shop update

It was my intention to have the Fall Little Bit Kit™ ready to go by the 15th, but no such luck. I had trouble photographing it due to the fickle light in my kitchen. I am happy to say that I managed to overcome that issue and will release it tomorrow, October 18th, but give you a look at the whole thing first. It includes some pretty fun items...super cute paper clips, the most adorable puffy apple stickers, plus a lot of exclusively designed product. The wood veneers kill me...that squirrel...eek! I love it all.

These kits are in limited supply and when they're gone...sadly, they are gone. I hope you like them, I put a ton of love into each and every one:) You can purchase them here at 11am PST on October 18th:)

the little bit kit

I love this time of year. In addition to celebrating my birthday, Keith just brought home a bag of honeycrisp apples...our first bag of the season. I have enthusiastically switched from iced drinks to hot. I made a fabulous beef stew the other night and the crock pot will soon be making an appearance. I happily look forward to more time in the kitchen now that it no longer feels like a sweat lodge. The one thing I don't like is that time moves FAST and I feel an urgency to see and smell and taste everything the season has to offer.

This also tends to be my favorite time of year for stuff. I seriously have a weakness for Fall and Winter paper collections, and even though September is not even completely finished, it seems everyone's ready for December Daily and gathering bits for that oh so special project that we scrapbookers just adore.

Forgive me if I attempt to put it off for just a tad longer...

I have decided to release a new product which isn't so much new as it is slightly different. I have had great success pulling together my favorite items into "mini mixes," "studio samplers," and my beloved accessories kit. It's no surprise that I like a bit of this and that and I've tried to bring that to my shop. A few months ago I chose to end all of my kit club subscriptions because honestly...at the rate I create, one box can last me several months. But, seriously, I miss it. I still buy a bit of paper and the occasional embellishment, and that feels like enough for me. I really love getting a few extra bits to make my projects feel special. I was telling my husband about this...about just needing a little bit and he said.."you just need to find a little bit kit." Uhm, YES...but I don't need to find it when I can make it, right?

So that's it guys. The first Fall Little Bit Kit (TM) will be available in the shop October 15th. I am currently working on a winter one as well. There's no subscription...it won't be monthly...more like seasonally and it will include just a small mix of my favorite items. It will be similar to my Everyday Accessories Kit...but a little different too.

I plan to share the whole kit on the blog a few days before I release it.

Btw...i am not actually trademarking the name...that was just a joke:)

Digi Delight

One of the shop relaunch questions I've been receiving is whether or not there will be printables available for sale and the answer is yes sireeeeee! I love digital and I can't imagine not offering them...I will be doing something a little different though...

In addition to a fun new label set:

 and the long awaited milkcaps:

I am also going to do a monthly embellishment/label set based on trends + colors I love.  No 3x4 or 4x6 cards and no limited timeframe. You can get them when you want them.

I'm also working on some really cute cut frame files

These are coming very very soon:)

and then there was none

For over 10 years I have belonged to a relatively small community of papercrafters. A community built around a shop, a message board and a gallery. People who participated in the same hobby as myself. There were times when I saw people come out of the woodwork to support fellow members...there were other times I watched as grown people descended into madness and meanness. The whole time I kept returning...to shop, to read the boards, to see what's new and to learn new things.

Two Peas in a Bucket changed things for me...you see as a child free middle aged woman, I never felt like I fit into the world of scrapbooking. The covers of most memorykeeping magazines reaffirmed the fact by rarely ever depicting layouts of people without kids. I attended crops filled with moms who questioned why in the world I would bother with this time consuming sometimes expensive hobby...who would care? For whom are you doing it. I felt like saying "myself" was never good enough. This feeling of exclusion remained until I found Two Peas.

Suddenly I found a place where other scrapbookers not so different from myself existed online. I was never one to share much...either in the gallery or the message board, but I always felt like I could. I now had tons of inspiration...travel, fun, daily life, school, jobs, friends...all kinds of topics that were important to me and didn't involve children. I started really making stuff and eventually opening a small papercrafting shop of my own.

Years after discovering digital scrapbooking on Two Peas...I became one of their designers...Kristina sought me out and expressed how much she loved my work. I was on cloud nine for a week. I was the girl who never submitted a single layout for publication...who had zero layouts in any gallery anywhere. I was the girl who was always on the outside looking in.  By choosing me,  a leader in the industry made me feel included, and that's a big deal. Sadly I had to end things a year later when my workload became insane. Kristina understood, and I went my own way.

