And the crafting never ends

I was an avid scrapbooker until we bought a Mac and I discovered the iPhoto books. I was tired of being so behind all the time and the iPhoto stuff is just so *easy*, fast, and fabulous. My main problem with scrapbooking was finding the time to haul out the truckload of supplies, finding a space to spread it all out, getting all the photos and supplies organized, keeping the kids from examining and experimenting with all the neat tools and stealing all the pretty paper, and having to put it all away again so we could use the table for other petty things - like dinner and homeschool. Going digital was the best decision I have ever made and, just to make you jealous, I have my 2007 photo album completely finished ;-)

Now, don't you be frettin' that all those scrapbooking tools and supplies have gone to waste because nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, when I opened my Christmas present from my wonderful SILs and discovered that it was a bee-yu-ti-ful tote chock full of scrapping goodness, I almost swooned in delight. Because when you are sitting in front of the candy store of crafters, the possibilities are endless.

After yesterday's sewing success, the crafting bug bit hard and I just couldn't stop with two dresses, but I didn't really feel like getting involved in another sewing project. So I pulled out another set of projects I bought the supplies for this week and got to work.

To go back a few weeks, I made these and just didn't get around to getting pictures of them. Aren't they cool? Cheap clipboards, a few pieces of paper, some clear contact paper, and some ribbon or flowers and voila! Customized, personalized cuteness.

I started this afternoon by making these. A few scraps of paper glued to the covers turn these from plain composition notebooks to "Wow! Where did you get that?"




I then moved on to *this*. Is this not the most adorable thing ever? My planner is too big to fit into my new sassy red purse and the tiny one I made to replace it was too...well...tiny. This time, I took a $2 pocket calendar, removed the plastic cover, glued on some paper and pictures of my girls, and I love it! I added a matching bookmark so I could easily find the current month. (No, I didn't write the title on the bookmark; I printed it and cut it to fit. Yes, I know that's cheating, but it looks better that way.) I am totally making about 5 more of these tomorrow to send out to my mom, my sisters, my SILs, maybe even my brother in Iraq, but I don't think he'd really appreciate it. He'll like the girl scout cookies I ordered for him much better.

You know the best part of all this? It's all super inexpensive, easy, fast, and turns something cheap and ordinary into something you can be proud to pull out in front of your friends. "The 14th? Humnn, let me check my calendar. Why yes, I did make the cover on this calendar! Isn't it fabulous?! Soooo much easier than all that scrapbooking I used to do."