Paper Pile Kitten's Blog

Super Fast Valentine's Card

This is a Valentine's card that is quick and easy to make. I stamped a border with a set of 6 small Laura Ashley collage stamps that I found on a sale recently, using Barn Door and Spun Sugar Distress Ink pads. I die cut a couple of hearts with Tim Holtz Sizzix Alterations Movers & Shapers Mini Hearts Set, and colored the edges with Barn Door Distress Ink pad. The paper I used is from the Lime Twist collection from MME, called Hello Zig. And am I not being amazingly trendy using a chevron pattern? LOL!

I placed the hearts with foam tabs over a crocheted doily (I used a big glue dot for that) and blinged the card with Doodlebug Mini Jewels (the red Ladybug color) and some rhinestone hearts that I found at a local craft store. All this took me under an hour, which is super fast for a slow scrapbooker and cardmaker like me. 

As a background for the photo, I used another paper from My Mind's Eye. It's Numbers Grid from the Love Me collection and I'll have to say that it is my favorite Valentines paper for 2012! 

 

Make a Layout a Day in February 2012

I have signed up for another round of a Layout a Day with Lain Ehmann. I tried the class for the first time in September when it was hosted by Big Picture Classes and I was blown away with how much scrapping I got done in a month (you can read my raving review here). I actually got one layout done (or sometimes even two or three while I was at it!) every single day of that month. It was amazing!

This time, the class is not hosted by BPC, but Lain is running the event on her own web site for the month of February. Read more about it and sign up here! It is only $30 for a whole month of prompts and 29 videos! If you ask me, that's really good value for the money.

I'm definitely looking forward to get at least 29 LO's done in February! Not to mention, making a dent in my stash. In fact, I am going to attend every single future LOAD event, because that's the most certain way to fill my albums, using my stash and getting things done. I'm the kind of person who needs a prompt and a deadline to be productive. So, Lain, thank you again for a Layout a Day! 

 

Personal Improvement in 2012

I've signed up for Cathy Zielske's class Move More, Eat Well, and today is the first day! The class is running for the whole year and I'm hoping for help and support with my journey to a better health and a lighter body. My favorite workouts are yoga and running, and my dream is to take those up again in 2012. I want to reduce unhealthy things like sugar and alcohol to a minimum, and to eat more healthy over all. I would love to reduce my stress levels with relaxation excercises. I'm really excited about this class! Maybe I'll see you there? :)

 

Organize Your Stash Week 7 - Ideas

This week's organization challenge is a fun one! Where should I keep all my ideas and inspiration for scrapbooking? Here's the background to the challenge on Wookiemouse's blog.

I keep my digital ideas on Evernote, which is a great place to keep everything from journaling to sketches!), but my inspiration is all on Pinterest. Oh, I could pin pin pin gorgeous pics all day long. :)

Ideas and inspiration in print come mainly from magazines. I keep those in a couple of  magazine holders and I try to purge sometimes. If there's a layout or a sketch that I want to keep, I ter it out and put it in a binder. I won't part from Scrapbook Etc. or from Craft Stamper magazine from the UK. The Craft Stamper magazine is shock full of stamping techniques so that's the reason why I keep those. Scrapbook Etc. is my favorite scrapbooking magazine but these days I only buy it in my Zinio iPad app so the new issues won't take up shelf space in my scrap area. I love that!

I usually sort my ideas by category and/or project. Except for in my Inspiration Book where I scrap my ideas chronologically.

Organize Your Stash Week 6 - Photos

Ugh! This week's organization challenge gives me a headache!

Printed photos

My prints are neatly sorted into plastic pouches and binders, sorted by subject, ready to scrap. Great! 

Old photos and negatives

These should be scanned to digital (I never scrap original photos), when I find the time. The ones in photo albums are fine, but all the loose ones are in a mess on a shelf along with my memorabilia (granted, they're all in one place after our move to the new apartment this summer). I'd like to tidy up that mess by sorting the photos and put them in containers. I'll start with putting them in containers to get rid of the mess, and then I'll sort them later. (After all, it IS Christmas prep time and I cannot find the time for extensive organizing in December.)

