Organizing again

I was working on cards the other night and realized as I kept getting up to get stuff from shelves, that what I'd really like is something that allowed me to put my most frequently used stuff right next to my desk, but wasn't so big that I felt it would loom over me. The book shelf in my room would feel that way if it was right next to my desk. I basically wanted to create an L shape around my chair. I was at Costco yesterday picking up groceries (and two new scrapbooks) and found a cart like this one. The only difference is that my cart only has 12 drawers instead of 20, and it was $26.99 (I had debated whether to get it, but after looking at costco.com, it looks like I got a good deal). It's just the perfect height for what I was looking for. I started organizing it last night and so far I love it. I use the cropper hopper vertical paper organizers and they were sitting on my desk taking up a lot of space. I moved them to the top shelf and they look good. I moved the tools I use most to one of the top drawers, and now my desk isn't littered with the tools. Last time I scrapped, I barely had room on top of my desk for 2 papers side by side. Yesterday I moved most of the stuff on my desk into this cart, and my desk looks so clean.

I put all of my eyelets and brads in one of the drawers. I put all my adhesive in another draw. I organized my paper scraps into page protectors by color and put all those in one drawer. Patterned paper scraps are in another drawer. I originally had them in a crop-in-style Paper Taker that just lived on the floor by my desk, so this makes my room visually cleaner also. I put all my embossing powders, my embossing gun, my acrylic blocks, and my little tray to keep the embossing powder from leaking over everything into another draw. Looking at the picture I'll post later when blogger is working, it looks like so far I've filled 6 drawers.

So far I love this little cart. We'll just have to see if it actually keeps me organized and if it helps when I'm actually scrapbooking.

Danielle

This is my cart. Imagine all the stuff on the top on my desk. Yeah, it made the desk kind of crowded. Not to mention a bunch of other little stuff that is now in the drawers. I love that the cart is exactly the right height for what I wanted it to do. I know that scrapbook companies sell stuff like this, but it usually costs a lot more. Point of fact, on the costco.com website, they have a cart by this same company that has 10 drawers (here). And they have one by Cropper Hopper, exactly the same, except all the drawers are black (here). It costs $7 more for the Cropper Hopper one. Drives me nuts that you put the word scrapbook on something and it automatically increases the price.

My desk (well, really a table from Ikea). It used to be, before I bought the cart, that the only area without stuff on it is where the two white pieces of paper are. Not a whole lot of room to create with. I had so much stuff on it because I hate having to get up to get everything. Hopefully the cart will allow me to keep it clean like this.

Friendship cards

About a week ago, we had some friends over and they were playing the video game "Rockband" with my husband on our Xbox 360. It was late, after midnight, and they had the windows open because they were hot. Apparently the music was a little loud and our neighbor came over really upset about it. My husband felt really bad about it and asked me to make a card so he could apologize (he plans to take it over with a bottle of wine). These are the two cards I made (I figured it's easy to just make the second one, since I was cutting a piece of paper in half for it anyway, and this way I have a card on hand if I need another one). I used the cuttlebug embossing folder (I think it's called swirls). The tag is a sizzlet die cut. I stamped on the tag with blue chalk ink. I used the friends stamp from the Stampin' Up Tagger's Dozen set. Hope you enjoy! I varied the placement of the ribbon to see which one my husband likes best (he hasn't decided yet). I found the printed ribbon at Micheal's and thought it'd work perfectly with this embossing folder that I already had. I picked the cardstock colors based on the color in the ribbon.






Danielle

My complaint of the day

Since I'm sure my husband is tired of listening to me complain about our World of Warcraft guild, I'll complain about something else that frustrated me today. I bought this Disney stamp set today at Micheal's (clearance for $9.00). I love acrylic stamps. I love how you can see through them to make sure you are placing them in the right spot. I love how little room they take up.

What I don't love is how the manufacturer's don't make sure they cut the stamps anywhere close to the image. Most of the acrylic stamps I have I've had to take and trim around the images so that I didn't get over stamping (also so I could store more in the cd cases I use to store them in). This set was especially bad. They didn't make any attempt to trim them at all, there's just perforations along the sheet so you can break them apart. It says directly in the instructions that you'll have to trim them yourself. It's just frustrating to me to have to spend a half an hour or more trimming the stamps.

Oh well. I know there are worse things out there to have to complain about. But it's been bothering me for a while, every time I buy acrylic stamps, so I figure it wouldn't kill me to get it out of my system : ).

A star card

I made this card last week for my husband. Recently I got the Karen Foster clikit system from Costco.com (it was only $6.99 with free shipping here) and it came with a double-tipped applicator that I knew was for threading ribbon. So I made this card for my husband to show him how it worked. I stamped the background with a bunch of different star stamps I had. I traced a big star from one of the old plastic templates I have left over from my early days of scrapbooking when we used to cut pictures into shapes all the time. I then used the clikit tool and punched holes at the tip and in the middle of each side. I threaded ribbon through the holes and then cut out the whole thing. I made the part that I had traced by the back side so that no pencil marks showed through. It was a fun card to make.