Happy Monday! How was your 4th of July? I hope you had a fun filled day with family and friends - enjoying the middle of summer. The 4th is my hubby's second favorite holiday - he loves fireworks. We had a big group of family and friends - 15 in total - that's a lot for us! Most exciting of all - my youngest came home for a week long visit. It was so fantastic to hug him - and have a lot of quality time hanging out and enjoyed every moment catching up! I am going to visit in October for a long weekend to catch the fall colors and he will be back again for Christmas. I'm so joyful that we are able to connect again!
This week I wanted to share the 3rd and last "installment" of my new studio. This week it's all about the drawers. I am almost convinced that I will need another set of drawers under the recording area. I find that there is always something sitting on the surface of the table that could be best held in a drawer! I'm on the lookout for storing some of my embellishments a little differently as well.
My top drawer on the Alex drawer unit at my desk holds, my stamp supplies which includes my Clear Blocks, my Simply Shammy, my Black Tuxedo Memento Ink Pad with my Logo stamp that I stamp my card backs with. It's difficult to see all of what's in the drawer. I keep my Versa Mark Ink Pad in this drawer as well. I keep some baby wipes in this drawer to clean up my inky hands! I use these tools most often so made perfect sense to me to put in the top drawer!
Second drawer, just a tad messy when I took the photo is my adhesive drawer - next most used supplies. I store Stampin' Seal and Stampin' Seal+ runners and their refills, Mini Glue Dots, Tear & Tape, Foam adhesive strips, Stampin' Dimensionals and Mini Dimensionals. I keep my dimensionals in retired Full Wood Mount Stamp Case. I seriously hope that Stampin' Up! will bring these back as they are perfect for storing many supplies.
Third drawer, storage for precut 3 3/4" x 5" and 4" x 5 1/4" Basic White cardstock for stamping and card fronts. I store extra colored card fronts, for a quick grab and go. I store Clear, Basic White and Very Vanilla Medium Envelopes. I also store pre stamped sentiments and inside sentiment labels that I use for my cards for sale. And some extra paper for note taking - I'm always needing to note down a dimension/products needed for a card as I design.
Fourth drawer, this is the fun, creative drawer! I store many of my special technique tools in this drawer. I have a couple of cases of sponge daubers that I have for each ink color - I've labeled each slot with the Stampin' Up! colors. I store my new Stampin' Up! Blending Brushes. I recently purchased two more Totally Tiffany Irene Buddy Bags to store my brushes - they are the perfect size for those special brushes. I have a Full Wood Mount Stamp Case with my embossing powders. I also keep my coffee filters that I use for catching my embossing power when working with these specialty powders. I store my Shimmery White Embossing Paste and Palette Knives in this drawer. Lastly, I store my Stampin' Up! Decorative Masks in this drawer since I use them with my blending brushes and my embossing paste.
Lastly, the fifth drawer, is the catch all for any special tools required at my desk while creating. I have my Stampin' Up! Mini Paper Trimmer, my Stampin' Up! Heat tool. I purchased a 6" x 6" ceramic tile that I use for heat embossing - this has come in very handy! I picked up this tip from a recent retreat from Brandy Cox. I keep my grid paper to protect my desk surfaces and my grid paper for my Stamparatus. What's a Stamparatus - It's one of my favorite tools for stamping multiple impressions of an image. It also helps with stamping sentiments as straight as possible.
Moving to the larger Alex drawer unit under the larger work table. These drawers are fairly shallow is my only issue. However, they are very wide so they hold a lot of supplies that aren't very tall. The top drawer again is where I store the most used supplies in this space. As I have my Stmapin' Cut and Embossing Machine and my Stampin' Up! dies in this location, I put all of my die cutting supplies such as adhesive sheets for die cutting, my extra plates, and some soft tape for holding dies in place in this drawer. I also keep my extra die envelopes and magnet sheets for new die storage.
The next two drawers I use for embellishments. I store those embellishments that are less used including retired embellishments that I just couldn't part with. The next drawer contains extra ribbons and retiring ribbons. They are definitely not organized in these drawers due to the size constraints and no longer being able to purchase those fabulous Full Wood Mount Stamp cases for storing these types of supplies.
The fourth drawer contains my Stampin' Ink Refills and my Stampin' Up! specialty packages (boxes, cellophane bags, and gift bags).
Well, that's the tour! I would love to hear from you on how you store like products! I've been working on my recording setup this week. I am preparing to conduct a demo via zoom for my up-line leader's monthly Stampin' Up! demonstrator's meeting. I'll be conducting a demo on the new Give It a Whirl die set. I'm close to figuring out the final details for sharing my camera's video and my iphone ear buds for it's microphone capabilities without causing a squawk! Once I get confident with this, I'm hopeful to hold zooms for those that cannot attend face to face classes. Oh Boy!!! It's been a long time coming. Then onto Facebook Live and You Tube videos!
