Going Together

Going Together, originally uploaded by The Paper Doll.

A quick layout I slapped together, inspired by a free Micheals project sketch. I plan on putting this on my demo board for the Scrapbooking classes I teach at Michaels. Ok so not the original, I'll keep that. I made a copy of it to post on the board.
Geeze we look young.

Taking a break from paper

Taking a break from paper, originally uploaded by The Paper Doll.

I was feeling a little burned out on paper crafting so I've decided to dig out a bunch of beads I purchased while on vacation in June. I also broke out the soldering iron, wire and chain. We'll see what I come up with.

Cricut book binder

Cricut book binder, originally uploaded by The Paper Doll.

Holy Moly this took forever just to laminate and put the pages in the binder. There has GOT to be a better way. A better way to what you may ask? I saw somewhere on the Cricut forum that someone had unbound all of the books that come with the cartridges and put them in binders in alphabetical order, excluding the thirty thousand pages of basic information repeated over and over in 20 different languages. It so inspired me that I wanted to give it a try. Now I almost wish I hadn't. I know once I get all of the books situated it will actually make my life easier to find shapes I want to use, but good grief! Maybe I'm not using the right binders, maybe there are itty bitty page protectors that I can slide these things into. Maybe I should just get a laminating machine next month. Either way I really need to find an easier way to do this. Any suggestions?

The Clutter Studio Blog is up!

Hoooray! That's where I'll post projects, class schedules, tutorials and links to other cool learning tools. I'll post stuff here too, no worries!

Clutter Studio Blog

Marshall's USMC album, Opening Page

Marshall's USMC album, Opening Page, originally uploaded by The Paper Doll.

1 page down, untold number left to go! Like many of my projects, this one's been in the works for years, I can't even remember how many really. if I had to guess I'd say at least 4. I'm so easily distracted by newer, shinier projects that I tend to shelve the bigger ones. I'm an instant gratification kind of girl, a craft sprinter, not a marathon crafter. Anything that threatens to take longer than a week might as well lay down and give up on getting done in the same year it's started. Sad but true. So you can imagine my delight at digging out a well preserved project and getting something done on it. This is one of the projects I promised myself I'd work on for the UWYH challenge. Yay for actually doing it!

Background paper: K&Company, 12x12 Marines Flat Paper
Decadry rub on letters: #5 (24pt)
Cricut: Stand and Salute cart Star frame and Banner .

All is right with the stamps.

YAY! I finished going through my stamps and got my photo-polymer stamps organized and put away. Well, I did and then I started playing with them. Here's a not so great shot of the binders and their contents. I hope this helps someone get organized and really get inspired.


Now to get some projects done using those stamps! That's a task I'll start tomorrow, after a full day of running errands, laundry, organizing and chasing after kids, I'm beat!

Still plugging away.

You never really realize how much stuff you accumulate until you decide to clean house. Today my craft cleaning task turned to my stamp collection and man! I have so many stamps! Ever since I discovered clear photo-polymer stamps, I've been neglecting my old wood mount stamps so I decided to go through them. One shoe box later of discards and I began to wonder what I really do with them all. How often do I go back and use the ones I have? How often to I go out and buy new ones for specific projects? Have I even used all of the stamps I own? Since this month has been my Cricut Use What You Have challenge to use carts you've bought but never used, I think next month I'll challenge myself to use stamps that I haven't ever used before. Thing is, I think I'll need more than a month to get through it all. I have three 3" binders full of sheets of photo-polymer stamps and about 8 drawers and one shelf of wood mounted stamps. It's enough to make a girl wonder. Do I create or am I really just collecting art and craft supplies. I think I'm going to need about 3 months of UWYH to feel like I'm actually using what I've been buying. Maybe more. What a glut of stuff! Don't even get me started on albums. I've got a drawer and a half of albums I haven't even started. I just bought them because they were on sale and I liked them. ENOUGH! I need to get the unused stuff out of my house before I bring anything else in. Not that getting rid of my excess is an excuse to buy more. If anything it should be a lesson in not buying what I don't need. I'm going to re-evaluate my mess at the end of the month and decide just how much I want to purge. Until then I'm just going to keep plugging along with the challenges and avoiding craft shopping like the plague. Wish me luck!

Finished!

Hooray! I finished the last mini album to send out to family. Each one is different but each one has the same photos in it. I hope everyone likes them. Now all I have to do is mail them out. I'd like to do that tomorrow but who knows?
Here are my favorite pages from this one.