As the news that has left my beloved scrapbooking community reeling settles in, I will begin to ponder the future of my hobby. I hope that wherever the members find themselves that they are kind to one another. I hope that this hobby expands and grows to include more men, more people of color, more childfree folks. I intend to continue my support for small business, but more than anything I will keep taking pictures. I will keep writing stories even and be thankful that for a while I got to be a part a something pretty neat.

sneaks

I haven't been shouting it from the rooftops or anything, but I have briefly mentioned here and there that I'm prepping the shop for a relaunch. Without getting too deep...at least not in this post, I thought I'd make a tiny visual introduction...

One of my main priorities this go round was to keep it simple and functional. Not just on the back end, but the product as well. That started by doing what I love best...designing paper based items.

As much as I love rubberstamping...there was no way I could leave them out. I will be releasing a small limited edition collection of wood handle stamps derived directly from my own hand lettering. When I refer to handlettering, I don't mean handwriting...the designs I created for this small set of stamps represent many many hours of pencil on paper work and I'm pretty excited to not only be releasing them in the shop but paying homage to how I got started in graphic design many years ago.

If you visited my Etsy shop back in the day, you know that one of my most popular items was the custom minibooks affectionately titled "project minibook." The shop will include a stripped down version of the project mini, but the name remains the same.

Next week I will share more details about the products and the shop.

the what, when & why | scrapbook edition

When it comes to Scrapbooking, I do a bit of everything. I make traditional layouts, I make minibooks, I maintain a modified monthly version of Project Life, I create photobooks and I use Instagram (which is a form of memorykeeping in my opinion). This is a lot considering I have a job, and a life and other hobbies I enjoy. I don't do any of the aforementioned for posterity...I harbour no hope that anyone will find value in my memories, but me. I do it because I enjoy the process of documenting my own life. Simple.  The real question is, with so many options for keeping my memories, how do  I determine what to use when...and why?

So here it is:

Layouts are for stories & playing.  I don't create a layout if I don't have a deeper story I want to write. The picture is a supporting character. It's also a chance to play around creatively.  I cut things up, I sew, I layer and use embellishments...this is when I experiment and try new things.

Minibooks are for subjects with a beginning and an end. Small trips, a single subject (like December Daily). I don't like open-ended minis. I find that they tend to languish in a perpetual state of incompleteness. I like setting parameters and working within them. I like that minibooks can be equally devoted to pictures, stories and play and the smaller scale makes the whole thing infinitely more fun and finish-able:)

Pockets/Project Life are for everyday.  So what about that huge part of my life that happens in between the highlights? The meals I eat, the places I go, the tasks I complete, the people that share my life...my outfits, hairstyles, complaints...my every single day? A lot of it goes in pockets every month. I collect all the photos from my random picture taking instruments and I then go about choosing which best represent the month. I write to create context and that's it. Very little decoration just words and pictures...a way for me to remember the small moments and how significant a part they play in the grand scheme.

Photobooks are for pictures. As I find myself getting better at figuring out how to take a decent photo I have longed to have something representative of that, something that I can design myself that is well done and includes really nice images. These take time and a ruthless ability to edit. I am currently making one for my trip to Paris and my niece's graduation.

Instagram is for fun and followers. The biggest difference between Instagram and my physical scrapbooks is that you can follow and be followed. I love following people...I love being inspired, I love getting that peek into peoples lives, I love liking and commenting, I love the enthusiasm people have for sharing. I like the quickness, how I can include a short phrase or a funny descriptor. I like the advertising capabilities...it's like sending a shoutout.  It doesn't replace scrapbooking for me...it's more like an extension. I could probably use it more, but because my feed is public I have to be a bit more thoughtful. I notice that there are some people that Instagram everything...do you do that? Use it like a virtual photo album? I'm curious because I don't think of it that way.

So the only remaining question is where do I find the time? How sick are you of that question? The answer is I think people are resourceful and they manage to make time for the things they love. So yeah...it's not like I found time hiding under the couch. I carve out bits here and there. I have arranged my life so I have time for these things. Sometimes that means I don't cook or I don't clean, or I take a lot longer to finish a book...the motto is true...I'd rather be scrapbooking.