WOYWW and Organization

In a quest to use more of what I have, I decided recently that unless my Distress Ink Blending Foams were out on my desk along with the ink pads, I was not going to reach for them like I should. I have slowly been collecting the handles to put in the Ranger Inksentials Craft Spinner three tier metal storage stand. I add the handles to mail orders or buy them with coupons.

Here is my desk with the organization project. I decided that until I own handles for every ink colour (ha - not going to happen), I would at least load the ones I have with foams for all the colour families on the colour wheel. I have this great Quilter's Colour Wheel from my old quilting days that served as a guide, with the neutral Antique Linen in the center. 

The first two tiers are full on the spinning rack. The Ranger website has labels for the Distress Inks that I printed out and stuck to the wood bases.

My Distress Inks are on a plastic Lazy Suzan spinning base and sit next to the rack of handles. There is room in the middle for a bottle of Perfect Paper Adhesive.

I may buy another extension for the handle rack - I get them from the Frantic Stamper - if tier three gets filled up. Each tier holds 8 handles. I used to only have three handles and would switch foams out but all that peeling off of the Velcro takes a toll on them and slows down the creativity.

So that's what's on my workdesk this Wednesday. Go to the Stamping Ground to share your desk and see others.

WOYWW 257

Decided to share my fairly clean worktable for the What's on Your Workdesk? Wednesday 257. You can learn about it at the Stamping Ground blog. This is my first time posting.

For the most part this is just capturing all the new things I have added to my space. (There is a resist-stamped background there and an inset die cut message card that I managed to ruin at the last minute by dropping a stamp pad on it - twice!)

The black and white damask tool caddies (left holds all my clear stamp blocks, right holds assorted glues, sprays and rulers) were dirt cheap at Michael's and take up little space for what they do. Just beyond those is my latest fun treat - a Ranger spinner rack (with three tiers) for Distress Ink blending foam tools. I only need about 16 more tools and I will be set! Just decided I would use them a lot more if they were accessible.

Last but not least, some new stamps. The Stampendous Jumbo Peony, and these lovelies (above) from Pink Persimmon, which is having a sale on stamps right now, so I could not resist. So what's on your workdesk today?

Best Christmas Present!

I got the neatest present for a stamper this year and wanted to share. My daughter got it for me and I am tickled she came up with something so thoughtful and practical and craft-related (the latter being tough as she is not into crafts).  Ta-da!

Now before you think I have lost my marbles - let me explain - I am using it to hold my heat embossing tool. Like so:

If I ever get back to soldering I can use it for my soldering tool, too. It is heavy silicone, heat resistant to 500 degrees F and it adheres to the table top without adhesive or suction cups. I wasn't sure it would adhere to my roughed up wood work table surface, but it is working just fine.

If you are interested in one, you can visit www.hotironholster.com. Mine is the "deluxe" model which is the smaller, cheaper of the two listed. It easily holds my 9-inch Marvy heat tool. If you are a boring non-crafting person, you can use this to hold hair appliances like curling irons and flat irons. But for stampers, it's da bomb!

I {HEART} MY CAMEO!

I think technology is a beautiful thing when it can take the mundane and make it sublime. Over on the Ranger website they have a PDF of labels for the Distress Stains and Distress Paints. The labels are designed to be cut with a three quarter inch punch. I don't have one. Or they could be cut by hand with scissors. All 52! Ugh!

So I made a cut file from the PDF using my Silhouette DE software. In minutes my dots were printed and cut on my Silhouette Cameo and now I just need to glue them to my bottle caps. If I had been less excited and thinking clearer, I would have printed onto an adhesive backed label sheet to save even more time. Still, I am pretty happy with this time-saving project. 

Welcome To My Happy Place

What did I do on my summer vacation staycation? I decided to frugally improve my crafting room.

The biggest project was to beautify my clear plastic storage carts. My east and west walls in my basement (ahem) studio are lined with ten of these carts that have five or six clear drawers each. One set are Gracious Living brand and the other set are Sterilite, but they are almost identical. 

I am fairly organized, so I knew where all my supplies were, but it bothered me that I could see all the drawer contents. It was a little overwhelming that - everywhere I turned - my supplies were staring me in the face; perhaps even taunting me. I decided to line the fronts of the drawers with white cardstock and then affix labels to the drawers.

 Lined and labeled drawers.

I really wish I had taken "before" photos but most crafters can picture the jumbled interiors of these types of storage units. Trust me when I say this is a radical improvement to the feel of the space.

Labels created on my Silhouette Cameo.

