Scrapbooking: Thing of the Past?

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This post has been sitting in my drafts folder for exactly a year now. Mainly because I’m still waffling with what my opinion is.

The thing is, I have been a scrapbooker for most of my adult life.

When I say scrapbooker, I mean drawer-full-of-crazy-scissors, got-monopoly-board-game-paper-just-in-case, every-shade-of-sharpie-marker kind of scrapbooker.

Really, it’s all my Dad’s fault. (Yes, you Alpo.)

Knowing I was a crazed, crafty kid, once upon a time my Dad brought home half a dozen fancy old portfolio-style binders with clear sleeves thinking I might like to use them for a project. Little did he realize he was going to create a life-long tornado of patterned paper squares, mini paper-cutters and stickers for every occasion.

I save everything that has a memory associated with it. Funny fortune cookie slips, postcards, clippings from the boat ride on Cape Cod, notes on napkins and hospital bracelets. Then in a maelstrom of scotch tape and Fiskars fury I lovingly assemble them into a visual memoir of the year.

Then I got married and I made our wedding album online. And I liked it. I really liked it.

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Now I feel torn. Usually as the year closes, I purchase my next scrapbook to begin recording the follow year. So that left me wondering… do I keep scrapbooking? I already have over a dozen hefty scrapbooks and have no idea where to keep them.

Maybe this digital photo book idea is the way of the future, but it still makes me sad to leave my scrapbooking ways behind.

Does that mean no more ironic word bubble stickers? What will I do with the straw wrapper from the restaurant we go to on our 10th anniversary? Or the road map from our first European travels? What will I do with my 2012 keepsakes if I don’t scrapbook them!?

But then the idea of creating yet another scrapbook feeling daunting. More paper, more clear sleeves, more albums.

Do you scrapbook? Do you ever feel like it’s time to quit?

Joining the Pallet Artwork Craze

One day I was re-organizing my office.

My former office I should say! This spring I switched jobs and am no longer working from home. It’s been a good change! Along with my new routine, my office needed a face-lift.

BEFORE:

The office room is extremely awkward to decorate/furnish – one half )shown above) belongs to me and the other half belongs to my husband. The ceiling in my space is at an extreme slant, so it makes hanging any artwork difficult.

My favorite kinds of projects are working with pieces I already have.

First, it’s free.

Second, it helps clear out my “stuff” and gives random things I’ve been hanging on to a purpose.

Exhibit A:

Our kitchen island that we refurnished came with 2 shelves for under-cabinet storage. Since we put two stools there, we removed the shelves. It reminded me of all the pallet projects I’ve been seeing lately.

There is an endless list of pallet DIY projects these days in magazines, blogs and Pinterest- word art, headboards, couches, you-name-it!

While I was clearing out my office *ding ding ding*, I had an idea.

I decided to stain the kitchen island shelves Minwax Dark Walnut using this technique.

After they dried I hung them on each side of the window.

Then I popped some postcards/keepsakes/photographs in them by tucking the corners under the slats of wood.

I have a pet peeve about putting pushpin holes in things – probably because I rotate my artwork pretty frequently and every piece I have would be full of holes!

Plus, this way I can easily rotate what is on display.

AFTER:

I love the solidness that the dark stain brings to the room.

While we are talking about non-pushpin photo display projects, check out my DIY Inspiration Board from last summer.

I just added a few more strings and hung up a lot more photos using mini binder clips! It’s my secret technique for displaying photographs without ruining them.

I’m happy with my office refresh. Now if we can only remove that pesky carpet…

I already ripped up a corner to see what was underneath and all I found was crummy old flooring. Someday we’ll get there!

How do you like to display photos/momentos in your home?

Dining Room PROGRESS!

Back in September, I posted some mockups of different inspirational gallery-walls into our dining room.

We have this large wall in our dining room between the doorways to the front hall and the kitchen. The wall actually runs along the length of our staircases.

We opted to go with the assymetrical gallery wall look.

I purchased a ton of white frames from the Christmas Tree Shoppe, with the frames ranging from $3-6 per frame.

Then I followed the YoungHouseLove gallery wall tutorial.

I traced around all of our frames and make newspaper-sized templates of all our frames. Then I played around with them on the wall until I had a set-up that I liked.

Then I needed to hang the frames.

Now, I thought I had followed their tutorial, but now that I’m looking at their photos I definitely ignored their tutorial (and didn’t take in-process photos! Oh the agony!)

They measured out where the wallhanger was and made a little “x” where to put the nail:

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I took the newspaper template OFF the wall and laid it over the back of the frame. Then I found where the wall hanger was and poked a little hole in the newspaper with the nail.

Then I put the template back on the wall exactly where I wanted it and I knew exactly where the nail needed to be.

Sorry for no visual accompaniment.

It was easy-peasy. The only hard part of the whole project was trying to add hangers to a few frames that were “standing-only” frames.

Suffice to say that I love it!

There is a bit more tweaking to be had, but it’s nice to finally get some art and photos on our walls in this house.

Moose did install a new thermostat. Thank you for noticing!

Actually, I always felt like the thermostat and dimmer looking like they were floating awkwardly. Now they feel more hidden.

At first I was a little nervous about having so many frames on the one wall, but it balances out the large wall of windows, wall of sideboard/cabinetry and huge chandelier (which I’m still undecided about).

My favorite part is walking in the front door! As soon as you look to the right it looks like we actually live here now!

Yay!! It’s only been 7 months, but it’s starting to look like home.

Why yes, those are new curtains you see. I have been holding out on you.

I made them out of Button Bloom, a line of outdoor fabric from Joann Fabrics. I believe I bought it on clearance at $5/yard. I call them “Fake roman shades”. Really they are just a valance with a fold and they hang on a tension rod.

(This room is extremely hard to photograph by the way. It’s so sunny, which makes it my favorite room, but all my photos are way too bright!

Gallery Wall

If renovating was a race, our dining room would be in the lead. Not that that’s saying much!

So far we’ve stripped the wallpaper, painted the walls, trim and ceiling and added the beadboard wallpaper. I’ve also painted all the cabinet bases.

We still need to refinish and hang the cabinets, install the drawer pulls and change out the swirly chandelier for a drum shade chandelier we bought, oh, in June. I just bought fabric to make our curtains (yay!).

Our dining room walls are nearly all doorways, windows and cabinets except for the one long wall along the stairwells going up and downstairs. We plan to put in a gallery wall of frames – and there are so many options!

Today I’m pondering a few directions we could go.

1. Black and White Asymmetrical

http://www.bellemaison23.com/2010/02/idea-gallery-wall-decor-above-sofa.html

I’m not sure how I feel about black frames in this room. It’s already to airy with the pear walls and white trim. I do like the jumbled look of this layout. You can see where they started with the center line and started “growing” out from it.

2. Mirrored Surroundings

http://scrapmebaby.wordpress.com/2011/05/25/craft-roomoffice-reveal/

There is also the possibility that we could buy a large mirror, to reflect all the light coming into the room, to anchor all of the smaller frames.

3. Lean-To

http://kristendukephotography.com/?p=5767

I think this is my favorite so far. It’s the most non-committal. It’s always nice to avoid hanging frames in the wrong place and filling the wall with holes. For this option we could install two narrow ledges and leave frames against it. On second thought, would I be concerned about frames falling over and the glass breaking? Hmmm…

4. Grid Lock

http://www.aprettylifeinthesuburbs.com/2011/08/gallery-walls-gone-wild.html

This is the most simply and straightforward gallery wall option. I do like the symmetry of it, but I think I would dislike having all the photographs the same size.

Do you have a wall of photos? Which one do you like best?