YARD SALE FIND!!!!!!

I'm taking a momentary break from showing cards to post a picture of what I consider a wonderful yard sale find. I know can have all my markers withing easy reach and they are all stored on their sides so their points don't dry out. The copics don't need to be stored on their sides, but it is nice having then so since then I can see their caps with the numbers and colors. I am finding that I use my different markers a lot more having them out and accessible.

This holder is actually a retail "fixture" from our local stamp store that closed. A good friend of mine purchased it and then decided she didn't like using it. So her mistake is my gain......I don't know what she paid, but I got it for $1.00.

Not only is it a very useful organizational tool for me, but I really do like looking at the colors arrayed in front of me when I stamp. I love color.

Now I think I will go visit my markers and do a bit of stamping, coloring and card making!

I'M BACK WITH MY PROJECT!

My cake is not only in the oven, but it is almost done......I do get sidetracked very easily and so there is also a load of laundry done another in the washer and I've done a lot of BLOG hopping myself. BUT I'm back now and ready to show you the new project I've started that I am very excited about. It will be a long term project to set up and it also will be an ongoing one that if done right will always be being updated! I am sure it will be a great aid to my card making especially in the times my MOJO has fled.........

For years now I have been reading of technique notebooks or albums. I have toyed with making one every time I have read about them. I've downloaded many templates and ideas on how to put one together. But I guess none of them struck me as right for me or what I wanted. I'm not even sure I really knew what form I wanted it to be in except I knew it had to be easy to put together and easy to use. I wanted a simple description as to what the technique was and if necessary simple directions on how to do it. Also I wanted a simple sample of what the technique looked like. As I thought more about it I decided I wanted a system that I could easily pull out the technique I wanted to use and than easily put it back.

Of course me being who I am the years went by and I simply kept thinking about it taking no action to actually do it. In the meantime I also became interested in various challenges. Especially sketch challenges. I do have a full sized notebook with sketch challenge ideas, but it is too big to keep out on my stamping table while I am working. I do have sketch layouts kept on my computer in a file folder somewhere, but when I am stamping I don't have room on my table for my computer to sit and my eyesight is not exactly good enough any more to see the details of the sketch from across the room.

Two weeks ago I wandered into our local Office Depot to see what they had on clearance sale....they are closing our store so everything was 25 to 50% off. It was there while strolling up and down the isles I found my solution. Here it is in its beginning stages........

I had been thinking about the possibility of using Rolodex card system on and off in my musings. IT seemed to fit most if not all of my requirements of size and accessibility. The main reason I kept rejecting it was the price! Rolodex systems I discovered a pretty expensive. Especially the ones that use the larger cards. This one is the 3x5 card size and the price at 40% off was right. The cards a bit small, but I knew lots of people are doing albums of techniques on 6x6 pages. I am using both sides of each card so effectively I am working with a 6x5 space which isn't a whole lot less.

Here are two of my first cards I made. I will be filing the techniques alphabetically and so each letter of the alphabet will have its own color card stock as a frame for the technique so it stands out from the white card and isn't so boring to look at and the tab at the top of the card will be the same color as the frame. So here my first "A" card which is for Aqua Painters uses Brocade Blue for the frame and tab and all "A" technique cards will use Brocade Blue. My "B" techniques will be using Purely Pomegranate (good thing I stocked up on it before it retired!). And so on throughout the alphabet. (I haven't gotten beyond "A" and "B" yet.)


I am formatting and printing out the technique description and instructions on my computer. They are on white card stock. After trimming them down as close as possible I layer it onto the correct color of card stock and use my perfect layers tool (I still don't understand why SU retired this tool it's wonderful!!) to put a 1/16th border around it. Tis then goess on to the front of the rolodex card. On the back I put a sample of the technique. How I do this will probably vary with what the technique is. Since these two cards were both coloring tool uses I simply stamped an image to be colored using each medium. For the Aqua Painter I have an example of what the image looks like painted using ink from the stamp pad, from watercolor crayons and watercolor pencils. For the Blender Pen card I have samples using it and the stamp pad ink and the pastels. Other than the different color medium everything else is the same: the image, the ink used to stamp the image and where possible the colors used to color the image. There is a difference on how each image looks in real life though its hard to see here.

So that is my project and yes it is a big one!!!!! But I am excited about it and finally getting it started. I plan also to print off the chetch challenge layouts that I really like so I can have a section for those that I can go to when I am stumped for a layout. I am also toying with including a section for color challenges and maybe even materials to use challenges. I think all thiese things will be a great help when I am at a lose as to where to get started with making a card. I can pull out one of my rolodex cards and simply go from there.

Now I need to go finish up my cake and move the load of laundry to the dryer. Oh by the way the cake is a Double Chocolate Khulua Bundt cake! And boy does it smell good!

ORGANIZING FEAT

I have a goal for this month. I am working on mot spending any money on craft supplies for a month. I am actually going to try for a month and a half. I have so much stuff, both for stamping and quilting that I am discovering I can't find what I need when I need it and so my first response is to buy more. Also I have so much disorganized stuff that I forget what I already have and buy it a second time. This is stopping as of May 1. I am ORGANIZING!!!!!

I started with the project of unmounting my stamp sets and this is a long term project. So far I have 28 sets unmounted and in cassette cases. Then I worked on organizing my paper scraps and placing each SU color in its own hanging file folder with a label in the color of card stock using the SU printed labels. Both of these projects have worked very well and yes I am using my scraps much more efficiently rather than cutting into a new sheet for a small piece creating of course even more scraps.....

