Disorganized Overload

This weekend I began working on my Halloween 2012 mini album using this Bag of Bones project kit from Cocoa Daisy. The Bag of Bones kit is from last year & is sold out, but this year's Halloween Kit Full Moon is still available.

Once I get through Halloween each year, I am so over all the decorations and candy that I tend to just pack it all away until the next year. That is why I usually don't tackle my annual Halloween mini album until the fall of the next year. I know... weird...but I kind of enjoy scrapping the previous year's photos and reminding myself how quickly time passes.

As I began working this weekend, I noticed that it was going rather slowly and my creativity was missing a flow. I figured out rather quickly that I was working in a very disorganized manner. It looked like this:

My table was an absolute disaster! I had literally just pulled out a whole bunch of papers, washi tape, inks, stamps, & embellishments that I thought I could use along with the kit. Rather than trying to start out in an organized manner, I just chunked it all on the table (which was already covered with things from my previous crafty endeavor) and went to work. What was I thinking? I had stuff strewn out everywhere.

 The kit was stacked in the chair beside the table. Underneath the kit were other papers and kits I had gotten out to use in the next few weeks.

On my other desk behind me were stamps I was using on the project as well.

In all this disorganization I had basically managed to reduce my productive work space down to a very small area & even within that area I was constantly having to push things out of my way to be able to work. All of this left me frustrated and unable to work in a timely, creative manner.

My solution was just to stop working. This frustrated me a lot because with a busy household, my creative time is usually a bit limited. But at the same time I knew I had to clean up a little so that I could use my time better and find a better flow to the project.

I seriously would have loved to have taken my arm and just scraped everything off onto the floor, but I realized that there were to many sharp objects, items that could stain the carpet, and paper that could tear or wrinkle. Dang it! That would have been so therapeutic. So instead I just began making piles on the floor and putting unneeded things away.

When I was finished my table looked like this:

Things on the table were so much more organized and like items were grouped together.  I seriously think that I heard an Angel chorus singing when I stepped back and took it all in. At this point I really felt my crafty mojo coming back and the frustration leaving my body. I was instantly happier to be in my space.

Now that I had things where I wanted them it all seemed to flow much better.

Out of the chair & onto the right side of my table was the neatly stacked kit and additional colored cardstock that I will use to mat photos.  


                                      

Stamps, inks, embellishments, and washi tape are all stacked neatly on the left side of the table.

Photos are grouped by both boys, just Carter, just Ethan, family, & pumpkin carving. I will go back through these and determine which ones to use and which ones to put away for other projects. 

 

Most importantly I made a list on a scrap piece of graph paper. Now I have an idea of what I want to get accomplished in each step and it becomes more of an assembly line process. This is not usually how I work, but I don't do mini albums too often and I think that this will speed up the process, give the project more continuity, and keep me from getting disorganized again.

I know many of your craft spaces look similar to mine & I know that much of this post is common sense. But sometimes I think we forget that the clutter around us, whether creative or not, has an affect on how we create &/or how function within that space. Sometimes just by cleaning up a bit we do find the tops of our work spaces, but more importantly we find peace within that space again.

I hope you will take time to straighten your space a bit this week. I promise that it will make you feel quite accomplished! :)

 I will post my completed album later this week (once I finish it) & let you know how the assembly line process worked.

For the Love of CHA- Post # 2

Good Morning! Today I ordered about 75 prints from Wal-Mart and picked them up as I flew through town on the way to the boys swimming lessons. The pictures I printed are from October of last year and include our trip to a corn maze, pumpkin carving, and costume photos. I don't scrap chronologically so it really doesn't bother me that I am just now putting together my Halloween mini in July. If anything it makes me dream of cooler temperatures, which is a very good thing in the middle of July in the South! :)

Of all the pictures I had printed this one is my absolute favorite.

