*Caution* Warning* Purging is Contagious! Urge to Purge Challenge: Day 10

*CAUTION*  If you are starting on the purge with me, it is contagious!  My dh actually purged his side of the garage (my side is always in perfect order.)  He did a fantastic job, and he did it in less than an hour.  The next day he purged his side of the closet and all of his dresser drawers.  I had a trunk full to take over to the donation center.  The closet looks fab too.  Yesterday morning dh made a comment on the crowded coat closet.  Our coat closet is teeny tiny and barely holds all of our coats and jackets.  I said, "Let's purge it!"  He said,"I was afraid you would say that."  But thirty minutes later we have a better organized closet and a few more items to donate in the trunk of our car.

  I am finding my purge spilling over to my other household chores.  I have now cooked everything that was 2 or 3 months old from my freezer.  There is nothing in my freezer older than 2 weeks right now!  I am planning meals around what is in the fridge too.  We had a small nearly-finished rotisserie chicken, a crown of broccoli, and some mushrooms that needed to be eaten.  Yesterday morning I made broth from the chicken carcass and we had broccoli mushroom soup for lunch.  Yum!  Next up: the pantry :)

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming:  craft room purge, DAY 9.
Today I purged this corner (BEFORE pic):

The rest of my house is so tidy, how does my craft room end up like this?

Plan of attack:

1.  That pile on the floor are my girls' artwork from this school year.  I have photo albums for the girls' artwork, but I am behind on this particular project.  I take pictures of most of it, then put the pictures their photo albums.  I keep one or two of my favorite pieces, then give the rest to their grandparents to fight over (LOL).  The rest goes in the trash.  I don't have time to tackle that right now, so I found an empty box, stuck it in there, and moved the box outside of my craft room.

2.  I cleaned up the piles on top of the shelves, putting things away that already have a place.  The piñata is from the girls birthday party; K wanted me to keep it.  Under the piñata is an Iris container that holds unfinished LOs.  It got moved outside the craft room too.  (My dh is freaking out a little about all the stuff outside my craft room right now!)


3.  Most of the stash in that shelving and stacked crates are scrapbooking kits leftover from my teaching days at two local scrapbooking stores.  I actually purged those last summer, so I kinda left them alone for now.


  I know I said I would not re-organize until I was done purging, but I did move the two identical white shelves together:

and moved the crates (scrapbook kits) across the room with the paper sorter:

Not perfect, but much tidier :)

Happy Halloween!!!

Halloween Treat Bags & Urge to Purge challenge: Day 8

   I have a durable clear plastic container from Michael's (Iris is the manufacturer).  It is large enough to hold 12x12 papers and it is about 4" high.  I use it to store all of my Halloween-themed paper collections, rub-ons, ribbon, etc.  I have not been able to close the container for the past couple of months!  I purged the container on Friday.  I made a small pile of the scraps from paper collections that no longer inspire me.  I also have two K&Co. Halloween-themed small paper pads and die cuts.  I coordinated these K&Co. cute monsters with the paper pads to create these treat bag toppers.  My children have several food sensitivities, so I purchase organic lollipops, organic gummy bears, organic sour patch kids, and organic chocolate for Halloween.  When they are at school I take the treat bags around to our neighbors to give to my children when we come trick or treating.  I have two more bags to make, but I thought I would take a break and blog :)

  I have been slowly purging my craft room.  So far you have only seen the wall opposite my work station.  Today I purged my entire work station.  This is actually the BEFORE picture.  All of the shelves and drawers look a lot better now, but not the top work surface.  All I have left to purge is the bookcase and the corner (back left in picture.)  My goal is to finish purging both by the end of the day on Wednesday.

Have a happy Halloween!

Shopping Our Stash #23 - Fall colors challenge (& URGE to PURGE: DAY 7!)

  I created this card for the current challenge at Shopping Our Stash.  Use autumnal colors to create a card for any occasion...you may make a seasonal or non-seasonal card.  Just make sure you use fall colors and your stash :)

  I used a K& Co. die cut that I bought from Michael's on clearance last year.  The orange spider web paper is from a small K&Co. pad I purchased the previous year.  The image is a Bugaboo digital stamp that I colored with my copic markers.  The fun fur behind the die cut is a scrap of yarn left over from a scarf I knitted for my mom 8 years ago!

Supplies:
Cricut cartridge:  Elegant Edges cut @ 5" and 5 1/4"
paper and die cut sentiment:  K&Co. Halloween
digital stamp:  Bugaboo
markers:  copic


URGE to PURGE challenge:  Day 7!
  I am very glad that I chose to do just a little each day.  I am finding that it gives my brain time to figure out what I should start on next.  Moving on to my work station...