Digital photos

I have now spent half a day on backing up and organizing my photos, because I'm behind on that. I'm not so sure that my folders are organized in the best way. Part of it is organized chronologically and part is organized by subject. I think I'd prefer them all organized by subject because I do not scrap chronologically and you can always add the date to the subject when naming the folder. My main concern is to choose photos for print and to prepare them for that. I'd like to get things done in this area.

I keep all of my photos in an external harddrive on my desk. My back up is that I upload all the photos to Picasa. That way, I know that no matter what happens I will not lose my photos. Unless Picasa goes away over night, but hopefully that unlikely event would not happen at the exact same time my harddrive breaks down. :P I also keep working copies of the photos that I would like to edit and print, on my laptop.

Weekly routine

I need a routine for handling my photos. So, from now on, every Sunday I will do the following:

1) Empty memory card of new photos into laptop folders, named by subject and date.

2) Immediately browse through the files and delete all those pics I don't want to keep.

3) Move to external harddrive and upload to Picasa for back up.

4) Choose the photos I'd like to print and move those to Print folder. Touch them up so they're ready for printing. I won't upload them to the print service and make my order until I get a good offer, but that happens at least once a month so I never have to wait for long to get a bargain price on printing my photos. If the photos are ready to go in my Print folder it won't take long to upload them and order the prints.

5) Sort and scan old photos to digital for 15 minutes or so. Getting a little bit of the work done every week.

6) Take another 15 minutes to rename folders on harddrive and Picasa, shifting the organization from chronological to subject, to make it easier to find photos.

In all, this should take me an hour a week. It's a routine I could live with. 

 

Organize Your Stash Week 5 - Scraps

I got a little behind in the organizational challenge, but this week I've been catching up, so today you'll get two updates.

Week 5 is all about scraps! I love scraps! I save the tiniest little scrap of every paper. That's a consequence of my love for patterned paper. I won't let anything go to waste. A small strip or a tiny circle could be used on a card.

My problem is that I haven't kept my scraps organized at all - I've thrown everything in a big happy pile. So this week, it was time to finally organize my scraps. I had thought about it long and hard. Should I sort them by color or by manufacturer/collection just like my paper?

I read about people that don't organize their scraps, but keep them all together and then are able to find great mixes and matches of paper. Brilliant! I'm going with that. But I'll keep the cardstock separately and my stamped images in one separate box AND working with the Christmas projects I've come to realize that the Christmas paper scraps should be in a separate box. Otherwise, I'll go crazy come next Christmas trying to find those holiday patterns in the big pile. LOL! Then I have a box for die cuts and one for prints from digital collections.

 

Don't Miss Out: 50 % Off All the Self-Paced BPC Classes!

Don't miss out on the incredibly generous 6th birthday offer from Big Picture Classes: 50 % off the entire order of self-paced classes (offer good through Nov.20). Just fill your cart with as many self-paced classes you'd like and then enter the promocode: 6thbirthday on the checkout page to get half the price on all of them.

There are so many great self-paced classes right now! I am going to choose classes from May Flaum, Kayleigh Wiles, Wendy Smedley, Tammy Tutterow... And the price for one class is between $5 and $30, so they are really affordable for every scrapper.

This is a spectacular opportunity that won't come back in a hurry. So head over to this page with all the self-paced classes and start choosing your own favorites. :)

 

Organize Your Stash Challenge Week 2

This week we will dream about our dream scrap space. The scrap space that the Scrap Fairy would bring. Well, my wildest scraproom dream would be a large room with loads of stuff neatly organized, just like in a small scrapbook shop! I mean, how about living in a scrapbook shop, wouldn't that be totally awesome?! :D

I have found hundreds of awesome and pretty scrap rooms out there to inspire me, and I don't have space to mention them all but here's a couple that I really like. The one above is Amanda's scrap room. I love the organization! On her blog, there are pics of every neat little drawer. Awesome!! Such an inspiration! And the other thing that I love about her room is the cardstock and paper sorted by color! I love when things are sorted by color! I can just sit and watch all those pretty colors for ever! Unfortunately, sorting by color doesn't work for me because I don't scrap by color. That's a pity...

Look at this amazing image from Kat's blog! Colors!  And this made me realize that I could sort some of my stuff in colors. For example, mist bottles and ribbons. That would be wonderful!