I created over 50 fancy black labels on my Cameo cutting machine using a file from the Silhouette Online Store, then created labels in MS Word and printed them in black on white cardstock. I used repositionable tape to affix the titles on the backgrounds (so if I change contents, it is easy enough to move the titles around), and used Thermoweb Permanent Sticky Dots to affix the black fancy labels to the plastic drawers. This is my "go to" adhesive for intricate die cuts. 

Thermoweb die cut transfer adhesive.

Labels on Thermoweb sheet ready to be rubbed to
transfer glue dots to underside.

East wall.

My long work table is in the middle of this space, with room to walk all around it. I face the east wall (above). This bank of drawers contains less-used items.

West wall. I sewed a quick curtain in B&W to match the new scheme.

I removed the castors from all of the carts. Then I went to Home Depot and had two long bookshelves cut to length to lay across the tops of the carts. This evens out the top surfaces and prevents anything from falling down the thin space between the units. On the west wall I have my Cuttlebug die cutter, Genesis trimmer and my Scor-pal. All of my rubber stamps, ink pads and papers are on this side of the room, which is the side I sit on.

Lots more photos follow, if you want to see more, but the part I am thrilled about is the restful white drawer fronts and the way they visually made the space calmer, larger - and hopefully more creative! In hopes of that inspiration, I am sharing this on the Inspire Me Fridays 117 - Anything Goes blog.

Cuttlebug (left) with plates and shims directly above,
and Genesis trimmer (right).

The bookshelf board provides great stability for my trimmer.

Custom built stamp pad holder above the Scor-Pal.

I had two of these 100-plus year old printer trays against the west wall, but downsized my small stamp collection, leaving just this one in place.

Next to the Scor-Pal is my 8.5X11 paper sorter.

 Xyron, punches, sentiment stamps and ribbon.

Smaller Iris cart received smaller labels.

Small set of drawers got similar treatment.
I slapped labels on these but will re-do when I am not so tired!

One of two bookshelves against south wall.
Rolling mechanic's tool chest in front is where my
Cameo will go. 

Rubber stamps, dies in metal file drawers, and
12X12 papers. IKEA tower holds unmounted
stamps in CD cases.

I emptied three bookshelves (not shown) of 16 of these magazine holders. They held quilting and cross stitch magazines up to 30 years old! Some thrift store shopper / quilter is going to be ecstatic!

Kaisercraft Large Desk Organizer

And now for something completely different! Last weekend at my local stamp store, Stampers!, I spied a tiered organizer from Kaisercraft. I have been looking for something to house my Cuttlebug plates within easy reach of my machine. This seemed just the ticket. This is what it looks like, out of the package and assembled:

Here is what I created with some designer paper and metal sheets.

The assembled unit measures approximately 11" x 12" x 7" (33cm wide x 28cm high x 17.5cm) deep. It is made of MDF, and the three drawers are a heavy cardboard - akin to bookboard. It comes flat and shrinkwrapped, so I first assembled it to make sure all the pieces were there and that they fit together. It fits by slotting short appendages into strategically placed holes. Once it was all together, I could see the portions that would need paper and the edges that would need paint. I painted the exposed surface edges with Olive Green Lumiere paint. 

I determined there needed to be some gluing of the backboard to the sides, but there was a bit too much of a gap on one side for glue to do the job. This meant I had to get out The Tools!

I used an awl to poke a small hole in the MDF and, using the bent pliers, seated a 1/2 inch brad nail (like a small finishing nail) in the hole and then tapped it in with my T!m Holtz hammer. The bent pliers worked very well. Regular pliers would, too, but I purchased these bent ones a long time ago for a craft class - AND THEN NEVER NEEDED THEM - (why do instructors ask you to purchase things you will not need?) so I am always looking for an excuse to use them to justify the purchase.

I then covered the sides and back with coordinating designer papers. To cover the three cube drawers, I embossed some dark brown Ten Seconds Studio metal sheets in my Cuttlebug, and sanded the high areas to reveal silver. I eschewed too much ornamentation as I want this to be practical, not frou frou-ey.

Here is the sheet of paper that comes in the packaging, to give you an idea of another way to dress this up without painting the surface edges.

And here is the best part of all - it really works as a station to hold my Cuttlebug A, B and C plates, as well as a metal shim sheet and two embossing pads. They all fit in the middle tier. The back tier holds the Letraset adhesive I use on die cuts, plus longer die cutting plates. The front tier currently holds the few recent cards I made, but I may put some embossing folders there instead. I do not know what I will put in the drawers, maybe those really small embossing folders from Cuttlebug that are about 2 inches square. The Cuttlebug border embossing folders would store well in the lowest long drawer. It seems quite sturdy and already has proven handy, so I am pleased with this project!