Hey all (and especially Dawn!!!),

Thanks for checking in with me regular. I'm soooooo sorry for not being around so long. I kinda got caught up IRL and I got caught (I must admit that) in a fantastic (new to me) game called Puzzle Pirates Let me tell ya everything about it!

Jobcoaching
Unfortunately I couldn't start my course in April, so now I'm starting it in September. However, I could walk along with a few jobcoaches these last few weeks and it was fun! I had a great time. I'm sooooo looking forward to this new profession! It so different from my current job. I can work WITH people and really help. I like that :)

Scrapbooking
I have to be honest and admit I haven't been scrapping much lately. However, with this new game (I'll tell you all about it, I promise!) I can Scrapbook as well for a contest :) This is soooo much fun! In a few weeks time I'll have a two weeks holiday and I'll go scrapping then. I really want to finish our Switzerland album and I have so many other photos I still want to scrap.

Puzzle Pirates
I told you before I was hooked on the various versions of the game Tradewinds. Well, I still like this game, but I missed a few things. Once you had done all the assignments, there was not much to do but make a lot of money. You couldn't buy a house or anything else, you couldn't get more assignments, nothing. And I wanted to do more than only get my scores up. Someone told me about Puzzle Pirates and I decided to give it a try. I didn't expect I would love it this much. Granted, you don't get assignments, but you're playing with a lot of people together. After all, it is an online game. Like they say: a massively multi-player online roleplaying game. You can choose whether you want to pay or not. Although, if you're not paying, there are several limitations to the game. I started with a free account (you can always upgrade it to a paid account) and tried it at first. As I said I didn't expect much of it. As far as I had understood it, there were no assignments to fulfill, nothing. But as it turned I fell in love with the game and subscribed. Let me tell you more about this game.
Starting your pirate's life
First, you have to choose on which ocean you want to play. There are two subscription ocean (on which you can also play if you have a free account) called Midnight and Cobalt. Midnight is an ocean which has been developed quite a lot already. Cobalt is a fairly new ocean (only two years old). Then there are three Doubloon oceans (Viridian, Sage and Hunter). Here you have to pay for doubloons to be able to buy things and to get certain ranks. I haven't played on one of these oceans yet, so I can't tell you anything about it yet. There's also a German Ocean and a test ocean. I chose the Cobalt Ocean in the end.
Once you've chosen your ocean, you first need to "make" your pirate. This means choosing the gender, the hair style, the hair color, the skin color and the name. If you choose a male pirate, you also have to choose a facial hairstyle. After that, you can begin. You'll land on an island with nothing more but rags. You're lucky, 'cause the governor of the island will also grant you a shack to live in. And then, everything's up to you!
Missions
It's fun to start with learning more about ye'r pirate life. You'll get a special mission called "Loot yer home" in which you'll get a bedroll and a slated crate. And you can pick the rat that scuttled in as your pet. After that, it's all up to you! There are several more missions to choose from. But you can also decide to work at a shoppe (three contracted jobs is the maximum) or go on pillages. However, if you want to go on a pillage, it is wise to start with a few missions with the navy to get some piracy skills.
Piracy Skills
If you're not interested in getting a rank above Pirate (subscribed), you might not worry about your piracy skills. These skills are often used by crews to see if they can promote you. BUT, practicing these skills will also help you be a better (part time) crew member on the ship on which you're on during a pillage. So, all taken together, it is wise to practice your Piracy skills. And what are those skills, you may ask. Well, there are several. Let me start at the beginning. When you don't have any experience at all, you can start with sailing, bilging and carpentry. The better your skills get, the more options of piracy skills practicing you'll get. There's also gunnery, navigation and battle navigation. These are all puzzles (yes, puzzles) you can play by yourself. There are two puzzles for Piracy skills you'll play with more people and those are swordfighting and rumble.
Your Piracy skills are "judged" on experience (how often you play the puzzles and how good you are with these puzzles) and standing (in regards to other pirates on the ocean of your choice). It's not always easy to get a good experience and standing, but it's soooooo fun to play the puzzles and slowly see your skills getting better and better! And this all brings us to the goal of the game.
Goal
The main goal is just to have a lot of fun. You're not playing this game to end (reach the last level) it (like with many offline games). Instead you're playing this game for yourself and you can set your own goals. In example, you can decide to play it and become one of the pirates with the best piracy skills on the ocean. Or you can play it with the goal of having as many successful shops as possible. Or you can play it with the goal to form your own crew. Those are just a few of the many goals you can set yourself. You are totally to reach the goal you want. And the beauty it, you define the goals. There are no given goals, there are no levels to reach, nothing. But how do you reach these goals? And I was talking about shops. "What's this all about" I can hear you think. Let's elaborate on that.
Shoppes
I know, normally you'd say shop and the plural is Shops. But, in pirate language, you'll use shoppes. There are several shoppes / stalls you can buy (I won't go into details right now), like an apothecary, a weavery, a tailor, a shipyard, a distillery and more. Of course these are all fictional, but it's all fun! Before you can buy a stall, you need to earn money (Pieces of Eight or poe). You can earn poe by participating in pillages and blockades, working with the navy or by working in shoppes. And you may sometimes win poe in a tournament. And it's completely up to you which way you choose to earn the poe you need.
Once you've got enough money, you can buy a stall. But that's not all. You also have to buy commodities (the ingredients). And you have to make sure you've got enough pirates working for you (the labor you need), so that you're able to make all the products which are ordered. believe me, it's fun discovering it all.
Houses, ships, crews
And the shoppes are not all there is to discover. I told you, you get a shack once you start. Well, look at it as a small one-room apartment. But you don't have to stick to that throughout your entire pirate life. Once you've earned poe, you can buy new and bigger houses. There are 10 different type of houses to choose from, each varying in price.
And not only can you buy houses, you can also buy ships. And that's where your piracy skills come in handy again. Cause buying a ship is nice, but if you don't know how to navigate, you can hardly use it. And an officer can do a lot of things, which a Pirate can't do.
Having your own ship is nice, but it's even more fun if you're actively participating in a crew. After a pilly many captains will ask if you want to become a full member of the crew. That's nice, because this will give you the possibility to grow in rank (only officers and above can promote someone). And you'll have several people you can ask for help Maybe it's just something you don't know that you want to ask them, or maybe you'd like to set sail with your own ship and you want people to help you on the journey, you'll find it easier to ask your crew members then when you're not in a crew and you'd have to figure out everything for yourself.
When you've got enough experience, you can also start your own crew. But, you'll need at least narrow experience in several piracy skills, as well have a deed of a ship (proving that you are the owner of that ship) and you have to be subscribed. I would advise you, though, to first participate in an existing crew, so that you can learn everything you need to know about how a crew works.
Conclusion
I think this is about all I can tell you about it. I know that I love it! And that's also why I haven't been here for a such a long time. It's an addictive game! Go and give Puzzle Pirates a try.

For now this is it. I'll be back for more! Have Fun!

Babbled by Ilse at 1:04 PM
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Scrap-a-Ganza Wrap up Part 1

Hey all,

I thought I'd tell you about the rest of the weekend, so here goes. I'll continue from Friday afternoon. If you want to read about everything that happened before, please click on the link Part One above.

Afternoon & Evening
After collecting everything from the registration desk, we decided to put our goodie bag in our room and go and find a place to eat. We hadn't checked the goodiebag yet, because we had no time……..

