Organize your Stuff: Week 22 (round 3): Dies Part 1

International Blog Candy!

First, the Infomercial: This week at Tuesday Trio, we are proud to announce a new Design Team Member: Zehavit Shaked! And in honor of her joining, we are having an international Blog Hop! …with Blog Candy! That’s right ladies! You too could win a small package of paper crafting goodness from this site and each of the other Design Team blogs as well!

Sound too good to be true! No! This is no Sham-Wow! This is an honest to goodness freebie!  No shipping and handling required! All you need to do, is 1) become a follower. These are their rules not ours, sorry... and 2) post the answer to the following question: What area do you most need help organizing (scrapbook related…I do not do hall closets, pantries, or under the kids beds…the sock monster lives there and he scares me)? At the end of the Blog Hop, we will random number generator a winner. It does not matter where you live. If you can receive mail, you can enter! Now back to your regular programming…

Here is my Design Team Card for Sketch 52 this week at Tuesday Trio. The bonus challenge it to use glitter.  It has glimmer mist from Tattered Angels that the photograph just does not pick up.  Bummer! Creative Me has forgotten how messy glitter can be…It is like sand from the beach...it just gets everywhere...and you can still find remnants six months later.  Another hiccup, Creative Mee failed to account for how slow the glue can dry when it is raining nonstop and just damp out. The POW thinks that rain is OK. We could be like the rest of the United States and be under FEET of snow!

As for dies… the Inner Hoarder has never really taken to die cutting machines. That is why we have our Cricut (see Week 20: Dies Part 1 & Part 2).  The love was done on the Cricut machine. This leaves me with this little guy. Believe it or not, Creative Me won this as the Grand Prize at a crop. We got a ticket for each layout completed. With our Irish luck (yes, we are part Irish…and therefore Murphy’s Law applies in almost any given situation), we won the one prize that we would not use. It has been out of the box once since…

My challenge to myself this week… break out this sucker and use it for my layout… and find it a home in the scrap room! Well, that, finally get Illusive Middle Child's mini album done, and homemade Valentines Day cards for Girl Friday (who is not happy that the Illusive Middle Child has entered her scrapping kingdom).  Also, February's One Little Word homework should be up! Speaking of OLW,  they are blog hopping too today (and I am the last link!) Here is my Word Inspiratioin mini...why we chose Embrace, and here is our completed January homework!  Creative Me will be busy this week, so wish us luck!

(resuming infomercial voice) Here are the other bloggers in the Tuesday Trio Blog Hop:
 
Dailly http://www.tapuz.co.il/blog/userblog.asp?foldername=daillyg
Chen http://cheniros.blogspot.com/
Orli http://orlishamir.blogspot.com/
Shir http://shir-benovich.blogspot.com/
Zehavit http://zehavitshaked.blogspot.com/
Maya http://mayadahan.blogspot.com/

Organize your Stuff: Week 21 (round 3): Pens and Pencils Part 3?

Ok here it is! Creative Me’s opus. Ok, Ok . It is not that great. However, considering that this was a weekend (CHA weekend!!!) in the middle of a household of three active children, a layout is indeed a feat of miraculous proportions.

For those of you who were wondering… no, Illusive Middle Child did not place in his pinewood derby. He actually only made it to the finish line only one out of three tries, as one of his wheels was sticking. So the POW has been on the Ego repair and recovery team all weekend, and we let him pick the pizza and the movie for Pizza and a Movie Night on Saturday.

The Illusive Middle Child mini album is in process. OCD Me has not said anything untoward, even after the eighth time that Illusive Middle Child managed to screw up the ATG gun by rolling towards than away from himself. We feel like Wesley from the Princess Bride (if you have not seen this Netflix it now, it is THE movie from my generation…well one of the top 10 anyways…) calling out “as you wish” while being pushed into the Fire Swamp by his obviously misguided love. Seriously, it is hard not to go Mommy Dearest with your child as they play with all of your most favorite toys (I know, shame on me for sharing my favorite toys in the first place. But if we don’t share now, how can he get in trouble for not sharing later?)

Well the layout is up, as promised. So we hope that you enjoy! Note: Creative Me has currently decided that white pens are totally cool and used them to write under the large photo!

Heads up for Tuesday…dies week! (According to Wookiemouse, Dies and Die Cuts are not in the same category…though as a not big owner of non Cricut dies I tend to disagree). You either have mountains or not much at all!

