Hi there, Stranger!

September 14, 2013

Hi there, Stranger!

Ohemgee, this poor sad and neglected blog! It is probably going to need some intensive therapy after being left alone for so long.

So this has been the craziest summer for being away from home! 3 weeks in June and July and another 6 weeks over July, August and September! I'm home now for a few days to take care of things here, but shortly heading back up to the frozen north for another month! A lot of things have been behind this, including visiting family in 3 different provinces, working on the cottage rebuild and spending a week in Wisconsin at the world's biggest airshow!

Let me catch you up on the scrappy side of things. So with the prospect of being gone for most of the summer, (and away from paper, glue and washi tape), I was starting to have panic attacks. Separation anxiety. More psycho-labeling along that line. As well, I knew there were going to be some assignments I wouldn't be able to get done before leaving. All that added up to: pack up some supplies and take it along!

Which I did, and it has made me very happy. And the times when I couldn't actually spread everything out and create something, I could at least open the lids and sort through the pretty packages and re-arrange the papers and 'scuze me, who needs therapy??

Sadly, I'm not so organized that I can post a pdf file of Scrapbooking Supplies You Should Not Leave Home Without, but I can show you some pictures of what I took and how I set up.

Week 1 was spent at the EAA AirVenture show at Oshkosh WI, sleeping in a tent! Conditions were only as ideal as the weather which was mostly fantastic, thankfully. Mr B and I have decided to return to our camping roots, and we've had fun shopping for the latest and greatest in tents, collapsible chairs, sleeping bags, mattresses and folding tables! Because much of our camping will be done from a home-built Cub Crafter, (like this one:)

supplies have to be compact and LIGHT!

I found some plastic bins at Michael's (part of the Iris cart line) that snap closed but are transparent so you can see what's inside. I got a small one to hold pens, pencils, stylus, ruler, small scissors, 5 kinds of adhesive (liquid, roller, glue dots, pop dots and glue pen) 2 corner rounders (that didn't get used even once), and a flash drive with photos.

In a larger bin I stored my big Fiskars paper trimmer, a WHACK of paper, alphabet stickers, my latest favorite embellishment packages, washi, twine and some photos. I made up a "kit" of coordinating supplies from my Love is in the Details stash and included 2 months worth of Studio Calico kits. Kits are a good way to pack light as, they are generally coordinated and all you have to do is choose a photo or 6 and you're ready to preserve memories!

And photos. Lets talk about how to tote photos. I have owned, loved and printed photos exclusively for the last two years, on an Epson PictureMate. It's a chunky little unit though and since space and weight was at a premium, I decided to get a new "travel" printer that GET THIS! prints directly from your phone (with wifi and power). How supremely genius is that!! To be honest, I haven't used the Canon Selphy CP900 enough yet to give you a creditable review, but I'm not unhappy with the quality so far, and it sure packs up easily at 7"x5"x2.5"!! Besides being able to print from my phone, I loaded 2 years worth of photos onto a flashdrive for easy toting.

One afternoon threatened to rain, but never did. Still, I was snug inside, out of the sun and happyhappyhappy!

In the following 5 weeks, my places to scrap were 3 different hotel rooms, my daughter's dining room table, and in the middle of a construction site at the cottage.

Check back to see the projects that were created while "on the go". It was surprisingly easier than I'd anticipated!

Along the way and entirely unrelated to scrapbooking...

I spent half a day volunteering in the craft tent at the Oshkosh air show. Basically, helping Eileen (a 90 year old acrylic painting dynamo) while she taught her classes.