Yay!! Thank you to Lori and her Design Team at By LORi Designs for choosing my card as one of your "Sweet Five" for the BLD1 Challenge. I didn't win the "Top Lollipop" but you sure have motivated me to keep on creating and playing along with your challenges.

Here's the card that won the honors:

Soo cool to have a toot so soon back into the game. Yay me!

Do I want to start small or go for broke?

I'm going for broke!! Yes, I'm sick of my own excesses!! I've watched enough Clean Sweep and Oprah shows to know that the best way is to take everything out of the room and start from scratch. I boxed everything up without a care of what was inside. Goal, get it out! Sort later.

Then, one evening at a time, I'll tackle as many boxes as I can to sort to put all like items together because I need to see exactly how much of everything I really do have. In the past several months, Ive been especially enthused when I discovered several opportunities to sell off my belongings at scrap yard sales at local crop gatherings, etc. This past December, I think within two crops and a few ebay sales, I grossed approximately $174? Not bad for turning junk into cash!

Here's my process:

1. Take everything out of the room by putting everything in boxes.
   
2. Sort one box at a time into the following piles:

• Keep: Put it with like items that already has a home
• Donate: Put them in designated boxes for various charities. Mail/drop off to the charity within the same week.
  
• Sell: Put them in designated boxes and devote any available down time to label and price the items for the next scrap sale opportunity.
  

This process, albeit it's just one blog posting, in actuality has taken me several months to complete. I wish I could take a week off from work to just concentrate on this. So I'm not following Wookiemouse's recommended process per se but using the method that works best for me with my time constraints. But I'd like to think I'm going for broke, just over a period of time.

Here's what the living room looks like now with everything taken out of my closets, lol. (You have no idea how embarrassed I am to share this.)


Yes, I need to get all of this stuff into ONE room. Think I can do it? I sure hope so!

NOTE: Follow along my organization journey every other Monday here on my Scrap Room Organization Page on my blog.

I'm obviously on crafty overdrive this week as this is my 2nd card in a week! Eek! Call me an overachiever because this sweet ballerina card was inspired by a few challenges.

But the reason why I'm extra crafty this week is because I'm participating in a blog hop with a wonderful group of ladies, the Design Divas over at SplitCoast Stampers, who recently welcomed me into their group a few weeks ago. Join us every 3rd Wednesday each month for a blog hop. For January, our Oldies but Goodies Blog Hop's objective is to brush off our stamps that haven't been used for at least 6 months. Lol, in my case, that's super easy since that applies to most of my stash.

**BLOG HOP LOGISTICS**

• You just came from Angie's blog.
  
• Sue's Blog <-------This is where it all starts
• Up Next -------> Go to Linda's blog.

Hopefully you've arrived on my blog from Angie's blog. If you didn't and arrived here first, then you will want to head on over to Sue's blog for the start of the hop. There are 30 of us participating. :) I'm #23, which is my lucky number. Yay!

Ok, so here's darling Avery in all her ballerina cuteness. Avery is a digital image designed by Lori Boyd, owner of By LoRi Designs, who I've been a fan of every since we were on the same Design Team with the Cuttlebug Challenge Blog a few years ago. Avery is part of Lori's Puddle Jumper series and she can be yours over at Claudia & Company.


The sentiment is from a, now retired, Verve set called Munchkin Phrases. And yep, I'm still obsessed with making do with the Cosmo Cricket DeLovely paper scraps my friend Gen gave me. Lol, I think I'm about done with it because it's all down to tiny little scraps now.

As previously mentioned, I'm killing 2 birds with 1 stone with this card:

• BLD1 Color Challenge of Pinks, Greens, Blues over at By LoRi Designs requiring the use of one of her images.

• Verve January Week #2 Card Sketch

As always, lol, I do take liberties with the challenges with my own interpretations.

I had fun coloring the image in with Copics. I don't have that many, as I've been buying colors very carefully and with purpose. My shading is getting better but my dream is to color "hair" as expertly as Lori and her DT's do.

