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!

Think Tank Tuesday

You get what you pay for. Man, this is sooooo true when it comes to moving boxes! They are all not created equal.

Granted, I stuffed the moving boes for my studio like there's no tomorrow, but come on! They are moving boxes and are supposed to hold heavy things.

When I started packing my studio in South Carolina, I ran to Lowe's to get boxes. Closest and cheapest place to get them. It was less than five minutes from my house. Bonus! Home Depot was about 15 minutes away, but I quickly learned that the extra 10 minutes was seriously needed.

Both Lowe's and Home Depot boxes cost the exact same amount for the exact same size box. Lowe's does offer you a 5% discount if you pay with your Lowe's credit card so they could cost less than Home Depot which was the case for us. They also have the same numbers for crush tests. Let's face it, paper is heavy. And by heavy I mean wicked freaking heavy!

I hate to say this, but every single box from Lowe's was pretty damaged and/or crushed during our move. Many of the boxes were crushed just from being stacked in our house!

All of my paper and cardstock was packed in Lowe's boxes unfortunately. They all made it safe and sound though. Nothing was damaged or bent which was surprising. All of my albums were packed in Home Depot boxes and I was super excited about that since they weighed about a million pounds each and there were five boxes of them. They were in perfect condition. Very few Home Depot boxes were damaged/crushed/bent/torn. Most of that damage was from some piece of furniture hit them.

When we moved to South Carolina, we didn't buy any boxes. We got almost all of them for free from AC Moore. One of my friends was a manager there so she hoarded good boxes for me.

Those boxes that were made for shipping items from China were pretty thick and held up extremely well. Most of them were actually outer boxes. Sounds strange I know. I thought it was crazy how many boxes are in boxes for international shipping.

Oh I would skip banana boxes and grocery store boxes. Nothing like spoiled food to ruin your things! And then there's the hitchhikers.....spiders....bugs....yuck! No thanks!

Until next time *

Forget the packing peanuts. Go with construction paper from the hardware store. It comes in long rolls. It's great for filling up boxes and it crushes easily. Best of all, it's cheap! You can also use it to cover your floors to protect them and as firestarters in your next bonfire and celebrate the move!

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.

Think Tank Tuesday

Today's Think Tank Tuesday is all about journaling. I'm personally not a huge fan of journaling, but  I am finding that it is a necessity. I won't live forever and I won't remember every place I have visited in my lifetime. There are already many that I have forgotten and without my photos would have no idea I was ever there! It's a good thing I take photos of signs when traveling as well. I'd really be up a creek without many of them.

So why journal? You can jot down dates and places and faces. We have hundreds of photos in our mountain of genealogy and we have no idea who most of those people are. We're guessing their family, but we have no idea if they're Great Aunt Tildy or Great Great Great Uncle Fred. Why? Because no one took the two seconds to write down who they were! Everyone probably just assumed that everyone would remember. Heck, there are people in my wedding photos who I have no idea who they are and that was only 16 years ago. I will need name tags for everyone in another 20 years! Probably one for myself as well.

People come and go from our lives. With journaling, you can write down so much more than a time, place, and face. You can write the story. Isn't the story why we scrapbook? If we weren't interested in the story, we could simply have photo albums stuffed to the gills on our bookshelves. Scrapbooks don't just hold photos; they tell our story. How we lived our life. Whether we were world travelers, annual Disney vacationers, gardeners, military families who move every few months, come from large or small families, have a house full of pets, built our own house and our homes, made your own clothes or quilts, went to prom and attended graduation (yay for making it!), were born, and most importantly that we LIVED.

Here's my CHALLENGE to you: Journal. Yes, really it's that simple. But do NOT use your computer and a pretty font to type it all up. Write it out with a pen or marker in YOUR hand writing! Hand writing is going way of the typewriter.

So many kids today don't learn cursive and it's an art that has been dying since I was a child. My great-grandmother taught handwriting way, way back when. My grandfather had the most beautiful handwriting. When I was a little girl, I would sit on his lap and ask him to write for me. His name was Earl Ezra and his E's were simply gorgeous. They had about a hundred loops and looked like calligraphy. I always wanted to learn how to write like him. I loved sitting in his lap and watching him wind up to write those loops.

Sounds like a silly memory, but it still fascinates me 30-something years later and I remember it like it was yesterday. He's gone now, but I have that amazing memory and I think of him every time I see handwriting. Little did I know that as a little girl that would have such an impact on me.

This is why handwriting your journaling my CHALLENGE to you. I CHALLENGE you to create a memory for someone in your life. It could be with one of your children or a sibling. Talk about your writing. My mother has nice handwriting. It's not as fancy as my grandfather's, but her handwriting looks like a script font as well. Somewhere along the way our society lost that. That saddens me because it's another lost art form. People took great pride in their handwriting abilities and nowadays we just type everything on a computer and print it out in one the tens of thousands of fonts we have accessible to us at a moment's notice.

