Do you have paper trimmer woes?
Am I the only one who does? I started my scrapbooker days with a Carl rotary trimmer, and I absolute LOVE it! The problem is where I live there aren’t any local scrapbook stores or anyplace that carries the blades or the rubber strip thingie replacements. So I’ve tried to look for a different trimmer to use as a backup while I find a place online to buy my Carl replacements.
Okay, I happen to like the Fiskars brand in general. I love my green Fiskars drill that Donna Downey taught me to use. Their scissors are great. But I haven’t found a paper trimmer yet that will cut a straight line. The gray and orange one drove me crazy. Every piece of paper I cut was crooked! Do you know how frustrating that can be? Then I heard other scrapbookers talking about an issue Fiskars was having with the arm or something that was making it cut crooked. So I thought wow, maybe it’s not my fault! So, I called Fiskars (who by the way, have the friendliest customer service people!). They sent me a replacement arm thingie, but I STILL couldn’t cut a straight line with it, so off it went.
Next I tried the green Cutterpede trimmer. I’d heard great things about it. I didn’t SAY great things about it when I got a crooked cut every time with it also. Now I’m starting to get a complex, right? What’s wrong with me? How difficult is it to operate a paper trimmer, for crying out loud? Maybe I need to stick with the rotary.
Finally, a few weeks ago I was leafing through a catalog from LTD Commodities and found a pink Cutterpede. It was $14.95, so I figured for that price it was worth a try. It’s not a rotary, but I really actually like it. The first time I used it, I expected a crooked cut, and I let out a “woo-hoo!” when it came out straight?
Does it get better than that? A scrapbooking tool that WORKS and it was a bargain? I don’t think so. 
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Filed under Scrapbooking | Comments (3)A Mother’s Pride
I don’t think I’ve ever been as proud of my daughter as I am right now. I mentioned in a previous post that she was scheduled to get her hair cut and donate it to Locks of Love, and yesterday she actually did it. Honestly, I thought she’d chicken out at the last minute. But she was brave and she was happy about it and she’s thrilled with her new haircut. And more importantly, she’s thrilled with the idea that there’s going to be a little bald girl very soon that’s going to have a wig made out of her beautiful hair and that THAT little girl is going to be so happy.
I’m so inspired by this kid. I told her this morning that I’m proud of her because she is doing a KIND thing. I work hard as a mother trying to instill kindness in my kid, and right now I’m feeling like I’m doing a pretty good job.
Filed under Life | Comments (3)
Altered Lunch Box First Aid Kit
Seems like as a scrapbooker I’m unable to do any kind of project without adding something from my scrapbooking supplies. Sometimes my supplies are a lifesaver! Last night my little girl had tap dancing class and we were running late, as ALWAYS, and when she went to put on her tap shoes the ribbon shoelace was missing from 1 of them. After looking around everywhere and not being able to find it, I pulled a black ribbon from my scrapbooking supplies and we were in business! Of course, then she realized she had a blister on the back of each heel and I had to look everywhere for Band-Aids! Why does she have to mention this at the last minute as we’re walking out the door? We were 10 minutes late, as ALWAYS! Someday I should go see a shrink and uncover the reason for my chronic lateness. I’ve heard before that when you’re always late it’s because subconsciously you don’t really want to go to whereever it is you’re headed, but in my case that would be every single time I leave the house (you think I’m kidding…but so NOT) so I don’t buy it.
So here’s a project made with my scrapbooking supplies also. This is for those of you going to soccer games, softball games, etc. My daughter and I actually made this as a project for Girl Scouts, but I keep it in the car so when we’re at a game or on vacation in the future we will have a first aid kit with us.
Here are the supplies I used in case you’re interested:
Provo Craft lunch pail
various brands of ribbons
Making Memories “rummage” rubon letters
Reminisce “ouch” clear stickers
Bazzill “lava” cardstock
We R Memory Keepers “love is all around” patterned paper
dollar store flowers
button from mother-in-law’s sewing basket
I LOVE how this turned out. I just think it’s the cutest. And would you believe the first time I took it to a softball game of my daughter’s, someone needed a Band-Aid? Hooray for scrapbooking moms!
(click on photos for larger size)
Filed under Projects | Comments (2)Want to win some scrapbook supplies?
I started out reading someone else’s blog and ended up at this blog and you should check it out. She’s also giving away a crapload of scrapbooking supplies cause she’s cleaning house! She has twins, of course she has no time to scrapbook!
