Scraproom Organization Challenge #3

Challenge #3 - In Progress Projects, finished projects and albums

I don't know about you all but I have a lot of in-progress projects. Some are mini albums some are pages (since it usually takes be 2 days to get a layout completed with interruptions). I almost always have a project like invitations or V-day cards for my son's class in the works too. I am NOT a chronological scrapbooker so I am bouncing back and forth between all the different albums I am working on.

So lets get this under control.

Step #1 - Identify what type of in-progress projects you have going on a regular basis.

Step #2 - Are these short term in-progress projects or long term? For example a layout would be a short term project. A baby album or school album would be a long term. You might have both.

Step #3 - Separate the items you have purchased exclusively for that project from your stash.

Step #4 - Get organized - Choose a storage option...

a) Ziploc Gallon baggies - Works for smaller temporary projects like layouts etc. You can keep these baggies in a drawer. Or you can get a pretty file box and alter it if it doesn't match. Most kits come organized like this and can also be stored with this method for an easy project on the go.

b) Page Planners - Mine are from Creative memories but the ones listed below are cropper hopper brand. These are perfect for keeping the items for you pages together. I use them to pre-plan my page and have them ready to go. They are great for social and solo scrapbookers alike. As I am working on the layouts or pre-planning them. I store these folders in this unit on my desk.

The In Progress Layout holder
by Hanging By A Moment
Scrapbook.com

(this in-progress type holder would also work with the Ziploc baggy option)

c) Cropper hoppers plastic container - stack nicely and can hold supplies for almost an entire album. These probably work best for mini albums or larger themed albums. These are ideal for people who like to take projects like this to crops.

d) 12x12 storage boxes - they look like photo boxes but lager. These also are great for mini albums and themed album pages and supplies. Unlike the cropper hopper they are cheaper yet they don't stack. They also can be altered easier. But they are harder to take out to crops.

e) A drawer- lots of the plastic drawer organizers you buy at M's and JA's are large enough to be able to use the drawers like a 12 x 12 storage box or the cropper hopper, without the mobility. These also work great for those solo scrappers. Keeping the projects in a drawer gives you quick and easy access to your project and to put it away. You could organize a baby album keeping all together.

Anyone else have and wonderful ideas on how to organize this? :heart: Please share.

Two of a kind

I made my first layout and card in my new scraproom this weekend. The room is not fully unpacked and far from being organized, but I could not resist and it was for my Design Team I am part of on The Scrappiest Sketch #51.



Here is the coordinating card I created from the scraps of this layout...



I hope you all have a wonderful day and have time to be creative. HAPPY SCRAPPING!

Challenge #2 - Adhesives

Challenge #2 - Adhesives

Things to know:

The key here is to always make sure that what ever adhesive you are using you need to make sure it is Acid Free. (This includes you glitter glue!!) No point in working so hard creating a beautiful album of fabulous pages for your family to have forever just to run those pages over time with the wrong adhesive. Here are 10 different types of adhesives. If you have not herd of some please ask and I would be happy to share. There are probably more out there too so let's enlighten each other on the wonderful world of things that stick.

(excerpts of an article on http://www.xomba.com/10_types_scrapbooking_adhesives )

"*Dimensional- usually a foam center between two pieces of adhesive; gives dimension to your page, be it photos or embellishments.

*Dots (also called tabs) - small pieces of adhesive, usually found in a roll or on cards, that are perfect for attaching small embellishments like buttons, chipboard letters, or acrylic items.

*Liquid - often quick drying with an even consistency, good as a multi-purpose adhesive for scrapbooking.

*Multi-purpose - handles multiple types of media used in scrapbooking (paper, fabric, chipboard, embellishments); a good choice for a beginner.

*Permanent - when you want your photos and embellishments to stick forever, permanent is the way to go. Comes in a variety of formats (including dots, liquids, glue sticks, and sheets), and cannot be moved. Ever.

* Re-positionable - allows you to move pieces of your layout for a short amount of time before they become affixed to the page. This also comes in a variety of forms.

*Runners (also called tape runners) - easy application, allows for control over the amount used. These also work on a variety of media types.

*Sheets - used to create stickers, often used with a machine. When used with a machine, great for die-cuts and paper letters.

*Spray - use for "invisible" hold, for items like vellum or transparencies.

*Stick - easy application, works well with a variety of surfaces and media. A very good choice for a beginning scrapbooker."

Storage Solutions: Basket or drawer on or in your desk, Hanging them up on the wall in front of you, photo box

Storage Crate:

Altered Kasiercraft Storage Crate
by Jill
Scrapbook.com

Adhesive shelf: http://www.scrapbook.com/gallery/?m=image&id=2544059&type=searchwords&s=adhesive+storage&types=1,3,5

Desk organizer:

Slice and Adhesives Storage
by Mercytiara
Scrapbook.com

The key with storing these is to have them within arms reach NO ONE can create any paper crafts without adhesives.

