Write. Click. Scrapbook.

Lists to Jump-Start Lists

Thanks for all of your kind comments. I’m glad to hear that so many of you love lists as much as I do! Yesterday, I mentioned that I’m always on the lookout for fun ways to incorporate lists into my layouts, so today, I thought it would be fun to share a few list-friendly visuals from my inspiration file.

Sample 1

Sample 2

Sample 3

Sample 4

Sample 5

I hope one of these examples will inspire you to make a list-style layout, but if you still need a topic to capture your interest, here are a few ideas to get the wheels turning.

Make a list of
·   top five meals from your childhood (why not include the recipes?)
·   stores you shopped at before college/marriage/kids (pick one) vs. stores you shop at now
·   everything you do before 10:00 a.m.
·   things you want to learn in the next year
·   top five memories from the last five years
·   your proudest moments from grade school
·   things you fight about with your parents/kids/boss
·   toppings you like on your ice cream
·   happiest moments from the past week
·   most important lessons you’ve learned in your lifetime (so far) 

Today’s Tip: My favorite thing about list-style journaling is that it makes it easy for me to get “caught up” on my storytelling. Not every story needs its own layout; squeeze smaller memories onto list-style layouts by finding a common theme, as I did for these two pages.

Example 1: This first example (from the July gallery) summarizes a month of my daughter’s crazy antics. I don’t have photos of most of these moments, but now I’ll have the stories forever.

Example 2: This is a less-traditional use of list-style journaling. Using “how to be a mom” as the common them, I created “steps” to introduce three otherwise unrelated short stories. It’s perfectly okay to supplement your lists with a few more details.

P.S. Did you notice the conspicuous lack of photos? I thought so. Remember when I said I usually start my pages with stories, not photos? Well, this strategy helps me find and patch gaps in my daughter’s photographic history—such as the strange lack of photos of her with her doll. I’ve been trying all week to snap photos for this page, but my toddler won’t oblige. So this is what you get: a glimpse at a work in progress.

Keep those list-style journaling layouts coming! I’m loving the examples that are being posted to the Flickr group. I can’t wait to see what you ladies come up with next.

Lovable Lists

I love lists! I keep all kinds of lists: to-do lists, shopping lists, gift lists, project lists, and many others. My favorite lists are the ones I include in my “journals." I don’t keep traditional journals. As a professional writer and editor, I stress too much about getting words just right to pen them permanently in a notebook. Instead, I keep Word documents (one for me, one for my daughter), where I type whatever comes to mind. I don’t worry about perfection or chronology; I only worry about getting things down. I try to update my daughter’s file monthly. It includes all kinds of lists: lists of things I love about her, lists of her new talents and interests, and lists of funny things she says and does. I also write full paragraphs, but I love the lists the best.

Lists make great material for scrapbook pages, which is why I want to devote the rest of my week to my favorite journaling strategy: list-style journaling. This journaling shortcut isn't new, but it's more versatile than you think. And this week, I'll try to show you what I mean. How about a little list to get things started?

Why Lists Are Perfect for Layouts
1. Lists are simple, organized, and efficient.
2. Lists are a shortcut but not a cop-out.
3. Lists can fit any space, big or small.
4. Lists are easier to read than long paragraphs.
5. Lists make it easy to summarize any period of time.
6. Lists make it possible to record smaller stories that don’t need their own pages.
7. Lists are perfect for including multiple perspectives.
8. Lists are a great way to highlight small details.
9. Lists work in dozens of design scenarios.
10. Lists can be just as heartfelt as paragraphs.

Today's Tip: I made this list-style layout to celebrate my daughter’s growing vocabulary. Notice that the list of words is masquerading as a paragraph. Sometimes lists seem boring because they look boring (too linear, too choppy, to ridged). Keep an eye out for creative ways to format your lists—I borrowed this text format from a clothing catalog.

