Happy Halloween! Today is all about the celebrating the things that spook us, and for many people, that list goes from ghosts and spiders to superstitions and bad luck. But, scrapbookers have an entirely separate list of fears, and while it’s unlikely that anybody will be dressed up as these things tonight, they’re still frightening enough to make your heart rate go up. Check out this list of the scariest things that a scrapbooker hopes never to encounter!
WARNING: If you’re a diehard scrapbooker, you might want to read this one with the lights on.
It happens in the blink of an eye. You’re handling cardstock or designer paper like you have countless times before, but suddenly one of the sheets rubs you the wrong way and you feel a sharp pain in your hand. You look down at the small slice in your skin… Don’t bleed, please don’t bleed—not by my paper! But alas, you see the dreaded first tiny drop of blood spill out and gloomily realize your fate: you’ll need to spend the rest of your cropping time today having your crafty, creative fingers hindered by… a band aid. Awful, isn’t it?! But, you are a crop warrior and can create with the best of them despite your stingy setback!
Your hands are aching and your eyelids are drooping, but you’ve done it—your marathon day of cropping is done. You’ve spent hours skillfully creating pages for your loved ones, and you’ve finally got a table full of finished layouts that you’re proud of and can’t wait to put into album covers.
What you don’t see…that half-filled cup of coffee that was giving you energy and refreshment during your scrap-a-thon. You’re busy clearing scraps when you hear a soft clink!
What’s that? you wonder with a feeling of unexplainable dread…and suddenly it clicks. A spilled drink!!! You let out a blood-curdling gasp (maybe not really a thing, but you know the sound!) and your instincts take over. You fly across the table – hands outstretched like a wide receiver – and in one moment of supernatural speed and coordination, you manage to save all the layouts from the ominously impending coffee lava. Nightmare contained!
You’re enjoying a cup of coffee—that’s right, you haven’t given up coffee even after the great spill-on-the-craft-table debacle—with a new friend when she mentions her love of scrapbooking.
Show me your albums! you exclaim, eagerly anticipating seeing the beautiful, hand-crafted layouts you imagine. She jumps off the couch and grabs one from the bookshelf, and when you see the spine of the album your stomach drops, a sense of anxiety overcoming you. But as she sits beside you and opens the album you see that yes, she did—a peel-n-stick album! Your heart is racing and you can hardly focus on the special moments.
After what feels like an eternity of biting your tongue to keep from screaming Your photos are in danger!, she closes the album. You congratulate her on her love of memories, then invite her to your house for coffee so you can show her your albums…a bubbling cauldron of ideas in your mind, anticipating your next get-together and how you’ll introduce her to your photo-safe products. To be continued…
It’s the perfect day of cropping and you’re in the zone—your pages are coming together beautifully and the rest of the world seems to have melted away. You’re almost done with your final layout of the day and you’ve envisioned exactly how it will look when it’s completed… you only need to add one more sticker. Confidently, you extend your arm—without lifting your eyes from the Foam Squares you’re eagerly pulling—and reach for the sticker sheet. But when your fingers brush against it, they’re met with something slippery, almost wax paper-ish. Something’s not right…you’re completely out of coordinating stickers!
Chills run down your spine as you wrack your brain… Who do I know around here who has purchased this collection?! Distressed, you flee from your craft cave to find your cell and start flipping through contacts faster than kids eating Halloween candy. Out of the blue, you get a text from one of your scrapbooking friends. Is everything okay? she asks, I just got this eerie feeling that something is wrong. You pause—stunned—and then let out an unearthly cackle of delight. SHE has this collection!!! Without haste, you share and wait for her response, fingers crossed and holding your breath, just hoping she still has that sticker (and is willing to give it to you). The seconds feel like hours, and you’ve started to give up hope when your phone dings. Sure, I’ve got that sticker! Whewww.