Tips:
Check for any that might need refills soon. Add them to your shopping list.

Clean up all tips and ones that have adhered themselves to something. Make sure they are all in ready to use condition.

For liquid glue - like glitter glue can have bubbles in it when you are trying to apply it to your work. To keep this from happening so much try storing it upside down... JUST MAKE SURE IT IS FULLY CLOSED so it does not leak... YIKES!!

I SCRAPED MY WALLS!!!

Hello everyone I am here to share with you the only creative thing I have been working on lately. Here is it... are you ready... My NEW Scraproom paint job!!!

Yup there it is... and this picture does not do it justice. I have to say I am very happy with the way it turned out. I have never chosen orange (my least favorite of the basic colors) ... err... Butternut squash as a color for the walls before and I have to admit the only reason I went with shades of orange is because it is (in color theory) the color that inspires creativity the most out of all the basic colors.

There are six shades of orange in this room from the floor to the center of the ceiling. All blended one into the other. There are hints of red blended over the orange in the corners too. Splatters of red, antique gold and white on the walls. The leaves and flowers are 3D (about 1/4" thick) and covered with a mix of the antique gold and red. The flourishes were created by using four large 8' x 4' masks I created from some clip-art printed poster size and contact paper. Here are the pics to show the steps...

The base coats of six shades of orange... If you try this fading finish please learn from my mistakes and DO NOT leave a crisp clean line to try to fade later... make if a fuzzy line as your brush runs out of paint. (pic on left)

The next pic is of the mask I created. I designed a flourish for the corners of each wall, (two designs per corner of the room one for each side of the corner). This was done by printing sections of the design in poster form off the computer. Then spraying the backing of the contact paper with spray adhesive. Gluing the papers in order onto the contact paper. Then cutting out the flourish design. Sticking it onto the primed wall, lining it up in the corners. It worked best when I only cut a 4x2 image of 4 sheets of 8 1/2" x 11" paper. This pic shows eight sections... turned out to be to much to handle when it was sticky and trying to line it all up on the wall. Trust me ... do it 2x2 not 4x2. When applying the mask make sure you use a brayer or some other tool to help press it onto the wall and get the best seal as possible. (pic above)

After the mask was in place I created the 3D templates. Using foam core board I cut out the leaves and flowers that printed with the images. (pic above)

This other one shows part of the mask on the wall, look closely it is white on white. It also shows the 3D template in action with some color changing drywall Spackle that I used to fill the template. After filling it I let them dry for about 20-30 min and then ran an exacto knife around the edges to loosen the grip the putty had on the template. Then created some more and repeated the process. This 3D image took about 24-30 hrs to dry. Then it needed to be primed and painted to match the base color that was going in that section of wall. There are 14 flowers and 24 leaves in the entire room. (lower left pic) This was worse then watching paint dry. All and all it took me several days to just get this far. But I have to say it was totally worth it! (pic above)

This next pic shows how we divided up the fading on the ceiling. On the walls it was striped and the ceiling we did circles for a more natural look since the light is centered they compliment each other.

To draw the circles on the ceiling we used the light as an anchor and tied a sting around it then measured out where we wanted the circle to be. Tied a pencil on the other end of the string and drew around the room using the ladder to reach. Keeping the pencil at the same point tied to the sting. Like a campus. It worked great for creating guidelines and in the end looks perfect with the lighting.

To fade or blend each shade of orange I took the darker color and added some faux finishing glaze to it, about 3/1 glaze and paint (read the label and test it in a corner first). I painted it over the line, just above the matching color, for about 1' above the line and 3"-4" below it. Then wiped it off a bit around the edges with a cheese cloth (found at your local hardware store). This thinned out the glaze and helped blend the colors. I repeated this 4 more times, each time mixing a new color shade with glaze and then painting and wiping off. When you add a glaze to paint it extends the dry time creating a larger window of "open time" on the wall where you can play with the paint before it will dry. This step too about 24-30 hrs to completely dry with no tacky spots. Possibly having to repeat it due to my strait, crisp and clean lines I painted when switching shades.

Once I was satisfied with the blending and fading my daughter and I had some fun. We tossed and flinged three different colors of paint onto the walls, red, antique gold and white. Splattering and giggling it was great to allow her to be a part of the most complex design I have ever painted.

After it was all said and done she looked tore up! She had more paint on her then she got on the walls! The antique gold looked like a muddy brown mess and then the red looked like chicken pox and the white looked like calamine lotion for the chicken pox. It was so cute I had to grab a pic of her... she chose to pose this way... LOL. (pic below)

I know this post is long but I promise you it is almost done.

After flinging the paint onto the wall we began to peel off the contact paper mask. It reveled beautiful white flourishes in primer... so I had to paint it with a white. Tedious? Yes but necessary. Like almost every textured surface when tape is used there is never a clean edge.
The orange had been sucked under in several spots and parts needed repair where the delicacy of the mask did not allow it to stick while being painted and glazed over. (small pic on the right)

I then added the red and gold glaze mixture to the flowers and leaves. After this step I looked back from the door and decided it was done. So time to clean up and get a fresh white coat of paint on the thoroughly covered, multi colored base boards. It was now time to move in the furniture and begin to unpack my nine boxes of scrapy stuff!

