WOYWW #248-

We have a blast on WOYWW. Don’t have a clue as to what I’m talking about? Stop in at Julia Dunnit’s blog for all the DETAILS. In a nutshell, this gives us an open invitation every Wednesday to showcase what we’re working on and to peek in on work spaces all over the world. We would love to have you join us!

So here’s my desk for this week:

I've managed to keep the desk pretty clean this week. Aside from doing a project I'll show you tomorrow, the only other thing I've worked on is gathering the supplies for The Documented Life Project.

The original project uses a Moleskine Weekly Planner (softcover). Well I'm a daily kind of girl so instead of one, I'll be doing them by quarter - 1 composition book per quarter. I'm using the Monthly Dayplanner pages from the Dollar store for my calendar Tip-Out pages. I'll show you more on Monday. In the mean time, I'll be shopping for Washi Tape. I need more for this project than what I have - which since I cleaned the studio I can not find LOL

In the mean time, here's a bit more about The Documented Life Project. 

MIXED MEDIA MONDAY - The Documented Life

While looking at others blogs last week I came across an incredible piece of art. I can't show you a picture but if you click on Art to the 5th, you'll see what I mean. This is called The Documented Life Project.

This journal is the brainchild of Lorraine Bell. The book is actually 3 books in one.

A Dayplanner
An Art Journal
Diary

Lorraine and most of the other over 1200 members of this project use a softcover Moleskine Weekly Planner.   With the planner as a base, the concept is to have something to track your daily life, include art and make it YOUR OWN.

Well, you know me... I have to invent the wheel. Partly because I don't want to wait to start putting mine together - we are already into Week 10 of the challenges and additives. The other reason is I've discovered the one thing that works best for me as a dayplanner - well two things - a Monthly Planner from the Dollar Store and a Composition Book. I use the planner to keep track of Bob's schedule but my daily tasks are written on a page in the notebook. I'm thinking The Documented Life Project will let me combine these two items into one AND give me the opportunity to include some art in my day - something that has been lacking of late.

And if you're wondering how THIS planner is working out.....

It isn't. I've not even had it out of the bag since Week 2. I'm not sure why other than the composition notebook and I seem to connect. I'm a list maker and I think the preset planner took that away from me.
The Documented Life Project will allow me to still use my composition book, to make my lists but I hope to incorporate pieces of the disinherited planner.

I've been gathering supplies while I try to get the studio in order so I hope to show you the beginnings of my book in 2 weeks. There will NOT be a blog post next Monday as I'll have nothing to schedule and I will just be getting back from a road trip (unless weather turns, keeping me at home). We'll see.

WOYWW #247 - GASP!

We have a blast on WOYWW. Don’t have a clue as to what I’m talking about? Stop in at Julia Dunnit’s blog for all the DETAILS. In a nutshell, this gives us an open invitation every Wednesday to showcase what we’re working on and to peek in on work spaces all over the world. We would love to have you join us!

So here’s my desk for this week:

GASP! There is a work surface under there! Who knew? Well, I did but finding it was another issue. There are still a few little things I need to do something with on this surface. The tiered boxes to the left are for my new venture into Project Life. I'm thinking of adding a couple of the matching drawer units underneath them as a base for storing punchies and ephemera. I started with 2 primarily so I'd have one for each of the granddaughters. But I'm thinking I might also want 'big girl' items for my Documented Life Journal and this would be a good place for those things. I guess if $General has another one tomorrow then I'm suppose to have one ;-)

The important thing is I have room to play again and I can't wait to get painted up!

Creative Blessings!
Kelly

FRIDAY FREEBIE - Unclaimed and Undecided

I had promised pics of the RAK box for Ruby but did not get them up last Friday so am bumping the post.


As of today the winner still has not responded to winning the box of Valentine goodies. I am going to set it aside for a later date.

In the mean time I've already figured out what the Friday Freebie will be in April but still stuck on March. Yes, I know I skipped February. Bit crazy here with taking the Organization Class and the day job. But I am looking ahead to March - which will post next Friday!

In the mean time, I've been purging A LOT of paper/ CS. I've sent a huge box (18 pounds!) off to the Kindness Club in MN and am now working on a box for a lady in GA

There is a gallon bag each of CS and DP - I emptied 2 drawers!

