Month

January 2007

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Get Real

Are you as addicted to scrapbooking magazines as I am?  I actually had to cut down on my subscriptions recently because it was getting ridiculous.  I still subscribe to Creating Keepsakes, Memory Makers, and Simple Scrapbooks.  I keep saying I’m not going to, but I pay cold hard cash at Barnes and Noble or Michaels (lovin’ that 40% off coupon) for Scrapbooks, Etc. and a couple of the British/Australian mags.  I did finally give up on one SB magazine which shall remain nameless – because it was lame.  I also quit buying every single idea book that hits the shelves.  I still buy them, just more selectively (anything Becky Higgins or Autumn Leaves is a must have).  Luckily, I’ve gotten many idea books for “free” at scrapbooking events.  For example, I got a bunch at CKU and for the low price of a $2,000 CK scrapbooking cruise, I got free copies of idea books from Lisa Bearnson, Ali Edwards, and Becky Higgins.  The coolest thing was I got my December 2006 issue of CK during the cruise, which was in October.  See how obsessed I am with this?  It’s sick really.

My mom – also a scrapbooker – canceled all her SB magazine subscriptions about a year ago.  She said she was tired of all the ads, and I’m like, “The ads are the best part!”.  Okay, actually I like the articles the best but ads are second.  I like them even better than page ideas, which I know makes me very unpopular in the wider scrapbooking community (isn’t just about everyone but me trying to get their pages published??).  Memory Makers recently underwent a revamping which, according to all the Letters to the Editor they have published in subsequent issues, was not well received.  I mean, ladies across the country, nay across the world, are canceling their subscriptions in mass protest.  I can’t figure out why they are publishing these negative letters – that shows some huevos.  Personally, I like all of the changes except the new Memory Makers logo on the front cover.  When the first new copy arrived in the mail, my first thought was, “What kinda’ cheesy free magazine is someone sending me now?”.  The font they used looks 1960’s, and I don’t mean that in a retro-cool, hip way.  I mean that in a bogus, dated, cheesy kind of way.  What I do like are the addition of more articles at the expense of page ideas.  I think I’ve been reading SB magazines and looking at idea books long enough now that I no longer need such a plethora of page ideas.  I have enough of those to last me until I’m 94 (that’s the age I plan to live til, by the way).  I would rather read articles, look at ads for new products, see other people’s scrap spaces and organizational ideas, etc.

In fact, this is what I’d like to see at least one of the popular scrapbook magazines do:  get real.  By that I mean have a magazine full of real scrapbookers (nothing against scrap-celebs, but let’s share the wealth), and the real issues we’re facing, the real questions we have, the real things we all talk about in our blogs and on the message boards.  Okay, here’s a for instance.  One issue I would love to read an article on would answer the question “What effect will our scrapbooking have on our kids when they are grown?”.  This generation of children are the first ones who will have grown up having every move they make, every event, every embarrassing moment, every private detail photographed, displayed, and discussed.  I think there will mostly be positive results from this, but I also believe there are some negative aspects to it.  I would LOVE to read an article about that someday.  Here are some other article ideas I have:  Speak with several  experienced direct-sellers of scrapbooking supplies (CM, CTMH, etc.) and compare/contrast their experiences.  Talk about the retail explosion of scrapbooking in 2005, and why it downturned in 2006.  Instead of just mixing in a few articles and page samples of digital scrapping, talk about why people choose to digi-scrap or not digi-scrap (at crops, I hear vehement discussion against digi-scrapping!).  How about scrapbook obsession (ummm…) and whether we are becoming clinically addicted to it, how to keep it all in perspective.  I don’t know, I just think the articles are so cookie-cutter and often just rehashing the same old stuff.   I know why they do it, I just wish they didn’t.

All that being said, I still love my scrapbooking magazines.  On the CK message board, everyone was checking in from all over the country regarding whether they had received their “Top 10” issue yet.  I have never SO wanted to live in Michigan because that bee-otch got her issue like 8 days before me!  I’m happy to report that I received my Top 10 today, along with my new Memory Makers.  Guess I will have to give my new Oprah & Bob diet book (www.thebestlife.com) a rest tonight, so I can catch up on my scrap-reading :)

Thanks for the KI Memories

The weekend has come and gone, and the pile that will someday beget my travel/cruise albums is still spread across the dining room table.  But I did manage to work on my scrapbook space a bit.  Stashed under my desk, I came across a super deal I found a while back at that store, Tuesday Morning.  Are those everywhere in the U.S. or just here?  Anyhoo, I found the coolest thing there!  It was a pack of KI Memories stuff for $30, but the value was well over $100…um, that’s why I bought 2 of the 3 packs they had (didn’t want to be greedy – we scrapbookers are all about sharing, yeah?).  Each pack had 80 sheets of paper (usually $ .60-1.00 per sheet), 3 sheets of rub-on alphabets, 2 packs of Icicles, 3 sheets of cardstock stickers, AND an 8×8 or 12×12 album!  The one with the smaller album came with 2 extra sheets of rub-ons.  My gawd…how would any scrapper in her right mind pass that one up?  The albums retail for $20/$28, and each of the embellishments go for $3.99.  I almost felt guilty at the checkout.  I just wanted to scream at the lady, “Don’t you know what you’ve GOT here?!?”  She OB-viously wasn’t a scrapbooker because she didn’t even bat an eyelash at the purchase I was making.  I mean, I haven’t even told you yet about the Lil Davis foam alphabet stamps (3 sets) for $3 each – retail value $8.  Suckas!

