OCD Stamp Index

I've mentioned in a few blog posts about my stamp index, so before I mention it in passing again, I thought I'd devote an entire post to it.  Besides, I'm still feverishly working on my butterfly challenge piece for the Loose Bead Society and don't have anything new to show you yet.

It all started with a spiral book I got for free somewhere.  It was a large book with thick pages, and I decided it would make a good stamp index.  I divided it into sections and stamped away!  It worked pretty well until I overgrew some sections like birthday and thank you... then I had to put a note that says "More birthday stamps on the following page..." and go find a blank page I could use.

The book got so out of date and confused that I was about to scrap the whole thing, but my OCD kicked in.  I was about to make a birthday card for someone and thought I should keep track of what I've used for what project so I wouldn't use the same stamp for the same person.

I'll spare you the entire thought process.  My brain can be a scary and complicated place.  The end result:  three large 3-ring binders, thousands of scanned images, and a lot of Word documents.  I got very lucky in that Walgreens had a great sale on page protectors.  I was able to get more than enough for what I have and for expansion.

I separated the stamps by theme and type.  If a stamp had a bird and flowers, it went into both the birds and the flowers sections.  I got very confused throughout the process, but I had a huge sense of accomplishment when it was done.

Here are a few pictures:

The three binders on my bookshelf.  This is very close to my desk, so when I'm in "creation mode", I can just turn around and grab a book.

The inside cover and tabs for book #3.  Yes, I have a table of contents, and my tabs are color coded based on category.  I told you my mind was a scary and complicated place.  I think the hardest part of the whole process was placing the tabs so they wouldn't overlap.

One of the pages from the Birthday section.  The titles across the top of the page are:  Stamp, Set/Information, Location, and Used on...  For "Set/Information", I have the name of the Stampin' Up! set or what the manufacturer of the stamp is.

I have separated my Stampin' Up! sets based on location.  When I set up the locations, I was using a large Rubbermaid cabinet with wire stackable shelves.  I placed the stamp sets based on what fit in each location, not alphabetically.  I'm not that OCD!  I knew that I'd have to keep rearranging the locations if I did that.  For the most part, they're organized based on when I got them.  I have number stickers on the outsides of the set boxes, so I can quickly find sets and put them back.

As you can see above, I'm writing in the "Used on..." column instead of reprinting the sheet every time I make a change.  At some point I'll go through and update the Word documents and reprint the sheets.  That won't be necessary for quite some time, though.

Hopefully my stamp index will inspire you to do something similar with your own stamps.  The best part about this system is that when my husband wants to make a card for me or to help me with a project, he can do it all on his own!  That's a sign of a good system, in my book(s)!

If it doesn't move...

I'll stamp on it!

I love rubber stamps.  They can be cute or sophisticated, detailed or simple, single or multi-colored.... They can be used for cards, scrapbook pages, notes, recipe cards, jewelry, home decor projects, backs of hands to ensure re-entry into a special event...

The possibilities are just endless.  Endless, I tell you!

Back in the mid-90's Michael's craft store had name stamps, and I actually found one with my name spelled correctly.  That hardly ever happens!

Isn't that cute?  I love using this stamp on the backs of cards I make.

Over the years I have accumulated thousands of stamps.  I don't think that's an exaggeration.  Everything from dollar store stamps to Stampin' Up!  I love them all, especially if I can get a good deal on them.  My Mom has brought me back stamps from Germany, and my Mother-in-Law has even found a few for me at the thrift store.  I'm not terribly fond of the "acrylic" or clear stamps.  Yes, you can see where you're stamping, but they feel very flimsy to me, and I tend to lose the smaller pieces (especially the dots for the "i"!).

As such, I have a full bookcase devoted to mostly Stampin' Up! sets and large background stamps, and one cart on wheels with each drawer for a separate "subject".  Here's a picture of the "stamping" corner of my room:

The black and green tote is for stamping tools and cleaners, and the plastic box under it is for my inks.  I have another little box for SU! pens.  If you look really closely (or click on the picture to enlarge it) you may be able to see that I stamped on the drawers, so I know at a glance which one to go to when I need a certain stamp!

I have a very full-featured stamp index to make sure I know what I have, where it is, and what I've used on various projects.  It'd be horrible if I used the same stamp for someone's birthday card two years in a row!  I'll explain that index more soon and show a page from it.

In the vein of "if it doesn't move, I'll stamp on it", I'd like to close this post with a few pictures of my Guitar Hero guitar:

When Steve got his "Flying V" (or whatever it's called) guitar, he let me stamp the original guitar.  I had wanted to do it from the moment I gave it to him, but he steadfastly refused.  All bets were off, though, once he got his new guitar!  The faceplate came off, and I used black and purple StazOn ink with a bunch of different stamps to make a cute, girly, cat-lovers guitar.  For those who have played Guitar Hero, my "character" is Midori (Japanese, which is no surprise with how much we love the culture there), and my guitar in the game is the kitty.