Misc Ribbon, 3 ink pads, a pkg of markers, Tombo Adhesive and 3-pk refill, bling and a qt bag of stamped images.

This plastic container contained punched butterflies /w bling boddies, stamped/ punched sentiments and a variety of flowers. After I got the box packed, this would not fit in the box so I repacked these items in jewelry zippy bags.

Ruby Taylor had a couple of minor strokes last fall. While she was in the hospital her granddaughter PITCHED ALL of her paper craftings upplies - EVERYTHING! Not so much as a pair of scissors left for Ruby to use. Can you imagine? Here's the full post about the RAK event many of us on SplitcoastStampers are taking part in:  RUBY



Creative Blessings!

GET ORGANIZED - Week 4 - Photos!

This is half of the empty photo boxes I have to sort pictures into. I got them for $1 each last fall at Michaels knowing I needed to get a handle on my photos. I'm thinking I might color code at least 4 of the boxes with papers to match the girls - 2 for Adrian and 2 for Abby. Because here is the 3-drawer sterilite unit currently holding their photos:

Pay no attention to the stamp rack (air vent) sitting on top or the empty sterilite box (product of emptying a container) This is on my 'holding' table in the sewing room. 

Aside from the hard copy photos, I also have all of them filed digitally on the computer:

Each subject has it's own folder with sub folders by year or event. I always transfer the pictures from my camera memory card over to a computer file (which are on Flash Drives - not on the hard drive). The pics stay on my memory card until I've uploaded them to a Walgreens Album AND ordered prints. I just don't trust digital completely. I want a hard copy in my hands before I delete the picture from the camera.

I didn't get any sorting done last week as I spent the last three days of the week getting back into full-work mode now that Bob has gone out on the boat.

One of the projects has been to finish putting together the purge box for the Kindness Club group in MN. I first learned about this teacher last April (2013) and have known ever since I wanted to donate my purge to her great cause. You can read about Barb and her extraordinary endeavor to teach her children through practice HERE These first grade students are going to have so many new things to play with. Aside from the massive amount of ValuCS, I know they do not have a die cutting system of any kind so I've put together a few embellishments for them to add to their cards:

Two boxes of the ValuCS needing a home. I cut down all the full pieces into A6 card size. All they will have to do is fold them and add their embellishments.

Flowers of all kinds. The round centers on the flowers were stamped using 'For You' from the A Round Array stamp set and the mini scalloped circle punch.

I also stamped 'For You' from the matching rectangular set and tons of the mini butterrlies. The Daisy flowers were put together with 2 large daisies in monochromatic colors with a small daisy center and a brad.

I broke my MS lace punch as I was punching several strips in red (Wilton is replacing!) and lots of white strips in the scallop lace edge punch. Yes, there are a few layered pennants, too.  The little punches in the upper left are going in the box to add to their minimal tool supply.

If you would like to gift the Kindness Club with your purge, please email me KellyH (at) artlover (dot) com and I'll share her mailing address.

Creative Blessings!

Kelly

WOYWW #245 - A different creative area

We have a blast on WOYWW. Don’t have a clue as to what I’m talking about? Stop in at Julia Dunnit’s blog for all the DETAILS. In a nutshell, this gives us an open invitation every Wednesday to showcase what we’re working on and to peek in on work spaces all over the world. We would love to have you join us!

So here’s my desk for this week:

In this picture you'll see the important things: laptop, music magazine (I blog for), my coffee and external speakers to better hear music cds for review.

This is not in my studio but where I do other creating besides playing with paper.
For several weeks I've been on the hunt for a 1950s style vanity or desk. Something small, solid with lots of drawer space that I could use as a desk.

I've resigned myself to the fact we will not be building a studio and getting me out of the basement. Since the majority of my day is spent in the 'office' side of the studio I made lots of trips up and down the stairs multi-tasking... aka juggling business with housework. My knees can not take the abuse any more. I'm hoping if I don't continue to beat them up maybe they won't force me into surgery down the road.

This little desk fits off to the side of the double-doorway between the kitchen and the laundry room, the two places I spend most of my non-working time. Though my research books and office supplies are still downstairs, I have the immediate needs to do the music promotion and article writing close at hand.

