Disney Planners

This is last years planner. I used cardstock to write all of our important info that I would reference a lot during the week. Allergies, places to find special food, hours, reservations and height restrictions. I of course did this the night before so I used 4x6 laminating sheets to sandwich my cardstock and pattern paper to protect them from damage since they would be handled a ton.

Things that worked...
Everything was in one place.
It was easy to find in my bag.
It was cute.

Things that didn't...
The laminating sheets didn't make it through the whole week.
They didn't hold up to the rain.
Some of my handwriting was hard to read.

So here's the updated version...



I made it smaller, I did it ahead of time and I focused my information by day so it was easy to tell which parks were open late each day.

I included a list of Colin's allergies, (it's easier to hand this over then worry that I forget to say something), park hours, where we could get Colin's special food in each park and all of our reservation and confirmation numbers. I forgot to take a photo of the back where you can see a coordinating pattern paper. After printing these onto cardstock, adhering pattern paper, cutting to size and embellishing I took them to Staples and had them laminate it.

This worked much better.

And it was still cute. :-)

Seriously This Week Just Flew By...

I realize that it was my first week back but still, are things really that crazy? It felt like as soon as I would get up and get going it was already time to start winding the day down and get ready for bed. It felt like it had been ages since I made something and I'm pretty sure it was starting to get to me, lol!

So I went to a little crop and my son's daycare today. I just brought a few things...still more than I needed, and worked on two LO's. When I came home and started putting things away I realized that my "do dads" had gotten a bit out of control. I have two bowls on my desk that I throw little embellishments in so I don't forget about them. Well, for the last few weeks I have been just dumping stuff in there and not actually using anything.

So they were a complete mess!

So I reorganized those which then led me to putting everything away from the crop. Then I realized that I had too many scraps in my scrap bag so I needed to sort that. And while I was thinking of that I realized that I hadn't organized my pattern paper in awhile or my cardstock....

So it's now 1AM and my room is much more organized and functional.

Unfortunately, I'm too tired to function in it!

So tomorrow friends...I shall have photos to share, some scrappy projects and random witty remarks to start this next week off right!

Stamp Storage

I had a vision last night while participating in the chat at Studio Calico. I have an activity case that I found at Target for about $2 that I have been using to store my photos that are waiting to be scrapped. It's a little bigger than 8 1/2 x 11 so it fits a whole sheet of photo paper perfectly. Well I looked at it last night and thought, you know, I bet that would hold stamps. I have been storing my stamps in CD cases but even they are starting to take up too much space and aren't super accessible when they are in my cabinet.



I LOVE THIS!

I can see everything and this can easily sit on the side of my table without taking up too much room. I am planning on purchasing a few more so I can fit the rest of my "cool stamps" in them. This binder is organized with Studio Calico and Scarlet Lime Stamps. I will make another for alphabets and another for journaling spots. I'm so excited!



Also if you wouldn't mind, please keep your fingers crossed for me. I submitted my application today for Disney's Mom's panel. If you haven't noticed, I'm a bit obsessed with Disney :-) But even more than that, I really enjoy planning each trip and helping others realize how easy it really is to manage. So whether it's questions about managing behavior or navigating an airport with a toddler I'm usually able to help. (Or if I am standing in line at Gymboree and I hear a Mom say that she's worried about her upcoming Disney trip since her child has food allergies. "Your child has food allergies? Do you have a pen? Here's the number to Special Dining, her name is Brenda, and this is how it works!" That really happened by the way, lol!) I enjoy helping because once I figure something out I believe in paying it forward. So I applied, as I'm sure 20,000 other Disney loving Moms, but I am realistic that there are a ton of qualified applicants. Hopefully I can represent all of the scrapbooking and food allergic Moms:-)

I will be uploading LO's soon, I completed 3 and just have to decide which ones I'm submitting and which ones I'm sharing.

I did try loading the video but it didn't seem to work. I'm sure I will have time this weekend since I think it will be raining most of the weekend. *sigh* At least I should have time to scrapbook!

I'm Back and I Have Lots to Share...

Hey ladies how are ya?!
Let me just start this post off by saying that things are going really well in the Faust household and I am the most relaxed that I have been in a long time. It's very possible that may change but I wanted to post it so I remember that it was real, lol!

On to the important stuff!

I had to do a little searching but I found the link to where I purchased my Thicker Storage Container in the previous post.

Here's the link at the Office Depot website. I was able to buy this in the store but recently our Office Depot closed so I don't know how many stores are still around. Thanks for the comment Anjanette, trust me I understand how imperative it is to get an answer when you find the thing that feels like it will solve a Thicker emergency! Hopefully you are able to find it soon!

And I also wanted to give a shout out to erink88 and say thank you for loving my blog! I am working on my photoshop post about how to take photos of LO's. I hope to post that this week.

So have you guys seen this?


Oh my gosh, I can't even explain to you how excited I am to see the rest of this release. So stinkin' excited!

I also want to share a little about my trip to Valley Forge this weekend. So I helped with about 8 classes this weekend including 4 for Creating Keepsakes and Papercrafts. I will say that they CK and PC classes were really well done and the products in the kits were the most current. I was truly impressed with both sessions and how well prepared the teachers were. I have to say that the best one was Susan Opel's class that she taught for Paper Crafts. You can definitely tell that she was a teacher in a past life and did a great job keeping the class on track with the materials. She even had me thinking about making a few cards, lol.