Here is my issue:  Eight years my friend Martha introduced me to a local scrapbook store.  They had wonderful scrapbooking and card-making classes.  I took a class every month and purchased class kits for those classes that I could not attend.  One year later, I began teaching 2-3 classes each month at that store.  Our "pay":  we received two identical class kits; one to make that would belong to the store, and one for our own use.  Sometimes I would make both kits at once, but often I barely had time to get the store sample done (my twins were 2-5yo at the time…need I say more?)  The store was bought out and then closed four years ago, but I still have two crates full of unmade scrapbook kits (translation:  these papers have retired long ago!)

  The kits came in large durable ziploc bags.  Since the papers are all perfectly coordinated, I store the scraps together in the same ziploc bag.  Whenever I need to make a card, I will sometimes search through these bags.  E.g. masculine card:  I will find the scraps from a Father's Day card kit class.  This saves me time in having to coordinate papers when I want to create a quick card.

  Plan of attack:  To go through these scrap bags and decide if I want to keep or purge.  I grabbed another box, which I am calling "the staging box."  My staging box will house those kit scraps that I don't really want, but I might need when I make LOs from those old class kits (e.g. if you make a wrong cut, you might not have enough paper in the kit to complete the LO.  I don't want to be too hasty tossing scraps that I might need later on.)

  I store these scrap kit bags on the left side of my work desk (top shelf; stored vertically):

Those two priority mail boxes are *new* stash that I have bought from ShopPumpkinSpice.  I hope to make room for them in those shelves!  I just placed two more orders this week *sigh*.  It could not be helped!  Denine has My Mind's Eye "Blackbird" and "Haunted" collections on sale for $5 this weekend only.  You know I love that Blackbird collection!  She also has all 40 papers of My Mind's Eye "Lost & Found 2" for $25!  Shipping was about $4, so for ~$34 I will have more of that yummy Blackbird to play with for next year and L&F2 to play with all year :)

I'm just here to enable…

Shop your stash and link up your fall colors card to Shopping Our Stash, then check out those deals on My Mind's Eye here (scroll down a bit).

Urge to Purge craft room challenge: DAY 6: Hope!

  I was beginning to lose steam yesterday; this is going slower than I hoped.  But after today my energy is renewed.  Look at the tower of 5 black space saver containers BEFORE:

See the stuff on top?  Those are suede papers, designer papers by Magenta, and a sampler card stock spiral.  I made room in the corner cabinet (from Day 1) for the suede papers.

  I have a half dozen large ziploc bags that hold my scraps of card stock.  I have a bag for each:  reds, pinks-purples, yellows, blues, greens, black-white-grey.  When I craft, I search these bags first.  I love it when there is a color I don't have in a larger sheet, but just the right color in my scrap bag.  This is why I tend to save everything.  (Yes, I have paper issues.)  Anyway, I plan to dismantle and sort the sampler card stock spiral  by color into my ziploc bags of scrap papers.  I will keep the 8 1/2"x11" Magenta papers on top.  Look now:

  Did you notice the black tower is only 3 high now?  I absolutely love these containers.  They hold 8 1/2" x 11" paper beautifully as well as wood mounted stamps.  I'll save the other two containers for Phase II: Re-organization.

What I learned:
  Two of those black containers held colored card stock that I forget that I own…that means it needs to get moved somewhere where they will be used!  Not sure where that is yet, but re-organization will come in Phase II.  Phase I is all about purging to create space.  The other three containers hold papers that I know to look for there:  vellum, acetate, mulberry paper, gami paper, etc.

  I also started on that white shelf.  Sitting on top is my Artful Delight "inspiration station."  That organizational pink & khaki tote came in my August Artful Delight kit.  I am so excited to be on Leeanne's DT for Artful Delight starting November 1st.  My November kit arrived two days ago, and it is in the tote ready for me to play :)  (You can see the entire kit contents here. )

  Lastly, I went through the top shelf of the white shelf unit.  It holds all of my 12x12 Bazzill card stock colors, but I found some 12x12 Doodlebug & Chatterbox collections there.  (Forgot I owned those too!) They need to move in with my other 12x12 paper collections, which are stored on the bottom (in picture) and in that accordion suitcase beside the shelf and over at my work desk…

Thank you for joining me!  Your comments and emails have been inspiring.  I am learning a lot from doing this in small increments, though admittedly I was getting impatient with the slow process yesterday.  After today's success (she said modestly) I think I am on the right track.

Happy Friday!

