Operation Organize—Embossing folders

 

Jennifer here with your dose of OPERATION ORGANIZE. Do you guys LOVE your embossing folders as much as I do? It seems like I can not get enough of them. I love to use them to add texture and depth to my cards.

Today I am showing you how I keep them organized and easy to see.

I took a piece of A4 size cardstock (all the same color, just to be consistent). Ran it through the Cuddlebug and embossed a sampler of all the folders. Then I use this super cute polka-dot binder and page protectors (both from Target). The binder is a 8.5 x 5.5 size, so it fits 2 samples perfectly on each page.

I numbered the page in the book and the corresponding embossing folder.
NOW, I can look through my book to find the folder I want. No more fumbling through the folders.

The embossing folders (including the A7 ones) fit PERFECTLY in this CD storage basket.
All of my folders fit in just this one basket. I think it holds about 75.

Now to implement that organization onto a card. I looked through my book and found the folder I wanted, a cloud one by Darcie, #10 in my book. You can buy it here.

I also used the Baby Love stamp set. It contains great stamps that work together or separately. Just look at that rainbow! I can think of a dozen cards I could use just that one on.

(You can buy it here)

I stamped and colored the blue rainbows before I ran it through the Cuddlebug (click on photo to see the embossed clouds better).

Thanks for checking out Operation Organization today. Hope this helps you achieve that organized space.

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Operation Organize: Great Craft Uses for Household Items.

Welcome to Sunday. I hope you had an relaxing and productive weekend. Or was like me and did NOTHING. It felt so good. Jennifer here with your dose of OPERATION ORGANIZE.

Today I am showing you how I use everyday items (and a couple unique) to organize your craft area.

I hope you find a couple that you have never thought of.

JARS... I find I have a lot of them around my house and use them a lot in my craft area.

 

 

You can find these "cheap" cookie jars (the red handle ones)at the thrift stores. Most of the time I find them for under $5.00. They are perfect for the items that you have multiples of. As you see I store my scrabble tiles in one. It looks cool and it is very easy to access. The round one is a vintage candy jar that I got at an occasional sale. I used to store my flowers in it. (remember the flowers that you used on EVERYTHING?!?!).  Now I store my Washi in it. It also looks pretty cool and I can see everything in it. 

(Here is a tip for labeling Washi. Write the manufacturer in side with a sharpie. That way when you make your items used list you know who's Washi it is.)

Magazine Holders

These are the PERFECT size for the Thickers and Alpha stickers. You need to find the wide ones. I found mine at Office Depot. And they hold a lot.

Small Containers

 

I found this Parmesan shaker at a thrift store and it is perfect for my sequins. I also find myself collecting these small tins, I am finally putting them to good use. Add a fun label and store those special items.  

Tool Boxes

Another collection I have tool /tackle /lunch boxes. I love the vintage look and how utilitarian they are. They store a lot and you can stack them. I tend to use each one for a single purpose. Like the one below that just holds my pins. I have one for alcohol inks, small playing cards, wood mounted rubber stamps, jewelry making supplies and October Afternoon wild and journal cards. 

 

Others...

  

Some of my more unique items are vintage receipt holders. You know the kind that you "stab" the paper on.  I store my newest ribbon and washi on them. I have them up on a shelf so no one can hurt themselves with them. And vintage Pyrex colored glass bowls. I love the color and how the items in it are easy accessible.

Don't forget to get a Sneak Peek at the JULY release here! It is #2 in the slide show. The stamps will be available July 24th! Get your shopping list all written.

AND don't forget to join us for the release party on Facebook (here)!

What is a tip you can give our readers on a unique storage item?  Please leave a comment with your tip.

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Operation Organize: Tackling Those Stamp Pads

Welcome to Sunday. How was your 4th of July weekend? Did you get to relax? And maybe even CRAFT? I hope you so!

Jennifer here to help you organize your stamp pads, or at the least help you be more efficient with them. One of my biggest pet peeves is inefficiency. I get bothered by wasted time. So a lot like my dauber post (you can see that here).  I want you do be able to see what you need right away. No need to waste time searching through your stamp pads to find the one you need.

The only materials you will need is— sticker paper (I used some labels we had laying around the office) and your stamp pads.

The fist thing you will need to do is, ink up a section of the sticker paper with your stamp pad color. I used a Kleenex to do this.

Then you will need to cut out strips of the color. Measure the size you will need by using the edge of the stamp pad. I apply the sticker to the long edge of the pad cover, but you might want to use the short edge.

 Then apply the stickers to the edge of covers.

As you can see some of them look white, so I just wrote the name of the color on the sticker.  You could add the names to all of them if you'd like.

I did this stickering to all of my stamp pads.

Gold, Silver, Papertrey Ink (you just need to adjust the size of the sticker to the particular stamp pad).

In this last photo are the Distress Inks that go with the Daubers post from last week.  Instead of using Kleenex to apply the ink to the sticker paper, I used the daubers.

