Organization Tips #3

I just moved in the fall and then I had the Stampin Up convention, the holidays, a death in the family and making about 1000 (yes a thousand) cards between the September through the end of January. I am just now getting caught up on organizing my craft room or maybe it is the New Year or maybe it is the spring like weather we are having in February - either way - yay! Clean craft room! As I was tidying up I thought about my organization tips & wanted to share them with you!

~Enjoy

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I used to be a hard core scrapbooker. Guys, I have been scrapbooking since I was 15 and I am now a grandma. As I got a little older & the books kept piling up more & more and the digital world got bigger & bigger, I lost a little interest in the art form & found card making. Needless to say, organizing items for cards is a lot different than organizing for 12x12 scrapbooks.

One of the first things I did when I reorganized was take my milk crate full of file folders of card scraps up to 8 1/2 x 11 pieces & cut them down. I allowed about 3 different sizes of scraps. A2 card base 5 1/2 x 4 1/4, 2 x 3 and a few strips of 5 1/2 x 2. If it was not that size it went - believe me - I am a hoarder of small scrap pieces - but it was extremely liberating getting rid of all those leftovers. I was so proud of myself - I kept sending pictures of my trash can to my friends!

I have some Ikea style furniture that I bought back in 1986 from Target (even before Michael's started carrying this style (trendsetter - who knew?). I have a 16 x 16 cube that has 2 drawers. I removed the bottom drawer & the runners & I got some Really Useful Boxes for DVDs/VHS tapes. I just stacked all of the cardstock in rainbow fashion in them from front to back & it fits perfectly!

In 2017, my friend Shannon Cole started to post a color challenge and I needed to grab specific colors quickly so this morphed into a little more organizing. I used the folders that the dies come in and cut down one piece of cardstock of each color. Now I am not so picky with those little tiny scraps because they are not free floating in a giant box. I added some labels sorted them by color & they still fit in my box & in my furniture and are very handy on the fly!

My friend Tracy Marie Lewis was over at my house one day & saw the folders and thought it would work for her as well - since she is full time retired traveler, she need things compact so she can pack up her goodies for every move and store them in very small places..

As the colors come & go, I move the retired colors to another box & add a paper reinforcement at the top right in case they get mixed up with the new folders I know right away they are retired colors

While Tracy & I were crafting one day at a retreat - we decided that we needed a color swatch in a somewhat larger size to use for Shannon's Color challenges. We decided that half a card front size would do the trick - this is back when the Color Coach was not available. So Tracy "borrowed" one of each color card front size piece of paper from our friend Sue Dudgeon Campbell and split them between us. She also wrote on each the color, the color family & the year of the catalog. This worked surprisingly well for our color challenges. We found that they fit perfectly in a 5 x 3 1/2 stamp case and that little case sits right at the front of my Really Useful Box filled with all of the color die sleeves! See the first picture.

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So long January 2019 Paper Pumpkin

Its finally time, time to close out the January 2019 Paper Pumpkin Kit, Be Mine Valentine. I had so much fun with this kit & was inspired by so many people in the Facebook Paper Pumpkin Fan Club! I wanted to share you you some closing thoughts & aha moments.

~Enjoy

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I love, love, love this little chameleon stamp & his sentiment. I made about 6 of the chameleon cards as my Valentines, the one with the all over chameleon background paper. I have a confession, I use all of my old Stampin' Up! packing slips as scratch paper / stamp off paper. When I got done with all of the 6 backgrounds - I noticed the tails made a cute little flourishy background. I set out to replicate the effect as a border for a card, by placing another piece of scrap paper on the interior of the base & stamp only the tails. This is 2 layers offset of tails & dragonflies. You can see it here, it never (yet) came to fruition - but it may make an appearance again for Mother's Day or maybe ever Christmas - who knows!!! Maybe the chameleon will be really cute with a Santa hat on!  

As I kept creating more & more cards, I kept going to my stash for more & more ribbon - I LOVE ribbon!!!! After the assortment got a little overwhelming I started throwing cut off pieces of the pillow box, my stamps, the epoxy hearts & my ribbon in the Paper Pumpkin box to keep it all contained - this worked great!!! And when I finished off my Paper Pumpkin kit, I decided to make this box a main staple on my desk from now on! I cut down the flap and tucked that inside to make it sturdy. I may cover it at some point, but for now it works!

My last tip is what to do with the kit once it is done. I only have fully completed & wiped out about 4 kits. First I take the instructions & fold them so that the fit the front cover of an empty Stampin' Up! stamp case. Next, anything big, just goes in the box, my kangaroo sheets that I cut in half are in there. Then any small little pieces leftover I throw in an envelope - I got this trick from my friend Tracy Marie Lewis. Even if you stamp something with a set & do not use it, cut down the artwork, toss it in an envelope & throw it in the box & next time you go to use that set - pre-done artwork!

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Paper Pumpkin Alternatives #3 / Scraps

There was so much to do with the January 2019 Paper Pumpkin Kit, Be Mine Valentine, the cards just kept-a-comin' ! I have a few more alternatives to show, but this is more about the leftovers - what to do with all of those little its & pieces laying on your table. We all know we are all hoarders at heart!

