Teddy Bear Collections

There are many web sites belonging to teddy bear collectors. These sites show you how the owners share their home with their fuzzy buddies. They would like to show you where these 'adopted children' make themselves comfy all over the house and grounds.
At the different sites you might find links to rooms in the house and outside or even other sites. Extensive collections show how big this extended ‘family’ can become. I say family because bears become more than just collectibles.

A few web addresses are,
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Nook/8514/ A site owned by Trish, a woman who loves collecting bears. She will show you her collection, and offer you links to sites where you can find kits and accessories to make your own teddy bear, teddy bear artists and also a page linking to miniature artists.
http://www.fortunecity.com/meltingpot/greenlawn/994/ At this site Lori will show you her collection of over 200 bears.
www.designsbyterri.com Terri’s site offers adorable, miniature teddy bears. www.tailoredteddies.com A site owned by Elizabeth offering one-of-a-kind, hand sewn teddy bears, each with it's own unique accessories. Each bear is numbered and signed on the paw by the maker.
www.tbears.de . Owned by Karin, this site offers bears with their own personality. Karin also makes miniature, crocheted teddy bears.


Some artists sell teddy bear collections, in entire groups of similar teddy bears they have designed to go together. Others sell unique, one of a kind teddy bears just right for you to start your own collection.
The choice is yours. You may begin your collection with regular size, miniature, figurines or giant, stuffed teddy bears. Or you want a collection that has a little bit of every-bear in it.
There are hundreds of sites selling unique and one of a kind teddy bears. You will also find extensive teddy bear collections. Just do a search and you will soon see how many.

Create a Unique Scrapbook with Items You Have Already

In recent years, scrapbooking has become a popular hobby. If you have looked into getting started in this pastime you have probably found that it can become expensive quickly. But using some creativity and everyday items from around your house, you can make a scrapbook that reflects your individual style and personality. You've probably looked at items around your house hundreds of times without considering their scrapbook potential. You’ve started with photos from a favorite vacation but don’t stop there. Look around the house you will probably find allot that reminds you of that trip. Even travel brochures can be cut apart and used to help build a great vacation page or section. If you're building a school days themed page, you can use report cards, awards, certificates, ribbons, graded assignments, and even notebook doodles as a base. Paper clips or crayon wrappers can be used as embellishments. When making a wedding or engagement page enhance it with pressed flowers, handwritten poetry, and clippings from magazines. Be sure to jot down details of the day you want to remember. As backgrounds for your photos use remnants from saved gift wrap and the fronts of some of your favorite cards. For baby's page, ribbons and gift wrap remnants also work well. Complete the memory by being sure to including anything that will remind you of the very early days like a copy of baby's footprints. You might also want to tuck in a corner of a baby blanket, an announcement card or a page from a favorite storybook. Commemoration pages should reflect your personal memories of your lost loved one. Make your page special by personalizing it with handwriting samples and favorite quotes. Your favorite photos can be enhanced with a description of things they enjoyed. A label from a favorite perfume or cologne, food, beverage can be used spark memories. Movie ticket stubs, buttons, newspaper articles, or funny moments jotted down on paper can mark important events. With a creative look at some ordinary items you already have, your scrapbook can take on a personal and individual style.