Practice makes perfect. I just need to find my patience. :)

Ahh, it's been like a rushed baptism by fire all this week as I've quickly learned how to work with digital images (printing, ink drying, paper type, resizing), making rolled flowers (see my previous card post) and coloring with Copics all for the first time....in a looong time. Whew! Lol, but I'm smiling from ear to ear because I've definitely found my mojo along with feeling the joy about crafting again. :)

Now, off you go to Linda's blog. Thanks for visiting my blog and hope you come back soon. Toodles!



"Princess of Quite A Lot"
Paper: Cosmo Cricket Delovely PP & Elements DieCuts; Joann's CS: Neenah Solar White 80# CS
Stamps:By Lori Designs "Avery" Puddle Jumper; Verve "Munchkin Phrases" Sentiments
Embellishments: Embellish-It Pink Satin Ribbon; Michaels Dollar Bin Bling;
Accessories: SB Mega 8; Copic Markers; SU Positively Pink Dye Ink; SU Curly Label, Designer Label & Med Oval Punches

I've been a long time fan of Verve stamps and finally took the plunge last month during their end of the year sale when a good number of their stamps were 50% off and I had a coupon code for another 10% off. What a great way to use up the last of my ebay money.

Here's a quick card I made at my crop yesterday using the Cosmo Cricket's DeLovely line and this Verve Psalm 37:4 Plain Jane biblical verse stamp.


Here's the Viva La Verve sketch I used for my inspiration:

I obviously took liberty with some of the proportions of the panels in my interpretation. I "think" that's ok. :) I had a lot of fun with this one because I finally got to use my Rolled Rose and Rolled Flower Die-matics from My Favorite Things.

I've loved this DeLovely paperline when I saw it a couple of months ago, so I was very glad to take this packet of mostly small scraps and few large pieces from my friend Gen to see what I could make out of it. I thought it was a creative way to use all those itty bitty scraps I had with the MFT Die-namics. :)


Here's a look at my pretty pleated silver grey ribbon that I got from MFT :)

Hopefully, I'll have a few more finished items to share this coming week. Do check back this coming Wednesday as I'm participating in a blog hop with my Design Divas group.




"Delight Yourself in the Lord"
Paper: Cosmo Cricket Delovely PP & Elements; Joann's CS
Stamps:Verve Psalm 37:4 Plain JaneEmbellishments: Pleated Grey Ribbon MFT; Heidi Swapp Bling; Maya Roads Pins
Accessories: CTMH Ocean Dye Ink; SB Labels 3 & Mega 8; MFT Rolled Rose & Rolled Flower Die-namics; Mini Scalloped Decorative Scissors

True to my resolutions, I made myself finish this one off that's been in various stages of "finish" the past year.

The picture is from the previous Thanksgiving with my siblings/cousins and their respective kids.

I fell in love with one of the contents from one of the past monthly kits (from Studio Calico I think?) and was inspired to scrap, so I went out to buy a few pieces of patterned papers from BG Indian Summer, Prima and 7 Gyspies to create this layout.

What's cool is that I also incorporated the velvet embossed ric rac ribbon, on the bottom of the layout, from one of Urban Anthology's past kits that I remember shopping for in the Garment District in Downtown LA with UA owner Kari a few summers ago.

And here's what's making me smile from ear to ear because I'm meeting one of my New Year's Resolutions with this ----> I actually pulled out an old old OLD stamp set since I needed a small "Thanksgiving" phrase for the MM Vintage findings tag to complete my layout. Will you believe that's one of those MM magnetic stamp sets from way back in the days?


Here's a close up of the sentiment which was just EXACTLY what I needed:

As you can see, I really had fun mixing the Prima flowers with the K&Co Que Sera Sera dimensional phrase stickers.

• The turquoise rolled flower was handmade from punching out old dictionary paper using the ever elusive 6 petal flower punch. I love how fragile the dictionary paper and thus how the flower feels. I ended up spritzing it with some Glimmer Mist in xxx color so that it would blend in nicely with my color scheme. As a final touch, I rubbed some gold glitter on the top edges by applying some Stickles.
• Tee hee, the beaded wired flower was a left over from a package of K&Co embellishments from back in the day when I was making hair clippies for my baby niece.
  
• The white leaf stems were donated to me by my sweet friend Eva when I eyed them in her stash. I believe she had cut them on her Silhouette. Anyhoo, I decided to leave them a stark white for the much needed contrast for a crisper look.
  