This Week’s Challenge: Create a page that uses list-style journaling, but think outside the box. Try a unique design. Incorporate multiple perspectives. Create a “list” using photos. Just try something new, and chances are you’ll discover it’s easy to write meaningful journaling in just a few minutes! Don't forget to post your pages in our Flickr gallery. I'll pick a few examples to feature in my final post on Saturday.

Fit Your Space to Your Process

Happy Monday, everyone! I'm looking forward to our week together. To help you get to know me, I thought I'd share a little about how and where I create.

My Creative Process
For me, scrapbooking is all about stories. Whether it's a sentence or a paragraph, I always start with a story. Once I've got a story to tell, I find a design to match. I collect catalogs, magazines, clothing tags, junk mail--anything that could inspire a page. Sometimes I look for photos before pulling out products, but more often, I get started without knowing which photos I'll use. It's an atypical approach, I know, but it's one that works for me. Once I sit down to create, I want things to go smoothly, and my space helps to ensure that happens.

My Creative Space
I used to have a beautiful craft room all to myself, but I treated it like a walk-in closet. When I wanted to scrapbook, I hauled everything (and I mean everything!) down to my family room, where I could be near my husband and watch my favorite TV shows. A few months ago, my husband suggested we combine our offices into a joint office suite. At first, I resisted. Give up my room? I'd never get it back! But then we started planning, and pretty soon, I knew that transitioning to a shared space was the right thing to do. As I planned my half, I focused on my creative process and tried to address all of the roadblocks that had prevented me from working in my previous office. Now the shared office is my favorite room in the house, and here's why.

This is my half of the room. (The tabletop isn't always this clean.)

This is my husband's half of the room. Now I can be with him and watch my favorite shows, too.

What I Love about My Space
1. My counter-height desk. I have a hard time sitting still when I'm creating. I feel more comfortable and more productive when I'm standing, so this kitchen island from IKEA is the perfect desk for me. The side you can't see includes nine drawers that are about 13 W x 20 D--perfect for scrapbooking supplies.
2. Everything's within arm's reach. With my desk in the center of the room, I can spin 360 degrees and reach everything from tools to paper to embellishments. This definitely speeds up my creative process.
3. My inspiration pile and basket. When I'm working on a page, I often run across appealing paper and embellishments that don't fit my current project. To save time on future projects, I pull these items from my stash and add them to the pile next to my printer. When I begin a new project, I start here. It's a huge timesaver.
4. Drawers and baskets keep things looking organized without much fuss. My toddler loves to get into my craft supplies, but in a matter of minutes, I can toss everything back into place. (Just don't look in the drawers.)
5. My oversize closet. Technically, I'm supposed to share the closet, but my husband hasn't used it yet. This is where I store tools I don't use very often, as well as unfinished projects. (I've got a lot of those.)
6. The color of the walls. Finding a gender-neutral color that my husband and I could agree on wasn't easy, but the effort was worth it. This is the most peaceful room in my house.

Even though I share my space with my husband, I know it's still more than many scrapbookers have. So I hope that what you'll take away from this post isn't a longing for more space but an excitement to make even a small space fit your process and your style. If you need a little help through the process, check out The Organized & Inspired Scrapbooker by Wendy Smedley and Aby Garvey.

Now that you know a little about me, tell me a little about you. What do you love most about your scrapbook space? How have you made your space fit your process? Share what you love about your space. Or share what you hate, and set a goal to resolve the problem. I'm cheering for you!

In the Forest

photo and quote selection by Elizabeth Dillow

Five Things

One of my favorite things about the scrapbooking world is how many good tips I've picked up over the years—whether from a magazine, in a conversation, or on a blog, I am constantly on the lookout for good ideas and clever ways of doing things. I absolutely love when people share their tips, tricks, and good ideas with me, so I thought I'd share a random handful of ideas here today! If you have a minute, please leave a tip or two of your own in the comments to share with our community here at Write. Click. Scrapbook.