3 parts Blackbird, 1 part Spook-alicious, 1 part Cricut, and 1 ribbon...yum!

*This post edited to add Urge to Purge challenge:  create space & DAY 5*

  I spied these in the grocery store and I knew I wanted to make a Halloween gift for "Miss Lynn" (one of our favorite teacher assistants.)  I just needed 3 parts Blackbird (Halloween papers), a Spook-alicious sentiment, a Cricut Elegant Edges oval, and some ribbon to make these treats spooktacular:

  I love these My Mind's Eye "Blackbird" papers!  They are my all-time favorite Halloween papers.  I am going to get more at ShopPumpkinSpice.  Denine's prices are the best and her shipping is super low; gotta love that :)

Supplies:
papers:  My Mind's Eye "Blackbird":  Pumpkins paper, Argyle paper, and Neighborhood paper
stamp:  My Pink Stamper "Spook-alicious"
Cricut cartridge:  Elegant Edges  oblong frame p.65 cut @ 2 1/2"

Have a spooktacular day!


Urge to Purge challenge: DAY 5
  Please join in any time!  Here is a re-cap to get you caught up on the challenge:

  I feel the need to purge my craft room whenever I can no longer find room to put supplies away.  This occurs 2-3 times each year, and I usually work every waking minute for two or three days purging and re-organizing.  This method has worked for me, but is extremely chaotic (gets worse before it gets better and I end up organizing something only to think up a better way to organize it and I spend time re-organizing again.)

  This time I am trying a different tactic:  Phase I:  Purge, Phase II: Re-organize.   I am doing this in three parts:  a) my craft room, b) my craft room closet, c) the stuff piled just outside of my craft room.
I am in Phase I a.  Wherever you are in this process, please share your success via comment or post on your blog.

  I am an organized person, and I get stressed when my craft room feels cluttered.  This is why I chose to only focus on purging:  to create space.  Since I go through this  a couple of times a year, I hope to get it right this time :)

Getting started:
1.  Get three containers:  donate box, gifts box, and trash bag.  (I have already found things in my craft room that I forgot that I made.  These are in my gifts box now.  With less than two months until Christmas, I will start my Christmas shopping in that box!)
2.  Focus only on purging.  (If I come across something and I know where it goes, I go ahead and put it away to avoid a bigger mess during this process.)
3.  Work a little each day; carve out 5 minutes, 15, or 30.  Just do something.  (e.g. if you only have 5 minutes, try putting a few things away if they already have a designated home.  Do not re-organize yet!)
4.  Do what works for you.  I started with what I can see from my work desk.  I like instant gratification :)  You may want to start with the area that bothers you most.  I am saving what I perceive as the most difficult for last (my work desk).

Here is what I did today:

  I have this tower of kid stamps, coloring books, etc. for my girls to play with in my craft room on the card table I have set up for them.  BEFORE picture:

   I had the girls help me purge their stuff.  I moved the green/gold tin and large storage container just outside my craft room (to be dealt with later, Phase I part c),   then I moved the purged tower out into their part of the basement with their other toys:

  Then I moved my card table back:

   I would love to find a permanent home for my light box (dh built for me to help me take better pictures) and for my laptop.  I can't worry about that yet…that is Phase II!

Happy Thursday!

You will always have a piece of my heart + Urge to Purge challenge: Day 4

  I used the new My Pink Stamper "From the Heart" stamp set.  As usual, Robyn has created a stamp set with lovely sentiments and fonts.  Wanna see?

  I needed to make a slew of thank you cards, so I made 10 of this design (background papers varied).  They have all been written and sent now and I am out of thank you cards once again; a good problem to have :)  This little elephant is so cute!  I love elephants as does my grandma.  She always says that they need to have their trunk up for good luck.  I am so glad the person who designed this Cricut image drew her with her trunk up!

Supplies:
stamp:  My Pink Stamper "From the Heart"
Cricut cartridge:  Elegant Edges  (cut @ 4"); Paisley (elephant cut @ 2 1/4"; envelope cut @ 3/4"); Plantin Schoolbook (grass cut @ 1/2")
paper:  Echo Park "life is good"
ink:  Memento (tuxedo black)
white gel pen:  Signo Uni-ball


Urge to Purge friends:
  I am finding that cleaning a little each day allows my subconscious to ponder the best way to purge for the next day.  Yesterday I started on the right-hand side of my dresser (top two drawers now hold all of my Cricut cartridges.)  My subconscious gave me a nudge this morning at 4am, "June, empty the bottom right-hand drawer for Cricut cartridges."  Makes sense, right?  The entire right side of the dresser should be dedicated to Cricut cartridges.  Let's face it…the top 2 drawers are pretty full and you know I am going to want to ask Santa for more cartridges!

