It’s About Time!

I love magazines! My husband believes that I subscribe to the majority of them… Country Home, Martha Stewart, Country Garden, Mary Engelbreit, Readers Digest, Creating Keepsakes, Simple Scrapbooks to name just a few… When I find a few spare minutes, I quickly read and tear out the pages that inspire me… to save for another day. I am the first to admit that in the years that I have been tearing and filing, I have yet to make the recipe that uses weird ingredients or the scrapbook page or technique that takes hours to complete. I have learned that I can open up my favorite scrapbook magazines and ooh and ahhh over the many creative pages of talented scrapbookers without feeling like I need to do them all. What amazing talent I see. Will I make them? Chances are pretty good that I won’t. But still, I tear and file…. Always an optimist that my time will free up one day…

What is my reality of time? I am lucky enough to share my life with a wonderful husband and five terrific kids. Busy? You bet! I seldom have 2-3 hours to myself, let alone time to create an elaborate page. (Once in awhile I do get lucky) Kids have a way of breaking your day into 5 minute chunks! I figure, life is filled with choices… we all have 24 hours to spend each day. How do I want to spend my 24 hours? For me, I want to spend time with my family as we live, laugh & learn through life.

This is where pre-made embellishments come into play big time for me. There are so many time saving, beautiful products on the market that give our pages the look and feel of dimension, without adding bulk, weight and the time to create them. Pre-made printed embellishments look so realistic…eyelets, layered paper, frames, chalking, cut designs, metal, buttons, sewing, thread and much more!

Once you try a preprinted embellishment, you will be hooked on your first 10 minute page or card. And don’t forget… they are a simple way to involve your kids in the papercraft hobbies.

There are two downsides I find with pre-printed embellishments… I sometimes have to talk myself into not feeling guilty with the ease of the product. The second is to try not to out think the product and make it difficult to use. Pre-printed embellishments are made to be easy timesavers … just add journaling and you’re done!

Now go and make a memory…