Ten on the Tenth - How Do You . . .

In between challenges throughout Shimelle's Scrapbooking Weekend several weeks ago, she posted 10 questions for us to answer in the comments, so I thought I'd group those questions together and share my answers today (with a little more detail & a photo or two).

1. How do you store your thickers and other letter stickers? I have all my thickers/letter stickers together in one upright bin (no lid), sorted by color. This makes it easy for me to flip through them to find what I want to use on any given layout.

2. Where to you find inspiration? I often find inspiration when we are browsing at flea markets & antique shops. I get ideas for layouts and find little bits & pieces that I think will be perfect for a page & I snap photos of fun craft project ideas. We have a couple of flea markets/trade days that we visit each month, which keeps the inspiration flowing.

3. How do you use tape in your crafting projects? Honestly, I haven't used a lot of tape. I have a few rolls of kraft travel themed tape that I used in Robbie's Florida Trip Photo Album Scrapbook & I received some lace tape for a Christmas gift (maybe it's time to pull that out & use it!).

4. How do you deal with imperfect digital photos? In the past year I’ve used PSE to edit some photos, however if it’s a photo I want to scrap to record a memory I print it and use it anyway. Photos, like life, are not always perfect, so I just go with it (especially when there’s not another photo from that event/day/moment).

5. How did you start scrapbooking? My Mama started a scrapbook for me when I was born and sometime during elementary school I took over adding items to it, so really I've scrapbooked most of my life! In fact, I am working on a series of posts about my life as a scrapbooker.

6. How do you store your scraps & off-cuts? I sort my scraps by color & store in page protectors right beside the chair I sit in while I craft. I blogged about it here.

7. How do you make a scrapbooking page kit? I use page kits only when I'm cropping away from home which was not often until this year when I started planning more get-togethers with friends. I always start with my photos, then pull a couple of full sheets of cardstock or patterned paper that could be used for the background and matting. I add letter stickers and a few embellishments. Just like Shimelle: I err on the side of too much paper rather than not enough. I keep each kit in a page protector in a 12x12 file box. I take my scrap file with me as well as tools, flowers & brads, so I can add bits of other papers & handmade embellishments. I am currently in the process of creating some page kits for a crop coming up May 17-19 where I will meet several other BPC students for the first time in real lift.

8. How do you create a scrapbook page from start to finish?(Bonus points if your process includes supplies speaking to you!) Oh my goodness, are there times when supplies don't speak to us? LOL I pull my photos, choose a background paper & other coordinating papers, choose a design (sketch, scraplift, or my own thing), create journaling on a separate piece or decide to write right on the layout, then I arrange all these elements & begin pulling and adding embellishments.

9. How do you sort your scrapbooking papers? I sort my papers by color and store them in plastic drawers. For each color, I have solid cardstocks on the bottom, solid papers, then patterned papers from light (top of stack) to dark. When I'm ready to scrap, I pull out the color I want and thumb through the stack. I do have one small expandable file that holds my few themed papers, also.

10. Where do you scrapbook? I scrap most of the time in my office/craft room, sitting at my craft table. When I have friends over to crop, we scrap on the dining room table (with all the added leaves in it!).

[Be sure to check out more Ten Things post here.]