Success from Determination (or The Crazed Rantings of an Obsessed Scrapbooker!)

Sometime in January, I became unhappy with my stamp organization, or lack thereof. I had a jam-packed Tim Holtz stamp binder and a plastic bin for all of the overflow. But the bin was starting to overflow too. That is when I became determined (read: obsessed) with finding a better organization method for my stamps.

I liked my Tim Holtz binder well enough, but it was too small for some of my stamp sheets and a little on the pricey side. I lurked on forums, waded through youtube videos, blog posts and scrappy websites galore looking for the answer. In the end, I decided to go with a bigger, homemade version of what I already had. That's when the real headache began.

It was easy enough to get pages for the small little stamps and the full letter-sized stamp sheets. The real problem was the more typically sized sheets of stamps that measure somewhere around 5x8 inches. Many people who posted their binder system online had bought 2-up DVD sleeves with a covering flap at Staples, which I could find neither online or in store. Then, I found the above photo pages online at Black's Photography, with the sleeves measuring 6x8. Perfect! I found them in store after a couple of tries. Perfect! I brought them home, filled them with stamps and put them in my new binder. Not perfect!

You see, at 2-up and 6 inches high each, these pages measure a little better than 12 inches. Standard binders are only 11 inches tall, leaving a little better than 1 inch sticking out of the binder. Too bad my math skills are only that good after the fact, huh? Another problem, the side opening had the stamp sheets falling out whenever I turned a page or moved the binder, as you can see below.

To add insult to injury, mere days after I bought all of this stuff, I get a Staples ad welcoming Martha Stuart organizational products to their Canadian stores. Of particular interest, their binder series, which looked to be perfect for my needs. Needless to say, I had a few choice words for Martha and her poor timing!

So, what to do? I'd bought these not-so-perfect page protectors that were frustrating me and I was angry with Martha Stuart for flaunting her perfect system at the most annoying, inopportune time. I had to make this work and I had to do it without the help of Martha. Apparently, irrational snubs combined with stubborn independence is how I roll!

I decided I'd buy some adhesive-backed velcro to secure the openings, which may or may not have worked, as the stamp sheets barely fit the width of the protectors (so where to put the velcro?) and then buy either a legal sized binder, a three ring scrapbook album or photo album so my pages would fit properly. My simple, inexpensive storage solution was becoming more and more expensive and complicated. In the meantime, my stamp binder had to lay flat on my shelf and I needed to use an exorbitant amount of care flipping through it to keep all my stamps in place.

Flash forward to today, when I decided it was time to buy some more ink for the printer. Off to Staples I went, intending to also price their legal sized binders. As I walked in the store, there it was; a poster of Martha Stuart smiling sweetly at me, inviting me to check out her wonderful array of products in aisle 6. So I did. I am so glad that I did!

Below are shots of my new, working-just-fine stamp binder. The first shot is my ity-bity stamps, stored in baseball card protector sheets:

Next is an example of the stamps that needed a standard letter-sized sheet protector:

And finally, my truly perfect Martha Stuart 2-up pages complete with protective flap openings that fit just right in my binder:

I am so happy to have this project done! Caving in to the Martha products helped me get there a whole lot cheaper and easier than my makeshift options would have. Plus, the results are far more satisfactory than my fist option would have been!

I am, however, still unimpressed with little Ms. Perfect and her not-so-perfect timing! Hmph!

Out of This World

I think I had as much fun creating this layout as my guys did creating their Lego UFO! It started off with a trip to the LSS. I debated between an outer space line by BoBunny and A Boy's Life by Echo Park. I would have loved to mix the two together, but the greens clashed and the BoBunny line had space monkeys throughout it that I just wasn't happy with. I also preferred the versatility of the Echo Park line, knowing I'd get more bang for my buck with the scraps.

Because I wanted to use the negative space for my title, I made it with my Cricut Design Studio to get the spacing and alignment just right. I pop-dotted it onto the layout for some added dimension.

All of the other die cuts are from my Accent Essentials cartridge. I sanded around some of the elements throughout the layout for more depth, interest and because I bought the Core'dinations cardstock for BOTH colours!

And finally, the journaling. I'm getting back into the habit of journaling and labeling more. After all, one of my favourite parts of scrapbooking is telling the story!

