I've arrived...

Today I died and went to scrapbook heaven!! I went to Michael's!! Finally. I just want to know why the hell I wasn't told years ago that I needed to go here. I had no idea that this place was insane. I was walking around the upper east side with my mom today and she was like do you want to go to Michaels? And I was like omg great idea!! so we stopped off quickly at her apartment and grabbed the coupons for Michaels she took out of the times earlier that morning, thanks ma for thinking of me when you clipped that coupon. We hopped in a cab and arrived at 99th and Columbus 5 minutes later. I saw Michaels from a distance and had the biggest smile on my face, if I walked any faster I would of been running.

The feeling I was having as I entered Michaels is like how Dorothy felt when she finally reached the Wizard of Oz, she had arrived and so had I. My heart was pounding out of my chest, what I was about to see was gonna blow my mind.

There is a big sign at Michaels "where creativity happens" that really is the truth!

My mom and I grabbed a cart and beelined straight to the scrapbook section. Holy Sh*t!! I have never in my life seen anything like this, rows and rows of embellishments, papers, more embellishments, tools, glues, albums, kits, you name it. I was shaking seriously. I didn't know what to do first, do I start putting things in my basket or do I walk around first then go back, I was going in circles. I finally talked myself into calming down. Deep Breaths. Somehow we managed to get out of there within 45min, thankfully my mom had a catch a movie so I didn't have a choice, I don't know if I could of afforded to stay in there much longer anyways. Woohoo 20% off!! that helped just a little. I got these awesome frames that are 12x12 that I can put my layouts in and hang on the wall, oooo Jared is just gonna love that, NOT. Maybe when I get that scrapbook room I've been talking about I can hang them up. I also got the memory makers distressing kit, which I tested at home tonight and the emery board makes me squimish when I use it against the edge of the paper. I'm going to have to work on that.

I also got this circle cutter that cuts circles out of paper in different sizes, very cool, this will definitely come in handy.

-Scrapaholic

Scrapbook vs Facebook

There are many ways one can get inspiration for scrapbooking, www.scrapbook.com is one of the best places in my opinion. There is so much you can do on this site. First and foremost you can buy A LOT of scrapbooking supplies, which as we all know by now, I love to do. They have every scrapbook brand that exists. My favorites are Anna Griffen, Basic Grey, Cosmo Cricket, and Graphic 45 just to name a few.
Many of you are thinking about those piles of pictures you have laying around that house and wondering whether you should try this. My advice is to go to scrapbook.com and click on Gallery, then click on layouts, here you can see thousands of talented scrapbook artists who have uploaded their work. Many of times these people have linked the supplies they used underneath the layout so all you have to do is click on it and you can buy it right away. Or you can just ask me to do it for you, lol.
Its kinda embarrassing but I will admit it, I'm a facebook junkie & stalker, I don't know what it is about looking at this site but I'm addicted. Who's with me? raise your hand. It's like having a peak into someone else life, who you are barely friends with, kinda bazaar, but atleast I'm saving money on US weekly & Star magazines.
This disease has even reached the scrapbooking community with scrapbook.com. I get to work, sit at my computer and go to this site. Here you can also have a profile, friends, and a gallery where you upload your work. Your friends & neighbors can make comments about your work and it becomes sick and addictive to see what they say, its like you want to post layouts everyday if you can. As you can all see I'm getting a lot of work done lately, lol.
I want to get back to my wedding scrapbook which I am almost done with, thank g-d. I am ready to start working on layouts for other events in my life.
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I love how I included the wedding invitation on this layout. Also I put the date on the very bottom, great touch. I love this photo. We took about 45min on our wedding day to go off with the photographer and take pictures. This is taken in Grand Central across from Cipriani's. It was so much fun taking pictures here. Strangers were crowding around us watching, thinking that we were shooting for a magazine and they were taking pictures themselves, it was hilarious.
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These are photos of me getting ready on the big day. The title work says "never been more ready". And that is exactly how I felt that day. The papers I used were from www.mycreativescrapbook.com the oct & nov kits that I received. I also used a doily which is something you can buy at any craft store or sometime even at a supermarket. They are great for backgrounds.
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This photo is clearly our ceremony, I put a little chuppah above us, thought that was so cute.
This is the first stitch work that i ever did. I sewed up the top corner by hand, think it came out pretty cool. I used these jenni bowlin date cards and circled May 16th, very cute detail.
Just needed to update everyone, I heard a Michaels craft store opened up in the City on 97th & Columbus, I can't wait to go!! Let me know if you want to go on a field trip :)
xoxo
Scrapaholic

