An added Bonus - OSW Christmas Cardss

The individual shots of the OSW Christmas cards I showed a couple weeks ago have been uploaded to my gallery at SplitCoastStampers. You can see them here...

http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=32055

I hope you'll pop in and leave a comment or two. ;-)

Creative Blessings
Kelly

JustRiteStampers

It seems as if I've had this head cold for ever though in reality it's only been a little over a week. I've had stamps and playthings sitting here on the table to work with and no energy. I've spent the biggest part of my time either in my chair watching TV or here at the desk chatting with creative friends.

Thursday I began a 3-day tour of 88 blogs featured by JustRiteStampers... 88 extremely creative people from all over the world. The designs they were to create had to feature Jan/Feb release stamps by www.JustRiteStampers.com and SpellBinders.

Along the tour I saw a lot of innovative cards and other ideas filled with color and embellishments that were spot on... nothing too over the top. Every item was a representation of why these designers were asked to participate.

If you go to http://justritestampers.typepad.com/justrite-inspiration/2010/02/introducing-beautiful-blossoms.html and look on the right hand side of the page, you'll see 3 2" Buttons labeled Day 1 Day 2 and Day 3. Within each of those links you'll find links to over 25 designers and the items they created for the Hop. I don't know how long these will be valid so you don't want to delay in your journey amongst some awesome examples of stamped creativity. The Blog Hop and Prizes part is over. It ended yesterday, but the links should be archived for awhile so you can visit.

Beginning next week as part of the Creative Souls spotlight, I'll introduce you to some of the gals whose work really caught my attention.

What did I learn from my travels? That I really need to step up my game and just let the creative juices flow. I've been keeping it really simple while my play time is limited but that won't last forever... or so my daughter tells me. ;-) In the mean time, I have an order with JustRiteStampers to place ;-) That 20% off Sale is too tempting to pass up.

Creative Blessings!
Kelly

15 Christmas cards

A few weeks ago I issued the One Sheet Wonder challenge to my S2S group at Splitcoast stampers. Here are the cards I came up with....

All of the striped papers are from the OSW I designed (see previous post). I accented with scrap & full sheets of Valu Cardstock from their Heritage and Garden collection. The chipboard embellishments were from a K & Co. Chipboard Tag collection I purchased while on vacation last summer. I used SU Always Artichoke and Bravo Burgundy inks for stamping images, distressing and edging. I used a variety of stamps from sentiment collections and $1 stamps. I can't upload to Splitcoast today (Sunday) but when I do, I'll let you know so you can check out the complete supply list and single pictures of the cards.

Have one piece of paper you're not sure what to do with? Turn it into a OSW and a whole lot of cards!

Creative Blessings
Kelly

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.