May projects

40 week challenge, week 15
SG sketch

NSD crop
I decided to pull out all my Christmas photos for 2012-2014 and work on them all at once.

SG sketch

SG sketch

 SG sketch

 SG sketch

 SG sketch

SG sketch

40 week challenge, week 16

 40 week challenge, week 17

40 week challenge, week 18


I have been woefully negligent for making layouts for my own random recipe challenge :(  I'm about 5 behind now.


This month, I also succumbed to the allure of foiling, and bought a $20 laminator and some foil to play with.

I also took the time to sit down and make some cardstock tags so I could have a sample of the colors I use/have access to at local stores.

And, I decided that I missed having a sit down desk in my room, and since we had to move furniture around for our new bed, I stole the student desk that Bandon wasn't using and the Jetmax cubes that had to be moved out of our bedroom. Of course, this also seemed like a good idea to go through and empty out/reorganize all the bins and boxes on my closet shelves, so...big mess.

Workspace Wednesday, 12/3

Trimmer blade storage:

When I buy trimmer blades, I tend to buy multiple packages when they are on sale for 40-60% off, but storing multiple packages can take up a fair bit of room. Last year I started removing all of them from the packaging and storing them in an extra 4x6 Iris photo case that I had. It's working great so far (and I have somehow managed to not cut myself, lol.)

It sits in my "extras" cabinet with my misc ink cartridges, photo paper and such.

Workspace Wednesday 10/29, die cuts

I was storing die cut packs in divided page protectors in an album:

It actually worked pretty well. I have small enough hands that I can reach in to the 4x6 pockets, but occasionally some really small die cuts would stay down at the bottom of the pocket and I would really have to dig for them. The biggest problem, though, was turning the page. You had to turn very slowly and verrrry carefully, otherwise die cuts in the top pockets would be prone to flying out the top, even if the album was at a 45 degree angle. So any time savings from being able to access the die cuts all a once was lost picking up die cuts, lol. Plus, since I also use the album for storing templates and masks, I was limited by room.

I was thinking about how much more I'm using my stamps now that they are in the Avery Elle pockets and in a basket (easy to sort through and take out/put away), and that got me to thinking about how I had bought a package of these to use with die sets (before settling on Avery Elle pockets for those, too):

Die cut packs fit perfectly!

Easy in, easy out and quick access when lined up in a basket.

Workspace Wednesday, 10/1

Paints, mists and such.

For the longest time, I had to hide all my paints away from Jacob, which made it harder to use them because out of sight, out of mind. I used to store all my wooden stamps on this cute little shelf that Rick and Brandon made for me a few years ago (for $6!), but this summer I sold most of them, leaving some great, shallow storage behind the door of my room. I decided to give storing my paints a try, and started with just my inexpensive acrylic craft paints to see if Jacob swiped them. Nope, hasn't even given them a second glance. That gave me the courage to add in my mists, name brand paint and such. I love it, all colorful and happy:

Getting them on the wall in "lost" space behind the door freed up a drawer (the paint) and several cubby areas (mists) for other supplies.

Workspace Wednesday, 8-27

I fell behind in posting right away, lol.

With the room redo, I was looking for a way to consolidate my "finishing touches" embellishments. I had the wood veneers in one spot, brads were all over the place, enamel dots were stored with collections and I didn't have a place for the flair. I had looked at this Creative Options tower before, but wasn't willing to pay $60 for it, or even $36 with a coupon. Joanns had it on a 1 day deal for $19.99 and I was able to snag one at the local store. I just wish it wasn't pink and puke green. Maybe I'll paint it at some point.

First thing I did was break the enamel dots down by color in 4x6 zipper bags from the beading/jewelry making section of Hobby Lobby. I originally had them in the top section, but switched that to just containers of flair. The containers were $1 each from Walmart.

Wood veneer went in the top pull out tray. I like that it stores everything in one section, versus the 3 trays I previously had them in.

 

 (I'll add the pic later) Enamel dots went in the second pull out tray.

And packages of brads went in the third pull out tray. I'm not quite ready to break the packages apart yet.

 

The entire (heavy) case sits on top of the armoire next to my desk and I can reach up and pull it down, set it on my stool, and pull out what I need to finish off a layout. I'm loving it so far (except the colors, lol.)

