2012 Artisan Design Team Projects for December - Part 2

Part of what we get to play with each month for the Artisan Design Team comes in the form of MDS downloads ... MOST EXCELLENT!! Sooo ... this month I wanted to be sure and take advantage of that and play with some of what we got ...

I have been making a concerted effort in the past few years to make sure that my hubby and I get pictures taken TOGETHER ... too often, one of us (usually ME!) is behind the camera. I realized when I went through some photos of my parents a few years ago that they didn't take enough photos together and want to make sure that I don't end up in the same boat ... so that is where this layout came from ... me and my bestest friend in the WORLD!!

Stamps: Natural Composition Overlays, Freehand Phrases, A Split Second (Splatter 1), Ink Splatter (Splatter 3), Greatest Moments II
Paper: Good Life DSP
Embellishments: More Candid Frames, Piece of Cake (Flags), Fan Fair (Stitching), Mis-Stitched

And SPEAKING of my hubby ... and how he is the BEST ... LOOKIE WHAT HE MADE ME!! (It is actually my Christmas present, but he finished it a little early and hung it up the other night!) Isn't it DIVINE and AMAZING!! OHMYGOSH!! I cannot even BEGIN to tell you how happy this has made me!! HAPPYDANCE!! I haven't finished organizing all of my ribbon in it yet (still sorting and deciding WHAT to keep).

I LOVELOVELOVE how the little dowel allows me to feed the end of my ribbon spool under it. I spent the longest time the morning after he hung it up just sitting and STARING at it after I got the ribbon put in ... this is the BEST EVER!! I guess that is because my hubby is the BEST EVER!! I am one lucky girl!!

And because SOOO many have asked ... I am amending this post to add the dimensions for this lovely ribbon rack:

55" Tall
24" Wide
4 1/4" Shelf Height
3 3/4" Shelf Depth

I am ZE COOLEST!!!

I have had a little secret that I have been hiding under my hat for about SIX months!! For anyone who knows me, keeping a secret about something that I am MUI-MUI excited about is MUI-MUI hard!! But I did a pretty good job with this one!

About mid-September I got an e-mail from Kim Jackson at Stampin' Up (she works on the Stampin' Success magazine). She said she had been sent a link to my blog and wondered if they could feature my stamp room/stamp organization system in Stampin' Success! Was she KIDDING???!!! What??!!??? I immediately replied and said, "DUH!!" (Okay, well maybe not LITERALLY, but I very enthusiastically accepted!)



She and several of her SU buddies came to my house on October 9 and spent over 3 hours taking photos in my room. HOLY COW, BATMAN!! It was soooooo cool!! I actually DID spend a bunch of time the night before re-doing my cardstock files. They had actually been done the same way when I had first set my room up in the fall of 2006, but they were looking kind of dinged up, so I figured if they wanted to use them in any way, it would be good to have 'em cleaned up.




I'm glad I did, 'cause, as you can see, they DID use my cardstock drawer. I feel so honored to be featured on THREE STINKIN' PAGES!! I think I need to PINCH myself (again!!).

I am going to put my color coding system up here once again, because I have been asked by many to share it (and it's kind of hard to read what is in the article, even if you click on the picture!). I punch a 1/2" circle out of the following colors of cardstock, then run them through my Xyron to laminate/sticker 'em:

Outdoors/Nature = Pumpkin Pie
Flowers = Garden Green
Holidays = Real Red
Alphabet Sets = Pretty in Pink
Words/Sentiments = Orchid Opulence
Baby/Juvenile = Bashful Blue
Shapes = YoYo Yellow
Backgrounds/Borders = Green Galore
All Occasion = Taken With Teal

As far as subcategories (where I use a Sharpie and write a letter on the little colored dot) here is what I have:

H=Halloween
V=Valentine's Day
C=Christmas
Su=Summer
W=Winter
F=Fall
T=Tag - which just means any set that uses a tag or a punch (you could just as easily use a P)
4=A set that represents all four seasons
2=a set with a companion set (for example Loads of Love and Loads of Love Accessories) . . . take note, some sets could be a T2, meaning they can be used with a punch AND they have a companion set (such as Little Flowers/Big Flowers)
B=Birthday
G=Get Well
V=Vintage (think "Artifacts")
Wd=Wedding
Fd=Food
DC=sets designed to go with any of the new Sizzix diecuts (Matchbox Messages, for example)
*=Sentiment sets where the sentiment is in a "shape" or sorts (remember "Alphabet Soup" and "Alphabet Stew"?)

And, BTW, the small 1/4" white circle "dot" next to the 1/2" circle colored dot represents a current set. When something retires, I just peel the little white one off. Makes it really easy. I just add the little white one as I get new sets, that way it is really easy to keep track of.

I have been asked by several people how I store my punches and other supplies as well. I will take some photos later this week and share those with you, too!

New Nesties??? NOW What???

First of all, y'all NEED to go and check out Debbie Olson's blog today! She has Sneak Peek #1 for the new Spellbinders dies for ya! Can you say NEW NESTIES???? You are gonna LOVE 'em!!