~Enjoy

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This card uses all those little trimmed straight line box flaps. I cut them into fourths and angled the edges. Then I just started with a Pool Party North, South, East, West marks. I added a Melon Mambo on either side of the Pool Party, and kept building form there. I did not worry about the angles & if they matched or were different and some overlap more than others - this card is NOT for the OCD at heart. The strips, circle, heart doggie "tag"and sentiment are from the Jan19 PP kit, the doggie is from Bella & Friends and the pink ribbon is from my stash. Bella was highlighted with Stampin' Blends.

A special shout out to Jeanne Ciolli for the inspiration on the baby roo in the pouch. This one was so fast - I just could not wrap my head around the kangaroo for Valentine's Day & was always thinking more baby. Again, these were all scraps on my table - already cut - I just had to arrange them & stick it all together - and I LOVE this card!!! The baby sentiment is from Wonderful Moments & the congratulations is from a retired set - but the font matches perfectly! The white ribbon if from my stash and the Bermuda Bay Glimmer Paper is from the retired Myths & Magic set. I sponged Pool Party onto the reverse of the red heart from the kit for the heart on the belly.

The pink version of the baby card is made with retired Pink Pirouette embossed with Falling Leaves. The baby sentiment is from Wonderful Moments & the congratulations is from a retired set. The circle is edge sponged with Melon Mambo as well as the hearts, cut with a retired heart punch (the backside is the Pool Party leftovers from the circle dies cuts). The hand cut fishtail banners were just lying on the table, the only thing I had to go get was some cardstock for the hand cut sentiment.

This card is so much cuter in person & sparkly! The background is embossed with the Subtle embossing folder. Really the only thing from the kit is the sentiment & the paper for the Pool Party hearts. The sentiment is done with the ribbon wave technique. The ribbon and punch are retired - but who doesn't have a ribbon & heart punches in their stash?! So simple & so cute!!!

I was really struggling with what to do with those little rounded corner pieces trimmed off the box - after the big hits with the lips card, everything else seemed ho-hum. I did play around with flowers at one point - but they were not coming together. When I was done with all the cards - I only had the notched pieces left - what if I cut them in half and used all the circle dies cuts leftover as the center - eureka! The sentiment is from Country Home & the flourish is from the retired Detail Deer's antlers.

Here is how I pieced the items together. I first taped together the notched pieces on either side of the notch, then I cut that in half & adhered them to the back of the circle die cut. I alternated that technique to add the leaves.

Here are some other ides I played with, but did not make the final cut

This last card started out with the little half pieces of the flaps trimmed off the treat boxes and the reason I only had notched pieces to work with above. It started off looking ocean, palm tree, vacation-y. I cut the circle in half just to do something different and applied a knot instead of my usual bow. The background was too plain so I punched some dots to add interest. It sat on my desk for a while waiting for inspiration to strike.

My neighbor from when I was a child reconnected recently on FB. A few weeks ago her husband passed (and we are relatively young), so I guess she was on my mind. As I started playing with the pieces of this card I started to get emotional, because there was so much symbolism in it. The knot represents their marriage and the circle cut in half represents their parting. I know he is safe now and I pray that she and her teenage son are well.

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Valentine's Day Cards

Utilizing the January 2019 Paper Pumpkin Kit - Be Mine Valentine, I was able to construct all of me valentine's cards this year - so here are the alternates & the cards.

~Enjoy

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This one utilizes the treat box for the background strip, a Pool Party heart & the reverse in white, the stamp set that came with the kit and Bermuda Bay cardstock. I sponge edged the hearts & the strip in Bermuda Bay. I found a cute XOXO embossing folder in my stash and some bootleg white ribbon that looks like the Sale-a-Bration ribbon. Adding a touch of glitz is the retired Bermuda Bay Glimmer paper from the Myths & Magic 6x6 paper pack. The swirls are cut from the retired Detailed Deer Thinlits (antlers). The sentiment is popped up in the ribbon wave technique.

Thanks for the inspiration on this one to Rachel Tessman, I took her idea of the background chameleon & added an accent piece. The green ribbon on the accent is an old retired DSP, embossing with the Falling Leaves embossing folder & sponged with old olive. A piece of white flax ribbon adds a little more interest. The pieces from the kit are the Pool Party circle turned over & edge sponged with Melon Mambo, the chameleons & the Flirty Flamingo hearts. A bootleg ribbon that looks like the Sale-a-Bration ribbon tops off the piece.

The pink version utilizes the treat box for the background banner with a fishtail cut. I added the retired Pink Pirouette (which I just scored at a retired products sale), Melon Mambo & White cardstock. The sentiment is from the stamp set that came with the kit with the ribbon wave technique. I used my XOXO embossing folder from my stash and some bootleg hot pink ribbon that looks like the Sale-a-Bration ribbon. Adding a touch of glitz is the retired Sweet Sugarplum Glimmer paper from the Petal Garden paper pack. The swirls are cut from the retired Detailed Deer Thinlits (antlers).

Who can resist these cute little birdies with the "You're so fly" sentiment? The background its made mostly of the treat box, Melon Mambo, Black & White cardstock. The sentiment from the stamp set is stamped in Bermuda Bay on one of the Pool Party circles. The birds were stamped again in the coordinating paper & fussy cute (bodies only) the wings were colored with markers. Behind the birds are the remnants of the pillow boxes, strips that were left over once they were trimmed for other products. Finishing it off is white bakers twine and the Flirty Flamingo hearts.

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