Tuesday, September 11, 2012

I LOVE teaching

If it were a perfect world I would be teaching classes full-time and being creative every chance I had.

 Unfortunately, reality says I need to have a job that covers health insurance for my family so my dream is not exactly coming true, but I did teach 2 classes last night and I was in my glory.  I truly love teaching!

I had three students in 2 different Martha Stewart classes and I could have stayed there all night working on the projects, sharing tips, and just talking to these wonderful ladies. 

I get so pumped up when I teach that  I go home and start thinking of what other classes I can offer.

 So, to my students that were there last night, I thank you. I hope you enjoyed the classes.



Sharon

Thursday, September 6, 2012

My Homemade Scraprack

The saga continues...

If you are just started here, hold on a moment.  This is part two of a long post.  Go back and read the earlier post from today then come back here.

Once I got my own Scraprack system, I started filing all my "like" items together into the system as described on www.TheScraprack.com webinars.

Here is a photo of my scraprack set up and filled with some of my more popular themes.

Low and behold I am scrapping again!!!

This system really does work.  Not only can I find things, but seeing everything together makes me think of new layouts to put together.  I feel like I have a whole scrapping store at my convenience now because I can actually see what I have instead of trying to find things in closed up drawers and boxes.

I was so excited that this past summer I started a Summer Scrap your Stash Challenge on my blog.  Everyday I posted a new prompt or idea to scrapbook about. I did not feel a need to go scrap shopping even once this summer because i could find everything I needed now.  The best part, I got scrapping again.  And not just once in a while but every single day this summer.  I could actually find what I needed and got tons of cards and layouts completed.  I even got around to finishing up  some class projects from years ago that got filed away and forgotten.  I even filled up two albums with all the pages I did this summer thanks to this new system of organizing.  It really does work.

I love my original Scraprack.  It is thin metal and folds up so I can take it with me to classes, or crops. (I teach scrapbooking) So I am absolutely loving the portability of this system.  Once you get home you can set this unit back up and scrap again.  I was getting tired of breaking it down and setting it back up, though.  So back in June I figured I would build a more permanent unit to keep in my scrap room and keep my original for my Crop crate.
 Here is a photo of my original Scrapbrack set up on top of my Crop Crate.  I can have this sitting next to me at a class, crop or even out by my pool so I can get a few pages done while enjoying the weather.   When it is time to leave or just put things away, everything fits inside the tote. the photos below shows my scraprack and the spinders fitting nicely inside the crate and I close up the cover and roll away with it.

So now that I decided I wanted to keep this one for my travel bag, the dilemma of how to build a permanent unit came.  I knew I wanted it made from nice wood.  Something sturdy enough to hold lots of weight.  But I am not great at cutting angles from wood, so I asked my hubby if he would cut the wood for me and I could build my own Scraprack. Like I said this was back in June.  I would remind him every once in a while.

Just 2 days ago, he not only cut the wood but assembled this for me.  It is 45 inches wide by 14 inches high and sits at a 30 degree angle. 

 I filled the nail holes with wood putty. My dog had to inspect it for quality control.

 Here is a photo of the back side of it.

 This is where I planned to put it once it was finished.  this counter top had just been waiting for a new Scraprack to be placed on it.

 I added two (2) coats of white paint and strips of industrial strength Velcro.  I was concerned the Velcro would not be strong enough but believe me it is!  I got a little edge stuck to my counter top and really had to pull and tug to get it off.  So now it was ready to get loaded.

 Here is a photo from the side to show the angle is sits at.

 Ta-da!  This is all my Themes from "Animals" to "Travel".  I didn't realize it would take up almost the whole unit.  I still have my Alpha and Calendar sections to go.


This is all the space left.  Maybe enough room for 4 more Spinders.  But, I am thrilled with my permanent Scraprack.

Now to start up the fall session of the Webinars and to keep working on getting organized.

Sharon


For those reading this post.  I am cleaning up my scrap room and have lots of retired Stampin Up products on sale.  If you are looking for some bargains Click Here for Shopping

Organization of Scrapping supplies

For those of you that may not be familiar, there is a company called The Scraprack.  Tiffany Spaulding is the owner / inventor / organizer extraordinaire. She came up with an organizational system for your scrapbook supplies that not only stores your items, but her system promises you can find anything you are looking for in less than 5 minutes.  Now how cool is that! 

