The Avid Scrapper: {Madness! Madness, I say!}

Thursday, March 24, 2011

{Madness! Madness, I say!}

Have you ever had a week, or a few weeks or even a month where things were so crazy that you couldn't even believe how crazy it was? That's been me since my last post.

Here is the quick run down of what's been going on:

Sprinkler System is leaking...AGAIN. Just found a good handy man. Will call him later today.
Car is leaking fluids... mechanic fixing this weekend
Under kitchen sink is leaking... plummer coming tomorrow
Tore my living room apart cleaning and organizing and packing
Tore my kitchen apart doing the same.
Dining room... ditto.
Celebrated 17th Wedding Anniversary by going to dinner and seeing the Lion King (This was a good thing!)
Ended up in ER with a hurt foot
Someone tried to break into our house one morning at 1:30 am. He was caught and arrested. We are all fine except for a little paranoid at noises in the middle of the night.
And finally, I am so far behind on just about everything I have wanted to do! °Ü°

I smile, because regardless of all the madness that is our life right now, it is a blessed life and I am grateful for it.

Anyways, I have so many things that I would love to get posted and I clearly don't have time to sit and blog all the live long day (although, that would be a dream right now) so I thought I would share the card I made my hubby for Valentine's Day.

"XOXO" is what I was end my emails, letters or texts with to my sweet Richard. I thought it only fitting to put it on this card. I made it using gold shimmer card stock and Making Memories Je t"adore line.

Not the best picture, certainly over exposed and too blue, but you can see the dimension of all the elements.

He absolutely love it. He keeps it on his dresser. I made similar ones for our girls, but made the mistake of giving them to them before taking photos. Goodness only knows where they have stored them, in a journal, box of letters and cards, a drawer... I certainly am not going to go digging for them!

Hope you are all having a wonderful week. Mine is gradually getting better. I have all these great ideas for crafts for Easter. I pray I can get to them.

What about you? Anything Spring or Easter projects in the works? Let me know, I would love to hear from ya.

4 comments:

Denise G said...: Wow, you have been busy. Glad you had a bit of time to show the card you made your hubby.; March 24, 2011 at 7:30 PM
Denise G said...: Also...

I have left an award for you on my blog.
http://cricutmyway.blogspot.com/; March 24, 2011 at 8:07 PM
Elegante Family said...: Holy Cow, I am right their with ya. My daughter gets baptized in less then 2 weeks now, and we are trying to get our basement finished up so we can have the family over. I am making her an album for the big day, and I have a page swap that I have to do 12 2 page layouts for. So I feel your pain. Hang in there sister! :) We will still be here when your life calms down.; March 27, 2011 at 6:10 PM
Kim said...: Stumbled upon your blog tonight, and I'm soooo glad I did :) Your layouts are excellent - love all of your details.

I see your a big Disney fan, same here! I just started blogging, and have recently posted some of my Disney layouts. I've got a lot of Disney layouts yet to post, but am busy working on 2 albums - one from our first Disney cruise a year ago December, and the second from our Disney trip just this past January. I've been fortunate that someone came across my (weak and new) blog, and asked me to be part of a Disney/Pixar blog hop in 2 weeks. All of my time right now is going into my layouts for the hop, which I'll post on May 1.

I know I'll be coming back often to visit. Please check out my Disney pages when you get a chance - maybe we can inspire each other! Thanks for sharing your work!

Kim
http://uscrap2.blogspot.com/; April 17, 2011 at 12:08 AM

A Little About Me

Hello! My name is Carla. I am a wife to a wonderful man and mother to two beautiful daughters and two adorable fur babies. I have always loved taking photos and creating a special place for them to be cherished and shared. In my childhood and teen years, it was my journals that played host to my early scrapbooks. I really started to work on my craft in 1999 and there has been no slowing down since then. Scrapbooking is very therapeutic for me and gives me a chance to express "Carla" in ways I couldn't do otherwise. This blog is where you can see a little of what I create. I hope that you are inspired by all that you see here. I welcome questions and comments, so please feel free to drop me a note on my posts, or you can contact me via email. I ♥ hearing from you! °Ü°

Understanding the Cost of Custom Work:

I get emails for custom work all the time. I would say, that on a weekly basis, I get at least 8-10 emails requesting specific themes. I love hearing from everyone and truthfully, I am honored that there are so many of you who love my designs, style of scrap booking and work so much that you would love to make it apart of their memory albums. The part I find frustrating and sometimes hurtful, is that when I reply to these emails and give pricing, one of three things happens: 1) I never hear back from the person 2) I get an email back arguing price and saying they won't pay it unless I drop the price 3) A sweet apology that they can't do it right now (this would be the rarest of the emails, however, it is the most appreciated!)

I understand that in today's economy, that scrap booking pages and albums are truly a luxury purchase. I also understand that everyone is trying to get the most for their money. Aren't we all?

Here is the side I would like you to try to understand.

I am a crafter by trade. I scrapbook for fun and I scrapbook for a living. I need to be home with my family taking care of them and our home, and this is the working relationship that works best for us and our family's needs. Although I get to be home with them, I still spend 30-40 hours a week designing, planning, cutting, hand-cutting at times, and piecing together pages, albums and projects. Pretty much a full time job. Sometimes, ALL of that time is spent on just one album. Sometimes all of that time is spent on just 4-6 pages.

When it comes to my work, I do not cut corners! I only buy the best papers, metal embellishments, adhesives and so on. I take my work seriously, I go over every detail and I know I am not the only crafter who does this. I am simply just one of many who are in this "crafter's boat", if you will. What is minimum wage these days? I honestly do not know. From what I see and know, is it about $7 per hour. Maybe I should look it up... okay, according to US Dept of Labor, the minimum wage is $6.55 hour. The average person making M.W. makes $262 for a 40 hour work week BEFORE taxes, etc. Wow. that doesn't leave a lot for the bring home amount, does it? The average spread, (2) 12X12 pages together, takes me 8-12 hours to design and put together. {There have been a handful that have taken me closer to 16. I keep track for how long it takes to make each.} So let's say I am in "The Zone" and get one done in just 8 hours and I charge $6.55 per hour. That is $52.40. That doesn't even include the materials cost for that spread, that is just my time. Keep that in mind. I actually charge a set fee of $45 for a custom spread. There is extra time and steps that go into each project, like custom names, dates and details. Now, divide $45 by 8. I am making about $5.63 an hour, and then, not even that much because that doesn't include the cost I have already paid for the materials! That is JUST my time. At the end of each custom spread, I am only making about $2-$3 per hour. (REMEMBER, that is only if it took me just the 8 hours, any longer than that and it brings my hourly wage down even more.) That is not a lot for my time, for my design and hard work when it is spelled out that way. What do you think?

Please keep these things in mind when shopping sites like Etsy.com, Ebay.com and personal websites. We crafters put our all into our craft. Each design, every piece is a part our personality and we take a lot of time to put it all together.

I think that everyone, no matter who you are and what you do, wants to have their work appreciated and they don't want others to make them feel that what they are paid for their time and talent isn't worth it. I think my time and talent is worth what little I ask for it. Remember that when you see hand crafted items, time, talent and effort was put into each project. Think about how much time it would take you to do something like that if you were to personally make it, think of professional crafting as some one's career and think about how truly little, the time making it is actually charged for.

Thank you. °Ü°

Thursday, March 24, 2011

{Madness! Madness, I say!}

4 comments:

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