Random on Purpose

Organization Update

I was reading the "Weekly Inkling" newsletter from Splitcoast Stampers yesterday, and there was a link to a thread about storing/using embellishments, and I read some of that, then clicked over here to the blog to find my posts on that subject so I could join the conversation, only to realize that all the information I'd shared previously was OLD and OBSOLETE!  Since I've shared the paper mess, I may as well update you on the rest, right?  "Say hello to my leetle friend..."

 

This handy-dandy little item is available at WalMart and AC Moore (possibly other places, but those two for sure), and has a price tag of around $9.  After you fill it up with your treasures it looks like this:

 

As you can see, it holds a TON of stuff!  I have paper clips, brads, dewdrops, sequins, buttons, eyelets, gems, etc. in there!  Here are the different-sized containers included:

 

I sort everything by color (obviously), and currently have five of these babies all filled up!  When I need an embellishment I can just pull the color I require and see right away what options I have.  One of the cool things about these organizers is that you can lay them flat, stand them up like a suitcase, or stand them on end with the handles facing out, so you can put them pretty much anywhere!

Since I don't mount my stamps, I also don't store them in the clamshell containers they come in, so I have a huge stash of them.  They're sort of like Scraponizers, and come in handy for a number of things:

 Flowers organized by color

  Chipboard organized by shape/style

  Punched/die cut shapes

  Small punches or other tools

  Stickles, embossing powders, etc.

Thread

  Sewing supplies

  Buttons

Any number of things, like I said!  Those buttons are two containers of about ten or twelve from the button-sorting episode - sorry I took so long to show you what I did with them.  I still have more buttons lurking in one of my Rubbermaid totes in storage, so I'll probably have about twenty of these babies when all is said and done!

What I like about these clamshells is that I can stack them on top of each other, file them in a drawer, or line them up like books on a shelf - so versatile - AND I can see what's in them in a quick second!  I'm contemplating ways to have all the everythings of each color together - not sure if it'll be drawers or shelves or what, but I know it'll be VISIBLE, at least when I'm crafting or working!  Maybe an armoire so I can close it up when I don't want to see everything...  Further info on that when I finalize the plan...

I'm getting a little stoked because we got word TODAY that it looks like we'll finally be able to close on our house - probably Monday or Tuesday!  Finally!  The down side is that we have to move everything out of the apartment Sunday and clean on Monday so we can turn our keys in and everything.  If we don't close until Tuesday, we'll be spending the night in a motel, I'm guessin'!  I've got a few things packed, but didn't really want to go nuts with the packing if this house deal fell through and we had to start over looking for someplace else to buy.  Guess what I'll be doing the next couple of days?  Can you say "frantic"?  Ah well, it'll be worth it!

I'll take "before" and "after" pics of the house so you can see what fun I'm having decorating my own place for a change, instead of everyone else's!  I don't know about the rest of the house, but I have the color scheme and general idea of what I want for my sewing/crafting/workroom - go figure!  Unfortunately, that'll probably be one of the last places I get to deal with!

Okay, enough of the blogging for today - I've got packing to do!  I hope some of this organizing info sparks a thought or two for you...  Have a great evening, and I'll be back when I can!  Thanks for stopping by!

Confessions of a Paper Hoarder

Wondering where I've been?  As Inigo Montoya says in The Princess Bride:  "Lemme 'splain...  No, there is too much - lemme sum up..."

We've been on hold for weeks waiting for the seller of the house we're buying to clear up some serious issues she had (back taxes, liens, foreclosure possibilities, etc.), but all of a sudden things are in motion and have to be done RIGHT NOW!!!  Phone calls galore, gathering documents, etc., etc., so there's that...

Greg's co-worker had a beautiful golden retriever that had twelve puppies(!), then passed away (ruptured uterus, anemia - very sad), so Chris and his wife have been playing mommy to all these wee ones.  Chris had to take this week off because some (maybe all) of the puppies are ill, and his wife already took a week off, so I stepped in to help with a huge painting job, so there's that...

Every time I say out loud that I'm caught up with my "regular job", it goes nuts and I'm buried again - you'd think I'd learn - so there's that...

Since it looks like we'll be closing (and moving) in the next week, I obviously have to get things at least semi-organized so I can pack and "shift house" as my friend from New Zealand called it, so there's that...

