Project Organisation

Hiya everyone :)

I am currently doing the Project Organisation Challenge Course at The Scrap Rack. Wow it has some great ideas on organisation. I have already "purged" 250 - 300 12x12 papers. Most of my papers are sorted into colours already :) so that helps. I have a christmas draw. I also have in a separate place baby and birthday themes.

I have started with my stamps though as these are the things that usually end up spread from one end of my table to the other. I think I currently have 30 or 40 sets on my kitchen table. EEEK

I have not started cataloging them yet. I have just started sorting them into themes. I had them in an overflowing box lol. This is what's in my box after doing at least that many sets if not more yesterday. I originally had them sorted by brand. Now they are sorted into themes ready and waiting :)

To find what I wanted I had to go through ever single stamp set. Very hard when they were jammed in and there were a bazillion on top lol. This invariably led me to pulling out loads of stamps for a project just so I didn't have to go back again!

So far I have these themes:
*Wedding/Love
*Birthday
*Baby/Children
*Alphabets/Numbers/Month sets
*Christmas (that's a big one lol)
*Halloween

I have these waiting to be sorted to be rehomed. The theme specific sentiments are with their respective stamps.

*Flowers
*Flowers and Sentiments
*Mixed Sentiments
*Flourishes and Sentiments
*Flourishes
*Journal Blocks
*Borders
*Butterflies/Bugs/Animals
*Tim Holtz/Steampunk/Vintage

Then I have a bunch of  of stamps I don't know how to categorise lol. They include some that have a mix of everything, sentiments, flowers, swirls, crowns, guitars, bugs, you name it they have a bit of a few of them lol... I can do a flower/sentiment/bug/animal section I guess but what about the rest? Argh lol

One step at a time.. I am sure it will come to me. I just don't want to take my stamps out of their respective sets and store them specifically by theme lol. I like to keep them with original packaging so that makes it harder.

I am storing my stamps using sheet protectors and three ring binders. Three to four ring work best as there is less pull on the protective sheets. Now I only had two binders like that and one is being used for Lifestyle Crafts and Quickutz Dies, so as a temporary measure I have used book rings :) Five rings for each separate set.

Four sets of inkadinkado in a sheet protector works brilliantly! Others I work with til I get a fit I like.  The smaller recollections and stampendous sets I store sideways four in a sheet protector. I do them back to back so there is a front side and backside. I use a small amount of repositionable tape inside the top of the sheet protector to keep the stamps in in case I knock my folder over.

At some point I will stick the stamps to backing paper so they don't move about but I am trying not to bite off more than I can chew right now lol..

I can tell you that I can already see that having my stamps sorted by theme as much as possible is going to help me greatly! I can just grab a folder for the specific items I am looking for rather than searching through my brands to find what I need! Less searching time and more importantly Less Mess!!!

I will add some photos of the storage soon :)
Happy Scrappin'
Purple

12 Cards of Christmas T!m Holtz Style Card 2

Today in my endeavor to play catch up I started my card version of Tag 2. This was my inspiration...

Card 2


I chose some music note paper from the Kaisercraft Black and White Timeless 6.5"x6.5" paper pad.

I then coloured it with Evergreen Bough Distress Ink Pad by swiping it across the paper, to lighten the colour I spritzed with water and dabbed with paper towel, I then spritzed again with my home made pearl glimmer mist.

I dried this with my heat gun. then chose some Inkadinkado and some Recollections stamps. I used my Versamark pad and then Ranger Super Fine Embossing powder to create my own resist effect.

I used my Snow Cap Distress Stain all over the paper and then dabbed the embossed areas with a damp paper towel so these areas then became more visible.

I grabbed a sheet of Grungeboard and my Tim Holtz Sizzix On The Edge Bracket Die, I made sure to move the grungeboard a fair way onto the die without it touching the large bracket cutting area. I used tape to hold the grunge in place over the small bracket and then ran it through my Cuttlebug.

I used both the positive and the negative from the cut to create both a top and bottom border for my background, you can see in the pic how they fit back together. I painted both pieces with silver Adirondack Paint Dabber, waited for it to dry and then sanded with Heidi Swapp sand paper, paying close attention to the edges. I then swiped Festive Berries Distress Ink pad over both pieces.

Using my ecraft I cut an ornament svg I found for free on the net (thanks to whomevers svg it was, I have so many I have lost track of where they have come from lol) from the leftover music paper. I then coloured the ornament by tapping my Festive Berries Distress Ink pad on my Ranger Craft Sheet and spritzing with my homemade pearl mist. I then dragged the ornament through the pool of shimmery colour making sure to get an even coverage. The colour came out too light the first time so I repeated the process using less water.

I cut the same ornament again with my ecraft only this time I used heavy red cardstock. I glued the two pieces together using Multi-Medium Matte.

I coloured part of a plain sheet of cardstock with Evergreen Bough Distress Ink and mist and then dried very well. I used ecraft again to cut out a bird and flourish image. As you can see in the following image I cut the svg into two pieces.

Using Multi-Medium Matte I adhered these to the christmas Ornament. I then used a Crop - a - Dile to place a large star eyelet into the top of the ornament. The silver was a bit too bright so I painted over it with the silver dabber then painted a little around the edges of the ornament as well. I used a paint brush on the tight corners as the dabber couldn't get in there lol.

I found some eyelets and brads pretty close in colour to the whitewashed background. Using a ruler for the brads I measured 1cm in from each end of the piece of painted grunge I decided to use for my bottom border and pierced a hole with a paper piercer. I then measured the midway point and pierced another hole. I measured between the edge and centre hole on both sides and placed two more holes at the midway point on each side. I then inserted brads into each of these five holes. I then used multi medium again to glue this to the background (in hindsight I should have used glossy accents as I had to add extra glue and hold for a good while lol).

For the top border I used the grungeboard a guide, placing eyelets above the three points. one on each end and one in the middle.

I used the silver paint dabber again to dull down the brightness of some silver chain and jump rings.

I then used my beading tools, two jump rings, some of the chain and a lobster claw clasp I had also dabbed some silver paint onto, to secure the ornament through the middle eyelet of my top border. Thus creating a removable tree ornament :)

For the two end eyelets I made a string of Swarovski crytsal beads. Two red and one half dipped silver on each end. I again used my paint dabber on the chain and jump rings but forgot to do the head pins... Oops! lol. I tried gluing the border down with multi-medium but had no joy so I used trusty Glossy Accents instead!

I then stuck this to my card base using double sided tape :) Yay another completed Card.

As you can see in the next pic, even once the ornament is removed the recipient will still be left with a nice card :) So in effect it is a Christmas card and mini gift in one.

Hope you liked my take on T!m's second tag. If you have any questions please feel free to leave a comment and I will help any way I can :)
Happy Scrappin'
Purple