1. Catalogs are a fantastic photography resource!

When I teach photography workshops, I always bring a stack of mail-order catalogs with me to pass around the table. The assignment? Study the photographs inside for expert examples of how to pose children and adults alike for group photographs. The job of the photographers who take all those pictures is to sell clothes—in the process, people are posed in extremely fun and flattering ways. This is an especially good trick to pull out just before the holiday season when you're sure to want a photo of a large group of family and/or friends. Best of all, it's a FREE RESOURCE. Can't beat that!

An example of a great trick I learned from eyeing these photos with a more critical eye is to avoid having children scoot all the way back on a couch or chair when taking a group photo. Move them to the edge (provided they're old enough not to fall off!) so they can sit up straight with their legs dangling off the couch. You'll avoid strange distortions and everyone looks more energetic when they're not slouching on a comfy couch. You'll have to take my word for it on this one and just try it yourself—I have some good examples of group shots of kids taken this way, but not all of their mamas are OK with internet postings of their kiddos.

A few good ones to check out: Growing Up with Garnet Hill, Mini-Boden, and Chasing Fireflies. There are others, but you get the idea.

2. Put a USB microphone on your wish list.

When I first started teaching at Big Picture Scrapbooking I needed to buy a high-quality microphone to record my voice (which, by the way, sounds identical to what you might imagine an 11 year old would sound like; my only solace is that my sister Marie is my voice twin, so I'm not alone in my signature child-like vocal sound). I quickly realized that my purchase—a Logitech brand USB-equipped microphone for $29.99—was one of the best, most inexpensive tools at my disposal for preserving memories. I still kind of dread having to record myself for audio introductions over at BPS (ha), but I love plugging that microphone in and plunking my daughters down in front of it. I've recorded their first words, their preschool songs, conversations with me or their sisters... it is truly phenomenal to listen to these recordings and realize how fast their little voices grow and change. Best of all, it's easy to import the recordings into iTunes (free to download for everyone, Mac or PC) and burn them to a disc just as you would a music playlist. Think about the possibilities: besides the obvious fun you can have with children, it's great for interviewing older relatives, creating a message for your family to find on a disc tucked on a scrapbook page as a surprise one day, etc. And really? $29.99 is a reasonable price point if someone asks you what you want for your next birthday.

3. Always walk down the card aisle.

This is not a new idea, but sometimes it's nice to be reminded of a good idea: cards are a great resource for page/mini-album design. I created an entire mini-album this summer based on this Compendium post card I found at one of my favorite bookstores.It is by far one of my most favorite projects of 2009!

4. Mix a little heritage with a little modern-day.

Who said heritage pages have to always use old photos? While I do like working with old(er) photos, I think it's possible to transcend the gap between "way back then" and right now when you make a connection with a story (or even a single fact) about an ancestor and the modern-day you.

See? A legend about my great-great grandfather + my tomatoes from last summer. That's a combination that makes me happy.

5. Keep your inspiration organized.

I'm a hunter-gatherer when it comes to inspiration for my scrapbook pages. I'm so passionate about collecting good tips, cool designs, and samples of things I want to try and make myself that I fill binders and bookmark websites right and left with things I love and am inspired by. I'm also passionate about sharing good ideas, which is why I'm so excited to introduce a new feature of Write. Click. Scrapbook. today: the Write. Click. Scrapbook. Tumblr. (What??) Tumblr is a relatively new service that acts like a virtual bulletin board to post and categorize photos, links, text, audio, video and  quotes. It's free, it's easy, and it's a great way to organize all the amazing things you run across online; I don't know about you, but those websites I bookmark right and left have a tendency to get lost if I'm not careful. Tumblr provides a way to prevent that from happening.

