PaperFections

Crafty Hurricane Harvey Relief

Crafters, if you are looking for a way to help with disaster relief for my fellow Texans, AND organize your crafting space, this is one way you can help! One of my favorite craft-related companies, Stamp-N-Storage, is donating 15% of ALL SALES through Tues, Sept 5, 2017 to benefit Hurricane Harvey Disaster Relief! You can read more about their efforts HERE and shop their website HERE. My favorites are their Marker Nook: and Distress Combo Holder: They come to you as smooth, sanded "naked" wood, ready to be used as is, or you can stain/paint as you wish. I spray paint mine all white, to match my other craft room furniture. <3 Bless you, Stamp-N-Storage!! Many thanks to everyone who has inquired about my family ... we are all safe and drying out! Fortunately, we had no damage in my immediate area -- just landlocked for a day, by a flooded street. Counting our blessings, and praying for all those affected. Read more →

2017 Craft Room Tour

Hello, Friends! After moving into our new permanent home 9 months ago (we previously rented for 3 years after moving to this area, until we could get our old home sold and find the perfect new house) and getting fully settled into our house and my new craft room, I finally got things cleaned up and organized enough to show you my craft room! I find I usually need to live in and use a room for a while, to determine how I use it most and what works best -- how about you? It's been 3 years since my last 2014 craft room tour in the rental house, so come on in and let's get started! My room is an upstairs bedroom with south-facing windows. I LOVE all the natural light I get in here all day and gazing out at the tree tops, filled with birds and squirrels! Fortunately, our lot and the one next to us out these windows (currently vacant) are heavily wooded, so no other houses have a view in. I was able to use most of my furniture from our last home and rental house, but my previous dark brown desk was 10 years... Read more →

Things We Love 2015 plus DISCOUNT code and GIVEAWAY!

Hello and welcome to a new feature this year ... “Things we LOVE 2015” with Ellen Hutson LLC! I am so happy to be here sharing some of my favorite papercrafting supplies! Over the next few weeks the Ellen Hutson CLASSroom designers are all sharing the things we love most and just for my readers, I have compiled a list of loves AND I have a special discount code to Ellen Hutson LLC for you to use! DISCOUNT CODE: I am thrilled to share my exclusive discount code for you to enter in the coupon code area of your shopping cart at check-out: “thinkgswelovesharon” will save you 10% on EVERY in-stock product through December 14 over at Ellen Hutson LLC! The discount is NOT limited to just the things I love, but ANYTHING you love, too, as long as it is in stock! (So shop early for the best selection)! HEADS UP: If you have any of the Essentials by Ellen stamps and dies on your wish list, they are currently on SALE, so apply my additional 10% discount code on top of the sale price, for an even bigger savings . . . Happy Holidays to YOU!! :) I... Read more →

Happy Holidays!

With the official start of the holiday season today, I am celebrating over in the CLASSroom with this build-a-scene card and Taylored Expressions dies, combined with a beautiful Essentials by Ellen Mistletoe & Holly stamp set ... I hope you will join me there for all the details! I also wanted to mention these fantastic Black Friday sales starting today: Ellen Hutson LLC is thrilled to be celebrating their online store's 9th year! The celebration begins on TODAY (Fri, Nov 27) with special savings and will continue with inspiration and chances to win some fab prizes through December 12th as we host our annual 12 Tags of Christmas with a Feminine Twist (my absolute favorite project of the year)! <== Click the graphic to begin saving! Here are your discount times and codes: EARLY BIRD SAVINGS: Shop early for best selection - the early bird does get the worm! For nine (9) hours beginning at 12:00am Friday, November 27th Pacific Standard Time (3:00am Eastern Standard Time), running through 9:00am PST, save 20% on every item currently in stock. At checkout please enter the following one time use coupon code to redeem your discount: early2015 ANNIVERSARY SAVINGS: If you are not... Read more →

