Organize you Stuff Week 22 & 23 (round 2): Dies and templates

Wow it has been a busy week out here in the non scrapbooking part of my Universe! I braved a weekend at the 8th largest Fair in the World-the Puyallup Fair…or so they say (I don’t think that you would make it up for 8th place…for third place maybe) with the three kids and just myself and managed to return with all three kids and nobody grounded, cub scouts, boy scouts, missed girl scouts-oops, the first football game for Oldest Child ever in which he played (to be scrapbooked soon), Fabulous Spouse returned from his trip to Japan, and we have Middle School Open house.

To make it less stressful, I joined a six week layout “Glee Club" at Dixie Pieces. You too can join-tell them Scrappnbee sent you and I get 2 points *smile*! It is a lot of fun. This week is The Beatles. There are several Beatles song titles from which to choose. I chose “Ticket to Ride”. You will have to imagine that my layout is here, as Costco lost my file last night, and the photo machine is down this morning and a tech won’t be at the store to fix it until tomorrow. It is that darned Murphy’s Law thing again. Darned you Murphy!!!

Use the force, and imagine that this is Fair Pictures with a whimsical yellow submarine 1970s-ish flare (that’s how it looks in my mind anyways). I promise to post it before midnight Friday, as that is when this week’s challenge closes.

Oh, also good news to share! My apple tree greeting card won the Layout #33 Challenge at Tuesday Trio (Yeahhh!) The POW is so excited she is virtually doing cartwheels and I think that OCD Me is ready to hit her.

As for the dies and templates… My cricut is the only thing that I have. Fortunately…or un-, I never got into the diecut machines prior to the cricut release. I think that was mostly due to some greater realization by the POW that, at the time, I had a laundry basket and a Rubbermaid bin for all of my scrapbooking storage, and dies and templates would just eat up too much space. Besides, most of my local scrapbook stores had dies if I truly needed it, and I am more a stamper than a die cutter. (Sorry die cut fans). Here is my Cricut Expressions at home in the scrapbook room. The cartridges are tucked away nearby for ease of access as I have not made the leap to a Gypsy yet…someday maybe.

Organize your Stuff: Week 21-Pens

To all of my blog readers, I am again sorry for going missing in action this week. It is the end of the school year and PA me has taken over as the POW is held captive to all of the end of year activities, and has been unble to escape.

Just this week we had Little League (twice), Boy Scouts (twice), Cub Scouts bridging, Spring Band Concert…oh, and a birthday and anniversary. Yes, I am making excuses. Yes, I got up every morning, looked at my little shoebox of pens and pencils and markers. Yes, I continued downstairs without touching them to go receive intravenous caffeine from my coffee pot, and then went off to work without a backwards glance. I did not log on to 2 peas in a bucket, because then I’d have to fess up that I was behind. My pictures sat too. I did not finish, I am sad to say, until this morning. Here it is though:

The inspiration is from Audrey Neal’s be AUDacious: The Open Book: Challenge 2, Beside a Burning Sea.  It actually looks like a good book, but right now I haven't had the time to read...only us the cover for inspiration for our camping trip....but here is the link for those who need a summer book club...

http://audneal.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/05/the-open-book-challenge-2-beside-a-burning-sea.html they are doing a book club for scrapbookers.  I started with book 2, as I am like 900th on the list at the library for book 1(it is probably on he Opah book club list or something) and there was no wait for book 2.

The flowers are all 5/8 inch circle punches that have been folded…kind of cool. Maybe?

So pens are downstairs… still in their sterlite shoebox. LO…for last week that I am blogging now, is done, and there are still 2 ½ weeks of school until summer. Oh, and I signed up for 52 Card Pick Up (because I am totally crazy...I blame you Fabulous Crisann...not really) from big picture scrapbooking and will be working on that now too… I am already behind—Thank you PA Me!

Well off to do my other scrapbooking homework!

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

Organize your Stuff: Week 19- Chipboard

Happy Mother’s Day Week to all of you who use being a mom as your excuse to scrapbook (don’t worry that’s the reason I do it too *wink*). This week is chipboard, and to be honest, it is one of my newest most used tools. Last year I discovered the world of handmade mini-albums. They are the cool answer to that 400 photo long weekend… you know the ones. For this “layout” the POW has forced me to step it up and start the family Easter vacation to California (I started with a kit from http://www.scrapyardchicks.com/ using jillybean soup papers and enhanced it with We R Memory Keepers). Here is the cover with a chipboard tulip (itinerary on the flip side), chipboard letters wrapped with wire and beads on another chipboard page, and finally… the start of the photos on the inside.

