As many of you know I have been on a scrapbooking mission for the last month. You now know it’s because I want to catch up before we adopt Amelie and I felt if I don’t catch up now – I never will. I have gotten so much done that it’s led a lot of people to ask “how? are you sleeping? when do you find the time?” and so on.
First off I have my stuff spread out over half of the dining room table and it’s been that way for 6 weeks. Mike is very sweet to put up with this. The next thing you should know is that I have been spending every extra second doing this. No watching TV, movies, talking on the phone unless I have to and so on. I have cut down on all my reading too – that includes blogs I usually follow and regular books. I get Nadia working on crafts or some homeschool stuff and I sneak in some pages in between her questions. Then I squeeze it in most every chance I get throughout the day like when she is napping. And at night when I would usually watch TV or a movie with Mike I am scrapping. I am still doing things like washing the dishes, clothes and vacuuming; the house isn’t falling apart or anything. HA!
Also, years ago before we had Nadia I spent hours cutting scrapbook paper into all sizes and shapes in every color of the rainbow. H-O-U-R-S. Then I filed them by size. I also have all my stickers sorted by type with tabs in a folder. I punched out shapes in all different colors and have them sorted. I also cut lots of 12 inch borders in many colors and have them filed by color too. This has saved me so much time now as I do page after page. I take a look at the photos – decide on the colors I want to use and go to that spot in my stuff. Slap the page together and go.
I am not one of the women who spends forever on a page and doing all kinds of elaborate stuff. That was my pre-child days. Now I have fallen into strictly documenting our life with fun little stickers and paper that matches.
Here is my current workstation set up. There is a small bag on the floor for tossing trash to keep the table clean.
On the left are all my stickers. Plus a container filled with die cut letters in every color of the rainbow plus patterns. On the right is my bag with blank pages, page protectors, all my cutters and journaling papers.
On the left are the 3 main paper cutters that I use. In the middle is this spiffy little container I got at Michaels (thanks to a GC from my friend Tricia). In there I keep all my pens, scissors, adhesives and a boatload of 4×6 papers in every pattern and color of the rainbow. I also use these papers for a lot of the greeting cards that I make.
This is the mac daddy 12×12 paper holder that has a telescoping handle and rolls like a suitcase. This was a gift and I have all the paper sorted in their by color and then 2 trays for holiday themed paper.
All my books. Our wedding, 3rd anniversary trip to Disney World, 2 books from high school. 2.5 books that hold the photos from our first TWELVE years together and 4 books that hold the first TWO years since Nadia joined our family. I have started on the 5th book today.
So there you have it! I am not a super woman, but I am SUPER organized! Now do you want to come over and look at all my work?
