Choosing From Your Patterned Paper Menu

Have you ever been to a restaurant where there were 100s of items on the menu? Jerry's Famous Deli in Marina Del Rey comes to mind. They boast of having a menu containing over 600 items! I've been there... once. It took me about 1/2 hour to decide what to order. Sometimes having too many choices can be more debilitating than having just a few.

While putting together page kits for Classygirl's upcoming Summertime and the Scrappin' is Easy workshop on Sunday, I decided to use patterned paper solely from my single sheets (in an effort to use it all up), instead of from stacks such as DCWV. Because my single sheets of paper run the gamut of patterns, colors, textures, etc. and much of it dates back ten years or more, finding two or three sheets of patterned paper that worked well together AND that I liked was tough. Back in the day when I used to buy single sheets of PP (ten of the same sheet!), I just bought what I liked (or what was on clearance) with no idea of how it was going to be used or whether it matched anything else that I was purchasing or had in my growing paper collection. In addition, several years ago I was a CM Consultant and often bought packs of paper just to satisfy my quarterly quota, whether I liked the paper or not. So I had amassed quite a collection of patterned paper. Once I moved to Arizona I began purchasing paper stacks because I realized that for "patterned-paper challenged" people like me, it was so much easier to coordinate papers if they were part of a stack.

In a fit of purging this past spring, I donated the equivalent of two boxes of paper and embellishments at CKC when it was here in April. But yesterday, I decided that I wanted to move my divided Jetmax cubes (which contained albums, unfinished projects, and notebooks etc.)  from the bottom of my configuration to the top, but in order to do that I was going to have to get rid of more paper, or at least find other storage for it, since the paper would fit much tighter in the divided cubes than it did in the open cubes. I really didn't want to have to allocate any more storage space to paper. The open cubes were at the top with my cardstock and patterned paper, but the paper tended to fall over when I pulled a handful out to search for something. So last night I decided to switch them which of course then became a paper-purging event as well.

My patterned paper filled up an entire open cube so I went through all of it, not once, not twice, but three times and this is what I have decided to give away. I was chatting with someone on SOC last night and jokingly told her that I had about 12 inches of paper stacked up already. OK...so I was about 8 1/2 inches off, but if you count what I donated in April, it far exceeds 12 inches!

After purging, all of my patterned paper fits in three sections of one cube and I was able to make more room for my cardstock.

I was choosing paper this morning for another one of Classygirl's From Desk to Done layouts, and it was so easy peasy because I didn't have to sift through so much non-coordinating and mostly disliked and outdated patterned paper.

So the take away for today is this:

• It's much easier to coordinate/match patterned papers if they are part of a collection from the same manufacturer or part of a paper stack.
• When buying patterned paper, it helps if you already know how you're going to use it.
• Once your storage space for a particular item is full, it is time to purge. Make your stash fit your storage; not the other way around.

Thanks for checking in today!
WrinkleFreeDiva

Cards in 30 Minutes or Less...

On Friday I joined Mary J and my other sisters over at Scraps of Color for one of our fairly regular Friday Night Challenges. MJ put us through our paces as we had to make each of our cards in 30 minutes or less. And for the first time in a long time, I actually finished all three and met all of the requirements for each challenge.

For this first one, the base had to be a circle, there had to be some distressing, some bling and the word "love" had to be on the front. I had the perfect Cricut diecut, given to me by Helen a couple of years ago, for the front of the card. And... I pulled out a Cuttlebug die cut plate that I've had for at least three years and NEVER used before. The inside reads "you little stinker."

The second challenge was to make a card using at least one solid and one patterned paper. It had to have a circle, a border punch and a sentiment. It could not be for a husband or boyfriend. So this one will be going to my parents. I managed to choose a sketch from one of my many sketch books, select paper from a stack, and get this card completed right under the 30-minute time limit.

The last challenge was to make a Valentine card with the sentiment "To My SOC Friend." Add lots of bling. Send this card to someone who participated in tonight's FNC. So this one is already in the mail to Felisa. Managed to use a sketch for this one as well and paper from the same paper stack.

Not sure if I have a specific lesson in this post, but you know me... sketches are your friend, sketches are your friend, sketches are your friend! And using paper that comes from the same stack doesn't hurt either. It's easy to match patterns and colors, and cuts down on the time it takes to make sure all of your paper works well together. Simplifying the decision-making process makes it actually possible to get a card done in 30 minutes or less! So there you have it my friends and loyal followers. 

Thanks so much for looking!

Scrap. Set. Match!!!!

For some reason, I had tennis on my mind (even though I haven't played since college) when I came up with the title for this post. Game. Set. Match! Get it??? If you don't, please humor me and pretend like you do.

For those of you who have been with me since the beginning, you know that I am patterned paper challenged!
I've blogged about it many times, but most specifically here.

***I just noticed that all of my followers have disappeared. I hope that's a glitch with blogger and not that people don't like me anymore!

Matching up patterned paper is tough for me and can consume a great chunk of my crafting time. Over the years I've acquired lots and lots of patterned paper...mostly purchased on a whim, with no project in mind. For probably the first eight or nine years of my scrapbooking life, I purchased 10 to 12 sheets of each pattern. Seriously? What was I thinking? I'm still trying to figure out how to use up some of that paper. But I digress....

I think I've found the key to my matching pp problem. I took a Spellbinders card class over at My Creative Classroom. While trying to choose paper for the cards, I pulled out a few DCWV cardstock stacks. (I just began acquiring them within the past year or two. JoAnn's has great sales!). I decided that whatever paper I used for each card would come from the same stack, thus assuring that either the colors or the patterns would work together. And...I was smart this time, and chose my paper BEFORE chosing my Copic markers for coloring.

For my Mother's Day Card, I used the DCWV Summer Dream stack. The bonus with this stack is that all of the paper is double-sided. Makes matching a no-brainer! There are three different patterns used in this card AND some embossing. The sentiment was done in Microsoft Word.

For this sympathy card, I pulled from an old Creative Memories Power Palette set called Blush Blooms. Though it's kind of hard to see in the picture, this card uses four different patterned papers, not including the white cardstock. The sentiment for this one was also done on the computer.

All of the patterned paper in this layout came from the DCWV Guy Stack.

So...I've decided that for most of my paper needs, I'll probably stick with DCWV. Their patterned cardstock is of great quality and they have a lot of selection. They are constantly coming out with new stacks. I need to start crafting on a budget and more often than not, these stacks are on sale at JoAnn's for around $10. If not there's always a coupon. Does this mean that I won't ever buy from other manufacturers or purchase single sheets again? No....but I will make every effort to buy paper that is in sets or, if buying single sheets, buy coordinating sheets that will work together for a project. Having the paper already matched removes some of that decision making that slows me down and gets in the way of my creativity.

So...our lesson for today....wait for it...wait for it!!!!

When setting out to SCRAPbook or make a card, consider purchasing and using paper that comes in SETs. It makes MATCHing patterned paper that much easier!

BTW...Despite the amount of time it took me to make those two cards, I DID manage to give them away!