Diner
Last year we had eaten in the Bistro bar from the hotel and around 5pm we decided to go there again for our diner. It's a lovely little place. We did warn the waitress it was possible that several people would come to eat there and they all needed to be finished before 7pm. Last year they really had no idea what happened! This year it went great! Mom, Bianca and I took the same dish (Chicken sate, for me without the sauce: allergy for peanuts). All in all we didn't have to pay much and it was a very good meal! AND, we were lucky, because when we left everyone else was told the kitchen was closed. Can you believe that? Oh well, for us it worked out okay!

Speed Scrapping
After we'd had our diner, mom and I need to be in the workshop Speed Scrapping at 7pm so we went upstairs to get our bags. Although it would take some time, we decided to wait a little for the elevator instead of hoisting everything downstairs.
Jodi Holbrook and the other Jodi (I'll tell you her name later on. Can't think of it right now....) hosted Speed Scrapping. And Jodi Holbrook did this in a very speedy way! Okay, she told us she'd first explain several things and then we could work on the four layouts, because we had the examples in our workshop description. But she went very fast! It was fun though! We learned to work with the Making Memories Punchers. The die cuts you get out of them, can be perfectly used in the rims you can use with the Making Memories Tag Maker. Because these tags literarily made the layout, this is indeed a very speedy way of scrapping. It's fun to do too! It wasn't at all what I had expected when I choose the workshop. I expected we would be working with precut borders, photo mats and more things like that. This was a very nice twist!
Although I found it very fun and indeed very speedy, I don't think I will be using these things a lot! It's just because of the fact I'm always using a lot of photos in my projects and a lot of interactive things. One (or two) of these tags is funny to include, but it's usually way to little to cover everything I need.
And guess what? Both Jodi's signed my album and my mom and I had our picture taken with them. How's that? I'm so happy they both wanted to sign my album! And they thought I had done a great job with the album too. What better compliment can you get? I was very happy with that compliment.

In Between
After we were done, we had some time left before we had to attend the workshop "About Me". We couldn't enter the workshop room yet, because there was still a workshop going on, so we decided to go and sit somewhere else. We had a nice chat with a few people.

About me
This workshop was being held in the biggest class room. As it turned out, the big class room was really necessary. There were a few hundred people participating in the workshop. I think it was a lovely workshop! All the kits were handed out and then Lisa told something about how the kit came together, what everything means and much more like that. I loved her story! It really gave me an insight in the kit, one which I wouldn't have had if I had only bought the kit and nothing else. I know there were people who thought this was more the "About Lisa" class, but I think they just didn't (want to) understand the whole story behind it. She was telling things about herself, because she wanted to explain things.
After she had told everything, she explained things about a few pages. The kit that comes with an album in a box and lots of extra goodies! I didn't mind the fact that I had to pay another 10 euros for this class as extra fee. It was well worth it.
At the end of the workshop Lisa wanted to take some time to meat all the participants and shake their hands. Because I also wanted my album to be signed by her, I just waited, together with Bianca and my mom. There were so many people who wanted to meat Lisa, have her autograph and a picture taken with her, that it took quite some time, but I didn't mind the waiting. In the meantime I met Lisa's sister, Angela, who's a very lovely lady! She had a great deal of patience with everyone and was really interested in people, just like Lisa. She even signed my album. By the way, she can start as a designer right away! I'll definitely remember her! I also met Kerry (I can't remember her last name right now, I'll give it later), one of the designers for Cricut. Kerry signed my album too! Angela and Kerry both signed on "the last page" because I didn't have a page for About Me. After all, I didn't know if I even could do this workshop. I'll make a special page for these two autographs.
Finally around 12PM we had our chance to have our picture taken with Lisa and to have her sign my album (on the page for "My simple Truth"). This was so great! Just like Angela and Kerry, she was impressed with my album. It's fun to see that something I'm not particular impressed by, others think is wonderful. I mean, my album is okay, but for my feeling that's it. For me it's not outstanding or something like that........ Maybe I just expect too much of myself. Anyway, I'm glad they all signed my album and I'm very glad I waited for it!

The rest of the evening
I was supposed to meet several members of the Scrap-a-Ganza Forum to exchange our friendship cards. However I was just to tired, as were Bianca and my mom. That's why we decided to make a quick round by several shops and then turn back to our hotelroom to go to sleep. There were several good shops and I saw a few things that I had on my wishlist. I didn't buy them at that moment, however. I decided to wait and think about it for a day before making the final decision to buy them. After all, the Crop-a-Dile and the Xyron Design Cutter are not cheap. All though the cutter was now relatively cheap for half the price. That was interesting!

This is it for the Friday. I'll let you know more about the rest later on!

BTW, photos will follow later on. I still have to upload them here :)

Thanks for reading and Have fun!

Babbled by Ilse at 9:21 AM in Category: Jodi Holbrook , Lisa Bearnson , mini album , Scrap-a-Ganza , scrapbooking
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Hey all,

I've been to Scrap-a-Ganza this weekend! It was great! I went with Bianca and with my mother. As I told you before I managed to finish my SAG album just in time Friday Morning. I had hoped to have it finished earlier, so that I would have had time to also finish all the forum friendship cards, but due to a migraine on Wednesday which made me really sick, I hadn't had time to work on anything that day. So I had to do the last things Thursday afternoon (I took the afternoon off) and Friday morning. It turned out this was the only way to get my album finished. However, I still hadn't finished the forum friendship cards. I did that this weekend. But let's recap the weekend, shall we? I'll do it in several posts, so that you can easily follow it. Let's start with Friday.

Early morning
After I had had breakfast with James and he had left for work (at 06:30 am), I started working on the SAG album again. I wanted to finish that before I went for grocery shopping. I was lucky and had the album finished around 09:00 am. Now that that was done I could concentrate on other things.

Last minute photos
I had taken two photos from myself one week earlier and had sent them, along with photos from my scrap studio, to Pixum. These two photos were especially for the forum friendship cards. Remind never to wait for the last minute to do this! Really...... It's not worth all the trouble. I can guarantee that! Why? Let me tell you? Although the package with my photos should have been sent on May 28th (according to their system), it wasn't sent until May 30, so it hadn't arrived Friday morning. Because of that I had to to take the two photos for the cards with me on a CD to have them printed. I had never worked with one of those printing machines in a shop and now I had to learn how to work with it while I had to do all the other things too! I went to our local supermarket, cause I knew they have such a printing machine. I thought it couldn't be hard, right. Just put the CD in, give the order and have everything printed. Right! Note to self: Read instructions properly before asking on of the employees for help!!!! Anyway, I started up everything and put the CD in the place where I thought it had to go. And surprise, surprise, it wasn't working! So I called one of the employees to see if she could help me. Well, no surprise there, she didn't quite know how it worked either. In the end she managed to have my CD getting stuck in the machine and she had to call someone else for help. So, someone else came. She explained me that the machine had been put there without a proper instruction for all employees, so she didn't knew much either, but she'd try to help me. First she got the CD out. Then we started the process all over again. Right then I happen to notice I hadn't read the instructions correctly and instead of putting the CD in the DVD-Rom drive I had tried to put the CD into the whole where the burned CD's would come out. Can you imagine? Anyway, continuing, everything seemed to okay, finally. I could order 12 prints of each photo, I paid and I waited. To my horror I discovered there were only 6 prints per photo printed. Can you imagine??? Not only had I had paid for 24 photos in total, I really needed those 24 photos too! So I called the employee who had helped me last time again and ask her to fix this. She started calling the service desk from the machine and in the meantime she checked the machine. It turned out, to my shame, there are two compartments where the photos are coming out. How the hell was I supposed to know?!?!?!
Anyway, in the end I had my 24 photos and I could finally started my shopping. Just to be sure I bought a roles of double-sided too, so that I'd surely had enough and then I went home at 10:15 am. I stored away all the groceries, took a shower, packed my tool-tote (read: suitcase) and backpack (with my clothing and other things) and lastly I prepared everything for lunch. After all, my mom and Bianca were coming over for lunch and then we would leave for SAG from here.

