5 things to organize

I love my time to work.  I have a 10 foot table that is usually piled high - about 1 foot deep for all 10 feet - and yet I know where everything is until I have to empty the table for family use and then it is chaos to find things again.  I am fairly organized on shelves but when I have a lot of projects going at once, I don't always get things back to their home spot.  Then when I want them again, I take a while to find them.

As you can see, all the shelves are full.  What you can't see is a very large plastic box at the end of the room that needs sorting.  So I am taking time to sort.

The 5 things I am taking time to organize before I start up projects again are:
inks
stamps
designs
paper
Bling and Embellishments

Inks:

I have the new ink pads in the ink cases Z6003 and the old inks still in their tower.  The even older inks I found a fishing tackle box that was the right size.  I keep the re-inkers together in a double box with the new ones on top and the older ones on the bottom.  I still have old paper so I keep the old inks and re-inker.  Just like they tell you to change your battery with the time change, I check the inks and reink them once or twice a year.  They have a place on the shelf when the table needs to be clear but when I am working they are on a small table for easy access.

Stamps:
At one time I scanned all my stamps and put the images in a binder.  I gave that up.  Close To My Heart has changed their group designations over the years.  I have gone to a different method.  I put the stamps in an Excel workbook with a sheet titled for each designation of CTMH as well as by the designation that I would look for it.  I color code each stamps and box with hole reinforcements and the  names on the box of the designation that is in there. When I put the stamps away, I don't put them by number or name, just by color. 

I use Avery Hole Reinforcements.  I get the white ones in 1,000 a pack and use permanent markers to color them a page at a time.  I have found colored ones and used them but there are more desingations than those colors. 

Before CTMH came out with My Acrylix organizer Z1038 or the My Acrylix mini organizer Z3106 or the double one that isn't available any more, I used Iris boxes - long and short.  I found them at Ace hardware.  I just take a stamp with me to see if it fits.  Most boxes don't.  They need to be about 7 x 14 to get the stamps into the box with a cover and I use a piece of cardboard to divide the box in half.  Last winter I took all the plastic snaps off and there was so much more room!

I put the M size stamps in the little boxes that they fit so well in.  I have all the stamps with thin cuts in their "season" like Winter, Christmas, Flowers etc but the generic thin cut that are just thin cuts are in the My Acrylix organizer and the generic stamps/thin cuts are in a box.

Designs:
I love all the How - To Books from CTMH .   I love that each paper packet project has always come with designs.  I have used them over and over with different papers and make slight adjustments for what I am doing.  I have put many in 3 ring binders and use the different see through an solid flags from the office store.  I prefer the solid as it is easier to read.

This time I have gone through my 3 ring binders and written each name of paper design that is in the book.  I have also put into 3 ring binders all the designs I have done over the year. I also ahve put other things that I have found useful to keep.   I am doing an Index binder with all the indexes of the books and so far I am up to 25 ring binders.  This is my current project. I can look at the index binder and narrow down which books I want to pull out and look for.

Paper:
I am still overwhelmed with this project.  I used to keep the cardstock in their old sections :Adventure, Enchantment, Whimsy, Basic etc but now the cardstock just by color.  I have tried looking at the color wheel and keeping them in families. 

I have at times kept the finished pages and the scraps together in their bag so that I could make more pages if I needed to.   I could never find the pages when I needed so I put finished pages in an album and kept the scraps together but it is overwhelming to find them at times. 

My sister gave me these shelving when the store she worked at closed.  

I have kept the scraps by color in the boxes on the right and stacked them.

This large tub keeps all the bags of scraps.

I try and put seasonal paper in the plastic boxes as well as paper and other things that are for projects I am doing.  I have a T-shirt that says "You can't get to heaven until you finish your scrapbooks".  In that case, I will be there for a long time.

Bling and embellishment:

Before CTMH came out with the Small Craft Organizer Z4205, I had some plastic cases that were too small for the stamps that I still use. The M Size stamp box is great for shimmer trim and ribbon.  There are still Accessory Rollup Z3121 from the website.  

Let me know what you use and if this has been helpful in your search for organizational bliss out of the chaos.  Have fun with your projects and take time to organize with free time now or in between projects.  

 

Australian stamp for the fire relief effort

The stamp W1202 will end  March 11:59pm  So far Close To My Heart has been able to give $43,000 to the relief effort. 