Please set aside Friday evening, July 30th, for our next Monthly Get Together for Stampin' Up! kits from the Kit's Collection or Paper Pumpkin. If you are looking for an evening of crafting and friends sharing ideas - please come join us at my home - 8788 Welsh Lane, Frederick. 5:30pm - 8:30 pm mst! We would love you join us. If you don't have a kit, I have some extras for purchase! Click Here for registration.
I received my pre order from the upcoming Stampin' Up! 2021 August - December Mini catalog! I can't wait to get started on playing with all the fabulous holiday goodies. I had a chance to play with my new Christmas Tree Dies from the Whimsical Tree Bundle which is part of the Whimsy & Wonder Suite Collection. I cut the large solid tree using Evening Evergreen Cardstock. I then cut sparkling garland with a new Sale-a-Bration product - Be Dazzling 6" x 6" Specialty Paper. This paper is absolutely gorgeous. It's a champagne color and wow does it sparkle. It's free product with a $50 purchase. The Whimsical Trees Bundle is $51.75 - so you can get the Be Dazzling paper for free. Watch for August's Catalog Launch party announcement where I'll be sharing all of the new products. The new product launches for customers along with the second round of Sale-A-Bration on August 3!
If you too would like to be able to have an early peek and preorder to get started on your projects during the month of July, please contact me and I can explain all about joining my team. You can select any products up to $125 for $99, free shipping, and you receive 20% off on all future orders. You don't have to demonstrate to get in on this deal. And if you join my team during Sale-a-bration, you are eligible to order a bundle of your choice from a list of bundles valued from $31.50 to $60.55 - wow that's really special!!! Contact me for more details if you are interested.
From July 1 - August 2, select Designer Series Paper is on sale! A great time to stock up on select favorites from the 2021 - 2022 Annual Catalog.
Reminder that The Adventure Begins, July's Paper Pumpkin kit is available for order until July 10. Summer brings graduations, weddings and other opportunities to take the next big adventure that life has to offer. This may be just the right kit for you to make some wonderful inspiring cards about life's next big adventure for someone in your life!
The kit comes with enough supplies to create twelve cards with coordinating envelopes. Including in the kit is a Stampin' Spot and an exclusive stamp set, inspirational sentiments and adventure-themed imagery. Nature inspired colors include: Basic Black, Basic White, Bermuda Bay, Crushed Curry, Early Espresso, Flirty Flamingo, Garden Green, Granny Apple Green, Mango Melody and Night of Navy.
Click Here to Subscribe to Paper Pumpkin
I wanted to share the alternative cards that I made at the 1st Monthly Kit Gathering event on June 25. We had a great time trying out different products that coordinated with the June Paper Pumpkin kit, Expressions in Color. If you are a Paper Pumpkin subscriber, refills are available for this beautiful kit. This beautiful kit makes 3 fabulous cards.
The only changes I made to the original design is I replaced the green twine with Evening Evergreen 3/8" open weave ribbon under the sentiment. I changed the sentiment to Sending Hugs and used Blackberry Bliss Classic Stampin' Pad ink. I added 2 Soft Succulent 2021 - 2023 In Color Jewels to the sentiment. Lastly, I used a Stampin' Up! Blending Brush and Fresh Freesia Classic Stampin' Pad and blended color around the entire edge of the vellum leaf card front.
I only made two small changes from the original design. I stamped the sentiment in Polished Pink versus Bumblebee. I love pink.... I added 3 Fresh Freesia 2021 - 2023 In Color Jewels to the card front.
I didn't like the stark white of the "thanks" vellum word. I used my Stampin' Up! Blending Brush and blended Evening Evergreen Classic Stampin' ink over the words. It really toned the white down. I then used my Artistic Dies from the Expressions in Ink Suite Collection and cut out the large leaf and the large floral dies with the new Rose Gold Metallic Specialty Paper. I cut up the leaf and the large floral piece into 3 and used on all three cards of this design. I placed the sequins provided in the Paper Pumpkin kit as the center on the small flowers that I stamped onto the card front.
The original designs were pretty and I love how the new instructions in the kits are so much easier to follow - especially now that they are in color. However, it's fun to let your imagination run and create something a little more you!
Oh dear, I'm behind as I was having so much fun with David. I didn't get as far as I needed to on my Kid's Birthday cards. I've got some adorable space suited girls and boys ready to go. I've got my pirate and mermaid up next. Back to the day gig this week is going to cut into my creating time - darn it! Hoping to have some to share with you by next weekend!
Have a great week post 4th of July! Enjoy mid summer! and
KEEP ON CRAFTING!
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