Here's another awesome scrap room: Paper Papillon's space (more pics on her blog!) It's almost as in my little scrap shop dream. :)

I don't have a clear idea of how I will organize my own small scrap space.  If you remember the sorry pics from last week, you realize that I have limited potential to turn this into a pretty dream as the gorgeous rooms above. But I'm sure that I'll make the best of what I have, and the main point is that it will be a practical work space for me.

 

Holiday Card Boot Camp with Jennifer McGuire and Kristina Werner

Woohooo! I sent a comment on Jennifer McGuire's blog and I won a spot in the Holiday Card Boot Camp online class teached by Jennifer and Kristina Werner. I was going to sign up anyway but I've been stalling because my scrap budget is rather tight right now, since we've moved to a new apartment that needs some remodeling. So this was the perfect prize for me! Thank you, Jennifer! :)

I'm really excited to follow this online class! I started to shop my stash for holiday card making last week and I am determined to have all the holiday cards ready to put in the mail on December 1. Last year I made the same kind of Christmas card for all my friends and family but this year everyone is going to get a unique Christmas card. So, the Holiday Card Boot Camp will be perfect for inspiration and learning new tricks and techniques.

 

Organize Your Stash Challenge Week 1

I'm taking the Organize Your Stash Challenge by Wookiemouse. There's a thread about this challenge on Two Peas' General Scrappin' Forum, led by Chrisann. Thank you so much, ladies for doing this for all of us messy scrappers! You're all welcome to tag along!

I've posted the ugly 'before' pics of my scrap area above and below this text. Ugh! My scrap area is in our home office, which I share with my DH. We have two desks each. I have my computer on one desk and I'm scrapping on the other. We bought an Expedit from Ikea this summer (yay!) that we use as a room divider so that I can use both sides of it. I use most of the shelves in the Expedit, but my DH has one Expedit vertical row for his stuff on his side of the desks. I also have two Billy book cases from Ikea for my stash, and an Alex case of drawers below my scrap desk, where I keep my stamps.

To keep myself seeing this challenge through (I am infamous for starting projects that I never finish), I'm posting my progress on the blog. Nope, there's no prize for this challenge other than a neat and organized scrap area at home. Well, that's a great prize in my book!

Anyway, we're on week 1 when you're supposed to do a space audit. Here's what's working for me and the things I need help organizing. Half of my stash is pretty well organized already but I'm sure that I could need some more ideas and inspiration to make it even better organized!

What's working

 Paper. I organized my patterned paper after our move this summer. And I don't have that much cardstock.

Embellishments. I keep those in files in big archive crates, sorted by manufacturer. I keep the bling and the hardware in boxes. The flowers have a separate box.

Stickers and rub-ons. In files in the big crates.

Stamps. Got them organized after the move.

Crop supplies. That's an easy one - I don't go to crops. Only to the online ones. :)

Inks, ink pads and embossing. Got them sorted, but of course they could be even better organized.

Paints and glitter and stickles. Those are organized.

Adhesives. I'm keeping them in a box beside my scrap desk. Perfect!

Chipboard (raw). I keep the die cuts among the embellishments and the mini albums in a special crate.

Die cuts. I usually die cut only when I need something, except for alphas that I cut from foam sheets and keep in a box. 

Dies for die cutting machines. In boxes beside my Big Shot.

Pens and pencils. Organized!

Templates. Stored with the stamps.

Fonts. They're in my computer, in my programs, so I'm not complaining.

Cards and card-making supplies. Kind of organized. Maybe there's a better way to store them?

I need help for this

Scraps. I need a system for sorting those.

Photos. Kind of working. I got my prints in binders but they're unmarked. And there are loads of old prints and negatives that need to be scanned. And my digital photos are only half organized. *deep sigh* I guess that will take ages to sort out.

Ideas. It would be nice if I could organize my ideas and maybe keep them in one place?

Project, incomplete pages and kits. Kind of working because I keep ongoing projects in folders, but there are so many of them! And suddenly there is stuff everywhere!

Alphas. I keep them in a big box. That's not the best place for them.

Ribbon, thread and fibers. Those are a big mess in a big box. This is the worst place in my stash.

Punches. A big mess in a big crate. I'm afraid they'll break. I need to do something soon.

Tools. Another big mess in a big crate. I'm desperate!

Memorabilia. In a mess beside the photos.

Negatives. I need help with those.

Printer paper and old sketch books. Ugh! Such a mess!