Album, Cardstock & Paper Organization

Today, I'm going to share with you my organization for my albums, cardstock, and papers. This system is all being changed up now that I have made a 100% commitment to pocket scrapbooking, but I will share with you the changes when they are finished.

I love paper. I make no bones about it. If you don't absolutely love pretty paper, I am not sure we can be friends. I mean, how can you not love paper? I mean seriously!

I have tens of thousands of sheets of paper. No joke. I used to buy multiple sheets of my favorites, the ones I couldn't live without, the ones I knew I would use over and over and over and over etc. I have paper for almost every theme imaginable. I even had cowboy paper....I'm not a cowboy. Don't know any....don't ride horses either. One of our dogs used to wear bandanas so I think I started adding to the theme because of Oscar. I'll use the paper with some of my farm visits. No shortage of them around here! That's one of the reasons I absolutely looooooooooove living in the Finger Lakes.

All of my 12x12 papers are in 13x15 zipper bags. Each bags contains one collection. And by collection I mean Apple Cider from BoBunny, Silhouette from Close to My Heart, Alpine Frost from SEI, Cupcake from Basic Grey....does that give you an idea what I mean? I sort by theme not brand because...well...you'll see in a minute. A picture is worth a thousand words or 12 thousand in this case. :)

Each cubby on my Expedit contains a theme or several themes. The Expedit isn't labeled with the categories.  I kept that list on my MacBook. I made numbered labels for my Expedits....yup that is plural. I have 2 of the 25 cube Expedits. You'll see the second one soon! I should do a blog post about the labels I made, too.

So that's my messy paper collection. Ugh. Remember, I don't like messy. I'm probably the most anal scrapbooker alive. I have to clean as I scrapbook. I can't stand having the table covered with stuff. I just get so stressed. It's so weird. Anyway, this paper arrangement is in for a major overhaul!

My second Expedit holds my mountain of cardstock and my completely and empty albums. A few themes of my paper collection are stored here.....they don't fit in the other one. The top rows have empty and full albums. The bottom contains fabric bins from Ikea that hold my cardstock. The cardstock is all sorted by color. I have plastic inserts in each bin that divide the colors. I sort the cardstock by ROY G BIV and Browns and Blacks. Browns include the creams and ivories. Backs include the greys and whites. The cardstock sheets are all standing up in these bins. This Expedit, too, is going to be remodeled in the near future.

I know Ikea does not make the Expedit anymore. Big, huge sad face. I love them! I know I'm not the only crafter who loves them. Ikea replaced the Expedit with the Kallax. I believe the Kallax only comes in 20 cubes though. I could be totally wrong! I haven't seen them in person yet. I will next month when I go to Charlotte! I'm off to Raleigh for a huge crop. My understanding is that inside of the cubes are the same dimensions so they will still hold scrapbook albums!

Stop back tomorrow for a post on the numbered labels I created for my Expedits. I'm going to dig out the photos right now! :)

Changes to Sticker Organization

It's no secret that I have struggled with storage and organizing all of my scrapbooking and paper crafting supplies for years. I have a TON. No seriously. Many people say I have a store in my studio. They're really no exaggerating. I've actually been to stores that have less of everything that I do.

One thing that has really helped curb my hoarding and buying was changing my scrapbooking style. I am now an exclusive pocket scrapbooker. Yup, I have officially given up traditional scrapbooking. Hey no moaning or groaning! I didn't make this decision lightly. I've been working on this for about a year. In 2014, I started pocket scrapbooking when I attended Crop on the Cape. I wanted to get my nephew's first year done and I did. Oh he's going to be 8 in April!!! So I kind of figured it was time to get the kid in an album....pretty soon he'll be off to college and have grandchildren at the rate I was going. I also have 2 other nephews now! On my harddrives, I have about 100,000 digital photos. Yeah, you read that right.....100 THOUSAND. I'd like to get them scrapbooked before I'm 753 years old.

With the switch to pocket scrapbooking, I'm scrapbooking way more often and actually accomplishing something! I get hundreds of photos scrapbooked at weekend crops. I have 4 weekend crops scheduled between this weekend and mid-March. I will be getting so much scrapbooked! I'm so excited about this. I'm finally able to look at photos that are old and have never been printed.

Since I'm scrapbooking so much more, I'm using up a ton of supplies! I actually have had to refill my cardstock organizers!! Seriously. I make a lot of my own cards using stamps, stickers, embellishments, washi, memorabilia, and photos. I have hundreds of sheets of cardstock cut down from 12x12 to 4x6. They are sorted by color family and stored in medium Close To My Heart organizers. This makes traveling with them so much easier. And a tiny side perk....the organizers fit perfectly in the RASKOG cart from Ikea. Here's one of my RASKOG carts on the way home from Crop on the Cape 2014. Don't you love how it's seat belted in?