The Afternoon

The trip
After our lunch we packed everything in the car and we went to Egmond aan Zee where SAG would be held. At such a time you check everything three times and you still have the feeling you're forgetting things, but we decided to ignore that feeling. According to our checklist we had everything, so the whole event should go well for us.
The trip took us two hours. We expected to have traffic jams, but we were lucky. We hardly had any and we could easily continue to Egmond aan Zee. The only thing we regretted, was the fact we had forgotten something to drink for in the car. But we got over it :)

Checking in in the hotel
We arrived around 15:30h. Last year and the year before that we could easily park on the parking lot from the hotel. After driving around the upper parking lot we saw no place there. We hoped there would be a place on the lower parking lot, but someone else came from there and told us there was no spot either. So, what do you do then? We had quite some luggage and we wanted to park the car for the weekend. That's why I went to the hotel reception to see if they knew where we could park. The girl at the reception told us there's a temporary parking lot ("laden en lossen" in Dutch, it means something like packing and getting things out) where we could park the car, but she advised us to regularly check if there was a spot on the parking decks left. I told her there was no way we could do that, after all we would be in workshops all weekend and we simply wouldn't have time to check for a new parking place. She told us to take our chances and that's what we did. We parked the car on the temporary parking lot and got our things inside.
Unlike last years the registration desk for SAG was downstairs instead of in a desk we passed on our way to the hotel reception. So we decided to check in in the hotel first, so that we could leave our luggage in our room and then go to the registration desk from SAG. We got a nice three-persons room (it looked the same like the one we had last year) and we put all our luggage inside. And just to be sure, I immediately checked the window to see if we could properly open it. Well, we could, but it wasn't ideal. We decided to keep it shut for the moment and see what we'd do in the evening.

Checking in for Scrap-a-Ganza
Last week I had been thinking about following one extra workshop. I had seen the About me Book kit from Lisa Bearnson and Lisa was at SAG to give exactly that workshop on Friday evening. It's a two-hours workshop. In the end I finally decided that, if there would be places left for this workshop, I would follow it. I had mailed Scrap-a-Ganza to ask if I could reserve one extra ticket, but they told to take my chances at registration, because I couldn't register online anymore and they couldn't register me for that workshop through e-mail either. So while we were walking towards the SAG registration desk I was keeping my fingers crossed for the possibility to follow this workshop. Downstairs there was quite the line for the registration desk. It turned out most people in line needed to check in before they had Karen Burniston's workshop that afternoon. Thankfully it didn't take really long, so it was our turn to check in. I got lucky cause although I was told I had to pay another 10 euro's for paying through Paypal, apparently their administration wasn't in order and I didn't need to pay it. (TELL NO ONE!!!) No complaints here :) Of course we got our goodiebag and an envelope with all the tickets for the workshops, the make & takes, breakfasts, lunches and diner. After that we checked for extra workshops. Bianca wanted and extra workshop for Saturday afternoon and mom decided to take the "About Me" workshop too. Bianca already had booked this workshop, so the three of us hoped we would all be able to follow the workshop. And guess what? We got lucky! Mom and I got the last two tickets for About Me and Bianca was able to do one workshop extra with me!!! We were really happy with this! Of course we had to make sure we had all the necessary tickets, so we sat down besides the registration desk to check our tickets. They all turned out to correct, so no problem there :)

Okay, I think this is enough for now. I'll get on in another post! Talk to you later!

Babbled by Ilse at 12:15 PM in Category: Lisa Bearnson , mini album , Scrap-a-Ganza , scrapbooking
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Hey all,

I'm back from Scrap-a-Ganza. I've had a wonderful time, did about 11 workshops (I included one extra Friday evening) and had lots of fun. I'll tell you all about it later, cause it's going to be a very long story!

Last Friday morning I did manage to finally finish my SAG album, so I took it with me too. Didn't journal in it yet, but all the teachers signed it! Yeah for me! Once I've included all my photos I'll show it to you!

Talk to you later!

Babbled by Ilse at 10:43 AM in Category: mini album , Scrap-a-Ganza , scrapbooking
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Hey all,

I haven't done much scrapping this week. I've been working on getting things printed with the Creative Lettering Delights companion. However, I'm having troubles with that. Either the transparent alphabets are not printed correctly or the transparent Journaling Delights are not printed correctly. With this I mean that when printed (if printed at all), I get a print like I've zoomed in too much, so it's not looking sharped, but rather pixelled. And that's of course not what I want. I've contacted technical support about this already. I hope they'll have a solution for me, cause I'm all out of ideas......

I've been working a little bit on the SAG album again. I've gone shopping for bigger screws. I've found something in the hardware store. I'll show you that later. And last but not least I've been working on a new layout again, but that's not ready to show yet.

I'm going to ask James if he can take a few pictures of me, so that I can finish the Forum Friendship cards. After that I'll order those online and also photos from my scrapstudio. I already have a rough idea for the album. But before I begin with that album, I want my SAG album to be finished. Once that's done, I'll work on my Scrap Studio album.......

Talk to you later!

Babbled by Ilse at 8:16 AM in Category: Scrap-a-Ganza , scrapbooking
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Hey all,

It's only fifteen days till Scrap-a-Ganza!!! I'm so looking forward to it! This does remind me that I have to ork really fast now. I still have my SAG album to finish and I want to make my Scrap studio album, so that I can participate in the contest. It would be fun!

In the meantime I'm going to pack everything I don't need until SAG, so that I'll have everything ready. And I'm going to make a shopping list of things I want to buy at Scrap-a-Ganza. I know the Crop-a-Dile will be for sale. Although I have a very good eyelet setter, it is my understanding that the Crop-a-dile will cut through chipboard and several layers of cardstock like cut through butter. That does come in handy! You can do this with the Silent Setter too, but it does take more power and a bit longer.

So, here's my Scrap-a-Ganza Shoppinglist:

• Crop-a-Dile
  
• Book Binding Tape
  
• Chipboard figures
  
• Chipboard Alphabet letters
  
• At least two pizzaboxes filled to the brim with Scrapbooking stuff (maybe even more......).
  

I am going to give myself a strict budget, otherwise I'll be spending and spending and spending...... And we can't have that, can we?
Oh, for those of you who haven't / couldn't read my post about last year, the pizzaboxes are something special. Scrapbookmate (a distributor of scrapbook supplies) is the big sponsor of Scrap-a-Ganza. They'll have (older) supplies with them that we can buy. BUT we don't have to pay for them by item. No, we can buy a pizzabox and go into the room where all the supplies are and fill the pizzaboxes ourself to the brim. As long as the pizzabox can close normally, it's okay. The pizzabox costs about 25 euros. But it's very well possible you'll have supplies in it which are worth a lot more! And this I like!!!

Do you happen to have any suggestions of scrap supplies to buy? Things you think are great and at least worth to have a look at? Let me know!

I'll keep you informed about the progress I'm making with the mini albums :) I might break the night tonight and just keep on working at the SAG mini album. I really want to have it finished this week! Luckily I have a few days this week, so I have four days to work on it. Should be enough, shouldn't it?

