15 Minute Friday

Once again I have allowed my magazine subscriptions to get out of hand.  So now I'm in the process of ripping out layout ideas from each of the magazines.  

I am using the 15 minute principle to get this project done.  Whenever . . . wherever I can steal a few minutes you will find me with a magazine in hand ripping pages.  For example, if I'm watching a television show with my little one I grab a magazine.  While I watch him play in the tub I'm also ripping out LO/sketch ideas from the magazine.  Heck the other day I took 2 magazines with me to the park.  So while DS played with his little friends I kept one eye on them and the other eye on the magazine.  LOL. 

Once I've selected the LOs/sketches I want to keep I then place them in a page protector and organize the page in one of the 3 ring binders pictured below.  You may find more information about the binders here and here.

As a way of saving precious real estate on my bookshelf I am considering altering a wall mounted file holder like the one pictured below.  Besides, the less space I have to save magazines the less likely I am to hoard them.  :-)

Photo courtesy of RSH catalog

As always, thanks for stopping by . .  . 

Yoli


Finial for my Clip-it-Up

When I made my Clip-it-Up I purposely left some of the threaded rod exposed at the top of the tree. My original intention was to add a decorative curtain rod finial. However I decided it would be much more fun to create my own decorative topping rather than to using a traditional finial.

As you can imagine, my head is spinning with so many ideas. The plan is to change the topping with the seasons/holidays. For now, the first of such finials/topping is the little cake I made the other day. It's just too stinkin' cute don't you think? LOL

As you can see from this picture, I've added a few more items to the tree. Items such as my embossing folders and a few large Sizzix Tim Holtz's dies I have in my collection. Unfortunately, I've run out of clips. If you own a Clip-it-Up I would love to hear what you are using for clips. I've used some of the Clip-it-Up clips. I've seen others use paper clips and shower curtain rings. What are you using?

As we remember today, on El Dia de los Muertos, all our loved ones who have passed away I leave you with this picture. This art piece was created by the kids at our local community center using rice, beans and chiles. Pretty awesome if you ask me.

As always . . . thanks for stopping by.

Yoli

15 Minute Project: card holder

While I was cleaning up my sb room I found a small box of handmade Christmas card. These days I only make my own cards for Christmas so I don't have that many. However, I still wanted to find a way of displaying them in the room.

I found this flip up album I wasn't using and put the Christmas cards in the sleeves instead of photos. Now inspiration is never too far away. LOL

Thanks for stopping by . . .

Yoli

The closet -- Part I cleaning up

BEFORE
In order to finally organize the closet in my sb room I needed to start by cleaning up the surrounding area. In a prior post I showed you the condition of the room. There was so much crap on the floor you could not safely navigate from the island to the closet.


So this is before.

THIS IS AFTER
Do you hear angels singing? I know I do. :-) All joking aside I was able to find a new 'home' for everything on the floor. I did this by placing three boxes in the hall; (1)docs to shred, (2) sb goodies to be donated, and (3) old photos to be organized. What did not fit into any of those categories my old friend Hefty Bag took care of the rest. :-) What is most amazing about this project was the fact that I did this all over the course of a weekend working a few minutes here and there.

Closet Part II: Finally organizing the closet

So now that I've cleaned the floor . . . sketched the closet layout . . . and called the handyman . . . its time to finally tackle the closet. If you don't hear from me over the course of the next few weeks . . . call 911. LOL

Thanks for stopping by . . .

Yoli

15 minute Friday . . .

This project got a little more involved than I expected. But I am happy to report that it is done! I did end up keeping my metal embellishments and tools in the desktop organizer. I used Crate Paper to provide a decorative element to the front of the drawers. I then created labels, using some chic hardware from SU, to identify the contents of the larger drawers.
During this process I discovered that regular Scrap Rack page inserts were not well suited for metal embellishments. Scrap Rack does sell insert sheets for chunky embellishments but I did not want to spend any money. So I kept the metal embellishments in the drawer and transferred the flat embellishments to the SR. I did however have to re-organize the spindles in order to fit the new embellishments into the Scrap Rack.










At this point I'm on a roll so I decided to get rid of my Pampered Chef tool caddy. I know what you are thinking . . . "OMG she didn't" . . . but I did! I separated the pens & hobby knives I use most often and stored them in a desktop organizer I have on the island. The rest of the pens are now stored in a drawer. I never fully utilized the caddy so I doubt I'll miss it but let's see what happens.













Stay tuned until next time . . . same bat time . . . same bat channel

Yoli

15 Minute Project: re-organizing my embellishments

The fate of this little bin is still undecided as I am currently purging and re-organizing its contents. The bin sits on one of one main scrapbooking tables so its taking up valuable real estate. Before purchasing my Scrap Rack this is where I kept the chunky embellishments.


