Sunday 20 January 2013

Penny Black Thank you card and organisation.

Hello everyone, and and a very warm welcome to Sweetlily Collection, Kodinhenki and Anita, who are recent new followers.

I'm sorry it has been a while but in my defence I have been busy doing some clearing out and reorganising, and having purged, I'm feeling much better and can think about creating some things again. My husband was away for a few days so I even swore off blog visiting and knuckled down to some hard work.

The main areas I wanted to reorganise were my die storage and my card storage. For ages I've had my card organised in loose colour combos such as blues and greens together in a box etc but the card was getting dog eared when I was looking for bits and I was always cutting into a new sheet of card when I had perfectly serviceable bits lower in the box. I got an idea from Ted on the PTI forum and bought lots of suspension files for my filing drawer and now every colour has its own file with a Ziploc bag hung over the back of each file for the small pieces of card that 'might come in useful'.



For my die storage, I had been using a zipped CD storage case, but every now and then it would get turned upside down and all the dies would fall and and need replacing. I had thought about storing them with the matching stamp sets but I would still need a storage system for those dies from other companies that do not have matching stamps. I bit the bullet and found a small set of plastic drawers that fit tidily under my desk and made dividers up from card I already had. It doesn't look pretty and I might change it in the future if I see something more suitable but it will do the job for now.


The top drawer has all my small PTI dies,


The next drawer has all the borders and larger dies,



and the final drawer has all my embossing folders and impression plates.


As you can see it fits beautifully under the desk in a handy position. All this was followed up with a deep clean and tidy so I can enjoy spending time in the room again.

After all this work I wanted to sit down and create something so I made this little thank you card using a Penny Black image which I have always loved but rarely use. I cut and embossed a frame to finish the card off and used diamond Stickles for the centre of the flower, which I hope will qualify me to enter this into the Cute card Thursday challenge which this time is Diamonds are Forever.

click to enlarge


Gosh this ended up being a much longer post than I anticipated, so thanks for sticking with me. I'm off now to blog hop and see what everyone has been up to whilst I was being so industrious.

Hugs
Carol x




13 comments:

Stamps and Paper said...

Carol you have done a really good job and something I should be doing....love your little cute hedgie....lovely card

Anne

Joyce said...

Love all your organizing tricks. Doesn't it feel good to organize? I love doing that, but can't get myself to purge anything yet! Your thank you card is so sweet.

Pendra said...

I wish I had that many dies and card to worry about organizing them!! You are one lucky lady!! I had my craft room fairly organized after the move but I have far too many obsessions, scrapping, cardmaking, quilting, sewing, painting...it goes on and on! hehehe! But I wouldn't and couldn't part with any of it. You did a great job of organizing, purging and cleaning! Your card is adorable, and it had to feel great in a nice clean and organized area!!
Hugs,
Pendra

Tracey McNeely said...

Excellent organizing Carol and I love your card. It takes such discipline to set down and organize.

Unknown said...

Sweet card.

Marybeth said...

Card first… Oh this is so darn cute. I was at a stamp store the other day and almost bought one of these little guys. Your layout is beautiful and so is your coloring. Love this card Carol!
Great job with the organizing. But it feels great to have all that done.

Emma said...

I have my dies stored the same way and it was like a revelation!! I have small ziplock bags in with them for storing any extra die cuts and it's really working well for me so far. Love your card Carol, the embossed frame is beautiful and that is such a cute little stamp.

Unknown said...

Hi Carol
Thank you for your comments, I have just joined your site, and look forward to reading your blog.
Suzy B A Galloping Grannie

Darnell said...

Glad to have you back, Carol! You've done a wonderful job purging and cleaning and organizing. I keep my paper and dies in much the same way and love it. The only difference is that I have a rolling drawer cart just for my snippets, instead of using the ziploc bags. Either way, it does make it much easier to use them! I spend a lot of time with bright red spots on the tops of my hands where I smack myself whenever I lazily go to reach for an uncut piece of card stock!

Your card is just adorable in every way!!

Deb said...

love all your organisation, the card is so gorgeous too!
Many thanks for joining in the
♥Cute Card Thursday Challenge♥
this week! Debxx

Wendy ten Hove said...

Your storage ideas look great! I love a well-organized craft space! And your card is so pretty. Love the layers!
Hugs, Wendy

Unknown said...

I think you have done a great job with organising your stuff! I too have just began overhauling my craft supplies, not an easy job! I don't have a dedicated craft space as I have to do everything from my bed so things are stacked in boxes around my bedroom which isn't ideal as sometimes forget what I've got. Hopefully I can find a solution that will suit my situation!

On another note my blog is starting to come to life! I have a few more posts up now and I am getting the hang of things! If you have a minute sometime I would love it if you would take a another peek! http://thecraftinghamster.blogspot.co.uk/

Hugs, Lucy x

Unknown said...

Oh and I love the card too! You have done a great job with the colouring! :)

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