Thursday, February 25, 2010

One Sheet Wonder

I have seen templates for doing One Sheet Wonder card collections using an 8.5x11 but not for 12x12.


The concept behind One Sheet Wonder (OSW) is to stamp an image randomly all over a sheet of cardstock. Then cut it apart in various configurations giving you mats for 12-15 cards. I wanted to do 12x12 and instead of stamping CS, I am planning to use printed paper and then cutting CS mats to coordinate. (Yeah, I've been known to reinvent the wheel and do things backwards hehe)


So here's the pattern I came up with. Feel free to modify or post a link to your favorite version and the cards you make.


Creative Blessings

Kelly

Card Creations



A couple weeks ago I took part in my first VSN - Virtual Stamp Night - over at Splitcoaststampers. The forum leaders would post a challenge every hour and you had 45 minutes to rise to the challenge. The theme for the evening was the Winter Games. For this card the challenge was to use Flower Soft or a homemade version thereof. The homemade version is a shredded Styrofoam ball.

I did a repeat of a Christmas card I designed for our final Christmas in the Victorian house. For the original I had used white embossing powder. I love the glisten and the texture of this so much better.






Another challenge required using RED fiber to signify the red mittens worn in the games. I pulled out a Christmas Slab and came up with this one... I used the cuttlebug folder - snow for texture and a twisted red fiber with a gold thread running through it.

I'll have more to share next week, I hope. My WiFi time is limited for a few more weeks. But I'll try to keep you at least updated on all the things I'm playing with.
Creative Blessings
Kelly

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

The Organization Begins

My dear, sweet hubby offered to build me a studio - Creative Dreams. His offer came just before Christmas when he decided I needed out of the 'dungeon' (as he has dubbed the basement office) and into a more creative space. I probably won't sit at the desk and create in the studio for another year or so, but lots of other things can come in advance.

The floor plan is formulating, the colors are chosen and the organization process begins.
I've spent the past week cruising the 'creative space' gallery at Splitcoaststampers (sww.splitcoaststampers.com). 5, 967 photos of people's amazingly organized (and not so organized- but works for them) creative spaces. I've amassed a wide variety of pictures of things I'm thinking of implementing into the new studio.

To start with, while I have only a few stamps (one gal on SCS has over 6000!) my first project is to compile a index and image sheet for all of my stamps. I am using a 3-ring binder as my Stamp Binder. There will be five categories:

* SU Stamp Sets
SU unmounted Sets
Clear $ and misc. unmounted
Misc. block sets
Misc. block stamps

*SU indicates Stampin UP (www.stampinup.com)

The SU Sets will be indexed according to theme. At the top of each 8.5x11 sheet I have the Name of the set, catalog #, price and will stamp a Capital R if it is a retired set. Then I've stamped each image from that set in Night of Navy.

SU unmounted (new product) will be cataloged the same way and stored in photo pocket or baseball card sleeves

Clear $ and misc. unmounted are stored the same way

Misc. block sets will be stamped on an 8.5x11 sheet with their category (i.e. Christmas) stamped at the top of the page and filed in calendar appearance order.

Misc block stamps will be included in the 'block sets' category in the same manner.

This way... when I'm creating, I only have to pull out the binder and flip through the pages (upon pages) of images to get an idea of what I want to play with. Once I've decided on the project, I only need to pull those stamps - not several taking up work surface space.

As soon as I've finished doing the cataloging this weekend, I'll post some pics. For now... I have a few images left to catalog.

How do you organize your inventory? Do you know EVERY stamp you own? Are there any you purchased but NEVER used? Tell us your story.