Talk to you later!

Babbled by Ilse at 12:41 PM in Category: Scrap-a-Ganza , scrapbook supplies , scrapbooking
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Hey all,

As I told you before I want to make a cooking scrapbook, or better, probably multiple scrapbooks :). I was surfing the web for interesting recipes (as James and I are regularly looking for new things) and I found a great website for free recipes.

The Site
Their site is looking very attractive to me. They have nice colors and all the most important parts are easily reachable from the menu. You are greeted with a photo with a nice meal (in my case I saw the meal from the Japanese Cuisine), they have a weekly poll and you can choose from a great variety of categories to search for free recipes.

Your account
You can register at the site to get a free account. If you want, you can also subscribe to their newsletter, so that you recieve recipes on a daily basis. One of the big advantages is that you can add every recipe you find to your own recipe box. That way you don't have to go looking between the thousands of recipes they have. Instead you can immediately access the recipe again.
You can also add your own recipe, which I think is great! This could be your online recipe box. And for those who don't want a mess in their house (like I have right now......), this is a wonderful way to keep your house clean and your recipes in order.

The recipes
With every recipe you'll get the following information (where necessary of course!):

• Servings
  
• Preparation time
  
• Cooking time (yes, there is a difference between the two :) )
  
• A list of ingredients
  
• Instructions
  

Added to this list, you'll notice at the bottom of the recipe that you can change the recipe to fit for more or less people for you want to make the meal. This is great way to get a list of ingredients of what YOU need, instead of the standard.
And for me as an added bonus, after all I am from the Netherlands, I can convert everything to metric scale, so that I don't have to wonder about the US Standard scales.

Extra features
The above is not all. What to think of a shopping list? For people like James and me, this is ideal. We usually do our grocery shopping in the weekend for the entire week. By adding the recipes to the shopping list, you'll have a complete list ready. How handy is that?
And one of the things I also really like is the forum. You can exchange experiences and ideas and much more. What's better than that?
And to top it all, you can also look for coupons. This always comes in handy!

Conclusion
I think this is a very neat website which I will visit frequently! I think this site will be a wonderful resource for all the recipes I'm going to use in my cooking scrapbook(s) Let me know what your experiences are! I'm always curious!

Babbled by Ilse at 7:59 AM in Category: cooking , scrapbook
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Hey all,

No, you haven't missed a thing. It's just been several weeks since I last posted the "What did I scrap this week?"-list. I've been quite busy, but also with a lot of other things. I thought I'd pick it up again. I won't go into the last three weeks, but I will list what I did this last week.

• I've been jotting down ideas for my Scrap studio mini album. Okay, I still have to finish the Scrap-a-Ganza mini album, but for my Scrap studio mini album I already have photos, so it's really tempting to start with that one. That's why I try to limit myself to only jot down ideas and nothing more.
  
• I've been searching for and downloading alphabets and journaling delights from Lettering Delights. For myself I've specifically searched for things to use in my Scrap-a-Ganza mini album and in my Scrap studio Mini album (yes, I confess.....). And let's not forget everything for the zoo albums. I've seen so many wonderful things!
  
• I've downloaded 5 alphabets especially for mom for mother's day, as well as bought her a dog scrap pack.
  
• I bought myself the Grommet Tool set from Making Memories. Now I have to start using it!
  

I confess, it's not a long list and it's nothing that I actually scrapped, but it's something. I hope I can work on the Scrap-a-Ganza mini album the coming evenings. Maybe I'll get a few extra pages finished. And I'm free this Thursday and Friday. I hope I'll be finally able to finish the Scrap-a-Ganza mini album........

Talk to you later!

Babbled by Ilse at 1:04 PM in Category: Scrap-a-Ganza , scrapbook supplies , scrapbooking
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Hey all,

As usual in the weekends, I've been surfing around for new scrap ideas and new scrap supplies. I decided to check with CouponChief.com to see if they had interesting coupons for me. After all, you never know what you may find there! And given my previous experience with my greeting cards it was certainly worth the time to check out the site again.

Joann.com
I'm on several mailinglists and there I've read about a store called Joann. It seems they have a lot of scrapbooking supplies for an interesting price. Of course I can't let such an opportunity go by, so I searched on the CouponChief site for Joann.com coupons and boy did I find some interesting coupons! What do you think about Free shipping? Or 60 % off holiday items? And they have a lot on sale for which you can use coupons! So it's definitely worth checking.
I saw several very interesting items for a very nice price, like glue (you can never have enough of those!), the Crop-a-Dile (I've been told this is really easy if you want to make wholes in a stack of cardstock) and cardstock stacks. I love the Die Cuts with a View stacks!
Just to make sure I decided to check if they indeed ship to the Netherlands. After all, I've seen shops that don't ship to the Netherlands. And as it turned out, so doesn't Joann. Too bad...... I'd be happy to buy there. But for those of you living in the United States: Go shopping there!!!

Coupon Chief
When I told you about the Greeting Cards I ordered I haven't told you a lot about Coupon Chief, so I decided to tell you a bit more now. Coupon Chief gives you the online coupons and coupon codes for lots of stores, like Amazon, Target, eBags and lots more! You can easily find your favorite store, by simply clicking the link all stores link. Then click on the link of the begin letter of your favorite store and you'll get the list of the stores Coupon Chief has a coupon or coupon code for. It's easy as 1-2-3. Once you click on the store link you're looking for, you'll get the coupons / codes. Once clicked on the coupon link, you'll be led to the store and a pop-up window from Coupon Chief will come up, guiding you through the process of the ordering with your coupon.
And last but not least, Coupon Chief has added a neat new feature for several stores. For Joann, in example, you can now watch an instruction video on how to use the coupons. This new feature makes it even more attractive, at least for me, to use the Coupon Chief site.

Conclusion
Although I couldn't use the Joann coupons now, I'll be sure to check back into Coupon Chief, because I'm sure there'll be new things to check out and try. And seen the wonderful experience I had with my greeting cards, I'm not at all disappointed. I'm happy with this site!

Talk to you later!

Babbled by Ilse at 7:22 AM in Category: scrapbook supplies
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Hey all,

I was looking for a few new scrap supplies again. I'm always on the look out for new alphabets (cause I can really use them!) and I was thinking about a new tool. As for the rest, I wasn't really looking for something new like needing it, but seeing new things may inspire me too :).

Lettering Delights Alphabets & More
With thanks to Dawn from Keeping it Real I've decided to start using things from Lettering Delights. These layouts are projects where Dawn used several lettering delights products. And when I saw these I finally decided to use their products. I've bought several of their alphabets and Journaling Delights packages. I found several I could use in my zoo albums. I'm going to have to make at least three zoo albums (The Emmen Zoo, the Dolfinarium and Diergaarde Blijdorp). Some things were so exactly fitting for the pictures I've taken, I couldn't resist buying them, although I'm not going to use them yet.
I'm not going to make digital layouts, but I'm going to print everything and use it all in my "normal" layouts. That's why I love computers. You can do so many things nowadays!

Grommet Tool
I was rummaging through all my scrap supplies a little while ago and I found a few big eyelets / grommets which I had gotten from Club Scrap. I was wondering how to fix these, so I decided to go looking for a tool. I went to The Scrapheap and found the Grommet tool set. All though the grommets didn't look like the things I had gotten from clubscrap, I decided to buy the tool anyway. I did it because I found a great advantage with this tool: I could make big wholes! I had been looking for a tool to do that, but hadn't found it, but now I had. So, even though I might not be able to use it for the Club Scrap things, I can use it here. This is the grommet tool:

Experiences
Do you happen to have experiences with this tool, or with other tools (good or bad). Let me know! I'm always looking for new ideas and experiences!

