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!