MFT July Release Countdown-Day 3

Welcome to the 5th day of My Favorite Things July Release Countdown – just 2 days left until the new products are available on July 8! Be sure to head over to the MFT Blog to see today’s full product reveals AND enter for your chance to win a $75 gift voucher on each of the 7 countdown day blog posts! My project today is one I've been meaning to create for a few months now. Since I've started doing a lot more die cutting, my cardstock scrap pile has gotten out of control! To help get the pile under control, I started trying to keep the scraps separated in this photo storage box. But there weren't enough dividers that came with the box, so I was just tossing the scraps anywhere ... ugh! I finally took the time to get things under control, with the help of this month's new File Folder Edges Die-namics: YAY! Did you hear that huge sigh of peaceful organized bliss? :) Usually whenever a piece of cardstock ends up 1/4 sheet or less, it will go into this box. The box sits right next to my Big Shot, so it's easy to reach in... Read more →

Grand Die Storage

If you didn't already know, I'm a bit of a storage nut . . . I think most of us paper crafters with a hoard of supplies HAVE to be, if we want to know where our supplies are so we can use them, right?!! :) So I wanted to share my recent storage solution for Spellbinders fabulous new Grand Nestabilities dies: I'm using these 8.5" x 11" Full Size Storage Panels from Stamp N' Store (Ellen Hutson is the only online retailer of these that I’ve been able to find): The dies are held in place with business card sized magnets, cut in half OR you could use Inchie Magnets from Inchie Arts: You can place a set of dies on each side of the storage panels -- they are quite sturdy. The panels are all stored in this Clear Translucent Full Size Binder from Stamp N' Stor (measures approximately 11” x 11-1/2” x 1-1/2” closed) that Ellen carries in her store: I like that this binder will close up for travel, so no dies can accidently escape! I punch holes in the die’s packaging insert and place them in the binder, for easy reference of die name, SKU... Read more →

Color Cubbie / Copic Storage Update

I promised I'd be back with more photos of my recently added Copic storage, the Color Cubbie from Studio 3 Solutions. I had two "towers" and added two more: I'm a very happy crafter now, with plenty of room for the whole line of Copic Sketch markers (334) PLUS the 24 Spica Glitter Pens! These make my markers easy to access, right in front of me on my desk -- since I use them on just about every crafty thing I make! Remember, you can purchase the "towers" individually, to match up with the amount of storage you need. For a size comparison, here's a full-sized Memento ink pad -- it's about the size of one of the little cubbie openings. You may wonder what I'm using my old storage for now? My QuicKutz Magpie unit on the left is now holding ink pads within easy reach: Memento full-sized and Dew Drops stored in QuicKutz die containers (color coded with buttons on the front), Ranger Distress ink pads, and adhesive in the drawer. You can also see here how many more markers the Color Cubbies can hold vs. one Magpie. I hope the photos help you make your Color Cubbie... Read more →

Copic Glitter Pen Giveaway Winner & Copic Storage

The winner of my Copic Spica Glitter Pen giveaway (compliments of Copic) was chosen by Random.org: Random Integer Generator Here are your random numbers: 300 Timestamp: 2010-02-06 04:21:20 UTC Who is: Melissa E said... "It looks like you had a lot of fun! Thanks for the chance to win!" Congratulations, Melissa!! Please email me your glitter pen set choice and your mailing address (using the link under my photo) and Copic will send your bunch of glitter goodness right out to you! * * * * * * * * * * * * * Speaking of Copics ... I recently added some new storage for my Copic markers to my desk and wanted to share it with you: I'm always looking for the perfect storage solution and Studio 3 Solutions came to my rescue! They sent me their new Color Cubbie to try out and I absolutely love them! Company owner, Tami McBeain, is a stamper & papercrafter just like you and me and when she found herself needing some storage for her Copic markers, she took her ideas to her husband (who has been a custom cabinet maker for 27 years!) and the Color Cubbie was born! What... Read more →

Back-to-School Day & PTI

Hello All -- I sent my kiddos off to school this morning and then promptly downloaded the photos I took and somehow a big chunk of the day was taken over with digi-scrapping! :) Here's just one page I created with Shabby Miss Jen Designs' new School Time album. Over the weekend I got a little organizing done and wanted to share how I've been storing buttons ... specifically Papertrey Ink's beautiful buttons! They come packaged in a little zip lock baggie. Since my other buttons were stored on shelves in jars, I decided to give Making Memories' small storage jars for their Embellishment Center a try and much to my delight, Papertrey's package of buttons fit perfectly into these jars! Ahhh, they're all nice and labeled and within easy reach now! Now I'm off to actually try and USE some of those pretty buttons! Read more →

