The Avid Scrapper

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

{Posting from the BlackBerry...}

For those of you wondering about Tuesday's Tips, I apologize for this weeks delay. My computer is having technical difficulties... Should be up and running tomorrow after my tech guy comes. Until then, I am on my BlackBerry if you have any questions or comments!

Monday, February 22, 2010

{Brandy Wins!}

Brandy Elegante... you left me a comment and so you win! Easy to do when you don't have any competition, huh? °Ü°

Email me your address so I can get your cards out to you...

Saturday, February 20, 2010

The Little Mermaid ~ARIEL~ Premade Scrapbook Pages

I think of all the Disney Princesses, Ariel is one of my favorites! I love her sense of adventure and courage. For about a year, I had the image of these pages in my head. I love pages that create a scene and this is Ariel's world to me. It took me 4 long days of working on this one to get it right! About 23-24 hours went into it. There was lots of shuffling and cutting and moving stuff around and taking stuff out and putting it back in... well, you get the point. Ü

I should also mention that I finished these months ago... I packed them away and forgot about them. Crazy, huh? Well, that is how busy I have been over the past 6 months.

Anyways, here it is:

Page 1

Ariel is cut with Bazzill cardstocks. She is about 8" tall. I inked and chalked for dimension.

I used gems for bubbles through out the pages.

She's adorable!

Flounder peaking out to see if it's safe! Ü

4x6 photo mat is embellished with ribbon and a starfish charm

A close-up of the charm

Bottom of sea floor on page one. There is 3D dimension.

A sea turtle

Plastic sea shell

Glitter shell. Note the sea plants have glitter and gel pen sparkles

Here you can see that dimension I was talking about.

Page 2

Photo mat also tucks journaling tag away.

Large tag for lots of journaling

How cute is she? Again, inking and chalking for dimension.

Photo mat is about 4x5, also embellished with ribbon and a charm.

I love the sea horse. Another plastic sea shell.

Sea floor on page 2

More shells and pearls, too.

See the gems? Air bubbles...

I used 35 gemstones in all! I don't think it would be as beautiful without them. Really fun pages to create.

SOLD in my Etsy store 12 March 2010. Thank You Ü

Friday, February 19, 2010

Strawberry Shortcake "SNOW BOARDIN" 12X12 Spread

In honor of the Olympics and my spending WAY too much time watching snowboarding and skiing, I present this spread! Ü

I L♥VE Winter, it is my favorite season and I am always a little sad when it starts to warm up. I have had these images cut and ready to go for some time and happy to see them become part of a spread.

The papers I used are thick and have glitter embossing on them. The colors of the pages couldn't matcher her outfit any better than if I had planned it! I was so happy about that.

Here is the entire 12x24 spread:

Here is page 1

Strawberry stands about 10.5" tall

Behind this 4x6 mat is a 6.5" journaling tag.

Ribbon and strawberry decorate the top of the tag.

Here is the tag pulled out. Plenty of room to journal.

A ribbon and matal snowflake charm embellish this photo mat. There is a small pink gem stone in the center of the snowflake.

Part of the title...

The snowflakes are cut with Bazzill carstock, have a gem in the center and have glitter accents. They are popped up for dimension.

SS has 3D elements, too. Here you can see the dimension you can't see straight on.

The very bottom "snow drift" is also popped up for dimension.

Page 2

more snowflakes...

The second SS image. Too cute!

This is actually two photo mats...they look like one with the embellishments. Your photos will easily slip under them.

Another strawberry...

This is the 4th photo mat, again embellished with ribbon and a snowflake charm with gem stone.

here it is close-up

the second part of the title

another close-up of a snowflake

here you can see more dimension...

So there you have it. I used brads and inks, too. A great couple of pages for those snow days involving a board! Ü

SOLD in my Etsy store 12 March 2010

Strawberry Shortcake "Growing Up" 12x12 Layout

Recently, I sat down and created a bunch of SS images for pages and cards. This past week, I have REALLY been stressed and that always works to my advantage when crafting. I've always said scrapbooking is a stress reliever for me.

Anyways... I made this one pager {layout} with this ADORABLE SS image. How cute is she? I just love her. Her shirt and pants remind me of an outfit I had when I was in second grade and I think that is why I like her so much.

There are 2 mats for photos. A 3x3 and a 4x6. There is also a huge journaling mat. The reason I made it so big because I thought it would give enough room for stats like, age, height, weight, grade and so on. Even a signature would be fun to have down the road!

There are lots of 3D elements and glitter, too.

I think this page would make a great album starter... you know, that first 12x12 in an album? A fun page to make.

SOLD in my Etsy store February 2010

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°