Christmakkah

Good Morning! New York during the holidays is such a beautiful place to be. Everyone really gets in the spirit here; Department stores go all out with decorating their windows, restaurants light up their windows and adorn their dining rooms, and of course there is the massive tree in rockefeller center. I LOVE all the excitement, the sound of bells and honking from pissed off cab drivers because there are too many out of state drivers who don't know how to drive. There is so much to see, do and buy (the sales are great!)

Tonight will be the 4th night of Hanukkah, and even though I'm Jewish, I love Christmas. I have always been jealous of my Catholic friends who have a big tree and get to decorate it with beautiful ornaments, and the presents under their trees!! Ughs, I bet that was so much fun waking up on Christmas morning and getting to open up all those gifts. Things have changed since I've lived on my own from my parents and I'm gonna come clean to them, over the past few years I have bought a Christmas tree for our apartment, sorry Dad, but I can't help walking past all the trees they sell across the street in front of CVS everyday without buying one. But you'll be glad to know that I have blue and white ornaments that I hang on the tree. I also have ornaments I've made for it as well. This year I didn't end up getting a tree because I was so busy scrapbooking and blogging. However I found a new passion for the holiday season and that is my Christmas Card making :) For a Jew I think I'm pretty good, lol.
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Every month I get a scrapbook kit from www.mycreativescrapbook.com
December's kit clearly was a "Christmas" kit. I figured what else was I gonna do, I don't exactly have any Christmas pictures to make Layouts with. I am going to my brother and sister in laws for Christmas eve, so it may after all turn out that I'll have some pictures to scrap.

I took a trip to Kate's Paperie yesterday, I've mentioned this place in my other posts, www.katespaperie.com they have several locations in manhattan. So I went up there, picked out a few things to buy, a photo album for my mother for Hanukkah, a photo puncher that makes the edges of your photos round, a few embellishments, and some letter stickers. I get up to the register and I forgot my wallet, ANNOYING! I told her to hold my stuff but I never went back, maybe tonight I'll have a chance. This place is so overpriced, but when you live on the upper east side as I do, the scrapbook retailers are limited, and when its pouring rain as it was, your not gonna travel any further to satisfy the urge to buy. I took a couple photos of the inside, even though your not allowed to take pictures.


xoxo
-Scrapaholic

Shopping for Scraps NYC

OMG! I think I have serious issues. It used to be walking into a clothing store and not being able to resist buying up a storm, now I'm walking into craft stores feeling the same way. What happened to me?? I literally just had to check my bank account and make sure I still have funds to eat because I have been scrapbook shopping way to much in the last week. If someone knows of AA for scrapbookers please contact me, I might need to go to a meeting :(

What I love about New York City is that is has everything. No matter what your interests are you can explore them here. If you like art, you have museums and galleries, if you like theater you have Broadway, if you like eating, there are 3,000 restaurants, if you like music- there are clubs and concerts all the time. You get my point. For a scrapbooker living in NYC, there are a enough craft stores, good enough feed your addiction. We may not have a Michaels or a Hobby Lobby, but we have Kate's Paperie, Lee's art shop, and my favorite Paper Presentation on 18th street between 5 & 6th. I have been shopping here for years even before my scrapbooking days.

This is the outside of Paper Presentation last night, its dark and I'm using my cell phone to take the photo so its hard to see, the store is huge, not only does it have scrapbooking supplies it has tons of gifts, books, albums, paper for invitations, etc.

Here is a photo of what it looks like on the inside, this is a wall of embellishments, mostly ones by Jolee's.

Here is more of the inside, you can see how big this wall of embellishments is.
I didn't take any photos of the paper area but that is really intense.
They have so many awesome papers, I was salivating in that department. The colors, patterns, textures, ughs, the ideas were running so fast in my head it wanted to burst. I couldn't wait to get home and lay it all out.
Had to make a pit stop at dinner first though. Haven't been with my best friends from Tenafly in a while and we were all meeting up at Blue Water Grill in Union Square, and I was running late. It's so hard to get out of the craft store once your in there. Dinner was absolutely delicious and it was so good to see my friends.