Yesterday I went made a trip to the container store for another CD case holder and also found some nifty divided boxes that I thought would be perfect for my next much needed organizational project.....my ribbon scraps and odd lengths of ribbons. These scraps were simply jumbles in a plastic shoe box. This storage method did keep the ribbons from spilling out everywhere, but it did not really make them usable. I couldn't really see what I had without digging through the mess and spending time untangling them.

I purchased three boxes which each had 30 small slots in it. My thinking with having three boxes is I have one each for cool, warm and neutral colors of ribbons. I decided since most of my ribbons are non Stampin' Up ribbons that it made no sense trying to do boxes for each SU color family and one for neutrals.

I can't take credit for this storage idea. Several months ago a friend of mine showed me her ribbons in this type of a system. And at that time I knew it was what I wanted to do with mine. I love just looking in the boxes. The colors are so fun. Here is a close up of the warm color box. Isn't it fun to look at?

I still have my spools of ribbon in two sets of SU's plastic ribbon holders, but frankly I don't like them and if they had been so blasted expensive I'd get rid of them. I don't know if I haven't figured out how to use them correctly or what, but when I try to pull out a length of ribbon to use all the spools in the row turn and their ribbons unroll also. I end up either with a mess of unrolled ribbons or have to take time to very tediously re-roll them. I know I probably shouldn't say negative things about SU products being a SU demonstrator and all, but I just can't recommend something I think is poorly designed and their ribbon holder is one of those things. Sorry SU.......

So now my ribbon pieces are wonderfully organized I wonder what will be my next project will be? Other than continuing to unmount stamp sets that is.

In case you are wondering I am doing some stamping during this whole process, but so far the only one I have a picture of is a Mother's Day card for my mom and you will have to wait till after Mother's Day to see it. She just may drop by here and I wouldn't want to ruin her surprise.

REDUCING AND ORGANIZING

I am running out of space! Or more accurately I have run out of space!!!! So I decided it was time to take drastic steps. No, I am not going to stop purchasing stamps. That's just not realistic is it? (I am assume those reading this post are fellow stampers and not my DH!) Christine had a segment on ScrapTime that dealt with "unmounting" Stampin' Up stamps. That is taking them off the wood.

Now don't anyone get me wrong I love my wood. It is so silky smooth to the touch. It's soft, well at least softer than acrylic. And I think it smells nice. But it takes up so much room having every stamp mounted on a 1 inch thick piece of it. If I had a 20 x 24 foot stamping room or some such thing I could manage, but in my little bedroom turned stamp room space just plain ran out!

I've actually been thinking of doing this for a year or so. That's when I first read a thread about it on SCS. The folks talking about it there loved doing it. (Well most did.) But they made it sound very time consuming and very expensive. They were talking about removing the rubber not only from the block but also the foam padding and remounting it on E-Z Mount which at over $5 a 8-1/2 x 11 sheet was more than I wanted to spend. Also there was much talk about storing the newly unmounted sets in binders verses plastic CD jewel cases. I was over whelm with the prospect and kept putting making a decision about it off even as free space dwindled more.

Then Christine showed how quick and easy it was to do this and also that there was no need to purchase new foam. I saw the light and I have begun. Thank you Christine! Here is a photo showing the stacks of stamp sets that when unmounted will fit into the wire CD basket sitting next to them. Unbelievable!!!! What once took up a 10inch deep x 12 inch wide and 24 inch tall stack now fits into a 11inch deep x 5-1/2 inch wide and 6 inch tall space. I LOVE IT!!!!!!

I use my microwave to soften the glue enough so I can gently peel the stamp off the block with the foam still intact. I experimented and found that it does take 20 seconds. For the small stamps it takes about 15 seconds. The picture labels also peel off nicely, though as Christine said they come off cloudy. Doesn't bother me though. The labels I place on the outside top of the CD holder. I had started putting them on the inside of the top cover till I realize that meant when I looked at the CD holder the image was reversed which made it very difficult to read the sentiments. They stick nicely. Here you can see what a set looks like in its new home. This was a set that I hadn't actually mounted yet so the label is not cloudy.

With sets that haven't been previously mounted this is very easy, but you do have to tape the stick foam on a fabric service more than the others to cover up some of the stick. I found this tedious to do, but certainly not hard. Some of the stamps I unmounted did not have much adhesive left on them at all, but I think enough that they will hold on the acrylic block to stamp with them. If not I will try adding some Scotch Double stick tape.

I did find that I needed to tape the label down on the spine of the container. I used clear packing tape cut in a strip wide enough it would wrap around the edges. Here is a picture of the CD box with the individual cases in it. That was this morning. Now I have only 3 or 4 more jewel cases to fill. Then I need to head back to The Container Store and get a few more of the metal boxes. I like these because they have handles, they stack and they are relatively inexpensive. I think they are $6.99 each. I also got the jewel cases at the Container Store. They were $6.99 for 10. But thanks to Christine I have found a much less expensive source on line. It's called Effectuality Inc. Even with shipping they are much less expensive so I think I Will be placing an order with them.

I do have one problem now though.....what do I do with all these empty blocks????? They are stacking up. Yikes! Clutter!!!! I might try and sell them on E-Bay in a large batch. Who knows? First I need to get up the courage to post items on E-Bay. And I do need to do this since in doing this I can no longer ignore the number of sets I have.....I've done over 25 sets and I haven't even scratched the surface. Some must go! The question is which ones??????????? Well, it's too late now to think of that. Such a vexing question will have to wait till tomorrow.....or the next day....