Since it's late I will keep the rest of this short. Some other highlights from this weekend include....
-Shopping with Cassie and getting some dinner at the Mall.
-Running into other CKMBer's and getting to catch up a bit.
-Staying up late in the hotel scrapbooking and watching Comedy Central.
-Shopping at King of Prussia Mall, okay mostly eating.
-Getting my teeth whitened since I had about an hour to kill before going to the crop. Gotta love all of the stuff that pops up in a mall these days!
-Getting an extra issue of the July Issue of CK at the Send Off Crop.
-Everyone else getting copies too and some very lovely ladies asking me for my autograph. *blush*
-Sitting with some lovely ladies who made me laugh and welcomed me into their group.
-Realizing that I NEED to buy a new printer. A Cannon, large format, 9000 series to be exact. During the show they had some Cannon reps demoing their stuff at the crop. I figured that I would bite. I had my thumb drive with all 3000 of my photos on it. The rep printed that fabulous photo of Colin flying that vintage plane at Knobels. Yeah...um...just imagine that as a 13 by 18 print on high quality glossy photo paper. Yeah...it was that good. I think they sold quite a few of those printers that night.
-Finishing 2 Collage Press LO's that I hope to share soon.

All in all it was an awesome weekend that provided some much need rest, made a dent in my scrapbook stash and allowed me to hang with other women who are just as passionate about this stuff as I am. Life. Is. Good.

Now if I can just find a frame....

Some Organization...

One of the major draws to scrapbooking for me is that I get to organize my supplies in cute little containers. I enjoy moving things around almost as much as I enjoy creating. I love even more when I score a great deal or find a use for a non scrapbooking related item. So here are a few of my favorite finds.


This is where I store new purchases/DT stuff that I want to make sure that I use or that I tend to grab often. I purchased this at an office supply store and it was MUCH cheaper than the scrapbook versions. It is light enough that I can fit this in my rolling tote and bring it along to a crop.


My next office supply purchase. I. LOVE. THIS.
This has worked the best for storing my alphas. (Which are mostly Thickers) I enjoy flipping through here to see what I have. It has inspired me to consider a flippy way to store my pattern paper since I don't tend to remember everything I have in my current system. Seems I need to see it and see it often to remember to use it.


See...Thickers :-)


Buttons...Dog Bowl from TJ Maxx.


Embellishments...bowls from Wegmans.


Tools, Pens, Ribbon...Tool and Pen Holder from Kitchen section at TJ Maxx. Ribbon Holder from Jo Anns Sewing section. That green bag is a makeup bag that I got as a free gift with a Clinque purchase. I use it to store my tiny pieces of pattern paper and some bling that would get lost within my scrap storage.

Well there you have it. I love creative storage ideas and I'm constantly looking for new ones. I am currently trying to change my paper storage. I want to use ALL of it and feel like I want to use a hanging file system. Do any of you currently do that and if so...how is it working?

FYI...I am working on a few "how to" posts, so keep a look out for those in the next few days. To include but not limited to...scrap storage, how to take photos of LO's, how to improve photo quality in blogger, and a start to finish LO. I am also considering doing a post about my basic workflow in Photoshop Elements. I by no means am a pro and have a VERY limited understanding of PSE but if people are interested, I don't mind posting what I am currently doing.

I hope to blog and/or tweet this weekend from CKC VF so if you are there be sure to stop by and say hi!

So I was going to blog...

several times this week. I just couldn't come up with anything that was super cleaver to share. However, I did do some scrappy organizing! Matt and I took a trip to our nearest Ikea to purchase shelving for my scraproom. Ever since I started sewing, things have gotten a bit out of control. I need to have everything in it's place. I just didn't really know where that place was so that 1. remembered what I have and 2. can see it to use it. I am a nut about using and keeping EVERYTHING, so my space really needs to make sense for me to be productive. Here are the new additions to our home.

The wicker drawers have fabric in them. The shelves hold my idea books and binders. The baskets have paint, sewing patterns, albums, stickers, rub ons, stamps and chipboard. Here's the top since I can't get the whole thing in the photo due to only having a 50mm lens on my new camera.

That top basket has all of my fabric that is less than a yard. And because I cleaned up, you can actually see my counter top.

And this is my button doggy. This is actually a dog dish with two bowls. One for big buttons and one for little ones. He hangs out with me while I scrap to add the perfect finishing touch to my pages.

On a non scrappy note, have you ever heard of The Melting Pot? Well it's a fondue restaurant in MD, (it is a chain). I thought, I love cheese and chocolate, this will be fun. Little did I know, the four course meal actually included raw meat for us to boil!!! Ummm, I don't think we will be eating dinner there again anytime soon. Now appetizers and dessert....that's a different story.

As far as LO's are concerned, I did complete a few projects and submitted them for pub. Wish me luck! I continue to take a deep breath and submit. I have faith that it will happen for me, (I think), it's that whole patience thing that I am not very good at! As always, thanks for stopping by and I'll blog ya soon!