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I finally finished my Grand Lake paperbag album last night. I think I was the last one out of the group (of five) to get finished–Oh well. I think it turned out good and so far the feedback I’ve received has all been positive. I am really pleased with the retro papers that I used, they gave the book a real “girly” feel which was fun since it was a “girls weekend away.” We are already talking about trying to do another all girls scrapbook weekend in May sometime! I’m so excited.

I started making my Grand Lake paperbag album with some of K&Company’s vintage papers but then decided to start over and use some retro papers from American Crafts. I liked the vintage papers but thought that since the book was going to be all girls maybe this would be a good opportunity for me to use papers that I don’t normally get to use (since I have a son, and not a daughter). Anyway, so far I am pleased with the book. When I get it done, I’ll post it in the argainbay gallery .

This evening I met up with the girls that I went to Grand Lake with last weekend and we worked on paperbag albums of the trip. None of us got our books done but we each got a good start and had a fun chatting and cropping. We decided that we’ll meet at Lovey’s house next Thursday evening to continue working on our books. The girls have also been encouraging me to host a crop in the argainbay warehouse. We have opened it to the public a couple of times so people from the moms club could come in and shop, but we’ve never held a crop there. So, we decided to host the first crop on Thursday, February 9, 2006 from 6-midnight. I am really excited and hope that it goes well. They want me to do it once a month, but we’ll just have to see how much interest there is.

Well, I just got home from Grand Lake, Colorado . I spent the weekend up there in a magnificent log home that belongs to one of my friends’ parents. There were five of us and we left our kids with our husbands and spent the entire weekend scrapbooking! It was awesome. It was the first time that I have spent the night away from Sam, and I think we both survived quite well. I was able to finish the paper bag album that I started for my brother in November and made an accordian/matchbook album for my husband Cliff. I learned some new techniques and remembered why I prefer to scrapbook smaller albums vs. the traditional 12×12 page. You might think that after a marathon weekend of scrapbooking, I’d be burned out, but actually I’m really motivated to keep scrapping! It is too late tonight and I’m pretty exhausted, so tomorrow night I’ll start again. I already have so many new ideas that I want to start working on……..

Paper Bag Albums

Using paper bags to create unique interactive albums for brag books, cards, and gifts is fun and easy!

Here are step by step directions:

1. Lay two or more lunch bag size paper bags down together alternating the ends.
2. Now, fold the bags in half to create the spine (if you have a sewing machine try sewing a straight line up to help define and hold the book together while working on other parts).
3. Punch holes along the binding of the book where you want to place your eyelets or whatever other binding method you choose.
4. Now you’re ready to decorate and personalize…

Ideas for binding your book

• Ties: you can tie the binding with bits of ribbon or fibers
• Paper: you can create a binding from a coordinating piece of paper and then attach with brads, eyelets, ribbons, fibers etc.
• Lacing: use ribbon or other fibers to lace the binding together in a zig zag pattern through punched holes
• Metal binding clips: these can be found at any office supply store

I like using the metal binding clips for my paper bag albums because they allow me to use more paper bags for a thicker book. I got mine at Office Depot

Use the open end pockets of the bags to hide journaling tags, extra pictures or other memoribilia in your book. What once was the bottom flap of the bag can now be used as a hidden journaling feature. You can use it as a lift the flap type of feature where you hide journaling under it, or open it, cut a slit along the fold line, and insert a tag or other item.

The most important thing is to have fun decorating your new album to fit your theme. These albums make great brag books for grandparents or friends, special memory books for birthdays or any occasion!

Attention—something to note: Paper bags are not acid-free so over time, they will break down much faster than acid-free, lignin-free papers. They are also not as sturdy as a cardstock/board album. You should only use duplicate pictures when making your albums. Precious, one-of-a-kind photos should be scanned and/or copied and then printed so that you can preserve the original photo with archival safe products.

Wow! We have started the new year with a bang! Cliff and I moved all the furniture out of our dining room, pulled up the carpet and padding, removed the base boards and took everything off the walls. We went to Lowe’s and bought some paint (a nice butter color and a sage green) and then we patched all the holes in the walls and painted. It looks great. We are both excited and pleased with how much we got done today. Cliff still needs to move the heat vent and then pull up the carpet padding staples before we/he can start laying down the new wood flooring. He thinks he’ll be able to start putting down the flooring by Tuesday or Wednesday of this week. It is a pain having all the dining room stuff in the living room but it will be sooooo worth it to have the dining room finished.

Needless to say, I didn’t get any crafting or scrapping done this weekend. Saturday (New Year’s Eve) I took down all of the Christmas decorations and then that evening, Cliff helped me get the tree down.

Tomorrow will probably be crazy too, but things should start to settle down after that.

Well, it takes 364 days to build up to Christmas and then it’s over so fast, it just doesn’t seem right. We had a wonderful Christmas this year and I think Sam did too. At almost 2 years old, he still didn’t really “get” it but he still had fun. He got a Montana Classic Tricycle with a wagon which is much to big for him, but it was definetly his favorite gift. We got some great pictures of Sam riding it and opening and playing with his other gifts. Other than his new tricycle, I think Sam liked his new Tonka 4×4. Eric took over 200 pictures on Christmas day and he got some really great pictures of Sam playing and having fun with Grandma, Grumpa and his Great Aunt Terry. He was hilarious to watch. I can’t wait to get copies of all those pictures for scrapbooking!

Last Friday Eric and I did a photo session to take pictures of the almost 100 new products that we’re adding to the website. We got some really great new products from EK Success that isn’t being released until January in the stores, but we already have it! There are quite a few new Disney products including, Classic Embroidered Movie Titles like Peter Pan, Lady and the Tramp, Dumbo etc., Disney Mickey Mouse and Princess ribbons and matching “belt” loops, Mickey Mouse sticky brads etc. We also got some new staples for the Fastenator; new Jolee’s Boutique embellishments and of course the Dr. Seuss papers! These might be my favorite new product. The papers feature five of the most popular Dr. Seuss books including, The Cat in the Hat, One Fish Two Fish, The Grinch, Green Eggs and Ham and The Places You’ll Go. There are also coordinating alphabet and flat stickers. They are awesome, take a look!

Artist Trading Cards are created and traded by artists, like baseball cards. They are small works of mixed media. There are two rules for making ATC’s. First, the cards must measure 2 1/2 by 3 1/2 inches (the same dimensions of traditional trading cards). Second, they must never be sold, they can only be exchanged. This has become a great way for artists to network and connect with one another. These mini works of art can combine a few or several products. For example, assorted papers, pictures, words and phrases, fibers, and also techniques like stamping and painting. This is a great way for scrapbookers to use up their scraps.

Well, it is two days before Christmas and I haven’t wrapped one gift, made the Christmas cookies, cleaned the house or finished the shopping. Tomorrow afternoon Eric and I are going to be photographing the new Dr. Suess paper and stickers that we just received from EK Success (they are awesome!) and then tomorrow night I have to go back over to the office to help with the database, entering the product long descriptions. Man, this is rotten timing. I really wanted to bake cookies with Sam tomorrow so we could frost them on Christmas Eve and leave them out for Santa. On Saturday, Christmas Eve, we’ll be at Cliff’s sisters celebrating Christmas with his family. Then we spend Christmas Day with my family. We also try to make time every year right before Christmas to drive around and look at Christmas lights while listening to Christmas music. Another thing we try to do is go the the Christmas Eve barn service in Loveland. There are so many things we still want to do and I just don’t know how we’ll fit it all in…….I’m drowning!