Organizing Embellishments?? Yikes!!

It's a good thing I shared my obsession with boxes, because that got me into this one... which is a mess. In a  blog I follow, Jamie's Stamping Cafe, Jamie wrote about organizing her buttons in rainbow order. I love that! She put hers in salt shakers and they look great while helping her find things. So, with this idea in mind I decided to tackle my box of "stuff." I can't do it like Jamie did, I need help!! My collection is not just buttons, it's all kinds of other stuff... and I don't know what else to put it/them in after I sort them... and if I sort them by color, will I be able to find stuff? There are all kinds of things, so sorting by theme wouldn't work, at least I don't think so. I'm at a loss here. (The stupid futon is still in my way and it's not flat, so I had to lay down some felt so it wouldn't roll off. I really hate this thing. We don't need two spare beds! I HAVE to convince my husband that we don't need it, or at least NOT IN MY STUDIO)

I think I'll just leave them out on the futon until I figure it out, maybe one of you will give me a good idea. Hey Jamie!!!

My first attempt at sorting things. There are all kinds of things I forgot I had!

This stuff, I just can't sort. There's not enough of any one type of thing to sort into color or theme, and some of the broken jewelry is large. And then there's that bottle of sand a shells.... what the heck is that doing in there?

What IS IT With Boxes!

I think I'm a box addict. Seriously.

Do you think there is a group for this? Maybe Box Anonymous?

You're laughing, I can hear you. I'm not kidding. I LOVE pretty boxes. I can never have enough of them. I buy pretty boxes. I save pretty boxes that things come in. I even make pretty boxes. Oh, the boxes I made would be wonderful gifts you say? Oh no no no! I can not EVER give them away! Gasp!! Once I make them, then I have to keep them and use them. I know there are much more efficient ways to store things, but I love my boxes.

The Victorian Needle Box. This was an adventure. They are supposed to be covered with fabric, but I saw one like this in Somerset Studio about 10-15 years ago. I HAD to make one. Well, at that time the only place I could find  the pattern was in Canada... on Victoria Island. That's waaayyyy up north in Canada, which is already up north. It was September. I had to wait until the spring when the pass opened up so the mail would go through. I am not kidding. When the nice lady sent me the package I was naturally intent on making one right away. That very day, in fact. Except it took me 2-3 days to get the pieces cut out of mat board and figure out how to construct it. No way would I ever give this one away. Yeah, I know NOW there are patterns all over the internet for this. Probably because everyone else liked it when they saw it in the magazine too. Except, they had the sense to wait until someone figured out an easier way to make one!

This is the outside. Oh and it is on top of another box! A hanging folder box where I store all my cardstock. Of course I had to cover it with the crumpled tissue technique so it would be pretty.

inside the first layer

inside the second layer

The very inside. Geeze I don't even have anything in it!

This had shelf paper in it. It was a gift from a student. It's so pretty, I just had to keep it.

So I use it to store my ribbons.

More boxes

Tee tiny beads, African embellishments, and postcards from Ireland. Yes, I have another huge box for my postcard collection, but I carried this one to Ireland with me and, well those post cards need to stay there. It's just so pretty. Besides I think the postcard collection box is full. I need to make another one.

You think I'm done huh? Nope, not even close.

Some of my online friends store their embellishments in rainbow order and in containers you can see through. They put them out on shelves where they can get to them. One friend even organized her buttons in salt shakers by color. 

I am so ashamed!

This is one drawer in my desk. Every one of these boxes has something in it.

This one is just for cute/whimsical  things. See the only cute things I do are House Mouse.

One of my students gave me this pretty box with ocean pictures, so naturally it has my tiny shells. Don't worry, I have another box with the bigger shells.

This box holds all my eyelet stuff and it has more boxes inside it!!

I decorated this tin with alcohol inks and I just had to use it!! I just love those little round tins. I discovered them several years ago too, and the only place I could find them was in a tool catalog. Now they sell them in all the craft stores.

This is the embarrassing box. It is just stuff. It's not sorted in any kind of order or color. And I call myself an organization freak. Right before she died, my Mom saved this box for me. It's very old and I just like it.

No, this is not all of my boxes. I have MORE.

Do you think there is a treatment for this?

Mouse Trap Note Holder

Here is the result of my playing around with mouse traps. I'm going to give it to my friend Rachael today at lunch, so I had to take a picture of it as the others are not finished  yet. I really stink at taking photos of artwork and cards. I can't for the life of me figure that out. I take good pictures of landscapes and anything outside. Yes, I've tried taking photos of cards outside too. It really does look better in real life. I got the idea from Pinterest. Here is the source: http://dollarstorecrafts.com/2012/02/make-mouse-trap-magnet-clips/

Here's my version. Don't get too excited about the coupon. I've spent my arts and crafts budget for this month. I just need to get tape refills, nothing fun.