Elderly people have the same attention span and retention as the very, very young, I'm finding out, and therefore need constant reminding and help.  Much confusion about a form and where it may have gone to and who is it from and what am I looking for, etc., etc.- at least twelve calls between last night and this afternoon, seriously!  Also questions like "what's the best thing to do for constipation?  for diarrhea?" plus the update when the issue is resolved (apparently I need to know - yeah!)  It would be very comical if it wasn't so time-consuming and frustrating (for me and them)!  So, yeah, there's that...

Anyway, that's what has been taking the majority of my time, but as part of the getting organized I had to finish up the paper filing project (scroll down a bit in that post for the pertinent info) .  Here's the update on that:

 

What you are looking at in this picture is ALL of the paper I've been cutting and filing and hole punching and labeling.  The top two are monochromatics and solids (paper only - no cardstock), the lower left is color combos, and the lower right is seasons and holidays.  Here they are stacked up:

 

That stack is 4" high, which doesn't seem like that big a deal until you realize that a ream of paper (500 sheets) is about 2" or less.  Just in case there is still a question in your mind that this is a serious issue over here in Sue-land, bear in mind that this is only the DCWV and Provo Craft papers - I still have Stampin'Up!, Close to My Heart, Basic Grey, Me & My Big Ideas, Cosmo Cricket, etc.!  Yeah - serious trouble here...

The good news is that now I will be able to see what I have very quickly, and also not forget about it because it's too much trouble to plow through all the Cropper Hopper paper holders to see what's what, and I've re-discovered some old stuff that I really, really like!  Know what else?  Paper's kinda like clothes - hang onto it long enough, and it comes back into style!  Hooray for me to have some 'trendy" stuff without spending a penny (again!)

Okay, enough of this post - gotta go lay my weary head down...  But thanks for stopping by!  I really like the color challenge this week (there's RED), so I may have to knock something out quickly if I get a chance in between things!  G'night!

Still Love My Guy!

Today's color challenge on Splitcoast was Close to Cocoa/Taken With Teal/Very Vanilla, which is a very cool color combo, and sort of leaning towards masculine, which was the CAS (Clean And Simple) challenge yesterday.  I decided to combine the two and came up with this:

 

The only stamping involved is what's inside the designer label holder - a flourish from Studio G, and the sentiment from Stampin'Up!'s You & Moi set.  I freehand cut a little heart to pop up there, too.  The dp is reeeeeaalllly old Provo Craft (I'm talkin' six years or so!), but I thought the colors were about right, and it wasn't too fussy for a masculine card...

I finally got a decent paper trimmer, so I went back to getting all of my stacks and stacks of papers trimmed and filed, and I've discovered some great stuff I'd forgotten I had!  I'm not too concerned about "trendy", so I'll probably start using a lot of it, too!  Woo hoo!

On another note:  As I go about the business of the day, many/most of the projects require minimal attention and/or brain power, so I do a lot of mulling and pondering and such-like (you'd think I could've figured out the problems of the world by now, eh?).  Much of what I ponder is how my life has gone/is going and what I've learned from it all and how I can apply it going forward and what I should share with my offspring to help them along in their journey, etc.  Not always that deep, but often enough to say so...

Anyway, since I was making a card for Greg to remind him that he's still my favorite, I started thinking about our journey together and all.  We never "dated" when we were first getting to know each other - we just hung out.  Our conversations were long and the subjects of them far-flung, and I was head-over for him in a VERY short period of time!  He took a little longer to feel the same way (or at least to admit it), but we were together for two years before we got married.  We went through SO MUCH in those two years, that we figured if we weatherd all that mess, we were good to go!  Know what?  We were - and we ARE!  I'm still all twitterpated almost 18 years later!  He's truly my best friend, and I enjoy his company over everyone else I know!

I've had many experiences with friends - even members of my family - saying what a great couple we are and what a great relationship we have.  Some have gone so far as to admit that they were jealous of what we have together!  Pretty cool, huh?

I'm not really sure why I decided to share that info with you all tonight...  I guess I figured that it's a good thing to acknowledge the things you're really thankful for, and I feel truly blessed to have this man in my life.  He truly has no enemies, and is so much more careful and considerate in dealing with others than I am!  I mean well, but sometimes the way I phrase things comes out different (and worse) than how it is in my head.  I'm learning from him and trying to do better...