Along the top border, I borrowed my friend Karen's Martha Stewart Jumbo border punch to create the velvety brown eyelet band across the top and was able to incorporate an old marigold K&Co journaling frame for some added color contrast with the strip of BG Indian Summer pp.

I definitely had fun with this one and really am happy with how it came out. Here are some more detailed shots of the dimension including a fluttering butterfly I punched using one of my newest (at the time) MS punches.

Here are a few more detailed shots.























Thanks for looking!



"Family"
Paper: 7 Gypsies ? PP; Prima "Island Beauty" PP; Basic Grey Indian Summer "Acorn" PP; Bazzil CS
Embellishments: Basic Grey Indian Summer Sticker Elements; K&Co Que Sera Sera Stitched Adornment Dimensional Stickers & Beaded Flowers; Prima Flowers and Leaves; Misc Velvet Brown Embossed Ric Rac Trim; K&Co Journaling Frame; MM Vintage Findings Scalloped Oval Tag; Pink Paisley Alpha Stickers; "Antique Gold" Stickles; ?? Glimmer Mist
Accessories: MM Magnetic Word Stamps; St; Silohuette Dies; Marvy 6 Petal Flower Punch; Aleene's Tacky Glue; MS Butterfly & Floral Vine Deep Edge Border Punch

So as you can see, I obviously fell off the organizational bandwagon since I first blogged about participating in Wookiemouse’s challenge waaaaay back in June of 2009. In my defense though, I’ve been purging through all of my possessions, not just scrappy stuff, like mad as if I were planning on moving out of the country. In this past year and a half, I’ve found so many wonderful non-profit organizations that would allow me to have a more direct impact towards those in need while fulfilling my own need to purge.

Clothes the Deal: They collect professional career clothing to empower women from battered shelters by providing appropriate dress so they interview for professional level positions.

Sierra Club / Adventure 16 Skid Row Hike for the Homeless: We collect and distribute warm clothing, blankets, food, tarps etc at midnight in Downtown LA to people and shelters we encounter.

From Our Hearts: They collect fully handmade cards, including card fronts that they will convert, for our troops stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Flip Swap: Their objective is to renew the (cell phone) equipment's life-cycle by enabling the re-use or recycling of exhausted products in order to prevent congestion of eWaste in our landfills.

Of course, I’ve given TONS away to Goodwill and libraries too in addition to participating in several successful Scrap Yard Sales which has turned my junk into cash. Wheee! To quote one of Oprah’s shows, it’s absolutely amazing to create so much (head and emotional) space by clearing out so much clutter.

So, I’m back to my crafting space now that I have more room to function in, so I'm picking up where I left off from last year.

This is what annoys me the most:

• Lack of table space – cluttered with lamp base, laptop, printer, etc. No room to really spread out papers/projects.
• Lack of floor space due to #1
• Frequently used items are not within arms reach
• Although, most items have been sorted, categorized, in identical storage and labeled, they are not housed together. They are spread out over 3 separate rooms and 2 floors of the house: all like items are not upstairs in one place with me.
  
• Not really using the Expedit for best efficiency. Out of 25 cubed spaces, I’m only using 7 of them for oft used items.
• Not enough lighting.
• Space Audit – Cluttered, no table/floor space, frequently used items are not within reach, and

So, this week, the challenge is to figure out why the areas I've previously identified are hindering your scrapping, and what to do about them.

** VERDICT ** I need to build my storage as such to achieve my goal of uncluttered space/room.

Here’s my “To Do” task list to tackle on the weekends based on the above observations:

1. Clear out all non essentials/boxes/clothes/furniture from the room/floor
2. Clear out closets and put in vertical Bonde shelving to put all cardstock, pp’s and monthly kits in there.
3. Make Expedit central area for most oft used items
4. Put all stamps in one area
5. Move in Ikea long desk
6. Determine WHAT my most frequently used items are? What items WOULD be used more if I made them more accessible?

As I envision my perfect space, what do I see?

• Everything in One Room
• Everything has a home and is in it's place
• Everything is off the floor and table top surfaces are completely clear

In Summary, I need it to be functional for myself, all in one place, and less frustrating for the whole family.