My flat sheets of stickers are all in organizers from Michael's. I'll have to grab a photo of those some time! The project of sorting the flat sticker sheets from the chipboard, thick stickers, 3D stickers, etc was quite a project. I sort everything by category. My papers, stickers, and stamps are all sorted by the same categories. This way I know what goes together.

I spend far too much time at Lowe's....one of the perks of buying an old house that needs fixing up. :D Well, this Christmas they had tons of Christmas decor I needed wanted. Our living room is all decked out in the Adirondacks so of course I needed those mitten and sweater ball ornaments amongst other goodies. On one of my 453 trips to a Lowe's during the month of December, I noticed they had white and red storage bins that were stackable....that got me thinking.....yeah totally dangerous!

I had been wanting to organize my thick stickers.....They were previously stored in racks and wire bins from Ikea. They serve the purpose, but digging through so many items was a challenge. And the bins were so large that every bin except the Christmas one had multipole categories. The categories didn't stay sorted. Things got so jumbled up that it would take a good hour to go through the entire bin to get out all of the stickers in just one category. Not helpful at all when packing for a crop.

So with the brain in gear, I had made the executive decision to change how I was storing the thick stickers. Unfortunately, the change was going to have to wait for Christmas to be over. I had no time to make the change. I was totally swamped with 100 million things...aren't we all around the holidays? :(

So off to Lowe's I went around New Year's Day. This adventure took a few days. I had to go to 3 Lowe's stores! These bins were only for Christmas....sigh. And I'm not fortunate enough to live near a Container Store. I have plans to finally visit one when I go to Raleigh for one of my crops! I'm making a pit stop in Charlotte for Ikea, Container Store, Crate & Barrel, and who knows what other goodies I'll find along the way. I know Container Store has a website, but I want to be able to touch what I'm buying and make sure the measurements work for my needs.....picky picky I know.

The bins from Lowe's come in white or red. They also come in 2 different sizes. I went with white because my studio colors are white, black, and blue. My walls are a golden yellow. I like it kind of bright and sunny. I've actually gotten away from most of the black which is odd because I looooove black.

Filling up bins!! Each bin has a post it note in it with the categories listed. I need to make some labels. I haven't decided what I'm going to do about that just yet.

Here the bins are all put away....no more mess! I get stressed by messes piling up around me. I can't stand it! The wooden rack the bins are stacked on is a wooden baker's rack we purchased shortly after we were married in 1996....yeah it's old and has been repurposed probably 100 times. It's a great piece and so useful for so many things.

Let's recap.....I went from this heart stopping mess.....

to this well organized, tucked out of sight set up. I love how it's not all messy looking with things poking out. This also seems so much smaller and brighter. Watch for more organizing tips from me in the future!

Raskog Adventure Part 2

I've been asked about how I transport my Raskog carts. I drive a small SUV. It is bigger than a shoebox and does the job. I have a little thing for hauling stuff around. I'm always on the go.

Well, my Raskogs do travel well! This the carts all packed up leaving Crop on the Cape. This is the cart on the right side of my SUV. Yes, they are standing up on my backseat. Yup, they are seat-belted in! They didn't move an inch and they had a seven hour ride home.

The plastic bins you see are the Medium Organizers from Close To My Heart. They fit perfectly and they hold a ton of cards for pocket scrapbooking!

And the cart on the left side. The sun was shining right in my face as I was loading up. Sure beats the snow that started off the weekend! This cart doesn't have the organizers from CTMH. It has the Antonius bins from Ikea. They be ordered online as well.

I'm Back!!!!

 I've been working on doing some reorganizing in my studio. Some things just aren't working for me. I also received a Silhouette Cameo for Christmas and that baby needs a home! A few pieces of my furniture went back to their real purpose in life. My armoire went back to my bedroom. It needs a paint job to blend into the nautical bedroom we have. The hutch went to the dining room now that we have the space for it. So that left me with many things needing a new home. Thanks to Home Depot for having some really nice white cheapo bookcases that worked perfectly for this project!

I've been going through many supplies and really considering if I need or want it. Amazing how much I have accumulated over the last 12 years of paper crafting! I have been selling a few things here and there, but I really need to move a lot of stuff. I'm seriously considering having a scrapbook yard sale in the spring. Yup, a tent popped up in my driveway with a bunch of tables kind of scrapbook yard sale. Stay tuned if you happen to be hanging out in the Finger Lakes when the time comes!

All of this cleaning and organizing has made me really want to get photos of my computers and printed so they can go into albums. Here's the problem with traditional and digital scrapbooking. Traditional takes soooooo long and I never feel like I get anywhere. I guess having around 100,000 digital photos will do that. It's been suggested that I stop taking photos by several people. I think they're crazy! I'm too busy traveling to stop taking photos! 