I guess that's enough blathering for tonight - I hope your monitor isn't dripping goo at this point from all this syrupy sentimentality!  Thanks for stopping by, and have a great night!  Ta!

The Paper Chef, Part 2

I decided when yesterday went the way it did that I wouldn't be able to do all of the challenges for the Virtual Stamp Night, so I cut myself some slack and chose to just fit a few of them in between all of the other things going on this weekend.  That took all the pressure off, and allowed me to actually enjoy the process instead of worrying about an outcome.  I think that there were fourteen challenges total, but I only did half of them.  Here are today's efforts:

 

This was for the "Ham and Swiss on Rye" challenge to use pink and yellow and include a clear element (preferably a "window" of some type).  I made a little hanging frame with some paper-covered cardboard.  I cut an oval out of the center with my Creative Memories shape cutting system (still one of my go-to tools) and backed the opening with a transparency.  The striped paper is only attached at the sides and bottom, so I can slide a picture in from the top.  I wish I could tell you who made the cute papers - I think they're Provo Craft, but they're really old, and I just don't remember...

 

This challenge was titled "Paula Deen, the Queen" - apparently of fried chicken and butter...  We were to use brown and yellow, and include crumpled paper in the project.  I may have gone a tad overboard on the scissor-distressing of all my edges here, but that's the look I was going for, so I'm all good with it!  I reprised the bleach technique to stamp my cowboy (SU! Bronc Buster) on Soft Suede cardstock (Stampin'Up!), resulting in Crushed Curry (also SU!).  I crumpled some close-to-Crushed-Curry dp from Basic Grey and inked it with both Crushed Curry and Soft Suede ink, then set a few eyelets for the braiding cord to run through.

 

This challenge was "Olive and Artichoke Stuffed Ravioli" - use Old Olive and Always Artichoke, and both a scallop-edge punch and a paper crimper.  My olive panel is crimped, even though it's hard to see in the picture.  The backgrounds are SU! En Francais, The leaf silhouettes are SU! Kind and Caring Thoughts, and the sentiment is Close to My Heart Because I Love You.

 

This was a "Foil Dinner" challenge - take the "foil" (metallic embossing powders) and throw it in the "fire" (heat gun).  I used gold tinsel and copper embossing powders, and also a "happy accident" powder that resulted when I inadvertently mixed burgundy powder with the copper.  The leaves are CTMH Autumn Splendor and the sentiment is SU! Holidays & Wishes.  I stamped the leaves on kraft cardstock, and everything is matted with SU! Bravo Burgundy.

The last one that I managed to complete was "Knife Skills", where we were to cut the elements for the card in various different ways:

 

I used my Sizzix Double Heart Embosslit again, and also did the scallop circle punch cut down into wings trick again.  I used five different punches - apron lace border, photo corner, scallop circle, 1/8" circle, and butterfly.  I also gave my new Nestabilities a whirl.  I needed time to read how to do it right before winging it, but oh well - I'll figure out the embossing step a different day...  I added some stubble tool sponging to the wings, and some regular sponging around the edges of some of the elements.  The sentiment is from one of the Inkadinkado mini sets.  Again - don't know about the papers, but the ink and cardstock are SU! Purely Pomegranate.

I think that pretty much wraps it up, which is a good thing, since I'm fading fast!  Thanks for stopping by, and I'll be back again soon!

The Paper Chef, Part 1

Last night from 6-10 pm, and again today from 1-10 pm, Splitcoast Stampers is having a Virtual Stamp Night, with a new challenge every hour.  You have 45 minutes to complete the challenge, and until 10 pm Sunday to upload your creations to the gallery.  You can see all of the challenges HERE.

I was planning on participating, but so far I've only managed two of the challenges.  The first was for "Orchid Soup" - we had to use a flower image and a circle to make our card:

 

Stamps: Stampin'Up! Time Well Spent; Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black; Paper: Kraft, Black; Accessories: Bic Markers, Prismacolor white pencil, Sakura white Gelly Roll pen, ribbon, bling

I colored three different flowers from the same set with Bic markers, cut them out, and layered them with pop dots for dimension (leaves, too).  I doodled around the black circle with a white gel pen just for some interest.  The "Friends" is colored first with white Prismacolor pencil, then with green Bic marker oer it (the marker just soaked into the kraft cardstock and looked like not much, so that was my solution).  The sentiment stamp really does have flowers where I put the bling, but I didn't want to color them - I thought this would have more impact or something.  I had to trim my ribbon tails shorter than usual to accomodate the sentiment, too.

