6 x 6 Paper Pad Storage

Recently went to the Stamp and Scrapbook Expo in Fredericksburg, VA.  I visited a booth I had never shopped before "Crafty Stamp Co" and I picked up a couple of pads of her 6 x 6 card stocks. When I got home and opened the package of papers I found a plastic storage envelope to store these papers in. I have been reorganizing the craft room here and there over the past 6 months and I have some empty kitchen storage bins from other products that I weeded out or moved to another storage bin so I made sure this new 6 x 6 plastic storage envelope would fit the bins I had available. Once I knew they would fit I went to her website to see if she sells these envelopes but I could not find them. Off to Amazon....

Found a plastic envelope that looks to be the same as she uses and I ordered a package of those. Decided since I was reorganizing these papers that I would weed out what I do not use and also remove all the papers from the packaging front and back covers they come with. If I want to know the manufacturer of my papers I could always cut out the brand name and slip that into the envelope in front of the card stock. I went through all the paper pads and once I had them all weeded out and then the ones I was keeping in their new envelopes I sorted them by theme/holiday.  I wanted to make dividers so it would be easy to look for a theme/holiday paper I wanted. 

Awhile back I picked up legal size manila folders from the Scrap Exchange recycle store in Durham, NC for another organizing project for the craft room. The folders were new and cheap so I picked up a stack of those not knowing how many I would need to start with. Did all the other organizing I planned to do using these folders and I have some left over. So for the dividers for my 6 x 6 paper pads I used more of the manila folders and cut them to the size I wanted and I used the We R Makers Tab Punch Board and made the tabs on the dividers. With the paper envelopes all sorted I used the label maker to make labels for my divider tabs and put these in their new bins for storing:

Now I can easily find a paper I am wanting to use and everything is in an envelope in these taller bins so the papers will not get bent or damaged:

Happy to find a way to store my 6 x 6 papers. I have tried labeling and stacking them, keeping them in a drawer, (out of sight, out of mind), and nothing really worked. Happy to have the bins that hold these new envelopes for the papers and another problematic product storage that will work for me. Easily can see no more 6 x 6 card stocks needed for me and now I can easily access them all for projects ahead. So a big thanks to Crafty Stamp Co for a storage idea I did not even think about before I bought her two beautiful paper packs at the show:

Always happy to complete another organizing project. Also glad I had the bins on hand and the manila folders on hand to cut down for the dividers for the papers. 

Bead Storage

Long ago I had seen a video on YouTube by the Hometalk channel and they do a lot of DIY's for the home for storage/organization and such. They had used the acrylic drawers and bamboo cutting boards from the Dollar Tree and made a small countertop storage item for the bathroom to hold cotton balls/Q-tips and other small items. I liked that idea but did not make one then.... Recently "Crafting to Cope" on YouTube shared her video using this idea for bead storage in her craft room. Great idea for bead storage as the system I had now was not working. . .

Off to Dollar Tree with my plan to make this countertop storage idea for my craft room with a list of items I would need to make my holders. Not so fast..... went to two Dollar Tree stores looking for these acrylic drawers and bamboo cutting boards and NO LUCK.... WHY  all the Dollar Tree stores do not sell the same products is beyond me......  Third try was the charm and happy me they had all the drawers and cutting boards I would need in stock. Here is a photo of my bead holder and my holder is 4 drawers high:

I like not only can I see all the beads in the acrylic drawers but I can easily remove a drawer of beads to take to the work table to use:

I also bought 4 extra acrylic drawers and stacked those and that stack will be for the head pins, lobster clasps, and other items I need to use:

This can sit on top of the other holders or since it is free standing it can stand on the countertop for easy access. Here is a side view of this one:

In the Hometalk video they used a hot glue gun to assemble their unit but I have the Surebonder hot glue gun and mine is not a low temp glue. I did not want the hot glue to melt the acrylic drawers so I used E6000 to assemble mine. These acrylic drawers are wider in the front and taper back to a narrower size in the back so keep that in mind if you should make one. I put the E6000 on the bottom of the drawers along a thin ridge they have and I used a thin line of the glue on them. E6000 is very strong so you do not need to glob it on and it stays clear once dried. I also put E6000 on the side of the drawer that sits next to the drawer next to it. The glue container says after 72 hours this adhesive is its' strongest so I worked on my holders over a period of a few days rather than trying to do all the steps at one sitting. It is a strong smelling adhesive as well so do this in the garage or maybe outside where you have fresh air while you are using this glue. 