I really do enjoy digital scrapbooking, but I'm still learning and trying to get Photoshop all figured out is time consuming. I just want to get things DONE! And I'm starting to have a hard time remembering where many of my photos were taken. Time to get a move on so I decided to start exploring other options. One included actually printing photos and just putting them in photo albums. I didn't really like that option. And then....

I stumbled onto Project Life. I am not interested in the daily, weekly, or monthly thing. I honestly don't care what I had for dinner on October 3, 2010 nor do I care what the weather was or what clothes I was wearing. It seems like lots of people do care about those things so good for them I say! That aspect just isn't for me. I've already got a zillion photos that need a home.

This brings me to my current project of the week. I started really organizing all of my digital photos. I have them in like 20 million folders on two computers and an external hard drive. Some dated. Most not. It's an incredibly time consuming, but I am making major headway. I've been taking digital photos for 11 years now. Who knew? I sure didn't. While sorting and labeling the photos, I have been uploading all the same folders to Shutterfly for printing! Yay for printing! 

They had a lovely sale a week or so ago where photos were 40% off and the shipping was free because I spent a few dollars. Ok so I printed 1,379 photos. That's barely a dent in what I have. The photos I printed were purposely chosen to bring with me to Crop on the Cape. Why so many? Well, I'm not bringing all of them. I have a weekend crop the following weekend as well. 

So what will I be doing with my mountain of photos? Pocket scrapbooking! Yup, you read that right. What's pocket scrapbooking? It's like Project Life and traditional scrapbooking got together and had a party. You simply take the pocket page protectors and place your photos, filler cards, journaling cards, memorabilia, etc. in the individual pockets. Each page protector has several individual pockets in them. They come in a variety of configurations with different sized pockets for your items to be places vertical or horizontal. 

More about pocket scrapbooking tomorrow!

Paper Pad Mess

Since I've gotten into card making, I've stocked up on 6" x 6" paper pads. Their smaller scale works so much better for many cards. You get the full pattern on a much small piece of paper. 

What do I do with this mountain?? Seriously. It's ugly and looks terrible on my shelves. And then there's that whole problem with things falling over. Yeah, thanks, but no thanks. 

So here's my solution. I purchased the black plastic basket from Target. They are found in the kitchen plastics section by the dish drainers. My Target has them in black or white. The 6" x 6" paper pads fit in them perfectly!

To help with saving a smidge of space and not having to worry about the seals that hold the paper pads closed getting everything all sticky, I tore both covers off. My original plan was to just cut off the company name and collection name off the cover and put that with the paper pad. That's what I do with my 12" x 12" collections. I didn't like how that looked with the small pads since they stand up and the large collections lay down. Shuffling through them to find what I wanted was also not as easy since the cardboard piece would fall to the bottom of the bag.

So onto Plan B! I threw away the cardboard pieces. They irked me. They also weren't very neat and once there's cut up papers in the bags, it would be even harder to find the tag. I have about 834 million labels around here. I went with the Avery 8478 labels. They're made for 1/3 tab file folders. There is a template you could use if that's your thing. I just used an Ultra Fine Point Sharpie and wrote on the labels. All I put on the label was the company name and the collection name. This solved my issues.

How do I organize my paper pads? Same way I do my collections. They are all sorted by theme. Christmas, winter, autumn, Halloween, Americana which covers the 4th of July and anything patriotic, spring, summer, beach/nautical, boy, girl, baby, love (includes Valentine's Day), wedding, Easter, outdoors, pets, school, etc. 

The bags. They are an odd size. I originally purchased them for my Close To My Heart stamp reorganization project. More on that in another post in the future when that project is complete. 

The bags are 7" x 7" zipper bags and I purchased them from eBay. They fit both the Close To My Heart stamp sets and the 6" x 6" paper pads perfectly! I'll have to find 9" x 9" zipper bags when I get some 8" x 8" pads. 

Oh one great thing about ordering the bags from eBay. You can find people selling them in 100 count or 1,000 count. I went with the box of 1,000 since I knew I have a huge project in the works. 

Hope this works for somebody out there! 

O Ribbon How Do I Store Thee?

I may have a small thing for ribbon. A teeny, tiny thing. Ok. Ok. Ok. So it's more than a thing. I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE RIBBBBBON! So there you have it.

back rack - photo bombed by Forrest 

I prefer to buy ribbon by the spool. That doesn't mean I don't have shorter pieces because I have about 500 million of them and they're sorted in different jars that you'll see in the future one day when I finish that project. Famous last words, right? ;)

I don't have any wall space left. Well, I do, but it's behind the door and I'm leaving that blank for now. So what do I do with my ribbons? Hang them on the door! Now, I live in a house that's 70 years old and has real wooden doors. I didn't want to damage them because I love them and I can't replace them. Some day, I will strip the layers of paint off of them and stain them. Anyone up for that?

