Squeebie Smash

So, I am the world's latest gift giver ever.  This year, Patchie got her Christmas gift several weeks late because I failed to notice I ordered her awesome TARDIS iPhone case from Hong Kong.  Fail.  And Squeebie... well, her very later birthday/Christmas gift was finally mailed off yesterday.  I wanted to make a fun little stop motion video of her gift before I sent it, but I was lazy.  So I did a little photo shoot (boring) instead.  I used my new 35mm f/1.8 lens that I scored for a ridiculous small sum to shoot.  I am in love with my slowly growing prime lens collection.  Anyway...



Squeebie sent me a link on Facebook to this video a loooong time ago.  She was all about the Smash Book.  I have to admit, it looked fun.  But I also figured it would be expensive and gimmicky.  And I am wary of gimmicks.  Cut to Christmas at my parent's house, when I opened a gift from my mom which wound up being a red "doodle" Smash book and some accessories.  I flipped through it and looked at the goodies and realized: this is a scrapbook I can take with me on the honeymoon and actually complete AS I am experiencing things!  Gone is the pressure of remembering where I took that picture or why I took the other.  Gone is the memory lapse of remembering that funny incident that happened on the Wednesday of that vacation we took last year.  Awesome!  I went online and found their site... and the albums are actually really affordable.  With all the fun little add ons, you can still get a good set for $30 or less, which is saying a lot for scrapbook type gear.  The scrapbooking trend is on the rise, and so many neat gadgets come out every year.  To make a truly awesome scrapbook, you may invest hundreds in raw materials.  Seriously.




So I went to our local craft supply shop and found (after asking assistance and learning the kiosk was literally two steps in front of me, duh) the Smash Book section.  I chose the "simple" orange Smash Book for Squeebie, as she wore tangerine for the wedding and my girls will forever more be color-coded in my mind.  I picked out a few fun accessories and brought it all home, where I intended to be crafty.  Except I wasn't.  I am so lazy sometimes.  Also, you will note that I linked to the official site's Smash kits for the journals.  If I had paid attention, I would have gotten more bang for my buck by ordering online, and shipping directly to Squeebie.  But then I wouldn't have doodled all over the box I used for shipping (and forgot to photograph).  Doodled packages are the best.



This post was not sponsored, I just wanted Squeebie to see what was on it's way and get her all excited for it to arrive!  According to the tracking I put on the package, it is expected to arrive TOMORROW.  Hooray!  So, why a Smash Book?  Aside from the obvious fact that she's been pining for one for half a year or so, she is also moving back to MD soon!  I thought a Smash Book would be a fun way to document her remaining weeks in KS.  We also tend to be into similar stuff, so I am excited to see how she uses hers and how I will use mine.

Of course, you can make your own Smash Book if you wanted to, with any kind of book.  The journals made by K&Company have lots of colorfully designed cardstock pages which adds to the "this is an easy scrapbook" feel, and include a pen that is a gluestick on the other side.  Convenient, no?  But you CAN buy the pen separately and use any journal you want to.  Art journaling is totally easy to accomplish.  It's just nice that the fancy version is affordable, too, for anyone who feels the task of creating decorative pages from scratch is asking too much.  If you are interested in finding ideas for art journaling and are willing to spend $30 for a year's worth of ideas, check out Elsie's Art Journaling class from Red Velvet.  It does look cute.



Well, that's all for now!

xo