Pre-SHO-LOAD Blog Hop

Hi and welcome to my part of the Pre-ScrapHappy Only LOAD Blog Hop!  I am Katrina and if you've been following the hop you've come from Leslie.  If not, don't worry it will cycle you around & you can still get the whole hop.  Sorry I'm a little bit late getting this posted, I've had a bit of excitement here with a lightning strike messing a few things up.  Nothing permanent or even terribly expensive though, so I feel very fortunate.

I live in Colorful Colorado Springs, Colorado.  I have been scrapping pretty much my whole life, but more seriously since Ryan was born in 2002.  I am on the Design Team for the Clear It Out Challenge Blog & the Creative Team of Ready Set Create magazine (The new issue comes out October 1st. I got to interview Lain & I'm really excited about it!). My favorite color is purple and I love all things sparkly & lacy! (The things in more boyish colors tend to dissapear or get broken before I can use them...) My pages reflect that too.

This will be my 8th LOAD (Wow!) My first was October 2010, and I joined ScrapHappy before it was over!  I must say that it really changed my whole life, not just my scrapbooking.  If this is your first LOAD, you probably don't believe this.  But once you've done a couple, you'll know what I mean, and you will think so too.

October is going to be a bit chaotic!  I am spending 2 different weekends out of town (Including for True Scrap-Sniff!) and am still in the process of moving the stuff out of my old studio in the basement  and into my new one in my former dining room.*  While I have most of the "Pretty Stuff" moved including pretty much everything I need to scrap, there is still a TON of stuff in the old room...  I have an old LOAD prep blog here... with plenty of good advice, but this time things are a bit different for me. 

I don't usually do much "Prep"  because I try to go with the flow & do the prompts as they come.  This means I don't know which stories I will tell or which photo's I'll need.  It is one of the best parts of LOAD and makes me so much more creative.

Another thing I've been trying to do the last few LOADs, and am continuing this time, is using up my stash, and not purchasing new.  During the moving process I came across a whole bin of mostly scraps. 

So I decided to put them away in my scrap drawers organized by color:

As I was doing so I became puzzled.  I simply couldn't remember some of the papers I was putting away.  "I've never bought orange terrycloth paper...I've certainly never used it, where did these scraps come from?"  Well I thought that about several different papers that I had quite a few scraps of.  Suddenly it occurred to me.  A few months ago when we started the Round Robin Stash Swap, I broke apart some old kits from "Scrap Jammies" and gave away the brads & embellies & put the pre-cut paper pieces in a bin...that's where these came from!  So that's one mystery solved, and several full bins of scraps for mats and borders and many other layout possibilities!  I've been working on going to my scraps before I cut a 12x12 piece up.  I still end up cutting sometimes, but that's okay, It isn't as if I had a shortage of paper.  So If you've been in the gallery you may have seen a picture of my new scrapper studio, but I'm going to share some more anyway.

Here is my layout for September's Sketch:

Now one of these pictures is facing north, (the left one) and the other is facing south, so here is a current picture facing out the same windows to the south:

As you can see, my former dining table fits perfectly in the bay window, so I now have enough space for a guest or two to crop along with me, which I have always wanted!
Here is the opposite wall as seen from the desk:

Here is my desk as it looked this afternoon:

 And here it is after some more LOAD prep as it looks right now:

All clear & ready to work.

  I've got all my favorite tools at my fingertips.
  The most important rules of Scrapping have been followed.

Which as I see it are as follows:






1.  Have a good sized trash bin closeby

   2.  Have plenty of chocolate handy (no picture sorry...I didn't need too many visitors ;) )







 3. Don't run out of Adhesive.

                      Or Stickles.

        Or Distress Ink

4. Keep your most used tools & supplies handy & Have a  (comfortable) swivel chair so the space on at least 3 sides is accessible without getting up.

 5. Make your space welcoming for the rest of the family, & near enough to the Family activity centers (kitchen , TV, video games etc.) to supervise as needed.  (That was the biggest trouble with having it in the basement & another reason why I'm so glad it's now upstairs).

