Above: lunchboxes re-created and re-purposed to hold colored crafting accents I recently got together with my old friend Sue aka "Zueeuz" who has a great style blog and we had a wonderful visit. I love to see what she shares from her Texas home that is old, refashioned, and beautifully different. She has inspired me to post a little vintage organizational deco-fun of my own. See Sue, you made me do it! :P I am constantly going through my home about every 6 months and streamlining it to be more My All, more myself, just with less stuff. Yet I hope to keep ahold of the vintage country feel that I love. Shiny brand new boxes, bins, chrome and glass decor is fine, but not for me. I love vintage! Vintage pieces can help you not only keep your home neater and more organized--but do it with a creative twist and a old-world charm! Many of you have seen my previous posts of my cleaning my scrapbook studio and know I use old items often for storage. I also do this in the rest of my ...

I have been thinking a lot about streamlining and priorities lately. It could be because it is summer and I am getting lazy.... It could be because I am tired of carrying every ball tossed into my playing field. I tend to be a leader just so that things actually do get done. And then, I naturally get tired when I pile too much on my plate. I have a list with 100's of items on it TO DO. At least 25 for each room of my home --and for each area of my professional and personal life. In trying to analyze where my happy middle line is really at, I have been decluttering some more scrapbooking supplies, donating some knickknacks from around the house, and saying no to some unneeded commitments. I even booked time this weekend here at home--with myself. I could have gone to north with hubby to help move his brother, or I could have gone to a scrapping retreat. I could even ask a friend over to be artsy with me but you know I am kind of thinking I need more time to JUST DO the things o...

Making Page Kits come Alive! Make your page kits into pages! Some people get stumped after they pack their page kits up. How to take them from photos and pieces into completed pages? I am doing this three at a time in my wedding album project. Here is how I go about it.... I hope it helps speed up the process while you still retain some creative license while working. To recap, my lovely daughter is getting married in a year to an incredible guy. I am making an album for them, one for myself, and one for the in-laws to be. I am basically making three identical blank page albums with 2 page layout sets for each of 30 wedding day themes. She will add her wedding photos to them in a year--after the wedding. For now, there are no pics but I can make the album layout pages --and just leave the photo mats on the pages blank. This example of how I take supplies from my kits and get a completed pages for the batchelor party layout below. KIT: This kit page had a 3 base pages of the chocolate...

Start making some Wedding Album page kits! Use your 12 x 12 three-ring album to actually hold the page kits that you are organizing for this album in chronological wedding order. Here is how I did it. Print out that list I gave you previously of all 30 wedding layout topics. Print them onto a sheet or two of paper. Cut them up into individual slips that you can tuck one by one into the empty page protectors in chrono order. Tuck the strips into the protectors now. Truthfully, I START making a page kit with my accents . I afterward pick my papers that match the accent. This is in reverse order of how many people do things. I choose my accents first because they are more spendy --and much more color-specific to match to than my (cheaper) thousand sheets of paper in hundreds of shades of color. For any page kit, start with your accents, add fiber or ribbon if you like, then add matching papers, feel free to make the kits, and finally add photos when printed. A single title pa...

I love page maps and layout sketches and any kind of helpful page plan. For a big project like a wedding album, I want to save myself time at each stage that I can. For this kind of large album (60 planned pages!) I grab my Becky Higgins Sketches book as well as my Becky Fleck Page Maps book. Then I head to the internet and print out about a dozen sheets of page sketches my favorite sites. I keep them all togehter with the layout sketch books mentioned above just so I can grab them and decide at a moments notice what to creat as a backdrop. I should mention here again that I have NO photos really yet for this project. For that reason I should say I am really planning and making BACKGROUND pages so far. Not fully done pages--yet. I will make everything in my sketch plan and glue it all down from paper layers to accent pieces--EXCEPT for the final focal mats (white mats in this project) and photos. It's just like assembling a whole page kit from a scrapbook or convention class...

Planning: Page Sets: I work with a plan. That means I want to have the timeline of the wedding in my head when I plan my pages and make my kits. We have not taken photos yet but I have a rough idea of how the wedding will go in chronological fashion. I write down all my main page layout topics on a sheet of scratch paper from engagement day to honeymoon departure. Here is my listing of two page layouts that I plan to do for the wedding albums. Looks like 30 or so page topic sets. Feel free to use this list (add or delete topics as needed) when planning your own wedding album! If I do 30 two-page sets it will be a 60 page album which is another reason I choose Binder style 3 ring albums from Making Memories. :) --- Engagement Day Engagement –formal photo shoot The Rings- Dress shopping -candids Bridal shower Batchelor party Batchelorette Party Rehearsal at venue Rehearsal Dinner and Groom's Cake The Dress- professional shots Girls getting ready Bridesmaids group Groomsman group Flo...

Wedding Albums! Let's talk! We are so excited our daughter got engaged this spring (on May Day!) We couldn't be more happy with her choice. He is a great guy. Hurray!!! Love it. So now the fun begins for a scrapping mom! ....Wedding albums! One of my favorite things to create! We are going to need three of them: one for my hubby and I, one for my daughter and her (next year) hubby, and one for his parents. So I am off and planning a fantastic wedding album-- in triplicate! YES TRIPLICATE! I did my son's four years ago in duplicate--one for him and his lovely bride and one for my hubby and I to keep. But this time I am going triplicate so the in-laws have one if they want it too. Goals: Goal #1 Create a beautiful, memorable, and personal gift Goal # 2 Use what I have in my stockpiles Goal # 3 Knock their socks off design wise without breaking my bank. After all we do have to pay for the REST of the event, right? ;) Supplies: Paper: Its a woodland theme with earth-...