The Avid Scrapper: September 2008

Friday, September 19, 2008

Little Trick-Or-Treat Brag Book

My daughter's Young Women's class invited me to come and teach them a scrapbook class in October. They wanted something simple and fun, something that was Halloween or Fall themed. Well, I am BIG into shape brag book albums lately and pulled out one of my very favorite Cricut Cartridges to make this simple brag book. My daughter LOVED the way it came out!

I had to keep it really simple because we are only going to have about 75 minutes to get the whole thing put together. It is technically only 4 pages put together to make 8 pages front and back. I pulled bright card stock from my stash so I wouldn't have to buy paper to do 20+ albums! YIKES, huh? It is 8 inches tall and it holds (6) 4x4 photos. The only hardware are 4 silver eyelets and the 2 rings holding it together. There is some simple basic inking and I used color pencils for some of the shading since my chalks aren't going to be feasible to share with 20 teenage girls! I decided that the little plastic googly eyes would be lots of fun and save the girls from the frustration of trying to dot or draw out perfect little eyes. They really do make it fun, especially when they go cross eyed! A bit of ribbon adds some whimsy.

I think it turned out just adorable and is a great keepsake for fun Halloween pics with friends! This is going to be a fun class and I am really looking forward to it!

"School Days" September's Scrapbook Class Pages

Well, school has started and it is time for the "School Days" pages. These pages are true arts and crafty. Nothing difficult, just lots of little pieces to glue and put together. I had to laugh because while I was putting it all together, I thought to myself, "This feels an awful lot like all the gluing and projects I did in Kindergarten!" They are fun and since there is always tons to journal about when it comes to school days pages, there is lots of room for journaling and info.

This is a list of what you should bring with you for these pages:

Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive
Glue Dots / Photo Tabs
Colorbok Red Ink Pad from August's pages
3D Pop Dots from August's Pages
One of you brown ink pads from past pages
Any chalks you want to use for shading dies
Black Ink Pen / marker. Make sure it is Acid and Lignin Free

The entire spread

The left page

4x5 photo mat with a journaling tag slid in behind it.

Pull the tag out to reveal a "piece of paper" and a "pencil"

4x6 mat with ribbon. The paper has red foil for all of the red images. Really pretty in person.

The decorative title features a chalk board with chalk, 3 books, an apple, two stars and a ribbon with a scissors charm

Right Page

Remember the old library cards in the books you would check out from the library? I have had this stamp for the longest time and thought it was perfect for these pages

It pulls out just like the old days and is a creative way to journal

Another 4x5 mat and a bookplate for journaling school year, school name etc.

Another 4x6 photo mat with ribbon. Some of the apples have glitter on them.

I love school buses! Not to ride, just for decoration! °Ü° This one is popped up from the page and gives a bunch of little spaces for writing in details. I have "School Bus" at the top with "Back 2 School" on the license plate. You will be able to write in anything you like! Plus, there are the windows and bumpers for journaling, too.

Here you can see the bus pop dotted off the page

So, that is it for this month's pages. Next up, Halloween! I am working on those now and hopefully will have those pics up soon. See ya on the 24th at 6:30 pm.

Snowglobe Christmas Card

Ever since I got my Christmas Cheer cart over 2 years ago, I have wanted to make some snowglobes. I was able to do that this past week when I signed up for a Christmas Card Swap at Majestic Memories. I had so much fun! They took me over 6 hours to do just the 8 of them but I think they were worth it.

My only regret is that I didn't put any glitter behind the transparency. Next time!

Halloween Cards

I love making Halloween cards! They are so fun and not too many people make them. These I did for a Misc Card Swap at Majestic Memories. The best part? I made all 7 from scraps I had from last year's Halloween projects! I can't believe how much great paper I had left over.

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°

Friday, September 19, 2008

Little Trick-Or-Treat Brag Book

"School Days" September's Scrapbook Class Pages

Snowglobe Christmas Card

Halloween Cards

LinkWithin