Category Archives: stash

Jul9

Had to Have Tools

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Had to Have Tools

We’ve all got supplies and tools that we had to have when they first came out because they were so exciting and innovative, right? Or is that just me?

Well, I’m ready to own up to some silly purchases of my own. And, perhaps even get them out of their packaging and use them! Wouldn’t that be novel?

There are a few things I bought over the years that I’ve used occasionally. Just enough to know I should probably get rid of them, but I just can’t make myself.


Things like the wide format Cricut that I’ve used a handful of times to make full page die cut overlays and a few titles. It’s gotten more use as a classroom tool than as a scrapbooking tool.


Then there’s the light box for use with dry embossing. It was very helpful for creating my sister’s wedding invites and for looking at slides, but it rarely gets used.


How about the punch anywhere from Fiskars? That was so exciting when it came out. I was going to use it to punch windows in pages all over the place, and then reuse the punched out material too. Except placing the punch where I wanted it was way more finicky than I thought it would be, and the punched out material had punch marks in it. So much for using it on photos!


Another big had to have was the blank stamp roller that you could use with any clear stamp. Dude, that was calling my name. It’s still in the packaging. Never been used.

Same goes for the Hot Boss. Writing in embossing powder? How could I resist? Apparently I should have, since that’s also still unused. It’s so popular, you can’t buy it any more, but check out the video from Adorn-it. It will make you want it too!

So. These things are taking up space in my craft room. While I know I want to hold onto the light box, the punch anywhere punches should probably leave. Jury’s still out on the Cricut. And perhaps it’s time to use those untried tools to see how they work. Yep. That’s what I’ll do!

I’ll make something, and you can tell me if the tools are cool enough to keep. I’m even wondering if the Hot Boss will work in any way similar to the Fuze tool that’s all the rage with the Pocket Life crowd. Check back next week to see what I’ve got!

Jun10

Glitter Conundrum

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Glitter Conundrum

I have a glitter conundrum. I am not a big fan of it, but I love it. Yep. Love it and hate it, that’s me.

Let’s talk pros and cons of glitter for a minute, shall we?

Pros

  1. Makes everything bright and happy
  2. Adds a little bit of elegance and/or whimsy to your crafty creations
  3. Comes in every color under the sun
  4. Easily adds visual texture without bulk
  5. Easy to add to projects
friendly glitter || noexcusescrapbooking

friendly glitter

Cons

  1. Sticks to everything
  2. Difficult to contain, aka likes to escape when adhering to projects
  3. Rubs off of “finished” surfaces (think glitter paper)
  4. Can be a health hazard (really!)
  5. Increases the time it takes to finish a project
not so friendly glitter || noexcusescrapbooking.com

not so friendly glitter

There are certain glitter products that I love and don’t want to do without. (Stickles is the first that comes to mind.) There are other products I can live without, even though I have some in my stash. (Pots of glitter from superfine to chunky)

Since I have boys, coming up with ways to use glitter is sometimes problematic. We’ve used it to embellish ornaments and create celebratory pages. Luckily, one of my boys is into all things crafty, which means he comes up with ways to use up glitter, and would love it if more ended up in the craft room.

Also, I have nieces, which makes making pages embellished with glitter more reasonable, especially if the page is about their love of princesses or dress up or superheroes. Of course, my brother-in-law hates glitter with a passion, which somehow gives me more pleasure when I send a glitter laden page about his daughter his way. I am a terrible person.

So, what do you think about glitter? Love it, hate it, or hopelessly confused like me? What are your suggestions for using up glitter? (After all I’ve got a ton, and it needs to get out of my stash!)

I’ll show you some of my favorite ways to use glitter next time!

Oct28

Weird Scrapping Habits (and a reminder!)

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Weird Scrapping Habits (and a reminder!)

Well, maybe not weird. Unless you’re me.

I was all set at the start of the month to participate in the ScrapHappy only Layout a Day challenge. First page done, shared on Flickr, and commenting on lots of other people’s pages. That’s one of the really cool things about the members only LOAD in October. Because it is only open to active members, the group is much smaller, and more intimate. Lots of chatting and sharing happening!

Directions || noexcusescrapbooking.com

Day two came along, and I happily worked on my second page while working on making the watercolor video that I had promised you. You know the one- the one that didn’t get done because I ran into editing issues? Yep. That one. (I will get that finished and posted next month.) After running into problem after problem with my video, I just plain forgot about making a page, ON DAY 2! I got up the next day, and realized I hadn’t finished my page. I then finished it, but neglected to photograph it, and changed gears entirely, getting out the sewing machine, and beginning to work on the slipcover I’m making for an old couch.

