Organizational {Friday} Die Cut Do-over

Okay, it's time for a "do-over." When something isn't working anymore it needs to be changed. Many of you may remember my two methods for storing die cuts. If not, you can see them here:

*Binder Die Storage
*Spellbinder Storage in Quickutz Binders

I love the binder method. It is cheap and easy to find what I am looking for; however, the binder is getting SO heavy as it has filled up. I am only going to use it now for my grand dies and my long border dies. My current die storage system needed a re-do a long time ago but I did not have time because of our move across the country. So, I collected dies, and they were just sitting in piles which made it VERY hard to find things when I wanted to use them. So, this week I took the time to get them put away and organized in a new way that I hope will last for many, many years.

I found this organizational idea on Pinterest. I loved it, and I happened to have an extra CM Mini Power Sort Box that I could use. This box measures 7 3/4" w x 6 3/4" d x 5 1/8" h.

There were a few things I didn't like about the system on Pinterest so I changed it a bit to work for me. Here is what I have come up with. First, the original idea uses magnetic sheets. Those can get expensive, and I would have needed a lot of them. Second, the magnetic sheets were glued to the Power Sort Dividers. Only 9 dividers come with a Power Sort Box so I would have needed to purchase a lot of extra dividers. I didn't want to do that. So, I used the dividers as they were intended--as dividers. Then I cut cardstock into 7 1/8" x 4 1/2" pieces, doubled up the cardstock, and placed several dies on each sheet. I cut a small piece of magnet from a roll to put behind each die. It is much cheaper to uses small pieces of magnet than sheets. This works perfectly for me. Here you can see several Memory Box dies on one sheet and then the small pieces of magnet that are behind each die.

This particular box holds my Memory Box, Poppystamps, Our Daily Bread Designs, Cheery Lynn Designs, and PTI dies thus far. There are:

*14 dividers
*38 cardstock pages
*107 dies

And this box is not full! I still have room to grow! Actually I am still putting more away but wanted to get this post up. LOL!  The dividers I have right now include:

*Alphas and Nos.
*Banners
*Birds
*Borders
*Butterflies
*Christian
*Circles
*Frames
*Garden and Floral
*Hobbies
*Holidays
*Home
*Labels and Pockets
*Wreaths

I am eventually going to do this with all of my other dies too so that I have one system not 3. This does take some time to do but in the end it is totally worth it, and this little box holds SO much! I hope you have enjoyed this. Let me know if you have any questions. I will answer them in the comment section. Thanks for stopping by! Blessings to you.

Our Daily Bread Designs {Challenge 14}

Are you ready for another challenge? Today the Our Daily Bread Designs Challenge Team brings you this challenge: Create a card or a gift with a sentiment as a focal point! :)

For my card, I used a scripture from the ODBD Scripture Collection 3 as my focal point. I used Spellbinders Labels Eleven to cut out the scripture. The background paper is Basic Grey Green at Heart also available in the ODBD store! At first, my card started to look at little to "halloweeny," so I had to cut back on using so much black. :)
Papers: Basic Grey Green at Heart, Memory Box granny smith notecard
Stamps: Our Daily Bread Designs Scripture Collection 3
Stamp Ink: VersaFine onyx black, SU green galore, Ranger clear ep
Embellishments: Spellbinders Labels Eleven, Spellbinders Lotus Border Petites, KaiserCraft black pearls, Hero Arts flowers, sewing machine, misc. ribbon

If you would like to see more sentiment-focused cards, please be sure to check out the other ODBD Challenge Team cards:

America Kuhn
Chris Olsen
Christine Okken
Francie Gumprecht
Natalie Dever
Sabrina Jackson

Have fun everyone! To see all of the details and prizes for this week's challenge, see the ODBD blog post here. Also don't forget to upload your creations to Mister Linky in the same post by May 27th at 8 p.m. EST! And remember to use Keyword ODBDSLC14 when posting to online galleries. Blessings to each of you!

Organizational {Friday} Refining Spellbinder Storage

In 2008, I shared how I store my Spellbinder Nestabilities and Quickutz Cookie Cutter dies in the Quickutz magnetic binders. You can see that very old post here. I still store them the same way but I have refined my storage a bit as my collection has grown over the past 2 years. I used to have a couple of binders; now I have 11 full binders and the collection continues to grow. See the 3 new binders on the left waiting to be used. Eeek! :) As I started getting more of these dies, I found it was very hard to find the dies I wanted to use because I had too many binders to flip through. So, first I labeled the spine of each binder with my trusty labeler. Then I cut the front off of each Spellbinders card that comes in the packaging. I hole punched each card, sorted them in alphabetical order, and put them in my index binder that also contains all of my ink color samples, my Stickles color samples, etc. You can see more information on that here and here. Then I used my Sharpie to label each card with the binder number where the dies are stored.

