website to receive it by the scheduled workshop date.
*Note: On the back cover of the Claire Workshop on the Go guide, the incorrect pattern is given for the left page of the additional layout. The correct pattern is Reflections: Main Frame – Offset.
When you place an order of $50 or more, you get the Stamp of the Month set for only $5.
The Stamp of the Month is: (April) My Sunshine
(May) Pinwheel
*The Stamp of the Month may vary depending on your purchase date. If you order online, it will be the month in which you are purchasing. If you order by contacting me, it will be Pinwheel.
The current Constant Campaign is: (April) Sign up to become a Close to My Heart Consultant and receive the April, May, June, and July Stamp of the Month sets for free!
(May) Get the exclusive Dream Pop Paper Packet for only $10 when you spend $35.
*The Constant Campaign you qualify for may vary depending on your purchase date. If you order online, it will be the month in which you are purchasing. If you order by contacting me, it will be the May special.
Here are my layouts:
If you don’t like lumpy embellishments, then you will want to pass on the flowers. They are thick but very pretty. As you can see, I adjusted the right side of the page to fit multiple photos. This can be done quite easily with 2 or 3 photos too. If you don’t get the stamping perfect on the pink strip at the bottom, just ink the edges and it will camouflage the flaw. For my white strip, I stamped using the border stamp instead of multiples of the small flower (too time-consuming).
I know there are some of you who like to hear about my mistakes so here’s one and how I made it work. I had the pictures for both of these layouts together in my paper packet. When I went to get started, I pulled out the pictures for the second layout and cut them for the first! I had a feeling that it wasn’t right but did it anyway…. I was going to reprint the pictures, not the end of the world, but I decided to just switch things up and they will still work. You can see these smaller (ooopsy cut) photos on the first page of this layout and how I matted them to replace the one large photo. My original plan was to make a photo mat to fit two photos on this page and add flip flaps.
The words that come with the Keepsake Alphabet are so neat and they fit so well into this layout that I added them to the blue edges in Outdoor Denim ink. I also had to add Opaque Pearls Adhesive Gems and Opaque Pearl Flourishes for more elegance.
One last comment: From the book, I didn’t care much for the Keyboard Kraft Alphabet but now that I’ve used it I really like it. I like using small letters but they are a pain to stamp so this is a better option. There are a lot of letters on the sheet so it’s a good value and they are very easy to work with (you can move them around a bit on your page).
Go to this post if you’d like to see pictures of how my room was before.
The Move
I haven’t had much to share lately and to make a long story short, it’s because I have moved my scrapbook room – quite the feat! Before I started, I thought I was moving to a larger room but in the end it seems smaller. Must be the shape, I actually haven’t figured this out yet. This wasn’t a completely bad situation. It made me go through my supplies and get rid of what is just taking up space. I have learned a lot in the past couple years as I have tried to buy less and work at using up my stash. As a consultant, I still make regular Close to My Heart purchases but I know that this is what I love and use the most. Much of the rest of my stash sits because I don’t make it much farther than what I have recently purchased. Okay, so I still need to work on this! My only regret with moving so far is that it was done in a rush and I was unable to paint the room before I moved into it. I will probably live in the blue with animals for a long time before I build up enough energy to move everything and paint a more enjoyable color. I do LOVE the window!
My desk is about the same, other than I have cleared off more space and have bottles of flowers on my desk now (less shelf space now and I do use these a lot). That basket on the right of my desk contains necessary, commonly used supplies (ATG gun, adhesive, photo cutter, markers, acrylic blocks/stamp cleaner). Since I am not able to always scrapbook in my room, this basket is easy to grab and go when I go to a friend’s or scrapbook downstairs.
These are my favorite storage items along this wall. The stamp storage is no longer available but I like that it fits in a small area. The 12×12 cubes are from Michael’s and they are great. They tend to bow apart as you build them taller so I made the top and bottom open cubes and attached the sides instead of the top/bottom. This seems to hold them in place better. That tall cabinet I love to store all my paper. I cannot believe that it has survived moves and holds all of my heavy paper so well (purchase many years ago at Shopko).
Here’s the inside of my closet as best I could get pictures. It is a large walk-in so it is shared right now with my daughter’s clothes. They may move out but I will need to use it for some other storage.
Maybe better from another angle:
I took out the curtain rods as was able to fit in perfectly these cube organizers from Target. I really like these too but they don’t hold 12×12. I have ribbon, metal embellishments, acrylic embellishments, and misc stickers/other embellishments stored in the baskets by theme. On the right I have misc. 3D projects in the top cube, then more baskets, and the one that looks messy has photos and to-finish projects or to-use-right-now items. You can also see clipboards slid into any open spaces. I have run out of notebooks to alter so if I have a birthday coming up I will most likely whip up a clipboard (would be much easier to have done ahead of time!). Clipboards are great gifts for kids and I pick them up cheap at garage sales. It doesn’t matter if they are written on because I will cover it up anyway!
The bottom part here holds baskets with words, alphabets, gems/rhinestones. Also idea books, card supplies, punches, and sewing. The cubes to the right have CTMH business supplies and a 12×12 drawer unit from Michael’s which holds embossing supplies, glitter, chalk, colored pencils, etc.
My Supplies Now, on to more specifics. Before, I had my supplies sorted in product categories (chipboard, metal, acrylic, stickers, etc.). This really isn’t how I scrap and I wasn’t using those supplies. I still have some of those and generals but anything that can be categorized by theme I have moved (birthday, Christmas, flowers, butterflies, words, letters, etc.) This IS how I scrapbook and how I search for supplies. I am have already been using more of my older stash with this new organizing. I have gone through every single thing (with the exception of paper….still working on that) in my scrapbook room and have thought about if I will use it or not and if it is worth keeping. I have added MUCH of my stash to my rummage sale pile and I feel good about it. I’m sure I won’t miss any of it.
Ribbon Storage Another realization is that I have A LOT of ribbon! Not sure why but I haven’t been using ribbon much lately so that’s something I need to work on. Part of the problem with my ribbon was that I had many different methods of storage and it was all over the place….ribbon spools, floss boxes, baskets, even a ribbon purse. I left what was in the floss boxes because it is well organized and I like this method of storage. My Pebbles Inc Ribbon Iron comes in handy with this storage and I love this little tool! However, I had many more spools of ribbon that didn’t have a home and I didn’t want to invest in more supplies.
Here is my solution and really the best storage method that I have personally found. It is inexpensive and you can put them away but they are still easy to access and view. I taped and wrapped the ribbon on large recipe cards – ones that didn’t fit well in my recipe box (why do I even have these??) You could also use index cards, cardboard, or cardstock. Then I “file” the wrapped cards of ribbon in photo boxes. As I was putting them on the cards, I tried to sort by color or coordinating ribbons for easier matching later.
So, there you have it. I hope you have enjoyed the tour of my cozy scrapbook space and how I’ve organized my supplies.
Use Studio J®, Close To My Heart’s online scrapbooking software, to create a beautiful layout in just minutes by watching this month’s Love Your Layout(sm) video. You’ll learn creative techniques on how to add stitching to My Stickease® images, accent with background and texture “tape,” and create a slanted border for a lovely layout in the For Always kit. Log in to Studio J to create it yourself while you watch!
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