Organize your Stuff: Week 20(round 4): Die Cuts part 2

Well, the POW promised you a look at our Cuttlebug, and here it is with our dies, still stored in its original box. We used to be a military family, and with 8 moves in 12 years, original boxes became important. We really do not have that many dies as we have the Cricut, but we are beginning to get more (the Inner Hoarder likes the low prices and portability that the Cricut does not always have)… and embossing folders too!

This layout was made for a DT to which we are applying (it had to have an orange theme)…and the die cuts (fish) are made from mat board! Too cool! (Creative me and OCD Me battled over the googly eyes, but Creative Me won...and they are on the fish). Infomercial Alert: The matboard pieces come as a part of the monthly kits from Heartstring Designs, which we discovered at a CKC convention.

This is our trip to the Trout Farm with Grammy and Grampy. We think fishing is neat, and with small children...if possible fast, as they have the attention span of gnats.  It also shows the importance of knowing where your food comes from. All was well until the fish gutting. For a minute and a half, we thought that Girl Friday would go vegetarian…or non-fishatarian… when the check out gal pulled out the still beating hearts for the boys. But, luckily she got over it, and decided that fresh fish is awesome! PS- a week later, Illusive Middle Child fought a massive rock, paper, scissors battle for the privilage of eating trout eyeballs at Cub Scout day camp, and deemed them yummy. Eeewwww! (Sushi anyone?)

As for the home front, same old, same old. Fabulous Spouse drilled this weekend, and we had Cub Scout splash and jam. Now it is back to football practice and cheerleading. Fabulous Spouse does say that the Oldest Child is beginning to get a decent spiral on his long snap. Woo hoo.

Tomorrow brings us to pens and pencils in our organization prompts…Copics too I assume !-)

Have a great Tuesday!

Organize your Stuff: Week 20 (round 3): Die Cuts Part 2

One of the things that Creative Me loves about this Organize your Stuff Challenge is creating a Layout that showcases what it is we are organizing. Sometimes it is easy, and sometimes it is more of a challenge. Using the Cricut is easy (see last post). However, using my meager stash of premade die cuts that now live in a half filled 12x12 Iris Clamshell (The POW is seriously thinking of buying stock in Iris as we seem to use these clamshells A LOT)...not so much.

So, back Creative Me went to the Wild Asparagus die cuts that are still languishing in die cut Limbo, and finally took them out of the darkness and walked them into the light. Really a little unsure what to do with them, we pulled up our 2 peas website and used our die cuts to complete the Calendar Girls January scraplift challenge for page 2 of the two page layout. The rest just sort of came together!

As for the Cricut Cartridges…OCD Me had grand plans for them. However, Girl Friday had grand plans for an Elephant Family mini album (she has many many stuffed elephants), and PA Me was more than happy to make sure that Girl Friday and Creative Me got quality time together, especially if meant no organizing. However, the POW was not going to let PA Me get this week too sidetracked and snuck OCD Me the label maker, so that OCD Me could feel like some progress was made… even if it was not much. Now all the Cricut Cartridges are labeled and restacked in their cabinet, a little more organized.

Just in case you were wondering… PA Me and the Inner Hoarder were laughing until they got stitches in their sides and totally unattractive snot bubbles came out their noses while watching the POW hold OCD Me back during Girl Friday’s creative time. While Creative Me was encouraging Girl Friday to use acrylic paint and glimmer mist, OCD Me was ready to go all Mommy Dearest with a coat hanger. LOL! It is amazing how used one gets to staying in the lines and matching papers so the edges match just right… this was much more…organic… yes, we will go with that…organic. Nobody got hurt, even when Girl Friday used the paper piercer to get xyron glue boogers out of her Cricut letters… (although the POW did have to practically sit on OCD Me when Girl Friday put the letters on the pages all catty wompus ) Here it is in all of its 6 year old creative glory. Now the POW has to unload the digital camera as Illusive Middle Child now wants a mini album too…(except his will be legos, not elephants). Wish us Luck! See you on Tuesday for Week 21: Pens and Pencils.

Organize your Stuff: Week 20 (round 3): Die Cuts Part 1

This week is another Vintage Week at Tuesday Trio! Here is Sketch #50 (designed by fellow DT-Michal Shoval) and my Design Team entry. Just so you know, Fabulous Spouse performed an intervention and has taken my Kaisercraft pearls away. So, no more swirls until the Inner Hoarder can sneak them back… he thinks that Creative Me has become addicted. So, cross my heart, no pearls for the next two entries…pinky swear! (However, shhhhh... we do still have buttons).