Because I didn't want to damage my doors a trip to Lowe's was in order. Imagine that. Why Lowe's? It's 10 minutes away and Home Depot is 40 minutes away. That's the only difference 90 percent of the time.

I did a little searching online and was looking for an over the door pantry shelf unit thingie. Yup. Another technical term. I needed something that I could just set the spools in without them falling out. And, yes, I did find just what I was looking for at Lowe's. This is what I purchased and it's from ClosetMaid. Home Depot also has a version. What you find in store may be different than what you find online.

front rack

My rack is 18 inches across. There are shorter ones available. Not sure about longer ones. This rack comes with hardware that allows for wall mounting if you prefer that method. So this pieces works for different mounting types and you could use it for punches and other items as well.

I actually had to purchase two of them. One hangs on each side of the door. I can't close my door tightly because of the racks, but I don't need to. All doors may not have this issue. I couldn't close the door when I had one rack no matter which side of the door it was on. Remember, I have old doors and old door jambs.

all of my Papertrey Ink ribbons in rainbow order 

This rack is completely adjustable. There are three sections to it. If you only need one or two sections, then you can use just them. The baskets are completely movable as well. You don't need to use all of them or you can buy another rack and borrow the baskets. I don't have the same number of baskets on both of my racks. They did come with the same number. I just rearranged them to suit my needs.

Until next time *

Organize! It's sooooo much easier when you can find what you're looking for and everything has a home.

Inventory & Organization

I know inventory and organization aren't always the most fun thing to do, but let's be honest. They are very necessary. Ever buy two of the same stamp? More than once? Somehow end up with the same color ink pad a time or two? Love when I'm shopping online and do these things! Ok so not really. Unfortunately, it has happened more than once.

all of the Liquid Pearls available

I spent an afternoon working on inventorying (is that a real word?) on a few of my inks and other liquid colorant goodies. I got to thinking. Instead of making a list that I probably would never update until the cows come home I should make a color chart. This I would actually use frequently. It would be a great resource to look up not only what I have, but what my color options are. There are many times where I'm looking for just the right color to coordinate with a cardstock or patterned paper and I hunt and hunt and hunt.

all the Dimensional Pearls I have

I have completed a couple of my collections thus far. I created an inventory sheet I can add to and print in the future. I have shared the sheets I have created and completed so far. They are on the upper right hand side under the heading Pages and Inventory PDF's. Yuppers, I converted them to PDF's so everyone can open and use them. Make sure you save them to your computer just in case the interweb eats them or they go rogue or aliens invade and steal them. Any of the above are entirely possible.... If you knew half the computer issues I have had in the past, you'd shake your head and walk away hoping it wasn't contagious.

working on the Alcohol Inks

Now some colorants are easier to make a color sample of than others. For things like Liquid Pearls and Dimensional Pearls, I just squeezed out a squiggly line and a dot. Things like Alcohol Ink aren't so easy. They're a tad on the messy side. My first attempt of the Alcohol Inks was messy and not cooperative so I had to come up with Plan B. Plan A was to squeeze out a drop of ink into the correct box. Ink doesn't always cooperate especially when the drops are the size of Texas and hey guess what! Paper absorbs thus ink spreads faaaaaaaar beyond the intended box.

styrofoam plate with several Alcohol Inks

For my Alcohol Inks (these are not the same as the Distressed Reinkers from Tim Holtz - those will be up soon), I used several styrofoam plates, a paintbrush, cardboard, and a pile of paper towels. What's the cardboard (not chipboard!) for? I placed it under my color chart sheet so if ink leaked through it wouldn't be all over my work station. Why styrofoam plates? Alcohol Ink drinks quickly and is easily absorbed. The styrofoam plate gives you an ink palette and doesn't absorb ridiculously quick. Also use a paintbrush you don't care about. Definitely don't use your favorite one! It will forever be stained. If not cleaned well, the bristles may become too stiff to use in the future.

What did I print the color charts on? Do not use regular printer paper! You'll end up with a big ole mess on your hands. Just about all colorants will leak through plain paper. I used cardstock. You can get a ream from Georgia Pacific anywhere from Wal-Mart to Amazon or from your stash. It doesn't need to be the good stuff from Bazzill or Papertrey Ink. I'd save the good stuff for better projects personally. I also wouldn't use the super flimsy cheap cardstock you can get at chain craft stores. Thickness is important.

completed Alcohol Inks color chart

I left my sheets out overnight to dry completely. They will be going into a binder in page protectors once I complete all of them. Why not hole punch them? I want to keep them protected since many of them will have raised bumps. With page protectors, the colors won't rub off onto other sheets either.