Snow Fun

It is a beautiful, spring-y day outside, I've already kicked Cole out to ride his bike and enjoy the sunshine and I'm blogging about a winter layout? What can I say, it's been such a mild winter I can still look back on it fondly!
This layout is chock full of the new goodies I got on my most recent scrap shopping trip. The snowflake strip was fussy-cut from new BoBunny patterned paper and I found the Glimmer Mist in the discount bin, although I honestly didn't expect it to work on this layout (that's like a double-score, isn't it?). You can read about our day on the very cool, oh-too-perfect-to-pass-up snow tube journaling card.

The pictures were taken by the Tube Park staff which I purchased at a ridiculous price I wouldn't have paid if it weren't such a special day for us. I'll never do it again, as I had to bug them to let me check the pictures from their computer (um, really? People pay you for pictures they don't first look at to be sure of the quality?), then bug them to email the pics to me days later (instead of the half hour I was promised) and then continue to bug them because one is still missing and will remain missing since I got tired of arguing with them.

As much as that all ticks me off, I got the best picture out of the bunch that shows all of us together on a day that was very important for me to capture. I'll take the good out of it and just accept the rest as a lesson learned.

So, What Changed?

This is a picture of all my chronological scrapbook albums. The album on the left is 2011. The albums on the right are all the rest. The bottom album is from 2010, the next one up contains 2004-2006, the top three are from 2007, 2008 and 2009 but not necessarily in that order. If asked, I would have said that I scrapped less in 2011, but the size of these albums tells a different story.
So, what changed? Good question. I went through all of my albums to find the answer. A quick flip-through shows a lot of the same types of layouts; New Year's, birthdays, funny and/or cute and/or interesting everyday moments, kid milestones, coloured eggs and carved pumpkins.
Have our lives gotten more interesting? Not really. Busier? Don't think so.
So really, what changed? Well, let me tell you:

• From 2004 to 2006, I had a separate album for Christmas and another for vacations. This freed up a lot of space, and allowed me to fit 3 years worth of layouts into one album. 2006 marked 10 years together for Scott and me, and seemed like a good cut-off for these themed albums. I also liked the idea of the whole year being together.
• Our pets got more interesting. Don't get me wrong, our dear German Shepherd, Tabitha had her puppy moments. But by the time I started scrapbooking, she'd grown into a mellow, well-behaved, albeit beautiful, dog. Beautiful, as we know, only gets you so far and there were only so many layouts I was willing to make of our Tabby in the same regal poses. The cat fared a little better, but even he couldn't compete with the puppy escapades, cutesy faces and melt-your-heart cuddly moments Lilah and Bella have given us.
• I take more pictures that I can use. Going from film to digital and obtaining progressively better and better digital cameras, along with more practice and being less timid about getting the pictures I want has given me a little more to work with.
• I've changed albums. In 2010, I switched to albums that fit both 12x12 pages and those with 4x6 sleeves. So now, more of the pictures I'm not scrapping end up in my albums. They say this is quicker. They are wrong. I still get fussy with title and journaling inserts. I'm ok with that.
• My layouts have gotten "bumpier." 2011 was the year I really kicked up the texture.

And that's my thoughts on the ever-growing size of my scrapbook albums. Hopefully I'll be able to keep things in check this year. I need to, I'm officially out of room on my shelf!

Same Trip, 3 Different Layouts.

For a special year-end treat, Cole's grade 4 class went to Niagara Falls. Although unsure if it would be such a treat for me, I volunteered to supervise. I'm really glad I did. My group was a pleasure to accompany (an advantage to being the mother of one of the class' prominent "problem children" I guess....all the other kids they give you are the good ones!) and I got lots and lots of really great photos.
Over the summer, I've slowly worked on the layouts from our trip. So much happened that day, I couldn't possibly make a single layout about it! Because each moment I wanted to document was so different from the others, it resulted in layouts that were in stark contrast to one another.
The first layout I did as part of a challenge on the MMM message board. It's from Bird Kingdom, where we were witness to so many beautiful, exotic birds as they roamed free through the aviary. This was kind of scary for me, as birds aren't particularly kind to me. But I minded my business, snapping their pictures and they minded theirs, posing and preening for me, and we got along famously.

