WEEK 12 - Ribbon, Thread & Fiber OH MY

Yet another topic I don't have a lot of...Ribbon, Thread, Fiber - the original post is HERE.

She suggests to remove the products from the original packages and put them on something so they are all the same size and thus, easier to store.  She mentions that you can organize by size or type or color.  I have most of my embellishments sorted by colors...and it includes these items.  They are all still in their original packages...but mainly because I don't have a lot - I would totally want them all wound on their own matching paper bobbin - but its not worth it for the tiny quantity that I have.

She has a T.O.N. of links for storage ideas....please take a look!

WEEK 11 - Non-Alpha stickers & rub-ons

SO, this week is similar to the last one...hmmm.  Anyway...the original post is HERE.

She talks about purging some of your stickers/rub ons...so, if you find stickers from back when stickers first came out for scrapbooking (you know the ones...the Sandy Lion ones that seemed so amazing at the time...until Joelee's etal showed up) you probably won't ever use them (we all want the NEW thing...right)...so give them away or let your kids play with them...but get them OUT!

Organize them by type or manufacturer.  I only have a few stickers and they are all for kids and I have them all in 2 boxes...and they are both unused pizza boxes...so basically, I have nothing to do with this item either.  PHEW!

WEEK 10 - Alphas

This challenge is about organizing anything that's letters/alphas - and the original post is here.

She talks about the different types (rub-ons, stickers etc).  You can organize by type or by color..she has a bunch of links for ideas on how to store them.

I don't have any of these things because I use my cricut for all lettering.

WEEK 9 - Embelishments

Hmm...I need a way to have my embellishments out so that I remember to use them...but I don't have room...hmmm.

The original post about this topic is HERE

She starts with - how do you want to organize them - color or type?  I think I'm both - I want each type organized by color...but maybe I AM more of a color person...hmmm....I'll have to think about that because I currently have them by type then color....maybe that's why I'm not using them that much?  Wait...I actually have them by color (except buttons - which are so plentiful, that they are together because there isn't room in each "color" box to include the amount of buttons of that color.  GEE...I better go and look how I have them - when I bought all the white photo boxes, I filled them up with embellishments...so I better check it out - and label the boxes - I can see that there are 4-5 white boxes that have no label - bad girl!

She has a ton of links of embellishment storage ideas.  Every and any kind of embellishments you can imagine, she has organized and the photos indicate that she might as well open a LSS in her house!

So, what I have is white photo boxes and the embellishments are by color.  I do, however, have all my buttons in one photo box (each color group in their own baggie).

Here is where they are sitting (three boxes of embelishments).

This is the reach from - I have to get OVER the imagine to reach way over to those boxes...long for me.

 So...I decided to move those white boxes over to beside where that brown paper is above (which is where I have 3 completed albums).  Heres that space now with albums

Here is where the white boxes were moved too

Seems a little closer of a reach.  The boxes b.a.r.e.l.y. fit...but they do.

Here's what is inside those 3 white boxes.

In each of these boxes, I have these tubes (from the bead department - they screw into each other) with tiny embellishments - by color...I just pulled out this silver one, but there's a tube for blue, white, blah, blah, blah.

Here's the box of buttons...which I have never EVER used..hmmm.

I do have a few other embellishments which wouldn't fit into the white boxes...so I have them in this ribbon storage box.  They are all in those bead jewelery tubes.

WEEK 8 - Projects, incomplete pages and kits

Hmmm...I only have a couple of incomplete pages and no kits, so this should be an easy week for me.

The information from the original post is HERE

So, the just of it is...is this is a method to help you complete these incomplete projects/pages and use these kits.  She is following the method set by Stacy Julian.  You put all of these in individual holders (page protectors or baggies or whatever) - label them all however you want (easiest is numerically).  Then get popsicle sticks and assign the same label to each of the sticks.  THEN when you have time to work on a project, grab a popsicle stick out of the pile and go find that unfinished project/page or kit and use it.

Its basically a Honey Do jar!

SO...I don't have kits (thank goodness) but I do have a few unfinished pages (usually to do the journaling or add an embelishment).  I keep them in a craft keeper and whenever I'm going to attend a crop or have friends over to scrapbook, I pull that out, see what's left to be done...gather whatever I need to finish the page.  If I do have what I need, then when I get to the crop, its the 1st thing I do before I can start anything new.

HA HA...I've got this task under control for my scrapbooking.  Cleaning out the scrapbook ROOM or other household tasks, however, are a disaster.

WEEK 7 - Ideas

This week's challenge is about Ideas and the original post about it is HERE

This is about organizing ideas you've accumulated from the Internet and magazines etc.  The original poster  suggests to organize by theme - which makes sense to me....and NO "miscellaneous"!  If you're doing paper ideas, then you'll need to have a place to store them...like a binder.  For magazines, you either keep them and tag ideas you like, keep them with no tags (makes no sense), tear out the ideas you like and throw out the rest of the magazine.

Idea books are harder...harder to throw out because they are books.  You could scan pages you like or you could keep the book and flag ideas.  The books could be stored anywhere...but I suspect if they aren't in your work area, you'll forget they exist.  She shows a bunch of photos of ideas.

I don't have a lot of these - I have maybe 15 ideas magazines and they've been sitting on my shelf for awhile...taking space.  They are in the farthest part of my bookshelf...so I can't really "use" that space anyway...because I can't reach it, so I should really go through them and probably toss them...BUT, it could be difficult because I truly can't reach them.

I used to have a couple of huge binders with ideas I'd printed off of the Internet and I've gotten rid of them since I know I never EVER looked at them.  I also have a couple of "books" that are under the desk.    I have been downloading ideas and have them on my hard-drive and I use pinterest...I'm happy with all of that because it takes up no square footage ;)

The days I hate just passed

Friday was the anniversary of 1 of my miscarriages.  This baby would have been turning 8 this coming September.  Even though I had been thinking about it all month like I always do, this was the 1st year where I wasn't depressed.   I'm not sure why, maybe too busy to dwell on it?  

I still wish, all the time, that this baby had been ok.
__

Saturday was the 2nd anniversary of finding out that PJ has Autism.  He has changed so much in these 2 years, but he still struggles and I hope that he keeps improving.  

The 2 days I dread the most in February are gone and I managed to not be too sad in February, for the 1st time in 8 years, finally.

WEEK 6 - Photos

Here we go - a potential biggie if you are a scrapbooker - Physical photos and digital photos.  The original post about this is HERE

The original post says there are 2 ways to store photos - chronologically or by subject.  I mainly do chronologically...BUT for main trips/vacations, they are by subject and mainly chronologically and not stored with my chronologically filed photos.  You should store digital photos the same way as you do your physical photos.  I do this...digital photos are all by date and big trips have their own folder, but are by date within their folder. 

She has 3 methods of storing - photo albums (DH uses this); card files (not sure what that is) and photo boxes (what I use).  She also lists methods for filing digital photos using tagging software.  I just have folders by year and sub-folders by month.  Each photo's name has the date on it, so I just need to remember the month a photo was taken and I can find it pretty quickly.  I actually print EVERY photo (unless its blurry or eyes are shut)...and THIS gets me into trouble.

All my photos are currently in white photo boxes from Micheal's