6.  Have a place for the cat to be close by, without having to be between you & your layout/project:

Can you see where this is from the picture above? well maybe this will help

This picture shows my big project from this afternoon.  I took all of my brads from these little plastic bins that used to hang on the wall in the basement:

There were 2 of these, with six bins each 1 color of brads per bin.  But alas there isn't much wall space in here and they didn't fit in the Expedit cubes.  Thankfully, Target had this lovely cupcake stand! (Okay I bought it before I knew what I was going to do with it, it is so cute after all!)  And these jelly jars just fit perfectly in it's little round spaces.  So Voila! Decorative brad storage! And it goes quite nicely on the top of my Expedit shelf.  Still within reach (On my stepstool anyway) and much prettier than the plastic bins!  Here is a poorly stitched "panorama" of the shelf:

(It is really one straight shelf, but standing in the middle makes it tough to get a good photo!)


 So Now I have these empty, very useful & practical bins and no where to put them. So if anyone would like them, leave me a comment or message me at ScrapHappy. I have no idea what to do with them otherwise.  Maybe I'll put them on the new Swap board... 

So no doubt my room will be neater at some point  (Hopefully before LOAD)  but it will probably be messier by the end of October!  I can hardly wait to see what Leslie & Lynette have in store for us, and what all of you will create!  Hooray for Scrap Happy & Hooray for LOAD!!!

So your next stop on the hop is Kelly P.

And in case you get lost here is the whole hop:

Lynnette http://sassyscrapper2010.blogspot.com
Leslie http://lcsmithsaved-outofthemire.blogspot.com
Katrina http://k84mansramblings.blogspot.com
Kelli P. www.scrapbookgirl71.com
Alison D. http://adayinthelifeor5.blogspot.ca
Cathy H. http://pikespeakscrapper.blogspot.com
Dani www.acoffeeaddict.com
Heather H. http://heathazscrapz.blogspot.com
Alison C. http://scrappinginsingapore.blogspot.com
Heather D. http://heathersdragonsden.blogspot.com
Danielle H. http://ecoscrapbook.blogspot.com

Come back and see me sometime.  There is always something happening around here!

Time for another Clear It Out Challenge!

It is that time again!  The second Clear It Out challenge for September starts today.

This card is destined to accompany a friend's crocheted baby afghan, for a brand new little manny.

The challenge is:

Theme: a project with a child image on it.

Stash: anything you want!  (let us know what it is)

Our fantastic sponsor is:

Meljens designs

MelJens' is offering 4 digital images to one lucky winner!

 I am in the process of relocating my scrappin' studio from my basement into what was formerly my dining room, and in the process I am discovering that I have a whole lot of stuff to CLEAR OUT!  So every single thing I used (Aside from Meljen's adorable image called appropriately , Baby Shower (You can pick it up Here) & my copic markers, of course) is old stash.  The wonderful glitter card base is from a box by Die Cuts With A View that is at least 4 years old.  T The Ribbons were scraps that have been in the bottom of my jars, possibly even longer than that!  The little acetate quote is also from DCWV, and might be slightly more recent than the rest of the stash items here, even the Tumbled Glass Tim Holtz Distress Ink pad says copyright 2004 (that doesn't mean I've had it that long, mind you). The oldest item I used is the beaded wire word "boy"...let's just say I used the rest of the set on a family page, that is in my son's baby book,   around 2003 or 2004. That would make it one of my earlier pages (Not counting high school, I was scrapbooking then, but not quite the same) it was even before I started using the 12x12 format! 

 Want to see it?  

I am pretty sure that I did not buy these beaded words for this page, so I may have had them since 2001.    

What have you had in your stash for a while?  Make your project using a baby or child image and one of your older stash items and don't forget to share it with us at the Clear It Out Challenge Blog for a chance at the prize!

And by the way, We are currently looking for sponsors to fill up out 2013 calendar! Digis, or tangible items welcome. Check the challenge blog for details.

New Month, New Challenge!

Clear It Out Challenge Blog Here