I am now organizing most of the embellishments from the drawers into my Scrap Rack. I may keep my metal embellishments and assorted tools in the bin but that is yet to be decided.

While I decide what to do with my little drawer/bin organizer I was wondering . . . what do you organize in these plastic bins? I would appreciate different ideas on how you use these drawers in your sb room. If I cannot use it I could always give it to the boys for their Lego room. :-)

Thanks for stopping by . . .

Yoli

It's been a long time since I've had a chance to blog and even longer time since I've had time to be crafty. :-( As my darling SIL likes to say, "life just gets in the way some times". LOL.

The good news is things have settled a bit . . . for now . . . so its time to get back to doing something I love . . . scrapbooking. However, I have one little problem . . . my room is such a mess that I'm barely able to enter the space let alone craft! In the past few months the room has served as the family's dumping ground. I have important personal papers that need to be filed . . . expensive photography equipment that should be stored . . . projects that need to be finished . . . and a crap load of embellishments and papers that need to be organized.

If your messy room is preventing you from being crafty . . . join us at the Scrapbooking Room Yahoo group for this month's challenge. My personal goal is mainly to clean up and put things away. At this time I'm not going to re-organize any of the items but instead focus on putting things back in their place.

Don't let the magnitude of the challenge discourage you from join us. Break down the task. I'm going to dedicate at least 15 minutes a day to the clean up effort. Perhaps you could focus on that box that has been sitting on the floor starring at you. Yup . . . I'm talking to you. :-) Perhaps you have papers . . . embellishment . . . stamps you recently purchased that need to be put away. No that was not meant for you. You would NEVER do that, eh? LOL

Whatever the personal challenge you decide to set for your room . . . join us. Tell us your area of concentration and send before and after pics. Your among friends who understand so its ok to share with us. :-)

Look forward to having you join us in this challenge.

Yoli

15 minute Friday . . .

on Sunday! I know. :-( I set the wrong date for this to post. I thought Friday was March 21st. Mommy moment I suppose! :-(

Original post:
A few weeks ago I was working on a LO about a visit to our local aquarium. After selecting my photos I went to the Scrap Rack (SR) to see what embellishments I had that could be used for this LO. To my surprise there wasn't much there with an aquarium type theme. So I went to my LSS and purchased a few things.

PROBLEM:
A week or so afterwards I was going through my stash of papers and found not one but TWO kits with an aquatic theme!! In addition to the paper the kits have flat embellishments that would have worked out nicely on my aquarium LOs. ARGH!

SOLUTION:
First, I'm going through the paper stash again. I have been breaking out my kits for a little while now. Obviously I missed one or two. :-)

Secondly, I am leveraging my SR & adding at least one 12x12 sheet in hopes that it will jog my memory. For example, I just recently purchased some gorgeous papers & stickers from Bo-Bunny's Mamma-Razzi collection. If you are live with a camera glued to your hand, as I do, these are MUST have papers. But anyways . . . I digress. Back to my story . . . afraid that I would forget I had the papers I have created a new sub-category. Under the travel section in my SR I created a tab for any embellishments that have to do with photography. Just in case the sticker sheet isn't sufficient to remind me of the accompanying papers, I added one 12x12 Mamma-Razzi sheet to the SR.

For the aquatic themed kits, I separated the flat embellishments from the kit and stored the tags under the summer section in my SR. I considered creating a new category in my SR just for animals. However, the papers have a beach/aquatic theme which of course immediately reminds me of summer.

If your papers are not organized in the same way your flat embellishments are organized, you may want to put a little note with the embellishments reminding you where the paper is stored.

Well . . . this is it for today. Hope you find this information helpful. Thanks for stopping by.

Yoli

15 minute Friday . . .

For awhile now I've wanted a stash of ready to use mats but refrained from buying the 4x6 paper stacks because I did not have a dedicated place to put them. So a few weeks I found two vintage floppy holders at my MIL's house that belonged to DH. So I repurposed the floppy holder and I'm now using one of them to store my 4x6 mats. The mats are organized by the colors of the rainbow (pink, Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Violet, brown, black, gray, white)but I kept the Autumn & Christmas stacks together.




I'm looking forward to flipping through the file and easily finding the mat I need for my LO. Easy, breezy, beautiful cover girl! LOL

Thanks for stopping by. Have a fabulous weekend!

