Organize your Stuff: Week 13 (round 3): Stamps

This is a busy entry, so let’s get too it! Well for starters, let me wish my fabulous Jewish readers a festive and Happy Hanukkah! May there be plenty of gelt and latkes to go around! (and I will totally accept any fabulous latke recipes as my Nana never passed hers on…) Here is my Design Team card for Tuesday Trio’s Hanukkah Sketch #43.

You may not be able to tell, but the vellum in the background has the lyrics to Adam Sandler’s Hanukkah Song, literally the only Hanukkah song to make it onto the radio waves, at least here in America. It is fun, irreverent, but not mocking. The words are stamped using CTMH Giggle lowercase, and I hand drew the dreidel with a coordinating ink pen.

Next, is a super THANK YOU!!! to Scrappy-ness for passing along the Stylish Blogger Award to me! It is definitely an honor! The rules for this award (kind of like a chain letter but one that is cool to recieve!) are to link back to the sender (here), pass it on to 8 others that have not received it yet, and share 8 things about yourself.

8 things about me…

1. My favorite food is East Coast Chinese food (because Washington State’s Chinese is just different)- specifically Won Ton Soup and Chicken Lo Mein (which is Chicken Chow Mein here). To make up for it, I will eat sushi and Japanese Steakhouse!

2. I grew up with 3 television channels, but I do not know how anyone can survive married life without satellite TV and DVR.

3. When I was little, I wanted to grow up and be Cinderella’s Step Mother because she made all the rules, got breakfast in bed every day, someone else did the chores, and I wouldn’t have to marry some stinky old prince (but I love you Fabulous spouse!).

4. I would rather eat something salty-like potato chips- then something sweet- like cookies.

5. I do not have a favorite color, but Girl Friday has arbitrarily decided that mine is Purple.

6. I have a really hard time finishing projects. Ok that is something that you already know. PA Me is probably my most dominant personality!

7. I have a broken NO button. My husband tells me to NAVY: Never Again Volunteer Yourself!! But I always seem too.

8. I have a black thumb. The only plant that I haven’t killed is the hops that we grow in the backyard for homemade beer. …oh and the roses in the front yard of which I am very allergic, and actually would prefer that they died.

Now, who else is stylish out there?...find out next week (because I actually have to find you)!

Stamps are my downfall! The Inner Hoarder has never seen a stamp that she did not like! That keeps OCD Me on her toes. However, Creative Me uses these stamps (and inks!) on just about every layout or card somewhere! So, it is always important to keep these organized. As you can see, all of my wood mounted rubber stamps are on the left side of my new work desk, and the acrylic ones are on the right. OCD Me does not know why we keep the wood mounted ones, they are clutter to her. However, since they are mostly corralled in this old VCR rack, the POW has allowed my Inner Hoarder to keep them. I am thinking of cataloguing them, but I have thousands…I counted them last round, but the Inner Hoarder has collected more since then!

Here is my final entry for the Kitchen Keepsakes Food Network Challenge. Week 4 is Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives, and I made my Thanksgiving Turkey Soup! Like any meal worthy of being tried on the show, it is a multi day event. Day 1: Cook the turkey (Thanksgiving). Day 2: Boil the Carcass and drippings all day in a stock pot. Day 3: Strain and retrieve any meat from the carcass (and put in containers to freeze-aprox 9 cups) then make the soup for the restless horde!  since last time I did 12 pictures, this time, I did one! Definatly Yo-bama-lama. Or whatever!

Organize your Stuff: Week 12 (round 3): Ribbons Part 2

This Week’s ribbon layout:

I used my solid color cardstock, so that the ribbons would really pop, and a couple of pumpkins from my stash from Jolee’s (from like 2004).


Well, we survived the snow, Thanksgiving, …and Black Friday (BTW whichever retailer decided to start black Friday on Thursday…I loathe you! And my family is not happy to have a truly functionally sleep deprived mom walk in the door at 7:15 AM to go to bed after a day of Thanksgiving cooking followed by black belt marathon shopping- when all they want is waffles).