Scrapbook lesson #2 from a 7-year-old
(click photo to see larger version)
Have you ever as an adult tried to let your hair grow long? I don’t know about you, but I’ve tried it many times and it nearly drives me to the edge of insanity (and I don’t have far to go people!). When it gets the point where it’s LONGER but not LONG ENOUGH and you can’t do ANYTHING with it and you just want to chop it all off right now? Ever been to that point? Well, I have many times…..(which is why I have semi-short hair right now!)
But this kid…..this beautiful creature daughter of mine…..she’s 7 years old and she’s amazing (most of the time). She is an inspiration to me. Last year in August 2006 she entered a local fair’s ponytail contest. And while she DID get her picture and info put in the local newspaper (totally cool!), she didn’t even PLACE in the contest. The girl who got 3rd place? Her hair was still like 3 inches longer than Summer’s ponytail. So Summer was devastated. She didn’t care about winning, just wanted to get 3rd place. So she decided to wait………
And she waited…..for an entire year. She refused to let me make her an appointment for a haircut until that fair and that ponytail contest came around again. She was determined to let that hair grow, and it did of course, so that she could at least get 3rd place in 2007. Now mind you, this kid whines and screams every single morning when her hair is brushed because it hurts, we pull it when we’re brushing, etc. I swear, her hair literally ties itself into knots when she’s sleeping at night. Knots, I tell you! It’s crazy. So for the last year she’s been suffering the brushing every morning and I’ve been telling her, “You know, if you’d just cut the curls off the bottom it would be easier to brush.” But she was not going to be deterred from her goal. And I admire her for that and am inspired by that. She had a goal and she stuck to it. No matter what.
Edited to add: I can’t believe I’m such an idiot I forgot to mention that THIS year Summer got 3RD PLACE. Her ponytail was 24-7/8 inches long. The look of surprise on her face when they called her name was so priceless I almost cried!
So my daughter is scheduled for her haircut next week. She decided without any urging from me that she wanted to cut off A LOT of her hair and donate it to Locks of Love. I can’t describe to you the feeling of pride that this instills in me. I have tried so hard to teach my child to care for other people and to have kindness and giving in her heart. A lot of times I don’t see it in her, like when her younger cousin is here and she doesn’t want her to touch her toys! When she doesn’t want to share or play with younger kids. (What is up with that?) But this gesture shows it. She’s not even nervous or worried about the fact that all that hair she took so long to grow is going to be gone. I, on the other hand, am going to quietly sob when she’s not looking (you think I’m kidding?). I feel like it’s going to change her somehow, she’ll be different, she’ll be older or something. I don’t know.
I think about how sometimes I have goals, (um…like every single day), and they don’t get reached. Things on my lists don’t get done. And I have multiple lists! Multiple projects! I lack the motivation she had. But watching her day after day I’ve learned something when it comes to my scrapbooking and my projects. I don’t HAVE to get a project done right now all in one day. I can just steadily plod along day after day and work on them little by little until I reach my goal. I’ve got all these ideas for little mini books, but I don’t pull out my supplies and photos for them because I don’t have time to finish the book in one sitting. So what? From now on, I’m gonna do it anyway! I’m gonna pull out my stuff and I’m gonna work on a mini book 1 day at a time until it’s finished. Then I’m gonna do another one! And I know it will make me so happy because I want them done so badly. The unfinished-ness bothers the hell out of me. I want to display them. I want to look at them and enjoy them. That’s WHY I scrapbook! That’s why you scrapbook, right? To look at them!
So who’s with me on getting to a goal today? Let’s do it!
Filed under Scrapbooking | Comments (8)How I met Ali Edwards, scrapbook celeb
I don’t know about you people, but I have some scrapbooker celebrity hero idols that have changed the way I scrapbook, and someday I would like to meet them all and hopefully take a class from them. Of course, they’re scattered all over the U.S. and nobody ever comes to little ole’ Illinois, so it’s a bit of a problem. I wrote previously about meeting Donna Downey, and here’s my Ali Edwards story. I’m taking the journaling straight off my scrapbook page you see above.
December 2005 I can’t remember how I “discovered” Ali Edwards but I love her work & her outlook on life. I read her blog every few days & am always inspired by her, not just in scrapbooking but in life in general. I bought her first book the first chance I got & loved it. I was excited when I heard she was coming to a scrapbook store in Indiana within driving distance of me. I couldn’t afford a class, but I wanted to get an autograph. So I drove in a snowstorm (it didn’t start snowing until I was halfway there–and there was NO going back!) for 2 hours to get there, arrived with 30 minutes to spare only to find Ali had already left (the crowd of scrapbookers had disappeared). WHAT? Are you kidding me? The girls could see I was upset (read: hyperventilating )so they called the store owner who was taking Ali out to dinner & she came back for me! Ali was so nice. She signed my book for me & posed for several photos. Cause I need ‘em for my scrapbook, right?