  Great idea, but I groaned when I opened the drawer:

   I purged my craft room last January and I have not opened this drawer since!  I obviously don't need all of this ribbon if I am not using it.  My mom wraps packages beautifully and uses wide ribbon deftly.  I did not inherit her gift wrapping abilities so I am going to give her the wide ribbon.  There is a lot of narrow ribbon in there that I bought and was able to move onto my ribbon shelf that hangs on the wall above the dresser.  And under the ribbon:

more ribbon and beads, beads, beads, and bags of beads.  I organized the beads and emptied the drawer.


I came across the following items that I will probably not use.  If you want them, I will send them to you: 


  Please let me know if you would like these ribbons/trim:

 and/or this aida paper for beading (not aida cloth):

I even organized the rest of the dresser (left-hand side….I did not take pictures.)  I re-organized my counted cross-stitch supplies, floss, latch hook rug supplies, and other odds and ends from my non-paper crafts.  Now I just need to find a new spot in my craft room for these:

Happy Wednesday!

My Pink Stamper - October challenge "Christmas"

  This is my card for this month's My Pink Stamper challenge: Christmas card.  I used Robyn 's "Winter Treats & Sayings" set.  I have become completely addicted to My Pink Stamper sets.  They take up very little space, they stamp beautifully, and they are so versatile!

Here is a peek at "Winter Treats & Sayings":

  See what I mean?  "a gift for you" (bottom right) could be used all year, as well as "hand stamped", "a little something for you", etc.  And the fonts are so pretty!

  I was completely inspired by this card made by my lovely and dear friend, Court. 

Supplies:
Cricut cartridges:  Elegant Edges cut @ 5" and 5 1/4"; Sophie cut @ 4 3/4"
sentiment:  My Pink Stamper Winter Treats & Sayings
paper:  BasicGrey 6x6 Wassail
ribbon and ink:  Stampin' Up!
gems:  Imaginisce i-Rock

Urge to Purge craft room challenge: DAY 3

My My Pink Stamper monthly post is going up in a bit, so I am posting a quick Day 3 progress report.

If you are just joining in, here is a re-cap:

• Let's purge our craft rooms and make them the happy places we desire for ourselves.

• I have purged my craft room many, many times before now, but I always did it in 2 or 3 full days.  It was mentally and physically exhausting, and I was happy with the results.  I am feeling overwhelmed right now and I can't spare that kind of time.  I am trying a new approach; small tasks each day.  This may take me a couple of weeks or a month…who knows?  I promised myself I would do SOMETHING every day…even if it was only 5 minutes!

• I am starting inside the craft room itself.  This will give me some instant gratification in my immediate surroundings.  Then I will start on the closet (oy!)

Today I will tackle 2 drawers of this 6 drawer dresser.   See those Cricut cartridges on top?  There is no room in the dresser.

Here is the top right drawer.  I went through it, and there is nothing to purge.  Just Cricut vinyl, Cricut cartridges, and Cricut Expression info.

Today I emptied one drawer (middle right) and re-organized it's contents to other areas of my craft room.  I re-alphabetized my Cricut cartridges, and they are all now in the top two drawers on the right-hand side.  Here is the top of my dresser now:

Tomorrow I will tackle one or more of the other drawers.

What I learned?

When purging in the past, my room got worse, A LOT WORSE, before it got better.  By tackling this overwhelming task in small daily chores, I am hoping to avoid that…so far, so good :)

I hope these posts are helpful to you!

Urge to Purge craft room challenge: DAY 2

Welcome to DAY 2!  The first thing I did this morning was go back to the cabinet (from Day 1) and move a few more items into my "give away (to other paper crafters)" box.  I decided I can live without a few more things :)

Today I decided to tackle my "Jingle Belles" basket.  I spy some things on the top that can go in my "gifts" box (see previous post)...

My goal was to get this basket emptied and off of the floor.  I call this my "Jingle Belles" basket because I enjoy participating in the weekly challenges at Jingle Belles challenge blog.  I have participated in most of their challenges, and I have a shopping bag FULL of Christmas cards ready to go.  Making one card (almost) every week of 2011 has really eased my holiday stress.  Before I start creating each week, I dig through this basket for felt snowflakes, snow flake gems, and other winter/Christmas stickers, dies and embellies.

After moving the gifts to the "gifts" box, I moved ribbon to my ribbon jars, gems to my gem tin, and the Christmas embellies to my 12x12 folder already labelled Christmas embellies.  I'm not sure why I had these items in TWO different locations!