You and I won't be here forever. But our memory can live on in something as simple as our handwriting. While we may not particularly care for our handwriting, it is ours and ours alone. It's unique to each of us!

Until next time *

Write. With a pen. Not with mechanical means.

Think Tank Tuesday

Something new I'm starting! Every other Tuesday will be reserved for my Think Tank Tuesday posts. I may post other projects as well, but I will focus on Think Tank Tuesday for the mort part.

What is Think Tank Tuesday? It's all about paper crafting tips! Now that doesn't mean it will actually involve paper. Have something you're interested in? Message me! And I'll be sure to cover that topic.

This week's Think Tank Tuesday is all about photography. Photos truly are the backbone of scrapbooking. Where would we be without our photos? With the digital age, we have hundreds if not thousands of images at our disposal.

What about photography? Take a photography class! There's so much more to photography than point and shoot. You can take your very own photos that look like a pro took them!

I recently took a photography class from Sarah Kristiansen the owner of Sweet Jane Photography who is based out of Providence, Rhode Island. Confession time! I know Sarah from Crop on the Cape. I met her last year while taking one of her classes at the Crop. I was soooo impressed that I started following her business on Facebook and was overjoyed to see her offer workshops.

Shhh. This is Sarah looking glowy as  I
like to say. We were learning about
back lighting and being glowy.

She's actually working on more workshops! I'm so excited about this. I learned so much in just one day. I can't wait to see what else she can teach me and I can learn.

I finally understand aperture! I have taken classes before, but never quite got a full grasp on it. Now, I feel like I get it. I also understand shutterspeed and ISO. Granted, much of this has to do with DSLR cameras, but so many people have them now and don't know how use them to the best of their ability. Sarah really is all about getting you off of the auto built-in functions and into controlling your camera. You're the boss applesauce!

I shied away from having multiple lens once I got my Canon T3I, but after Sarah's class I see what one can do with a different lens. For example, I only have a zoom lens which is great for the landscapes I frequently shoot in my travels. However, it doesn't work well in low lighting unless on a tripod and I can leave the shutter open for days or what feels like days. My photos were all blurry and now I know why and most importantly, I understand why they are blurry! So lens shopping here I come! I also need to get a flash and yes, my camera came with a built-in flash, but it's pretty useless for a lot of shots. I learned a bit about using flash in my class as well.

Ribbons blowing in the wind. Notice
the fan looks like it's barely moving?

So while I may have driven over six - yes, really - hours to take Sarah's workshop, it was so worth it! If you are in the New England area or are looking for a fantastic photography class, I highly recommend Sarah's workshops. She is also teaching a couple of short classes at Crop on the Cape and you can now sign up for the classes without attending the Crop.

It's really amazing what you can shoot once you have the knowledge. Photography isn't all about the equipment. You need to be armed with knowledge as well.

One great place to check for photo checklists and ideas for photos is Pinterest. Yes, Pinterest. I find many monthly photo checklists and challenges. Arm yourself with your camera and get out there!

Until next time *

A photo a day will keep the doctor away....okay maybe not, but you'll get to see the world around you!

Coming Along...

Oh the joys of moving! Unpacking and discovering how you labeled boxes isn't quite right or what you swore you'd remember. Why do I say I'll remember? Sure. No problem. There's only about 200 boxes! And over 70 of those are for my studio. So ummm yeah sure no problem I'll remember.

Oh and FYI...labeling boxes with the word Studio means absolutely nothing! Turns out that box was filled with office mumbo jumbo. My office is in my studio, but I'm thinking paper crafting when something says studio.

No matter because I have zero plans on ever moving from this house. I looooooooove this house. Yes, we do have some plans for remodeling and an addition. The remodeling is because the house was built in 1942 and that's when the bath and kitchen we last visited except for some dreadful 1990 country floral wallpapers. Hideous. That's the only word to describe them! Blind people would run screaming from them. The addition is a first floor master suite for when we're old and can't use the stairs so well. Yup, planning ahead!

So the unpacking is going. Taking much longer than I was hoping. Doesn't everything when it comes to moving? I have several new pieces of furniture so that's throwing me off a bit. I also picked up a second Ikea Expedit last weekend. That was desperately needed for my paper and cardstock mountain.

I have moved some things several times. Still not sure I like where my ink pads are. Pretty sure I don't actually. I think they're too far away from me.

The alcove maybe not happening permanently in my studio. So we stopped putting in the hardwood flooring in it. We may add the alcove to the bathroom behind my studio because it's sooooo narrow. It's claustrophobic in there! So the flooring in on hold for now until we make up our minds. We are also moving all of our clothes out of the walk-in closet in the studio and I'm getting to use it as extra storage! Yay! That's where I'll be storing all of my items for sale and big, messy things like my pieces waiting to be altered.

I've been taking some photos along the way, but the room is soooo messy that I can't bare showing them until I am done and ready to be creative. I don't want people to think I'm a slob and have that on the internet forever. Besides you want to see the before, during, and after all at once.

Until next time *

Take a photo every day....you never know what you may be missing out on every day!