The story of the special paper
{preface: photo does not show the special paper in question.}
Forgive me if you have heard this story in person over the last few months. It’s time for me to write it down. First, we need to set the scene. It must have been late 2000, early 2001. For those of you who weren’t around here then, scrapbooking supplies weren’t so easy to come by in merry olde England. When any scrappish girl found some supplies, she would first buy as much as she could justify, then immediately inform the few members of UKScrappers, which was then a tiny Yahoo group, so they could go buy up the rest of the goodies. From time to time, we would all go ‘crazy’ and buy a box of supplies from the states. But most of the time we would just craft with what we had and keep our eyes open for the next great find. I moved house around that time and my entire crafting stash fit in two medium sized tupperware boxes. Seriously. Yet I was scrapping any time I had five minutes to spare.
Then there was the moment I saw the special paper. It wasn’t just 12×12, which was special enough. It wasn’t just acid-free, which was special enough. It was 12×12 acid-free printed and embossed scrapbooking paper.
Oh my goodness, I about passed out in the store.
Everyone who was scrapping knew this paper at the time. It was the paper to buy. If you could find it, you must have had the gift. It only existed in a few special places, and wherever it did exist, it was priced at £2.50 a sheet.
So when I found it and it was only £2 per sheet, I looked over both shoulders to make sure there wasn’t a crowd of scrappers running in to buy up all the special paper. And then I bought ten sheets.
Ten sheets! Ten sheets at £2 a sheet when I had no idea what I was going to make with it and I really should have spent my £20 in other more practical ways. But this paper was just so cool and it was on sale, so I figured that crowd of scrappers could arrive any moment and I bought it up before anyone else could get to it.
For several weeks I kept it on the top of my paper stack, ready to become a masterpiece. I put every photo in my collection next to it, and each time I went for something else because that photo just wasn’t special enough for the special paper. The special paper demanded something…amazing.
Weeks turned into months. I still didn’t find the photo that would special enough for the special paper. Much less ten special photos. Since I had ten sheets of the stuff. Since I bought it like it was going out of fashion.
Trouble is, it was. So out of fashion. That was 2001. This is 2008. I still have ten sheets of that special paper. I still don’t have any photos special enough for the special paper. Because now that paper is ugly. A special level of ugly. {I will not show you the paper because I wish to protect its innocence.}
Now those ten sheets of paper serve as a reminder for me: use the stash while you still like it! Otherwise you will realise that you really should have put that £20 toward your student loan at the time and not ten sheets of paper that you would take through several house moves, clinging to it for no other reason than “I spent £20 on this and I sure as heck ain’t gonna throw it away”.
Now aside from those ten special sheets, I have found new homes for many sheets of paper recently. I’m not quite sure why I had so much paper stacked up that I didn’t like and was never going to use, but I did. It felt wonderful to free it up for people who would appreciate it. But old stash doesn’t always mean ugly stash, so I also have a rather large stack of papers and embellishments that are not the latest and greatest, but I still love them. And I don’t want to get to the stage where I don’t love them before I use them. So this is my new routine.
I splurged on the Designing With calendar this year. Haven’t had one in ages and just decided it would be a treat. Every morning when I get up, I’ve got an instructional manual on doing a quick page for myself, just by looking at the new calendar page and following the directions. The process helps with the fact that I am not a morning person by forcing me to just get going with the cutting and the sticking. And to shake it up to fit my needs a little more, I have to start with the big old stack of old stash. So day by day, I get pages that are just for me and I use up the supplies I spent my hard-earned pennies on, so I will never again have the guilt of the stack of special paper.
That’s all. It’s not rocket science. And the pages I’ve made so far aren’t the most fabulous works of art in the world. They are not my sit-down-and-journal-for-half-an-hour routine. They are simple and quick, which is what I need in the morning. They are a mix of old stash (and my stash has levels of old) and new stash that will stretch to more than one layout. Because the thing that annoys me most about my supplies is that just because I use it doesn’t mean I get the space back. You buy a sheet of stickers and use up even half or three-quarters of the sheet…it’s still there and it’s still the same size! Books of rub-on letters…they never get any smaller. You can get to the point where you can’t spell anything because you’ve run out of vowels and you’ll still keep the whole book because it might come in handy for a mixed-up title. But I have to draw the line somewhere. These rub-on letters that I used on this page were so crackly from being carted back and forth to crops in the bottom of a tote bag. It’s use ‘em or lose ‘em time, and I know I’ll feel a lot better if it’s the former.
So there we go. It’s not particular a resolution, but a new little bit of routine…and a little more routine and a little less special paper probably won’t hurt.
xlovesx
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