I really meant to!

Okay, so I totally crafted last week! But I didn't have time to update the blog!!!! I'm falling behind! Well, I'll use this opportunity to catch up! Last Friday I went to a friend's house and we scrapped and laughed a good 6 hours!!!! So much fun!!! I finally finished scrapping the last 2 layouts I had to do from the first half of 2011! I also organized all the photos from my vacation this June too....that is going to be a lot of work to scrap all of those pics! I think I may just do a separate book! Here is one of the pages I completed. I used a cute ribbon holder from Queen and Co. It adds a little something extra to a page!

This page is patterned paper from Scenic Route, cardstock DCWV, letters from Hobby Lobby, ribbon from Scrapbook Convention, ribbon holder from Queen and Co., journal tag fancy pants designs.

This is a close-up of the cute ribbon holder! Isn't it adorable! I love the polka dots!!!!

This weekend I went to another friend's house (if you haven't figured it out, scrapbooking is really just a social event at times) and we created this cute candy box and Halloween card!

I'm not sure what supplies I used. This was a friend who is a Stampin Up Demonstrator and she had all the pages pre-cut for us. I do know the box was a Cricut cartridge cut. I had so much fun making this box and card! I really got out of my comfort zone, got a new product idea for some really sticky tape runner, and learned how to use some of my own products I had bought during the years and never used! I had fun creating, gossiping and of course laughing!

I hope you enjoyed what you saw! I also hope you have a group of friends you scrap with too! I'm all for scrapping at home, but I do love scrapping with the ladies!! Thanks for looking!

Pinterest

Hi everyone! So, I've joined Pinterest....if you have not, you should! So many fabulous ideas for everything! Scrapbooking, organization, classroom ideas, math ideas, recipes, fashion, home decor.....just to name a few!!! I love it, but it takes up way too much of my freetime!!!! I did get out of the computer zone, and made these cute boxes...(which I got the idea from Pinterest...)

I created these using the boxes from the Crystal Light Packets....of course these were Great Value from Wal-mart, but same difference! I found a couple of scrap papers that I loved, cut them 9 in x 3 in and glued them around the box. I punched out circles, and taped them on with raised glue dots. So super easy!

I plan on using these either in my scraproom for little items (buttons, brads, tiny scraps of paper) or I may use them in my classroom for name sticks. Either way, I am pleased with the ease of making these!

I also spent some time working on putting in pages in my albums...if you have done this task, you know how daunting it can be at times! I think I filled my first 2011 album up, so I will start volume 2 of 2011 with the end of May pages and then summer and the rest of the year. I did just order all my prints from the summer, so I have a lot to do this fall getting those pages done! With that....more to share with you! Hope you enjoyed this post and thanks for looking!

A month? I need to catch up!!!

Hello Everyone! I can not believe it has been a month since I have posted last! Being a teacher really sucks my creative time, especially at the beginning of the school year! I have 2 weeks down, and I feel a little caught up! I have done a little scrappin...but not much. The main thing I have done is making some cute baby decorations for my friend's shower! Scrapbooking though....not so much! However, plans are already being made to get in some scrapbooking time together! I hopefully will have much more to post as this year goes on! I did want to post what I did for the baby shower though! They turned out super cute!

This is the flower bouquet I made for the table. I used my cricut for the flowers....Walk in My garden, george, lyrical letters, and gypsy wanderings. Various Cardstock all bought at Hobby Lobby. I love making these flower bouquets! They are so cute and easy!

Baby Banner. This was fun too! I used cardstock from Hobby Lobby. Ribbon was ribbon I had. I used Mini Monograms cart, Lyrical Letters cart, and Gypsy Wanderings cart.

This is a close up of the bottle...you can really see the cute colors which matched the baby's nursery.

We put the banner on the stairs where the mommy to be opened her gifts.

Here is the table with the cake and some of the food. You can see the bouquet, fun tablecloth and I made the poof tissue balls too!

I really had fun making these decorations! I hope you enjoy them too! They were very easy to make, as long as I had my Cricut! Thanks for looking!

