The Avid Scrapper: September 2010

Saturday, September 25, 2010

{Halloween Coffin Treat Boxes}

Looking for a quick and easy Halloween gift? This is it! Such a cute little treat. °Ü°

I wasn't feeling very well today and so I spent most of the day in bed. :( After dinner, I still wasn't feeling my best, but I couldn't go back to sleep, so I pulled a chair up to the Cricut desk and grabbed the Happy Hauntings cartridge. I thumbed through the booklet and came to the page with these adorable coffin boxes on it. After debating, I finally decided to give them a go. I got out some black card stock and scrap Halloween papers and started cutting. I started small, with the Witman Sampler boxes in mind, and cut each one at 7". Once I got the shells put together I cut the decorative scraps that I had. I added ribbon and cut some embellishments and before I knew it, I had two very cute little candy boxes ready to go! I am really excited about these. My daughters want to make some for friends, family and teachers. Now that I know what I am doing and have all of the dimensions down, it should be easy to create tons more. If you have the Happy Hauntings cart, you've got to try these! You will ♥ them and so will everyone you give one to!

The fnished box was almost 5" long and almost 3" wide. I filled them with candy kisses and was able to get quite a few in there. Just make sure you are cutting with thick card stock. The candy does add lots of weight and anything thin will not hold up.

Happy Scrappin' to ya! °Ü°

Friday, September 24, 2010

{Diaper Cake}

Last month, I attended a baby shower that our youngest daughter and her friends threw for one of their Young Women's leaders at church. The day before the shower, we realized that we had no real center piece for the serving table! Somewhere in the deep reaches of my mind, I remembered seeing a "cake" made from diapers and immediately hit the YouTube website. I found a simple instructional video on how to construct a DIAPER CAKE. (I chose this one because it was simple and completely do-able) It is crazy to me what some people can come up with! Amazing, really.

So, after 10 minutes or so on YouTube.com, me and my daughter headed out to Target and Micheals. We bought size 2 Pampers, Ribbons, pacifiers, wooden dowel rods, Wilton Silver covered cake platter (scalloped edge) and rubber bands.

We got home and started rolling diapers and rubber-banding them just like the video said. Got the diapers into the layers, put 3 dowel rods down into the 3 layers- careful not to tear any of the diapers and then put on the ribbons, bow and pacifiers. I kid you not, it only took 1 hour and 15 minutes to make this cake! Seriously, the easiest and cutest project I've ever done. I wish scrapbooks were this easy! °Ü°

Your next baby shower, you've got to try it. The breakdown in cost:

Diapers $20
Ribbon $6
Pacifiers $ 2
Dowels $1
Cake Platter $1
Rubber Bands $1

Keep in mind, because it was a last minute thing, nothing I bought was on sale, but for around $31 dollars and a little time, we had a great center piece and it ended up being the actual gift that my daughter gave the mommy-to-be. She was so excited about it, she loved that the she could keep it up in the baby's room for a bit before having to tear it down to use the diapers. Shop around, buy less expensive diapers, get your ribbons on sake and you can decrease the cost of this project considerably!

How cute is that? Can't wait to go to another shower! I have so many ideas for my next one. I think this will be my staple gift for showers from now on!

Sunday, September 19, 2010

{I'm Alive!}

Yes, it is true...I'm Alive and doing well! °Ü° I have had a crazy few months, but I am back on the scrapbook wagon and working on all kinds of fun stuff for this fall and the holidays. I want to thank everyone who wrote to check up on me. I truly feel loved and appreciate your kind words. ♥

So, what have you all been up to over the summer? Created anything fun you want to share with me? I'd love to hear about it! °Ü°

{A Card for Dad}

This past Father's Day I wanted to make a card for dad that was a classic. A shirt and tie says dad and is pretty classic! Not only did these cards turn out really cute, but they were quick and easy. Believe it or not, they are ORIGAMI! Gotta love that! I love that they can be used for just about anything you want to tell the special man in your life; Happy Birthday, Happy Father's Day, Retirement, Thank You... the possibilities are endless.

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°