This week is Die Cuts week. Die cuts have evolved SO much since we walked into our first LSS and bought a pre printed pop out title. Anyone remember using those cuticle scissors to try and cut those die cuts down to the black outlines? (back to that kindergarten thing again…white is the enemy). We have been lucky. I have several of those layouts from the 1990s in my finished scrapbooks, but due to budget issues, I never acquired a large cache of these. (The POW says that is because we were introduced to stamps at the same time, and stamps were reusable, so the Inner Hoarder got LOTS of those instead). However, if your Inner Hoarder did not get too sidetracked, this may be something that you need to tackle.

The Inner Hoarder also never got a Sizzix, the next generation of diecuts- make your own! (again, it was a budget thing)... however those Spellbinders dies are SO COOL. By the time that POW was finally convinced that make your own diecuts were worth the investment by the begging and pleading of both Creative Me and the Inner Hoarder, the Cricut had come on the scene! We Love our Cricut with it’s tiny Atari cartridges full of potential. So, since March 2007, whenever Cricut cartridges have gone on sale, the Inner Hoarder has been on the hunt! This is the area that OCD Me really need to organize a little more, so that Creative Me can use them to their full potential!  (currently they are just chucked into a cabinet and Creative Me needs to pull half of them out to find the one she wants.)

Just to inspire you with your die cuts and die cut storage, here are a couple of layouts that Creative Me has been putting together this weekend (during a Two Peas Virtual Crop) for Fabulous Spouse from his Iraq Deployment in 2007… yes, PA Me has just gotten this project to Creative Me. It only took 3.5 years. Three words: bright shiny objects. Actually, three kids who keep doing stuff and the fact that the POW has not figured out how to stop time and catch up on past projects. These still need a bunch of journaling, but you get the idea!

Flight to Kuwait 2007

Cars Cricut Cartridge-Totally loving the Guido that Creative me pieced together!

Camp Virginia, Kuwait

Plantin School Book cartridge-yellow title

Kuwaiti Sunset

Stand & Salute-United We Stand phrase

Plantin School Book-Brackets & orange title

So, off to sort those cartridges and get back to scrapping!  See you later in the week!

Organize your Stuff: Week 20-Diecuts

Ok, the piles upstairs are getting smaller and smaller (as the Inner Hoarder and PA Me keep telling me not to look at the mountains of memorabilia-Week 24), and the dining room gets more and more full.

Here is this week’s layout, as I continue to work on my Easter mini-album.  It's not fancy, but it has a lot of pictures, and four diecuts:

The question of the week is this: Now that we are 2/3 of the way through this experience, how are things coming together for you?

For me, despite the ongoing need for some mental group therapy, things are going very well. I have created a layout or project every week, and I have discovered the wonderful world of blogging (although I am still working at it…OCD Me says I need a Blogging for Dummies manual so that I can do better). I am 90% sure that this hostile takeover is going to end in success! … still ignoring the memorabilia.  It should be added to Vizzini's list: 1)Never fight a land war in Asia, 2)Never go against a Sicilian when Death is on the line, and now 3) Never try to usurp the space of a serious (or not so serious) Scrapbooker, or marriage might be on the line! Yes/No?

I do not have many diecuts. What I do have, have come from crops or my first 2 years of mommy scrapping when diecuts were IT! …not so much any more. The POW thought easy! Just dump most of this into Girl Friday’s stash and call it a day. But the Inner Hoarder can remember that baby layout for the illusive and rarely photographed Middle Child… the Easter layout that never got scrapped because we moved…again.  Wild Asparagus frames and phrases...that are well Wild Asparagus! PA Me started to comfort her, and OCD Me began to stomp her foot, because it is highly unlikely that any of these will see the light of day on a layout which she is overseeing…

Agreeing to disagree, and feeling a little disappointed at not getting to purge, the POW decides to put them in a small cropper hopper sleeve…figuring that eventually the POW will need more room for paper, and at that time the Inner Hoarder and PA Me will get overruled. Token purging- 1 sheet of Valentine diecuts to Girl Friday.

Gearing up for another fight-Pens and Pencils next week