One other tip. I have a laser printer. I used that instead of my inkjet printer. This way the colorants won't run. If you don't have a laser printer, see if any of your friends do or you can print these at Stapes or Office Max for a small fee. You have my complete permission to print as many of these sheets as you want! Please don't cut off the copyright though! Please give me credit as I spent a long time working on these and stealing isn't cool.

Until next time *

Get inky! No seriously. Get inky! Get started on your Liquid Pearls and Alcohol Inks color charts.

Think Tank Tuesday

I apologize for this week's Think Tank Tuesday for being late. I'm having some health issues with a family member and it's not good so I've been spending a great deal of time with them and dealing with the news.

This week is all about labeling and organizing. I know organizing can be super time consuming, but it really does help out in the long run. Labeling can be as simple as a piece of tape! Trust me. I used painters tape on all of my bins, shelves, and boxes while unpacking my studio. There's still some painters tape lingering around waiting for labels to be made. Don't use a pen or regular marker with any tape though. Use a Sharpie or a marker that will dry on tape. Do a test run to check it out. There's nothing more annoying than smeared labels and being covered in ink. Not to mention the fact that you have no idea what's what anymore.

Ikea Expedit

I have two Expedit's from Ikea and they hold all of my paper, cardstock, and albums. I had no idea how I was going to label them. I couldn't make labels that were six inches long because they're be ripped up every time I took something off the shelf. Time to come up with a plan....

What look did I want? I love all things distressed and old and worn. Thankfully this look works well in my day to day life. A house full of furkids will make you go along with dents and dings.

Supplies laid out

While I do love many of the pieces Tim Holtz has released, I realized it was too impractical to use metal bin labels. I love the number plates he has, however, I needed 50 of them! I shopped around and wasn't happy with what I found especially considering how few pieces you get in a package no matter who makes them.

Granted, 50 is a lot, but what was I thinking? Hello! I have hundreds of stamps at my disposal. Hundreds of dies, punches, and Cricut cartridges. Why not make my own distressed number plates? So guess what I spent an afternoon doing? You guessed it! Best part of this is that it cost me NOTHING! I used things I already had in my studio.

One issue I ran into was finding a punch or a die small enough. That would have been easier on my Cricut, but I really wanted to use a punch or die. Sometimes they give more of a rougher edge and aren't cut so clean. I did want this distressed after all. I did a few test runs with different punches and dies before making a commitment to this punch. It had the label holder look I was going for.

EK Success punch with my labels

The punch I used is from EK Success. I believe I purchased it from Hobby Lobby awhile back. Bring a couple with you! Or if you have a smartphone, find one of the 40% off coupons online and show the cashier. No reason to pay full price for a punch!

The stamp set is from Studio G and the inks are from Close To My Heart.

Complete labels

I began by punching out 50 labels. Then I distressed the edges with Chocolate Distressing Ink from Close To My Heart. I made two piles of 25 each. I didn't want to mess up the numbers and have to make more labels. Punching anything 50 times isn't a party, but it was all worth it. Each pile was turned into three piles. I needed a pile for the 100's, 110's, and 120's for the first Expedit and a pile for the 200's, 210's, and 220's for my second Expedit. Instead of changing the stamp every single time I stamped, I stamped all of my 1's, then my 2's, 3's, etc. I didn't use the numbers in a line. I wanted them to be off kilter from each other. It was supposed to look hand made and old. And by doing each number individually if one was a little crooked or off center, it wasn't a big deal. None were perfect. So much less stress this way!

Labeled Expedits

How did I attached the labels? I wanted something that was removable. Who knows when I'll reorganize and move things around. I change things quite often. So I needed something that I could easily remove without damaging the Expedits. Glue Dots to the rescue!

Inventory notebook

How do I know what's in bin 110? Easy. I have a notebook I wrote down all of the contents of my Expedits in. Eventually, I will turn that into a spreadsheet. I'm waiting until I am satisfied with the layout of my paper packs. I'm pretty close to being there!

So there you have it. Labeling can be easy and cost you practically nothing. I had all of the supplies on hand. Aside from a few drops of ink and half a sheet of 8 1/2" x 11" cardstock, this project cost me nothing. Not bad for 50 labels especially since the ones I was going to order online would have cost me about $60!! YIKES! Do you know much paper I could buy with that? Seriously!

Until next time *

It's spring. Get organized! It will save you time later.

Let's Begin...

Are you ready to begin the tour of my new studio? I am so let's get this party started! We're going to start with the walk-in closet. Yeah, odd I know, but it's not super glamourous so I figured we can get it over with.

My studio was an addition done by the previous owner to give themselves a nice size master bedroom. It's not a master suite and it's on the second floor so we decided to use a smaller first floor bedroom for ourselves until we can build an addition to include a first floor master suite for when we're older or are unable to go up and down stairs 100 times a day. And that is how I ended up with the largest room in the house for my studio. Thank you hubs!