P.S. Since then Ali wrote another book, and of course it was as fantastic as the first. Her third book is slated to come out in a few months and I am on pins and needles waiting for it!
Filed under Scrapbook Layouts, Life, Scrapbooking | Comments (2)Curing scrapper’s block part 3
Organize your supplies. I’m an organizer at heart. Yeah, you wouldn’t know it if you came to my house, but I seriously have fun organizing things, especially if it’s someone else’s stuff! I like to have a nice clean work area, so it always motivates me to scrapbook if I clean my work table off and put everything away. Also, I get motivated by going through my supplies and getting rid of things that I no longer want and finding items that I forgot I had. It’s like shopping without money. And who doesn’t love shopping, right?
There’s just something about seeing all my papers and rustling through my embellishments and ribbons that makes me want to USE them and scrapbook right now. Sometimes I’ll look through my photos and I’ll see one that will give me an idea for a layout so I’ll throw together a few things that I think will work with it and save it for when I have more time. If I have even 10 minutes of free time, you’ll find me in my scraproom doing something.
It just feels so wrong if I don’t include a photo whenever I write, so the one above was taken by my friend Edie in California. Isn’t is awesome?
Filed under Scrapbooking | Comment (1)Come to my Window……
This is the view from my office/scraproom window. I’ve been sitting here getting distracted by these little guys. When the window beside my desk is open, I can actually hear their little wings going bzz…bzz….it’s AWESOME! It reminds me of the sound of a weedeater thingie. Sounds weird, but it’s the only thing I can think of in comparison at the moment
These hummers make me think of how looks can be deceiving. They’re so small and pretty, but they’re MEAN! One will be trying to get a drink at the feeder, and another one will come down and just totally dive bomb him and knock him down. Seriously, someone is going to get a broken wing :) But the little guy is persistent. He gets knocked down, but he flies back up and tries again.
Sometimes I just feel that way about life in general. You get knocked down? Just get back up and try again! Nothing to do with scrapbooking I guess, but sometimes I need a reminder to keep trying. Maybe I’ll just make a page with this photo to remind myself of that.
Do you have something that you keep in sight everyday to remind yourself to keep going when you don’t feel like it? I’d love to hear it.
Filed under Life | Comment (1)Life is Fragile–Handle with Care
My best friend’s sister is dying of cancer. She is only 40 years old, and she has come to the end of her road in life. I’ve actually never met her, but I think about her all the time and I pray for her peace. It’s a hard thing, this slow process of saying goodbye to someone you love every day. It’s painful for me to experience it through my friend. It’s hard. It’s hard for ME, so I can only imagine how hard it is for her. Sometimes life just isn’t fair. She has a teenage son, and I wonder does he know his mother? Does he really know who she is in her heart?
Life is fragile, people. We all tend to forget that, I know. We all know it. This is the reason I make scrapbooks. This is especially why I am in my scrapbooks more often now in the last year or so. I want my beautiful daughter to know me. Not just when I’m gone, but now too. I want her to know my dreams and my faults and my mistakes. (and trust me, she points them out to me on a regular basis!)
My daughter is 7 years old, and if you were to ask her what my favorite drink is she’d tell you “Mountain Dew.” (true) I’m addicted to the stuff, and she knows that. I know, it seems like a small thing, but she could also tell you that my favorite colors are yellow and pink. Because she pays attention. Because she asks these things. Because she WANTS TO KNOW these things.
And I think that’s so cool…
Filed under Life | Comments (2)Scrappers Block Solved part 2
I mentioned in a previous post that I make a mini book to try and get out of a scrapbooking funk. Here’s another thing I do to try and get rid of scrapper’s block. Make a theme scrapbook.
I go through my papers, my embellishments, my quotes/poems/whatever, ribbons, you name it, and pull out everything that I think might be coordinated with what I want to do. For instance, if I happen to have 2,000 Disney photos just lying around and I’d like to get them in a book, I go looking for my Disney papers and etc., quotes, maybe try to sketch out some pages for the book. Usually when I do this kind of theme book it ends up being a mini book also. I guess I have a thing for mini books, huh? When I have a block and I just can’t figure out how I want one of my layouts to go, it seems like stepping away from the layout and doing something different always works for me. And I guess I like the mini books because I end up with a finished product, which is MOTIVATING!
What do YOU do for scrapper’s block?