Thinking Inking

Next, I see people asking, time and again, "How do you store your Nestabilities??" Well, here is how I store MINE! I must note that this was NOT my idea. I had seen something similar on Donna's blog here:

Ruby Slipper's Stamping



These are some HUGE magnetic sheets I got at Bed, Bath and Beyond. They are actually heater vent covers. You get three ENORMOUS vent covers for $9.99! I have a lot of Spellbinders dies, but I use these just for my Nesties. (Stuck 'em up with my ATG gun!)

Also, you can see that I labeled all the dies (I know, I know . . . a little excessive for some, but it helps me so I don't have to look up die numbers and names every time I want to post something that I made with them!). I absolutely LOVE having all my Nestabilities so easily accessible. These are stuck on the inside of a couple of my upper cabinet doors in my craft room. Some of them are a bit over my head (I am, after all, only 5 feet tall!), but I can reach even the ones at the top if I stand on tiptoe a little!





And here are a couple of close up shots so you can (sort of) see the labels!








So, there ya have it! Be sure to check out the sneak peeks every day if you want to enter to get a chance to win some new dies!!

Warning . . . Genius at Work!

Well, well, well . . . I have been chatting over the last several days on a thread on PTI's website about "creative spaces." I just HAD to post a link to my blog where I showed off my own lovely space. Here's a link to that entry for those of ya who missed it:

My Little Slice of Heaven

You can see the how BAD it gets when I am using my creative "genius" from this photo, though!! To be fair, I took this after I had spent HOURS creating projects for submission when I was trying to get on Spellbinders' Design Team last fall (thank the lucky stars that I made it!!)! Sad to say, it looks nearly this bad when I have created just ONE card . . .

Having said that, here is the card I made yesterday for SC182. I LOVE creating cards with a sort of "quilt block" background. This officially completes card #44 on my "Follow the Butterflies" challenge (there is a link and a slideshow on the sidebar for more details). I am seriously wondering how my son feels about getting all these "pretty" butterflies? I warned him back at the beginning of this little project that most of the cards were going to be pretty "girlie" since it has hard to make a "buff" butterfly card! Actually, he has told me more than once how much he enjoys getting them, so I don't worry too much about the "loveliness" of the cards any more!!

Stamps: Fluttering By, Petals & Stems (both by Verve Visual), Out on a Limb Sentiments (Papertrey)
Paper: Basic Black, Whisper White, Groovy Guava, Purely Pomegranate
Ink: Purely Pomegranate, Groovy Guava, Soft Sky, Basic Black
Accessories: 1 3/8" square punch, paper piercing tool, photo corners punch, purely pomegrante double stitch ribbon, dimensionals

I Died & Went to Heaven!

. . . and the sign over the Pearly Gates said "I-K-E-A". Hooray! It's finally here, and man, was it worth the wait! It is a crafter's paradise! A million different ways to store any of your wonderful stuff! My craft room is relatively new (finished last September) and I have been (im)patiently waiting for Ikea so I could get something to store my stamps in! I bought both of the cupboards in the corner, plus an awesome noticeboard (it's kinda like a white board, but it is made of tempered glass - I love it!).

I finally was motivated to organize my stamp sets and thought I would share my "system" . . .


I have 9 color-coded categories. Using my lovely SU cardstock and a Xyron machine, I created little "dots" to color code each stamp set:

Outdoors/Nature = Pumpkin Pie
Flowers = Garden Green
Holidays = Real Red
Alphabet Sets = Pretty in Pink
Words/Sentiments = Orchid Opulence
Baby/Juvenile = Bashful Blue
Shapes = YoYo Yellow
Backgrounds/Borders = Green Galore
All Occasion = Taken With Teal


It is nearly impossible to pigeonhole every stamp set into a specific category, so to make it easier for myself, I used the basic categories listed, then notated specific sets within each category by writing a letter on some of them. For example, in the Outdoors/Nature category, some sets are notated by Season with and "F" for "Fall", "W" for "Winter" and "Su" for Summer. Likewise, in the "Holiday" category, sets are marked with a "C" for "Christmas", "H" for "Halloween" or "V" for "Valentine's Day". Other subcategories are as follows:

Words/Sentiments marked with an asterisk mean that the set contains words or sentiments that are integrated into a shape, as in "Alphabet Soup" or "All in a Row."

All Occasions sets marked with the letter "T" indicate that the set can be used with a tag/punch made by SU. Sets like "Tags & More", "Little Pieces" and "Circle of Friendship" have a "T" on their sticker.

Also in All Occasions, I have noted "B" for any all-birthday set; "G" for "Get Well" sets; "Fd" for sets containing food images; "V" for vintage-type sets (think "Artifacts"); the number "4" when the set is a "four-season" set, such as "All Through the Year"; and the number "2" when the set has a "companion" set, as in "Loads of Love" and "Loads of Love Accessories".

Whew! That's a lot of info! I've tested myself a few times and seem to be able to find what I am looking for. I forgot to mention that the sets are arranged on the shelves by size, just because I find that more aesthetically pleasing. Each size contains sets from all of the categories.

The noticeboard is going to be so much fun to have in my room. I plan to add a list of things I "need" to order, plus I can use it to list upcoming classes, etc. for my stamp groups! Hooray!


Now I just need to go and stamp something!!