The other one I finished was for a "Balsamic Vinegar Martini" (sounds AWFUL), where the colors were to be black, white, red and orange, and no embellishment was allowed - just texture.  I came up with this:

 

Paper: Stampin'Up! Real Red, Only Orange, black, white; Ink: Close to My Heart black distress ink; Accessories: Sizzix Top Note Die, Cuttlebug birds and branches embossing folder and decorative squares mini embossing folder

I cut a white Top Note and ran it through the Cuttlebug with the birds and branches folder, then inked it up with black distress ink.  I also embossed some schtuff on the orange strip.  I embossed a little red bird and cut it out, too.

I've been chasing all day, and we're going down to the Chick-N-Wing Festival at the Inner Harbor tonight to see Blue Oyster Cult (Don't Fear the Reaper, I'm Burnin' For You), so I'll have to play tomorrow to do the others.  See ya later - 'bye!

Don't Fade Away!

Corny, I know, but that's the name of the color challenge I'm hosting on Splitcoast today.  Why, you may ask?  Because we're using bleach!  Yeah - that's not a color...  To get enlightened, click HERE.  Basically, we're stamping with bleach on our primary color of cardstock and using the resulting faded-out color as our secondary color.  I used Close to Cocoa, which faded out to So Saffron: 

   

Stamps: Stampin'Up! Always, Bella Toile, Botanicals, and Sweet Thing; Ink: SU! Close to Cocoa and So Saffron; Paper: SU! Close to Cocoa and So Saffron; Accessories: Ribbon, bleach

This is a super-simple technique, and I think the results are pretty darn cool!  Give it a try and shoot me an email or a link with the result!  Okay - WAAAAAY past my bedtime, so I'm going now...  Have a great day!

A Sleepy Early Bird...

Today's Featured Stamper on Splitcoast is sleepyinseattle.  She has a great gallery, and I've saved quite a few of her cards to my favorites folder.  I chose this one to CASE to make this:

   

I used some more of the great Cosmo Cricket Early Bird paper and a strip of Basic Grey Urban Prairie.  I used the Poppin' Pastels technique, since I'm so un-good at the coloring with markers thing and I wanted to have several colors goin' on...  Not much else to say - I'm sure you recognize a lot of the "stuff" I used here.  There is one new thing I wanted to share - the scissors I used to trim around the red oval are from the kids' art department!  They are made by Fiskars, and are called "Kidzsors".  There are several styles - these are the 'ladybug' ones...fun!

I don't know if I'll post anything tomorrow, but keep an eye out Tuesday - I'm guest-hosting the color challenge on Splitcoast!  See you there (I hope)!  Thanks for stopping by!

Sweetest

I should have gone to bed HOURS ago (it's 2:16 am EDT), but I was determined to finish the project I started before work yesterday (although to me it still feels like the same day, since there's been no "overnight" to make it feel like a different one, ya know what I mean?)  Anyway, the project was for the "limited supplies" challenge on Splitcoast, and it was all about food.  Stampin'Up! names all of their colors with clever titles like Melon Mambo and Baja Breeze and Green Galore and quite a few of them are edible - Barely Banana, Certainly Celery, Always Artichoke, etc.  One of the limits today was to use only the colors that included something edible.  The other limit was that the image we used as a focal point had to be edible, too.  I made this set:

 

The colors are Certainly Celery, Melon Mambo and Pale Plum.  I also used Very Vanilla as the card bases and as curly labels to stamp and color my images on.  The sweetie pie and love muffin are from The Cat's Pajamas (Puppy Love and Love Mew, respectively), the little baby cakes are a cupcake from Inkadinkado's Bad or Fattening mini set, the lips are from their Heartful of Love set, and the sentiments for those two are from a Studio G set.  I used my brand new Sizzix Double Heart Embosslit to make the hearts (der!)  You probably recogonize the swiss dots embossing folder and ScorPal/threading water punch border, since I've done those MANY times before!  The images are colored with markers and colored pencils (with baby oil to blend the pencils).

