MWT: Glitter Free Bling

I need to adjust my card making a bit to work on holiday specific cards and make sure they are done in advance of their deadlines. The Father's Day deadline is still a couple of months away so I think I'll safely have this one in on time.

Stamp ~EK Success • Denim Paper ~Paper Wishes • Embossing Folder ~ Tim Holtz  • Star Sequins & Ribbon from my stash

Happy Crafting Everyone!

Sketch #105 and the MWT

I've got a long "to do" list so I'm going to keep this post short. This is for the Midweek Challenge of Black & White with a Pop of Color.

Thank You Stamp: EK Success - Edge Punch: Martha Stewart

Text Paper: An Old Dictionary bought at a used bookstore

This one is based on this week's Sketch Challenge #105. After seeing Allison's second kicked-up card I decided that I wanted to take it up a notch too. I had just finished coloring a few of these digi stamps (you can get Sandy's OWH State Stamps here) so it worked out perfectly.

Happy Crafting Everyone!

Organizing Craft Supplies

I don't have a dedicated crafting space so in some way organization is even more important because I need to keep all of my supplies tucked away in limited amount of space but yet they need to be easily accessible so I can unpack and pack up before and and after a crafting session. Because the room I use doubles as a bedroom it's also important to me that it feels uncluttered when crafting isn't going on so I have most everything stored in closed cabinets and boxes. Fortunately organization is something that comes very natural to me.

This set of white cubes holds the majority of my supplies organized into clear plastic bins. Each cube measures about 17". Though the space is pretty small I've managed to fit a whole lot of stuff in there. Two of the large plastic bins hold the bulk (about 170 sets, mostly older StampinUp) of my rubber stamp collection that I unmounted from their wood to cling cushion and placed on index sheets.

 

Two other large bin hold 50+ punches, most of which are the EK Success Slim Line Design. Once I found OWH and started spending a lot more time crafting it was only natural to want to have more to craft with and I made some obvious choices like un-mounting my stamps and selling my older bulky style punces and replacing them with their slim line counterparts.

The smaller plastic bins contain Ribbon, Ink Pads, Acrylic Blocks, Adhesives, Embossing Powders & Heat Gun. For small odds-n-ends stuff I use some clear StampingUp clamshell cases that actually fit nicely into a bigger bin. I also find the clamshell cases are great for holding half finished cards in progress.


The basket and bin at the top contain some fine art supplies (I painted watercolors for quite a few years), some items like re-inkers that I don't need to get to very often and some a few items that I need to think about passing on to someone who will and can use them. My Tonic cutter rests between the two baskets.

This set of decorative boxes contain my Sizzix Big Shot, Embossing Folders, Dies, Clear Stamps, Pre-folded Card Bases, Pre-Cut Solid and Printed Papers. I am fortunate to have access to a large, professional style cutter  at my place of work (a print shop) and I have found that cutting paper down to 4 x 5.25 and storing them in these basic photos boxes works well for me. For the printed sheets I buy 12"x12" papers and can cut 6 from each sheet and so since I often make 6 of a card design that works out well too.

My Spellbinders dies are stored in their original sleeve with a piece of magnet (sold in office supply stores in sticky back 8.5x11 size sheets) cut and stuck to the inside to hold the dies in place.

The last piece of my organization puzzle is one of the multi-pocketed totes from Michael's that holds my most used supplies like my ATG Gun, Decorative Scissors, Cutting Mat, Rulers, Brads/Eyelets, Distressing Tools and more. It's amazing how much this tote can comfortably hold.

I do use boxes and small containers to organize supplies within this tote. A kids oversize pencil box holds adhesives for quick access. Three compartmentalized, plastic locking boxes hold eyelets, brads and other tiny embellishments. A small cardboard box contains my distressing kit I created from 3 small $1 ink pads, Colorbox Chalk Re-Inkers (in 3 shades of brown, a light, medium and dark shade) and Tsukineko Foam Daubbers each marked for it's corresponding color. Using these smaller cases within the tote makes it much easier for me to be able to grab for just the right item quickly.

I won't lie I would absolutely LOVE to have a dedicate craft room. It would be great not to have to set up a table and to be able to spread out all my goodies and not have to constantly pack and unpack but after finding my "crafting cause" in 2008 when I found OWH (then Cards for Heroes) I knew right then and there that I wasn't about to let a lack of space keep me from my appointed mission.

Happy Crafting Everyone!

Three Cards for Three Challenges

Here's my card entry for the monthly "Our Daily Bread Design" (ODBD) Challenge. The challenge was to use 3 patterns on the same card. If we reach 50 entries ODBD will generously pay shipping costs for 2 large boxes. The deadline is February 4th.

This is for the MWT "Floral Fantasy" Challenge and it uses a sentiment from the new OWH Hero Arts stamps set called Year Round Sentiments. As is the case with all these cards, the papers, ribbons and embellishments are all from a long collected stash that I a determined to use up completely.

Lastly, this one is my interpretation of this week's OWH Sketch Challenge #104. Though I typically try to  stay as close to the original sketch as possible, this time I moved and altered stuff but I think it's still obviously based on the sketch.

Happy Crafting Everyone!

Back in the Saddle & A Free Thank You Sentiment

Getting started again after the holidays has not been easy this year but I finally did manage to make 6 thank you cards this weekend. Each card used the same clip art image and sentiment but the designs were all a bit different from one another. Here are two of them.

The sentiment is one I created myself quite some time ago. I like creating sentiments like this one that work easily with standard punches. Here it is if you'd like it...

As always feel free to use my freebies in any of your crafting projects. Post a link back here if you'd like to share it but please do not sell it, repost it or claim it as your own. Just click on it and then use the 'save as' command to save it to your computer.

Happy Crafting Everyone!