I've put a lot of thought into how I create and my creating process.

• I work best in an L shaped set up with the return to my right since I'm right handed. (I know this since my desk in the office is an L shape with the return to the left and it drives me crazy!! It's funny because I have two office chairs to my right which are serving as desks to hold my files / papers.) Then, behind me, I'd prefer for my Expedit Unit and my closet to form yet another L shape, so that when the two pieces are "put together," I'll have a perfectly square unit with all my oft used items within reach.
  

As much as I'd like to leave budget and space constraints out of this, I've mulled over my wants and constraints for several weeks. Here are my conclusions:

• Perform an organization tote/furniture inventory
• Determine which organization furniture to retire
• Audit every single cube / drawer to see what’s in each one. Declutter it.

My Most Often Used Items:

• Big Shot and accessories
• Dies (Sizzix, QK, SB, etc) & Embossing Folders & 6x6 Books ------I need a Die Station!
• Punches – I like them in Iris Carts – no dust!
• Laptop
• Photo Printer, Photo Paper and Plug
• Alpha Stickers – especially Thickers, Tiny MM alphas & Glitter Stickers – these can go underneath my desk in the metal Container Store rolling boxes? I should have two.
• Stamping stuff – inks, Stamping Acrylic Blocks, Baby Wipes
• Journaling spots/Bling
• Flowers (2 cubes)
• Glitter/Buttons
• Albums /Completed Page Storage
  

Items I'd use if they were MORE ACCESSIBLE:

• My Printer
  
• Cricut Machine
• Sewing Machine
• Patterned paper if it was more accessible
• Chipboard Letters and anything else that’s on top of the dresser that hasn’t been within reach
• All loose wood stamps need to be together one a book shelf.
• Patterned Paper, Cardstock, Class and Monthly Kits

Yep, this process is sooooo darn overwhelming!!! Here's a picture of my half cleaned out closet on it's way to being transformed into having IKEA Bonde shelves installed. :)

I agree with Wookiemouse's next step which is to empty out the entire room in order to 1) further sort by 2) touching each item one time 3) to put them in their final homes, etc.

NOTE: Follow along my organization journey every other Monday here on my Scrap Room Organization Page on my blog.

Happy 1-1-11 Everyone!!

I've been skimming 2Peas lately and came across a thread about setting blogging resolutions in addition to scrapping ones which I thought was a fabulous topic!! Since I'm trying to return from a 1.5+ year hiatus, it's certainly good timing for me to make some specific goals to accomplish this coming year.

( See my responses in red bold for my June 2015 status update on each of the resolution items.)

2011 Blogging Resolutions

1) Simplify the look and organize the content of my blog (3 to 2 columns, less graphics to reduce busy look, utilize "Pages" feature, etc.). DONE!!  I've actually learned so much about blogger templates and html coding during many long frustrating nights due to attempting several graphic styles, blogger templates and gadget customization.  It's definitely been a super fun and personally satisfying relationship. I'm pretty satisfied with my current clean and modern look on my blog. 

2) Blog at least 1x per week - Eek! that means I need to actually create! lol One blog entry a week is still my goal.  Life will always happen but scheduling posts ahead of time is definitely the only way I can accomplish at least one blog entry a week consistently.  That means making sure to schedule crafting time frequently to ensure I do make time for it.

3) Learn how to create polished and professional video tutorials so I can showcase more technique and creative tutorials. This desire has waned since I don't have any new knowledge, tips, etc to share due to my 4 year crafting hiatus. Admittedly, I'm in major catch up mode by learning the current hot trends in techniques, styles and use of products right now.  Thus, I have no desire to dedicate time, space and monetary resources to set this up.  

4) Create a proper light box so that I can showcase my work beautifully instead of photographing in my office underneath florescent lights which is my current method.  I never was happy with my various lamp set ups at home, but found my best results photographing under my former office's flourescent lights after hours. Currently, I'm thankful that my old DSLR is still more than adequate as I now am staging my projects outside by the pool in the afternoons. So far, I'm pretty happy with my results. 