Copic Storage

After seeing the photo in my blog post about the new lighter Copic colors below, several of you asked what my Copic storage unit is, so here's a full photo (click for a larger view): These are Quickutz Magpie Nesting Storage System (I'm using three of them) that I've been using for about 18 months now. They are wooden and originally meant to store Quickutz dies in the metal tins you see in the last two columns to the far right (I use the tins to store my Memento Dew Drops and color coded the fronts of the tins with colored buttons). They come in either white or black and Overstock.com usually has them in stock at a good price ($21-23). These are lined up along the back edge of my crafting desk, so they are right in front of me within easy reach (I took the photo from where I sit to stamp). I use a different cubby for each Copic color group. As you can see to the far left, the cubbies are also a good size to store Ranger Distress Ink pads, Memento full-sized ink pads & Palette ink pads. I took the drawer out of the... Read more →

Ribbon Organization

It seems I'm constantly organizing things in my studio, trying to find the best/better storage solutions. I recently reorganized all my ribbon and promised friends some photos, so here you go . . . I love these Embellishment Centers by Making Memories (I've never ordered from the site linked above, it's just the first site I found when I Googled these. For some reason, Making Memories doesn't have them listed on their site). This is the larger one that measures 24" wide x 31.5" tall. It hangs on the wall in front of my desk (the ink pads in the lower right of this photo are sitting on my desk). It has cubbies to hold jars of ribbon and also Crop In Style's Ribbon Spool Stackers (again, I have no affiliation with this site -- I just wanted to find a better photo for you). I've found my ribbon stackers at Michael's or Hobby Lobby and the Embellishment Center at Michael's -- use your coupon! I've tried to organize by color: reds, oranges, yellows and white/cream are in this center. The jars usually contain the same type variety -- wide satin, polka dot, swirls, velvet, etc. that I've gotten from... Read more →

WSC41-Tea Time & More Copic Coloring Tips & Storage

You know the Friday drill . . . Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge! Here's the sketch for this week. I decided I was in the mood for shabby & distress, and looking through my Lockhart stamps I found this new Itty Bitty Teapot that I thought would work well as a background stamp for the Teabag. So here's how it all came together: I knew I wanted to work with browns on the teabag, so I chose this Memory Box Inspire printed paper that has a brown pattern in it. Next, I stamped the teapot all over a manila tag (5-1/4" x 2-5/8") with Ranger's Adirondack Espresso dye ink. I knew I wanted to color the teapots with green to match the paper, so I got out my Copic color chart and matched up the greens. (Edited: this blank color chart is now available to be downloaded from this post). I also wanted to share with you how I store my Copic markers. It was driving me crazy trying to keep them in numeric order in the clear boxes they come in (they were forever getting all mixed up!), so I tried this solution and am really liking it: This is... Read more →

More Ribbon & Storage!

A New Stampin' Up catalog year brings new accessories, and one of my favorites is ribbon! This year I finally decided to purchase these stacking ribbon holders Stampin' Up! started carrying last year because I was running out of ribbon storage space (can you sympathize with me here?)!! I wanted to segregate my current ribbon from the retired (and add new!) and keep it within easy reach, right on my desk top since I'm always getting it out for just about every project. These plastic containers seemed innocent enough when I started assembling them. They went together quickly and easily -- they are shipped flat and just bend and snap together. But before you can snap the final piece in place (the front part that has the logo on it), you have to be an acrobat to get all the spooled ribbon to stay inside the semi-enclosed box while you insert the included figure-8 piece that locks two or more of these containers together, then snap the final piece in place. And then try to do all that again with the next unit you want to stack and attach to the first! One nice thing about these containers is that... Read more →

Ink Storage

These great ink pad/reinker/marker wooden storage units I have are on sale this month at Storage Units Ink (SUInk). Denise is running 10% off her entire store in July, so if you've been hesitating to get these, now's the time! Especially with those new Stampin' Up! In Color ink pads you have on order that will be arriving soon -- you'll need extra space to store them! Read more →

Organization

Seems like every crafter struggles with where to put all their goodies and keep it all organized. If you need some fresh ideas about craft organization, head on over to Craft Critique. They are having an Organization Carnival this week and posting links to LOTS of bloggers & websites that may help you out. And you might see a few names along the way that you recognize, too! ;) Read more →