Question of the Week: How do you decorate your chipboard?

Usually I adhere paper on top and either leave the edges naked or ink them. Girl Friday likes to play in paint to much. However, on occasion, I do break out the paint, and for the above pics, the edges are painted and the C and A are as well.

Here is the tiny stash of unused chipboard that I have. Chipboard also lives in my scrap class bag, and I have a request in with Fabulous Spouse for a case of chipboard from U-line for my birthday! OCD Me barely had to lift a finger…I think she actually yawned at this tiny stash, the Inner Hoarder laughed and PA Me did not even bother to play.

Die cuts/ cut outs for next week…only 9 weeks left!

Organize your Stuff: Week 18 Tools & Adhesive

Question of the Week: What is your must have tool? Mine is my perfect layers tool. I used it this week… I use it any week something is matted. If you are among the many saying what is a perfect layers tool? It looks like a ruler, but is notched the length of the ruler to give you an exact strait edge to the depth you want (Currently, exclusively at HSN, used to be on QVC when they did scrapbooking). Slap a picture anywhere on paper, put a (insert fraction here) inch side pressed along the edge of the photo, use an exacto blade along the edge of the perfect layer…

Voila! Perfect mat!

Every time we start a broad category like this, my Inner Hoarder starts having fits. She is convinced that that something that I got somewhere will get purged down to that donate pile or...*gasp*be shared with Girl Friday (translate: will be broken or lost within 72 hours). However, since I do scrap regularly (now), and I have always cropped, OCD Me was quick to comfort her since that part of the week…like so many of the others recently, she has already finished. This was not enough for the POW, however.

So, this morning, the POW re-read Zen Master Wookiemouse’s blog. Yes, OCD Me told her, it says tools, and I got the tools organized…We are done! Nope. The POW was sure that she had seen something…yes, there it was. When the Fabulous Crisann has listed her version of the weeks as links in the initial post of each week, she had posted Week 18: Tools and Adhesives. I hate the POW.

Adesives!?! During clean sweep week, OCD Me made a huge pile of those things, because there was no Adhesives week. Now the POW wants me to get up and really do something for the first time in weeks! PA Me is not happy. She has been doing pretty good these past few weeks, doing a layout, taking a few pictures, maybe straitening up a little… She and OCD Me have actually been getting along.

So, upstairs I went to tackle the mountain of adhesives which OCD had collected just a short 15 weeks ago… It is a BIG pile, but it is mostly Xyron, so it really is just a matter of finding room in the hutch. Still, PA Me kept trying to remind me that laundry still needed to be done-- I reminded her laundry… move boxes… laundry… move boxes. Boxes won.

Now 11 weeks to go…Next week-Chipboard.

Organize your Stuff: Week 17 Punches

Punches! Woo Hoo! Another Easy week! (Sorry, my internal monologue was damaged in the unfreezing process…) My Inner Hoarder is sticking her tongue out right now as punches are currently the IT thing in scrapbooking classes. The POW is just happy that OCD Me took initiative in December, and re-organized. Again it is that everything old is new again…but with a twist!


Here is my layout for this week…

Question of the Week: Are punches Old school? Nahh! A Cricut can do a lot… and a Cricut with after market software can do even more, but seriously, am I going to let that technology loose with Girl Friday?! …and then there is the portability issue… I find it easier to grab my Iris cases of punches for a crop or class than to haul out my Cricut Expression, cartridges, cords, extension cords, and fit it into my 3 feet of crop space with everything else… OCD Me has the punches sorted into three 12x12 Iris cases: punches, corners, and borders.

 

I store these cases on the “printer” shelf of the hutch (which was part of Fabulous Spouse’s office at the last house… I guess I did a hostile takeover of that too…).



Here is some of the detail work possible with punches. Like a wedding, it is a combination of something old, and something new, with the new border punches… I triple layered three Martha Stewart border punches, with each strip ¼ inch shorter than the one behind it.

