Organization: Great ideas to help you spend more time crafting, less time looking for lost items

Good morning!  Our January is feeling more like May here in San Jose, temperatures in the 60's all week, and while I do live in California, this is still a bit odd for us this time of year.  We had rain, but now no rain on the horizon, which is something we need in our dry state.

I hope that your winter is going well, it is really hard for me to imagine how cold it is for some of you right now while here we are in CA with spring like weather. Oh, and don't forget to visit me over on Facebook, am trying to post a new link there every day, mostly links to great blogs, but once in a while a sale, or something special : )

And yes, I do have time once in a while to make cards, this is for someone at work who wanted a birthday card:

From 2011-01-24

Inside the card:

From 2011-01-24

Close up:

From 2011-01-24

I used distress ink to color the image, put some clear gloss on the candle flames and also ran a few of the panels through the cuttlebug to emboss.  I also added some diamond stickles to the image (the dots you see, couldn't get the camera to pick up the sparkle.)

Now, onto the dreaded topic for today:  Organization.  Some of you have rather large areas, some have small areas (like me) and some crafters have to haul their tools out and craft on kitchen and dinning room tables.  Whatever your situation, today I should have a link or two that will hopefully give you some inspiration to organize your tools/papers and whatnots.

First and foremost, given that we are still at the start of the year, one of the best ways to organize yourself is to clean out what you haven't used: old stamps, paper, tools, inks, whatever it is that you know you haven't used in the last year or two, now is the time to clear it out.

You can donate your old crafting supplies to local schools,  you can give your old supplies to a friend who is just starting to paper craft or you can try to sell some of your things on places like ebay.  Whatever your choice, the objective is to remove that which you haven't used and know deep down in your heart you aren't going to use.

Once you have cleared out your stash, the next step is to determine what it is that most needs your attention.  In my case it is punch storage, in your case it might be paper, stamps, embellishments or other tools.   After you get your worst mess together, move onto your other supplies, and little by little you will find that instead of spending half your time looking for something, you will spend more time crafting!

Here are some helpful organizational links for you:

Club CK:  A whole group of links here for you to visit, and I am sure you are going to find something on one of these posts to inspire you to organize your stash.

Ribbon Organization: Great link with some good ideas, and check out the links at the bottom of the article for more ideas on getting everything organized.

Picture Organizing:  Nice article on how to organize all of your old pictures and actually get them from the computer into a scrapbook.

Organization blog:  WOW!  This blog is devoted to organization for scrapbookers/cardmakers/papercrafters, and it has tons of great images and ideas for you to view, loved it!

Organizing Craft Rooms:  A video is posted here and then another group of links at the bottom of the post for more organizational blogs/posts.

This Blessed Nest:  Part one is the link on the left, and here is part two, you are going to love what she did with her space and will get some great ideas as well.

The Frugal Crafter:  Nice video of an organized craft room and then lots of tips to help you get organized.  Don't forget to check out the free digital images on her blog as well.

Cropper Hopper: Lots of great ideas here, many of them work in both large and small areas.

All sorts of storage:  found these items on Nextag, lots and lots of things for organization : )

Ok, that is all for this week, next week will be filled with all sorts of goings on at CHA, can't wait to see what goodies are unveiled for us there!

Take care and have a wonderful week.

Happy New Year! Organizing your stamp collection

Good morning and happy Monday.  This weekend was somewhat productive, all of the Christmas decorations are down, the tree needs to be stored and some stuff still needs to be put away, but for the most part our home is back to pre-holiday status.

Given that we are now in a "New Year" I decided that it was time to reorganize my stamp collection.  What started out as an indexing project took on a new life when I found a better storage system for my unmounted and mounted stamps.  Given that I am very limited on space, finding ways to store more stamps in less room is not only appealing, it is a must.

I had started to index my current stamp collection which are stored in CD cases when I stumbled upon a GREAT way to store my unmounted and mounted stamps in larger containers!  My wonderful husband gave me a Michael's gift certificate for Christmas and I wandered into the Michaels last Friday because of their sale.  As I was wandering around I found this container which immediately called to me.

The photo boxes are a bit smaller then a DVD case, and they are a little over 1 1/2 inches thick, and they fit perfectly on the shelves of my CD/DVD bookcase!  I went to the checkout counter to purchase about 24 of the containers (all they had) and found out that the boxes were half off, so instead of being $1.99 (I was going to use a 25 percent off your entire purchase coupon), the containers were $1.00!  I then ran to another store to purchase an additional 20 boxes and came home. (I have also found the containers online for $1.59)

Here is a side view of the container:

From 1 4 2010

And here is my CD bookshelf with the CD's I had already indexed on the top and the new storage containers on the shelf below:

From 1 4 2010

These new containers hold WAY more then the CD cases, how much more?  Well so far I have been able to combine up to seven CD cases into one of the new photo boxes!  Here are the CD cases I have been able to clear out:

From 1 4 2010

And here is one of the new cases with all that it holds:

From 1 4 2010

And here how everything fits inside the new case:

From 1 4 2010

And these cases will also hold wood mounted stamps!  So instead of my smaller wood mounts floating everywhere they now have a home as well!

So, my indexing project has turned into a redesign of stamp storage project, however I am still going to use the system I described to you last week, but will have to modify my system a bit.

What I am doing is stamping images on index cards, sorting them by category and then color coding the category.  Some stamp sets will have more then one category, for instance a set that has bugs, flowers and words/quotes will get three color codes.  Here is what I mean:

From 1 4 2010

I have three groups of cards, each group has a number of categories, and the groups are small enough to fit in my work area for me to quickly reach and sort through.  I thought of stamping and storing pages in a binder but my work area is so small that the binder would not be accessible.

Here is a card stamped with images:

From 1 4 2010

This card corresponds to a set of heart stamps that are stored in a CD case so all of the stamps on this card are in that case.  For the newer cases that I am using I will have to use multiple cards for each case because of the amount of stamps that the newer cases hold.

Also, I am using color coding for my system, ie, all floral stamps are green, teal is for flourishes and so on.  I color the index card as well as color the label of the container.  Some sets have more then one color if they have more then one type of image, ie, some sets have quotes/words, floral images, flourishes and bugs.

Eventually all of the images will be cross stamped on index cards, but for now I just want to get the main images stamped on cards for main categories (for instance, a heart is an "object" but can also be in a holiday category, for now hearts will be stamped and sorted in "objects").

My indexing is going to have to wait until I finish transferring almost all of the stamps into the new containers.

If you have not yet found a storage system that works for you these containers might be the answer to your problem!  Even though I still need to index most of my stamps at least now I only have to look in one or two containers for a stamp instead of flipping through CD case after CD case!

And of course I have some links for you, all storage related of course:

Storage containers:  Some really good storage containers here for you, I like the larger ones that have all the compartments.

Organizing ideas:  Lots of great information here on ways to organize your supplies.

Grab and Go:  Love these!  If I had more room these would be a part of my storage system.

More storage options:  Some good deals here, and some very good storage ideas.

Sorry the post is so late today, I had to get to work early and just couldn't finish the entire post until just now.

Have a great day and check back next week for some cool Valentine's Day projects : )

And if you have some good storage ideas please make sure to post in the comments.