Now I want to go stamp something!  No, no, no... I have my challenge piece to work on!  So much left to do, so little time to do it.

Embroidery in scrapbook pages

I'm working on a huge jewelry project for a challenge for the Loose Bead Society:  Metamorphosis - A Stage in the Life of a Butterfly or Moth.  I thought it was due in August, but I was recently reminded during the last Board meeting that it's due this month on July 19th.  Eeek!  I had an "Oh, poop!" moment which I bet I'll never live down.

So, there will be no new projects coming from me for a while.  Fortunately I have gazillions of finished projects I can pull from to show you and to explain what I did.

This project is a 2 page 8x8 layout about movies.  I used a few different film strip die cuts and stickers showing the title and popcorn (which is the best part of going to a movie, in my opinion).  Here's the layout:

To add another element, I decided to make a bucket of popcorn.  I made french knots using variegated yellow embroidery floss which perfectly shows the differences in color in a typical bucket of popcorn - some kernels have more butter than others (unfortunately)!

Here's a close-up:

There are some very good instructions on how to do a french knot on the feeling stitchy website.  There is a link on that site for a good video in case the instructions don't immediately make sense.  Sublime Stitching has another set of instructions that are great, and there's a link for lefties.

The one thing these instructions say is that you should not go back through the same hole when you pull the needle through to the back.  When you're working on paper, don't worry about it.  If you pierce holes too close together the paper will tear.  Just be careful not to pull too tightly, or your knot will pull all the way through, leaving ripped paper in its wake.

This is a great stitch to add some dimension to your pages.  Apart from popcorn, you can make flowers, dots, animals (see feeling stitchy and Sublime Stitching for cute examples), etc...

A lot of people are intimidated by this stitch.  Every one of the above links mentions this.  Don't let yourself be scared off - it's really not that hard.  Practice first on some scrap paper, and if you're really worried about ripping your background paper, plan your embellishment to be on a separate piece of paper (or even fabric!) and use really good adhesive like glue dots to adhere it to your page.

Send me pictures of your french knot creations, and I'll post a follow up here!

I would go get some popcorn now (that page made me hungry!), but I have to get back to my challenge piece...

Quick Patriotic Bracelet

Happy 4th of July, everyone!  I wanted to post this earlier, but I've been running around like a decapitated chicken all day - over to Cindy's this morning to work on some clay pieces for a challenge necklace for the Loose Bead Society then off to a family party.  There's another family party tomorrow, so I may not get a chance to blog.

Anyway, a few days ago I whipped up a relatively quick red, white, and blue bracelet with some focal beads:

As you can see, there are 4 strands of mixed seed beads that come together for the focal beads.  I had to use the thinner white beads around the focal beads to make sure that the seed beads wouldn't fall through the holes.

The hardest part was stringing 4 strands at once.  Fortunately, I didn't drop too many beads!  The other hard part was finishing.  The toggle clasp I used has two holes, so I crimped together two wires for one hole and two for the other.  When I was on the last crimp, the wires were a little too short, and I had a problem getting the ends to cooperate.  If I had thought this through, I would have cut the wires longer.  It worked out, though.  These things often do!

There was going to be a matching necklace, but I got involved in making the Museum layout for yesterday's blog post.  That's fine - I have plenty of time for next year's 4th of July!  (How much do you want to bet that I'll make it on July 2nd?)

Have a safe holiday (what's left of it, anyway!)

French Manor projects

I recently joined the "Cricut Circle" which is a subscription club for the Cricut electronic cutter.  There is a message board for Provo Craft and their products (of which the Cricut is one), and there has been a lot of talk about this club - pros and cons, what Provo Craft should have done and what they should have not done.  Whatever.  One of the big hot buttons was the first cartridge - one exclusive to the Circle members called French Manor.  A number of people like it, but a number of people want to (and have) put it up on eBay as soon as they got it.

From the pictures we could see online before joining the Circle, the cartridge looked interesting.  I got my welcome package yesterday and eagerly flipped through the handbook.  There are so many possibilities with this cartridge!

There are two "card" features in which the shapes are cut "into" a card.  Wait - that's not quite right.  This is hard to explain.  You can cut out a card with indicators of where to fold.  Other stuff is cut out until the shape remains.  Does that make sense?  No?  Well, let me show you a very quick card I made this afternoon:

I used two sided paper and stamped the saying on a separate piece (in case I screwed it up).  Yeah, I could have embellished it more, but I don't think it's necessary.  I think it's pretty cute!

And then my husband says, "Why don't you scrap something using this cartridge?  You haven't scrapped in quite some time..."  True.  I looked for quite a while until I found the perfect subject.  Christmas, New Year's, and Valentine's Day wouldn't work... Nothing with the cats... Scrapping with Sylvia or Jackie might work, but this cartridge wasn't out then... 

Oooh!  The Milwaukee Public Museum's Behind the Scenes Tour!