Sports Collecting is a Great Hobby

Everyone needs a little recreation and sports collecting is a hobby that offer a diversion to the everyday grind. Sports collecting takes many forms depending on the person. Many people collect team memorabilia, but others collect items related to a sport like fishing or golf. You need space for your collection, but people are creative about finding ways to display their collectibles. You can collect many items related to your favorite teams and display them in different ways. You can make scrapbooks with themes centered around exciting games, favorite players, and/or special interviews. Ticket stubs and photographs can also be put in your scrapbook. Some things won't fit into a scrapbook. These items will need another way to be displayed like a stand for special balls or a hanger on the wall for jerseys. You might like to collect items centered around a sport rather than a team or personality. As I wrote previously on this blog, pin collecting is a widely practiced hobby, and sports teams are one of the hottest types of collectible. Most professional teams sell pins with their logo. Another option for sports collecting is to collect antique sports equipment like vintage footballs or baseball gloves. Or focus on a theme you value. Let’s say for instance you enjoy hunting with dogs. You can decorate your home or room in a hunting dog theme. You will find there are throw pillows printed with hunting dogs, lamps that have a hunting dog as the base or even curtains made from hunting dog printed material. The same can be done around the theme of golf, horseback riding, fishing, sailboats, and other popular recreation sports. Withstanding the test of time, collecting baseball cards has been going on for what seems like forever. Sports collectors of all ages have been accumulated baseball cards, football cards, and basketball cards for many years. Whether the collector is casual or serious they find card collecting such a popular hobby that some cards are worth a lot of money. With so many options, sports collecting is a hobby that can be enjoyed by many. It can be a pastime as relaxing as the sport itself.

The Collector Needs Ebay Selling

Anyone interested in collecting, needs to get acquainted with not just buying but also Ebay selling. If you are not yet familiar with Ebay, it is a huge Internet site that allows people to buy or sell almost anything you can think of with very few restrictions. Whatever you are collecting, you will probably find what you want here. For instance, if you collect a particular type of antique you can search Ebay for exactly the piece you need to complete your set. In addition to finding the exact item you are looking for, there is a possibility you'll get it for a great price as well. Gathering more pieces for a collection is one thing, but what about when the collector inadvertently collects duplicates of the same item, gets more items than he or she can store or just doesn’t want certain pieces anymore? That's where Ebay selling can help. With Ebay you can list your unwanted items so another collector can find them and make a bid. Someone somewhere collects just about every item you can name, and they go to Ebay to search for what they want. This helps them because they get what they need and helps you make a few dollars getting rid of items you don't need or want anymore. Best of all Ebay selling is easy to learn. Ebay selling can be a hobby almost addictive as collecting itself. Ebay may be the first place you go now to buy something special for your collection but don’t forget selling. Selling you might find is almost as much fun as collecting, so be sure to try it. You are not only helping yourself but possibly someone else.

Rock Collecting

Rock collecting is a hobby anybody can enjoy. Rocks are found everywhere and the variety is huge. Rocks can be displayed in many ways. From rock gardens to neatly kept showcases, rock collecting can be a highly versatile hobby. Some people use rock collecting to save inexpensive mementos of places they have visited. These collections consist of saving pretty rocks from different places and keeping them as a souvenir. Large rocks can be used to line the driveway or small rocks can line a windowsill. You can even label them with a fine point marker to include the date and location the rock was found if you want. When rock collecting, you will soon find out that rocks can be put into one of three categories. A sedimentary rock formed when sediments were pressed together. Sand or mud is pushed together under the pressure of their own weight or the weight of water and eventually becomes solid. An igneous rock is one formed by great heat. The third type of rock is the metamorphic rock. It is a combination of sedimentary rock changed by heat like an igneous rock. The souvenir type of rock collecting does not require much scientific investigation, but you may want to explore a little deeper to be able to distinguish between rocks and minerals. The different types of rock can many times be differentiated easily. Sandstone is a common example of easily classified sedimentary rock because it looks like particles glued together. Sedimentary rocks also sometimes have visible flat layers. But rocks like metamorphic rocks sometimes have layers too. Only they are hard to see because they have been bent so that they are no longer laying flat. Some people who collect rocks also collect minerals, gems, and crystals. Pure minerals even though technically not the same thing as rocks, fit well in rock collections. Minerals include things like pyrite(fool's gold) and quartzite(which looks almost like a diamond). When rock collecting, the igneous rocks make some of the most exciting finds. Obsidian is an igneous rock that looks like a broken piece of black glass. It is shiny and hard, and was used by the Native Americans to make arrowheads. Pumice is another interesting igneous rock which is porous, making it so light that it will float. This stone is used for cleaning and rubbing calluses off feet. When rock collecting, you will find that different regions of the world have different types of rocks. In the American Midwest, for instance, there are many sedimentary stones, but metamorphic and igneous rocks are less common. In the Appalachians, on the other hand, you will find metamorphic rocks in abundance and less sedimentary. Wherever you live, though, you are sure to find rock collecting a hobby that's hard to resist!