Of course I did not buy into her system for years.  I would see her at scrapbook expos and walk on by.  I have a great system going.  Why would I spend all the money and time to start over!!!

Boy, was I wrong.  Her system really does work.  I have seen the light and am now a True Believer!!!

First let me share how my things were organized.


Mind you these photos are a little old.  I think they were taken in 2011. But doesn't this look great?  See all those drawers to the left?  I have tools, chipboard pieces, alphabets, some card making supplies, different inks and embossing powders, etc... stored in these drawers.  Doesn't it look all neat and tidy?  Now in the center, below the counter, is paper.  The rack on the left is all Close To My Heart and on the right is all Stampin' Up!. I not only have cardstock, but also background paper or DSP as Stampin Up calls it, , page kits, etc...  Look up and see the wall to wall cabinets.  ALL PAPER!  Different Brands, tons of page kits, paper pads, solid cardstock.  These cabinets are filled left to right with just paper.


Then this is the part of the room I spent most of my time,  I sit in the corner area and had everything in arm's reach.  The photo is a little small but I will try to explain how I stored things.  See over the tissue box in the bottom left? I have tons of the Iris clam boxes.  I stored page kits, class projects, half finished layouts, seasonal items that only got used once a year, along with just random paper in these.  To the right on the floor I had some themed paper in Cropper Hopper Paper holders.   I think these had all Disney stuff in them.  Next is my box of scrap paper.  Keep going toward the right and you see the plastic drawers.  These are color coded with all types of embellishments, brads, buttons, fibers, bling, etc...   Up on the top shelves are shoe boxes with just ribbon/fabric/fiber scraps.  Again stored by color.



 




This is just showing one of the corners in my room.  The spinner on the floor is by Clip-It-Up. I adjusted it to be able to add three layers and this had tons of stickers and other embellishments.  There is another spinner on the counter with Close To My Heart acylic stamp sets.  And then the paper racks on the walls were from a store going out of business.  These stored the current line of Stampin Up card stock.









So this was how everything was stored in my scrap room.  All was and actually still is neat and tidy and many things tucked away so you didn't have to see them.

The problem was, if I sat down and wanted to work on some football photos of my son.  I would have to go through 15 feet of paper to find football themed paper.  Sift through tons of embellishments to find football stuff, open drawer after drawer to find the right brads, fibers, chipboard, etc to put one layout together.  It was exhausting just thinking about starting a layout so, instead, I would just sit in my room and soak in how much I loved this room.  But did not get any projects done.

Then, I started subscribing to Tiffany's free organization webinars.  These would be weekly and broke down different items to work on for that week.  it might be paper one week, next week embellishments, etc...  You can learn about these on her website www.thescraprack.com   this would be a good time bcause I new series of the webinars just started up this week.  Anyway, the first time I signed on, I would watch and listen to her weekly webinar show and I just was not "getting it".  Why on earth would I want to pull out EVERYTHING and re-organize it. 

I listened to the whole series. But didn't really give it a try. That was last fall's series.  Then I signed up again for last Winter's series and it started to make sense to me.  So I started with paper.  I only did about 5 - 7 inches of paper at a time, but I would pull out paper and look at it.  Do I still like it?  Will I use it?  If not, is it worth trying sell? Donate? or just Toss? I even did this to the pads of paper.  There are some papers I LOVE and others I knew I would never use so I started tearing out the paper I knew I would never even think of using.  (There was more than I thought)

By the time the Spring session started I had purged about 32 inches of paper.  And I had sorted the  paper that I liked into her method of Themes.  Now if I wanted to find a piece of football paper it only took me a minute or two, as opposed to hours.  Hey, She may have something here!!!

By the time the Spring Session started I was hooked!  And to top it all off, I was one of tghe few chosen to work at The Scraprack Booth at Creating Keepsakes Convention in Manchester.  I had the option of working for pay or work for products.  Of course I was working towards getting my own Scraprack System that Tiffany designed. Plus I got to meet this amazing woman in person.  She is so warm-hearted.  Just the nicest person.  So, I placed my order and could not wait for my new system to arrive.

I know this is turning into a novel so I will end it for now... but check out my next post to see how things continued.

Sharon


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