My rehearsal dinner was at Brasserie 8 1/2 on 57th between 5th & 6th avenues. It was a great evening with all the people in my life who are close to us. I made a great slide show and my dad made a really cool video that he surprised us with. There was a lot of good entertainment.

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I love this photo of Jared and I, the dress was really pink, lol.
I layered the invitation and menu, layered beautiful mixed flowers with rhinestone brads in the middle. I added all these word stickers on the side to really express the emotion of the evening. I think this layout came out really well.

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This is a photo of my brother Scott and I, also a great picture. I love the layout here, the title fits so well too. I am really bad at remembering who makes all the embellishments, papers etc, most scrapbloggers are better at that then me. I even managed to journal on this page which I rarely do.

--Scrapaholic

Scrapping in the rain

Today would of been the day to call in sick to work and just stay home. Walking to the subway in the down pouring rain is NOT fun. Getting majorly splashed by a big puddle thanks to a wreckless livery car driver is even less fun.
New York is a great place, but when it rains its a complete disaster.

I joined Scrapbook.com about two years ago when I was new to the art of scrapbooking. I had only gone on to the site a few times usually when I was working on a specific project. When I started doing the "wedding" scrapbook I found this site to be very resourceful. There a thousands of users who access this site a week. For those of you who don't know much about scrapbooking it is a 3 billion $ industry, it falls under the umbrella of Crafting which is a 30 BILLION $ industry. Here a some statistics to make you understand just how big of a industry this is.

* Over 25 million people in the United States alone consider themselves to be scrapbookers.
* Almost 30% of all U.S. households have at least one family member who scrapbooks.
* Scrapbooking is the fastest growing sector of the craft and hobby industry and now considered to be the third most popular craft in the nation. From 2002 to 2004, sales of scrapbooking products increased by over 27% across the United States.
* As of 2003, there were over 4,000 independent scrapbook stores in the United States. Most major craft stores, such as Hobby Lobby and Michaels Crafts, also have extensive selections of scrapbooking supplies.

So recently meaning since the summer I have become obsessed with this website. Fellow scrapbookers post there Layouts for other people to see and you can make comments etc. I just started posting mine and its great to see what other people think of your work.
I find that lately I haven't been able to do any of my other favorite things like reading,laying on the couch and of course spending as much time with my husband & dog as I would like.
So to continue with what I have been working on. Here are some Layouts from my NY shower which was at the yummiest restaurant Blue Fin at the W Times Sq hotel. The shower was so beautiful, there was sushi and cotton candy which are my favorites, and the whole place was decorated with beautiful flowers and a huge cherry blossom centerpiece...LOVED!


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this photo is of my mom's best friend Margaret and I, she threw the shower for me with my mom. She did an amazing job, I love her so much.
I love the colors in this layout, especially the paper I used, it has a very soft feeling to it.


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I love this picture of me with my mother and mother in law, its a great shot. The flowers I used really bring out the color in the photo.


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These pictures are of me opening up my gifts at the shower, boy was I happy, lol.
I got some awesome gifts, it was so much fun.
The used Jolee's shower embellishments on this page and it make it look really cute.


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Jared showed up and surprised me at the end of the shower like most fiance's do, its usually not much of a surprise, but he definitely caught me off guard. He brought the most ridiculous bouquet of flowers, when I got home I had to put the flowers in like 5 vases.
I love this Layout it has so much going on, the layering and flowers really make the page.
So that's it for today, gotta do some work that actually makes me money.
-Scrapaholic

