Tools at my Fingertips

Next on my list of organizational duties has been to declutter the workspace. I like having everything where I can get to it easily. When I began teaching classes at Michaels several years ago, I invested in the scrapbook tote to keep all of my essentials handy. I could set it on the table during a crop or next to me on the floor - within my reach but not taking away workspace from my students and cropmates. Now that I no longer haul my tools anywhere, this bag didn't seem practical... and it was overflowing.

So after sitting at my worktable trying to envision what would work the best, I came up with a design for a long stretch of upright cubbies. My husband and I make a great team. I draft it up, complete with measurement's (architecture lab from 7th grade home ec still comes in handy) and Bob puts it together. This is what we came up with....

This desk style window box is made from 1"x 4" trim boards. It measures approximately 45" in length. Each cubby is about 3 and 3/4" square. I have 10 compartments to separate, adhesives, glue, scissors, standard punches, piercing tools, pliers and anything else I use frequently in my card making projects. This opened up a lot of flat work surface. I just completed the OSW challenge (pics in next post). The stamps I was using lined up in front of the window box and still left me plenty of stamping space.

Gals, you can do this. Had my husband not been home for 4 weeks and needing projects, I'd have constructed it. If you need particulars, feel free to post and I'll give you more details.

And the organization continues.....

Creative Blessings

Kelly

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

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.

It's all in the colors

When I was little I was fascinated, as most children are, with the colors of Christmas. My first memory is of the old fashioned colored lamp casting it's rainbow upon the aluminum Christmas tree. Later, it was the big bulb lights and the bubble lights. As decorating yards for the season became the rage, I loved riding around in the old station wagon with the backward facing back seat to see all the light displays.

Carnivals are a huge attraction for me. My earliest recollections are from the mid 1960's and Longmont CO. Mom or Dad would take me at night when everything was lit up. Walking along the midway, I could feel the energy of every colored light from the rides and booths.
4th of July would find me sitting on a blanket at the park in Longmont oohing and ahhing at the firework display

As a teen, I lived in rural Platteville Co. Our house sat on a hill - the highest point in the county We could see for miles from the outer reaches of Denver where DIA now sits, across to Boulder and all along the front range and back to the northeast and the city lights of Greeley. I would sit on the picnic table in our yard just watching all the twinkling lights. Often times I could detect the flashing blue/red of an emergency vehicle. The view was incredible.

As I grew older and really got into crafting, I always blamed my varied interests on being a Libra... a creative soul. I love to sew and quilt. I can wander for hours among bolts of fabric. For awhile I was an UndercoverWear lingerie consultant. It wasn't so much the clothes that attracted me as it was the fabrics and the hues that drew me. Cake decorating wasn't so much about the creating as it was all the colors of icing I could play with. Floral arranging in high school again, put me in the heart of natures colors. Don't even get me started on Polymer clay colors and the possibilities with canes. Then I was introduced to stamping and paper crafting. Oh my! Between the inks, papers, cardstock, embellishments, chalks... I was in color heaven!

It took me a long time to realize it wasn't so much about wanting to try everything as it was the colors and all their variations. I wanted to play with anything that put me in touch with the colors. For Christmas I asked (and received) the Crayola 120 count box of crayons. Now if I could justify purhasing the 160 count tower I saw at Michaels last week! :-D

My rainbow is full of color. What color is yours?

Stamping Challenges

Finally, time to play with my stamps. I belong to three forums at splitcoast stampers.(http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/). One is a Stamp 2 Spend challenge. The idea is to be mindful of what we're spending compared to what we're actually using. Its much easier to find time to buy pretty new toys and bright colored papers than it is to make the time to actually use them. In Stamp 2 Spend, we hope to find a balance. So, out came my scraps and Valu cardstock Iwant to use up for these two cards.

One of the other forums has begun a kind f Use It challenge. With this challenge, we are encouraged to go back through and find stamps (parts of or whole sets) we haven't used. We just had to have them, but there they sit, ink-free. The stamps I used in both of these cards fall into this challenge. They are part of a retired hostess set from Stampin' Up calle Sculpted Style. In the case of this set, it might not have been one I 'had to have' but more of it was the best of the Level 1 Hostess set that fit my tastes or I didn't already have.

So here's a challenge for you...

What stamp have you never used or haven't used since it's initial purchase use? Pull it out, give it some ink and link us to your creation.

Creative Blessings!

Kel

Journaling Through The Year

Happy New Year, everyone!

One of my GOALS for 2010 is to journal 'regularly'. Over at my yahoogroup, The Artists Journey (see link on left sidebar), I have posted the 365 daily prompts from The Writers Book of Days by Judy Reeves. Each prompt will post to the group automatically.

I wanted a special place just for the Book of Days prompts so I created a journal from a recycled diaper box, scrapbook paper (DCWV Holiday Slab) and binder rings.

So far I've written every day of 2010. Only 360 days to go!

There's still time to take the journey with me.