Clear Stamp Storage

Just a quick post here after AGES of abandoning my blog to share my clear stamp storage. I have tried many different ways to store my clear stamps, from binders to magnetic sheets to iris containers to plastic drawers. The best solution I have come up with for me is the Avery Elle sleeves labeled and organized by manufacturer and stored in a basket to easily flip through. The only issue I have is too many stamps, right now I need about 2 more baskets to hold the rest. I have seen a lot of people use these and add a white cardstock to fit inside the envelope. I wish I had seen that when I started this method, but I may go back and do that so they are not as flimsy, especially the smaller stamp sets.

As of now, I've had them this way for about a year and I think I have finally found my permanent solution!

Getting Ready for December Daily

This will be my 3rd or 4th attempt at a December Daily. I am still working on last years and I have every intention of finishing it! I'm just a LITTLE slow! I've seen a lot of blogs where people gather all their "stuff" in preparation, so I thought that would help me stay on track. I was particularly inspired by Michelle Wooderson's post HERE!!!

Also, I got the Studio Calico kit and the album is 4x6 this year, which I think will be easier for me to stick with!

I have more here than I will ever need, but it is fun to shop my stash in addition to all of the goodies that came with the kit.

 

The "dear Santa" fabric tag in the above photo is from Ormulo. They have a great shop with so many unique items. I ordered the glittery "Joy" tag last year from Nicole Reaves Etsy Shop.

 

I have a bunch of Christmas stamps ready here, ink, punches, embellishments.

 

Above is the canvas album that came with the SC kit, I have to get working on my cover!

 

Lots and LOTS of WASHI!!!!

 

Here's a close up of the Ormulo and Nicole Reaves tags and the American Crafts Christmas date stamp.

 

Wish me luck with my project this year! I think I am all ready to go!

 

A Layout, A Washi Addiction and a Peek at My Punch Storage

Here's a layout I made of my sweet niece on the beach with some fun Summer Soul papers from Fancy Pants. Along with a bit of washi tape, which is my current OBSESSION!!!

I am taking the Washi Workshop at Studio Calico and although I haven't finished any of the assignments yet, I am loving it! I am almost done with one of the assignments and will post it soon!

So, since I mentioned my "washi addiction" I thought I would share a few pictures of a part of my collection. It is growing on a regular basis due to this recent addiction *wink wink*!

I'm always looking for some new and different ways to organize my supplies. Another addiction I have is punches. As you know, they are not always easy to store. So here are a few of the different ways I store them.

This first picture is a shoe rack and a spice rack.

Next up, some organizer bars of some sort that I found at Target. They were in the college dorm section on clearance. Unfortunately they only had 3 left. Ikea is too far for me to go on a whim so I was happy to find these in lieu of the Ikea Bygel Rails. We need to get more anchors to hang the 3rd one. 

Next is one of the drawers in my cubes dedicated to some of the slim EK Success punches. 

I also have another wicker basket full of all kinds of different style punches. I forgot to take a picture of that. Oh well, it wouldn't be a very exciting picture anyway!

Thanks for coming by today! 

WOTT, Giveaway Reminder, a Graduation and Santa Claus

A lot of different things going on today! I'm sharing my Expedit shelves today in their current state as part of What's on Tap Tuesday. I'm happy to say that I can now walk right up to my cubes without climbing over a few piles! I still need to vacuum up lots of scraps and bits and bobs on the floor!

And here is my desk. I pulled out some papers today to start a layout of Luke the first time he tried riding his bike. 

This past weekend we went to my "little" cousin's graduation/going away to college party. So proud of him, he will be leaving in a few weeks to attend Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, majoring in Engineering. I can't believe he is so grown up! I feel like he was just a little boy last week, time sure flies!

And last but not least, is a card I made for CC&M with my new Paper Smooches stamps! It never hurts to get a jump start on Christmas cards!

And don't forget you still have a few days to enter my giveaway HERE!

I'll be back tomorrow with a Hambo card!

What's On Tap Tuesday

I'm late again for What's On Tap Tuesday, but here I am!  I hit the floor with my project yesterday because my desk was too messy! I'm working on birthday invitations for someone and was working up a sample. In the upper right hand corner is part of a Pink Paislee kit that I recently got from HSN (thanks to my favorite enabler, Cindy!)

Here is just a shot of my messy cubes, I added one to my collection, the 3 drawers, still trying to organize, maybe someday it will happen!

And here is the card front for the invitations I am making.

That's all for now! See you soon!

What's on Tap Tuesday (or Thursday!)