Things you do when you should be working

Wow! last time I blogged was last Thursday. I had a busy weekend and all of a sudden its Tuesday.
I have been scrapping a lot lately. The problem with scrapping a lot is that I spend a lot too. I don't know how to buy cheap scrapbooking supplies. Here in the city everything is a fortune to begin with so why would scrapbooking supplies be any different. We don't have a Michaels or any chain craft stores like in the suburbs. I was at Kate's Paperie last night, they don't really have a good selection but the minute I see embellishments I get this excited feeling inside and I don't care what the cost is, I just want to buy it and go home and put it on a Layout.
Yesterday actually I also went the trim store near my office, they have lots of ribbons, yarn, flowers, patches, buttons, etc. All these cool things to put on a page to add depth, texture, color and awesome detail. I bought a bunch of stuff there too.
I think I definitely went a little overboard yesterday.
So since I have spent most of my morning doing other things then working, hopefully my boss doesn't read this...I figured why not and add a new blog.
I want to continue with my wedding scrapbook that I have been working on and add some of my more favorite Layouts. The first layout is Jared and I and both are parents out to dinner, thanks to Ali for taking this great shot, she is really a great photographer, maybe that's her calling.
This page was fun to make I used a lot of different paper, and I even journaled which I don't do often.
These pictures are from March when my mother in law made a shower for me in Florida. It was so beautiful and I think I captured that in these layouts.
The colors I used really bring out the colors of the day.
All this typing makes me hungry- time for lunch

-Scrapaholic

Late night at the office

I woke up today put the weather on, and thought I was watching the weather for Florida, could it really be 65? yes and gorgeous!

Since I'm totally in inspiration mode from starting this blog last night and due to the nice weather I decided it was time for me to lug my current project the "wedding scrapbook" to work and use the scanner there to upload the pages, the pages are 12x12 and do not scan on my scanner at home. When I got to work, my shoulder was killing me, book weighs a lot!! I hope I don't have to do that again.

At 6 pm after everyone had basically left the office, I snuck back to the scanning machine to get to work. It took about 20 attempts to figure out how the hell to scan the big pages, once I got that done it took about another 45min to finish.

I think that was the latest I was ever stayed at the office, figures it wouldn't be for something work related. It's kind of nice to be there alone, big place to myself. I would love to have my own little scraproom there, hmmm, maybe I'll bring that one up with my boss.

I am going to attach the first couple pages of the book. My early pages are not my favorites, those come later on. I realize after I started doing the pages that I needed to order a lot more embellishments and paper. So these pages seem a little more simple.

This is the night Jared and I got engaged. Either Rachel or Mitzi took this picture, I can't remember exactly, we were standing on 66th between 2nd & 3rd. I love the flowers I used in this page the different sizes and color blues, brings out the blue in my shirt. The flowers have little heart brads in them, so cute! Jared hates this page, lol, he said it has no emotion, as if he is some professional scrapbooker.

This is our apartment the night I got engaged. There is definitely a lot going on here, I had so many detail shots I really wanted to include. I love the embellishment on the top! That note that says "Yes it's time" Jared hung on the door to the bedroom, I saved it. To anyone who wants to get into scrapping or wants a scrapbook made for them, save as much of this stuff as you can. Wait maybe thats why my apartment is always a mess, b/c I don't know how to get rid of junk.

It's been a long day, time for me shut down. Looking forward to blogging tomorrow :)

xoxo

Scrapaholic

Trying to scrap in NYC

To all my fans that don't exist yet I want to introduce myself, my name is Erika and besides all the things I love in my life, my husband, my dog Tobey, and my family, I love to SCRAP. When I say scrap I mean spend lots of time creating pages of a scrapbook with wonderful memories of my life and the people close to me. Scrapping is extremely time consuming, especially when you have a full time job, husband, & dog and live in NYC. Besides for all these distractions which make it hard to enjoy my hobby 24/7, living in 1 bedroom apartment can be tough spread out and craft. Sometimes I wish I lived in Long Island and had a house with an amazing scrapbook room like the ones that the serious scrapbookers on scrapbook.com post pics of. I am soooooo jealous of how much space they have. But I'm not ready to give up the exciting life of living in NYC just yet. There is just too much that NYC has too offer, leaving now would be like taking 10 yrs off my life.

"Having said that" (yes I did steal this line from the season finale of curb your enthusiam) I will be devoted to my blog, I will document what its like to be a real scrapper living in NYC, I will post the joys and hardships of scrapping and hopefully entertain myself and all of you along the way.

By the way, I really was inspired by the movie Julia & Julia, I am thinking one day my blog will get a book/movie deal. Hey- we all have dreams.

Scrapaholic