Stamp Storage

Happy to share with you today, my stamp storage system!

My stamp stash is always growing, and recently, it's been outgrowing my space.

So I had to figure out some way to get them all organized in one place.

I modeled my storage off of Reyanna and Jennifer McGuire's systems. [Videos for each can be found by clicking their names.]

They both store their stamps in binder using different sized page protectors.

Here's Binder 1 with my miscellaneous stamps:

And Binder 2 with all of my Studio Calico ones! (And yes, I have enough SC stamps to merit a whole binder of it's own :)

Here are some photos of the pages:

I opted for Reyanna's version of putting the stamps onto transparencies, and then removable adhesiving (yup, just made up that word) the printed images of the stamps.

And like Jennifer, I purchased some pocket pages originally intended for DVDs, to hold this fairly standard stamp set size.

I also had some divided 4x6 in protectors, where I was able to combine some of my smaller stamps.

I was even able to add CD cases inside the DVD pocket pages, to make sure my Papertrey Ink stamps weren't left out of the fray.

Lastly, have to show you just how many pages of stamps I have :) Lots and lots it seems! But I love my stamps and I use them on nearly all of my pages.

If you're looking for some way to store your stamps, this is a quick, easy and inexpensive way to do it!

xxbesos

Aloha

Aloha! This is the card I was talking about yesterday.

I made it for my grandparents to send along with the photos and flower seeds I purchased for them.

I think the bright colors are my favorite thing about this card! Isn't that American Crafts Margarita print gorgeous?! I love the dark blue background.

Oh and the fact that I used a mini file folder as the base (from Paper Source).

I also mailed them a few photos. They're the kind of grandparents that have their fridge doors filled with this kind of thing. I added some font work to make them look more like postcards.

And also in my package, the seeds I purchased in the Honolulu airport. If anyone can grow flowers from seeds it's my grandparents. They have a full on green house in their backyard and everything!

xxbesos

Mist-ery Solved

I got crafty today! For the first time in awhile. It wasn't easy actually. I just wasn't feeling it today and haven't been for awhile.

But I made a list of three scrappy things that I felt I needed to get done today.

And guess what? They got done!

1. Mist Swatchbook

2. Card for Nana & Popo (check back tomorrow)

3. Finish Dear Lizzy class minibook (check back later this week!)

I even got a 4th scrappy project done, I finished a double page spread that I started last week. It's just been sitting on my desk staring at me every time I walked past. But hey, now it's done and in my scrapbook! No more half finished guilt for me!

Like I said, I wasn't really feeling it today. But I needed something to jump start my creativity and this little swatchbook was just the thing to do it.

Just look at all of those colors! I hadn't realized I had so many shades and I'm actually happy to find out that really only 1 or 2 are similar.

And also, I got to see how each of these sprays. Some of them are clogged pretty bad and didn't even "mist" (see MR Red and SC Calico Cream) and others left a pretty even coat.

All of these are tags were cut with my Papertrey Ink die [Fillable Frames #9] which only measures 1 1/2 x 2 1/2. I think it makes for the perfect size swatch. To finish, I just hooked them together with a binder ring. Voila!

Getting my hands all inky and dirty was just the trick to get me in a crafty mood. Check back tomorrow for that card I made for my grandparents [hint it's Hawaii themed].

xxbesos

China...a la KP

Heyo! I've got some more inspiration for you. This time courtesy of my scrap crush, Kelly Purkey.

She's amazing, I promise.

Just look at this Thailand page she did!

It's vibrant, it's creative, it's SO KP!

What drew me in:

• Straight out the gate, it was the colors. I loved the varying blues and all of the bright patterns.
• It's a map! And a creative one at that =)
• Travel themed [check]
• Circle punched photos, I do that too! [Here, here & here too...]
• It's Thailand. I lived there. It has a special place in my heart
• And let's face it, it's by KP. I'd scraplift any page of hers!

And so on to my page...

I went for it with my China photos and will be using this as title page for my album.

I don't have Adobe Illustrator, so I had to improvise a bit. I free-handed the outline of China as best I could and cut it and the coordinating mask out.

It looks close enough to me :)

I just had to use the new Amy Tangerine for this too!

Circle punched all of my photos and pop dotted them off the page. I could have pop dotted all of the pieces like KP did, but I'm just too lazy!

And since the pieces felt a bit flat, I decided to add "stitching" in between them all to make them feel more cohesive.

Journaling Reads:

"China was one of the most amazing trips of my life. It was the first time I'd ever traveled alone and I could not have been more embraced by the people and the culture. James and Patrick joined me in Beijing and from there we traveled to Xi'an, Shanghai and then Hong Kong. It was an adventure for the history books."

And that's my page! I've been itching to try this map idea out, ever since Kelly posted it.

I'm working on some more inspiration posts to share very soon. Thanks for dropping by!

xxbesos

So Lucky Inspiration

Aloha! I'm just back from Hawaii and already missing the sun and the wind, the water and the calm quiet life we had up on the North Shore.

It was utterly sublime.

I'll miss the crazies I was staying with, most of all.

But I'm back to the sharp reality that is everyday life.

And back to blogging =)

Last week, (geez was it really only last week?!) I found this gorgeous layout in the Studio Calico gallery. It was created by the lovely Glenys whom I left a comment something to the effect of "I'm going to scrap lift this ASAP!"

Here's what drew me in:

• It's travel themed, 'nuff said!
• I loved the photo strips and how she successfully incorporated a lot of photos onto one page
• It had a yellow background, my favorite color =)
• The products: I have the October Afternoon map paper in my stash already, as well as some of the Amy Tangerine.
• And finally, as cheesy as it sounds, it "spoke" to me. The idea of having all of my travels from 2008 in one place appealed to me. And since this layout was so successful at doing that, I figured I'd give it a shot.

