My Weekend

Hi Everyone,
So far I have only been posting about how I have been organizing my scraproom. However, this weekend was our 16th wedding anniversary. So we stayed in Friday evening and ordered out our favourite desserts from local restaurants.
On Saturday we went with our oldest daughter to the Cultus Waterslide Park compliments of our realtors Larry and Marlene Siebert. They invite all of their clients each year for a bbq at the waterslides. We had a thunder/lightning storm with a torrential downpour, however once it passed we had a fabulous time with hardly any line ups at all, and we stayed until closing.
Yesterday we went to an amazing concert in our local area to see Michael W. Smith, Steven Curtis Chapman, and Brian Doerkson. But first we went out to dinner with my hubby's brother Steve and his wife Sarah to Greek Island's Restaurant. Yummy, Yummy, Yummy!!! Great food, awesome concert, and wonderful company, made for a wonderful night.
What a great anniversary weekend we had together!!!! Sorry I don't have any pics this time.

This Rocks My Colour World!

Hello,
This is a bird's eye view of my cropper hopper heavy duty rolling cart. My paper holder has a bin that holds just tons of 12 x 12 paper in vertical file folders, I think each one right now holds about 26 folders or so. I bought these from Joanne's on-line with a friend of mine and also from my local Michael's store a few years ago. They are made by Cropper Hopper. I don't think you can buy them anymore with the bin, but you can buy them without. I have implemented this sysem with my all of my cardstock; you can do this with whatever system you use for storing your papers as well.
I have had 3 of these rolling carts for a few years now, and until a year ago I only had my 12 x 12 papers in there. I also had them organized according to Stampin' Up!'s colour families (rich regals, soft subltes etc). Last fall I put all of my 8.5 x 11 cardstock into the folders with their matching 12 x 12 counterparts. I loved that I did that because when I wanted to grab a certain colour to work with, I had all of that specific colour of paper in all of the sizes I owned, plus all of the scraps (stored in a large ziploc bag within each folder) which are great for punches, and small stamped images etc. This also makes for great and easy portability of your colours when you want to go to a crop.
In just the last few weeks I have organized my paper folders according to the colours of the rainbow, just like my markers, and pencil crayons in the previous post. I now have a much better understanding as to exactly what each colour really is. For example: until now I have always thought of sage shadow as being a shade of green, but now I really know that it is actually a shade of blue-green. I can also see which colours are really yellow-greens, peaches not pinks, yellow-golds as opposed to yellow or a shade of brown.
Now I just need one more rolling cart, then I could add in all my printed papers and non-SU papers and slip them into their spots within the rainbow. This is the order of colours in my stash: pinks into burgundies which moves into reds, then red-oranges into peach, orange, and into the yellows, this moves into dirty yellows, yellow-greens, green, blue-greens, blue, blue-purples, purples, red-purples, which takes us back to the beginning of the rainbow. After the purple family I actually have all of my nuetral coloured cardstock, from creams to beiges to browns, then whites to greys to silver and finally blacks. This is what I did, but I did it by holding the paper next to each other and then I decided exactly where each one should be, sometimes I think I could still move them around but I will leave them as they are.
This has just changed perception of colour in scraproom! It has really simplified my search for just the right colour for each project.

My Colors

Hi Everyone,
Well I said I would post some pics and here they are.

The first one is my Stampin' Up! markers. I love the case they come in. I used to have them in the order of their color families, such as soft subtles, rich regals, earth elements, and bold brights. Now I have them organized in the order of the rainbow. Starting with the pinks, reds, oranges, yellows, greens, blues, purples and a few neutrals. Love the way it looks.

Next I have all of my non-Stampin' Up! markers, pencil crayons, pens etc, also organized into some old glass jam jars that my mom gave me. Thanks Mom!!! I love these jars. It looks so clean and now it will be easier to pick just the right shade I need for all my paper crafting needs.

The third picture is how I have them set up above my desk. My hubby build me some great shelves, and the black wire basket is from IKEA. The basket is a great way to use space underneath a shelf that would otherwise be wasted. Gotta love it!!!

Ribbon Ring

Hi,
I just ordered some cool ribbon tags for organizing all of my loose ribbon. You can check out their system at Ribbon Ring. Here's a pic from the Ribbon Ring website. I can't wait for it to come.
I have spent time this week organizing my markers/pencil crayons, cardstock and inks. I am now organizing these products by colors - all the reds together, pinks together etc. I have also put all my stamp sets into drawers to free up some space on my shelves. It looks so fabulous. It is so fun to get my room organized again, it sure doesn't take long to for it to get messy.

Photo Freedom

Hello Everyone,
This spring while I was recovering from surgery I had the opportunity to read a book called Photo Freedom by Stacy Julian. In her book she shares her Library of Memories system. This system takes you from scrapbooking chronologically to inspiration based scrapbooking. I highly recommend this book if you want to move your photos from envelopes/boxes and into your scrapbooks. You can find groups on facebook that share ideas for this type of scrapbooking called Big Picture Scrapbooking and also Library of Memories Fan. She also has a website called Big Picture Scrapbooking.
Marcia

Christmas Frame, Some Home Decor

Hello,
I know it seems strange to blog Christmas items, but I was going through some of my photos and thought I would start here with posting some of my artwork. I made this quite a while ago, fall of 2006 (I think) and I love bringing it out at Christmas time each year. I'll try to remember the supplies I used to create this pretty frame.

Techniques: Kissing, Kissing Off, and Twisted Kissing
Stamps: Headline Alphabet, snow flurries, warm words
Ink: True Thyme, Cranberry Crisp, Chocolate Chip Classic Inks
Paper: Holiday Thyme
Accessories: Hodgepodge Hardware - antique brass, various SU ribbons


Please note: some of these supplies are retired. Please see my Stampin' Up! website for current stamping supplies.

Valentine's Cookies

Hi Everyone,

I know I am late posting this, but the cookies were so pretty I just had to share. I made these cookies for my daughter's kindergarten class for her 6th birthday, which is also Valentine's Day. They were a huge hit with all the kids, and I stayed with the class for the day and we had a great time doing some special Valentine projects. For her birthday party I made giant heart cookies for the kids to decorate with orange or yellow icing, which was a request from the birthday girl.

Here's the recipe: ( got it from a friend years ago)
3/4 c. butter
1c. sugar
2 eggs
1 t. vanilla
1t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
3 c. flour (I use about 2 3/4 cups - I just play with it until I get the right consistency)

Cream together butter and sugar, add eggs and vanilla. Mix in baking powder, salt and flour. Chill 1 hour or until firm. Lightly flour surface and roll out 1/4" thickness. Place on greased cookie sheet, I don't think I have ever greased the cookie sheet. One recipe yields 10 large hearts (not shown) or a couple dozen regular hearts (shown). Bake at 375 for 8 - 10 minutes. The recipe for the icing was from the package of Rogers Icing Sugar. It turned out great, and was easy to work with.

Enjoy,
Marcia