Reorganization is Complete

My studio reorganization is now complete, and it made me so happy:) I tried to be finished yesterday, but I saw a three drawer unit on sale in Walmart for 12.88 and it was just crying for me to take it home. I tried to resist, I really did. I walked away and drove home.... and I kept thinking of how that unit would make it so much easier because it has drawers that could be simply pulled out to get to things instead of unstacking and restacking boxes every time I wanted something. Plus, it would allow me to eliminate one of the two layers in a couple desk drawers. That is efficient right? It was only 12 dollars, and it came in blue and you know how I love blue right?. So this morning I went back after it. I practiced my calligraphy skills making labels for the drawers too.

You can see my stash of matboard and foam core on the right leaning up against boxes of Christmas decorations. The tree is in the large box on the left of my stuff.

I won!!!! I organized, and I Played With Mousetraps

I'm so excited!! I won the challenge at Impression Obsession!!! Doin' the Happy Dance:)  I just LOVE their stamp images. I now have a gift certificate and you should have seen me looking at their stamps. I was drooling all over the keyboard:)

No, the mousetraps didn't have any mice in them, they were clean. Otherwise I couldn't have touched them. When I was a kid and lived on a farm, we'd get mice sometimes. Whenever one got caught in the trap, Mom and I would sweep it up into a dust pan and take it to the burn barrel (where we burned paper trash). Then we'd burn the dead mouse, trap and all, with the papers.  We NEVER touched a trap or a dead mouse. Mom said they had germs and were icky and I believed her of course. Oh, so why am I playing with mouse traps? Well I'm making something with new, clean, unused mouse traps. I bought them at Lowes and then took them out to my husband's shop so I could operate on them. I found some plyer grabby thingys and performed a trapectomy. I removed the plastic gizmo that the bait goes on, then, I removed the trigger gadget. Next, I used a sanding block to sand off the picture of a mouse and the words. I remembered to carefully put the tools back where I found them after wiping them off of course. I painted them with spray paint. As soon as they are dry, I'm going to glue a magnet on the back and a stamped image on the front, and put some designs on with my paint pens. Then I'll take them back out to the shop and put some sort of varnish or spray clear coat over the top - which ever I can find. See I don't want to ASK himself,  because then he'll just take over and do it for me. Which takes all the fun out of it ya know? Do you know what I'm making yet?  A note holder! You magnet it to the fridge or the storm door, and the killing/snapper bar holds the paper note for you.

I have been reorganizing my studio and I found the best idea on Pinterest. You take 2-gallon zippy bags and clip them to pant hangers. Then you can hang them in the closet.

Now I can use that wasted space better. The closet in my studio also houses the Christmas ornaments.

All the stuff in these boxes are now in the hanging bags and the box below.

This box holds all my jewelry making stuff and all my Vera Bradley patterns can stay together and be pretty.

I got all my binders and catalogs off the floor, on these shelves, turned the card basket around to the front, and all the boxes that I covered with this book print can be together and match. Yeah, I know I am such a dork!

Spellbinders' Inventory List

Disclaimer: I'm not claiming this is error-free. I don't know about retired dies. I have it in PDF format that my computer can read. Your computer may be MAC, or a different version of Microsoft Windows, or you can be using a different web browser. I hope you will be be able to view it.

A very sweet, generous lady on Split Coast Stampers put this together a while back. Her version was a PDF also and I was not able to convert it to Word so that I could simply add the new dies that just came out. I had to start alllll over, copying Brenda's information then add the new ones. It took me 6 days!

I wanted a list like this because the way Spellbinders' website is organized is difficult for me to use when searching for products that I may want to find a new home for. I guess their organization just doesn't fit my brain. When I saw Brenda's spreadsheet I thought aha! This is something that I can use. I'm not posting it on Split Coast because I saw how Brenda was inundated with requests for various formats and changes and additions. Bless her heart, she worked her tail off to accommodate everyone's special needs. I'm simply not able to do that. I thought if I shared it on my Blog, I could avoid the special requests. I do hope it is something that you can use.   

Spellbinders' inventory list.

Calendar

I saw this on Becca Feeken's website, and made that version below. I thought about working in white, but I love blue! It's been my favorite color since kindergarten. Besides, I'm totally allergic to white. I don't even wear white EVER. Why you ask? If there is a speck of dirt, a drop of ink or a speck of food within a 5 mile radius, it will find its way to my white clothing or artwork. I am a magnet when I'm around white, stains and accidents just find me. I scanned this but the colors don't show well. In real-life it looks better. However, I'm not happy with the front yet. I think I need a different ribbon. Maybe silk to show more contrast. I also have some old jewelry, perhaps a piece of silver-tone would look better behind the bow. I'm going to make some changes tomorrow and I'll post the improved version.

 

Update 3/8/2012: Improved Cover I just finished. Those sparkly fake diamonds are to cover up the glue dots! They were in a piece of old costume jewelry. I just pried them out. I have a friend that saves broken, old, remaining half of lost earrings etc for me. She saves up until she has a box full and passes them on to me. Don't you just love girlfriends?