You'll find a link on our navigation bar just under the banner to this new feature; we're just getting started, but the collective here at WCS will continue to add things scrapbookers might like on a regular basis. The archives are linked at the bottom of the Tumblr page; when you click the link you'll be taken to a handy thumbnail display of past postings. Please stop by and check it out! Thanks for reading this week.

Thinking Outside the Backpack

Congratulations to the recipients of this week's giveaway—you're going to be thrilled with your new Ella e-books!

Today I wanted to share some pages that are inspired by school in some way—related topics that deserve a little coverage as your small (or not-so-small) ones head back to school, or are inspired by your own experiences with school. Anything you spend a minimum of 13 years doing definitely needs to appear from time to time in your scrapbooks! I am constantly inspired to create pages based on the things I wish I knew about my relatives; their thoughts, their activities, their opinions, their influences. Most of these pages today originated from this kind of wondering, with my hope that someday, whoever is wondering about me won't have to wonder very much. You can click on all the pages to make the journaling more legible.

Scrapbook Your Own Feelings About School

The beginning of a new school year is more exciting to me each year than the beginning of a new calendar year. I am more inspired to make things, to do things, and to learn things than I am in January; in January, I'd rather watch TV and read and recover from December. Not everyone loves school as much as I do, but I still think it's important document your excitement, ambivalence, or any feeling in between about what a new school year has meant to you in the past or means to you right now. I think of layouts like this as "thoughts" layouts—happily joining my "events" and "moments" pages in my scrapbooks. Wouldn't you just love to have a list of what your great-grandmother thought about? I know I would.

Focus on What They Wore

This might not seem like a topic worth documenting now, but wouldn't it be fun to take a look through your elementary school wardrobe 30+ years later? Mine was full of polyester-blend pants suits, Carter's pants and matching t-shirts and Hush Puppies shoes that turned my socks orange. It's fun to show off what you wore all those years ago to new generations of budding fashionistas, though to be honest, it's hard for me to imagine what might be giggle-worthy about this year's cute things 30 years from now!

Focus On a Beloved Teacher

If you have a teacher in your family, this is a great time of year to feature him or her on a scrapbook page. This is an older page from my collection that I made for my book, The Scrapbooker's Almanac. I am obsessed with handwriting, it's true : )

Even if you don't have a teacher in your family, you've known quite a few over the years. If you haven't featured an especially important teacher in your scrapbooks yet, you really should—these are part of the handful of people that shape us outside of our families, and it would be a shame to leave them out of our life's story. A lifelong friend posted this photo on Facebook last year, and it is the only one I have of one of my most favorite teachers ever, Mrs. Rohlf. It's a weird picture in a lot of ways—bad lighting (I brightened it up quite a bit in Aperture), people I don't know in there with her, a little grainy... but what a treasure. I am so thankful to Facebook for opportunities like this to exchange photos from old albums. Don't let the lack of a picture stop you, though—the influence is just as strong on your life whether you have a photo to support your writing or not. Scrapbook it anyway.

What Goes On While They're At School, Anyway?

With Maddie and Gracie at school at the same time a few hours a week this year, Bridget and I are...[whispering now] having an absolute blast together. This is not to say we don't have fun when the big sisters are around too, but this is a different kind of fun, and one I don't want to forget. What goes on while your children are at school? How do you spend your time these days if your children are off to college? Is it possible to interview your parents or grandparents about what they did all day when the children were at school? It's a fun topic, and an angle about the school year worth preserving!

I'd love to see your take on a back-to-school inspired page. Post your pages in the Flickr gallery to share with us! If you haven't visited the Flickr gallery in a while, let me invite you to stop by again soon—it is filled with some really creative work, and it is moving pretty quickly these days. Thank you to everyone who posts their pages there! 

and the giveaway goes to...

Congratulations to the following:

    Lynn said...

I would love one about how to create digital pages.

    Susie who said...

I'd love to get some photo taking/editing tips

    Winnie Chia who said...

i will love to read e ebooks! been wanting to know more about photography and how to actually take a nice photos! Thanks for the chance! (:

    and Kristy Chuhaloff who said...