You may recall in Day 1 when I cleaned out the cabinet that I came across some cards I will add sentiments to and send to Operation Write Home.  I put those cards in my empty blue basket as well as some partially finished Christmas cards and tags.  The basket now sits on the right side of my work table (rather than on the floor):

  Now that my craft room already looks a little neater without that basket on the floor, I decided to straighten my paper holder shelves:

I purchased this from a local stamp store that closed a few years ago.  The acrylic shelves fall sometimes when you have two rambunctious 9yo girls :)  I had several to pop back in; they are a pain in the neck to fix, but thirty minutes later they look like this:

After just TWO days my craft room already seems less junky.  I still have a LONG way to go (wait until I get to the closet…yikes!)  I love my blue basket…whenever I only have a short time to play, I can dig in that basket and work on those almost finished cards and tags.  I am calling it the "Quick Fix" basket; I can have a sense of accomplishment even if I only have a spare ten minutes to work in my craft room.

I am also thrilled that I am finding things I have made for the gifts box.  When I start figuring out what to give the girls' teachers, my family and friends for Christmas, I will start with the gifts box!

I am feeling energized to keep going a little each day it doesn't seem as overwhelming to do a little each day.

Thank you all for your lovely comments and emails!  This is so much fun purging together.  I will try to post every day, but I don't expect YOU to post at all unless you want to.  Posting can be a lot of extra work.  My lovely friend, Carla, has joined me on this venture.  Click here to see her fab embellishment and sticker drawers!

Urge to Purge Craft Room clean up: DAY 1

Welcome to Day 1 of my Urge to Purge challenge.  I am thrilled at the response I received yesterday!  I am happy to be on this journey with some of my favorite crafty friends.  Join in whenever you wish.  Have a busy day?  What about choosing just one drawer to go through?  Whatever you can handle:  a 5 minute drawer, a 15 minute shelf, a 30 minute cabinet, whatever.  Let's just do something every day to de-clutter.

   Day 1:  I have a busy day today, so I wanted to start with a 30 minute clean up.  Here is this cabinet BEFORE:

 The top shelf (left side) are my base cards and envelopes and a box of hand-made cards from card-making friends (right side).  The second shelf are my rub-ons.  The third shelf is colored cards and envelopes.  The bottom contains most of my Stampin' Up patterned papers and supplies.

  I turned on Netflix and started one of my favorite episodes of Glee (you might want to play a favorite CD or DVD or a book on tape...let's make this fun!)  I consolidated my cards and envelopes of the same size and color (top shelf) and tossed scraps.  I re-organized the rub-ons and the other cards and envelopes.  Mixed in the Stampin' Up supplies I had several cards that I had made and saved to reproduce.

Okay, so maybe it doesn't look a lot better (I am a craft supply hoarder), but my trash can is 1/4 full!  I also came across some 12x12 papers and some stickers that I no longer want, but I think my mom would like.  I am going to see her later this morning, so some clutter will be gone!

Bonus for me:  I found several cards that I had made with Stampin' Up products that I thought I would reproduce at some point.  Now I don't feel a need to reproduce them.  I put them in a pile on my worktable to add sentiments and ship them off to Operation Write Home.  Wahoo!  Another bonus was THREE projects I found that I had made.


What I learned:
In addition to my trash can and box for give away stash, I added a third container:  gifts.  I often save a project to re-create at some point.  Sometimes when I come across the project, I find that I am able to let go of my sample.  The three projects I found will make nice Christmas gifts!  How about that?  I am cleaning my craft room and preparing for Christmas at the same time :)

Friends, I look forward to hearing what you started today and any suggestions you may have for me :)

Softly Falling Snow + Urge to Purge blog candy challenge for you (and me)!

  My piles in my craft room are beginning to make me crazy again.  I need to make time somehow get my craft room cleaned up.  I saw this red linen die cut card on the top of my pile and decided that it would be my card base for this week's challenge at Jingle Belles.

  The fabulously talented Noelle McAdams is this week's guest star at Jingle Belles.  Christmas reminds her of softly falling snow, so she is encouraging the use of "soft" items:  felt, flocking, batting, velvet, etc.  My thought was to use my Flower Soft for snow.  I went in search of a stamp, but nothing jumped out at me.  So I went to my beloved Cricut cartridges.  I found this angel on a cloud and decided his cloud would be my "soft" item.  I applied glitter to his halo and Glossy Accents (can't see in pic) to his horn and wings.