And I did! Mine isn't identical to hers, I didn't have the exact same products. But I had close enough to achieve the same effect I think.

Where Glenys had an 8x8 size of the map paper, I had a 12x12. So it became my base.

I arranged my photos into strips same as her, but decided to back them on a cardstock base. I used a yellow dotted swiss, to mimic the yellow background in my inspiration page. I also titled the strips a bit to make it more fun.

And where Glenys had a circular element on the left side of her photos, I shifted mine and added it on top of my photos.

I loved Glenys banner so I mimicked it using some My Mind's Eye label stickers. Some of these had words and phrases on them already, so I cut a strip of white cardstock to cover this up, and added all of the countries I visited in 2008. [16!!]

I also wanted to give them some dimension so I added a pop dot underneath just one side of each so they'd permanently lift off the page.

The last of the details were the camera embellishment, an Amy Tangerine die cut pop dotted off the page and a sticker.

It's so true, "some journeys cannot be put into words".

I love this page and how it captures a year of my life at a truly fantastic point in my journey. I feel so blessed to have been able to see all of those places and experience a day or more in each of those countries.

And I'm so happy that I discovered Glenys' page and that she helped me to do it! See, scraplifting is a wonderful thing! You can learn a lot of "cutting with another crafter's scissors" so to speak.

From this page, I will take away:

• Threading twine through buttons as an anchor for a banner
• Photo strips, photo strips, photo strips!

Mahalo for stopping by! And a special thank you to Glenys for letting me share her page and giving me the inspiration to make mine in the first place =)

xxbesos

Mahiki

This is my bestie Kori. I've scrapped a photo or 2 of her so I'm sure you've seen her on this blog.

This was taken in a Hawaiian bar in London, Mahiki.

That is Kori, rocking a gorgeous black and yellow dress...which was the design inspiration for this group of photos.

Ta da!!

I used a Dear Lizzy laser cut paper to mimic Kori's gorgeous dress. It was pink on the one side and white(ish) on the backside so I flipped it over and misted it with my Sunflower Maya Mist.

Then I backed random parts of it with green patterned paper to break it up a bit.

After that I added some cutesy details, like the Basic Grey Yo-yos (I think that's what they're called), so KI ribbon and House of Three baker's twine to finish it off.

This was a wholly random night out in London, but I loved these pictures of my two favorite girls so much that I couldn't not scrap them.

I also had to share because I'm off to Hawaii this week! Leaving on Thursday and I'm so excited to lay on the beach, relax and more specifically, spend time with Monica =) another of my lovely London girls.

Catch ya later, dudes!!

xxbesos

Project 12: July & August

I'm loving my Project 12. Even Matt declared it to be his favorite of my scrapbooks.

Sharing July and August today.

Can you believe I'm up to date?!

I have to admit that these pages are very hard for me to do for some reason. I never know how to decorate the grids, I'm always struggling for creative ways to display 6-10+ photos on a single 12x12 page.

This month though, I think I knocked 'em out of the park.

July was a fun and busy month...and crap! Just realized I put some of July's photos on August's layout. Oh well! Such is life I suppose :)

But anyway, in July Matt was home in Ohio, my parents came for a visit, I got to meet Kelly Purkey! and we traveled to Austin for Tara's birthday.

We started out the month down at the beach house, eating tons and doing some fishing. Matt caught his first "keeper" fish!

He also lost a bet and had to get some skinny jeans :) Jokes on his friend, because he actually looked nice in his hot pants ;)

And I got to meet my scrap crush, Kelly Purkey! Who was so sweet and so fun and cute and tiny. I took all three of her/Studio Calico classes at CKC Houston.

My sweet little guy came to visit. Love it when Urijah John is in the house! And love even more getting photos of him with Gma and Gpa.

For these pages, I combined some of the new Studio Calico Memoir line (I won it from Nicole's blog!!) and what is rapidly becoming my go-to line, Amy Tangerine's. I think they meshed fairly well on this page, given the very different color schemes.

Which brings us to August! That was only 4 days ago =) Well chuffed at having it complete.

I took on Kelly's Color of the Rainbow SC Weekly challenge as the basis for these pages.

I loved that my photo strip fit perfectly into the grid of the calendar (and that I apparently had nothing going on on Thursday's this month :) I also love my IncrediBooth app. It made these photos super easy to capture. And given that we were outside in the semi-dark, it caught a lot of light!
For both of these layouts, I went riffling through my scrap stash and hand cut strips and boxes, to nestle in between these photos. Then I went through my Studio Calico kits looking for small embellishments to finish it off.

Which btw, I disassembled my 4 oldest kits (eeeeppp!!!) and stored them along with the rest of my stash. It's a first step. My space is becoming more and more organized as the days go on.

That's it for today, thanks for stopping by! And see you next month (hopefully) for another Project 12 Post.

xxbesos

Fancy Pants

Hi, hello, how are ya?! 200+ posts later, I'm still trying to get the hang of this whole blogging thing. So thank you for stopping by =)

Sharing another of my Archivers crop pages! I used a lot of American Crafts for this one, most notably some Amy Tangerine.

And I have to clarify, these would be the American pants and not the British ones!!

Scraped a photo of me and my co-workers, at my (favorite!!) boss' leaving drinks. Have to love how well European men dress. And I love that I got to play with pinks and navy again, on this page full of boys (see also Co-Conspirators :)

I had such a fun team to work with, at my internship in London. And I like I said before, Lalji was my absolute favorite boss. I can't even begin to describe the personality that is Lalji. You'd have to meet him to know! It was a sad sad day when he left DB, but I'm so glad I got to work for him for as long as I did.

xxbesos