I would love to see an ebook on mini scrapbooks or theme books. I also love using my scrap products to make gift items, so a book about that would be fun, especially for the holidays. Oh, I would also love an ebook on photo editing using a mac. Or, an ebook on card making (Christmas cards!).

Thank you, Ella Publishing, for your generosity in providing not just one, but four eBooks for our readers. To our lucky numbers, please email us your contact information to writeclickscrapbook at gmail dot com. We are so happy for you and can't wait for you to get your eBook! Join us later today as Elizabeth brings us some new layouts!

give.away.day. featuring ELLA PUBLISHING

Is there an elephant in the room? Why, yes, today there is. And not just a large pink one that no one is discussing, no, this one happens to be small, blue, and the talk of the town. And here she is...

Ella Publishing is the brainchild of two of our very own collective members, Angie Lucas and Lain Ehmann. Ella is a source (the source?!) for professionally edited, photographed, and designed eBooks. Their books have all the same ingredients of a regular craft magazine or book, and, delightfully, are instantly accessible, and who doesn't love instant gratification??!!

Ella launched with three books:

Let's chat about them one by one.

40 Top Tricks
Rebecca Cooper is about as big as a minute and has sixteen lifetimes of talent crammed in her bitty frame. She is a darling mom, who takes amazing photos. Photos that seem to capture not only the person, but also their inner goodness. Her edits are smooth and natural. And we are all so lucky to be able to learn from her.

Text Tricks
Margaret Scarborough and Sara Winnick are the authors of text tricks. Margaret's style is pure and clean. She is a white space master whose pages draw you in from their marked simplicity. Sara is a font magician. The way that she uses plain fonts in an evocative manner is unmatched. I submit exhibit A as evidence of her fantastic talent.

Quick & Creative Quizzes

Wendy Smedley and Angie Lucas are responsible for this delightful book. Wendy's pages are heartfelt, and inspiring. Angie's are oft times filled with humor and deliciously written prose. Their friendship is evident in how they work as a team, and their book will stir up your juices so that you want nothing more than to clear your schedule and sit down to create (and finish!) some pages.

Yesterday, the newest book launched. Introducing,

This latest release comes from Renee Pearson, our first guest interviewee here at Write. Click. Scrapbook. At 5.99, you pay just 59.9 cents for each tutorial. How's that for some good bang for your (six) buck(s)?

If you are dying to see behind those covers, you can scoop up all four books for less than $25. (And I spent less than that on a bad dinner last week.) Or, keep reading...

Ella has more in store. A new eBook will launch each month. (Next up, Stacy Julian (woohoo!)and Lain Ehmann are co-authoring an eBook due out in October. The uber-talented Margie Romney-Aslett is their November author. And (drum roll...)the Write.Click.Scrapbook. collective has an eBook coming out in December!) Ella also has companion products (a camera bag booklet, printable quizzes, digital frames, and more)! Lastly, they release a free online magazine. If you want to keep up on what's new in Ellaland, you can sign up for their newsletter and visit their site for all elephant antics for the in between times. Be forewarned, ellapublishing.com can cause spontaneous snorting and laughter!

Today, we have something special for our

Ella Publishing is generously providing their four eBooks for our readers. And in a Write. Click. Scrapbook. first, we are going to select four numbers, one for each book. Today, there will not be just one lucky number, today, there will be four. Hooray! Just leave a comment telling us what you would love to read in an eBook, and we will consider you for our giveaway. Comments will remain open until 8:00 pm PST. Best of luck! Lucky numbers will be posted tomorrow.

Once again, it is the responsibility of the commenter to check back tomorrow to see if you are one of the lucky numbers. Gifts must be claimed by emailing your contact information to us at writeclickscrapbook at gmail dot com by midnight Saturday.

