A Few Scrapbooking Secrets

A couple of days ago I saw this post on Abi's blog (which is lovely and you should totally check out, by the way) about her scrapbooking secrets. So on a similar theme, I bring you a few of my scrapbooking secrets...

I find it had to use plain backgrounds. All seems good until I've finished a page and then I have a vague, undefined, it's-not-quite-finished feeling. I never think this about other people's pages so I don't know why I think it, but I prefer to steer clear. Although I am experimenting a bit with mist and paint and ink.

The same does not apply to kraft cardstock.

I LOVE ledger. I just got a 2peas order jam packed full of ledger paper. You get lines for a journalling, a little bit of background detail and often a touch of the old vintage-distressy look. The one in the background in this page is my favourite ever, by the Girls' Paperie.

Give me vintagey-off-white over white any day.

I can't do tape runners. I would love to and I marvel at Shimelle tape-runnering away at speed in her vidoes but when I use them, they work for half an inch, then the tape pings off, slides up inside the runner and sticks to the inside. The next ten minutes are spent levering the thing apart, un-gummying it, working out how the pieces are put together and getting another meagre quarter of an inch of sticky before the process begins again. So double sided tape all the way for me.

I thought the butterfly thing was weird for ages. I couldn't work out what butterflies had to do with anything. One day I changed my mind for no reason and love little butterfly accents with the Martha Stewart 3-in-one butterfly punch.

I love watching Shimelle's videos. Why is it so relaxing to watch someone else craft?

I don't do minibooks. I don't like that they won't be with the rest of my pages and there's not enough room for my journalling.

This does not apply to putting smaller pages in divided page protectors.

Even when I journal like this, I always end up having to cut down and edit my writing. Apparently I don't believe in using 1 word when 284 will suffice, and it's often very hard to squash them in the space I leave. But despite that, I love that the journalling is there and I am loathe to change my habits. Tough.

I don't have any big machines or tools. I don't really see the point, so beyond the odd notebook-edge punch, I don't buy them. (I love the notebook edge punch!)

I drink tea while I scrap constantly, but rarely notice myself drinking it and keep on doing that thing where you slurp from the cup while looking at something else only to find that, somehow, it has emptied itself. A brief ransacking of memory reveals nothing and there are never any suspiciously tea-shaped puddles in the vicinity so I must drink it. Go figure.

I've a DVD box set fiend and like to watch an episode or two of something while I craft. That could be the West Wing, Gilmore Girls, Doctor Who, Friends, House, Doctor Who...as long as I've seen it before and can keep half an eye on the characters, ensuring they all say their lines in the right order and so on. If it's new, I get too involved and can't concentrate on crafting.

As with the ledger paper, there are some scrapbooking products I would not wish to forgo. They include anything by October Afternoon, ditto Sassfras, Thickers, Walnut distress ink and sponge-on-a-stick ink thing (what are they really called?) and patterned paper. YUM.

The one product I really wish for? A perfect journalling pen. I'm still looking.

Kisses xxx

P.S. Thanks go to Abi for this idea and I highly recommend you give this kind of post a go! A little challenge for the weekend if you like...

P.P.S. Totally leave me a link if you do - I'm massively nosey about this :D

P.P.P.S. Who's doing Shimelle's new class Explore? I'm totally excited to start on Monday!