Preserve your Favorite Photos With Organization and Planning

Photos can be a great way to save memories and relive special moments. However, without a plan to organize them they can become a chaotic jumble. The first item to have when you begin your photo organization project is a waste basket. It may seem silly but, of all the pictures the average person develops only seven out of twenty four are worth keeping. Keep that statistic mind when you begin sorting and you'll probably find many photos that simply are not worth saving. Another thing you'll need during your organization are manila envelopes. Even though you may not remember exactly, do your best to sort the photos by year. During the sorting put each group in the envelope and clearly mark the year on it. Place these envelopes in a strong cardboard box. Try to store at least 10 years worth of photos in a single container, but don’t use too big a box so it is cumbersome. Display several photos from a selected year in a collages or shadow box. Give the shadow box a unique personality by including mementos and keepsakes. Special photos can individually be enlarged and framed to display around your home. Be certain to purchase photo albums that are made with acid-free paper. The acid used in processing everyday paper can damage photographs over time. Another clever and creative way to display your photos is scrapbooking. Craft stores ,in response to the growing trend, have an abundance of scrapbook supplies. Stencils, decorative scissors, background papers, rubber stamps and permanent markers are just some of the things you will find. You can also make use of items around your house like ribbons, magazine clippings, and fabrics. It is so important that I’ll say it again, take care to ensure that the paper you use is acid-free or displayed separately from your favorite photos. Last but not least, in case something should happen to your photos, make sure you have a backup plan to replace them. Store the negatives of your most important and cherished photographs in a safe place. Protect them against theft or destruction from fires or floods and other elements beyond your control.

Start an Art Collection

Besides collecting fine art paintings, many different items can be painted with artwork and become an art collectible. Enthusiasts collect such unusual items as saw blades and wooden eggs which have been painted with artwork. People even collect designer rugs as art. Another art collectible hobby is collecting limited edition plates, thimbles, Christmas ornaments, and figurines produced by such companies as Bradford Exchange. The person involved in collecting art will probably find a favorite artists whose works they appreciate. They can focus on one particular artist or they can select from the works of many artists. Another way people choose to collect art and art objects is not around any particular artist, but instead, around a theme they enjoy. Maybe you think of an art collector as a rich person who spends hundreds of thousands of dollars on an original Van Gogh, but a person of more modest means can collect art too. Post cards are one place to start. Most museum gift shops offer high quality, glossy postcards printed with some of their more notable acquisitions. Anyone can have an art collection by buying cards representing the items they really appreciate.Some other ideas for inexpensively collecting include scouring flea markets, thrift shops, and garage sales. Ebay is another good source for art collectors. Whatever type of art or collectible you desire you can probably find it. When you are starting out, the choices and options can be overwhelming. Keep in mind that you can sell your own things as well as buying those of others. This should make the impact on the budget bearable and lessen the gathering of unwanted stuff. The stuff you want to get rid of may be someone else’s treasure and vice versa. Artists can be found all around the world so objects to collect can be found everywhere too. The collector should look in local art shows, museums, and artist's hangouts to find out just what sort of talent can be had close to home less expensively. Collectors can find local artist almost everywhere and because of the local flavor of some artwork, art collectibles make good travel souvenirs. For instance, the artist may specialize in painting scenes, buildings, and landmarks found around a certain area making the work very specific. If you enjoy pretty and interesting things around you, consider starting an art collectible hobby. An art collectible hobby will keep you interested in life around you as well as give you a home filled with art masterpieces.