clean or create.....: September 2010

For the past few years I have been a member of a great online community sponsered by Fiskars. Before I joined this group when I thought of Fiskars, the only thing that came to my mind was the famous orange handled scissors. Now when I think of them, I think of all kinds of fun scissors, squeeze punches, border punches, corner punches, trimmers, and of course friendship and support. Today I am privilaged to join them in the Fiskateers first ever blog hop. Before I tell you about my fun project lets get a little housekeeping out of the way, if you have come here from "Kelly Starsky 6446" then you are in the right place. If you have stumbled upon the blog hop you can start at the beginning at the Fiskateers Blog.

As I have aged, I seem to have a problem remembering what wonderful toys I already own. I have been looking for something that I record all of my toys in, but yet would be small enough that I could take it with me. I decided to create a 3 ring binder. I used an 8inch chipboard binder from Pine Cone Press. Actually this was left over from a class that I took a few years ago. Never got around to creating the project. I painted the edges of the album with Adirondack Acrylic Paint Daubers Sandal. After the paint dried (which doesn't take that long) I coverd the paper with Coredinations cardstock, choosing the orange and light green from the REtro Mod Squad collection. These two colors were almost an exact match for the Fiskateers colors. I used Tombow Mono Aqua Liquid Glue. I have to say that of all of the wet glues I have tried for scrapbooking this is my all time favorite. I love that it comes with both a point for detailed work and a bigger brush on the opposite end. Since I am trying to also use up my stash before purchasing anything new, I just used a cheap piece of black cardstock, not sure but I think that I purchased it from Walmart awhile back. I used my Cricut Expression to cut out the letters with Plantin Schoolbook. When I cut out smaller sized letters, I loved to use my Xyron X sticker maker to put adhesive on the back of the letters so that they can be attached with out to much of a mess. I used the Fiskars Corner Rouder squeeze punch to round the corners of my papers so that they match the corners on the chipboard album. I must say that the squeeze punches from Fiskars are probably the easiest punches I have ever used.

Once again because I am trying to use up my stash, I choose a piece of green patterned paper that I already had in my collection. Not really sure of the brand for this one. As you can see I didn't have quite a large enough sheet to cut out two pieces, so I ended up piecing the back page together.

For my inventory pages, I am creating documents on my computer using Microsoft word. Each page will stand for a different product. I have decided at this point to list all of the items available in that line and then highlight the ones that I have. I know that I will need to update my lists every so often , but at this time, feel that it is better than a handwritten list. Plus this way, I can put a pencil mark next to items that I really would like to get, making it easier for my husband and children to purchase a gift for me, without having to ask what I already have, or what I would like. (DH if you are reading this, the hint is for you). I have many more pages to complete with this project, but only limited time, so I am trying to add a page or two every week. Since I am on a no buy kick, I am hoping to have all of my lists created before I let myself purchase new supplies.

I will probably eventually add dividers as I get more pages created. I am hoping that this size works well for me, I don't think that it is too large that I don't want to carry it, nor do I feel that it is so small that I can misplace it.

I have plans to finish the outside of the album yet. I am thinking about putting Inventory down the spine of the album and would also like to add some embellishments to the front. I played with a few things while making it, and nothing seemed to work. If you have any suggestions feel free to leave me a comment.

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Thanks for stopping by, now please hop on over to Donna 6036.

Last December we moved my Father In Law into the nursing home. During this time, I inherited 3 boxes full of pictures. My goal is to work through the boxes and create a scrapbook or two for him with all of the pictures. Sad to say many of those pictures were not labeled, so I am not sure who is who. Luckly, I was able to figure out most of the grandkids, so decided to start there. I have created 10 pages for his album. The first two will be the title page to this section of the album, and then a single one page layout for each of the 8 grandchildren. On the Grandchild title page I made a list of each of the 8 children including their middle names and their birthdates (and death date, when applicable). I choose to use blue cardstock for the boys and a pink for the girls. I will also create a section for his 5 kids. I might do a two page spread for each, as I am sure that there are enough pictures to create a two page spread. After this I want to start the great-grandchild section. This will take some help from either the parents or grandparents of those kids as I really don't have too many pictures of them. After that I will create pages of both my FIL and my MIL plus pages for their wedding. Hopefully after that is done, I will be able to narrow down the pictures a bit more.