And the old Fiskars border punch-Leave it to Weaver with some .99 ribbon from Michaels (which I got for .25 in November)…

Next week is tools, and PA me is already cutting therapy to work with the Inner Hoarder on a strategy for that one!

Organize your Stuff Challenge: Week 16: Paints, glitter, stickles

Fortunately, as my life hits the trifecta of being overworked, over-played (with schlepping 3 kids to 2 sports, 2 scouts, 2 religious ed programs, all day grown-up scout wilderness training, mass…) and underwhelmed to deal with my over-messy home (PA me is tired and exherting her willpower)…I came upon another week that OCD Me and the POW have already taken care of.  Short of brining my stuf down stairs to enter my scrap space, I was pretty much done.  Time for a Layout..

Question of the Week: If you could have only one, what would it be? For me- paint. It is cheap, a multi- tasker (a la Alton Brown of the Food Network), and it crosses over into my kids life/ arts and crafts. I do not own much glitter (3 bottles of clearance holiday Martha Stewart glitter), or much in the way of stickles 2-crystal and 1 distressed brown Tim Holtz. (*gasp*) I know… Inner hoarder hasn’t heard about these yet!

I do like stickles though, because it can add the bling that you crave in this phase of your scrapbooking evolution, without paying the double or triple cost of getting the paper pre-glittered/ embossed.

For my layout this week, I used Little Yellow Bicycle, but opted out of the cooler… but more expensive paper, and created my own…

Next week... it is on to punches...

Organize your Stuff Challenge: Weeks 14 & 15- crops, inks, and embossing powder

Let me first start by apologizing for taking last week off. We were in Monterey, CA to celebrate Easter, and unfortunately, the Easter Bunny did not drop off free WiFi with the Easter eggs and chocolate bunnies. However, we did get lots of pictures (and a few minor boulders passing as pebbles from Pebble Beach and the 17 mile drive) for future layouts… but for this entry, I am still scrapping February…

Here, I finally found an excuse to use some of that mulberry paper I found during paper week, but haven’t used since 2003! …and Inner Harder feels vindicated… in person this actually looks really cool, as the edges were touched with Versa Mark ink and gold embossing powder. …and then just like that (and bell bottoms and leggings)… something old is new again…

As for crops (Week 14), the POW and OCD Me have this one mastered! The first rule to crops: have enough storage. Here in the Pacific Northwest, that means bags too… as you have a 75% chance of rain or greater, September through June. My first bag, the purple one on the left was from 2005, when I went to my first 3 day crop and the POW realized that I did my best work from 1AM to about 5AM…just like term papers in college… hmmm… Next came the wooden shelving…a must. When it comes to crops… when you can’t spread out, spread up! OCD Me definitely endorses Zen Master Wookiemouse and the need to preplan layouts. I have yet to under plan, but I definitely get more accomplished with a plan… and without it, OCD Me SO over packs!!!

Now, on to Week 15… The first part of this week is a progress check of before and present…

All of my voices agree that we are making progress, and even better, Fabulous Spouse thinks that it is looking good too. As for inks and embossing OCD Me tackled that ages ago. She is a firm believer in saving for storage, as it will make your life your life easier in the end. Therefore, the embossing powders live in a sterlite container with the embossing gun and one of my several versa mark pads. Most of my inks are in one of my two carousels, and the re-inkers are on a shelf in the hutch that they sit upon.

And, so that is week 14 and 15! Next week is paint, glitter and stickles.

Scrap your Stuff Challenge: Week 13 Stamps

For me, this is it. The infamous Week 13- Stamps. Thirteen is such a confidence inspiring number… Apollo 13… Friday the 13th …but… (let’s put PA Me back in the box for a minute). The question of the week was, how many individual stamps do you have? Seriously?! As I have alluded to in the past, if there is any one thing that is my downfall in scrapbooking , it is stamps. Crisann the Fabulous- can you say Triskaidekaphobia? Don’t you realize that it is never a good thing to make an addict, with no real desire to change, confront their addiction? Or roll around in it like Scrooge MacDuck in his money vault, reveling in the largess?