**Edited to add that my dear friend Stephanie mentioned she threw away these cards that come in the packaging. I told her to go to the Spellbinders site and just print the pictures out and make her binder that way. Be sure to read the comment section for more details if you don't know how to do that. :) All is not lost; you still can create a notebook!I also typed the name of each set into an Excel worksheet and inclued the binder number there also. I keep a printout of this at the front of my die section of the notebook. If I happen to know the name of the set I am looking for, I can find the binder number faster on the printout.Now inside the binders I continue to label each set. I include the set name, item number, and number of dies the set contains.This is working very well for me. I can easily find the dies I am looking for now instead of looking through 11 Quickutz binders. I hope you find this helpful. Have a blessed Friday!

Organizational {Friday} Die Cuts & More Unit

Most of you know that I have several organizational pieces from Sue of Stampin' Things. Well, I must share my latest piece with you--the Die Cuts and More unit. Once again, I am extremely pleased with this unit! Sue's workmanship and customer service is beyond amazing. I sure wish I was gifted that way but thus I am not. LOL!

This unit works for the following products:

*Quickutz
*Sizzix
*Cuttlebug
*Nestabilities
*Spellbinders
*SU Big Shot products
*Etc., etc., etc.

This unit measures 18"x12"x14", has a swivel base, and hold dies 2"x2" all the way up to the extended 6"x13 3/4". It can hold approximately:

*Up to 60 BigZ and Original Die Cuts plus 11 BigZ XL and Movers and Shapers
*OVER 150+ Sizzlets, Embosslets, and Sizzlets Decorative Strip Dies
*All Cutting Pads (Standard, Extended and Decorative)
*All Spacer Platforms (Standard, Extended and Decorative)
*All Premium Crease Pads, Texturz Pads
*Texturz Plates, Cuttlebug Embossing Folders
*Countless Quickutz dies
*Holds many Nestabilities (when stored in CD cases)

It will also hold BOTH a Big Shot and Cuttlebug on top with dies under them. Here you can see a few Quickutz alpha dies and some Sizzlet dies (both large and small Sizzlets) in the top. And yes, I have tons of room left for a lot more here!
Then here you can see both my BigShot and my Cuttlebug on top of the dies. The dies are hidden just underneath both of my machines. And the cubbies below my machines hold all of my cutting and embossing pads and the big Sizzix Texturz plates. Again, tons of room left to grow here too.

On this side of the unit, I put my Cuttlebug embossing folders. I have them in alphabetical order by design name. I again, have tons of room left. For now I have a jar of miscellaneous buttons and two tins full of WRMK metal alphas. These storage areas here can actually hold a lot of Sizzix dies or Quickutz 4x4 dies. I just do not have that many dies yet so this works great for me and looks pretty in my area. :) I did put some of my Quickutz 4x4 storage binders on here, and they worked beautifully but I already have a different storage area for those. But you could certainly put yours on here. I do not have any of the 4x8 alphas so I could not test those for you.
And on this side, you can see my few Sizzix dies, my Quickutz 12" border dies, and some of my large CM punches. One thing I noticed when I received the unit is that one side is blank. The way the storage areas have to be for the extended dies, etc., I think this side must be built as it is. But don't fear. I found a GREAT solution for the blank side. I altered a KaiserCraft memo board to hang there. I am always needing paper in my craft area so this is perfect!
Board: KaiserCraft Memo Board
Papers: Memory Box Gossamer Flitter & Gossamer Happenstance
Stamp Ink: Adirondack shell pink, SU creamy caramel
Stamp: Memory Box Branch Heart E1310
Paints: Memory Makers rose petal, Smooch vanilla shimmer, Shimmerz angel wings
Embellishments: misc. ribbon, Memory Box baby pink pearls, My Mind's Eye buttons, Bazzill flowers, American Crafts felt flower, Basic Grey dark chocolate chip micro-chip stickers, Mod Podge

You could also use hooks to hang scissors or ribbon, etc. Use your imagination to customize this side as you wish. There are also other blank wood areas around the unit as you can probably see. I talked to Sue, and she said it is not a problem to put nails, hooks, or whatever in those areas to add hanging storage as you wish. Now that's fun! Nothing more fun than expandable and customizable storage!

If you would like to see my post on the other units I have from Stampin' Things, see my post here. I hope you have enjoyed today's post. Be sure to stop by and see what else Sue has at Stampin' Things. You will not be disappointed in any piece you get from her! Blessings to each of you!

Organizational {Friday} Label Those Nesties!

Spellbinders has so many wonderful Nestabilities dies that I can never remember what the names are of any of the sets that I have. I have them written down but I can't match the name with the actual die set. So, this past week, I took the time to finally label them. This is going to be SO helpful! Let's look at what I did.

