Saturday Spotlight Feature Week 2

I love to craft and am blessed to have as much as I do. Unfortunately, all my things are scattered throughout the house. In my bedroom, I have all my yarn and spinning supplies. In the basement, I have all my scrapbooking things. Then in various drawers and cabinets, I have little odds and ends. Totes are stacked in my livingroom for my WIPs. I bounce around my house looking for things I want to use. For now, its what I have to do. With two adults, two children and two labs in a two bedroom place, I don't get the luxury of a single space. My best friend & co-writer, on the other hand, has an awesome setup for her craft supplies! One day, I will have a similar setup, she might even have to help me get organized!

"I am one lucky girl, I think I have everything a crafter could ever want in one area and yet I always seem to be expanding. This year my hubby expanded my area as a Christmas gift and my Christmas gift to myself was to get reorganized. The hubby knew how much crafting meant to me and over the past year he has built me a chair that helps support my back and it spins 360 degrees so I can reach just about everything from the comfort of my chair. 

Also this year I acquired my grandmothers sewing machine which is built in to the table and then I have my sewing machine on top of the table. I have always wanted an antique sewing machine but getting something that was passed down always means so much more. Better yet it still RUNS!!!!!

He also expanded my large working table so that there is room for the whole family to sit during family time. I think that was my favorite part. I can now sit and do my crafts while looking up to see my son coloring or drawing and my husband working on what ever little project is up his sleeve that day. 

I love having a massive wall to hang all my WIP and to be able to organize a lot of my odds and ends. 

 This past year I have been collecting fabric for my stashes  most of the fabric on the shelf is cut already and was donated between family and friends. They have truly been my biggest supporters. Also on the shelf is my stash of vinyl. 

I think one of my favorite Christmas gift this year was this awesome wall organizer that I got from my Mother-in-law it was perfect for all my buttons, sewing odds and ends, ETC. 

Next to my new organizer is a shelf that my hubby built me that stores all my paints and other scraping materials that I store in jars and such. 

Last but not least is my main desk that I do a lot of my crafting at. It has 3 additional large shelves above the main table shown. These shelves store my large fabric, glues, tools, and the table that you see in the picture that is most of my scrapbooking inks, markers, glitter, ETC. 

The only thing not shown is my yarn stash we are currently finding a new home for that but to give you an idea my area filled up my fabric shelf plus one regular size storage bin. 

Well that's my space in a nut shell. Thank you for stopping by. I know that I am lucky to have all that I do. Its been years of collecting during Christmas and birthdays and lucky enough to get donations from family and friends for the stuff they no longer use." 

I love her space and her organizing! In what ways do you stay organized?

Happy crafting!

A Year of Scrapbooking! 'Pictures' Part: 2 of 5 of the Scrap-A-Long

Welcome back to my venture of creation my youngest son's first year scrapbook!!

I hope many of you are getting your own ideas and would love for you to share your work in progress. At the bottom of the post you will find the group linky party to share your progress along with a linky button to share on your page as well.

So my first post explained what my yearbook was and what was to be done yet. If you happened to miss it, you can find 'Part 1' here.

This week is all about picking out the pictures to the scrapbook. This is a very fun part and takes a while depending on how long you 'reminisce' while looking at the photos. For me, I tend to look at every single one and then my oldest son comes to join me so we do quite a bit of talking while looking.

I have all my pictures saved on CDs or flash drives so for most of this part, I do my work on the computer. Firstly, I make a new folder on my desktop and label it 'yearbook.' In that, I make a folder for each month. Then, working threw my picture files month by month, I copy my top favorites and paste them into the folder in their corresponding months. I don't keep track of how many I add until I go back threw them after getting several for each month. I do try to get at least 10 pictures though.

After all my pictures I got threw and weed out the ones that I don't really need. I either have nine or twelve pictures per right page, plus the main picture on the left page.

I title the main picture as well.

I have a very handy personal picture printer. Granted, the quality isn't as good as I could get ordering them, but I can have prints within two minutes and have the option of printing the size of picture I need. The photos to the left are approximately 3"x2". Though some of them I will cut to fit as I want them too. I also have to print the pictures four times since I give a book to each set of grandparents.

With all the pictures printed and cut, I now can start working on the third step... paper!! Over the next two weeks, I will go threw my paper and find sheets that I think I will use and get some sort of visual as to how I want the pages to look. I match my 'title' picture to the paper only. The smaller pictures have no background.

Again, feel free to post your projects by following the link below! We would love to see them!

Until next craft...

Crystal

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A Year of Scrapbooking! Introduction: Part 1 of 5

 The Start of a Tradition

I love to scrapbook! When my first son was born, I decided to make a scrapbook of his first year. It was a slow start with a newborn but as he got older and more self-entertaining, I was able to work on it more. Half way into my year long project, I thought it would be a great gift to make for the grandparents. Committing myself to making copies for the grandparents, I thought it would be a great "thank you" gift to them for the year of love, support and advice.

Above picture is his actually day of birth. Only photos from that day were used.

The 4th month

The 10th month

At Ethan's one year birthday party,  I took a picture of each set of grandparents and Ethan to put in the corresponding book as well as a copy of his party invitation. After his years birthday, I presented the grandparents their books and vowed to add two pages every year, which I've held up to. Each year I add the new invitation and picture of them together, as well as a few more pictures of that year's growth.

Year 2 pages (grandparent picture has been blurred out.)
All pictures were taken between his 1st birthday up until his 2nd.

The book I've made for myself will eventually go to Ethan to look back on; remembering milestones, special events as well as many other things. But for now, it's a great way for me to look back on the beginning of their lives and see them grow with every flip of a page.

A Project in the Works

When my second son was born though, my passion for crochet consumed my spare time. I set card making and scrapbooking aside. Now with summer break here, I actually have the desire to unload my scrap supplies and create another "Year Book" of my second son, Kyler.

In the next month or so I will be going through the process of making another book and would love for you to follow me on this new crafting journey!

There will be 5 parts of this project:

Part 1: Intro

Part 2: Pictures

Part 3: Paper

Part 4: Description

Part 5: Assembly and Final Project

Reader's Challenge!

And I would love for you to create your own, whether it be a whole year or just a special occasion! If you're up for the challenge, over the next two weeks decide on what size book/pages you want to create and pick out as many pictures you wish to use. We will be posting a gallery for everyone to upload their creations and share. Details for that to come soon.

I will continue to do the 8x8 book because that's what I used for Ethan's. Also, if you don't have a personal printer, ordering wallet size photos will work for the right hand side page.

If you would like to see more of my page, just ask! I'd be happy to show you! 

Until next craft....
Crystal