Babbled by Ilse at 11:23 AM in Category: lettering delights , scrapbook , tools , zoo
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Hey all,

As I said before I'm dreaming about the "Ultimate Club Scrap Hearty Appetite kit". Okay, it's not officially called this name, but that's what I call it! I've been a member of Club Scrap before (April 2004 - June 2005), but due to my RSI problems, I had hardly used the Club Scrap Kits. Then there came a time when I wanted to make scrapbook examples for my shop, so I mainly used supplies I had in my shop. Now I'm starting to use Club Scrap kits again. And I love it.

the Ultimate Club Scrap Hearty Appetite kit
Club Scrap has such a high quality for their kits, that it's hard to not love their supplies! I have several scrapbook projects in my head right now and since I'm scrapping more and more I think there comes time that I don't have any Club Scrap Supplies anymore. Of course I can buy supplies from other brands (I do that now too), but I still LOVE Club Scrap. So now I'm dreaming about a kit with the following supplies {Source: Club Scrap}:

• Main Entree:
  
  
  
  • Papers — A healthy blend of at least sixteen 12x12s, and ten 8.5x11s of premium quality textured card stock and translucent sheets, perfect for both scrapbooking and cardmaking.
    
  • Goodies — We shop and create for you! Expect a discriminating and coordinated selection of fresh and innovative craft products to enhance your projects.
    
  • Sticker or Stencil — On alternating months you'll receive either a sheet of original Stickers or a 5.5x8.5 Stencil template, both exceptional methods of page embellishing.
    
  • Idea Recipe Cards — An indispensable tool for the perfect craft seasoning . . . a brand new FONT Card for you to trace and copy onto your projects, a BORDERS & BACKGROUNDS Card that offers coordinated images for unlimited uses, and a LAYOUT Card that hands you ideas on a silver platter!
    
  • Scrap Rap™ — A robust and colorful 8-page newsletter that's jam-packed with priceless ideas, techniques and projects from the CS® Design Team and our talented Members.
    
  
  
• The Three Side orders
  
  
  
  • Wood Mounted Stamp(s) — Superbly artistic and perfectly coordinated original stamps . . . you'll receive one large or two smaller stamps in each kit.
    
  • Embellishment Pack — A delightful mix to your craft collection . . .:
    
    
    
    • One portion of hand selectedbeads, brads, charms, nail heads, eyelets and more
      
    • A set of perfectly matched fibers for each kit — 6-8 yards of 4 different styles
      
    • Twelve Photo Mattes at 6.25x4.25 that make matting and layering a piece of cake
      
    • Two 8.5x11 Tag Sheets that include combinations of printed and plain options
      
    • PaperCuts that equal two 8.5x11 sheets — exclusive CS® diecuts, both printed and plain
      
    
    
  • Greetings to Go — an exquisite variety and a cardmakers dream . . . :
    
    
    
    • Fifteen Scored Sheets for ready-to-make cards in an assortment of sizes
      
    • Fifteen Kindred Panels that are poised for accessorizing
      
    • Fifteen Coordinated Envelopes for instant in-the-mail capabilities
      
    • A portion of adhesive or a coordinated ink for on-the-go handiwork
      
    
    
  
  
• Extra's from the à La Carte Menu:
  
  
  
  • Extra CS Paper Helping — A second helping of CS® paper
    
  • POP's — A luscious "pound of CS® paper" cut down to bite-size servings for easy crafting
    
  • StampXtras — Greeting {a touch of life's occasions} & Art Nouveau {a glimpse of life and art}
    
  • The Swatch Card — A catalog of your kit's paper swatches, designs and ingredients — a must for any future cravings
    
  • The Unmounted Rubber Set — Images right from the Idea Recipe Cards — Fonts and Backgrounds & Borders
    
  
  

This is indeed a huge kit! I know. But still......... Unfortunately the costs are a bit too high for me now. It all comes down to $110.- per month {It does have a retail value of $147.-, though!}. So, while I'm still scrapping with previous Club Scrap Supplies, I wish I could simply have the Ultimate Kit send to me every month. This would be so wonderful! Can you imagine this being delivered in, I guess, multiple pizza boxes {otherwise it won't all fit}? Imagine the mailman delivers this package to you every month! Right now I can only dream about it.

The reasons
And why do I want all those things? Let's see about each part, shall we?
The Main Entree
This is the best package you can get. There's also a junior package, but you won't have as much in it. Although granted, it does costs less also :). Anyway, the cardstock is from a highly quality. It's really thick. This makes it possible to have it as the main background and put it in a page protector when the entire page is finished. And that's what I like. I don't like these thin background papers with which you still need cardstock to give it the sufficient protection. And on top of it, the designs are all from Club Scrap! It's all original, unlike with in kits from other manufacturers! The goodies are always matching perfectly with the cardstock. Several of them are specially selected for Club Scrap and you can't always get your hand on it! The stickers are always great. Sometimes you get alphabet stickers and other times you'll get stickers with a certain design. The stencils are also very useful. With my previous subscription, I've already had a few envelop templates, drawings to fill with chalk or paint and much more! The Idea recipe cards give you layout sketches, and prints of the fonts and Borders & Backgrounds. So, if you're looking for ideas for your layout, these cards are excellent to use. And as a great bonus you'll get the Scrap Rap. You can see this as the Club Scrap Newsletter with examples for that month's kit, work from other members from previous months and sometimes a project description. This has given me inspiration for my SAG album already!
Three side orders
I love the quality of these side orders. The wood mounted stamps are coordinating with the kits perfectly. Several of them are unique for Club Scrap and come in limited editions. Can you imagine that? The Embellishments pack has everything you need. In my case I love the tags you get. In the past I've especially ordered sheets of tags, just because I liked the designs and because I knew I could use them somewhere. The photo mats have come in handy very much already in the past! And talk about the fibers. These are usually things I can't find in my local stores. That's why I always had these ordered too! The rest of the pack is as good too! The Greetings to go is something new for me. I understand that crafters in America have only recently started making cards. Here in the Netherlands this is something we've been doing for ages. As I see the description, I think this will be a wonderful pack for card making.
Extra's
The Extra helping of papers have already come in very handy for me with regards to a few projects. In the past I've ordered these separately when I found papers I really liked. It's just so easy to work with. The POP's are so great to work. Not only can you use them for photo mats, but you can also use them for journaling blocks, die cuts and much more! These weren't part of my standard package in the past, but I did order several POP's in addition to the kits I already had. What was standard in my order, were the StampXtra's. These were also specially designed for Clubscrap. Up until now I've only used a few of them, but I do see where I can use others already :). Another thing that's really good is the swatch card. This gives you a sample of the cardstock and the designs. This way you'll always know which cardstock belongs to which kit. And if you happen to run out of the cardstock, you can easily order it {assuming Club Scrap still has the necessary supplies}. One last thing I hadn't in my orders in the past was the Unmounted stamp set. However, in the future I would consider having this in my standard order. These are so beautiful!!!

Well this is about all I can say. Oh, one last addition: It's all such a high quality! Of course you'll "pay" for that, but if I compare it to other companies, I think this is great and you're not paying anything extra for the quality. Better yet, all taken together, I think Club Scrap is even better with their pricing!