Sorry the picture's murky, but it's NIGHTTIME and I don't have good lighting to take a decent pic, and when I tried to edit this one to make it brighter and better contrast and all, the colors got all weirded out!  I may motivate and take a better one, but probably not...

Okay, that's enough - I'm hittin' the hay now.  G'night!

The Early Bird Meets the Frog

...and gets some flowers in the bargain!  I know, I'm odd - I've told you already!  Anyway - I wasn't lovin' the first card I made and posted earlier (scroll down to see what I mean), so I gave it another go, and I'm MUCH happier with this one:

 

Stamps: Stampin'Up! A Flower For All Seasons and Smorgasborders; Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black; Paper: Cosmo Cricket Early Bird dp, Stampin'Up! Bermuda Bay; Accessories: Ribbon, sewing machine, paper flower, mini brad, Bic and Prismacolor markers

The colors look a little mismatched in the pic - I promise they look better in real life!  Anyway, Early Bird is the name of the papers I used, and the frog is obviously part of the image, as are the flowers, so that explains my opening blurb.  I pleated and stitched the ribbon this morning, thinking I would use it on the first card, but it wasn't working how I had it in my head, so I left it off.  I like it MUCH better here! 

Okay - that's it for me (again) tonight!  Have a great one, and thanks for stopping by!

All Things Bright and Beautiful

I decided to give the "ways to use it" challenge a try today.  We were to incorporate pleats somewhere on our project, so I pleated a strip of cardstock all wonky and stamped it to make this:

 

Stamps: K & Company Greenhouse; Ink: K & Co green and red, Close to My Heart Sunflower and Breeze; Paper: Stampin'Up! Rose Red, DCWV Green Stack dp; Accessories: Sewing machine, spiral clips, white gel pen

The card seems a little plain and/or unfinished to me, but everything I tried to add (ribbon, dewdrops, etc) just made it worse, so I left it alone.  I gave my own handwriting a try for the sentiment...  I've had my eye on this little stamp set for a loooong time, and finally got around to bringing it home when it went on clearance - my fave!  The red and green ink pads (mini) came with the stamps.  Just too cute!  There were a few other images in the set, too, but I just decided on these for this time around.

A little update on Brenda:  She's from a small town in rural Pennsylvania ("Pennsyltucky", she called it), so that's where her funeral and burial will be tomorrow.  Four of our friends drove out to "represent" for all of us.  The guy that pulled out (I thought it was a woman - the name was Michelle - but the paper said "he") was ticketed for "failure to yield" (what about "vehicular manslaughter"?)  At least this opens the door for a settlement for Brenda's sons...  Another death the day after Brenda, too - same thing "I didn't see him".  Question: How well did you look?  Everyone is in such a hurry any more that they just sort of glance-and-go!  Anyway...

On a completely different subject:  I was reading a thread on Splitcoast about trends and what did you used to love that you think is silly now and that sort of thing, and several people said that they had gone through and re-done all of their scrapbooks because the "early days" of scrapbooking were so awful.  Are you kidding me?!  Isn't the progress of the art form and your/my proficiency in it a part of the story?  If we're going to be truthful storytellers, shouldn't that be included?  We don't Photoshop our funky hairdos and clothes from "back in the day" to look more trendy, so why re-do the scrapbooks we put those funky pictures in?  Hmmm?

I also don't understand people who get rid of pictures of their ex-spouse or - worse - cut them out of the pictures.  That's all part of the story, too.  I maybe don't love my ex now, but my children still do, and they deserve to have him depicted appropriately in their scrapbooks.  He's part of my story, too, and I learned a lot from him.  Not every chapter in every book you read is a happy one, and not every sad chapter is without it's bright moments, so why just trash that whole section?  I don't get it...  I don't know who's strange here - me or them.  Of course, that's sort of the theme of my life - am I weird and so you don't get me, or are you weird and so I don't get you, or are we all our own brand of weird and so we struggle to get each other?  The mysteries I ponder...

Okay, I think I'm done "randomizing" for the day!  Thanks for stopping by, and see you again soon (I hope)!