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!