Supplies:
Cricut cartridge:  Winter Frolic (angel), Wild Card (card base), Accent Essentials (circle)
paper:  BasicGrey "Blitzen", red linen card stock (XPEDX), Stampin' Up! whisper white card stock
other:  Flower Soft "Polar White", Glossy Accents, Stickles




Urge to Purge Craft Room challenge:


(I may ramble a bit here, but please read through.  I want YOUR input!)
  The rest of my house is so neat and organized.  A few times a year my craft room is also neat and organized.  I regularly (usually every 3 to 6 months) purge every drawer, closet, and cabinet in our home.  We don't have a lot of storage space, so we keep our home clutter free.  I don't do it all at once.  My dh doesn't feel the urge to purge as often as I do, so I have to take advantage of the opportunity when it arises.  One Saturday at breakfast 3 or 4 weeks ago my husband said, "I think we have collected too many plastic cups."  Our twin girls are 9yo, and fun cups (Halloween, Valentine's Day, or restaurant souvenir) wind up in the cabinet.  I knew we had not gone through the kitchen drawers and cabinets in an entire year, so I seized this opportunity!  We knew we had a very busy day (swim lessons at 9:40am), so we set the timer for 1 hour and worked speedily in tandem.  We started with those cups.  Both of our daughters chew the edges of plastic cups, so we kept 2 of each design that was not chewed badly, and the rest went in our recycle bin.  We actually went a little over (1 hour, 10 minutes), but we ended up with two boxes to donate to a local charity…glasses, mugs, and knives we never use, etc. and every drawer and cabinet in our kitchen was neat, organized, and clutter free.  Purging the pantry also reminded me of items we had not used in a while, and I planned our meals that week around those items.  (I also give myself "freezer" challenges from time-to-time…plan my meals around what is in the freezer.)

  I especially like to purge BEFORE Christmas (to make room for what Santa brings) and before the girls' birthday in June (before school is out for the summer and the girls are underfoot 24/7.)  These are both very busy times of year for everyone, but I have learned three things:

1.  I actually get MORE things done when I am busy, especially when I think I don't have time.


2.  I find once I make myself get started, I am a ball of energy.  All the stress I normally feel with my "to do" list is gone and I have a "Let's do this thing!" attitude.


3.  Setting a half hour or 1 hour time limit is critically important.  I work faster and more efficiently on a timer.  My momentum slows down and my brain actually gets tired if I go longer.

Will you join me?  I would love the moral support.  I am thinking I have too many commitments right now, but then again that is usually the case, right?  I purged a couple of areas in my craft room last May/June.  At that time I donated three boxes of craft supplies and sent off three packages of supplies to my blog friends that I thought would like to have those papers/stamps/stamp pads & re-inkers/embellies.

  The clutter is making me nuts.  I will feel energized if I can even get a small start on it.  I am really not sure where to start, but this is what I am thinking:

1.  I will take BEFORE pictures and post on my blog.
2.  I will find a box for stuff I don't want any more.  I am thinking that I would offer these items to YOU as blog candy.  I hope you might join me, and we can "trade" unloved crafty items.  The more people that join, the better.
3.  I will work on one area each day, but stick to a time limit of 30 minutes or 1 hour.

Time line:  I will start tomorrow, Sunday, October 23, but you can join in any time.  This is a process.   Maybe you don't want to tackle all of your crafty stuff, but just one area.

Let's do this thing!

Pinkalicous news & My Pink Stamper October blog hop WINNER

  I have some exciting news!  My Pink Stamper has new stamp sets.  Check them out today from 9am-12:30pm EST at My Pink Stamper.  You are gonna want to add these to your wish list for Santa Claus!

  The winner of the My Pink Stamper blog hop for October is….drumroll…

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

124 

 Arin F said...

I love the drippy goo! This a a cool and unique way to make a piece of cake! Love it!

October 19, 2011 12:44 PM

Arin, please email me with your home address so that I can send you your Yummy-licious stamp set :)

You're Wicked Cool!

  I made this using Halloween papers and die cut frame from ShopPumpkinSpice.  I think My Mind's Eye "Blackbird" may be my all-time favorite Halloween collection.  My sentiment is a My Pink Stamper Spook-alicious stamp.  I love how clearly they stamp.  I have seen this pretty witch around blogland, but I didn't know where she came from.  Then my dh gave me "Wrap It Up" for my birthday and there she was on page 69.  I think she could use some red glittery shoes :)

Supplies:
Cricut cartridge:  Wrap It Up
papers:  My Mind's Eye "Blackbird"
stamp:  My Pink Stamper "Spook-alicious"
border punch:  Martha Stewart
ribbon:  Michael's


Happy Thursday!