This was a throwdown that both PA Me and OCD Me could really get into. As you will see in the photos later, I am not totally unorganized, so counting wasn’t hard. It was just time consuming. I actually broke out the excel spreadsheet to do the math…and me and my laptop began to count… one box at a time. One block stamp…ah ha ha…two block stamp… ah ha ha… (In hind sight, I’d rather be cookie monster).

Cookie monster in mind, and with the prodding of a very nervous Inner Hoarder, it was eventually dinner time on Monday, and I had to stop, or I would never get done. Those uncounted stamps, which I have declared my absentee ballots… are waiting in reserve in 2 little baskets, in case someone comes to challenge my total…4,881 individual stamps. If needs be, I have my hanging chads in reserve, but I am fairly confident that I am a full fledged cirosis of the wallet, hard core, stamp addict.

Here is my layout…

My boxes aren’t any more organized (sorry, Zen Master Wookiemouse), and I did order more stamps today (sorry Fabulous Spouse)… but I at least have a starting place (thank you artist-ju for the stamped idea album idea).

Organize your Stuff Challenge: Week 12 Ribbons & Fibers

First, I would like to tackle the Question of the Week for this week by our moderator, Crisann the Fabulous: Remember during the first three weeks of this challenge when we worked through the space audit/brainstorming/clean slate challenges? Is your studio transforming into what you envisioned or have you changed directions along the way?

Realistically, the answer is a definite maybe. I am almost halfway through my hostile takeover of the Dining Room, and the mess that I cleaned up at the end of week 3 is back, and I am fighting insurgents planted by both Fabulous Spouse (piles of mail and memorabilia) and Girl Friday (a 5 yr olds crafting mess runneth over and over and over). As I reintroduce items to my scrapbook room, I realize that in my mind (like many scrapbookers…I think) I have much more storage available than in reality. According to my Inner Hoarder, I do not have an excessive amount of anything (except stamps, but we will deal with that next week). However, I am still completing at least one layout a week, and usually incorporating something from whatever week it is, and I do not feel out of the loop while doing it. Here is this week’s layout, using DMC floss to “connect-the-dots.”

As for this week, for many people, it can be daunting. Ribbons, threads, and fibers…when left to their own devices… can overwhelm a scrap space and become a snarled mess to rival any jewelry drawer. Some, left unchecked, can multiply in the dark (I have seen it happen). Fortunately, or un, while I have a healthy amount of fibers and ribbons in my scrapbooking, I have yet to succumb to a full grown fiber fetish (partially because I think that Fabulous Spouse hides in a corner going “this is not the ribbon you are looking for…move along” in his best Jedi voice).

Those ribbons, fibers and threads that I do have, OCD Me has corralled for the most part (well more than half, at any rate). However, as OCD me always tries to tell PA me, there is always room for improvement. …and lets face it, there are some ribbons, etc that have escaped their tackle box prison, and others that are still at large, having never been captured, tamed, and kenneled with its kin. This is my before ribbons… Like OCD Me said, not bad- but could be better.

So, I sat down with my unruly ribbons and got to work. At some point, Girl Friday got a hold of my camera and here is an unflattering picture of me (post bathroom cleaning and mid ribbon wrangling). It was a few hours worth of work, especially when OCD Me got the idea mid-organization to sort by color rather than thread/fiber type. I also had gotten a $1.50 Clearance jar, and this was to be the home for those ribbons who were still on spools and needed a home. Eventually, I may put together some sort of dowel system, but between swim lessons, little league, boy & cub scouts, and church functions… reality and PA Me have to put their feet down. So, for now, here is my after, not perfect, but getting better.

Organize your Stuff Challenge: Week 11 Stickers and Rub On's

Well, this week was stickers and rub on's.  As I have alluded to in the past, and will become embarrassingly evident when we hit stamps week, I am a stamp girl, and have been since the late '90's (yes, I am that old/young).  I do have a few though...  Okay, maybe a few more than that.  Girl Friday was more than willing to help me purge though.  Inner Hoarder went back to her corner to rock this week, because there is nothing more devistating to her than letting go of a sheet of Sandylion or Mrs Grossmans from 1999, that she knows that she will need tomorrow...or someday... and Girl Friday has used them ALL in less than 4.2 seconds on one piece of paper, that she then cut up, glued on top of itself, then (as a well trained Pacific Northwesterner) put in the recycle-ables before I could even take a pic!

