Tour de Fin

[Sunday, July 26, 2009]

We're on staycation this week. Adam just put up the tent in the backyard for Summer, which has caused her major excitations. I am working on the final page of the Biltmore House tour! I can hear the wolf-whistles and cat calls out there among you. You've probably been in picture withdrawal as much as I have these last few pages.

I notice that a sheet of my vellum has a coffee stain on it. Fact: all important papers have coffee stains on them. After all, the stained and dog-eared papers are the ones that have been handled and poured over most often or are in the path of spilled or dribbled coffee. In that case, I should put this sheet of vellum in the safe straight away!

I don't spend much time deliberating on the subtleties of this page. The three postcards take up most of the space. I trim the vellum description and the as-built with the personal trimmer. The only major thing I have to do is journal re: the main switch board (much bigger than modern-day circuit breaker boards). I inquired with the docent re: how the electricity was being delivered. If I recall correctly, she responded that a 25 HP gasoline-powered generator provided power in the form of direct current. I remember this because I thought Adam would find it interesting. The switchboard itself was in operation through 1989. (image 1)

A knock on the door and Charlie's barking as though we were being attacked intrude my thoughts. Since Summer is napping, I shush Charlie and crack open the door. I do not recognize the woman. "Can I help you?" I ask. "I'm sorry, I was looking for Tyler's house," she responds. I point next door with my thumb, quietly close the door and return to my table. I'd be lying if I said these little interruptions don't jostle me sometimes. It's like being thrown without warning from an otherwise pleasant train ride.

For the finishing touches, I choose a light brown fine-tip pen (which coordinates well with hues in postcards). I also wish to find a patterned background paper for the vellum. I moved much of my stash upstairs in prep for Crop Till Ya Drop yesterday, so I tiptoe passed Summer's bedroom door to the office to gather some options. As soon as I open my scrap paper holder, I see it: remnants from a recent page with the exact colors I need. Back downstairs, I quickly trim it and adhere the vellum description with frosted splits. I cut a piece of gray cardstock to charge the as-built. Then, I paste everything down with tape runner.

Incidentally, now that my postcard spree is over, it occurs to me this might be a useful tip to share: I've been placing the tape runner around the printed portions on the reverse side of the postcards in the event one day I wish to remove any of them or if I have to move them (e.g., if I made a mistake). The identifying info won't be obscured or torn. A page protector completes this page. (image 2)

It's quite a relief to have this section behind me. I have a feeling I'll be moving more swiftly through the final pages. One day, I'll be glad I took the time to incorporate it, but, for now, I'm eager to move onto some pictures again. For the last several pages, I've kind of felt like a banker who is only allowed to handle toy money.

Scrapbooking tools are not just for scrapbooking

[Sunday, June 7, 2009]

It's somewhat of a misnomer that scrapbooking = scrapbooking. The paper kits and tools we've come to associate with that hobby have multiple purposes. Here are just a few ideas, for those who don't scrapbook per se but may have dappled in the occasional paper craft or two:

• for the student - if you have school-age kids at home, then you have no doubt received more than a few pleading expressions from them, begging for your assistance with last-minute assignments. Cutting tools, punches and adhesive are time- and hand-saving catalysts for these projects.



• for the avid photographer - got photos? If so, you probably need a safe place to store/organize them, and I don't mean tupperware or shoe boxes! Power sort boxes can hold from 600 - 2400 5 x 7 photos, and they'll be protected from harmful deteriorants (humidity, sunlight, dust) for many years. In addition, Memory Manager 3.0 can quickly find and sort digital images as well as automatically backing them up, so your images are always there when you need them.



• for the card-maker - If you enjoy making your own cards and gift tags, you'll go wild over the multi-themed paper ribbon/flowers/buttons/frames, tag maker, tearing tool, cardstock and vellum accents.



• for the custom gift-giver, decorator and party planner - Like giving the perfect gift, especially when it's customized? Then, you'll enjoy the CMphotocenter, where you can create wall posters, calendars, personalized poems & frames, and photo panels.



• for the classroom - teachers will love the punches, cardstock, and cutting patterns for creating everything from calendars to bulletin boards to art projects. My friend Kathy, who teaches pre-schoolers, recently created a Teddy Bear's Picnic bulletin board using some of the CM tools. With the personal trimmer, she measured and cut 4 x 4 squares to create a checkerboard pattern. She also adhered some of her items with tape runner and outlined the food shapes with round-tip pens. (image 1)

You may have thought I gave up on the Biltmore Estate album. There are times when I've thought that myself given all the distractions, side projects, etc. However, it's not true. I've been moving along and recording my progress, it's just taken me a while to translate it to the blog. In fact, since my last Biltmore post, I've completed 11 more pages. A few of them are not without surprises, so stay tuned!

The next page I work on is the basement level in Biltmore House. The "tour" portion of the album is nearly complete. Since I've been alternating between the former 12 x 12 gold dust refill pages and former white refill pages, this page will be in gold dust. (Not sure if I mentioned that before or not.) That's one way to change things up a bit: alternate style of refill pages. The textured refill pages like Spargo come with a built-in background.

I've got the basic layout of this page, which consists of the main kitchen and servants' dining room. (image 2)

I found one of the pictures of the kitchen online and printed on my Kodak printer. The others are postcards. I hem and haw about whether to copy the descriptions from the flip sides of the cards, but know I don't have room for both, since I have the vellum accent for the kitchen, I opt to include the dining room card description, if I have nothing else to journal.

If you're stuck (scrapper's block), start with what you know. Often, completing those elements will inspire the rest of the page. For example, I know that I want to mat the Kodak-printed photo with black card stock. So, after measuring and trimming the mat with the 12-inch straight trimmer, I decide to reprise the gold/black palette from a previous page. I trim a strip of gold metallic paper to charge the vellum accent. (image 3)

Next, I start thinking about the title, but scrapper's block consumes me once again, so I pause for the day.

[Wednesday, June 10, 2009]

I don't have much room, so ABC/123 stickers won't work, but just handwriting it isn't enough. I decide to compromise and use one of the brown monogram swirly stickers for the initial letter, then hand write the rest. I adhere the letter to a piece of peach cardstock. With the petina fine-tip pen, I hand write the balance of the letters on mediterranean cardstock. I cut another piece of mediterranean cardstock and using Patterns & Pens (former CM gift), add lines in the same color of ink. I adhere everything with tape runner, journal, and add page protector. (image 4)