Dia de los Muertos

   This week's challenge at Shopping Our Stash is Dia de los Muertos; I love this inspiration picture!  I searched my stash for a skull and some coordinating floral paper.  I came up with this:

  The skull and "happy halloween" sentiment is a BasicGrey Eerie sticker.  The papers are also from my BasicGrey Eerie 6x6 pad.  The black gems were on clearance a few years ago at Michael's.  I added some faux stitching using my paper piercer and my black journaling marker.

  I hope this challenge inspires you to create and link your project at Shopping Our Stash.

Happy Tuesday!

My Pink Stamper Pinkalicious blog hop- Holiday Treat/Goody Bag

  Welcome to the October My Pink Stamper blog hop!  You should have arrived here from Julie, if not start at Robyn's blog for a chance to win some yummy blog candy.  I created a yummy-licious treat box.  I think this will make a great teacher gift; just add chocolate!

  I am entering this in the Cricut Circle blog's weekly challenge:  Feeling Gifty.  My two Cricut image cuts are the box and the pumpkin.  The sentiment is from My Pink Stamper's Yummy-licious stamp set.  I have wanted to try this treat box for a while, but it daunted me.  It's actually pretty easy!  Once I chose my papers and started cutting, I was finished in just 45 minutes…and I am a slow crafter :)  I love my My Pink Stamper stamp sets; I can usually find exactly what I want to say to perfect my card or project.

  Would you like to win this Yummy-licious set?

For a chance to win, please leave a comment below.  I will choose a winner on Tuesday, October 18th.  I will announce my winner on my blog on Wednesday, October 19th, so please check back to see if you won :)

Here is the complete hop list, just in case you get lost along the way:

Robyn (My Pink Stamper)

Roberta 

 Sharon

 Tracy (CraftJunkieToo) 

 Andrea 

Angela (Simple Creations)

Renee (RockinRenee) 

 Kassidy

Cristi

 Missy 

 Michelle (Meesh's Pieces)

 Carissa (Sprinkled with Glitter)

 Julie (readysetstamp) 

 June 

 Chelle (Paper Krate)

  Shelley

Edna (Create With Expression) 

Helen

 Agnes (Flowerdisco)

Karlee 

Courtney (Court's Crafts) 

Maria

Supplies:
Cricut cartridge:  Tags, Bags, Boxes & More (fill page; 9"); Mini Monsters (pumpkin)
papers:  My Mind's Eye "Blackbird"
ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black
embossing folders:  Herringbone (leaves) and Distressed Stripes (pumpkin)
punch and score board:  Martha Stewart 


Your next stop is Miss Chelle!  Happy Hopping!

You are SO Tweet! (and blog hop WINNER!!!)

   I made this with 100% Shop Pumpkin Spice!  And I couldn't stop with just one:

  I made a set of four.  I may save these for a hostess gift or a present.  The My Pink Stamper sentiment, the lace, and the paper all came from Shop Pumpkin Spice (direct links provided within the supply list.)

Supplies:
Cricut cartridge:  Create a Critter p.65
stamp:  My Pink Stamper "Yummy-licious"
paper:  Echo Park Victoria Gardens: "Rose", "Cheerful Words", "Garden Gate", and "Sunshine"
crochet trim:  My Mind's Eye Lost & Found Two
corner punch:  Creative Memories


Now to announce my Shop Pumpkin Spice blog hop winner (drumroll….)

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

56 

 Jen_H said...

So cute! Love the skunk and the MPS sentiment goes perfectly!
~~Jen H~~

Congrats, Jen!  Please email me with your home address and your My Pink Stamper  "Even More Punny-licious" stamp set will be on its way to YOU!

Happy Thursday :)

I'm dreaming of a PINK Christmas

  I have been mass-producing cards for Operation Write Home (OWH) the past two days.  My craft room is a disaster!  After I finished my OWH cards (I'll post later this month), I realized that I had not made a Jingle Belles card this week.  I looked at my scraps from my OWH cards and decided to use what was left of this double-sided My Mind's Eye "Colorful Christmas Winter Wonderland."  I love those pink trees!  After cutting the green base layer and the tree pattern layer I had a scrap left just big enough to cut this tree from my Cricut "Campin' Critters" cartridge.  The tree is actually about 5 1/2" tall, but it was cut on the Cricut @ 10 1/2"  forest layer 1-shift (p.62).  I added some EAD Stickerz:  baubles for the tree, a star, and two presents under the tree.  This was a fast scrappy card :)

I am entering this at this week's Jingle Belles *PINK* Christmas card challenge.  I enjoy non-traditional colors for Christmas, and I think PINK may be one of my favorite non-traditional Christmas colors.  Although pink may become a traditional color because I have seen a lot of pink in Christmas papers the past couple of years!