Before I had all my beads in clear plastic bags for storage but it was not easy to not only remember what beads I had in the stash but also to find them when I was wanting to make something with them.... Happy Crafting to Cope uses this Hometalk idea for her bead storage and thanks to her for making her video and showing her how-to's as she makes one. And thanks Hometalk shared this idea for countertop bathroom items! Another project off the list and new storage that works in the craft room.... 

Craft room storage items/tips/etc

Lots of thrift store items in my craft room. Buying items from a thrift store saves a lot of monies instead of buying an item for storage or use for a craft item. I use clear glasses from a thrift store to store my glues in:

These small glasses sell for a quarter or 50 cents and I brought them home and in the dishwasher they went for use in the craft room. Also bought a small glass bowl there to hold my wet baby wipe while I am working on projects to clean off my mat or hands or glue tips:

This glass bowl not only keeps the baby wipe off card stock or maybe lost on the craft table but the bowl helps to keep it from drying out so fast.  Also bought a square glass container to hold scissors next to the craft table:

Bought a plastic Wilton cake decorating turntable to keep my grip mat on for when I stencil items. I really like that it spins and you can easily stencil items on it:

Pampered Chef made a kitchen utensil tool caddy for your kitchen countertops but I bought mine used and it holds a lot of the tools/items I reach for a lot when making things and I keep it on a Copco turntable for easy use:

Mason jars with lids from the thrift store hold clothespins, binder/bulldog clips, paperclips, etc and being clear glass you can easily see what is inside and dust free with the lid. Also a thrift store find is a heavy metal napkin holder and it holds my Big Shot extra plates, my metal plate, shims, and extra plates for my Glimmer Hot Foil machine:

From Restore I bought a used kitchen cart. I keep my Brother Scan n Cut machine, the Cinch, my laminating machine, my large Big Shot machine on it. To keep these machines dust free in between uses I bought the microfiber towels from the auto section at the Dollar Tree:

I used my label maker and labeled the front of the cart where the machines are. Also - tape dispensers. In this photo you can see my Mint tape, Spellbinders Yellow tape, and other tape I use when die cutting items out:

These tapes are on a heavy duty metal turntable I picked up in the kitchen section of IKEA and this sits on the craft table.  Other nearby storage is the three drawer Iris unit I picked up last year at the 301 Endless Yard Sale for $2.00. It holds many items I use for most projects I make:

Also I had bought the plastic turntables from the Dollar Tree when they first came out to hold ink refills or distress sprays etc. The problem was there are 4 of those and one counter by my ink pads where they all are.  So I bought two two tiered Copco turntables in the kitchen department at a store and now I store four Dollar Tree turntables on the space that two could take up freeing up lots of counter space for my by my inks:

Other items I use is a lint roller:

Altho I keep my Spellbinders Glimmer Hot Foil machine in a bin with a lid to keep it dust free I always run the lint roller over my hot foil platform before I turn the machine on to pick up any dust particles. I also use the lint roller to clean off my steel ruled dies if I should cut out any glittered card stock, felt, or any other material that could "shed" and stick to the fabric finish on these dies. 

Another item I reach for often is the telescoping magnetic tool from AutoZone. I had originally bought this to pick up the solid plates and full cover plates for the hot foil machine. Spellbinders includes a small magnetic tool with the hot foiling machines to pick up your hot plates off your machine when you are done but that tool is small and can not always pick up the larger/heavier plates. Online stores sell a larger magnetic tool to pick up these plates but by far AutoZone is cheaper:

I have also used this tool to pick up a die that fell on the floor or maybe under something or while I am cutting new dies apart and it goes flying..... so a great tool to have... Also I have a wallpaper seam roller in the craft room. Last project I used it for was Halloween cards and the backgrounds:

Both cards I made the background by inking the high side of the Darice Crackle embossing folder with black ink. Placed a piece of white card stock inside the folder and closed it. Ran the wallpaper seam roller over the closed folder and this transferred the ink to the card stock for my backgrounds:

Also a bead threader - tip from MayMayMadeIt - to put ribbons in the tag hole at the top of a tag or to run ribbons/trims through small areas on a project:

So lots of items to use in the craft room to save monies on rather than to buy something that was made to be a glue holder, a crafting tool caddy, scissor holder, etc.. Lots of kitchen items in this craft room but they work and esp from a thrift store or Restore or a garage/yard sale, etc.. Also use a metal cookie cooling rack from the thrift store to put my handmade flowers on after I add glue and glitter to them so they can dry flat. Also put items on there to dry if I use Stickles or Nuvo drops so the items can be flat and not get stuck under anything on the craft work table......

WHY??