Because this was the master bedroom, there were two closets. The small one we're going to add to the bathroom behind my studio to increase the size of it. It's a bit claustrophobic to me. I like being able to change my mind in the room I'm in. Yup, it's small for a full bath and it will be the only full bath for awhile in the near future. The second closet was a decent size walk-in closet. We used it for our clothes for awhile, but it was a pain with our bedroom on the first floor. So we evicted ourselves and added the walk-in closet to my storage space. It's actually full!

If you're interested in purchasing the storage items or finding out more info about them, I am including a ton of links. You'll notice the business name like Home Depot or Ikea and there will be a link on the name. If you see a store with more than one link, they are different links. Just wanted to make sure everyone knew that you could see Home Depot or whoever listed 100 times and each one will be different. Hope this all makes sense!

sticker and embellishment
wire bins 

Things that aren't super pretty are in there. I'm all about looks and functionality. Function supersedes looks, but some things are just ugly and there's no hope for them. This is very true of my wire storage bins and racks for my stickers and embellishments. There are a couple places you can find these bins Home Depot and Lowe's, but Ikea has something very similar and less costly. The bins are smaller from Ikea however. I'm not sure if you can still purchase the tops or not from Ikea. Lowe's has wooden ones and Home Depot has white plastic ones. Home Depot actually has two different sized racks. This link is for the larger rack.

Mine are from Lowe's and aren't exactly new. I've had them for years.  You were able to buy them in store at that time. I do know that you can purchase the racks and bins online and they'll ship to you or your local store. There may or may not be a shipping fee.

fabric cubes

Remember, the walk-in closet is chock full o' stuff! All of my fabric for my quilting and paper art projects is stashed in here. With it sorted like this, it seems like there's a heck of a lot less than I thought there was. That might be a good thing.


Simple storage for my fabrics. Yup. These wire cubes are cheap and easy to assemble! No tools or wicked muscles needed. They come in white and black and are readily available in Target. I purchased mine in store and on sale. I have two sets being used together. I do have some pieces left over.

wire racks

One the left wall, I have two wire racks from Target. Mine are chrome and are 36 inches long with five shelves and 72 inches tall. These racks hold lots of things that aren't so pretty and fall down all the darn time! I hate having to pick up things that are slippery and can't stand still. My paper mache boxes and acrylic goodies are in the fabric bins on the shelves. The fabric bins are from Target and the colors change frequently.

Close To My Heart
stamp storage bins

My Close To My Heart My Acrylix stamps are also stored in the closet. As you can see, I have a few or maybe a lot. I haven't quite decided yet. :) Anyway, it's best to store them away from sunlight which can degrade them over time. This is true for all types of stamps - rubber, acrylic, polymer, etc. My hubs actually came up with this storage solution for me! I looked for months for something and couldn't find what I wanted. It was driving me crazy and hubs came to the rescue! This Sterlite bins are inexpensive and can be used for many other things if I change my mind later and want to store the stamps differently. This bins are from Home Depot, but you could probably find similar ones at other stores since Sterilite is everywhere! The bins are stacked on a furniture dolly! This way I don't have to carry them around and move them 300 times to get things out of the closet which is awesome! Our furniture dolly is from Home Depot. So now see another use for one!

damask curtain

We took the closet door so we'd have more room in the studio. The door took up quite a bit of valuable space. Well, it wasn't the door it's self. It was the swing space it needed/used. We saved that door for a later project since we will be adding on to this house in the future. I purchased a tension shower curtain rod to hold up my curtain. This is the same curtain I have all over the room. Love the damask! The chandeliers aren't too bad either. These curtains are from Target and come in two sizes.

Well, that's all for the walk-in closet. You probably noticed there were labels on bins and I didn't share that info today. That info will be coming soon and there will be files included so you can print them out and use them!

Until next time *

Storage can be fun! And cheap. No need to spend a fortune when something for 10 bucks will do!

Are We There YET, Papa Smurf?

Normally, Papa Smurf says no about 150 times before arriving to the Smurfs' destination. Folks, we have arrived at our destination! Do you hear the excitement in my voice? You should. And you should hear it loud and clear.

It is official! My studio is COMPLETE! That's right. No more remodeling. No more painting. No more sanding. No more freaking cleaning. No more unpacking. No more figuring out where to put things. No more trying to figure out if I really want to keep some things. It's all done! I'm soooooooo freaking excited. I've been waiting for this day for months. We moved in six months ago today.

While at Crop on the Cape two weeks ago, I felt totally lost. I couldn't figure out how to lay out my scrapping goodies and where to begin! I used to have this down pat and had a serious system. It was so strange to me to be so lost while scrapbooking. I've never experienced this.

