Promarker and Stamp storage ideas...

Hello peeps!

the past couple of days I have been sorting out my craft room to try and turn my creative bombsite into some kind of organised crafting heaven :)

I have to say from the start that these storage ideas are unfortunately not my own original sparks of brilliance - they came from a discussion with some crafty friends  and from searching the internet for storage solutions! anyway - they worked for me, so I am sharing them with anyone who wants to use them!

PROMARKERS

I LOVE my promarkers but I quickly loose patience when I end up pulling the same colour out of the box umpteen times. so I have colour coded them. not a new idea, i know, but i found it really useful :)

 

I picked a cute star punch for the top of each pen lid. next I used double sided tape on some white card and punched out the stars. ta-da!! peel off the backing tape...sticky stars! I used the same white card that I use when stamping, so that the coloured star shows the true colour it will be when used to colour my images…

next I stuck the stars onto the flat topped promarker caps and coloured them in. i found it easier to colour the stars after they were stuck on the lid - much too fiddly when they weren't stuck down.

 

now all my promarkers are labelled and I can see exactly what colours they are without taking them out of the box!!! WOOOOOO!!!

 

also - on the side of my box I have cut out the colour chart that comes with every pack of pens and glued it to the side. I've then marked off which pens I have. useful for when I'm looking at buying new sets and need to know which ones I haven't got! :)

I think when I get more I might look into something a little more organised than my box... I found a clip on YouTube where a woman used a CD holder from Tesco. VERY good idea - take a look!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tu2S7IasADg

CLEAR STAMPS

This will work with ANY stamp that you use with an acrylic block...

I got hold of some CD cases and took the black bits out of the case (the bit the CD snaps onto) so I was left with just the clear outer bit.

I took my pack of stamps and put them into the case - the 'cling' of the stamp sticks to the plastic like it does to an acrylic block. I then numbered the case using a Sharpie.

next, I stamped everything in that case onto a sheet of A4 paper and numbered the page. I did this with all of my clear stamps, and my stamps with Kling-On foam.

 

I put all the sheets of paper (in number order) into a ring binder. I now have a very organised number system for my stamps. The chaos that was my stamp drawer is now a very nice looking set of 3 boxes on my shelf. I bought the boxes from Instore for about £3 each. each box holds 20 CD cases.

 

since doing this I have found that I use SO many more of my stamps - before I only ever used the stamps on the top of the pile... I had NO IDEA what I had. now I have a quick flick through and I can see everything I own... and the actual stamp size too!! UBER useful!

I have also done a few pages in the front of the ringbinder for my embossing folders too... it's nice to know what you have and what it looks like so by having pieces of the embossed paper in the folder it makes it a quick easy reference.

really hope these ideas are useful - they were for me :) lemme know if you have any crafty storage solutions too - post a link or a piccy! always looking for ways to make my crafting life easier! :)


That's it for now... will have to tell you about my scrap box solution another time!x
keep crafting - speak soon.xxx

Tattoo Themed Cards...

hello lovelies!!

have had a good week - got cracking with my xmas stock last weekend and got quite alot done!! well, 20 cards done. but that means that I only have 80 to go!! :) shouldn't take that long! *giggles nervously* if only I didn't have a full time job to get in the way of all my crafting!

I've been playing with biggy ALOT since I got back from holiday...suddenly all those dies and embossing folders I have actually work and look good!! it's nice not to have to pack underneath them with pieces of paper to get the right thickness. as a treat I bought myself 3 sets of the Sizzix Framelits.... LOVE them!

I bought 'Fancy Labels' , 'Tickets' and 'Circles'. I would personally say that the circles have moved their way into my 'essential' crafting kit!! I can't remember how many times I have tried to find something round to draw around... its either too big or too small...then there is the issue of cutting them out! never very circular when I had finished with the scissors!! these Framelits are AMAZING and I WILL be buying the other shapes when payday rolls round! :)

  

I had a nice break from xmas stock today - had an order for a male birthday card - theme 'tattoo'. I have some awesome tattoo stamps that I bought from Artful Splodger however, I felt the main stamps were a little too girly for my central image so created my own tattoo image. I used the star stamp from the Bombshell collection for the star banner at the top. I downloaded a free tattoo font from the internet and printed out the 'happy birthday' onto the same paper as I used for the background. 

I then cut out some wings and the heart and used foam pads to give the card some dimension. for a final touch I added a ruby coloured gem to the heart. I am VERY happy at how this card turned out - so much so I am gonna knock some more of these out and take them to the craft fair in December!!! there is a definite gap in the market for these tattoo themed cards!!! 

I do love my Bombshell Stamps to pieces so I thought I would show you some of the cards I have made using them - I love the retro tattoo look... lemme know what you think!

http://www.artfulsplodger.co.uk/bombshell-stamps

well, I think that's about it for now. 

keep smiling, keep crafting, speak soon.xxxx

I'm Back!!

Hello lovelies - gotta apologise for not posting anything for a while, came back from a well deserved holiday yesterday. Spent a week de-stressing and relaxing in the sun in beautiful Portugal with the OH. Now I'm back and can begin focussing on getting some stock together for the Christmas fair.

Oooooooooo - I BOUGHT A BIG SHOT!!!! Just thought I would let the world know that!!! I'm SOOOOO excited!! I bought it just before I went away so haven't really played with it much (that's this afternoon sorted!!) but can finally emboss and die cut things properly!!! (I bought a Quickutz Revolution on some bad advise a few years ago and have regretted it ever since.) WOOOOOOO!! My Sizzix framelits arrived while I was away too - time to go play I think!

It's a short post but I will endeavour to post again in the next few days. Gonna go play with 'Biggy' now!! :)

Speak Soon.xxx