Yoli

15 Minute Friday -- containing the beast

I am always amazed by the mess I make while being creative. I have 3 six foot tables in my sb room yet I often find myself running out of desktop space! It seems like I pull-out every piece of scrapbook paper, stamp and embellishment I own to create just one simple LO.

BEFORE: So this is typically what my desk looks like . . . on a good day . . . when I'm being creative.

SOLUTION: So on Monday I took advantage of the President's Day sale at Michael's and purchased this desktop organizer. So instead of creating piles upon piles of paper the plan is use the desktop organizer for temporarily storage. Any papers/embellishments being used to create the LO/project can be temporarily stored in the organizer. In order for this plan to succeed however I must file any papers/embellishments once I am done with the LO/project.

AFTER: The first thing I did was attack the mess that was on my primary scrappin' table . . . 15 minutes at a time, of course. I did take a few '15 minute sessions' to clean up the mess but some days that is all I have.

I am loving my 'new found' space! I've even had a chance to create a LO on my clean desktop. It's too early to tell if this will be a long term solution to my problem but I am hopeful. I promise to post an update later as I begin to use the new system. I hope this organizer helps me contain the beast!

Well . . . this is all for now. Hope you are able to steal a few moments this weekend just to play. Thanks for stopping by.

Yoli

Just getting back to things . . .

We are just getting back from our little family vacation to Florida. While visiting the area we hoped to see the Space Shuttle launch. As is our luck, the Endeavour did not take off until we were in the airport about to board the plane home. Sigh! I did manage however to accomplish one of my goals for this trip . . . taking my Nikon D50 off auto mode. I am experimenting with different settings on my camera and hope to share the experience with you in the very near future.

Now that our vacation is over the REAL fun begins! LOL. As you see from the photo on the right, my bedroom is a mess of suitcases and carry-on bags that need to be unpacked. Talk about a 15 minute project on a large scale! But that is exactly what I am going to do. It's too nice outside to be trapped indoors cleaning.

Lastly, I FINALLY found the island for my sb room! It's actually a kitchen island with shelves, drawers and cabinet doors. It has lots of storage space but one of the best things about this piece . . . I don't have to paint it! LOL!! The body is black & the top is a cheery colored wood. The dual wood tones of the island bring together, in one single piece, all the wood tones that already exist in the room. Hope to assemble it this weekend. Stay tuned for additional photos! YEAH!!

15 minute Friday . . .

This 15 minute project has nothing to do with organizing your scrapbook room. Instead, I used the time to add a decor element to my sb room.

A few months ago I purchased these beautiful 12x12 papers at my LSS. The paper is manufactured by Graphic 45 and its absolutely stunning! I just could not cover up this paper with pictures . . . even if those pictures were of my own beautiful son! So I framed the paper instead.

As you can see, I've placed the frames near my sb table (seen on the left side of the photo). I want to enjoy looking at them everyday! I LUV it! The sb table, the surrounding decor and the stamp shelf (which BTW is my FAVORITE piece of furniture in the room) all help create my own little slice of heaven!

15 minute Friday

My little one and I have both been sick so unfortunately I've had little time to devote to sb this week. I did manage however to work on an ongoing project for another 15 minutes this week.

My friend Nancie is going to be quite pleased when she reads this post. She has been the one encouraging me to create a skirt for my mannequin out of ribbon. Thanks Nancie!

Not much organization to the skirt. I've simply placed the pretty ribbon in the front while ribbon that I don't like have been used to fill the back of the skirt. Any ribbon smaller than 12" are stored in jars right above my sb desk.

As you can see from the spools on the floor, I'm not done with this project. I also have spools of ribbon in a drawer that I will use to complete this project . . . 15 minutes at a time, of course!

Have a fabulous weekend! Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there!!

Happy National Scrapbooking Day!

In honor of this auspicious celebration I have completed a LO and worked on two of my 15 minute projects! YEAH!

Let's start with the LO. I love the funny look on DS's face as he opens his Christ-mas presents back in 2006. He is now 5 years old and still likes to make funny faces except now he thinks it's only funny if he has his tongue sticking out! :-(

15 Minute Project. I actually worked on one quick 15-minute project and a larger project that is going to take several 15 minute increments to complete. :)

Quick project #1: Covered a small binder. The printed paper is actually a magazine ad for this beautiful Asian inspired fabric. A cheap and easy solution to otherwise dull white binders. :-) Wish I had some of that fabric!

Longer term project: I have two drawers full of flat embellishments that need to be organized in the Scrap Rack. I try not to but occasionally I find myself hiding my mess in a drawer or a box. It's a dangerous game I'm playing here . . . I know . . . but I am happy to say that I do eventually organize the items.

Well that is all for this week. I hope you were able to enjoy NSD!