I hope you enjoyed this post and I will be posting more once the room is unpacked, decorated and ready for some scrappy business. Have a blessed day!

Scraproom Clean up - Challenge # 1

Hello everyone - I thought I would post this info here. I am running a challenge to organize your scrap space on www.scrapbook.com and I thought I would share the challenges here. We discuss each topic and challenge there. But here is the basic challenges so you can participate and fallow along on your own if you wish. There will be 4 challenges a week focusing on different areas of the scrap rooms.

Week #1 THE DESK

Challenge #1 - Color Altering Items - Inks, pens, mists, powders, paints, embossing supplies and glitters

This is the day we sort out our colors! Any color altering items or ink.

Lets discuss and figure out what we are going to do with these items.

• Pens - Storing Scrapbook Pens and Markers (quoted from scrapbook.lifetips .com)

"One of the most important things to remember when storing pens and markers is to store them horizontally so that the ink flows evenly. Most people may be inclined to buy containers that stand vertically, but storing them this way will make all the ink flow to one end. If the ink is at one end of the pen or marker they may not last as long or work as well. Storage drawers will allow the markers and pens to be stored horizontally. You can leave your markers in their original box and store them in a desk drawer or plastic organizer drawer.

Another suggestion is to buy a marker storage case that holds pens and markers; these cases are portable and make it easy to keep all of your coloring and writing utensils in the same place for quick access."

Once you have decided where to store them you will need to TEST every pen quickly to [u]make sure they still work[/u]. Trash the ones that don't! Make a list in your binder of ones that need to be replaced.

Sort pens by: Color or color families

Storage Solutions: Organized within a drawer, wine bottle holder, Altered Cylinder containers form the kitchen.

ZIG Pen Storage

PVC PIPES

Mason Jars

Plastic 1$ pen boxes

Acrylic cups

• Ink pads and refills - (quoted from Scrapjazz)"Ink pads are best stored flat. Each pad is filled with liquid ink, and this ink can travel throughout the pad over time if not stored properly. For example, if you stored your ink pads vertically, over time the ink would drop to the bottom edge of the pad, and you would no longer be able to get a fully-inked image when you tried to use the full surface of your ink pad. For this same reason, it is highly recommended that you store your ink pads upside down (unless you have Stampin' Up they already are designed to do this). This will keep the ink flow at the surface of the pad, rather than allowing the ink to seep down to the bottom. This is especially important for dye-based ink pads, as this ink is thinner than some other inks and will migrate through the pad at a faster rate. Ink pads containing thicker inks, such as pigment ink, can be stored face up."
  

How to sort your in pads? - By color, manufacture, ink type or size

Storage solutions:

Wooden Cassette holder

Cat Eye Storage

custom built holder, store bought rotating caddies, or simply stack on a shelf (make several smaller stacks. This will make it easier to access without towers of inks toppling down when you need the bottom color.)

• Mists - These can be stored or displayed nicely on a shelf. Putting them in a color order would make it appealing. If you have the mini misters you can store them on a counter top in the store bought holder or have your resident handy man drill some holes into a block of wood and don't forget to alter it to match your space decor.

Mini Mister holder

• Powders - No special way you need to store these but they do look pretty and can be stored nicely. Try finding an old, small metal cookie sheet at the local thrift store. Paint or alter it a bit and put thin magnets on the bottom of the powder containers. Hang it on the wall up above the work space. Or Stack them and store them on a shelf. Maybe even store them in a nice basket that you can keep handy.

Note: if storing in a box, basket or drawer... turn them upside down. Not for he reasons you do inks but so you can see the colors inside the jars, instead of the white/black lids.

• Glitters and Glitter Glues - I LOVE glitter... there are so many options for storing regular glitter many have been mentioned above in other items. The glitter glue however works best, with the least amount of bubble explosions on your page, if you store them upside down.

Storage Options:

Tool rack, Velcro them to a clear flier display protector

Hanging under a shelf: here is what I did last year for my storage solution.

Glitter Glue Storage - FINAL
by Hanging By A Moment
Scrapbook.com

• Embossing supplies - Now normally the embossing tool would be placed in with the tool category but if you want to create a mini embossing center and organize it in with your embossing supplies then I would suggest you do what works for you. I created a drawer for all my supplies and organized it all within that drawer. A Basket would work well or if you want a counter top embossing center we can discuss better ways to display these items.

Storage Solutions:
Decorative Box

• Chalks - Most of these come in good storage containers. You just need to find a drawer or a shelf to display them on.

Other (?) - Did I miss anything? Please bring it to my attention.


REMEMBER: Always leave room for your stuff to grow!!! Especially you collectors!