A Reminder I Just Can't Ignore

Apologies to those who are here today expecting to see some new layouts about all things school-related. After some internal debate, I decided to switch gears today, because yesterday morning I received the most devastating of news: a member of the Air Force community that I currently belong to—a mother (my age!) with two small children—died suddenly in her sleep on Monday night.

The details of this tragedy do not belong here in this forum we share. After a great deal of soul-searching yesterday, I decided the reminder does. It is too important to ignore—for me, and for you. The reminder, of course, begins with that message we all hear from time to time: what we do as scrapbookers is valuable. It is not frivolous or silly to spend time documenting the stories of our lives, and the documentation we create—digital, paper, on a blog or in a journal—is a priceless gift to ourselves and our loved ones.

That isn't all, though. Scrapbookers spend a lot of time behind the camera. The pictures we take are priceless, but is time to stop ignoring our own absence in photographs. It is not OK to look through nine months of photographs as I did yesterday and find less then ten of me pictured with one or more of my children. It is not OK to find less than three of me pictured with my own parents. It is not OK for me, and it is not OK for them. We all know that photographs are magic, and sometimes, suddenly, that magic can be a connection a thousand times—no, a million times—more important than it was the day before.

a handful of treasured photos with my daughters and mama that I searched for yesterday

Are you familiar with Aleida's Challenge? If not, you can read about it by clicking here. Even if you don't join the challenge group at Flickr, I'd love for each of us here to take up the challenge today on our own and include ourselves in a photo with our children, our nieces, our nephews, our grandchildren. Hand over the camera to someone else, set it on the kitchen counter and use the self-timer feature, use your computer's camera, hold it up at arms-length—it doesn't matter. Offer to take a picture for a friend or co-worker, or the stranger fumbling with her camera at the zoo. The act of clicking that shutter will serve as a reminder that our presence in the photograph with our loved ones is more than important, it's imperative. 

I'll be back with my regularly scheduled program on Friday after tomorrow's giveaway. Thank you for reading today.

Still Excited, Still Making Things

Hello again! I'm back today to share a few more inexpensive, quick projects inspired by the new school year. I had so much fun pairing school supplies and scrapbooking products outside a scrapbook page, and I hope you'll be inspired to make one of these projects featured here this week—or invent your own. Whichever you choose, be sure to share it with us in the Flickr gallery when you're finished!

Colorful Bedroom Nameplate

This project can be completed in under an hour, and is guaranteed to bring a smile to the recipient's face—what toddler or preschooler doesn't like seeing his name up in...crayons? Total cost: approximately $3.

I've been meaning to make my daughter, Gracie, a nameplate for her door for some time—with all the school supplies floating around my house and talk of new schools filling my head, crayons seemed like the obvious choice for the theme.

I picked crayon and ribbon colors that matched Gracie's room, and chose a piece of scrap wood as the base (left over from July when my husband had to replace the missing shelves in the medicine cabinet after we moved into our new house. Cardboard would work equally well). I painted a chipboard element to frame a small picture of Gracie.Try painting the chipaboard with a cosmetic sponge—the paint will cover the surface much more smoothly and evenly, with less mess besides.

Next, I added glue strips horizontally to the board and placed the crayons down on the strip.

I covered a chipboard "g" with some scrap paper, then arranged and adhered it all down.

At this point, I thought it needed something else so I added a little gold star, hung it up, and went upstairs. When I came back down to admire it the next morning, however, this is what I found:

Oh no! Let's think of this picture as "Elizabeth makes the mistakes so you don't have to." Time for the hot glue gun, friends. While I still love the ease of glue dots/strips, sometimes you just have to get the big guns out.

There. Fixed. Nothing like waking up to a surprise that bears your likeness!

Wall Art For Bigger Kids

If you have older primary grade children or middle school children, they might not be as excited about a shadow box with crayons and glue in it as we might be. Never fear, Helen Dardik is here. (What? You don't know who Helen Dardik is? She is a fantastic illustrator who just designed her first line of scrapbook products for Creative Imaginations. Go check her out! I'll wait!) Total cost: approximately $7.