Organize your Stuff: Week 21 (round 3): Pens and Pencils Part 2

All right everyone, the POW is sad to report, that there is no new layout today. We will strive to have one posted by Sunday though. Creative Me fully intended to create one (the pictures are printed and everything). However, it just did not happen. PA Me had Creative Me tied up with The Illusive Middle Child all week, trying to make him feel less like… a middle child… by working on his mini album (not complete yet… The Illusive Middle Child does not create at the same frenetic pace as Girl Friday). Also, this week was the ever arduous Pinewood Derby car turn in (race tonight).

For those not blessed with a brother or son in Boy Scouts (or Boy Scouts of America at any rate), the Pinewood Derby is when boys are supposed to channel their Creative Me and Inner Handyman and transform a block of wood into a racing car…then race it. At some point, it devolved into a looped episode featuring Tim the Tool Man Taylor (coltishly chanting “more power ah ah ah ah”). In a testosterone laden battle (that usually involves the boys maybe being able to touch the block of wood at some point) of male and tool prowess, fathers go to extremes to “help” their boys win. We have Boeing engineers as dads in our Pack (seriously for real aeronautical and structural engineers!).

Did the POW mention that Fabulous Spouse was out of town on travel? No worries! Super Grampy and Illusive Middle Child made their car this summer (so that Illusive Middle Child could actually…make it-totally novel concept, I know). He has more patience than we do. We just needed to machine the wheels and axels, add weights (cannibalized from last year’s car) and have the wheels added… Here is Illusive Middle Child putting on his wheels himself (*gasp*). We have already had the “someone needs to come in last talk” but that is OK as he came in 2nd in his den last year, and that was just a mom and me car all child made! So Scouts Tuesday (weigh in, registration, drivers license photo), Thursday (Pack meeting) … and tonight (the big RACE)! Oh, and the Boeing engineers have totally tricked out the track so that it runs by computer and calculates down to .001 second race times…seriously.

Also, the POW finally had a book come into the library that had been on hold like forever, and the POW is ashamed to say that when she went to read the first chapter, PA Me took over, and we read the whole thing (up until 3 am…)! So, In honor of the Pinewood Derby, here is my layout from last year…note the numbers are permanent marker on white brads, so PA Me is convinced that it counts.

As for pens and pencils, OCD Me keeps them in two places right now. The ink pens that match my ink pads live in the side of my ink caddy.  They are not too far from my seat, so creative me can grab them when needed.

The rest live in my tool bag. This is their home because unil this week, OCD Me had not discovered a better solution.

However, Fabulously Crafty Mel (scrappn usmc from 2 Peas) has the coolest storage idea, that OCD Me wants to steal, and it will make anyone’s Inner Hoarder just shout with joy and participate and collect stuff. She must be at least a green belt in Zen Master Wookiemouse organization, because she is a much better organizer. Voila! A Crystal Light container caddy!

We all ready have one! Inner Hoarder is super excited. OCD Me has cleared a space for it on the desk. The POW just shakes her head. It is not too big of a reveal…but it’s a start. Mel also has copics.  Click here to see!

Have a great weekend!  Will get that layout up!

Organize your Stuff: Week 21 (round 3): Pens and Pencils Part 1

This week starts off with another card for Tuesday Trio (Sketch #51). The theme for the sketch was hidden tags, but with the upcoming (or is it impending?) Valentine’s Day, Creative Me (currently going through pearl withdrawal. Fabulous spouse performed an intervention last week, and the withdrawl process has not been going well.) decided that we needed some candy in lieu of bling! Mmmmm…candy…. Is it really fair to have the Super Bowl and Valentines so close to December?

Sue, a.k.a. Midwest girl- you may note that while I no longer have sticky pearls…there are still plenty of swirls. Yes, my name is Scrappnbee and I have a problem. But seriously, it looks kind of cool! For this card, Creative Me brought out all of her current addictions…dots and swirls (using best PBS voice: brought to you today by a white gel pen), butterflies, brads, flowers, and GLIMMERMIST! Seriously, it is like going to the Dark Side without the nasty side effects of super wrinkles and red eyes or black chrome and asthma.