Here is the after for ribbon. 

After spending three days snowed in with 6 inches of snow (seriously, people who see snow more than once every 2 years, it is not polite to make snarky laugh sounds come out your nose! It was CRIPPLING! I almost did not get my Safeway Thanksgiving dinner in a box!...The POW almost had to go all Donner Party (for non US followers or those who slept through Pioneer expansion, look it up in Wikipedia) and eat the cat…not really, but it would have been Otter Pops and frozen peas, and that scary thing from the back of the fridge that has freezer burn, but the Inner Hoarder hasn’t thrown away yet) not only did OCD Me have the ribbons organized, but Creative Me knocked out two pages from Fabulous Spouse’s Iraq album (from 2007 and totally on my to do list) as well as the above Halloween layout.

As for the Kitchen Keepsake Challenge, we are entering our last week, so look forward to a layout that represents: Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. As Luck (and weather) would have it, after Thanksgiving, I always make from scratch Turkey Soup! It is totally worthy of any Jersey Diner, so I hope you like it!

Finally, welcome back from the hospital, Dailly!!! Tuesday Trio is back and running! I am reposting my Design Team entry for this week’s challenge below, and will have a new card on Tuesday for them. Welcome back Dailly, glad that you are doing better and Happy Holidays!

Organize your Stuff: Week 12 (round 3): Ribbons Part 1

Well, today we are snow bound! Don’t laugh Midwesterners or people who see snow more than once every two years… we had 6 inches in two days in our little town in the Greater Seattle Metro. That is worse than a full fledged ice storm in the south! Our weather bunny made a point of telling us that we were warmer than Barrow, Alaska (the northern most point at 34 degrees Fahrenheit), but one of Fabulous Spouse’s co-workers in Montana told us we were insane, as today they had 12 inches of snow, it was a high of -4 with a with a wind chill of -20 degrees Fahrenheit, and everyone went to school and work no problem. I bet they have more than 3 snowplows for the county too!

Since I could not go out, we ate in! Here is the Chicken Marsala that I made on Sunday…and braved our horrible not really that snowy roads to get the pictures from Costco to enter at Kitchen Keepsakes (If they don’t plow soon, I am nominating Fabulous Spouse for Snow removal director. The county cannot hear your theories on snow removal from living in the land of the Alberta Clippers while growing up through the TV…I’m sorry. It is true. Same with the football coaches, dear. The sound only works one way)!

There are two techniques that I used for this quilting panel (a total scrap user upper! So there Inner Horder!).  First, I used bamboo ink to distress the bright whites that did not go with the Graphics 45 base page.

Then, rather than cuttung up another sheet to put squares that match the base page, I just broke out the exacto knife, and cut holes in my "quilt"!

This week is ribbon week! Last round, OCD me did a pretty good job of collecting the ribbons that the Inner Hoarder had collected over the years, and put them in a DMC Floss style container (actually a fishing lure tackle box with removable dividers). The fibers are mostly all on bobbins, roughly by color. I found that suddenly, Creative Me was using ribbon more!… well because she could find it! However, the POW has noticed that the Inner Hoarder has been holding out on us, just a little. Also, it seems that the more ribbon that Creative Me uses, the more ribbon I seem to have!

This week is really a tidy up week for OCD Me rather than a reinvent the wheel one. This is good, as I am theoretically busy…if I can ever get out of our development! Fabulous Crisann at 2 Peas asked us how many of us used sewing machines on our pages, and so far it has been mostly a resounding:
 BAAAAHAAAWWAAAAAHHA!!! LOL –from Luvs2lilboyz,
DO I sew? BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! Oh sorry...um, no- scrappin usmc,
Uh - no!-weaser,
SEW what is that? Oh that was based on the class I took in Jr. High and was doing so poorly I was flunking-lovesribbons.
No! I don't sew on layouts!-scrappinJudy
She [MIL] keeps the machine, I give her my sewing. It's a win-win really-Kris74

The only real yes was:
LydiaInk- Yes! Mostly by hand because my sewing machine is generally stored away and I'm too lazy to set it up

My sewing machine lost its electrical attachment when we moved in 2008, and PA Me has not made it to Sears to get a replacement cord yet.
See you at the end of the week!