Well, I took these pictures on Tuesday for Cindy's What's On Tap Tuesday, but am just getting around to posting them. I seriously don't know where the days are going this summer!
So, this first picture is something I recently accomplished. I relocated the printer's tray I use to display some of my wood stamps and also hung the shelf back up that holds my sizzix dies. About 2 months ago it fell down and I finally re-hung it (much more securely this time!)

This picture is a few cards in progress. I started these after watching one of Lesley Langdon's videos on Unity TV.

I don't have a finished projec to share with you today, I haven't had much crafting time this week.
Tomorrow I have off, Luke and I are heading to the beach to try to stay cool in the 100+ degrees they are predicting!
Have a great weekend!

What's On Tap Tuesday?!

Have you seen Cindy's new weekly feature, What's On Tap Tuesday?! I missed it last week, but it's a whole lotta fun getting a peek into where other's create, so I hope to participate as often as I can! and I have quite a photo heavy post for you today full of peeks into my life!

First, I will start by saying I am self-diagnosed with A.D.D., I can't seem to finish any one project before starting work on the next. This is true in my crafty world, in my work world, in my housekeeping world, but i always manage to get things done! So you'll understand a bit of why this post is all over the place!
I started working on this little bird the other day which is a part of my DT post at Creative Cuts & More this Thursday.

Here's the little bird again with a stack of Distress Inks behind him :)

 

While I was working on the bird, Luke was doing a little artwork of his own, so here is a peek at his workspace!  

Both of our projects got abandoned when Grammy took a spill. She is 93 and lives alone, at her insistence, so we have been spending A LOT of time there the past few days. Love this spunky lady!  

In the midst of all of this, I am also wrapping up Phase I of my stamp cataloging project! Here are three binders that I've had for awhile that I decided to continue using to store some of my clear and cling stamps that I've cataloged. Whatever doesn't fit in these will go in my 3 drawer Sterilite. (To the left are my AWESOME new Thin Stuftainers that I discovered (thanks to Noelle!) and these hold a small portion of my Unity stamps. I have some more of these on order and plan on converting ALL of my Unity and Ippity stamps into these containers-I LOVE how sleek they are and how they really streamline my Unity/Ippity storage and keep them all so neat and organized!  

Here's a peek inside of one of the binders above, this one holds My Favorite Things and Stampendous, as well as Pink Paislee and Memory Box. 

and then some pages of my new stamp catalog! I am SO proud of this :) and once again, I owe a thanks to Noelle for giving me the push to take on this project! 

Thanks for visiting me today :) and why don't you join in sharing YOUR space on WOTT?!??!

Cataloging Gone Crazy!

Okay, so I started and now I can't STOP! I had seen other people before talking about cataloging their stamps and I hadn't really given it much thought until Noelle started talking about it on her blog. I don't usually like to take on such a big project unless I get feedback from someone who has done it. I was reading on Splitcoast Stampers and there were SO many people talking about it, that I actually started to feel overwhelmed (it doesn't take much!) But Noelle was kind enough to humor me and walk me through the process of how she did it! She even shared pictures! So, I took her cue and copied most of her categories, tweaked them a bit to fit my stash and now I am on a roll!
Here is my scratch paper with a rough list of categories:

Some stamp sets and "catalog pages"

 My plan for now is to just store them in their packaging by manufacturer. I may eventually move them into the Thin Stuftainers that Noelle uses for her Ippity/Unity. But at least I will have my master binder so I know what I have and where to find it! I am off now to stamp some more images~it's addicting!

A Little Peek Into Where I Create........

****WARNING-PHOTO HEAVY *LONG-WINDED* POST!****

So, I've mentioned a few times that I am really "trying" to get my loft organized and cleaned out so I can be more effective with my time and creativity. My crafting studio is the loft in the 3rd floor of our townhouse. We don't have a garage or a basement, so since we've had our son, this has also been our "catchall" room and has quickly turned into a disaster!
I have so many beautiful crafting supplies and it was really getting me down that I am not able to use these things to their full advantage and also worried that they are going to get ruined from being stored improperly.
So for the past few weeks I've been on a mission to get it under control. Life gets in the way, so many times I can only spend a few minutes at a time, but chipping away at it slowly has proven to work! I am "almost" there and I couldn't be happier! I still have a lot to go through and a few changes I want to make with my storage options, but that will all come in time.
For now I am going to share just a few pictures of the things that are "presentable" for public viewing!