Here are all of the newly stickered stamp pads in their rack. I use an old cassette case to hold my stamp pads. You can find them really really cheap at thrift stores, and come in a variety of sizes).  I also store the pads upside down. (I heard at some point that it was better for the stamp pad, because the ink goes to the top of the pad). No clue if that is right or not.

Now onto a card that shows a little color!  I used the Color Wheel Stamp set and the Distressed Chevron. What great sets!

Don't forget to get a Sneak Peek at the JULY release here! It is #2 in the slide show. The stamps will be available July 24th! Get your shopping list all written.

Also don't forget to join us for the release party on Facebook (here)!


Tell me, Who makes your favorite stamp pads? What do you like about them?

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Operation Organize: Sweet Ink Sampler with Jennifer Stricker

Happy Tuesday! Are we ready for the wonderful 4th Holiday?

What are you going to do? Picnic? Maybe get some crafting in?

I think I am going to get inky! And after I show you this neat way of organizing those sponge daubers you might want to too!

I got new sponge daubers for my Distress Inks. I replaced my blending tools. (I like the sponge daubers instead of the handled blending tools, I have more control of the colors)

I was starting to organize them by labeling them with my beloved ptouch. But, I realized (actually knew) that I am more of a visual person and the labeling was not going to work for me.

WASTED labeling tape (oh well).

I needed to label by showing the color, not just naming the color.

Here's how I did it:

I used the sponge dauber to put a little spot on a strip of sticker paper.  Then I used a  1/2 circle punch to punch out a circle that I then placed on top of the case over the corresponding sponge dauber. 

I LOVE IT!

I did still use my ptouch to put labels of the color around the actual sponge dauber, so I know what color I am using.

Now I can see the color I want. You can purchase the box here.

WoooHooo! I hope I inspired you to organize! Remember to organize in the way that works best for you!

_____________________________

Nicole here - I just love this dauber idea ... and it would work great for this card (and this general technique) that I LOVE to do ... 

You might recall how I used the daubers to create this rainbow look with neon inks. I even made a quick video -


It would be so helpful to have a dauber for each color - I go through daubers fairly fast because they're not assigned to just one color. I know they would last FOREVER if I only used them for one color.

I used the 'Distressed Chevron' for that card - LOVE that background stamp!

Thanks to Jennifer for showing us her organizing tips!

 Happy Stamping and Happy Organizing!
Hugs,
N.


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Operation Organize: Sweet Stamp Storage! with Jennifer Stricker

Happy Sunday everyone! I hope you had a wonderful weekend. It goes way to fast, right?

Jennifer here to help you GET ORGANIZED! This post I am going to focus on organizing your STAMPS! I know we all have a lot of them. It took me about four different systems to finally get it right.

There were a couple things that I had to take into consideration:
1) Space- I did not have table space for them, nor did I have any extra shelf space for them.
2) Accessibility- Will they be out and within reach.
3) Easy to see what I have- They can not be "hidden" in a drawer.
and
4) Have a way to index what I have- I don't want to fumble through the stamps themselves.

Boy....seems like a big task. DON'T worry IT'S NOT.

The first thing I figured out is that I knew I wanted to store my stamps in CD/DVD cases. I bought a few stamp sets a while back that came in CD cases and I thought it was genius. They are thin, don't take up a lot of room, you can see through them and label them.

So I bought CD cases where ever I came across them. I found a majority of them at the Goodwill. I never paid more than a few dollars for them.

Now onto organizing...
I divided my stamps into a few different piles. Design Teams, Holiday and Major Brands.
I first put all of my acrylic stamps in CD cases, then it was onto the wood. YES, I UNMOUNTED WOOD STAMPS. I know a sacrilege. I did keep some of my stamps on wood. Most of my "special" SU ones and the "artsy" ones that I mostly use for display stayed on wood (it just looks better). (Oh, side note: I microwaved the stamp for 10 seconds-rubber side up, and it just pealed off of the block). There is enough residue left that it stays sticky enough for an acrylic block, the wood will be hot.

Onto storage:
I found that I had some narrow space in my scraproom for some sort of racks/stands. Off to the trusty IKEA.

Here is what I bought (see the 2 in the photo):

It is called the Benno DVD Tower. It is really tall and narrow it is just under 8" wide and 80" tall. PERFECT for those wasted spaces in your room. It hold booth CD's and DVD's. I LOVE IT.

Onto indexing:
Now I won't lie this last step is a task. It takes a while, but the effort is well the results.
I stamped ALL of the stamps I have on white paper and put them in sheet protectors in a binder.

Then each CD case is labeled, and the corresponding image in the book labeled the same way.

 

 After all of the images are stamped I put the pages in the correct place in my index binder.

 

Now you have an easy way to see all of your stamps in one place, at your fingertips. The first thing I do now when creating, is grab my binder and look through it to find the images I want. It is SO EASY and convenient.

I hope this helps those who want too /need to organize their stamps. Please share with me what hints you have to a more organized space.

I hope you found this helpful.
Enjoy! Jennifer



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