Organize your Stuff: Week 11 (round 3): Stickers Part 2

This is my second layout for the week-Girl Friday getting her ears pierced & going to Rainforest Cafe to celebrate.  She has had to wait until kindergarten to get the deed done-so that she will appreciate that we think she is a big girl now, and she will remember how much it hurts and not let her ears close up.  Creative me was glad that it was sticker week, because otherwies we would not have found the froggie kisses sticker (on journaling spot) to inspire this LO.

Have you ever organized something, only to realize that the solution was only marginally better than the problem. Like when company comes , and the entire contents of your family room are in your hall closet… then you realize that your guest wants to see that thing that you put in the closet first… hmmmm… that’s how my stickers were living. Last round, I found them, I corralled them like the Red Bull leading the Unicorns to the sea (Netflix shout out for the animated Last Unicorn with soundtrack by America), and there they sat unenjoyed, and being piled up more and more.

Like the magical and semi-imaginary creature that she is, OCD Me rescued these trapped stickers (Yeah OCD Me!) from their imprisonment in a 12x12 Iris case so that they could share their magic with the world again… yes, it did involve a lot of talking to my cat (who never did give me a straight answer either) and the memory of wine to find the time to get this done, but OCD Me was resourceful.

Since PA Me has stalled out Ideas twice now, the 3 inch D-ring binders from round 2 were still empty. OCD Me sorted all of the stickers into categories, and then put them in the binder in 8.5x11 page protectors, and used mini post-its for the categories.

Sample categories are as follows:

Valentines/Love
St. Patrick’s Day
Spring
Vacation
Camping
Beach
4th of July/ Patriotic
School
Halloween
Thanksgiving
Christmas/Winter
Phrases
Frames/Borders
Florishes & other

Next week is ribbons, Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and kids home from school… Wish me luck! Oh, and I have Italian and Giada for my Kitchen Keepsakes! Off to shop!

Organize your Stuff: Week 11 (round 3): Stickers Part 1

This week all the other stickers that were ignored last week! Whether you love them or hate them, stickers are a staple of the scrapbooking world.  When you're not looking they multiply...and multiply... and then invite their cousins. The big question is, how to sort them? By color? By theme? By manufacturer?

This is an area that I am actually eager to attack! Here was my results last round.  How I am going to attack the stickers now is under debate… but the POW is in negotiations as we speak. I did use Alpha stickers for the title on the recipe card further down.

Well, all of my personalities were in a super happy place this weekend! I went to CKC-Seattle and took a bunch of classes and learned a bunch of new techniques! It was AMAZING! Thank goodness that I was on a budget, or Inner Hoarder would have just gone to town with all the great shopping at the vendor’s Fair. The make and takes were just as awesome as the classes, and I already have a wish list for next year!

Here is the layout that I did for Kitchen Keepsakes Challenge. The theme for this was Ace of Cakes… and due to the quick turn around time… Fabulous Spouse made my cake (and took the pictures)! Ace of Cakes is about cakes with attitude rather than how to cook them, so Fabulous Spouse dug into his repertoire and brought his “A” game. Here is his awesome Tres Leche cake (recipe courtesy of Alton Brown). It may not have fondant figurines, but it tastes …mmmmmmm….

In Duff spirit, I brought out my aces and my scrapbook tools.  Like Tim the Tool Man, I used "more power" to get to work!  The goal was to bring this layout to the next level, but also not make something that was too bulky that I could not keep it in the kitchen.

My base page is from the Paper Loft, and I masked and glimmer misted it (new technique for me from CKC). Then, I used an old technique to apply layers of clear embossing powder on the playing cards (also from the Paper Loft), refrigerated the pieces, then cracked and inked them. Instant antique for pennies!