So, there you have it—some of the “scariest” things for scrapbookers… hopefully this post didn’t scare you out of your socks! What are your scariest (but funny) scrapbooking moments? Comment below!
My scariest thought is running out of tape runner! I’m probably the only advisor who ALWAYS has no less than a dozen refills in my inventory at one time!
Love it!
Mine is finishing up the pages for a specific event and moving on to the next and then finding a handful of really good pictures that I forgot to include! Hate when that happens!
The pocket pages are great for when this happens!
Great suggestion Rhonda!
Happens to often and it is scary
Scariest, and ever so slightly annoying moments are when I just get that project beautifully complete, and someone helpfully says… “oh, I have more photos for that!” And I wonder how on earth I’m going to get them in, in the right order. Peekaboos help for sure but sometimes I do want to scream, as I take my layouts apart to include those new photos!
Just use those Multi Pocket pages, they are awesome and you can use some peek-a-boo pockets as well. There is always some way to solve Scrapbook problems
I used to be scared, even terrified , to have people look at my albums. This was back in the days when page protectors were not included with the packs of pages. My nearest and dearest would bend corners, add finger prints and flip pages in dangerous ways that made me unhappy. Finally I bit the bullet and bought packs and packs of page protectors for every page in every completed scrapbook. Now my most contented moment when scrapping is sliding the last page protector on the last page of a new scrapbook. I know I am done and I can enjoy a new book!
I put tape, photo tape which is more adhesive than the regular tape runners, on the wrong side of a designer paper. I put it on the side I wanted to show! I didn’t realize it until I had put photo tape on all the sides. This particular paper had some pretty flowers and accents along the sides and the other side was not my favorite!!
You can use Un-Do to remove the tape. It can be used on anything and if it is a sticker, it will still be sticky! When it dries, you can’t even tell! It is truly amazing stuff! They have it at Walmart, Michaels, and Hobby Lobby. It’s great! I couldn’t scrapbook without it.
Gently use your multi-purpose tool to remove the tape
Or put cornstarch on the sticky
It won’t remove the tape but the sticky will be gone.
Being at a monthly crop only to discover that I left my tape runners home, and no one else has extra to share!
Make a packing list and keep it on your computer. Check off the items as you pack. I do it for vacations, scraps, picnics, etc.
That is scary, but if you live to far away to go home and you are not with a CM Advisor, (because an Advisor should always have tape refills) you could power sort your pages, put embellishments that go with your pages to pass the time. Or truth be told for $49.99 you could sign up to be a CM Advisor and you’d always be prepared.
I was in the process of organizing digital photos when my home was broken into. They look my laptop and external drive I was moving the pictures to….13 years worth of pictures of my children. I cried for weeks. Then, I remembered I had a desktop that hadn’t been plugged up in 3 years. All the pictures (but the last 3 years) were still on this machine!! And the 3 missing years, the best shots had been shared to FB!!
Wow….so happy for you!!! That would have been devastating! Maybe someone else in the family has some of the pictures from those last 3 years. Also, check your SD cards. I don’t always erase mine if they are larger ones.
So sorry to hear that Paula. We are glad you could get most of them back!
My scariest thought is not ever having enough time to finish getting my books done, and having years of photos waiting to be put in books. Having to organize and develop them off of the computer is also a scary thought! Good thing I enjoy scrapbooking and will be doing it for many years to come!
This is a tough one for everyone but the ladies in my group say the only way they get anything done is to attend the weekend retreats. I know there is a cost involved but sometimes it is worth it when you go home with a completed book, lots of new ideas, and have made some new friends. You can see all the retreats in your area on the CM website.
Creative Block
Opening my last pack of lined paper to journal my stories on…please please bring it back even for a limited time so I can keep sharing my stories with my pictures
RED WINE is way worse than coffee! And running out of tape runner refills mid virtual crop. True stories. 😲😲
Maybe the Spooky Sporadic Spilling will be avoided if CM brings back the cup holder. Wouldn’t that be great.