The second layout features pics of Cole, hamming it up and goofing around while we waited for lunch. The colours are more vibrant and the whole layout more playful, taking cues from the background, his slithery souvenir and Cole's fun-loving mood.

And finally, a layout about the Falls themselves. I got the opportunity to take a whole lot of pictures of the Falls throughout the day. Another reason why I enjoyed my group so much; they were very happy to take their time, soak in the scenery and take lots of pictures too!

To me, the shots I got had a very aged quality to them. Likely just the water and spray playing with the lighting, but it worked nicely with these patterns from a K&Co. paper pack I had.

In my album, the opposite page to this is 4x6 sleeves showcasing more of my favourites of the Falls and the impressive skyline.

And there you have it; 3 very different layouts showcasing equally different parts of a wonderful, memorable day!

A Monkey of a Birthday Card

I made this card for Cole to give to Kelsey for her birthday. The sentiment was perfect and was a fitting match to the sock monkey paper I'd bought ages ago with Kelsey in mind!

It also worked for Use it Tuesday's latest challenge to use two hoarded items. First, there's the monkey paper I'd already mentioned. Then, there's the die-cut quote which came from a sheet of birthday die-cuts that have sat forgotten in my embellie folder for years. The buttons are also old, from a Basic Grey kit of long-ago. The orange patterned paper and baker's twine are both new, but still leftover scraps from recent layouts. So that brings the tally to three hoarded items, two scrap items. Not bad for a little card!

Scrapbooking as Therapy

On a school morning, not that long ago, I had some issues getting Cole off the computer. Transitions have been particularly tricky lately and this day was a prime example. Even so, his outburst caught me off guard and rattled me more than usual.

Neither the quiet drive back home nor the scenic-yet-heart-pumping dog walk afterwards could calm me down. There was a layout brewing in my troubled, shaken mind. I had a title, I had tidbits of the journaling. I did not have the sketch mapped out, but I knew there had to be paint and ink and I wanted my hands coated in both before it was done.

I made the scalloped borders with my Cricut (the actual cartridge, I'm unsure of at the moment). I thought they looked a little like rainbows. So I misted them with rainbow colours, but made sure they were in splotches instead of long, symmetrical ribbons. I felt this represented my mood, and autism in general, more accurately. The hand started out as a sideways fist, as if it were pounding on the wall, but that didn't show up too well.

I left the journaling to the end. Originally, I wanted to write directly onto the page and use 1/3 to 1/2 of the page for it. Yes, I had that much to say. But all of the inking, painting, misting, the mess and the creating focused and refined what I needed to say. Using the journaling cards allowed me to use a stamp I have that my broken rainbows reminded me of, "Count your rainbows, not your thunderstorms." And just like that my tone and perspective changed:

I goofed up, slacked off a bit. It happens.

He freaked out. It happens. Sometimes it happens even when he's given ample time and warning.

Really, it comes down to having the tools to cope; sure-fire ways to stay calm or calm down and release the tension, anger, frustration, disappointment and all-around deflated self-worth. I, for one, have a few tricks up my sleeve. Music helps, walking is good, but it's my problem solving hobbies that wield the most success lately, and that would be gardening and scrapbooking. The messier the better.

Yes, I called scrapbooking a problem solving hobby. You have a message, a moment in time, maybe some pictures. You want to put them all together, make them look pretty, make them tell a story. How are you going to achieve this goal? Therein lies the problem to be solved.

Often, I don't scrap about whatever is bothering me. There is just this unspoken need to take some quiet time where I can create, get messy and make something pretty. Other times, it is about literally working through whatever my troubles are. Either way, I find it very therapeutic and very necessary. I won't even try to sell it as being cheaper than traditional therapy. I'm not truly convinced that it is. But it is far more satisfying for me!

Just to clarify, I don't often talk about Cole's autism. He was diagnosed as mild-to-moderate autistic and I know our struggles are equally mild compared to what many other parents have to face. So I try not to whine and complain, but I do need to work on admitting that while it could be a lot tougher, what I go through sometimes is pretty tough all the same.

Keeping perspective is key to me. Autism explains his behaviour at times, it is not to blame and it does not solely define him as a person. Neither will it define me as a parent.

Oh yes. I have, on occasion, given the finger right back to autism!