I have two of these vintage printer trays that I picked up, one at an antique store and one at a country festival, each for $15.00 (I had my eye on one at an antique consignment shop for $45.00, I'm glad I held out and found these!) They hold a "small" amount of my wood mounted stamps, others I have stored in my Expedit cubes (need to streamline this in the future!)
I haven't been able to settle on a storage option for my Nestabilities. Since I only have a small collection, I decided to go with the magnet strips on my Expedit shelf. These Nesties are addictive so I'm sure I will need a new method SOON! or I can put more strips on the other side of the shelves.

This bookshelf holds all of my 12x12 paper pads, some scrapbooks and photos.

This Making Memories Embellishment Center holds a lot of my embossing powders, paints, glue, glimmer mists and other random stuff. I just started velcro-ing some of my stickles upside down at the bottom but I ran out of velcro and am also running out of space. I still have a lot more stickles, maybe I will do a second row behind these. To the right is a shelf that I found at an antique shop for $10, which holds most of my Sizzix dies (except for alphas).
Below the shelf are my JetMax cubes, I love these, I have 5 of them but would love to expand. I just need to figure out where to put them! If I decide to build up I have to move the Embellishment Center (my room has been a hodge podge as you can see and it's not very well thought out, like most things in my life! I guess that's why my nickname "Wing" fits me so well~since I am always "winging it"!!!)
Right now I have my Cricut, my Big Shot, Zutter, a container full of flowers, and my Copic bucket and Distress Inks on top.This is subject to change! I want to have my Cricut set up with room to work around it, I know it will get more use that way.

This is my 25 cube Ikea Expedit shelf that is across from the MM Embellie Center. I wanted this so bad FOREVER. But now I have mixed feelings about it. It takes up almost a whole wall and now I am lacking in work surfaces. I kind of wish I had a long counter across this wall with wall shelves all above it. I'm contemplating getting the desk that attaches to it for $50.00, but I'm nervous that it will limit me since it attaches to the shelf and I won't be able to move it around much. Still thinking about it?!?!

As you can see, my storage is not pretty, nothing matches, but it's what I have! I would love a beautiful perfect studio, but I am not an organized person by nature and I tend not to think things through well and buy impulsively. I'm trying to work on that! The picture envelopes in the middle on the right side are just being held there while I organize. Every time I came across random photos, I just stuck them there until I find a home for them! Remember this is still all a work in progress!

Here is the 7-drawer Sterilite container that holds all my punches. I definitely want to change this. The bottom two drawers are so hard to open because of the weight above them. I am contemplating the Ikea Bygel Rails, but again, I am still thinking on this. I would love to have them out where I can see them. BUT, my husband wants to rearrange and make room for a futon or pull out chair in here for when my sister comes to stay,so I think it might be best to keep them tucked away. If my son and nephew come up here to play, and they are on display, I could see them becoming toys!

I am SO excited and proud of my ribbon storage!! Heehee! I found this idea online at the Little Blue House Blog. Ribbon was one of my BIGGEST problems! I couldn't stop buying it for a long time and I had 2 cubes in my Expedit OVERFLOWING with ribbon as well as 2 shopping bags full of it. A lot of it was unraveling and tangled and I was so overwhelmed by it! I sat and cut the little chipboard pieces and wrapped it around while watching tv with my husband and son over about 2 weeks time. I still have a lot more to do but I can't believe I fit over 100 spools of ribbon in each box! Talk about saving space! I still have to finish rolling it so I will probably wind up with two more boxes and I want to go back and organize by color, but this is SUCH a relief to me :) SO happy!

 These are my Jet Max cubes and an Iris container where I've organized the majority of my 12x12 paper by Manufacturer. The Iris container has a lot of scraps and one is filled with Christmas stuff for my December Daily that I've started but not completed for the last 3 years! Mostly due to the mess in here! Next year, WATCH OUT! To the left is the lower half of the bookshelf and that holds the overflow of  paper that didn't fit in the cubes. I also have two cubes of patterned paper to go through and sort on my Expedit~yep, a work in progress, I say!
It's hard to see in this picture but I have each shelf labeled with the Manufacturer name but haven't labeled the ones that are in Cropper Hoppers yet.

Well, thanks for joining me in my tour today! Hopefully I will have more to share soon as I make progress! I have gotten so much inspiration from the Stampin Space gallery at SCS as well as the Scraproom Gallery at Scrapbook.com. I am constantly stalking them, so thanks for all of the ideas to all of you sharing out there!
I am off to work on my layout for a class I am teaching at this Saturday's crop in Cape May!
Have a Happy Tuesday :)
xx, Nora Anne

p.s. Looking for a challenge?! Visit the new Paper Wings blog for a challenge and a prize! You have until this Friday at midnight to enter! Check it out HERE!