Retreat!

Well, let me start out this post by saying I did not meet my goal! I was short 1 month of photos! I got to May 1st, my cousin's wedding and it was time to go! Oh well, I had a blast! Many hilarious times, lots of giggles, a missing sword and an all around great time! Love retreats and crops because I can get my pages done, but also have fun spending time with friends! For the record....I got 39 layouts done. That was 78 pages! I also worked on the invitations for my friend Denise...The picture above is my 2011 album with the pages I finished! I have about 5 more layouts and then this book is full!!!

Here is a pic of my station. I was working on a layout for my friend's 30th Birthday. See the power sorting stuff? Totally helps me get things done!!!

This is a photo of my station and my dear friend Marla across from me working away!!! I try to stay organized, but everything just gets plastered everywhere! You get a whole table to yourself though!!!

Here is another shot of my table and some ladies next to me. We get tons done while we are there!

I had a wonderful time at my retreat, can't wait for the next one! My next post will be some layouts I did at the retreat, so stayed tuned! Thanks for looking!

Power Sorting!!

As promised....here is power sorting....Anna style!!! Everytime I go to a crop or especially a retreat, I go through this process of power sorting all my photos. I have a lot of stuff.... A LOT!!! And there is no way I can bring all my things with me to a retreat! So, I power sort! It totally allows me to get more done at crops and retreats and anything I don't finish, I can work on at home and it is already sorted and ready to go for me! I found out about power sorting through Creative Memories. They sell a box with files that you can use to sort your layouts for a book. You can use any box though and anything for files. In fact....for this retreat, I have 3 boxes that have sorted layouts. I don't have enough files, so I used old cardboard that comes with pages and paper books.

Here is the Creative Memories box. It works well, but can only hold about 15 layouts with embellishments. I really like it though, keeps everything in place really well.


This is the inside and the files. They are just simple white files. They are tabbed, not sure why. I never use the tabs. I'm sure there is a reason though. If you are using this box, you have to use the files. I tried the cardboard and it is a little too big to fit in the box. Just a thought.


This is another box that I use to put my layouts in. I got it at Hobby Lobby. It fits the cardboard great! And can fit like 20 layouts with embellishments.


Okay, after you have printed all your photos, you spread out all your files. I only showed the white files for aesthetic purposes, but you can use cardboard! I needed more that you see here, so I did use cardboard!

Next, you take your photos and lay them on the white files. I organize mine by date and event of photos taken. Sometimes I may only need one layout for an event. Other times, I may have too many photos for one layout, so I might have to sort 2 or 3 layouts within one event.


After I sort all my photos, I look for ideas! I have several magazines and magazine pages ripped out and put in binders. Sometimes I can look at my photos and know exactly what I want to do. Other times, I have no idea and I need some guidance. This is where I store the guidance! Sometimes I use just a magazine, other times I pull out random pages from the binders. This time I used a magazine and got lots of ideas from it!

Once I have an idea, I pick out my paper, cardstock, and embellishments that I want to use on my layout. I include it all on top of the file and then stick it into the box. This layout will be for my niece's birthday party. I am using the bottom layout picture from the magazine for my guidance. You can see I included some flowers, ribbon and letters for the title. I use snack size baggies to hold small things. If you just place them on top the file, they will fall off and down into the box. Not good, believe me....this is a mistake I learned on my own. When I am ready to scrap, these things are together and ready for me to use! I've made all the decisions already and it keeps me from bringing all my stuff! This is why I get so much done on retreats!

It took me about 6 hours total to power sort all my photos for the retreat! I didn't count how many layouts I will be doing, but I have 3 boxes full of layouts! These pictures are all the photos I have taken from January 2011 to May 2011. I have a lot to accomplish!!!! If I really focus, I should get most of it done! My record for pages done at a retreat was 85! That is 42 and 1/2 layouts!!!!! Hopefully I will accomplish my goal! I want to start scrapping pictures from this summer!!! Especially my trip! I will post pics from the retreat and let you know if I made my goal! Thanks for looking!!!!