You too can use this to make any sticker look like aged ephemera!  Looking forward to showing you my progress at the end of the week!

Ta Dah!

Organize your Stuff: Week 10 (round 3): Alphabets Part 2

Fabulous Crisann’s Question of the Week: What is your Favorite Alpha? This is a loaded question. I LOVE my clear acrylix! Stamped alphas rock! But… in my mind, they live in stamp week. Therefore, I choose Thickers! …The stickers that do not stick! I love the fonts and the textures, but adhere today…fall off tomorrow. As long as I add glue dots, they are OK. Still my favorite non-stamp alpha.

Here is my Layout this week…

It doesn’t use Thickers, but it does use sticker Alphas...of a sort. This just goes to show, that you do not need individual letters to have an alphabet. Sometimes, you can just let the manufacturer do it for you!

As for my alpha stickers, I give this round to PA Me. With Fabulous Spouse in Montana, and packing for CKC Seattle, dealing with children’s school and ECAs, and a bout of the stomach bug going around, PA Me said that My folder of Alphas is good enough, and for a change, the POW agreed with me and told OCD Me that we might tackle this next go round, but this time, it is OK. So, no change in Alphas, but one regular layout and one cookbook layout done!

Organize your Stuff: Week 10 (round 3): Alphabets Part 1

This week in the Organize your Stuff challenge is Alphas! Generically speaking, this week is alphabet stickers, but if you are really going for broke you could include your chipboard letters and letter stamps. I am saving mine for stamp week and chipboard week as they are stored there. Here is a card that I made for Tuesday Trio using acrylic alpha stamps (btw-Tuesday Trio is temporarily on hold, as our moderator is in the hospital, so please keep her in your prayers).

Depending how in tune you are with your inner OCD Me, Alphabet week is either super easy, or super hard. Last year, I went for super easy, and just rounded them up and dumped them in a Cropper Hopper folder. It was a total fast food, drive by clean up.

This time around, I have to do something else, even if it is just to put them in two folders! LOL! For most of the last five years, the POW has really limited my use of sticker alphas. She figured that the expense was not worth it, especially when you needed to buy 2 sets just to have enough E’s to finish your layout. However, just as tastes in close change from time to time, my love / hate with stickers has waxed again… and I mainly blame the Inner Hoarder’s love of shopping and Thickers. Thickers are dimensional alpha stickers (I used them on the football layout in my last post for the varsity letters). The only downside is that Thickers are notorious for losing their stickability (so OCD Me always adds glue dots to them).

Speaking of fast food, The POW has decided that the family needs to eat better, and that I really have no excuse (even though PA Me could give you list…) why I could not cook more home cooked meals. This is my first one. It is a layout of my attempt at from scratch, 3 hour, crock pot mac & cheese from Paula Deen. This is my entry for Week 1 in the Kitchen Keepsake’s Food Network challenge.

The only changes that I would make to the recipe is that I would use white pepper instead of black pepper, and I am unsure why you shred the cheddar, melt it with the butter, then put it in the crock pot and add the cold ingredients before turning it on. This left cheddar lumps that took until hour 2 to re-melt. Also, we added frozen peas (made on the stove in the last 10 min) and bacon bits to make the meal a little more balanced.

See you at the end of the week!

Organize your Stuff: Week 9 (round 3): Embellishments Part 2

This week brought change into the life of the POW. Our Glee Club Challenge was over… and no we did not win anything (the POW is a little sad about that, but hey! It builds character!). Football season officially ended (yeah?), and there was no more looming Halloween countdown…only leftover candy and the inevitable accusations of candy stealing.

As for organization, OCD Me took the Inner Hoarder aside, and promised her container shopping in exchange for the locations of her hoard of illusive brads. Like the Goonies hunting for One Eyed Willie’s buried treasure without a map, the search was afoot! No Pinchers of Power here, but in the end OCD Me discovered that the Inner Hoarder was better at hiding things than she thought! We filled nearly 5 DMC bins with brads, and left our “fancy brads” out in an easily accessible bin.