Supplies:
Cricut: All Mixed Up and Sugar and Spice carts
Stamps:Inkadinkado Baby Girl, Heidi Swapp alphabet, Imaginisce Birth Announcement and Baby Stats and Recollections Sweet Baby Girl.
Paper: Stampin' Up! basic grey cardstock, white cardstock, and I can't remember what the patterened paper source is, BAD scrapbooker!

Contemplating a Blog name change

Logo, originally uploaded by The Paper Doll.

Because it would be so much easier to just have one blog for the stuff I make AND the website, whenever I get that up.

Muse & U2, Grace & I

Muse & U2, Grace & I
Originally uploaded by The Paper Doll

And this begins my projects for August Use What You Have challenge! I plan on entering this as part of my submission for the Bombshell Stamps DT Call. Wish me luck!

Supplies:
Inkadinkado: Rockstar stamp Set
Hampton Art: Clock stamp set designed by Kolette Hall
Art Warehouse: Beloved Punctuation stamp set

Cricut: Storybook Cart for title font
Basic Grey background paper: Black Tie
Stampin' Up!: cardstock in basic grey and black

Cricut Circle Use What You Have August 2010 Challenge Charm

Cricut Circle Use What You Have August 2010 Challenge Charm
Originally uploaded by The Paper Doll

I haven't gotten much response on the Circle forum for the August Use What You Have Challenge, so I'm upping the ante. Everyone who makes it through the challenge gets a new charm for their bracelet! It's a cute little circle tag with an A for August and a chunk of Peridot (August's birth stone). Mind you it's not high quality peridot, but it's cute and I think it's very appropriate. Good luck challengers!

Creative Escape Entry

Creative Escape Entry
Originally uploaded by The Paper Doll

Kinda bummed that I didn't win the Creative Escape contest, but really, when you don't enter the right member number on the entry, what can you expect? D'oh! I AM really proud of the card and happy that it's being donated to help the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society though. That's definitely a win win situation.

I used the Cricut to cut all of the paper elements, the Cuttlebug to emboss the lower left hand corner, Yudu paints for the red swirl behind the bird cage (stenciled with a stencil created with the Cricut) and all papers are Bazzill.

Current Desktop Mess

Current Desktop Mess
Originally uploaded by The Paper Doll

So it's that time again. Time to go through my studio, get rid of the stuff I'm not using and make use of the stuff I have. Recently I've gone on a crafty purchase binge. What can I say, Michael's had the cricut cartridges on sale at deeply discounted prices. Not to mention suddenly being able to get out of the house after a long and difficult pregnancy that kept me stuck in bed for most of the time. I was overdue for a craft binge. Now that I've been cut off, I'm gearing up to Use What I Have. That's right folks, I've signed up for the August 2010 Use What You Have Challenge. For the month of August I will buy no unnecessary craft supplies. I'm only allowing adhesive and replacement blades. I'll just have to make due with what I have, which is quite a lot. I doubt I'll be suffering.

Who's with me?

Check it out here:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/usewhatyouhave/

Good Luck!

First Class!

For the Blog
Originally uploaded by The Paper Doll

YAY! For the first Clutter Studio scrapbook crop and class we'll be making photo album scrapbooks, which are super easy. They're a great project for beginners to cut their teeth on, and great for catching up on those photo occasions that you want to scrap but don't have much time for. I'm planning on sending a bunch of these out to my family who haven't had a chance to meet our newest addition.

If you're in Southwest VA and you want a chance to take this class or just get out of the house for an evening, come check us out.

Clutter Studio Group on Facebook

What's the Haps?

So perhaps I should update. Since the last post I conceived a child, had said child, made some stuff, and started renovations on the house. Supposedly the renovations are for my new studio space so I can actually have clients come over but all we've gotten done is the upstairs bathroom and even that's not finished. We DO have nifty stairs to the attic though. The attic being where my studio space is supposed to be. I say supposed because every time I turn around my husband is talking about more stuff that he plans on putting up there. Not. Cool.

There are many things that I've made since my last post, and I really need to post some catch up photos. As soon as I take said catch up photos. Until then I'll leave you with the news that I'll soon be teaching scrapbook technique classes as well as hosting crops at least once a month. YAY! I'm really excited about it. Other happy news (other than my new daughter, who has me wrapped around her tiny little finger), I am now a member of the Cricut Circle. Yay for the insider scoop! More details to follow as soon as I have them.

Now I'm off to fiddle around with the Gypsy, my 32nd birthday gift to myself. Ta!