No, the Museum's offices don't have chairs piled on top of armoires and other furniture, but I thought the idea was cute.  I added a table for a few of the ceramic pieces, a postage stamp outline for a journaling box, a frame showing my husband's goofy side, and a lion for extra "oomph".  I even used tin foil for the mirror for the vanity.

I was very pleased with this cartridge, and I know I only scratched the surface of what can be done with it.  I can't wait to see the other Circle-exclusive cartridges!

First steel project

My friend and the President of the Loose Bead Society, Brenda Schweder, makes the most interesting jewelry.  Steel wire is the main component in quite a bit of what she does, and her projects have been featured in many magazine articles.  She even has written two books (so far)!  I have links at the bottom of my post to the books on Amazon so you can easily check them out.

Anyway, before I start sounding more like a Brenda commercial, I'd like to tell you about my first "foray into steel".  I took a class from her at the Bead&Button show to learn how to work with steel and to make a "Winterfrost Pod" necklace which mixes steel with Swarovski crystals.  Brenda's a Swarovski Ambassador on top of everything else!

The coolest thing about working with steel is that you get to use hammers and anvils and steel wool and all kinds of "guy" tools.  For the list of tools I asked Steve to help me, but even he didn't know what they all were.  I had enough of what I needed, once I purchased the most adorable little anvil, and was soon cutting and bending and hammering.

I gotta tell you... there is something quite freeing about flattening the wire with a hammer.  I don't really understand how it works, but once you flatten it with a hammer, it gets hard.  They call that "work hardening" the wire.  It's something to do with the atoms moving around.  I was surprised that the wire got HOT after hammering it.

Anyway, I was talking about the "freeing" feeling of hitting wire with a hammer.  I found myself laughing and really enjoying myself.  I picture my hair being blown back by a huge wind and me being Thor, smiting my foes with my enormous hammer.  Okay, that's a bit of a stretch (I was using a little ball peen hammer, and there was no wind), but there was an element of power there.

We couldn't finish the project in class, and I was itching to finish it up.  All of the steel had been cut and bent and hammered, but I needed to clean it, wax it, and finish assembly.  I wouldn't let myself do it until I finished that green necklace I posted about a few days ago.  With that project done, I was free to work on this one!

Here's an overall shot of the necklace:

And here's one of me wearing it (I really need to start making bracelets so I don't have to take so many pictures of myself!):

This necklace could be a bit longer around the neck, too, but then I'd have to have a very low neckline to show all of the dangly bits.  I think this is fine, and I gotta say (ok... Mom and Mama - don't read the rest of this paragraph!) that I feel a teeny bit sexy with it on... plunging neckline, steel that I worked with my own hands, dangly bits all the way down...  Whew!  :::fanning myself:::

Ahem.  I'm back now.  So sorry.  :)  Making this necklace was a great experience, and I'm looking forward to making a bracelet to go with it, and maybe even another necklace.

The instructions for how to make this necklace start on page 52 of the "Wirework 2010" magazine and can be found on here on the Art Jewelry Magazine website for only $7.95!  There are chain mail projects, ways to form earring wires, projects with chain, and much more.  I haven't done much with wire, so I'll have to try some of the other projects in this magazine!

I know I'm back to sounding like a commercial, but don't forget to check out Brenda's books!

 

A challenge and a CONTEST!

My web design company has gotten its first client, so I've been busy getting all my ducks in a row and starting on the site.  I don't have anything new to show you at this point (I probably will tomorrow, though!), so I was looking through pictures of stuff I've done in the past.

A number of years ago there was an article in "Creating Keepsakes" from Ali Edwards in which she created a layout listing 100 things that made her happy, which was inspired by someone else.  Here's a scan of the magazine page (Sorry - I don't remember which issue it was, but if you need more information, let me know, and I'll dig it up):

This was an inspiration for me, so in September of 2006 I created my own "100 Happy Things" layout:

I'm probably due for a new layout.  The guy I was dating at the time is SO history I don't even remember his last name (my mother probably does, though!), and many other things have changed.

So my challenge is... create a "100 happy things" scrapbook layout and send me pictures at traciotte@att.net.  Let's put a deadline on this of September 1st, 2010.

I'll even make this a contest!  I will put names of all who enter in a hat and draw one on September 2nd.  You will have your choice of prizes made by yours truly in the color(s) you choose:  A beaded stylus holder for your Gypsy or other stylus (one with a hole that will accommodate a clip), a badge holder with one of those squarish grabby clips, a necklace, or a bracelet.  If none of those floats your boat, we can discuss something that will float your boat.

I can hear some of you now:  "But Traci, I don't scrap!"  Well, I have an answer for you!  Come up with your 100 things and write them down, making it look kinda pretty.  The point here is that we each think through the good things in our life and come up with 100 (or more!) of them.

This will be good practice for me, and it probably will be good for you, too.

I'm game - are you?