With a little extra time, OCD Me also collected our relatively small collection of flowers together so that they could be kept in one place. They were already sorted by color, for the most part, so it was just a matter of convincing PA Me to put a little extra effort into the search and clean process, and Voila! Extra credit! Two embellishment areas tackled!

For the layouts this week, the POW decided that we were going to tackle Oldest Child’s football season before we got bogged down with the upcoming holidays. This layout is a little simpler than the ones we did for the Glee Club Challenges, but you have to understand that we had six games and about 100 pictures per game! Narrowing 600+ photos down to a 4 pg layout is an accomplishment in my book! Not to mention, the Illusive Middle Child was in there too as ball boy!

In the second layout, Creative Me found that she wanted to mirror the look of the threads on the football, and with a little bit of nostalgia from the last post, she decided that she wanted to use eyelets to do it. Fortunately, she had no problem due to the fabulous bead and eyelet sorting of OCD Me from last round. I do have to admit, that while OCD Me may be one of my least favorite personalities, as she usually involves work, it is definitely worth it in the end!

OCD Me is now eyeing the buttons that she uncovered in her hunt. While the POW wasn’t looking, it appears that the Inner Hoarder had set her eyes on amassing some of them as well. We will see if this new found love of organization holds, or not. PA Me is undecided… as usual!

Have a great weekend, as next week is Alphas!

Oh, and I have found a new challenge to follow for the next 4 weeks. A new website has just launched called Kitchen Keepsake, and they are doing a Food Network theme challenge.  Fabulous Spouse loves the Food Network... so Challenge it is!  The first week's theme is Paula Deen!  I guess that means that I actually need to do some cooking... PA Me is not so sure this was a good idea...

Organize your Stuff: Week 9 (round 3): Embellishments Part 1

For those who celebrated Halloween this weekend, and are just coming out of a sugar coma (I know, I know…you were just taste testing for the kids…) welcome to Embellishment week!

Now, now. Don’t start hyperventilating. While Embellishments seems like a really big category to tackle…ok it is… some of the things that we may consider embellishments have been given their own weeks later in the challenge: alphas (week 10), stickers & rub-ons (week 11), ribbons (week 12), chipboard (Week 19), diecuts (week 20). So, if you are hoarding any of these items, you have a reprieve!

The Fabulous Crisann, Fearless Leader of Round 3, posed this Question of the Week: What embellishment can you not live without?

For me, this changes as my tastes change. Currently it is brads, but buttons and flowers are really close second and third! I used my brads to help me with this card for the Tuesday Trio Sketch #41 card. Part of the TT Challenge said that we not only needed to use the Sketch, but that we needed to incorporate wings. Since I had just opened my CTMH Hooligans On the Go Kit and used the embellishments for a mini challenge card for the last week of the Glee Club Challenge, the big corduroy brad, and the little button brads became Creative Me’s muse.

Fabulous Spouse took the tines off of the button brad, and suddenly I had a pig! Have you ever heard the term “when pigs fly?” …trimming up a chrysanthemum style flower gave me the wings for my flying pig! The card is a congratulations card, because sometimes when you think it will never happen, it magically does!

In Zen Master Wookiemouse’s blog, she stated that there are two primary ways to store embellishments, by color and by type. Last round, OCD Me went through and sorted the minutia that was beads and eyelets… remember when eyelets were the embellishment that you could not live without? This time I am focused on my brads which have multiplied like Gremlins let loose in a waterpark . To make it worse, they are just EVERYWHERE! It is like the Inner Hoarder has squirreled them away like nuts for winter in hopes that I will forget and move on to something else…or worse- go out and buy more!

All of my embellishments need a better storage solution than the one that OCD was able to cobble together last round, but some organization is better than nothing. Wish me luck with my Gremlins (another Netflix 80s find for those of you who have never seen it!) and I will see you at the end of the week with a layout!