Was I losing my love for paper? Yeah, right! Not exactly. Someone asked me if I had scrapbooked since I moved. Nope. Then she asked me when the last time I scrapbooked was. I had to think about it for a minute. Good grief! It was last June in North Carolina. That's nine months ago. I've never gone that long without playing with my paper collection. No wonder I was so lost.

Good news is that I found my way. I got quite a bit accomplished. Not nearly as much as I expected to given my track record. But I was quite pleased since the first night I didn't get much done and I was so lost. It was rather quite sad.

This sadness motivated me. I have been working on unpacking my studio for about two months now. I thought it would take two weeks. Boy, was I dreaming! I really do have a lot of stuff. No arguments here. My quilting and office are also in my studio so that took me some extra time. Previously, they were together in their own room. Here I get to have everything together!

Over 70 boxes later, they are all empty! Most are already at the landfill being recycled into something useful again. Tomorrow the rest will be recycled. I'm so happy to see them gone. Gone. Gone!

With the Great Unpack 2013 comes some challenges and new things. I have gone through every piece of paper crafting material I own. I roughly went through everything before I moved and had 2 boxes of things I planned on selling. Well, now that everything has been unpacked and sorted out, I can say wowee! There are a ton of pieces I will be parting with. I have dozens of brand new stamps and ink pads I'll be selling. I will be listing with photos and details everything on here first. Then it will move to my new Etsy store after a week or so. This is my project for next week. Wish me luck! Pretty sure I'm going to need it.

I will be starting posts on my new studio Wednesday! Exciting I know! There will be tons and tons and tons of photos and links on where to get the items I used for storage. Yeah, I'm cool that way. And nothing is expensive. Remember, every dollar spent on storage takes away from my precious paper budget!

Think Tank Tuesday will also be back next week. I completely forgot to set it up while I was away at Crop on the Cape. I'm a bad girl. I know. Sorry! Oh and Crop on the Cape 2014 will be March 13-16. Please visit the Colorful Creations website for details. Registration opens in November so the details may not be announced until then, but you can see the crop from 2013 and it will be very similar.

Until next time *

Look through an album you haven't looked at in years! You might be surprised to see how your style has changed and how different the faces are now.

Accomplishments Part 2

Remember yesterday's post? Here it is if you missed it. This post is a Part 2 because it was getting very long. Well, it seemed very long to me and maybe not others. Back to the packing for cropping chat!

Ok back to cropping! I had to get out my two cents about saving digital photos. So maybe it was more like 45 cents. Before you pack, think about what you want to accomplish at the crop. Are you social butterfly and like to chit chat more than crop? Then don't take everything you own with you. Plan a few small projects and pack for those.

If you are someone who spends half the crop shopping, think about that. Is the store close enough where you could spend some time the day or week before shopping? Are you shopping for the project you brought with you? Think about what you really need. Start a list and do all of your shopping at once. This will save you precious time. You won't spend 30 minutes wandering around the store hoping something jumps out and says, "Stick me on your page!" and then another 30 minutes two hours later and so on. I've done this and been incredibly frustrated by how much time I wasted.

Are you the serious cropper? That's me! I go in with a plan and what I MUST accomplish. If I fall short of that, then I get really annoyed with myself. Yup, I have scrappers OCD. Here's an example of my nerdy, OCD self:

I went shopping before a crop which was held at a large store, but I knew that they didn't have what I was looking from since I have been there numerous times. I went through the photos I had with me to scrap, the ones I had just gotten from my sister-in-law of my sweet nephews, and the ones I took on my trip. I knew I was not going to scrap all of the photos I had printed at CVS, but I don't have a scrapbook store anywhere near me. The closest store is about two and a half hours away and it's not a large store.

Unfortunately, I have to do the majority of my shopping online which does have some downfalls. You can't see or touch what your buying. Sometimes I'll order stickers online and when receive them, they are glittered which may be fine sometimes, but I am really not into pink glitter on boys layouts. That's just my thing. I do know a lot of scrappers will use pink, flowers, or glitter on masculine pages. I'm just picky and I know it.

This is the list of what I was looking for:

playground
sandbox
swings
hamsters - zhu zhu pets
legos - with the uncle
ice cream

This piece of paper is well traveled and pretty ratty looking at this point. I did get some papers and embellishments at that store I was shopping at and at the one I was cropping at. One night when I went back to my hotel, I went to my favorite online store - A Cherry On Top (don't worry the link opens in another page so you won't lose your place here - and did a little shopping. The order arrived a day or two after I got home. I had forgotten all about it. It was like Christmas!

I still am hoping for a few more items so I have to search my other favorite places. But here are a few things I found that I am totally in love with!

