File Cabinet Project

This was a great find! After my friend Phyllis told me about her purchasing a file cabinet to house her unmounted stamps, I just knew I had to follow suit. Her and I have been working on a way to store our vast collection for years now. I know that I have 1,000's of unmounteds. To store them is a problem. I've tried envelopes stored in those photo boxes and videocassette tape boxes. I didn't like either way. The envelopes became too cramed in the photo boxes and there was just too many boxes to go through. The VCR tape boxes are good except that I had to dump and find the one I wanted. However, I will say that Red Castle has a great program for making a cover with the stamps on there. But, again, my collection is too large for this storage method to be effective.

So...I am currently converting those VCR boxes to file folders. You know, the good ol' manilla folders. I am stamping on the outside and placing the stamps on the inside. I don't mount my unmounteds. I use naked rubber attached to the block with 3M Poster Tape. Works great. So, inside the file folder, I have just used double sided tape to hold the stamp in place. Seems to be working well except that you do need to be a bit careful when you remove the stamp. It wants to take the tape with it. Some of my UMs are mounted with Halos hook 'n loop tape so I have cut a piece of loop and attached it inside the folder. I'll post a few pics later on how this really works.

For now, here is the file cabinet that I got off of Craigslist for a mere $25. It is a 5-drawer vertical file; however, it is deep. About 3 feet deep! It's a nice, heavy Steelcase model. Can't beat that for the price. It did need a makeover because the color was ugly. It was painted by someone a lighter tan with the sides being the original dark tan/brown.

I started by washing the inside and outside with some Dawn dishsoap. We took the handles and label holders off and then sanded it.

Next, we painted the cabinet with cheap White Enamel paint and the drawer fronts with Pink Enamel. It took two coats.

While that was drying, I went to work on cleaning up the handles and label holders. I used Dawn dish soap, a steel wool pad, and some light sandpaper. Some of the handles had old paint on them that needed the sandpaper to take off. They look great now!

I used some of the scrap patterned cardstock from the plastic drawer project as labels. I love how this turned out!

Catching Up

Well, as usual, you cannot count on me to keep up with posting here. Sheesh, sorry about that. I've recently moved to a new apartment which, is way tooo small. So far, the only good thing that I like about the joint is the underground heated parking. Getting into a 70 degree car vs. 20 below in the winter will be a joy!

Anyhow, here is the new stamping area. The room is really the living room which measures 11 feet wide x 20 feet long. Divide that 20 feet in half and you can all imagine how cramped the space really is. It works I guess but the dream of that lovely, huge space of a stamp room still looms.

Because the room is soooo small, you won't see my paper stash nor my mounted stamp collection here at all. All of that is stored in my bedroom that actually is pretty generous in size. Oh well, I guess I'll survive for now.

This is my "sofa table" consisting of some of my Iris carts. I saw on Splitcoaststampers how some people were dressing up their carts and I just had to case the idea. I really like it.


Here is a close up of the drawers. It is just cardstock cut to fit the drawer fronts (and sides that were visible). I used my Nesties to make labels. Some of the drawers are not labeled because they contain junk that just got dumped in there.

I set up my cabinets along this wall. You'll see I dressed up some more plastic drawers with the same cardstock and labeled them again using my Nesties. These drawers contain all of my embellishments sorted by color.

A closeup of the drawers.

These bookshelves sit behind my desk and are filled with frequently used items. Everything is pretty handy here.

Just another view.

The desk area. It has two drawer units from Ikea that have all my frequently used tools and adhesives in it. Oh yea, there is the pile of stamps that I need to put away too! LOL!!

This picture is a puzzle. I finally put this thing together. I think I won this at my very first rubber stamp convention back in 1998! It was great fun to put together! In the next post, I'll show you my new find.

It's a Card Parade

Ok, because my friend, Phyllis, challenged me to sign up for every darn swap on the WI Stampers Group, I did! And, I am done! At the same time that I signed up for these swaps, I also signed up for some on the Stampers Life Group. Sheesh, what a fool I am! Ok, in all honesty it was fun and challenged me as some of the themes certainly were a stretch for me. Enjoy the Card Parade today...

