Monday, July 27, 2009

Get Inspired






My local scrapbook store recently had their first ever garage sale. I have wanted to go to one of these for a long time. I have heard good things about them. Basically, customers can pay to rent space, and price their own items, bring them in, and let the store sell them for you. I didn't put anything together to sell, but I did end up spending a lot on stuff for myself. In fact, this was around Mother's Day, and so that was my gift, a crap load of scrap stuff for CHEAP! It was a lot of fun. Mostly because scrappers tend to be hoarders, so a lot of the stuff was new. I picked up a book called The Organized and Inspired Scrapbooker. It came with a quiz and was never used. I read through it, and have several times since. It talks about how to organize your supplies to meet your creative process and style. This is great because I like to be organized, but I don't always know how to do it.

I have a lot of ideas from the book. It also has some suggested projects to help get you organized. One of which was a fun project for tackling those out of control art projects the kids bring home from school. I took a suggestion from a friend and made portfolios for the kids from poster board. All year I was shoving paintings, pictures, and crafts in these portfolios. It worked pretty well. But now what? So I used the idea for a mini art album from the book. I sorted through the stacks of art. Then I took pictures and tweaked the photos in photoshop. Then I just had them printed cheap at Walgreens. Then I made covers for both kids, and laminated everything. Punched some holes for rings, and tada, mini art books. The best part? I then threw out all the art work!! Now I don't have those papers collecting dust in a corner. And I am ready for the next school year to start again. The kids enjoyed flipping through their books and talking about projects they didn't remember doing. Now I have a way of seeing how their work progresses over time too. SUCH a great idea and great space saver. It only took a weekend.

The pictures didn't turn out super clear, next time I might scan some of the work and also, some of the work didn't survive the year anyway, so not every project is represented.

I also love the look of the laminated cards, they will surely last a little longer this way.

6 comments:

Kelly said...

I'm totally going to use that idea! I have 3 rubbermaid totes full of the kids' art projects. I was going to tackle it last winter by photographing everything and then tossing it all in the trash but I didn't know what I was going to do with the pictures. Needless to say I never got around to photographing anything. I think I was a little busy sewing or something. Maybe I can make some time to do that once school starts. Then I can have 3 empty totes and three books of art!

Megan Aaron said...

this is a great idea! I was just cleaning out my DDs art this weekend, I threw a bunch of stuff away and narrowed it down to the best 30 or so pieces to keep, but I love your idea. I gotta know though, how did you laminate it? do you have a laminate machine?

Anonymous said...

Becca the books are so cute. You are amazing!!

Brooke said...

Very Cute!! What an amazing idea..I'm totally going to have to steal that idea and use it!! LOVE IT!!! :)

Regina said...

they turned out awesome. I am actually waiting on pictures to arrive to finish up something similar with Patrick's artwork!

Tricia said...

holy moly this is a freaking AWESOME idea! I need to do this....