Yeah, she’s right. For me, scrapbooking is a near-Olympic event.
I run frantically around my craftroom/office gathering all sorts of supplies. I pop up from my chair to get punches or rubber stamps from the next room. I lift heavy equipment like my die cut base. I reach low for papers. I reach high for templates and alphabet stamps. I pick up and push aside a slantboard that my husband has inconveniently rested against a file cabinet of patterned papers. I lean all my weight on an eyelet setter to poke a hole through paper and then again I push to spread the backside of the eyelet so it stays attached to the paper.And what a mess. I don’t like to put anything away until I’m positive I won’t be using it again. That means, uh, a mess.
AN ALBUM I'M WORKING ON...
Today I climbed downstairs (I’m only allowed a certain number of trips up and down stairs per week) to my craftroom and started an album for my niece Lexie who’s having a baby boy in August. Creating an album is like making a Thanksgiving dinner. You have to do a certain amount of shopping, planning, and breaking down your project into “what comes first.” Several weeks ago, I picked up a $1 album from the Dollar Spot area in Target, one of my favorite shopping places. The album is adorable, 16 pages with a blue and yellow choo-choo on the cover.
PICK A THEME OR IMAGE
I’ve learned the hard way: the best approach to an album is to pick a theme and keep your pages all a variation on that theme. I like the theme to start with my title page. I fell in love with a cute rubber stamp image of a little boy on the beach picking up seashells with his toy boat and teddy bear nearby. I stamped the image on white paper many times until I could select one stamped image that was perfect. (I’m picky about how dark it is and whether every line shows up.) Then, I used colored pencils to fill in the image. I covered the finished piece with a thin layer of 3-D glue to make the image “pop.” (This is the "turkey in the oven" part of the creation. The 3-D glue needs to dry.) I also stamped SKYLER LOGAN, the baby’s name and put the 3-D glue on the letters.
FIGURE OUT HOW YOU'LL REPEAT IT
A QUESTION
Are you a messy crafter or do you put your things away like a good egg?
4 comments:
I have seen some neat crafts rooms, but I've never owned one!
My quilter friends are the neatest, with bins for fabric or shelves with fabric neatly folded, a layout wall, and no scraps to speak of lying around.
I have bins, too. HA!
Am I a neat crafter? Ha! I majored in art in college and sewed all of the time. I was living at home and my room was my everything. The ironing board was always up for sewing projects. I had paint and stuff around for art projects.
I laid a cutting board on my bed to cut out patterns. I would work until I was exhausted, then just push everything over on my bed and climb next to it. I learned to sleep on the edge.
Luckily I don't have to sleep in the room with my yarn and crochet projects.
Amen, ladies. It's a choice: spend time picking up or spend time making stuff. I vote for the latter.
I'd go as far as to suggest that too much organization impedes creativity.
At least that's my excuse.
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