Crimped Card

Bird Card
Father's Day Card
Pastel Card



Tag It Card

Orange/Aqua ATC
Damn Everything but the Circus ATC
Masking Tape Background Card
Daisy Card

Wild West Skinny
Aluminum Tape/Foil ATC (Bad scan of metallic foil!)
Blondes Have More Fun 4x4
Spotlight ATC

A Few Cards Done Too

Who doesn't think Penny Black for Spring?! I dig out these little critter stamps each year. They just put a smile on my face. I colored them with Derwent watercolor pencils and stippled the sky with 3 different blue inks. The sun was punched from a yellow pearlescent paper.

You ever have a card design in your head and are sure you can execute it? Well, I had the design in my head but it didn't come out like I wanted. Those Koi fish look like they are hanging instead of swimming. Oh well, back to the drawing board....

I did this card for a Cuttlebug swap on the Minnesota Stampin' yahoo group. I used a technique from the TechniqueJunkies newsletter and the card is pretty much a CASE from a card shown in the newsletter. I just loved the technique and loved the card so I had to give it a try.

It's Done!

Well, it's finally done. The stamp/scrap area has been cleaned up and is ready for use! It's not perfect. I don't think I'd live long enough to make this perfect but it'll work. So far, it feels good and I can find things.

It's the Great Stamp/Scrap Area Cleanout!

Oh yes, it's that time of year when I get the urge to re-organize the old stampin' area. It has hit rock bottom yet again. As you can see in the following pictures, I have a lot of work to do! My stamp area is a nook off of my living room. It is very small and I have waaayyy too much junk in it!

This first picture will show you the wire shelving that I use to house most of my paper. I have another literature rack in my bedroom that holds some of my specialty 8 1/2 x 11 paper but I'm trying to use that up and just have this area. Above the shelving is where I keep my big ol' paper punches and a 4-drawer cube (from Target) that is suppose to be used for my Big Picture Scrapbooking class, Library of Memories, by Stacy Julian. I have yet to complete that class so these are empty. Note: Class starts again on February 28th so of course, I'll try again! LOL!

This picture shows the other side of this narrow walkway. It has a row of cabinets (from Home Depot) where it holds my paints, embellishments, less-used tools, and extra supplies. As you can see, right now, you can't even open a door because of the junk in front of it.

Now we move onto the desk area. Oh, you don't see a table top? Yeah, me neither! Sitting on this desk is a storage thing that raises my work surface at an angle. The problem is that you can never open it when you're working because I have to move so much stuff to see what I have in there. I think that would make a nice portable work surface for watching TV and get it off the desk.

Also sitting on my desk are these tilt bins. I have loved these things because it made my most used tools so easy to get at. The problem is they are unstable because I have too many stacked there. Yes, don't ask me how I know they are too high! So, I think I will try a different set up with real drawers and see how that goes. If I still want the tilt bins, I'll have them attached to the wall properly :)

Next is my cutting area. This table is too small to hold my paper cutter and Scor-It. I don't mind the ink pads there but again, it would be better if it were hung to get it off the table. Problems, problems, problems.

These next two pictures show my two bookcases. They need some help but I sure do like having them there. They are very handy for my most used stuff.

These last two will show you two more wire shelving units that hold basically a bunch of junk. There is a TV there because my daughter got a new one. This one works but I really don't need it since the living room is just a peek around my table. The other one holds paper kits that I have gotten and also a couple of shelves are my daughter's scrapbook stuff.

I'm sure that you all have seen people re-sorting their ribbons and fibers onto clothes pins. If you haven't seen it, go to http://nicoleheady.typepad.com/ and you'll find detailed instructions--along with other great eye candy!

Well, I've started on that project. I've gone through quite a few drawers and purchased some jars. However, I'm not done--ran out of clothes pins and jars! LOL!! Need to think this over some more because obviously, I have waaay more fiber and ribbons than everyone else :(

Well, I've got my work cut out for me. I did make some progress today. I'll post again in a few days. Wish me luck!

Geez, it's been a long time since I posted. Now that the Christmas hoopla is over, it's time to get to some serious art work. Below are some projects that my Stampin' Up Demonstrator showed us during Stamp Club did this past week. Aren't they cute?!