The One-Minute, Weekend Scrapbooker

[Wednesday, March 11, 2009 - Crop Club]

Crop Club is tonight. Kathy H. is my partner in crime. From Jan - Jun, we religiously tune in to American Idol. (Not even scrapbooking beats it! Ok, it comes close.) We scrap while we watch and listen to the unprecedented top 13 results show, a minute here, a minute there. Jasmine has been voted off not surprisingly. Kathy and I think the next one voted off will be Anoup dog. Meanwhile, as Ryan breaks to commercial, we try turn our attentions back to our projects.

I know it can be stymieing. For some of you, just getting started at all is a challenge. Don't let that stop you (the time it's taken me to complete this Biltmore Estate trip album should be of some encouragement!). If you can eek out a place in your home to spread out your stash and projects without having to clean up each and every time, do it. Here are a few suggestions:

• If you have an eat-in kitchen and it won't disrupt your routine much, convert your dining room into a temporary workspace.
  


• During mild, dry weather, push some of those garage tchotchkes to the side (preferrably near the trash can so someone mistakes them for garbage - ever notice that "garage" and "garbage" are near-homonyms?).
  


• Have a sparse, unused/unfinished basement? During warm or hot or humid months, open a folding table and chairs down there and escape to your self-made retreat.
  


• Convert an unused bedroom to an office and designate one area/corner to your projects.

You may only steal one minute here or 15 minutes there, but those minutes eventually add up to a completed page and those completed pages eventually add up to completed albums. Staying as organized as possible will help you maximize this time. Soldier on. Warrior on. You can do it!

While Kanye West performs on AI, I try to organize and re-orient myself to all things Biltmore. I already fired up my new photo printer to spit out a photo of the grand staircase chandelier for a previous layout. I also made a few journaling boxes and embellishments from remnants of a Jewel Power Palette Addition 4th of July. I'm going to try to squeeze in 3 - 4 photos on this page of the 4th floor in Biltmore House: Servants' bedrooms, servants' hall, and observatory. First step is to journal in MS Word (any word processing software will do) and print it out on vellum as well as print photos.

AI update: Jorge goes home, but his departure isn't much of a surprise, either.

At 10 pm, I decide to stop for the night. After all, I do have a full time job to rest up for!

[Sunday, March 15, 2009]

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending Cropapalooza in the GREEN in Essex. If you haven't been to one of these crops, you are missing out on a fantastic time. These crops offer ample space, time, food and energy for working on projects. The hosts' tag line is "12-hours of non-stop crop." There are free giveaways and a page layout contest. The next one is scheduled for May 2 with the 80s as the theme. If interested in attending, ask me for details or visit the event listing on Facebook.

As I continue working on the Biltmore scrapbook, it's a typical Sunday afternoon. I am donning warrior garb. Adam's at work, and Summer went down for her nap without a fight. The steady tap of the rain temps me to join her in slumber, but I try to stay focused. I just finished some record-keeping and follow-up work from yesterday's Cropapalooza. I devote the final minutes before Summer wakes up to resume work on the Biltmore scrapbook. Remember, slow and easy wins the race. Just how long have I been working on this? 1.5 years, I think. Take heart. None of you could lollygag as much as me! Honestly, I should pen a book entitled The Weekend Scrapbooker. One thing's for sure, I seem to have overcome my inability to complete a project piecemeal! There's no excuse now for not writing that novel nor the aforementioned bit of nonfiction.

I digress. I print the appropriated images of the Biltmore House 4th floor rooms on the photo printer. The observatory photo didn't print well, even with a bit of touch-up. So, I elect to use images of both servants' bedrooms and the servants' hall on this page. (image 1)

Before I print the descriptions on vellum, I arrange my layout so I know what dimensions the vellum needs to be. Immediately, I know I want the color pallette to mime the center photograph with its chocolate/aqua hues. I search my stash and find two coordinating papers. Each has a different print but the colors tie them together. I decide to visually halve this page with the paper. I trim the paper from the former cabana power palette in half with the straight trimmer. Then, I punch four faux photo corners into each half. I then carefully mark with my ever-handy pencil where I need to trim the old world paper so it nestles inside the corners. (image 2)

I trim the three photos so they don't mask the page with the personal trimmer. With the straight trimmer, I cut strips of butter cardstock and add them around the perimeter to define the patterns. Breaking with tradition of the past few pages, I cut around the shape of the as-built (using multi-purpose scissors) and adhere it with tape runner to a piece of butter cardstock of the same shape. I'll adhere this embellishment/memorabilia with dimensional adhesive later. (image 3)

Now, I measure the excess space so I can prepare/print the vellum journaling. After printing the updated journaling on vellum, I trim to fit the open spaces with the personal trimmer. [One tip on using leftover vellum: if you have rub-ons in your stash, use the leftover vellum to transfer the rub-ons.]

Now, I'm ready to adhere everything with tape runner, frosted splits, precision point adhesive and dimensional adhesive. It's surprising I don't glue myself to the table with all of that mucilage! I slide on the page protector, but not before snapping a photo of the completed page for this exhibition. (image 4)

Scrapbooking may not be as labor intensive as self-initiated home improvement projects, but once preserved, the memories will never deteriorate. What's more, I never need call an expert in to salvage a project, except save a cleaning expert! Thus, I'll continue these weekend jaunts into the past.