Fun Theory

How about a little fun?

wouldn't it be great if a little fun was injected into everything?

3R Scrapping : Toilet Tissue Rolls

Even though I live with 3 boys there never seems to be a shortage of empty toilet paper rolls around here so I thought wouldn't it be great to find a use for them. Boy was I excited when I came across the toilet paper tube mini album idea.

All you need are a few tubes, flatten them out and cover them with designer paper. Each tube makes a nice sturdy chipboard page with a pocket. Bind them together with binder rings, ribbon or the Bind-it-all

Here's what I did: Flatten the tubes and ink the edges. I used peeling paint distress ink. Cover the tubes with designer paper on both sides. Punch holes for binder rings. Cut tags to fit into the tubes. Use tab punch to cut out tabs, stamp words on tabs. glue tabs to tags and insert into pockets.

You find a more tutorials here and here and here

To Do List, To Do Drawers

Ever have one of those days where you wake up feeling blah and not wanting to do much of anything and just knowing that you wont accomplish much with a mood like that?

Well that's when a little to do list can come in handy. And I do mean little. Just two or three things on the list, because a long to do list is just begging to be put off. That feeling of accomplishment you'll have when you can cross something off the list just may be enough to turn your whole day around, inspiring you to do a little here a little there and before you know it you've actually accomplished something.

What does all this have to do with scrapbooking? Well I'm very bad when it comes to having several project going without having any finished and after a while that wonderful sense of accomplishment becomes very elusive. My personal fix for this is to have a stack of "to do" drawers. I bought a couple of these drawer units and put one unfinished project in each drawer along with all the photos, papers and embellishments to complete the project, kind of like a kit. Every once in a while I will put one of these projects on my to do list. I love the drawer idea because I just pull out the whole drawer and everything I need is right there. Makes things easy.

Today was one of those days. One drawer on my little to do list.

I chose the one that had the "Delight In Life" book I had made for a class I taught.

The drawer contained the book (which was mostly decorated but no photos), the photos I wanted to put in the book and extra paper and embellishments.

Boy I have to say it was really nice to finish it up, cross it off my list and move on!

Autumn Book

So I started this paper bag book a little while ago and it's almost finished. I was very inspired by the canvas cover idea from Laura's video. I changed it up a bit, using the canvas for the spine of the book and leaving the rest of the cover in paper. I did this for two reasons. First, I cut the canvas just a bit too narrow and not altogether straight so it wouldn't fit nicely on the back cover and secondly I really wanted to use the Jolee's autumn sticker for the cover and I wasn't sure it would stick well to the canvas. So I cut down the canvas, used designer paper for the cover and problem solved!

3R Scrapping : Envelope Mini Album

Remember this envelope post from last spring? Well I have recently discovered another way to use all those envelopes that come in the mail. The envelope pocket mini album. There are a couple of videos about making these mini books on YouTube here and here and here. It looked like fun and since I love the idea of recycling as much as I can, I gave it a try. Basically you turn the envelopes into pocket pages for a mini album by covering them with scrapbook paper, make tags out of card stock and insert them into the pockets. These make great places for more photos and journalling. The total size of the book is about 5x6.

I'm Baaaack and it's Fall

No I did not fall off the face of the earth. I just had a very busy summer, involving a home improvement project that we tackled ourselves. It involved demolishing a bathroom down to the studs. Installing drywall, tile, a vanity, a toilet, baseboards, and painting. And as always when you start one project it inevitably leads to another... so I decided to repaint the lining room as well. All this while shuttling the kids between swim class and art camp. Needless to say I got no crafty stuff done all summer.

Now that the dust has settled and the kiddos are back at school, I've been looking around for some inspiration and I stumbled on some great stuff!

This Butterfly Album is one of the coolest books I have seen

This Plastic Bag Album is a great way to recycle those ubiquitous plastic bags, see the completed one here

There was also a tutorial on making canvas covers for paper bag albums. Loved the idea of painting canvas for the cover so I started working on a fall themed album and painted some canvas. Planning on embellishing the cover with some flowers and these great copper leaves.