• Playground Kit from Echo Park - it's a 12x12 paper pack with 2 sheets of stickers and 12 sheets of double sided paper. Super cute and works for both boys and girls. 
• Lego Brick Stickers from Creative Imaginations - who does love Legos?
• At the Park Stickers from Reminisce - these are super cute a must have for photos from the park! 
• Dinosaur Brads from Eyelet Outlet - I have yet to meet a little boy who doesn't love dinosaurs. I will get a lot of use out of these critters.
• Playground Stickers from Sticko which is EK Success - totally perfect for playing in the backyard.
• A Boy's Life Kit from Echo Park - totally perfect for the big boy - not a baby or toddler paper - in your life. Your big boy will be sure to tell you that he's not a little boy. This is made for him!
• Ice Cream Brads from Eyelet Outlet - perfect after stopping for ice cream and snapping a few photos.

I didn't think to take a photo until I put everything away. Yup, I'm a slacker. Ok I promise to do better next time, but you can see the goodies on A Cherry On Top's website plus the other pieces that coordinate and what the prices are if you're interested in a little shopping.

Anyone know where I can find me some paper or nice stickers with a hamster or two? This Zhu Zhu Pet mania has struck my nephews and I must scrap their pets with them! 

Until next time *

Make a plan even if your not a planner. You'll feel like your accomplishing something!

How Much Have You Accomplished While Cropping?

You will notice I have changed my Crop Counts around. What's my Crop Counts? It's where I keep track of how many layouts and photos I scrap at crops. It's located on the left side on the bottom.

It's interesting to see how much I accomplish. I can definitely tell which crops I seriously prepared for. Lately, I haven't been cropping my photos before the crop and that is a HUGE mistake. It's a total time killer at a crop! I spent about an hour a day cropping photos. That's way too much time. This is something I do occasionally while watching tv at night. I need to do that more often.

I've also noticed that instead of matching up my cardstock to my papers before I leave my house I am getting a lot less accomplished. Yes, it takes me about two hours at home, but I pack for about 60-70 layouts this way. I also don't have to drag around the rolling tote full of cardstock and another one full of paper. I felt like He-Man the last to crops. I needed some serious muscle power to left those totes up.

Where am I going with this? I was kind of bummed over my counts until I realized the numbers were dropping like a rock because I was being a slacker. Then while cropping in North Carolina I decided I needed to stop thinking about how many layouts I made.

I have been using anywhere from three to eight photos on a two page spread so why was I so hung up on getting fewer layouts done? When I was scrapping Cape Hatteras, it was all two 4"x6" photos on each page. In my world, it was B-O-R-I-N-G! Now, that works for many people and that's great! We're all different and unique. I would love to figure out how I can crop my ocean and beach photos without them looking like a three year old got a hold of the scissors. If you have any tips, PLEASE share them!

 So I started thinking about how many photos I was actually scrapping. And my numbers have really gone up! I may not come home with as many layouts needing to be embellished, but I am working through that mountain of photos that need to be scrapped. That is more important to me.

Here's my challenge to you.....stop thinking about layouts! Instead focus on how many photos are now scrapped, preserved forever, and no longer living in your computer. Watch your photo pile shrink over a weekend. It's very liberating.

Go to a crop with a plan. Figure out ahead of time what you want to scrap and only bring those items with you. Count up your photos when you pack for your crop. Write it down and put it with your photos. Just before you pack up to go home, count up the photos you have left and the photos you scrapped. Remember, every photo doesn't need to be scrapped. It's ok to throw away a printed photo. I do all the time....blurry ones, kid's picking their noses (ummmm I don't need to treasure that moment in time), etc. I also don't need five photos of the exact same thing at the exact same angle so those get pitched as well. Don't panic! You still have the digital copy or the negatives if you're using film.

Whatever you do, do NOT EVER delete the digital image!!!! Save a backup somewhere just in case! I say this because I know someone whose house burned down and she didn't keep backups. She printed and scrapped everything. She was up to date and current with her albums. Man, I wish I knew her secret! But she lost everything when she lost her home. She felt she didn't need to have a backed file of her digital images since everything was scrapped. I am not sure which she felt worse about - losing her house or all of her photos. She beat herself up pretty bad about the photos.

So for this reason alone - if you can't find any other - please keep a copy of your photos on dvds, an external hard drive, a cd, on a cloud (a digital cloud like Me from Apple), etc and keep a copy in a safe deposit box or at a relatives house. That way you will always have your photos no matter what happens in life. Yes, it's more work, but it's work you can walk away from. You can let your photos copy while making dinner, doing dishes or laundry, walking the dog, tucking the kids in bed, taking a shower or a bath, watching American Idol or The Bachelor or whatever fancies you, getting the mail, washing your car (please come was mine when your'e done! :D), dusting (wait, do people really do that?), playing with the kids outside, etc. You don't need to babysit your computer while it does the copying.

Until next time *

Pack light! Your back will thank you!