Oh Happy Day!!!

What a great day! Actually, it started out pretty crummy, but it has turned itself around!!! I got in my photos from Snapfish! Finally! Took them forever, but I can't complain, I got 99 prints for 79 cents. They had a special!!! So now that those pics are in, I can finally start power sorting for retreat!!!

But also in the mail, were some journal tags I bought. I have been raving about Fancy pants designs journal tags that I got at the scrapbook convention. They are super and so versatile! I have used so many already! Well, I got to searching online to see if I could purchase more. I was a little disappointed in what I found at first. Most stores wanted about $4 or $5 for just one packet. I paid $1 at the scrapbook convention!!! Then I found this site called scrapbooksteals.com. They put a scrapbook deal of the day on and then archive the old ones until they are gone! Sure enough...here were my journal tags!!!! Aren't they super cute?!?!


I ended up paying about $3 a piece for them with the shipping costs, but that was still better than $5! I took some close-ups of the Halloween ones (which I didn't think I was getting). Halloween is my favorite holiday and I love all the cute spider webs, cats and stuff that companies come up with! Especially they cats! And I really love this one!!!! I've even considered a similar one for a tattoo! I'm serious!!!!

I can not wait to use these precious tags! What I really love about them is that although some are themed, you can totally work them into your regular pages!

Hope you enjoyed! I will be starting my power layouts today so hopefully I will have an update for ya tomorrow!!!! Thanks for looking!!!!

Hello!!! Sorry I have been out for awhile! Time can really fly by sometimes!!!! Since I last posted I haven't really been crafting. Not sure what I've been doing though! I guess that is not true, I am working on somethings for a friend of mine. Her daughter is getting married and she asked for my help with some things. I don't feel I can post those yet until she okays the final product!!!

I did however, get to some crafting today! I finished some title pages that I so desperately needed to do! I had one from 2009 and of course the 2010 ones. I am now done with 2010! I have added these pages and am ready to start 2011!!!

The main thing I have been working on is organizing some stuff in my craft room. I went today and got a bookshelf and some boxes. They match perfectly with the bedspread I have in there!!!! I am really trying to get some organization going instead of digging through all my packed stuff for crops! I think I have it figured out now!!!

Here is the 2nd title page of 2010. Yes, I have 2 books for each year. I know...it's a sickness. I take way too many photos and I want to scrap them all!!!! The books are super thick too! I used pattern paper from DCWV, the Dressed Up line, for the background paper and the flower thing. I used DCWV black glitter paper for the title. Blackletter cart.

Here is the 1st page of 2010. Same paper and such as above. I try to match the 2 title pages...sometimes.

This is the spine of one of the 2010 books. Whenever I buy my year books, I always buy 2 right then. I know I will use both. I tried to use paper that would match the blue and black swirls. I think I did a pretty good job!!! I got this book at Hobby Lobby. See how thick it is?!? The 1st book is just as thick!!! I think there are about 90 layouts total. Yeah...lots of photos!

Here is the 1st title page of 2009. I did this a while back when I was working on 2009. In fact, when I started it. I used Creative Memories paper I had gotten.

Here is the page I did today. Like I stated earlier, I like the title pages to match in the books. This is the title page for the second book. I used Creative memories paper to match the 1st title page. I used Lyrical Letters cart for the font and accent essentials for the flowers. The pink and brown paper is Creative Memories as well.

And this is what I got today! I headed over to Ikea and got this Expedit shelf/bookcase. The boxes are perfect for this room! And....they are super roomy! I fit all sorts of stuff in here! I really wanted a taller place to put my cricut so I could just turn my chair around and cut my titles and embellishments. It is the perfect height! Love it! Before I was using a box!!!! It was such a mess!!! Looks so much better and actually frees up some room!!!

Thanks for looking again! I want to say hi to my Aunt Judy! Hi Aunt Judy!!!! She is so good to check this blog out! Love ya!!

Upcoming posts will be power sorting. That is my next project!!! Until then....happy scrappin'!!!!