5) Schedule posts ahead of time on the weekends so I have time to take pics, photoshop them and draft/proof my posts.  DONE!!  See responses for #2 and #4 above. 

6) Feature a biweekly organizational topic because that'll get me moving in the direction I want with my scrap area organization project.  My crafting supplies, etc., is currently in storage.  I have, however, pulled out a small amount of basic supplies to play with in the meantime.  My intent is to rotate through my supplies every now and then when time permits for variety.   I'll return to this task in depth when I set up my scrap room in new housing.

Now that I'm no longer bound to DT deadlines, I really want to keep it simple so I can really enjoy my paper crafting hobby while maintaining a balance with my other interests, i.e. yoga, fooding, reading, movie going, spending time with friends and family, etc. in addition to more rest. As sacrilegious as it sounds, I'm not interested in living and breathing scrapping every moment of my free time.

2011 Scrapping Resolutions

1) Use as many of my stamps/stamp sets at least ONCE in 2011 or it gets purged by the end of the year. Remains a goal.  See my new Crafting Goals for 2015.

2) Use as many of dies/punches/tools at least ONCE in 2011. Specifically, pull out my Cricut bug and figure out how to use it. The carts seem easy enough, but I really want to begin using SCAL formatted files. Is this a good time to mention that I've had my cricut for 2+ years and I've never used it? Remains a goal.  See my new Crafting Goals for 2015.

3) Cut down in my existing patterned paper/cardstock stash. DONE! Have only used what papers I have, especially scraps. See my new Crafting Goals for 2015.

I'm really looking forward to making as many cards as possible which will be an enjoyable way to use up my existing supplies (and accomplish #1-3 of my Scrapping Resolutions) to donate to From Our Hearts for which I've become quite fond of supporting.  DONE! Have contributed 1726 cards thus far to From Our Hearts for our Troops using all of my SU Demo Swap Card Fronts, Swap returns, Class Kit Materials and existing cardstock/patterned paper scraps. I've since begun participating in a new Cause for Cards with the Ronald McDonald House collection effort. 

4) Finish at least ONE of the altered book projects I've accumulated from various conventions/CKU, etc. type of events. (I'm cringing about this one as I type this, so I can tell this one will indeed be a challenge. Thankfully, I have 364 days to attempt this.) I don't think I ever was a fan of altered projects, so I'm tabling this for now. My enthusiasm seems to be for cards at the moment, so I'm going to indulge what makes me happy for now. 

5) Continue with my NO BUY policy which isn't that hard since I have pretty much accomplished this the past 2 years. (I'm so well stocked even in adhesives, lol, so I need no caveats.) However, this may prove difficult this year since I've just discovered My Favorite Things. I'm absolutely in love with their Pure Innocence and A La Modes stamps and their Die-namtic dies. I'll admit that I fell off the bandwagon recently and got a few items with some ebay money during their Black Friday and End of Year Sales. I haven't loved so much from one company in a long time since discovering Stampin' Up! almost 10 years ago which really says alot about MFT. :)  My desire is to really start using all the tools I do have and I have finally begun to do so.  It just doesn't make sense to keep purging items that I never even got to enjoy! However, I'm currently in love with Reverse Confetti and possibly Lil Inker's.  I realize the rest of the crafting world has gone to electronic cutting, but I'm still a thin die addict! Since there's so much significantly less to purchase in the industry these days, I'm fine with adding a few dies to my collection now and then. But the difference has been that I'm actually using rather than just collecting. 

6) Participate in least 2 challenges per month as that'll get my mojo going as well as facilitate a return to interacting with existing and new friends in the scrapping community again. :)  DONE! When I am crafting, challenges are usually the first place I go to to get my mojo going.  It's also fun to see what others have done and to be inspired. 

Yep, it's definitely time to stop feeling overwhelmed and dealing with how much I have, i.e. purging, etc, and start actually ENJOYING my things by creating and playing again. :)

Coming from ground zero, and considering I'm a slow scrapper with a full time job where I work an average of 10+ hours per day with a 2.5-3 hour daily round trip commute, I think the above 12 resolutions will indeed be quite a challenge for me.

Hmm, 12 Resolutions for the next 12 months. Doable wouldn't you say?

I sure hope so!