This weekend ended up being a hectic one. I thought there would be plenty of time for crafting, but all I manage to get done was a quick birthday card and a little much-needed reorganization. Even though I swore off buying any new crafty stuff until I sat down and did a few scrapbook pages (or at least printed some photos), I got sucked in by the Target Dollar Spot.
I am such a sucker, I know, sometimes the items aren't even worth a dollar! But chipboard alphas for $1? Can't pass it up. I got four (two sheet of multicolored Halloween-ish letters and two packs of glittery orange letters). I also got a pack of Halloween paper, some ribbon and two cute plastic bins that I needed to find a productive use for.
Add all of this to my JoAnn and Two Peas in a Bucket purchases that arrived last week and I could barely walk to my craft table, never mind sit down and be productive. Yet I was going to my friend Jackie's son's second birthday party on Sunday and knew that a store-bought card just would not do. So I piled the stuff up even higher on the floor and got crafty for a few hours on Saturday afternoon, after my exhilarating but exhausting zumba class that morning.
No, there is no photo of the card. Oops. I really need to get a new camera. Or a scanner at home. It was cute though, used some birthday themed paper (also from the Dollar Spot, but not this trip) in primary colors and a foam number 2. Not my best work but my desk was so messy, there was barely any room.
Sunday after the party I took some time to organize, deciding to move my adhesive gems and other bling from the acetate box they were squooshed to one of the new Dollar Spot bins. Still haven't figured out where the bin goes yet.
The I focused on my chipboard letters. I have been wanting to store all them together by letter but the compartments of the embroidery floss boxes I had them in were too small. I finally put my chipboard letters into the the nuts and bolts organizer that my husband got me at the local hardware store. Unfortunately there are only 25 compartments, so I get to be creative and mix the Ms and Ws together since they can be used almost interchangeably. Still not sure what to do with the numbers, so I may have to do more combining.
Because I had to combine, I could only fit the letters that were already in the floss boxes -- mostly ones that are mix and match type letters and not whole alphas that look the same. I still don't know what to do with these. I have about 8 packs, from Making Memories, K&co, Basic Grey and a few random ones from Target. Some are in sheet form and some are separate letters. Right now they are standing up in a plastic box but that's temporary. I also have sheets of plain chipboard letters looking for a home. I put them in an ArtBin Super Satchel box but not sure I am loving that. I am torn as to whether I should punch out the letters or leave them in sheet form. Not sure which will make me more likely to use them.
I then tackled my growing paper flower collection. I originally sorted by material/flower size, with different colored flowers from the same manufacturer stored together. Then I bought a lot of 50 assorted Primas off of eBay, a bottle of yellow Primas (on sale at Michaels for $1.99!) and a tube of Primas from Two Peas (on sale for $2.50) that were not going to fit into the box I was using. Never mind the giant tube of white Primas I got from Two Peas that I intend to dye to match my projects.
First I thought I wanted to sort by color and store each color in a separate bottle. I thought I's use the Making Memories flower bottles:
I have six of them from ordering from www.cropchocolate.com. (If you haven't checked out this site, it's pretty cool - they feature one item and it's usually about 50% off. I also got four sets of MM clear stamps from them.) Plus I have a few Prima bottles I could use.
I sorted my flowers thinking this was the plan but then realized I need more order than this. I don't think I want to have to sift through an entire jar, even one sorted by color, to find the perfect flower. I know many people do this and use the bottles as a decorative display, but I need my storage to be more functional than decorative. So I sorted by color and by type into two plastic embroidery thread boxes. I had to put them sideways on one of the wire shelves of the door of my craft closet, but I think they will still stay pretty organized.
So now I am excited to get my craft on this weekend! I need to make three birthday cards and am thinking about making a set of thank you cards as a birthday present. My craft desk is still a bit of a mess but I plan to concentrate on putting more stuff away tomorrow night. Oh how I miss half day summer Fridays!
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