End of the year Teacher's Gifts

End of the year Teacher's Gifts
Originally uploaded by The Paper Doll

YAY! I finished them in the nick of time! I didn't get to bed until 5 am this morning. I am so riding the high of sleep deprivation, which is good because it's distracting me from the fact that my little brother is recovering from colon surgery. It was this or pace the floors, so I'm glad my girl asked me to make something for each of the teachers in her life. She's so sweet and kind hearted, she didn't want to exclude anyone. Of course that means more work for me, but I was happy to do it, and she helped a bit. She made bookmarks for all the male teachers. She's a cool kid. I also purchased a new cartridge for the Cricut that I've wanted for a very long time. Tags, Bags, Boxes & More. I can't wait to play with it, but I can barely think straight. I hope to play with it more this weekend. I'm going to go lay down.

Wedding Card

Cherish
Originally uploaded by The Paper Doll

This is the first time I've made a card without a sketch in a very very long time. I'm very pleased with the outcome. I am not very pleased with the outcome of the picture on the other hand. I really need to make a white box for photographing things like this but where on earth would I put it? There is absolutely no space anymore, I barely have enough room to maneuver (that word is waaaay too close to manure) myself to my desk, never mind having a huge box and lights hanging around. I really need to clean this place out. Thank God the neighborhood yard sale is in a few months. I need to start getting ready for that ASAP. Before I can do that though, perhaps I should finish writing about this card yes?

So this is the first time I've used the Cricut (yes folks, I am now the proud owner of a Cricut Expression machine in case I haven't said so about 15 hundred times already) to make a card/envelope set. I also had it bang out that nifty little certificate. I'm telling you, I could get used to not having to cut things out by hand real quick. It's so super handy for lettering too. I haven't even flexed all of the Cricut muscle yet and I'm a little intimidated, but it's fun. I still cut out way more stuff than I need to because I'm so enamored with the features. I can't just put in a piece of paper to cut one thing out, I have to start punching in things to fill the whole paper. I'm going to be overrun very soon. I don't care. I'm sure I can always use the stuff for swaps and other projects.
So I started this card sometime yesterday (shhhh the wedding was Saturday, can you say procrastinate? I can, in fact I just did). Actually I'm fibbing a bit. I started the concept of the card on Friday only to find out that our babysitter backed out last minute and we weren't going to be able to make it to the wedding. Once I realized I had more time I stopped rushing, decided that my original concept was too dark and gloomy for a celebration of such magnitude so I scrapped it and waited for someone to post pictures of the wedding on Facebook. Once I saw the color scheme and style I restarted the process and all of this flowed together relatively effortlessly. I woke up sometime at 2:30am today, worked a bit on the card, did the dishes, made cinnamon rolls, went back to bed, woke up again at 8:30 am (thank you Marshall for letting me sleep late, you really do love me). Once I got back to making the card it was just a matter of stamping, embossing and sticking it all together. Now it's safely in an envelope that needs to make it into my husband's laptop bag. I'm positive it will be completely destroyed, but it's the thought that counts and I can always send them a link of the picture, right?

Another Card Challenge Day with Jess

Cherish
Originally uploaded by The Paper Doll

This is SC225. It's a pretty little number in my current favorite color scheme of blue, white and red. It's very similar to the first card I ever made with Jess so I guess I just like the same kind of papers in different colors and I rather like the Lexicon of Love stamps and Prima flowers. So be it. I can live with that.

Organizing my stamps...

Organizing my stamps...
Originally uploaded by The Paper Doll

Have you ever submitted a card or scrapbook page or other arty crafty item only to realize that you can't remember the names of the stuff you've used? It happens to me all the stinking time. Ok, well maybe I don't submit stuff all the time, but when I do I'm sometimes stumped by who made what I've used. Sometimes I'm lucky and the product information is on the product, most of the time it isn't and I wasn't smart enough to write it down. Those days are over.

Right now I'm making a catalog of all of my stamps, clear and rubber. I've cut scraps of white cardstock into 4"x5" rectangles and I'm stamping the images onto them. Then I write down the product info on the bottom of the card and indicate what kind of stamp (rubber or clear) in the upper right hand corner with an R or C. Then I punch a hole in the upper left hand corner and put them on one of those binder rings. Now, not only can I flip through to find a particular image when I'm looking for one, but I can also flip through and find who made it. I'd like to do this with some of my unmarked papers as well. Some of them have the info on the back, some don't. For the ones that don't, I think I'll do something similar. Yay for organization! It was about time.

Sandra's Cards

Sandras Cards
Originally uploaded by The Paper Doll

This is a batch I made using the Split Coast Stampers challenge forums. I made them for my mommy in-law and gave them to her for Easter. She really liked them.