Thursday, January 29, 2009

I think

it's brilliant.....

Please forgive me if this is already out in the world as someones brain child but it just occured to me so I'm extremely excited.

I spent this weekend reorganizing my craft room and am very pleased with my new set up. I promise pictures are coming soon. However, something that still plagued me were my scraps, both cardstock & patterned paper. I had already purged them but the patterned paper was just in a stack and the cardstock in a bill organizer busting at the seams.

Here is my solution......


I'm using an extra Modern American Crafts 12x12 Album (uncovered) and all sizes of page protectors 12x12, 6x12, 8.5x11, 8x8 and 6x6 depending on the size of scraps. What I love about this is that all my scraps are in one place, I can flip through it and both big & little scraps are together. Also, if I have a group of patterned papers that coordinate I've put them together to help me use them on a page. Cannot tell you how excited I am about this.

The reason I had an extra Modern American Crafts Album lying around was that I've recently switched the albums I used for my Library of Memories system. If you've read Photo Freedom or signed up for the Library of Memories class at Big Picture Scrapbooking you will see that Stacy uses the Modern American Crafts albums in her system. As a student following her faithfully I bought the same albums at Hobby Lobby.

As Laura shared in a comment and you can see in the above pictures the albums are a bit naked. The spines are colored but the main album is chipboard. Stacy actually leaves her albums bare but I had intended to cover them. But after they sat in my craft room for a year uncovered I realized it wasn't going to happen. Also, two of my four binders were very bright colors which I learned really don't fit in with the rest of my home.

I do love the American Crafts D Ring binders so I switched over to the American Crafts Cloth Albums and adore them!! There is this great little window in the front that you can title your album.



Here is my word of advice regarding albums: Find something that fits your personality, your home and your life. What will make your library albums successful is not that you have the colors or style that Stacy has but that they are incorporated into your living space where your family can enjoy them.

Trust me; you will want your family to be going through these layouts. Because I didn't love the albums I had bought a year ago they were in a shelf in my craft room and no one really looked through them. Now, they fit our living room and are easily enjoyed.

Another thing I learned after I spent the money was that I don't need to have my 8.5x11 layouts in 8.5x11 albums. I actually enjoy having them live with my 12x12 layouts. Before I took Library of Memories I had never scrapped 8.5x11 and thought they need their own binders. But I found that just made it cumbersome for my family to look through my albums.

To look at my layouts someone would have to flip through 8 binders. I love my layouts but that is just torture for non scrappers. Even cutting out the 8.5x11 albums that is still 4 albums to go through. So, I have an album that holds all my current layouts. After it fills up, I move them to their respective homes and start filling up the binder again.


For this I use one of my extra Modern Albums. If covering them sounds like fun, here is what I do. On the 8.5x11 albums I use 12x12 cardstock or patterned paper. However, for the 12x12 album you'll need to be OK with it not fully covering the binder or use something a bit bigger. I really like the decorative paper at Paper Source.


One sheet will cover an inside and outside. So, you will need two sheets of decorative paper or 4 sheets of 12x12.


Here are some naked album shots.


I use my much loved ModPodge and brayer to adhesive the paper to the albums.


I went ahead and finished off with some ribbon since my ModPodge got a little messy on the cloth edges.


Hope that helped show the Modern American Crafts Albums a bit better!

lovemon

12 comments:

Lee said...

Monica! Not just brilliant - FLIPPING brilliant. Love it.

Mind you, my scraps would NEVER fit in one teeny tiny binder, no matter how well organized. Love the idea and hope to be able to use it during the LOAD challenge :)After all, with the exception of card stock, I refuse to use anything "new" or not already cut up in some way.

You are always an inspiration.

Anonymous said...

omg...i picked up 4 of the AC cloth albums at hobslobs...2 green/2 brown...for 1/2off...LOVE them!!

Melanie said...

I just love all the ideas that you are giving us. I am taking the class and I didn't know that Hobby Lobby sold the AC albums. I don't live close to one but I can make the 45 min. trip to get the albums. Thanks for the tips:)

Laura said...

Thanks for all the info! I, too, am loving all the info and ideas!

StudioB said...

I have 12x12 Sterlite drawers from Wal Mart and put my scraps in there one for: cardstock, pink patterned, blue/green/purple patterened, assorted patterened.

I didn't love the idea of the naked binders, or covering them, thought they would get too banged up. I got the WRMK Leather albums in pink, green, purple, blue. They don't match my brown toned living room, but the don't clash and they make me happy.

I've been playing with the idea of a binder for all my recent layouts. I'm doing LOAD in February with Lain Ehmann so that should add some bulk to my albums.

Cyn M said...

Flipping WONDERFUL!!! What a great idea! I am totally CASE-ing it!!! Thanks!

Anonymous said...

I think you shared a great idea to organize scraps. Thanks. :D

Oh Scrap!! said...

I agree brilliant!! i love this post, i am looking for that perfect album because i want to change my scrapbooks to have them all the same calor and style album not like now , too many colors and styles i don't enjoy anymore, thanks again,bTW is funny my blog name is Oh Scrap!!

Anonymous said...

I love the idea of having a "Current Layouts" album and them moving them once it fills up. GENIUS!!!! Thank you for taking the time to post all of this.

Anonymous said...

So many great ideas!! When I read this I immediately sat down and put all my new(ish) layouts into one album. We don't have room for all my LOM albums in the living room, so this is such a great idea for when people come over and ask to look at my scrapbooks. Genius!

Missus Wookie said...

Great idea - some neat ideas here, love this one and the scraps binder.

Thanks!

Anonymous said...

I have discovered that I love binders. They just work for me. I may have to do this with my scraps. Like having photo storage binders, but for scraps!

I also like your album for most recent layouts. I've been toying with that idea but haven't implemented it yet.