Inkin' & Thinkin'

Technique Tuesday & My Scrap Room Clean!

I know it's Technique Tuesday so my technique for this week is to put things back where they belong when you are finished.  Why?  So that you don't have to spend a few days cleaning your room.  Maybe Mom was right when she said if you put it away when you're done with it you'll be able to find it again and your room will always look nice (don't worry, mom, I would never tell them about your craft room!). 

I know it's not really the technique you're looking for but I will be back on track next Tuesday!  LOL! 

So here are some pictures of my craft room (aka The Craft House) when it is actually clean, put away and looking nice.  The pictures ended up blurry for some reason so I apologize for that...I may have been in a hurry to take the pics before class actually started.  Maybe. 

DONE!!!!

So a little over a year ago I decided that I had way too many wood stamps...I know...is that really possible?  But I had 2 shelves that were 8ft tall by 8ft wide full of nothing but wood stamps.  I was running out of room and I wasn't using them because I couldn't find them.  I had them in SU cases and labeled on the end but it was a mess!  So I sold a lot of them...probably close to half of them....to make room for some new stuff (still kicking myself in the butt for that one!). 

That still didn't make me happy so I decided to unmount all of my wood stamps...we're talking almost 3,000 images here!  So I started with the images I rarely used and went from there.  I had dreams of putting them all in CD cases nicely organized in a beautiful library card style armoire.  Then reality sunk in!  ha ha! 

I finally finished this project tonight...every single one of my wood mounted stamps are now remounted on EZ Mount (sunday international) and organized by theme.  I started out putting them into cd cases but soon realized that this would cost me a bundle in cases so I took them all out and started over.

I bought some EZ Ziplock Quart size bags and started sorting my stamps out into categories into them.  Once I had them sorted into categories I bought some 4x6 index cards and started stamping each image onto the cards so I could see what was in the bag.  After I had done this with all the stamps and bags I decided I didn't really like that either so I took the cards out of the bags, put them into a recipe card holder and divided them out by categories.  I wrote the sub-category on the top of each card and wrote the same thing on the coordinating bag of stamps. 

I then stole a sterlite dresser from my children's play room (Barbies need to find a new home now!  ha ha!) to store the bags of stamps.  I was able to fit 3 rows of stamps alphabetically in each drawer by category....this makes me happy! 

So now all I need to do is look in the recipe box for the stamp I want and then simply find the matching bag and retrieve my stamp.  I cannot even begin to tell you how good it feels to have this project completed.  Now I'll just have to keep up with it as I get new stamps. 

Anyone want to volunteer to do the same thing with all my clear stamps?! 

Clean and Cleaner!

So I lost a few things and couldn't find them last week so I decide it was time to clean up this mess!  LOL!  A few befores and afters to make you feel better about your small clutter! 

Ok so apparently I didn't take too many afters....I'll try to do that this week....what a ditz!  LOL!  At least you can relish the fact that my space is messier than yours! 

A Clean Desk is a Beautiful & Funny Thing

I've lost something...well a few things lately and I was determined to find them today....so I started to clean.  I only cleaned off one single desk in my craft house but I did find the things I was missing so it was good.

Now this particular desk is my pile all...well, they all are, but this one especially gathers everything and anything that I can balance on it.   I wish I would have had the foresight to take a before picture, but I didn't know how funny this desk cleaning would become until it was well underway.

This desk has 7 drawers, a paper file on top and a few shelves above it...lots of room for shoving everything!  You wouldn't believe the things I had in that desk....here are just a few things I found funny...you may not, but I did.

First, I found 3 bags of pixie sticks!  I don't even like pixie sticks...why on earth would there be 3 bags of them in a drawer?  I surely must have had a plan at one time...wish I knew what it was.  Guess they are now just sugar for the kids!  LOL!

The next thing I found were a bunch of keys....lots of them....I even found 1 more ring full of them after I took this picture!

After the keys, I decided to take a picture of all the notebooks I had found so far...I did find another 17 mini notebooks/scratch pads after I took the picture.  I also had a very healthy supply of post it notes!

I also have to admit to a crayon addiction....I have always loved them since I was a kid and still have special crayons that I don't let the kids play with!  LOL!  I have the millenium addition of crayons, the 100th anniversary big box, coloring book crayons, crayons brought from Chicago by my sister, twisted crayons, and more!

I have way too many paper clips....6 packages of them plus a little tupperware full of them!  They are all now in this one big tupperware!  LOL!

If you should ever need a highlighter, just let me know.  I have a few extras!

Can you believe that I had 5 staplers, 6 boxes of staples and a staple puller in the various drawers of my desk?

Now for the thing that surprised me the least....fortune cookie fortunes!  I have these in my ashtray in my car, in my purse, in my nightstand, my jewelry box...pretty much everywhere!  I don't know what it is about these things but I never ever throw them away....call it superstition or crazy...but I always keep my fortune...Someday I will make a collage (or wallpaper my room) with them!  LOL!

And if you've been with this post this long, you deserve to see a picture of the clean desk!  LOL! 

   

ps.  I found that I had doubled my zig pen collection somehow...seriously...cut it down from 8 containers to 4 just by taking out the duplicates!  Now that is sick!

pps.  Notice the Autumn Leaves calendar?  It's still on January 1, 2008 because I refuse to change it until I do it!  I made a goal to complete the challenges this year...we shall see!