It's fun to apply your scrapbooking skills to a homemade wall hanging made with a canvas. I wanted to convey the same general feeling about being excited for the new school year and school in general, and Helen Dardik's line of products fit the bill perfectly. While the piece I made has a definite collage feel, don't be fooled—even if you don't have much of a natural inclination toward collage, you can play with a few collage-like elements but still maintain a straight, streamlined look.

It's so easy to lay down an artistic-looking foundation! I spray-adhered a piece of dictionary paper from my never-ending supply to the canvas (from a classroom dictionary a friend gave me after discovering large chunks of pages were missing) and smoothed it down with my hand. You could use any kind of paper as a foundation, however—pick something meaningful to you! Next, I picked up a foam brush and a little white paint, with just enough water to dip the paintbrush in and make a paint wash. I dragged the brush across the canvas a few times, patting with a dry paper towel here and there to create the uneven effect. If you try this, you might worry that you've ruined your canvas when the paper on top begins to wrinkle and buckle, but don't worry. It will dry perfectly.

The rest of the process is easy! Shuffle around the elements you want to use on the page. I love the big brads from this particular line; it is extremely easy to poke them through the layer of canvas underneath, and once in, they're quite stable. And cute sophisticated. Perfect for a tween or almost-tween, remember? Once you have the pieces where you want them, pick them up one at a time to adhere. Then stand back and enjoy your custom-made artwork! They can be a little addicting.  Canvas goes on sale a lot at arts and crafts stores, but you didn't hear it from me. : )

School Stuff Corral

Are you constantly tripping over bookbags, gym shoes, lunchboxes, library books, and whatever else comes home from school and ends up in the middle of the family traffic pattern? Don't despair—if you want something put away, make sure you've provided the place to put it. A place that is both fun and practical makes it more likely that your days of tripping over the backpack strap are behind you. Total cost: approximately $6, though this project requires a pint of $11 chalkboard paint—the good news is that you can make that pint of chalkboard paint last forever.

While walking around at Michael's the same night I spotted the $.89 door hanger, I also discovered this unfinished fruit crate that looked like it would be the right size to hold a backpack and whatever else my daughter, Maddie, needed to remember to bring back to school. Because I used my weekly Michael's coupon, the fruit crate was only $5. Armed with a pint of chalkboard paint from Lowe's and a paintbrush, I set out to paint my unfinished crate black.

I'm a much better project painter now than before I had children, because I'm more likely not to rush the paint trying to dry between coats. It's impossible to rush when someone is constantly asking you for a drink/snack/piece of gum/car when they turn 16. Or whatever. For the record, I painted the sides of my bin three times, and mostly just one coat covering the rest. Also important: this variety of fruit crate is extremely splinter-y, so sand it down a bit before painting it. Not only will you avoid getting splinters in your hands, but the paint will cover more smoothly.

 A view with all the school stuff inside...

With a little chalk, you can write reminder notes on the sides of the crate. The chalk erases away easily when you've successfully been reminded of whatever it is you needed to remember!

Q. Where in the world are the scrapbook supplies on this one?
A. Why right here...

On the inside of the chalkboard crate, I added Madeline's name with Cosmo Cricket rub-ons and added two coordinating stickers along the bottom. The colorful letters definitely stand out against the plain black background! The oversized paper-clip is covered with a piece of patterned paper I love; it can easily hold an envelope of fund raiser money or a permission slip that needs to be signed and returned. The bottom line: by creating a place for school stuff to go, there is a better chance that it might actually get there. Try it and see how it works out...the jury's still out here, too.

Thanks for joining me again today! Be sure to stop in tomorrow when I head back to the scrapbook table, if only I could find a space to work amidst all this project debris. : )