Creative Me can do a lot, but OCD Me says freehanding symmetry is not one of them. So, here is Creative Me cutting up some butterfly paper which she had glued to thin chipboard to make a mask for the card (or is it a stencil?). Don’t use the good stuff. Inner Hoarder says that this chipboard comes courtesy of Costco…free gift with purchase when you purchase enlargements.

Then these chipboard butterflies were strategically placed on the card base…Don’t over think this part.

Spray with glimmermist by Tattered Angels.  This is your chance to go all Jackson Polluck or unleash the Anti-OCD Me! Then, Creative me removed the chipboard, and put another lighter layer of glimmermist, but the outline of butterflies remains! (and the paper now has a shimmery sueded look).


Then Embellish! Use pearls, rhinestones, or your pens if you too are in rehab due to your current overdependence on the first two!  Creative Me originally went without the swirls, as you can see, but the card was just a little too plain!

As for pens and pencils , now is the time to do a health check. Pop in your Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and get out a piece of scrap paper (or junk mail envelopes) and determine whether or not these pens are dead or alive… “I’m not dead yet…” This is good for two reasons. One, your inner OCD Me gets to feel like she has accomplished something, and your Inner Hoarder will get to make a list for that 40% off coupon from your big box store. Besides, it is never cool to go to journal and realize that someone (Girl Friday) “borrowed” your best journaling pen, and now the nib is cracked and a little dried out…

Also, how are you going to store your pens and pencils? Do they live in your tool bag? Do they live in a container of like colors (all reds) or same brand/type (copics with copics, watercolor pencils all together, ink pens together)? Girl Friday keeps hers here in another Iris 12x12 Clamshell, and it is just a big… party… in there… pencils, markers, crayons, legos, playdough and more. The POW will reveal our pen and pencil solutions at the end of the week.

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 19 (round 3): Chipboard part 2

This week the layout Creative Me was working on her homework for the Ali Edwards One Little Word class. This was kind of fun, as Fabulous Spouse and the POW spent an evening on dueling laptops trying to find the perfect quote (OCD Me cut and pasted a two page word file of alternate quotes in case we need them later). Very ironically,we felt that one by Dean Koontz (Horror/ thriller novelist) spoke most to us. Does that mean that we need therapy?

When the POW and OCD Me were done with all the bookwork part of the assignment, then Creative Me broke out Illusive Middle Child’s old set of Crayola watercolors. Personally, she has been spending too much time in Girl Friday’s Kindergarten where we must zap the white! White paper is the enemy!…and over half of the page was covered in it! …maybe we should cut back on volunteering with little ones.

The POW, who is always a little concerned when Creative Me starts rooting around in the kids’ school supplies, is actually quite pleased in how this turned out. If you had told the POW that this layout would have sparkly Thickers, chipboard, beads, buttons, flowers, magic mesh, jeweled brads, punches, fabric boarder stickers and watercolors…she would have laughed, and said that it would look like a scrapbook store threw up on it! However, I think that the POW underestimates Creative Me sometimes, and this turned out well.

For half a minute, Creative Me thought of using the sewing machine again on the bottom left square, but OCD Me barred the way. OCD Me reminded Creative Me that the sewing machine is still in solitary confinement to think about her tension issues and receive help that we cannot provide. If we tried to deal with her right now, the sewing machine would probably end up with the death penalty (and it would be a violent and messy death). So, no machine stitching, just this little bit on the chipboard "e".

As for chipboard, my tiny stash is firmly tucked away. Again, therapy is probably in my future, because OCD Me would just look at this pile and be at a loss. There is not much free space left in the scrap room, and really, there aren’t enough pieces (Inner Hoarder, this is not an invitation to shop…seriously) to justify a whole “system”…which is really OCD Me’s meat and potatoes. So, while reading Zen Master Wookiemouse’s blog for the umpteenth time (sorry Google translate friends, umpteenth= a lot more times than is healthy or more than four), she was finally inspired.

Wookiemouse had chucked her 3-drawer Sterlite drawers because they were not quite big enough for the really big chipboard pieces, and she had well…a lot! OCD Me goes…THAT’S IT! She runs upstairs to the almost completely empty old scrap room, and finds the empty 3-drawer Sterlite container and brings it down stairs. Five minutes later, OCD Me is done. There are now three categories for chipboard pieces in the Scrappnbee Scraproom: alphabets, shapes, and finished pieces (alphabets and shapes). Plus, there is room to spare.  So, here it is above, and it is great because my ATG Gun and scrap bin fit right on top!