I am not sure how I will top this year's costumes.The boys loved them, they were relatively easy to make, and looked so good on them. I rarely sew, except at Halloween. There is just something special to me about hand making the boys costumes each year. 

Besides a Halloween mini for each year (the past few years I have bought a Halloween mini kit from Cocoa Daisy, here is last years that I am working on now), I also keep a Halloween through the years mini that has an individual picture of each boy in costume and then one of them together. I then make additional, very simple, mini's for both sets of grandparents. 

Besides Halloween, the only other holiday I buy scrapbook products specifically for is Christmas. I would love to say I have accomplished a December Daily in prior years, but it has yet to happen. I do manage to hand make Christmas cards each year and I have a huge stash of Christmas supplies waiting to be used. 

So today because I am feeling the holiday spirit, I thought I would share the products I have spotted in this years CHA debuts. I do tend to be a traditionalist when it comes to the holiday lines I pick up. I like the reds and greens of Christmas and the greens, oranges, and blacks of Halloween. So that is what you will see here as well. 

Let's get started!

Let's talk Halloween first. There are two companies that I think do an amazing job with traditional Halloween lines each year. First is My Mind's Eye. This year's line is a continuation of their Lost and Found line. There is nothing about this collection that I do not like. I think I will end up with lots of these pieces. Here is a picture of the entire line.

The other company is Echo Park. Their Halloween line is called Chillingsworth Manor. 

This is the Collection Pack. All the papers are wonderful, both the a & b sides have very nice designs.

The following two papers really caught my eye. 

I can see myself using these two pages in a variety of different ways. I like the versatility they offer to projects, cards, even some home decor banners. I will have to own them both!

Ok, let's move right onto Christmas. 

The first line that really caught my eye was Simple Stories. Since I have already bought a few of their Mix and Match 6x8 Albums, I was interested to see what their Christmas line would look like this year, in hopes of putting together a December Daily. I do like Handmade Holiday line a lot. Lots of things I can definitely use to document the upcoming holiday season and possibly help me catch up on years past. 

The Collection Kit has a number of great papers in it along with sticker sheets. I tend to buy Simple Stories lines as kits because I end up loving everything in the whole kit. 

These are the pages for the 6x8 Album. These would make great foundations for a December Daily

Love these pockets. These would be great on layouts, cards, Project Life, or in a December Daily.

I also spotted these 4x6 cards. These would be great journaling spots for layouts, PL, or DD, as well as recipe cards for a Christmas recipe album.

Another Christmas line I spotted was from Fancy Pants. It is called Home for Christmas.  Here again it is a nice traditional red and green with some kraft thrown in to give it a vintage-y feel. 

Here are the paper/sticker elements available in the line. I need to look more closely at the papers to determine which ones I really want to purchase. The tape stickers look interesting to me as well. 

These are more embellishments that go along with the line. I particularly like the Mixed Buttons and Mingled Brads. 

The final collection is not as traditional as I like (too much blue in my opinion), but because of the "b" sides of the paper I was pretty excited about the whole line. This line is Lily Bee's Christmas Cheer. I kept looking through the papers trying to determine which one's I could live without, especially because of the blue, but the "b" sides kept jumping out at me. 

I see lots of blue here, but I am telling you the "b" sides on each paper are nice and traditional. I especially love the numbered patterned paper, the dots, and the chevrons. 

These index cards are nice as well. I see lots of different uses for these.

These are some of my absolute favorite alpha stickers ever. I own almost every set since they began making these and I reach for them often. 

I am a stamp junkie, but a very picky stamp junkie. These show a lot of possibilities even after the holidays are over. I really like the vertical list of numbers and the vertical row of dots. 

So it is about 90 degrees Fahrenheit today, which is not completely unbearable, but I think I will wait just a bit longer before tackling some of the outdoor chores around here. I think I will spend the heat of the day working downstairs on some wonderful holiday scrappiness until it cools off outside

Hope you find time to scrap as well! :)

Olivia