Sunday's Alz is spick and span ...
How many of you are diligent when it comes to housework? Honestly? How many of you are diligent about keeping your scrapping space in order? Honestly? Come on ... really truly pinky swear???
Hi my name is Alz and I am an Orderly Organisation Obsessive. Ask anyone who has been to my place to scrap about how well things are organised. Ask GB what a difficult time I have 'cleaning up' after someone who has been scrapping at my place and using my stash. In case you were wondering,
no LOL I don't have an Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. It's just that everything has a place and in its place it shall/should be.
I've always been 'into' organisation. In fact it might as well be my second name. These days though, its become more and more important for me if I'm to use my stash to the best of my (and its) ability. So everything which has been unpacked has a place and is clearly labelled. Like is stored with like. If everything was just stored away, even like with like, but not labelled I'd have a devil of a time remembering (a) what I had and (b) where it was stored. My MS has slowly eaten away at some grey matter integral to memory. As a result I heavily rely on visual prompts. So if I'm to remember that I have stamps, and to use them, I need them stored and labelled in such a way that they're easy for me to access.
Similarly, for products that are stored 'like with like', I need to have them grouped and/or catalogued. I have just recently catalogued all my die-cutting equipment. Actually nope that's a lie. I'm yet to catalogue my Cuttlebug dies and embossing folders. Anyway an image of all my dies is on my Mac, which is not only great for house inventory purposes, but it also helps me to clearly see what I've got in the way of, say, Bigz dies. I now need to create a catalogue which splits the dies into 'type' categories like flourishes, birds, flowers, etc, which will make life even easier. It may seem complicated and time consuming but it won't be, as the hard yakka has already been done. The images of the dies are already there on my Mac.
When I recently culled and sorted my clear acrylic stamps I sorted them into the following groups and stored them accordingly:
- Travel, Love and Sport
- Robots, Aliens and Monsters
- Journaling and Borders
- Alphabets and MM (Making Memories) Magnetic sets
- Card sentiments and Christmas
- Quotes, Sayings and Words
- Birds and Butterflies etc
- Botanicals and Flourishes etc
- Page elements (eg, architecture, arrows and photo corners etc)
- Foam stamps and Acrylic blocks
This may seem a little (or a lot) 'Over The Top' to some of you but I have had a plethora of clear acrylic stamps ready and waiting to be used for a looooong time, but have never used them. Why? Because most of the time I didn't know what I had or where to find it. Now I do. Now I've rectified that situation I can, and do, incorporate stamping into my paper crafting.
Sure it's taking me a little while to get used to, but just yesterday I used three journaling stamps when creating a layout. Incidentally, by referring to my die-cutting catalogue, I also used five Sizzix dies and a Quickutz die. Whilst I'm at it I'll make mention of the the four Tim Holtz Distress Inks I used. "Distress Inks?" I hear you question LOL.
I'm a total Tim Holtz junkie and have all of his Distress Inks, Embossing Powders, Distress Crackle Paints, Alcohol Inks, yahda yahda yayda. They are all tucked away in their appropriate, purpose-built Tim Holtz containers. They are all labelled on the outside as to their contents. However I am no longer able to remember, for example, which colours make up the original versus the second release of Distress Inks nor what the colours even are. Seriously, I love and use
all the colours of my Distress Inks (that's just a quick justification for having them all LOL!) but if I want a green ink I don't want to have to get out both storage tins and all the greens and sample them all to make a decision on what to use. Likewise for his other products. It's too time-consuming and I'm a slow scrapper at the best of times. The answer? Sample charts ...
I cannot recommend sample charts for any and all products you have, highly enough. You don't need to have a complete range of a particular product for a sample chart. In addition to my Tim Holtz Distress Inks I have a large number of other, mixed brand ink pads from my card making days. I intend (one of these days ... like the Cuttlebug dies I guess and [LOL] organising my die-cutting catalogue by 'type') to make a sample chart of those too. I still use them so they are still relevant. I'll probably end up doing something similar with my paints. My punches I don't need to worry so much about because for the most part they are Stampin' Up! punches and having the Stampin' Up! catalogue, well I already have a sample chart.
Are you getting the 'gist'? Organising your stash and keeping your scrap place clean (we'll address that some other Sunday!) makes scrapping enormously easier. It helps you make the most of your stash, you know, really get your monies worth, and prevents you from doubling up on products that can do the same thing or are the same thing (as the case may be!).
cardstock and left it to dry, or I used a VersaMark ink pad to press directly onto cardstock and then heat embossed the Embossing Powders. When it came to the Distress Crackle Paints I simply painted an area large enough for the size punch I knew I was going to use to punch out my sample. Incidentally, I used a 1.0" circle punch for my samples. "Why the 1.0"?" I hear you say? Because it fit easily in my Xyron 150 and so enabled me to turn my samples into quick and easy to use stickers. Now seriously ... how easy is something like that to do ... really?
Okay, well I'm off to use my Distress Inks sample chart to figure out which inks will work best with the new MME Stella Rose collection (Spiced Marmalade is looking good for starters) which I'm about to make a card with ... oh that and have breakfast too. Wishing you all a peaceful Sunday ...