If you have this stamp, what do you see for cards or scrapbooks?  If you have made things, please post and share you ideas.  

March card buffet

These are some of the cards we are working on this month.  Check out how versatile some of the CTMH stamps really are!

You can choose from several images and several directions that the card can go.

Again you can see that you can use eggs, flowers, chick or bunnies to decoration your card.

You can choose from some great Puny images as well as some new ones that are available.

Easter Traditions

Make a banner of bunnies or eggs for your home!  There is a wooden banner with a digital file so you can create wonderful colorful banners.

If you get both banners in a bundle, you can save 20%.  

Check out my website if you wish to purchase them!

Color wheel

What is the color wheel and why should I use it?

If you haven't yet started to follow Close To My Heart -Make it from your heart blog, now is the time.  The color wheel helps you understand the colors that will look best for your projects when you are the one choosing the colors. 

The Post Color Combinations with an Updated CTMH Color Wheel is a great one to start with.  There are always clear directions and samples with the "recipe" of how the project was made.   At the end of the this blog, you can see how to use the color wheel in different ways:

Monochromatic and Analogous Colors

Complementary Colors and How to Use Them

Using Split-complementary Colors

Triadic Color Combinations

Double Complementary Color Schemes

There are times that a page or a card goes WOW.  Usually CTMH takes all the guess work out with the paper packets and the choices.  You do have product left and when you want to use it, the color wheel helps you get that WOW  factor going.  

I was more familiar with the Triadic color selections:To make it even easier, there are only four triadic color combinations on your basic color wheel:

1. Red, Yellow, Blue

1. Red-orange, Yellow-green, Blue-violet

1. Orange, Green, Violet

1. Yellow-orange, Blue-green, Red-violet.

The Complementary colors are just the opposite from each other and the split- complementary colors are the ones just next to the 2 complimentary colors.  Example: the complementary colors might be Red and Green. The ones next to it are red-orange and blue-green.  

Don't forget to sign up for my blog as well as Make it from your heart.  

February Cards

February has some great cards.  You can choose to make 1 of 2 or 3 designs from one stamp set this month.  I have a few other cards I will be getting ready but these are ready to go.

This is a cute Birthday Card with some options for sayings inside.  

There are some cut Puny sayings to go with some cute critters.

These are some great ideas for graduation or congratulations cards.

You can choose 1 of these 3 to send your hello's or greetings.

 Sometimes we need to think about the people we care for.  

Anyone still not signed up for February cards needs to contact me as soon as possible.  

New Year, New Projects

We have just celebrated our family Christmas so the table that I craft on needs to be used for 11 people to eat, talk, play games, do puzzles and really not be piled high with paper and stamps and projects.

I followed a tradition of my mother - when projects weren't done, she would wrap up what was done and have a note saying "Give this back to me and you will get the finished project later.".  I am now in the process of pulling things out to start on those unfinished projects. 

The New Year brings people to do resolutions.  For many crafters it is the promise of finishing up projects that have been around for a while.  Right now with my table clean, it would a great time for people to select to come over and work on their projects as well.  There is room!  The table seats 11-12 people eating but depending on the crafting, 6-8 so people have space to put out their things and work on it.

The biggest trouble I have is not in getting the table cleaned up, it is in finding everything from the nooks and crannies that I have stashed things. 

There are some great projects in the January catalog.  I really love that we get "new" things every 2 months.  Oh My Heart has 40 3x4 Valentine's Day cards you can make plus pages. 

Bring Back my Pack - Urban is also available on the special list. There is a new stamp and stickers.  I love that there are cards as well as pages that you can make.  

I am going to be working on both of these projects this weekend and can't wait until I am able to get them done.  It is fun to do these projects in a group a people.  The laughter and fun is as much a part of it as is the projects we get done.  Let me know if you want to come over to crop or get a group of friends together to do some projects. 

What do you need to work on?  I used the Storyteller by Stacy for an album this Christmas.  I love all the different sizes of pages and all the things that get to be shared.  It is hard to get photos of a whole album.  I had 120 photos to put together.  Before I would have just used too many flip flaps or pages.  Now I am using different page protectors and all sizes of flip flaps and it really comes out great!  

Contact me if you have lots of photos and want to get them saved and into a great way to display and tell the story.