Quote:
Originally Posted by gailbird I scrap and stamp~how do you organize your space/time? I do one or the other which requires me to pack up one and begin another.
I would be very interested to hear what views you have about stampin in
scrapbooks. Do you use the 'regular' inks, or do you purchase the 'archival' inks for your albums.
I feel that it takes me FOREVER to get a card done. and it does not matter if it is a small tag card for a gift or a bday card to mail to someone. Does this
improve with time~or am I destine to be a 'slow producer'? |
Good morning!
Alrighty...a question for you: Do you have your own 'room' for your hobby or does your hobby share a room with another aspect of your daily life (like your kitchen table, a corner of your family room, etc). If you have your own room for your hobby you don't have to pack up *all* your stamp stuff in order to scrapbook, and vice versa.
With the possible exception of inks, pens/pencils and a paper cutter, store all your stamps, papers, accessories...out of sight, in a cupboard or closet, and then only take out the items you are using for any given project.
Some people set aside a certain time each day/week to stamp/scrap. I can't do this because 'forced inspiration' doesn't work for me. ;) When I get the urge to stamp, I stamp.
Do you have friends who also stamp or scrapbook? If so, perhaps you could get together once a week/month/whatever to work on your hobbies? I sometimes work better with people around that I can 'copy' from - uh, I mean, get inspired from (hehe) - but not always. Of course, if I need inspiration there is always the SCS gallery!
As for stamping in scrapbooks...it is fine, but better to use the pigment inks and heat set them than to use the dye inks. This is for the simple reason that dye inks actually dye the fibers of the paper (hence the name 'dye' ink) and thus are more likely to fade/bleed over time than pigment inks (which are made up of pigment that actually just sits on top of the paper without dying the fibers, which is why it stays wetter longer and needs to be heat set, but tends to have more vibrant color that resists fading better over time).
When it comes to scrapbooks, I figure that eventually they are *all* going to fade, become brittle, fall apart, etc. after a long enough period of time. Remember the old magnetic albums our parents used? Or, equally bad, the old construction paper albums with rubber cement (that my MIL uses)? Well, my dh's albums are all falling apart now, as are the 'magnetic' albums my mom used. BUT...we have the technology now to restore those photos and put them in longer-lasting albums. So my thought is this: By the time *our* 'archival quality' albums start to fall apart, there will be some sort of technology even greater than what we have now to restore those albums and photos again.
So my advice? Do what you like and what works for you and don't worry too much about how the album is going to hold up in the future. It'll last a good long time if you are using quality papers and adhesives. ;)
Last but not least...about being a 'slow' stamper. Remember the story of the tortoise and the hare? Slow and steady wins the race! Of course, that's not to say that 'fast' stampers are 'bad'. Just to illustrate the point that it doesn't really matter how long it takes you to finish a card as long as you are DOING it!
Have a great day!
questions~questions~questions