W H Y  do all the Dollar Tree stores not sell the same products???? Took me three trips to three Dollar Tree stores but I found it...... Had seen other card makers on YouTube using the new Snack Box from the Dollar Tree and last video that sold me was by "MsCoopersCoop" (Muriel).  Thinking finding this box should not be hard to do...... wrong.... but today I ran errands and stopped at different Dollar Tree stores and here is one of the Snack Boxes I found:

and without the lid:

Happy to find this box and even happier it is sturdy.... of course it is one of their more expensive items - being $6.00 each -- used to be $5.00 items.... but like the $1.00 and $1.25 prices that is a thing of the past. I like the clear lid and you can stack the boxes so this will help with storage. The compartments are stationary but big enough for larger items or die cuts/ephemera items.... They are available in a few colours but I bought the white to go with everything else I have in the craft room for storage. Just glad I finally found them......

Nice plan Stan...... but ..... then ....

We all do this.... after the holidays we spend time reassembling the craft rooms.... putting products back where they belong.... or maybe moving things around and reorganizing.... and so it goes....  Well.... my PIC (stamping Partner In Crime) and I sold some of our destashed craft room items at a sale earlier in the Fall. My plan for this sale was if I sold enough items and made enough money my main purchase for my craft room would be the new Sizzix Big Shot machine. That was mainly all I had planned to buy as I was not sure how much $$ I would make at this sale.... Happy to say I did make enough money to buy my new Sizzix die cutting machine and here it is:

Very happy to have this machine in the craft room and it has gotten quite the work out with all the holiday projects I made for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas this past year.... I LOVE this machine! And I am happy to say I made more money at the sale than I thought I would so my second purchase was made.... 

Stopping this story here - Right after this sale I was on vacation from work.... Hubby attended a yearly swap meet he attends every year during this time and he is usually gone for that for a few days.... PERFECT timing I thought.... I can do my major overhaul in the craft room while he is gone with no interruptions so I can start this project and complete it and be done all BEFORE the holidays...... so before he left for his trip I had started moving things around in the craft room and re-using storage items that I no longer used for whatever.... I already had 2 of the IRIS rolling carts that hold 6 of their removable bins. I measured an area I wanted to move these to and decided I could use 2 more of the rolling carts for this space.... off to the internet to find the carts and at a good price..... Walmart came up with a cheaper price but I would have to wait for shipping and that could be another week.... wanting to keep this motivation going, and knowing I had one more week only of vacation, off to Amazon I went and happy me they were in stock, at a good price, and I would have them in 2 days.... great..... so hubby is gone and I am tearing things apart in the craft room and so it goes..... 

I took the items off the shelf I wanted to put the old and new Iris carts on and I took the wheels off the carts I already had and put these two carts on the shelf I wanted them on. So they are in place and next to them is the space for the two new rolling carts...... I am moving this here, that there, and making a list of all the things I want to move and re-organize once my two new rolling carts w bins arrive..... hubby arrives home late Saturday night from his trip.... it was not long before I knew we had problems -- I gave him a choice -- either he rides in the car for the trip to the hospital OR he can have an ambulance ride..... his choice... so off we go to the hospital in my car and long story - but all is well now -- right now he is on his riding mower while I am posting this -- anyways.... he was admitted through the ER to the hospital and he ended up in ICU for 7 days followed by 5 more days in another room..... needless to say I missed a few more weeks of work and all craft room projects were forgotten..... 

My two new Iris rolling carts arrived right after he went into the hospital and they spent some time by the front door as that is as far as I got them in the house when they came but at least they were here..... things settled down and I went back to work and after work and weekends I worked on holiday projects here and there and the holidays arrived..... of course spent a lot of time crafting in the craft room that was still pulled apart from last October but knew after Christmas I would be home from work on another vacation so plans in place to work on everything.... so all is good and hubby is fine and the holidays are over so before I go back to work.... it was now or never..... again...

Happy I was able to put the new Iris rolling carts (with no wheels on them) on the shelf I wanted them for and I am about half way or so through sorting and moving things into these bins. Here is a photo to show the 2 new Iris rolling bins I moved onto my shelf unit next to the two I already had:

With the four Iris carts in place I asked hubby to cut me a piece of plywood to put across the top of these four units. On top of this wood/carts I put four of the Sterlite 3 drawer organizers I already had in the craft room in another area holding other supplies. Right now on top of those is one extra Iris bin but not sure I will need them there for storage but for now that is where those are. I have labeled some of the bins that are filled and with the Iris 12 x 12 bins I can move those around on the cart/holder if I want but to start the first side I have card stock sorted and labeled:

I will keep the card stock on this end of these bin storage units as that is the best place for it for me to grab and use but everything else I have moved and labeled may not stay right where they are now but I am happy to say I can walk in the craft you with out having to step over everything that was waiting for their new homes in these bins..... As you can see in each bin there is a piece of manila folder in the front of each of the bins . . . there is two reasons for this - #1  I have pot lights in the craft room and a window and I do not want any of the cardstock to fade and #2  to me it looks more uniform to see the piece of manila folder in the front of the bins than to see all the different stuff in each bin. Before I started this reorganizing project back in the Fall I had gone to a thrift store (ScrapExchange in Durham) and I picked up a big stack of new legal sized manila folders. I used them for the strips in front of all the bins and drawers and I also planned to make dividers for my second big project I had planned..... 