The Get Organized Challenge is still in progress. We are on Week 4 - Photos. This is where I've fallen off the wagon in the past. Next week I hope to be back in the studio.

Creative Blessings!
Kelly

GET ORGANIZED - Week #3 - Embellishments!

This is the upcycled entertainment center I am always referring to. To help brighten up the 'dungeon' as hubby calls my basement studio, I covered the entire surface with white contact paper. The depth of the drawers were each designed for what I planned to store in them. The dimensions are approx. 15"x15" and slide in and out on shelf pegs. My Embellishment drawers are 3,4,5 down from the top on the left side. Each drawer looks like this on the inside:

Okay.. here is where this whole Get Organized and Scrap Rack thing and I class. In the Scap Rack, these items would store in 2x2 zip bags in THIS page configuration. The page is called the Embellishments Page. When I first met Tiffany and learned about the 4-Section System I was totally excited. How cool to store EVERYTHING in ONE PLACE. The only problem I had was I did not like having to get the small items like brads and eyelets out of the zip bags. So when I designed the layout for the cabinet, I decided to make little boxes from white card stock. I'm still grouping all of my embellishments in the RAINBOW section... just not in the ScrapRack. Here is a close-up of a COLOR section:

So if I'm looking for a PINK embellishment, I pull out this drawer and I can see EVERY pink embellishment I have to choose from. 

Take note: Although the little things in zippies drove me nuts, I am going to store the Calendar themed embellishments - witch hat brads, tree shaped buttons, etc - in the pockes of the SR under their category. Those items are bigger and easier to get a hold of. 

During Embellishments this week we also talked about FIBER. You've seen this pic before:

These store in the bottom 4 drawers ( currently have tools in the very bottom but need to relocate for Christmas) by RAINBOW. So I'll have drawers 9 & 10 on the right for RAINBOW, #11 for CALENDAR coordinated (Easter, Halloween, etc) and the bottom drawer for Christmas.

Lastly, we needed to organize Die Cuts, Punches, etc. The concept, keep a REFERENCE sheet in the Scraprack to coordinate with your theme but you can store the actual Cartridge, Punch, etc elsewhere with your supplies. HOWEVER - Spellbinder type dies can store directly in the SR if you choose. So how do you store a REFERENCE sheet?

The Cricut cartridges are great examples. For instance, I have the Home Improvement cartridge. I scanned the back of the box and put the picture in a pocket under my HOME IMPROVEMENTS Theme section:

For punches, I punched one of each shape and will store them in the Sweet Sixteen Pocket under SHAPES in Alpha/ Numeric. -  

I really went through my stickers. I had a bulging Cropper Hopper Sticker binder full of every sticker I've collected over the years. Not all of them related to scrapbooking. Some dated back to Encouragement stickers for my down-line when I sold Undercover Wear. Others related to the days of Homeschooling my daughter and 2 preschoolers. I'll keep a few for those pages, but a majority of this binder went in the box to the Kindess Club. 

Here's an example of what I kept:

When I get my SR pages, the alphabet will go in the Baking/ Cooking - NOT in Alpha/numeric like you might think. Why? Because this is NOT a plain alphabet. The letters are all made up of baking/ cooking components and were purchased to go with the other things in this pocket, like the mixer stickers. 

The KEY to filing ANYTHING in the ScrapRack is to put an item where I am most likely to look - as long as it is in the 4-Section System.  So when I go to work on either baking pages for Adrian's book or to scrap pictures from my days competing in county fair's, all of my paper and embellishments are in the Baking/ Cooking section of the SR. One-Stop Shopping!

My reward for this week is 2 Spinders for the Travel Tote I bought years ago. I used the tote for going to crops when I worked at Michaels but the tote did not come with spinders. Since I do not go to crops, I plan to use the tote as a HOLDING Album for each of the girls' books. I'll have one spinder for Abby and one for Adrian.

Next week is my biggest challenge - and where I've fallen off the wagon in the past - PHOTOS. I've promised myself a BIG reward for doing this one because I know it is my most time consuming/ hardest challenge but I am DETERMINED!