I was inspired, however, to use my Star Wars rub ons to do this Star Wars in Concert Layout...and yes, I did actually use 12 separate pictures for the left page! BTW-trying to figure out what picture to cut from the layout was part of my delay posting this week.  Finally, I decided to use them all!

Question of the week from Crisann the Fabulous, is this: Are you enjoying the process of the Organization Challenge.  Honestly...yes.  The griping that goes on is part of the catharsis, and the fact that it is really just easier to complain and lament work, than to say "yeah, sure that was totally easy".  We all know that person and subconsiously hate her.  I have accomplished more in this 11 weeks than I ever though that I could.  Fabulous Spouse is actually impressed, and more involved than I thought he would be.  Girl Friday is excited and as inspired as a 5 yr old can be, and I really feel like I am claiming a useful space.  (I may even graduate from Procrastinators Annon...never mind.  It will never happen.)

This is my before pic for the stickers.  My main goal was to reduce my stickers so that they all fit into this one Iris case, and to do it quickly before the Inner Hoarder went into a full on massive corinary due to Fraud, Waiste, and Abuse by Girl Friday (who felt that she had won the 5yr old and under Little Girl Lottery).

The rub-ons I kept, even though most of them were crop freebies (to keep Inner Hoarder happy).  The rest went smoothly.  PA Me got OCD Me briefly distracted with the lure of a Crop in Style Sticker Binder, but in the end, just decided to stick with my bin for now (Maybe for 2011?....be quiet OCD Me!).

So, with Girl Friday in th Crafter's version of a sugar coma, I had my stickers and rub ons contained, and another week behind me, and another relatively easy week ahead. (Thank goodness, as Little League Season has started!!!)

Organize your Stuff Challenge: Weeks 9 & 10 Embellishments & Alphas

Whew!  What a week!  I finally caught up to the Scrapbook your Stuff Challenge, only to have my blog hit counter hijack my site and and redirect me to the yellow pages every time I clicked on it. *grrrrrrr*

However, my site is fixed (yeahhh!), and here is my layout from this week (using some of my alphas).

So, this week I started embellishments.  Wow.  If there is one thing that I seem to have a lot of... ok I have a lot of, well, a lot of stuff... and one of those things is embellishments.  The POW and OCD me worked well together, and had a plan for all of the maddness... and they took lots of pctures.

I began by emptying all of my crop bags (I have 3 of them) into a 70 gallon Sterlite bin.  I added the pile of embelishment from upstairs, and the stray embellishments that have been taking vacations in my dining room, scoping out the joint, and checking out the neighborhood.  Now, for someone whose scrapbooking storage consisted of a closet until 22 months ago, it was a pretty full bin.  Next to it is my two Close to My Heart embellishment trays (sorted by color), my brad container from the fishing department at Wal Mart, and some other bins from failed organizing.

After I did this, OCD me took charge which was OK.  Group therapy is working, and the Inner Hoarder and PA Me still have the magazines from idea week to play with and distract them.  Everything that was not CTMH was sorted ino sub categories all over my floor.  Since this is the main hallway, and I knew that Girl Friday was in hiding, waiting to pounce on any weak or straggling embellishments, this spurred me on to complete the task as quickly as possible.

Fortunately or un, OCD Me has flitted in and out of my scrapbooking life since I began, and so my brads (minus a few strays) were already sorted, envelopes were together, same with buttons, never got many flowers, but beads and eyelettes were everywhere.  That was where OCD Me and the POW spent most of their energy.  Fabulous spouse, having hit a low point in sports, found it entertaining to watch...and help...and fend off stealth attacks by Girl Friday (although some beads did give their lives so that the rest could live).  Here is the before and after.

This actually took about 3 hours, but there were SO many little beads, and tiny brads, and eyelettes!

From there it only took another hour or so to get the rest put together and into "temporary" storage (the tax return has not come in yet).  The Inner Hoarder was actually impressed...yet again... at how OCD Me can organize a big pile of stuff into a little one without purging. ...What can I say... its a gift!...

What made my day though, was that there really was nothing to do for week 10.  I am an acrylic stamp junkie and so my Alpha stickers are few.  OCD Me already had them living happily together in a Cropper Hopper Pouch, and so all I had to do was take this picture and call Week 10 done as well!