Beginning with the next of my 100 Days. This was done on the first day since early December my daughter went back to school. as you can imagine, the house was very quiet, and it was both welcome and, strangely, not.
Like many crafters, I spend a LOT of time trying to achieve perfect organization. The problem is I am very flighty. My passion for any particular craft waxes and wanes like the moon. So one week I may be frustrated not to have my gel plate supplies well sorted and easily to hand. Another it will be all about the art journal. What division has worked for me so far is having a MESSY desk and a CLEAN one. So all the paints and mediums and things like masks, stencils and the lake at one desk then stamps and inks for texture at the other. I may start an art journal page on the messy desk, but once I move to the texture stamping and final details, if it’s that sort of page, then I might move over to my clean desk. And all my 100 days stuff is done on my clean desk. And having all my stamps organized at that desk was my goal. Here is where I am – and happy with it.
The biggest step was to sort and organize my cling stamps. They had been in large binders like the first three and in divided sleeves. Making good – and realistic – choices about what I would and would not use from my stash of stamps was a big part of this. I have a HUGE box of stamps I am donating to the local Craft & Chat group, once we can meet in person again. The ones I am keeping are sorted by how I use them. I have all my alphabets (except all the tiny boxes of very small alphas) on the shelf under:
and the tiny boxes of very small alphas are in a drawer under my desk along with other wood-mounted stamps and foam stamps:
and I have grouped stamps on the other side – grouped like with like, for my particular uses. Things like faces and eyes and figures.
I have a basket that sits on the side, with all my sets that I want to keep together in one place – all my Dina’s, my RubberMoons, etc. When I am looking for one of those stamps, say a face, the first thought is not Oh, it’s a face, it’s Dina. So I’m gonna look for it in the Dina collections.
These are in cheap A5 size plastic envelopes, so if they fall off the backing they will only fall within the envelope. Also on the shelf are some bins and boxes or grouped art journaling stamps. This may seem crazy, but this works so well for me. I have a bin that has all my text and alpha stamps, nestled inside one that holds pure texture stamps (+s, Xs, circles, spider webs, crackle, etc) and one that has large format stamps and collage style ones.
One problem I have had in the past is…OVER organizing things. Having them broken down into very small categories and in storage that takes up a lot more space. This way, if I KNOW I want a bit of text, I can rummage thru the box and maybe find something surprising, not what I went looking for, but what is perfect for my piece. And it is all in easy reach as I sit in my chair! The 2nd set of drawers (tiny alphas, foam stamps, Stampotique wood mounts, etc) is on the left, under the desk, also right beside me.
and all the inks and the like are right in front of me – no change there – as well as some of my 100 Days project supplies, pens, stamp mounts, adhesives, tiny punches, etc:
It MAY be that I take stamps in their bins over to my messy desk to work on a page, but I think not. I have a good lamp over my clean desk and lately I seem to be more likely to pick up my journal when I get to the stamping phase and move it over. The only flaw is it I plan on spattering ink or paint, I might opt to move back.
Of ALL the re-orgs I have done, this one feels like the most considered and feels like it fits into how I work now. Is it perfect? Nope, 100% NOPE. But close. And I’ll know if it needs tweaking pretty quick. But so far, it seems to be working. And I do not add this because I think my system will work for anyone else. I think that I wasted more time and more money trying to force my stash and my space into some system someone else used that looked good, cause I thought if I did THAT, my room would look good too. Again, just NOPE. My room is NEVER going to be pretty. But so long as it WORKS I could give a good goddamn.
My messy desk area needs a little love, so I may look at that soon.
WOYWW tomorrow!
scrappystickyinkymess 