Keep on dreaming
However, although I'm only dreaming about it right now, this maybe achievable in the future if I receive enough money from Pay-per-post programs and ad incomes. That would be funny, wouldn't it? Until then..... I keep on dreaming!

Babbled by Ilse at 12:23 PM in Category: babble , babble , blogs , Club Scrap , scrapbooking
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Hey all,

I've been working on my Scrap-a-Ganza album again! I've scraplifted a few ideas from Club Scrap Raps which I thingk were wonderful interactive ideas. And I've scraplifted a few other projects I saw in magazines as well :)

Departure
First let me show you a little something I made for our departure:
As you can see I've made something with a lot of wholes in it. Can you guess what it is? And I've included two things of which each contains one list of things I need to pack. If I don't make these lists, I'll be sure to forget something. I haven't told you about a nightmare I had this week, have I? I dreamed I was at Scrap-a-Ganza and somehow I was part of the organization crew (sounds fun, doesn't it?). We were at some bar in the hotel (it didn't look like any bar I've seen there, but never mind that....!) and I looked in my suitcase and my backpack to grab something out of there. I had my big suitcase with me, which was the one I AM going to take with me, and I have my backpack with me. At that point I noticed I hadn't packed several things, like my nightgown, my toothbrush, my medicine..... Well, just go back and get them, right? At least that was what I thought in my dream and what I told other crew members. But I was told I couldn't leave at that moment to get them, I just had to wait. I checked some more and for my horror I discovered I had forgotten my Scrap-a-Ganza album, the one I've been working on for weeks. And somehow, at that, moment I realized I couldn't go back to get all my things, because I wouldn't be back in time for my first workshop. Can you imagine my panic? Luckily I woke up and found myself lying in bed with a little bit more then a month to go before our departure for Scrap-a-Ganza!!!!

Arrival
Anyway, let's have a look at the next Sneak-peek. I think you all can see what this is. I had four brown shipping tags attached to each other and I used these to make this little tag accordion booklet. The cardstock is from the Friendship kit from Club Scrap. The fibers are from knitting wool I have at home. I just love fibers! You'll find more of them in upcoming scrap projects! And I need to thank the inventors of double sided tape. This tape is really coming to my rescue for this album. Since I'm using envelopes instead of page protectors, I need to tape all the pages to the envelopes. It's not good enough to do this with my Pritt tape runner. It just won't hold good enough. Especially seen the fact I'm using so much interactive things on my pages, which makes quite heavy......

Here's another look on the tag accordion booklet. This sticker represents the suitcase I'm taking with me. To be honest, it doesn't like it will be enough, but does anyone care :) I'm not sure what I'm going to include in the booklet. I'm thinking about some small photos of our hotel room. And some journaling Or maybe one big photo. The fun thing with this booklet is that I can use both sides, which makes it easier for me to include more photos. Knowing me, that might come in pretty handy :) Once it's all finished I'll show you the complete picture, but that's something for when SAG is finished..........

Speed Scrapping
This is something for my first workshop, Speed Scrapping. I won't tell you exactly what it is. I will tell you that this holds several things. This is one project I scraplifted from Club Scrap. I've used the Time & Space kit from Club Scrap, that's all I'll tell you about it :) I know I've been busy with it quite some time to get it all the way I wanted it to be. I had never made this project before. Since it didn't seem that hard to make, I just took measurements from my page, after all I need to know that the project I made will fit on the page. Once that was done I could make everything. It DID mean, however, that I had to make a few things myself, for which the people from Club Scrap used standard things, but that was okay. I like to make things myself! This project will hold at least one photo, one supply list and the description of the workshop. It's so fun to make these interactive things! And here's another sneak-peek of the same project. I liked the way I could use the hour-glass. I just hope the ribbon will hold. I've first stitched the whole, before I used matches to finish it. As it seems now, it will be enough. I can only hope it won't wear out through the years, but we'll see about that:) I've used embroidery threads to attach the hour-glass. I've attached it slightly turned. This way it's also turned in the whole, so that it won't go out of it, until I actually turn the hour glass. At first I wanted to use a button, because that would be so much easier, but when I came up with the idea of the slightly turned hour glass, I thought that was much better. This hour-glass emphasizes the idea of speed scrapping. After all, with this workshop we're going to scrap four pages in one hour. Can you believe that? I think we'll be using a lot of pre-cut things, like borders and photo mats. That's really a way to save time. However, I usually like to think of things myself and adjust everything to fit with my photos (at least as much as possible). Although I do have an idea of how this could be done I am curious to see how Jodi Holbrook (who's giving this workshop) is actually doing it. Maybe she has certain techniques that come in really handy! I'm looking forward to it!

Okay, this is the last sneak-peek I can give you at the moment. This is also for the workshop Speed Scrapping. The four little square wholes do mean something. You'll get to see that later on, once the album is really finished with the photos. This project is also a scraplift from Club Scrap. I've used a translucent cardstock. I really had to be careful or the cardstock would really tear. I teared it alright, but the place where I teared it, isn't in plain view, so that's not a problem. I just hope it won't tear any further in the future....... I already have an idea of what to include in this particular project. I just hope I really have a chance to "make that".........

More?
This is it for today. I have made more pages, but I can't show you them yet. These are pages you should see once the photos are included and not any time sooner. Maybe I'll show more sneak-peeks of new projects in this album tonight or tomorrow! Thanks for looking!

Making the album
While making this album, I'm glad I sketched all the pages when I started with this gigantic project! Now I don't have to think about the layout anymore. All I need to think about it is whether I want to include an interactive element and if so, which element I want to include. It does make it a lot easier, or at least less time consuming as I'm used to thinking about a layout sketch for quite some time. Sometimes I'll browse for an hour or more through a magazine or a book, just to see if I can find something to fit my needs. Scrapbooking is not always easy and it's certainly time consuming, but I love it!

This is it for now. Talk to you later!

Babbled by Ilse at 12:20 PM in Category: events , interactivity , mini album , Scrap-a-Ganza , scrapbooking
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Hey all,

As I told you last week, I want to record what I scrapped every week. So here's part 2. I've done quite some scrapping and I'm very pleased with it. Here's an overview.

• I've searched for ideas for interactivity in my projects (hidden journaling, hidden photos). I've found a few ideas from Karen Burniston, as I stated earlier.
  
• I've finished the two-page layout for the workshop "Weather comes to mind" or "Seasons" (as Karen calls it herself). All that's left to do now is to add the photos. That will have to wait until Scrap-a-Ganza is finished. I intend to use one photo transfer (to packing tape) on this layout. I think it's a fun technique. I've never tried it before, but I've seen examples in several books. I'm going to try this with a few old photos first, before I'm going to do it with a SAG photo :) I've included several interactive things in these layouts. You've already seen one of them as a sneak-peek. I've also included two inserts for the envelopes. One of these inserts is meant for photos of the end result. The other is meant for photos from the class and journaling about it.
  
• I've finished the Weekend schedule layout for my Scrap-a-Ganza album. I've included one interactive item here.
  
• I've made tabs for all the layouts in my Scrap-a-Ganza Album. I've used the Pen Tip font again and printed everything on paper. I've glued the paper to a transparency. After that I adhered the set to proper pages.
  
• I've finished the inside front cover.
  
• I've finished the layouts and inserts for our trip TO Scrap-a-Ganza.
  
• I've been trying out some new interactivity ideas. There fun to do. I'll show the results later on!
  
• I've been testing the fibers / ribbons in jars.
  

Well, that's it for last week!

You wanna play along? Write your list on your blog and leave a comment here or include your entire list here in the comment!