Workspace Wednesday 7/30

There is a thing in blogosphere called Workspace Wednesday where you share parts of your crafty space. I figure, if nothing else, if I participate it will give me a reason to do a blog entry each week.

First up:
my new stamp and die storage

I had originally left stamp in their original packaging and flipped through them, but that became cumbersome as I got more stamps, especially since a lot of them are bigger or smaller than the standard 4x6 size for clear stamps. After that, I did the  8.5x11 transparency sheet storage, a la Mercytiara (blogger, Youtube scrapper):

Essentially, you mount a transparency sheet to a sheet of cardstock, then move the stamps to the transparency. Glue the image sheet to the front of the cardstock, and then sandwich the stamps between another sheet of transparency (using tape at the bottom only, to make a flap) to keep them relatively in place and dust free. I put mine in page protectors and in binders. I loved this system! All my Christmas stamps were together, all my spring and Easter stamps were together, all my journal stamps were together, etc. and I could flip through them with ease. The only problem? I had 4 full 1.5" binders and not much grow room. (and, when I wanted to put a stamp set with a page kit, I had to move the entire sheet or make myself a note, which didn't always work). Then, I decided to sell some of my stamps, and it ended up being about half of them, which left the cardstock ripped up when I removed the image sheets. I figured since I was undoing half the system, I might as well undo it all, plus, with  my new set up, I wanted the binder storage area for something else.

I have now moved to the Jennifer McGuire system:

Avery Elle envelopes for each stamp set (or group of smaller stamps).

And Office Max 5"x8" clear pockets for larger stamps. They do stick out the top a little, but it doesn't bother me too much and I'm not ready to cut them down, in case I do decide to sell them later.

Now, a lot of people are switching to this system, and are cutting down acid free cardstock for their backing piece. I had no desire to do all that cutting, and I found these at Walmart:

They are perfect width wise, and just needed a small bit cut off the top. I was able to grab and cut small stacks at a time, which was a real time saver. I know the office supply stores sell cards that are unlined on both sides, but I just flipped them over and put the lined side toward the back.

As for the acid free issue, it tested pH neutral with my pen and 1) most of my stamps are between two pieces of transparency and don't touch the paper, and 2) the stamp sets that I do have that have yellowed, did so in their original packaging and there is no rhyme or reason in terms of company (although most are Technique Tuesday) or age (just as many new sets have as old ones, and I have several that were bought at the same time where one set has yellowed and one hasn't), so overall, I'm ignoring the issue.

The system also works for cling stamps:

We were discussing this on a message board, and someone showed how they also used it for thin die storage...and I knew I was going to do this for dies before I ever made the decision for stamps. I had been storing my thin dies in Artbin cases like these:

These are nice, but I had two problems with them...1)it gets heavy and I wanted to store them either in an overhead cabinet or with my regular dies and 2)I had the hardest time getting my dies to stay on the magnet sheets. The nesting sets were particularly bad and I had to resort to using a stretch of washi tape over them to keep them from shifting and falling off. Others would fall off when I would flip through the sheets.

 

New system:

 The Avery Elle stamp pockets with pieces of magnetic vent covers cut down (much less expensive than magnet sheets from the craft or office supply section). Each package makes 15 sheets for under $5. Even though they are thinner than the Artbin magnet sheets, I have had no problems with them standing up or dies staying on them. Right now, they (and my bigger dies) are in an Jetmax cube drawer, although I may move them closer to my BigShot.

For the few stamp and die sets that I have (and will end up with more, since I signed up for the TT Memory Keepers monthly set for at least 6 months), I use the magnet sheet for the backing sheet and just slide the stamps in the same envelope:

They get stored with the other stamps, in baskets in an overhead cabinet:

I think selling a lot of my stamps was a good idea. Some were ones that were given to me that I would never end up using, some were from kit clubs that never got used, some were ones I got for specific projects that I was done with, and some were just inexpensive impulse buys. Now I'm whittled down to the ones I wanted to use, use a lot, or have in mind for something. I don't have anything on the top shelf yet, so I may end up getting a couple extra baskets and separating them out a little more and storing the thin dies (and cut samples of regular dies) all in one cabinet so I can see what I have.