Happy Wednesday!  Come back tomorrow to see if you won my blog candy!!!

Challenge #21: Spooky OR orange/black

  I made this for the current challenge at Shopping Our Stash:  Spooky OR orange/black.  I knew this challenge would be a breeze…I have A LOT on Halloween stash that I purchased for last year, but never got to use.  I went straight for my BasicGrey Eerie 6x6 paper pad and stickers.  I placed the owl sticker in the tree and added some Stickles to the trees.  I added a little Stampin' Up lace to the bottom and voila!

  I have been on a complete bloggy break for nearly a week, but I will be crafting today (hopefully).  Don't forget to stop by Thursday to see if you won my blog candy, but first go make something Spooky OR orange/black and enter your project at SOS!

Peace on Earth

  I am entering this card at Jingle Belles this week for the "Peace on Earth" challenge:  incorporate the peace symbol, the word peace, or create a card that evokes peace for you.  Yesterday I had a brief chance to go in my craft room and open my My Mind's Eye Lost & Found Christmas collection.  The dove evokes peace for me, and when I saw this MME tag I knew I would create my card around it.  I stamped "believe" in the top left corner of the tag and used this sketch by the lovely Kirsty.

  What evokes peace for you?

Supplies:
All papers and the brad are from the My Mind's Eye Lost & Found Christmas collection.  The "believe" is a Memory Box stamp inked with Stampin' Up! chocolate chip.  The ribbon is from my stash jar.  The scallop is an MFT die and the decorative label (damask pattern) is a Nestibilities die.

Happy Wednesday!

Shopping Our Stash #20 - Thank you card OR Thanksgiving

  Meet Tom Turkey.  Isn't he adorable?  I created him from my scrap stash of Imaginisce papers left over from my squirrel card from a couple of weeks ago.  Autumn is my favorite season, and I love warm colors.  I plan to keep these papers on my workspace all season and hopefully use them up into little bits.

  Dig through your stash and create a thank you or Thanksgiving card and link it up at Shopping Our Stash.


Supplies:
Cricut cartridge:  Create a Critter p.70
paper:  Imaginisce; Bazzill red card stock and orange card stock
marker:  Stampin' Up! chocolate chip

Happy Tuesday!

Shop Pumpkin Spice October blog hop: Echo Park, You're scent-sational!

  Welcome to ShopPumpkinSpice's October hop.  You should have arrived here from Court's Crafts.  Each of the 5 designers plus the ShopPumpkinSpice store is giving away a prize, so I hope you will leave a comment for a chance to win!  I am giving away a My Pink Stamper set...the same set used on my card: "Even More Punny-licious."

  I recall seeing some cards around blogland last Spring using Echo Park "For the Record" collection, and I just had to have it.  This is only my third time using that collection of papers, and after this card, I have to say I am totally smitten with them!  The My Pink Stamper sentiment is so apropos, don't you agree?

  This skunk with his trail of toilet paper stuck to his foot cracks me up.  Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would want or need the Cricut "Campin' Critters" cartridge.  We rarely go camping, so there would not be any LOs to create.  But the images are just so cute!

Supplies:
Cricut cartridges:  Campin' Critters skunk cut @ 3 3/4"; Straight from the Nest grass cut @ 1 1/4"
stamp:  My Pink Stamper "Even More Punny-licious"
paper:  Echo Park "For the Record":  Picket Fence; Stamp of Approval; Lace Stripes; Advertisement; Noteworthy; Fabric Store
other:  googly eyes

In case you get lost, here is the complete line up for the hop:

Pumpkin Spice Store Blog- http://pumpkinspiceblog.blogspot.com/

Court http://courtscrafts.blogspot.com

*** June http://simplyelegantpapercrafts.blogspot.com/ <<<<YOU ARE HERE***

Ann http://raindropechodesigns.blogspot.com/

Carissa http://happilyeverpapercrafter.blogspot.com/

Lenae http://sugargemscrafts.blogspot.com/

Pumpkin Spice Store Blog- http://pumpkinspiceblog.blogspot.com/

  I will randomly draw a winner from those who leave a comment on this post on Sunday, October 9th.  All I ask is that you check back and email me with your home address by Thursday, October 13th.

Each of the ShopPumpkinSpice designers are featuring Echo Park papers for this hop.  Lenae is our featured designer this month.  Here is a sneak peak of her kit called "Put a Spell on Me":

Be sure to check it out at ShopPumpkinSpice!

Your next stop on the hop is Ann.  Happy hopping!