I'm looking forward to your scrap results! Talk to you later!

Babbled by Ilse at 12:04 PM in Category: interactivity , Scrap-a-Ganza , scrapbooking , sunday scrap list
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Hey all,

I just found a wonderful new scrapbook resource: The Scrapbooking Resource Center. They have lots of free font downloads, quotes, articles and Tutorials and lots more! Have Fun!

Talk to you later!

Babbled by Ilse at 8:15 AM in Category: scrapbooking
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Hey all,

This morning I was browsing the Creating Keepsakes site for the Hall of Famers. I'm impressed by the work the 2007 winners have done! It's really amazing! I hope I'll be able to participate in the Hall of Fame contest once. In the rules it says:

Contest is open to all who are legal residentsof the United States, Canada (Excluding Quebec), England and Wales, including contributors to Creating Keepsakes magainze and winners of previous contests sponsored by Creating Keepsakes magazine except winners of previous Scrapbook Hall of Fame Contests.......

Okay, granted, I'm not a USA resident, not Canadian, English or from Wales. But I hope one day my work will be published in Creating Keepsakes and that will make me a contributor, right? So, would that mean I could participate? Oh well, let's think about when I'm actually published there :)

It is too bad though, that the Creating Keepsakes (and other contest as well) are usually only for the residents of USA and Canada. I'd like to participate in these contests, but I'm not able to....... Oh well, I can only hope such a thing will one day be done here in the Netherlands.

Creating Keepsakes
Talking about being published in Creating Keepsakes, you know I submitted Italy Layouts for the Italy call, do you? Unfortunately I haven't heard anything, so I guess I didn't make it. Too bad. Maybe next time.......

New designs by Karen Burniston
I'm working on the Scrap-a-Ganza album again and I needed the supplies list for the Weather comes to Mind workshop. So I went to Karen's site and I found that she has some new interactive designs again! I love the Flip-Flop Summer Layout. Just look at the flip-flop on the right side. It's lovely and so funny! It really gives that {little} something extra for someone who's looking at your layout. And to top that, it gives you the possibility to add extra photos and journaling. That's wonderful!
I think I might give it a try myself, albeit without the description. It is something for advanced people {according to the site}, but somehow it seems familiar to me. It looks a bit like the Tag pull out book she used. So this might be something I'll do in my Switzerland album. Or maybe even sooner, in my Scrap-a-Ganza album, but I'm not sure about that yet.
One more new layout she's made is the "Inner Circle". I love the way she shows the possibility to pull out extra flaps out of the circle. And she managed to make it in a way that the flaps are stopped to prevent them from sliding out all the way. Beautiful! This is one I'm not sure of if I would be able to figure it out myself. Oh well, I'll think about that later on......

First, let's get back to the SAG album. I hope to be able to finish the "Weather Comes to Mind" workshop pages and the Weekend Schedule Page. When I've finished those two, I want to continue with my Switzerland Album. As I said in the beginning of my holiday I hoped I would be able to finish our Switzerland album before I have to get back to work. Right now I highly doubt I will have finished it, but I'll see........

Talk to you later!

Babbled by Ilse at 11:56 AM in Category: interactivity , Scrap-a-Ganza , scrapbooking
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Hey all,

While surfing the net and exploring blogs I came across several funny things, like Thursday Thirteen, Friday Five and more things like that. Basically it all comes down to making a list of a few things. Well, I'm pretty good at MAKING list, but actually FOLLOWING them is whole other story. So I thought I could make a list, but not something to follow, but instead about things I've done (like those other lists are). I've decided to call this list: "What did you scrap this week?" And I'll post it every Sunday.
Many lists are based on a certain number (like five or thirteen). This list is not based on such a thing. It's just a list of things I've scrapped. After all, sometimes I'll just have scrapped one or two things and sometimes I may have scrapped a whole lot of things. So it can vary!

Since I'll make this list every Sunday (except when I'm away on a holiday!) I hope this will encourage me (and maybe you?) to scrap more. I do have so many plans for scrapping and it would be a shame if they'd all go to waist, wouldn't it?

So here goes. This week I've scrapped:

• 24 forum friendship cards with six different designs. I've chosen six different flower photos for the back of the cards. I've stick with the same front. That was a bit easier for me. All I need to do now is add the photos from me. Once I have added those, I'll show you the cards.
  
• I've made the schedule for my SAG-album. I want to include a schedule of everything we do that weekend. I was looking for ways to do that. I've finally decided to make a schedule with Corel Paint Shop Pro. And it worked out cool! I've found a very nice font (Pen Tip) which I used and now everything seems very neat when I print it. You can view the schedule here.
  
• I've made a description for the "Weather comes to Mind" workshop. I've also done this in Corel. I've used the fonts Pen Tip and Walt Disney Script 1.4. You can view it here
  

Well, that's it for last week!

You wanna play along? Write your list on your blog and leave a comment here! (If you don't have a blog, you're always welcome to put your list in your comment here!!!)

I'm looking forward to your scrap results! Talk to you later!

Babbled by Ilse at 3:30 PM in Category: Scrap-a-Ganza , scrapbooking , scrapping
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Hey all,

Although it will be still several more weeks before Scrap-a-Ganza actually happens and before I can really show you my entire album, I thought I'd give you a few sneak peeks. These are all from a layout about the workshop "Weather comes to Mind" (or Seasons) with Karen Burniston. I'll tell you all about it later on!

Thanks for looking!

Babbled by Ilse at 5:36 PM in Category: mini album , Scrap-a-Ganza
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Hey all,

Through Mad Cropper's Site I found the site from Scrappin' Moms. Ria has wrote a wonderful article there, called How to scrap more in 2007. She has 15 wonderful tips on this subject. I've included Ria's tips here under. I'll give my reaction to them per tip.

1. Edit and print pictures in batches

I try to schedule editing time every week. With 3 kids, I need to edit at least this often. I have decided not to play around with different sized pictures and sticking to the standard 3r, 4r and 5r sizes. Focal point pictures will be in 5R, and supporting pictures will be in wallet sizes. I will choose my pictures carefully and print only what I intend to scrap. The pictures are my main inspiration, so as long as I know I have great pictures to scrap, I will be in the mood to scrap.

I couldn't agree with her more. Since I'm still about 1,5 year behind with pictures {I found out that the photos from the zoo in Emmen - "Dierenpark Emmen" - are from 1,5 years ago) I'll only order prints for a project I'm going to work on that moment. Okay, granted, I'm working on two different projects right now and I have the photos printed for a third project. Here's the deal: I want to be able to continue scrapping while I have a scrapper's block. So therefore I want to have photos for two projects at hand. That's why I edited and ordered prints of the photos from Switzerland and from Dierenpark Emmen. So far I have been working on the Switzerland photos and it's going quite well. And it so happens I wanted to make a planner for Scrap-a-Ganza before the actual event so that I could have teacher sign it and so that I could immediately journal everything. That's looking ahead, right? The photos from the zoo in Emmen will have to wait for now. But, I haven't edited or printed the photos from Diergaarde Blijdorp where we went a week ago. Yeah me!!!

2. Organize your supplies

in a way that makes sense to you. I tend to think by color and I’m familiar with the different brands’ collections so my papers are organized this way. My embellishments are organized by theme – Christmas, Disney, girls, boys, babies, love, etc. Alphabets are kept together – stickers and rub-ons in a clear folder, while 3d alphas – chipboard, metal, plastic -- are in one drawer.