I have a metal shelf in the craft room and it holds a lot of things but it never looked like it was used for the best of organization of craft room products. I took everything off of that and with me moving things around in the craft room I had empty white plastic baskets from Hobby Lobby that I had stamp sets in, die sets in, trims in, etc.... once I had done my destash for the sale last Fall and with moving things around I had enough of these baskets to jump into my next project.... GOAL??? Being able to find things easily from the same manufacturer..... This was esp important since some of the companies I bought from are no longer around -- Impression Obession and MFT - My Favorite Things..... but again NOT wanting to spend more $$ to do this than I already have having bought the two new Iris rolling carts with bins..... so recycling/reusing storage items was the key....

Here is a photo of my almost completed metal shelf now:

Some of the companies I have on this shelf I only have a few products from like PixiDust or Gina K or Kristina Werner. To start the first bin I did was Impression Obsession / IO Stamps:

Used an empty fridge bin from destashed products for this company and it is filled with dies. Here is a better photo of this sorted bin:

When I did the destashing for the Fall sale I sold items at I had bought small plastic bags from Amazon to put items in and I used the extra bags for this project as these bags zip closed so I do not have to use magnet sheets. This makes sorting items cheaper and certainly much lighter by skipping the magnet sheets. For my dividers I used the We R Memory Keepers Tab Punch Board and some of the manila folders I picked up at the thrift store and my label maker. SOOOO happy to have this done... and motivation was high once this was done so over three days I kept it going.... did all the tabs and organizing for Taylored Expressions, PixiDust, SimonSaysStamp, Jaded Blossom, and so on:

I had started doing this with a few of these companies before I moved everything to the same shelf so the biggest ones I had to do was IO Stamps/Taylored Expressions/HoneyBee Stamps. Happy to use the white baskets again and all baskets are labeled and that label is held in place using a binder clip. Below these white baskets are my Christmas dies and also background stamps. Those were already sorted and dividers had been made for them long ago so I just had to move them all to this shelf unit and this is a long time coming in finishing that project but certainly glad I did get it done!!

As usual with a craft room things always are in the wrong place until you reorganize and move them to their new place which soon can become the wrong place again .... but I will say this is all such an improvement and it is all falling into place now so that is a good thing for this craft room for sure and I am happy I have had time off to finish this all since it was started so long ago.... 

Still putting things away in their new homes but certainly a vast improvement having things finished that were started in the Fall and things put together with other like things.... ALWAYS nice to be able to find the products we bought and could not wait until they arrived!! not to mention being able to walk in the craft room again -- hahaha.....

Spellbinders CRAFTOWEEN..... Yes, please!!

Happy I was able to get a set of the Spellbinders "13 Days of Craftoween" when it was first released.... This is a box filled with Halloween projects ahead having 13 holiday die sets, a clear stamp set, and a bag of holiday coloured sequins....... Here is the box it came in:

Each die set is in a clear envelope. The envelope holds a small folder with a holiday image on it. The image on the front of this folder though does not show the die set inside. Here is one of the dies:

Inside this folder is:

One the left side of the folder is the image the die set cuts out and the right side of this folder is a plastic piece that holds the die pieces on. The die pieces are also printed on the inside of the folder under this plastic piece. Very cute presentation but after you make your 13 days of Halloween and store away your Craftoween set how to know which die set is where?????  

I had some clear envelopes in the stash for other projects and these folders/die sets fit into these envelopes so I am using them for storage. For each die set I took it out of the plastic envelope it comes in and flipped the front of the folder to the back so I can see the photo of the die set image in the front of the envelope and by turning over the envelope I can see the die pieces:

and I did this to all the die sets in this collection:

Fun collection for Halloween and each image is very easy to die cut and assemble as there are not too many dies per image.... lots of projects coming soon I am sure!

Sale order and craft room - - -

Happy that My-Creative-Time recently had a 30% off sale so I picked up a few dies I had wanted but had not bought yet. Here are the dies:

Here is a photo of the titles of these dies:

Not often we see a great sale as 30% off anymore so I was happy to pick up these four die sets.