First, I store my Nestabilities in the Quickutz Magnetic Storage Books. You can see my original post on storing my Nesties here. This storage method continues to be perfect for me; however, I was lacking the labels. So, I decided to use my labeler to put the name of each set in the middle of smallest die. You can see the labels in the middle of two of my sets here: Sorry for the picture not being too clear. I was having trouble getting a good picture but you get the idea. :) Now with these labels, I actually know which set is Labels 1, Labels 2, Labels 3, Labels 4, etc. Finally! And because I have 4 books full of Nesties, I also label the outside of each book. It makes it easy to see which book I need.These labels come off fairly easily too so when I switch things around, it is easy to re-label. So grab your labeler, and label those Nesties! :) Have a blessed Friday!

Tuesday's {Tips} Altering the Size of Your Nesties

Okay, on Friday, we talked about storing your Nestabilities. Well, I came across an amazing thread on Splitcoaststampers on Saturday. These ladies shared how they alter the size of their Nestabilities--either making them smaller or longer. What a cool idea!

I have cut the bottom off before to make it the right size but then one side is missing scallops or the decorative edge. Well, Susan shows you how to make it shorter and KEEP the decorative edge. You can see her great tutorial here. And to make them longer, look at Maureen's tutorial here. I just love these tips. I hope you do too! Enjoy, and happy Tuesday!

Organizational {Friday} Storing Nestabilities

Please note: I have revised and updated this storage system to make it even BETTER. :) :) Please see my newest post from April 23, 2010, here. I hope you find it even more helpful.

Okay, so I have discussed this topic once and shared my ideas. If you missed that post back in June 2008, you can see it here. However, as I read new ideas on the web, I thought you might like to see them too. This way you might be able to find the solution that works best for you. Here are some new ideas I have run across that I just love. Warning--this post is "link heavy" so sit back and enjoy! I hope this will be a great consolidation of ideas for you!

Jennifer {sammsmom1} at Splitcoaststampers shared her idea here. She used a curtain rod and magnetic pieces to hang them above her desk. Too fun if you have the room to do that!

And Kurtis {krabearkub} also of Splitcoaststampers used a binder box and filled it with magnetic sheets to store his nesties. You can see his storage here. This is another great idea!

Wendy {wendybell} stores hers on the inside of her cabinet doors in her craft room. This may work for some of you. You can see her photos and ideas here.

Rita {daffyrs1} stores hers in a zippered CD binder with magnetic sheets that she cuts down. I love this idea too. You can see her binder here--just scroll down a bit to get to the binder pictures and explanation.

Gina K. shares an awesome tutorial on how to use your nestabilities in your Cuttlebug along with great pictures on how she stores the nesties in the classroom of her store. Love it all for sure! You will want to bookmark this link here. :)

Jodene bought a plastic CD case from Target and magnetic sheets. I love how she put the embossing and cutting "sandwiches" on the front of her box for reference. I need to do that because I am always forgetting which "sandwich" to use also! You can see her photo and instructions here.

Heidi {Heidi Blankenship} shared her CD storage. A lot of people seem to use the CD cases for their storage, and I really like how Heidi shared hers. Great pictures and instructions. Look at Heidi's storage here.

Joan {SKICIO} uses metal sheets and strips of cork to store her nesties. Look at her photos here.

Spellbinders also has a new case coming out in March. You can see it here. I personally think it is a bit expensive and it doesn't say how many dies it will hold but for some of you, this may be a great solution.

I hope this has been helpful in some small way. Remember organization is about finding what works best for you! And sometimes it takes trying several different methods before finding what you love! Feel free to ask me your organizational questions, and I will try to post the topics as I can. Have a blessed Friday everyone!

Organizational {Friday}

Well, I have jumped on the Nestabilities bandwagon! :) I had some of the Quickutz cookie cutter dies but of course they don't emboss. So, my dearest husband told me to get the Nesties I wanted for my birthday, so guess what? I took him up on it! Now, I see a lot of discussions on message boards about how to store these little beauties. Well, because my Quickutz cookie cutter dies were already in the Quickutz magnetic folders, I just decided to continue to use those. I had room, and they work perfect. No sense in buying something else when this works great for me. Here is what the magnetic folders look like with the Nesties and the Quickutz:
Then I store all of these magnetic folders in an 8x8 Cropper Hopper paper holder. Each paper holder will hold 7 magnetic folders. This is just the perfect solution for me. I don't have anything labeled yet, but as I am sure you know, I will get to that! Ms. Organization can't go without her labels. Ha!
Anyway, I hope you enjoy this. The folders can be expensive but I always wait for great sales! I hope this helps some of you, and have a joyous Friday!