Inspiration File

So today I had the day off of work. It's Spring Break for Tom and the kids, but it's snowing here again. I think we might have hit the 100" mark today for this winter (does it ever END)? Anyway, since outdoor activities were not really an option and we went to Chuck E. Cheese's yesterday (I am glad to have survived that), I was faced with two options for my day: 1. Do the income tax (hmmm...that one didn't sound too interesting) or 2. Start cleaning/organizing/purging the house for our upcoming rummage sale. So I chose option 2 and started with my scrapbooking magazines (much more fun that cleaning out a closet). Those of you that know me know that I have a SERIOUS addiction to magazines. The irony that I've spent the 16 years of my professional life working for magazine publishing companies is not lost on me... :) Of course, I spent 10 of those years marketing cookbooks and I still can't cook, but I digress. So I decided that I needed to pass on my lovely magazines to new homes. Last night I was up until 3 a.m. going through magazines. Today I finally finished. So, I started with 107 magazines: 6 SS, 17 CK, 10 Paper Crafts, 13 Paper Trends, 16 Scrapbook Trends, 11 Scrapbooks Etc., 12 Memory Makers, 6 CTMH catalogs, 3 SU catalogs, 11 SU mini-catalogs and 2 Idea Books. Then I ripped out the ideas/layouts I liked and then trimmed them and put them into a big 3-ring idea binder with regular office page protectors. I just used a regular 5" binder from Office Depot. I've shown you the pile of magazines in total (in descending date order--yes, I'm a little obsessive), the small pile of ideas I kept and a couple shots of the finished binder. The binder has categories for layout ideas, color combo ideas, ad/catalog inspiration, mini-albums (I LOVE mini-albums), altered items, techniques, cards, digital, fonts, paper inspiration (for layouts featuring papers or stamps I own), and miscellaneous. I have a page for my punches and hope to add a stamp of all my ink colors next.

I can't really explain how much I love magazines, except that it makes me happy just to open the mailbox and find one. And I ALWAYS read a magazine cover to cover the night I receive it (I read every night right before I go to sleep, sometimes for an hour, sometimes more)... So all of these magazines were well-loved, but I'm happy with my binder full of my favorite ideas and I'm passing the rest of the magazines on the girls in my stamping group on Saturday. Cheers and happy organizing!