Cleaning up all the Easter supplies, dies, etc from projects I made and I finally decided how to store my treat holder die sets and larger dies that keeps them all in one bin and they all fit. Had reorganized my card stock awhile back and had an empty bin with the hanging file folders so I decided today would be the day I organized these dies. I had my treat holders/larger dies laying flat in plastic bins with lids but whenever I wanted to make a treat holder or use a larger die I would have to search through the plastic bins to find a die set. 

With the empty bin and hanging file folders I decided this one bin idea would work out well. Got out the label maker and the bins the dies were now in and started to make labels for the dies. I used scrap pink card stock to put the labels on for the label tags for the hanging file folders. As I looked through the bins I sorted the dies into groups of what they were. Printed out the labels and put them into the label holders. I laid these label holders out on the craft table in alphabetical order and when done making the labels I put all the label tags on the file folders in alpha order. Once that was done I then put all the dies into the folders for each section:

Having only the one bin now it will be so easy to just open that bin and see the treat holder dies I have for projects. Easy to find the die sets and easy to put them away when done. A lot of the folders only have one die set but having that folder labeled will help me to find the die set I am looking for to use. Happy this project is completed and glad it did not cost any monies since I had this stuff in the craft room already from another storage use. This is a project I have wanted to do for some time so happy it is done and it will certainly save time when making treat holders or searching for a large die set......

Shopping stuffs - - -

Putting things away in the craft room and one of the recent orders needed to be die cut before putting it away for future use. Whenever I buy a word die set I always die cut it and keep a piece of card stock with these die cut words with the die set. This way in the future I can easily read what words I have dies for. This sample is a word die set I recently bought from ScrapDivaDesigns:

I used a piece of thinner white card stock and pink scrap card stock for the die cuts. I die cut the words (not shadow pieces) and used liquid glue to put the words onto the white card stock. I put this sample piece in with the die set for future use so at a glance I will easily know what words are in this die set:

Also over the weekend I was die cutting a coverplate die for a card front. This is a detailed coverplate so when I cut out those dies I use my older plates on the die cutting machine. Even tho the die and die cut piece come right off these plates sometimes the smaller pieces from these dies will remain on the plate when I remove the die and die cut card stock. The little brush that Sizzix has that  you run over the die to remove small card stock pieces gave me the idea - rather than try to get all the little pieces off these plates any way I could,  I went to Lowe's Home Improvement store and picked up a set of metal brushes for this reason. Here is a photo of the Sizzix die brush and the metal brushes I picked up for the die cutting plates:

                           

With the bristles on the Sizzix brush being softer I did not want to use it on my plates because it could cause damage to that brush. The metal brush does the trick in one pass over the plate and no little card stock pieces are left behind. (Had to buy the 3 pack as it was cheaper than the larger size they had in one in the pack). 

Also -- while I was at Lowe's..... when I entered the store on that aisle by the door were bins with different products for sale. There was a bin that had these white bins with lids for $2.00 each. Here is a photo of the SKU label:

These bins are approx 10" long by 7" wide by 3" deep. They are sturdy and stackable. I recently went to a Restore that I usually don't get to stop at since it is not near me but I was happy to pick up a white countertop shelf unit for $3.00. Brought it home and wiped it down and decided I would put it on the counter where I have my beads/jewelry making supplies. I had my divided boxes for beads and such stacked on the counter but had to move things around whenever I wanted anything since the cases were stacked on each other. Here is a photo of the new to me shelf today:

On the bottom of the shelf are 3 of the Lowe's bins and also a stack of three other bins I will be using on another counter for something else in the craft room. Happy I found these bins and for $2 ea.... Lids will keep things dust free and now I will have to get out the label maker so I can find everything easily when I am working on projects. . .

                                                  

Sorted sentiments for holiday projects - -

Recently bought two BetterPress holiday sentiment plates on sale at Spellbinders after I found out you can hot foil the BetterPress plates using the Glimmer Spellbinders hot foil machine - which I have. I used various hot foils and foiled these plates - using the waste foil as well once the sentiments were foiled:

Then used the included matching die sets and die cut out all the strips:

Once they were cut out I tossed them into a basket on the work table:

But once all were die cut the basket was really full and I decided I would need to sort these sentiment strips for future holiday projects. A recent trip to the Dollar Tree I picked up a box of snack bags to use for these strips to store in. Sorted the strips into piles on the the work table and put them in the zip lock bags when done and I have these bags in the basket now. The bags will help when I am looking for a sentiment strip for a holiday project.

Happy to have a sentiment stash on hand so when time is short at holiday time I will not have to stamp and die cut sentiments then.....