IMG_9079

After that, between sewing, birthday preparations, and general randomness, I only finished one more page for LOAD. This one was inspired by a piece of scrap paper sitting in the scraps bin. Originally I was going to use the embossed flowered paper as a mat for another project, but it didn’t quite work the way I wanted. I think I was trying to channel my inner Heidi Swapp.

grandma suits you || noexcusescrapbooking.com

And then I read a post by Shimelle Laine, about how she goes back to her albums and fills in stories as they suggest themselves, and I realized that that was the idea missing from my own albums, so spent a week and a half re-organizing my scrap albums. And made approximately 27 section pages, all looking something like this:

feed me || noexcusescrapbooking.com

So now my albums are organized, based on subject matter and chronology. Definitely feels like I got something accomplished this month!

And, if I make just one more page this month, I’ll have made 31 pages, which, while they weren’t made one each day, is still on average, a page a day!

Don’t my rose-colored glasses look lovely on me?

Okay, one more thing– a reminder!

November will be my second annual Month of Cards. Cards of Gratitude? Heh. Anyone got a name suggestion? Those titles are pretty lame.

Alrighty then, let’s keep on track, shall we?

All November long I will be posting new cards, and at the end of the month, I’ll be sending them out to you! Or I will if I have your mailing address. I sent out a note to those of you on my email list today, asking for your snail mail address. If you didn’t get an email today, you’re not on my email list, and I won’t be able to send you a card! If you want to get a card, make sure you’re on my email list, so I can contact you for your snail mail address!

Hope to hear from you soon! I’d love to send you a card!

Jul28

Inspiration at the Paint Store

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Inspiration at the Paint Store

While trying to decide on which color to paint the new craft room, I came across this flyer from Behr:

Behr 2014 color trends

None of these colors were exactly what I was looking for as far as paint goes, but they worked so well together, I knew they’d make a wonderful page.

Once home, I started pulling scraps out of my scrap bin, and dug around in my journaling/pocket page card stash for some coordinating papers. This is the result:

You are my sunshine || noexcusescrapbooking.com

There were a few scraps left over, so they got thrown on a card, along with a stamp from Judikins stamped with Tim Holtz’s Gathered Twigs Distress ink, if I’m remembering correctly.

behr inspired card || noexcusescrapbooking.com

What’s inspiring you lately? Have anything you’d like to share?

Jun17

Bringing the old out of retirement

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Bringing the old out of retirement

I have a problem. I used to buy lots of things to use as embellishments, and then never actually used them.

Extra wide wired ribbon? Have that. Seasonal stack of themed stickers from DCWV? Yep. Two sets of those. Halloween themed stickers and papers. Sure, how could I resist? Snaps and brads and eyelets in every color of the rainbow? Yes please!

In short, I have a lot of things, cluttering up my storage and my craft room.

What should I do with it all?

To start with, let’s make it easier to get at some of these items. All those little pieces of bling and brads and eyelets? Let’s put them at our finger tips.

One of the ways I look for things is by type: I look for washi tape or brads or wordfetti stickers, rather than something green, or something holiday related. Having similar sorts of things easily accessible in one place makes it more likely I’ll use a variety of them on a page.

IMG_2465

I started out trying to use more embellishments by having a selection in my tool caddy. It quickly became clear that wasn’t that helpful, since I ran out of space and a lot of what wanted to use just didn’t fit.

Another way to use up items is to add a selection to a homemade kit. That has helped get more embellishments out of my stash and onto pages, but there is still so much more!

And then, I won this at a scrapbook crop:

embellishment caddy

Now it sits on my work table, filled with embellishments at my finger tips.

And some of these things are really old. Paper butterflies from the local stamp store before it closed. Eyelets from an eyelet setter kit back before the cropodile was introduced. Plastic slide frames that are probably older than my youngest, who’s nine. (Nine! How do these things happen?!)

embellishment top

So far, the ease of access has been helping me get these old items out of my stash. As I use things up, I plan on pulling in more old stash.

embellishment drawer

What are some things you have on hand that you could use to make older, forgotten product easier to access? Maybe an unused cupcake pan or small tool box would work for you. Don’t go out and buy anything. Look around for things you already have that you can re-purpose.

If all else fails, and I realize I am never going to use something I’ve had on hand for ages, there’s always the donation pile or the circular file. It’s hard, but sometimes you have to let things go.