So I sorted and put away 160 sheets of paper this weekend.  Also, I’m researching the idea of becoming a Creative Memories consultant.  I have resisted the idea in the past, both because of my fear of not being able to meet the required minimum sales per quarter and because some of their supplies were not my taste.  I got started scrapbooking in 2001 because of a CM party, for gosh sakes.  (And for that, I owe them a huge debt of gratitude…ohmigod, in my head, as I was typing that, I said, “gret of datitude”.  What a dork).  I’ve always loved their albums – they are such high quality and I like that you can get a consistent look on your bookshelf with them.  (Um, that was important to me Back in the Day, but now that I see deals like the aforementioned ‘practically free’ KI Memories albums, it’s a little hard to justify the expense of sticking to only CM albums).  I still use the cutting mat, circle/oval cutting systems, corner rounder, etc. from my first purchase.  And the CM Power Sort photo organizer boxes have saved my life.  But have you checked them out lately?  They have been coming out with some cool new stuff, including a digital photo organizer, hardbound digital scrapbooks, and more fashion-forward paper and stickers.  So, I’ve been looking around online for CM info, joined a couple Yahoo groups, and then, lo and behold, what do I find at Staples while shopping for Epson printer cartridges??  A magazine that caught my eye called, “Empowering Women”, which happens to be all about Creative Memories.  Almost all the articles are profiles of women who’ve been successful with the company.  It furthered my interest, to say the least.  Next I’m going to talk to a few friends and my sister-in-law who are CM consultants and see what their recommendations are.  I’m stilll concerned about meeting my minimums…don’t know if I’m enough of a ‘salesperson’ to make a success of this.  And my complete fear of failure prevents me from taking on anything I’m not 100% sure I can succeed at – ha!

100% Motivated

Right now, I’m working on an album (multiple albums?) of the European cruise I took in October with my mom and a good friend.  Guess what kind of cruise it was??  Yep, a scrapbooking cruise that I learned about in Creating Keepsakes magazine (and that’s a whole story in itself…I’ll tell ya’ sometime, k?).  In 12 days, we hit 7 cities:  Savona, Italy – Barcelona, Spain – Palma de Mallorca, Spain – Tunis, Tunisia (okay, that’s in Africa not Europe) – La Valletta, Malta – Palermo, Sicily – and Rome, Italy.  Lisa Bearnson, the founding editor of Creating Keepsakes, was on board too.  She and some other great instructors gave awesome classes each day while we were at sea, then went on tours with us at each city.  It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, which is why I took so many ding-dang photos.  I mean, when is little ol’ me going to get back to Italy again?  I’m embarrassed to say how many photos.  My husband will kill me when he finds out how many.  Okay, between the one’s I took with my digital, with my point and shoot, and the one’s I copied from my friend Kim, I have about…….(drumroll)…….900 photos.  And most of them are so good, they have to be scrapped.  Don’t ask me how I’ll ever accomplish this, but I’m going to try.  I have 22 pages done so far, with 92 photos (along with some memorabilia) scrapped.  So let’s do the math here:  at an average 4 photos per page and roughly 800 photos remaining….let’s see…that’s um….only 400 pages to go!  I was PLANNING on getting this all into 2 albums – one for the cruise, and 1 for the 3 days we spent in Rome.  I think I need a new plan.  What do you think?

When I do theme albums, I like to keep at least some continuity in the colors, etc.  So I’m using all Basic Grey papers (because they are distress-y and Old World looking, like much of what we saw on the trip); coordinating Bazzill cardstock (because it is the best of all cardstock and my Europe album deserves only the best.  Plus the Bazzill colors look great with Basic Grey papers); and computerized journaling in a Lisa Bearnson font (I have so much to say and so little space.  I want to always remember every detail of this trip so I’m writing down just about EV-erything we saw and did).  I’m inking the edges of each photo and journaling block.  It saves me from taking the time to mat almost 900 photos and the distress-y look of the inking looks good with the distress-y look of the papers.  I’m using my new and much beloved Cricut machine to cut the titles.  So far, I really like how it’s coming along.  I wish I had more time to add accents, etc. to the pages but, you know, I’d like to get this thing completed before I forget the details of the trip!  “The Project” is currently spread across 75% of my dining room table…I’m absolutely sure my husband is 100% thrilled…because my scrapping area is a bit disorganized at the moment with not much clear desktop to work on.  Also, I figure if it’s taking up valuable dining space, I will be more motivated to get it done in a timely fashion.  I’m 100% sure my husband is motivated for me to get it done in a timely fashion.  Have you ever taken up the dining table for an extended period to get a scrapbooking project done?  How’d that work out for you?  Well, wish me luck…

Hello world!

mm emb ctr

I’m so excited!  My very own scrapbook blog!  How cool is that?  I figured since I’m thinking about scrapbooking 24/7 anyway, I might as well write about it.  I love to scrapbook.  I love to shop for supplies.  I loves me some scrapbooking magazines and idea books.  I spend too much time on the internet reading scrapbook message boards and blogs.  I have a scrapbook area in constant need of organizing – which I love to work on.  I TiVo all the scrapbook-related shows on television.  A lot of my relatives and good friends scrapbook, which I love, love, love!  Jeez, is there anything about scrapbooking I DON’T like???  Nope.  Can’t think of anything.

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