As you probably know, I have done that when I have reorganized in my Scrapstudio! Right now everything is just the way I like it and easily available. I'm convinced I'll make better layouts this way and I'll finally use all the embellishments I have!

3. Schedule your scrapping time

I’m lucky enough to have a scrap room so I can leave pending projects on my desk and come back to it several times during the day, in between taking my kids to school, picking them up and taking them to their various activities. I used to have an officemate who would wake up early to read the Bible and put herself in the right perspective for the day. I’m thinking that if I were working, I’d probably do the same – recharge by scrapping.

Okay, I totally lack at that. Maybe it's an idea to really do this for myself. Right now I just grab any possibility I get - which works at the moment - but having a scheduled time might be better. Okay, I have to be honest, I do have a few scheduled times: when my mom and Bianca come to crop, like next Sunday. It's on average every two weeks. But I should find some time to just scrap by myself. Maybe I'll use the Wednesday evening (lousy TV anyway) and Friday morning or afternoon, just what fits. That way I'll certainly make a few things.

4. Keep scrap magazines and books near you.

Although I have a scrap room, my magazines are in my bedroom, so that on a lazy day, I can easily and quickly run through them and pick-up ideas. When I bring my kids to their activities, I always bring a magazine with me to read during “waiting time”.

I've made that sure! I've roamed through the magazines a lot lately, while I was looking for interactive ideas! All I need to do to be able to read them is stand up and step one step aside and there they are, all neatly ordered :). I've heard from people who have thrown away old issues from magazines. I can't imagine myself doing that (now that's an issue!!!). I can find new ideas regularly in those magazines. And although the papers are extinguished, doesn't mean the sketch can't be used!

5. Attend the EBs

This is a day dedicated to scrapping without household duties interrupting. My husband knows this is sacred to me and willingly takes over the kids during this time.

Okay, if someone could explain what EB's are? I have no idea. I do understand what she's saying, though. Make time for your scrapbooking, get some "ME"-time in your busy life and spend it scrapping! But how to do that while we both have an (almost) full time job? That would leave the Friday and the weekend for me. And as I'm looking for a new job right now, this wouldn't come in handy either. Oh well, at least I can use the Friday morning or afternoon. That will give me something :) The weekend is also something for the both of us and to do grocery shopping and more. Oh, right. Once every two weeks I do have such a day as Ria describes. So in a way I do have it.......

6. Multi-task

scrap during the news or your favorite TV show.

Hmmm, I'm not too sure about that. I usually want to pay close attention to everything I'm doing while scrapping. And when I'm watching my favorite television series I want to pay full attention to that too. So I don't think this is something you'll find me doing anytime soon.

7. Keep a journal to write down your ideas

I just started keeping a journal to write down poems and quotes that I would like to use in my future layouts. I’ve also listed some album ideas in my journal. On the front of my journal is the phrase “Create Everyday” and at the back is a quote that says “Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”

I have a sketch book. And I jot down ideas whenever I can. And it's not only journaling I write (heck, I can use this journal for that), I also jot down ideas for sketches, ideas for themes for albums, ideas for making albums and more. When I'm at work I'll just take a paper that's easily reachable and afterwards I'll put the paper in my bag. That I have jotted down the idea and I'll have it when I'm home. And putting my sketch book on my desk for this purpose? I don't think so!
BTW, I love the quotes she's used!!!!

8. Give yourself a time limit to finish your LO

Some people allow themselves an hour, 3 hours, etc for a LO. Since I rarely get to work on a LO without interruptions, I tend to finish a LO in 2 days. Sometimes I’m tempted to try to be superwoman and make the perfect LO, but God only knows how much backlog I have. So most of the time, I force myself to stop and move on to another LO.

Hmmm.... Not going there for now. I will lay away an LO when I can't seem to finish it, but I won't consider it "done". I will continue with a new LO until I've found the "perfect" idea for the previous LO. And if I do have the complete idea of how I want the LO to be, I won't stop until it's finished. Albeit that it takes me one hour or three days. I don't really care.

9. Scraplift

Everyone has done it, even me. The definition of scraplift is getting blurrier by the second, as rarely is an idea a true original, most are “inspired by” other layouts.

That's why my sketch book and all the magazines come in handy. This way I can make a layout while I'm otherwise completely stuck. I don't mind to use other's ideas. If they're good, why not use them? And since the photos and materials are never (exactly) the same, the layouts will be different in the end, no matter what!

10. Follow a sketch

This is a good way to jump-start your LO. Since I’m a very linear person, sketches remind me to use circles and other angles in my layouts.

I'll do that when I'm out of my own ideas. Since I'm using a lot of photos normally, I can't use all the sketches, but they'll give me basic ideas......

11. Use coordinated kits

Although I am now getting up the courage to mix and match different papers, I still prefer to start with a coordinated set of pps. Only when I feel that the set is lacking a certain color or feel, do I go to the rest of my stash to find a match. It helps that I know my papers (maybe too well), so I usually know which brand/collection to choose from.

Well....... usually I'll use solid papers. I'm not that much into using patterned papers. Mixing solid colors is easy, at least the way I see it. The problem comes with using patterned papers. Usually I'll think they're too busy for my oh so many photos I want to include in that one layout. But I have set my self a challenge for this year to try and use patterned papers anyway. And I think this will result in using coordinated kits and mixing up papers as well. This is really going to be a challenge, but I've taken my first with using the Urban Couture kit from Basic Grey in my SAG album.

12. When in doubt, start cutting or tearing

Often times I find myself arranging and re-arranging the elements of my LO repeatedly and getting nowhere fast. When this happens, I pick up the paper that I love most (there’s usually one paper that I fall in love with and get hooked on for a particular LO) and start tearing or cutting. Then I find that everything falls into place, or if it doesn’t, there’s always a way to patch up a blunder.

When you're using solid papers, like me, this isn't really a challenge. I think it will become a challenge for me when I really start using patterned papers. But we'll see!

13. Simplify

There are so many materials and techniques to choose from out there. I try to stick to one technique per LO, and a few key embellishments. I like to try new things but not all at the same time.

This is exactly the way I work! Although I usually don't use (many) embellishments! But as far as the technique goes, I'll stick to one new thing at a time. That will take enough time already!

14. Have a goal.

Mine is 3 layouts a week – but I’m a SAHM with too much stuff, for others it might be only one each week, or every 2 weeks.

Well, as you can see on the right handside, I have set myself a goal for a year: 24 layouts for this year. This means an average of two layouts per month. Mind you, a layout can be a one-page layout or a two (or more) layout. With this goal I'm talking about the layouts, so not the pages. And I'm slowly getting there. I've already finished five layouts as of March 16. So, at that moment I was still "on schedule". I'm not anymore right now, but that's due to the fact that I've also finished one mini album and I'm currently working on another mini album. And mind you, mini albums weren't included in my goal and I don't count the pages in my mini album as layouts for my goal. So this will be interesting :)

15. Have fun

You have to enjoy what you’re doing. After all, you are chronicling your family’s story. You don’t need to work in any prescribed order, scrap the pictures that inspire you. I personally enjoy being able to create things with my hands – enjoy the process

This is my main goal with scrapping! If, at any time, there comes a point where I don't like scrapping anymore, I'll quit it. Although I can't, for the life of me, imagine I'll ever get tired of scrapping. In my humble opinion:
~Scrapbooking is not a hobby, it's way of life~

Well, for now I'll leave you with these tips. If you have any more, please don't hesitate to share them, as we can all help each other out, right?

Talk to you later!

Babbled by Ilse at 7:00 AM in Category: scrapbooking
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