Just Dad

There is nothing like waking up in the early morning hours after staying up the night before till 1:30am. It's my own fault. I'm exceptionally attached to my late night hours because they're the only hours of the day that are solely mine. Ethan's asleep by 7:30pm. After he falls asleep, I rush myself to finish late night chores, put on my pajamas, and get busy doing scrapbook stuff. I don't typically scrapbook during the day..there's no time. I usually "work" during the day while Ethan's in daycare (which is two to three times a week). These last few weeks, I've been working on a surprise project. Can't mention anything about it just yet, but will soon. This project has been consuming a lot of my afternoons. It's all part of a new plan I put together for the next upcoming year. With so many of my afternoons dedicated to work and new projects, I've been spending more time scrapbooking in the late, late hours of the day. I don't mind so much, though I find I lack focus after about 9:00pm at night.  My creative drive slows down to about a turtle's pace. I know many artists who thrive on a creative night life. I used to be one of them, that's until I entered the world of parenthood. As a working mom, any late night energy I once had when I was young, has completely diminished. It doesn't stop me from scrapbooking though. Night time is my time. If I could buy evening hours by the jar at the local supermarket, I would and I'd be willing to pay top dollar for it too! I think a lot of mom's would agree with me on this one. There just isn't enough time to go around in a 24 hour day.

I found this image at the "Print & Pattern" blog a week or two ago. These are illustrations by Lesley Grainger. I'm crazy about her outlandishly bright color palette and her combination of patterns and real life imagery. I've seen her illustrations on various kinds of products in the past. I was unaware she had a blog, so I've bookmarked it for future reference. Her work is inspiring to me and it's already started me on a new project; Ethan's "Just Dad" mini album:

 

I knew I had to create this album using the new Creative Imaginations Easel Album I purchased last week. I mentioned that I was going to work with this album a few posts below..well, it's actually happening. I combined it with a really bright color palette, as inspired by Lesley's illustrations. I could of easily went with a traditional male oriented color palette. I chose not to..I'm not one who necessarily follows design rules all the time. Plus, Eric is a high energy guy with an up beat personality and great sense of humor. Color reflects all this and more.

Here's a snippet of my supplies for creating this album. Right now, I've completed two pages. My goal is to complete a page a day. Above is the cover of the album. I'll continue to post pictures of the album pages as I make progress on the project.

Enough Paper? Maybe. As I always say, more is better than less...at least for me. Plus, having color in front of me motivates me to scrapbook more. I love being at my desk and seeing all the paper.

I've made a few rearrangements in my scrapbook space. Accessibility is a big deal to me. I brought all my small drawer sets to my desk. They used to sit on a shelf six feet from the desk. Having these drawers more readily available to me makes scrapbooking ten times easier, and encourages me to use product I would otherwise forget to use. The bottom drawers contain chipboard pieces, transparency die-cuts, and buttons. The top drawers contains paper die-cuts and note-cards/journal labels. Everything is sorted by color. The whole set-up is easy to manage and use. It also provides me more options for projects...and because I'm always layering lots of "stuff" on my pages, having greater options is ideal.

Lastly, note the Cropper Hopper underneath the desk..that would be all my pattern paper. I actually clean out my pattern paper collection once every two months. I keep my pattern paper collection small and tidy. The Cropper Hopper works great for holding my small pattern paper collection. I sort my pattern paper by color. I've also reserved a folder for "multi-color" pattern paper (for those pieces that don't necessarily fall into one color category).