Promise & a Birthday Card

First of all I will show you the new birthday card so those of you who aren't interested in my organizing skills can just move onto another blog. This card is for a teacher. I always seem to keep that in the back of my mind when I am choosing a stamp to color - what makes me think of this person in particular. It makes coloring it and putting the card together much easier. I can lean on colors I know they like or images that remind me of them, or both. Sometimes it is even the pattern on a paper. I knew before I had chosen an image that I was going to use a word stencil for the background behind. I picked up some inks from Tsukenetko (probably spelled that one wrong) and finger dabbers at the last scrapbook meet I went to and used a crafter's workshop stencil that is very detailed. It worked well with the dabbers but you aren't going to believe how I did this. Here is the card so you can kind of follow along.

First I stamped my image on a larger piece of card stock than I ended up with. I used a frisket mask - found that you have to be careful or it will tear your card stock when you remove it. I do not recommend it as a mask for cards or scrapbook pages, but I use it if I am at the beginning of something so its not a big deal if I have to start again.  - Like don't bother coloring your image first because it could and probably would tear when you tried to remove the frisket.
Next I colored my background with Tim Holtz distress inks - used mustard seed and broken china, and worn lipstick. Then I laid my stencil down and held it with one hand while I inked up the finger dabber on the pink ink in my multicolored pad. I went over the stencil with the pink - of course it changed the colors in the background and really livened them up. I used the broken china for the edges on the pink paper behind her as well. The aqua  paper is cut from one of the card creator dies - ribbon edge or something like that. I ran the pink ribbon through the slits and tied it. The yellow paper is cut from the basic card creator set and the card itself is aqua. I used clear stickles on her barrette and the flower on her cup. Silver stickles went into each little hole and at the tips. Copics I used : E00, E11, R20, E31, E33, E35, E37, E18, R32, BG10, BG13, C2, C3, Y26.

This is the inside of the card. The lace is from Hero Arts - I poo pooed it until I used it. Wonderful! It is already glued on the back and went on like a dream! The aqua is paper cut with a Martha Stewart punch. I liked the front so much the way it was that I didn't want to wreck it with words!

Here is the first installment about my "organization" skills! I decided to start with my large papers since there isn't much you can make with out them. This is how I have all of my 8 1/2 x 11 and 12" paper and card stock. In the beginning I didn't know about card stock except as a base so I had quite a bit of paper. Now I mostly use  my paper to make odd sized envelopes. If I have to mail them, I add a blank sticker on the front for the address. I have part of a wall that I ordered some little inexpensive cabinets from
Staples. Will show you those later, but it has one cube with shelves - that holds 12 x 12 PAPER. I came across someone using clippies (my word for alligator clips) on something and I went out and bought millions!! I use them for everything. They hold the paper together by color or collection and have a label on them so I know what that clip holds. The clear shelves are from Display Dynamics. One is for 8 1/2 x 11 and one is for 12 x 12 . 8 1/2 x 11 are all solid colors and also all the different coloring (white) papers are clipped by what kind they are. I keep a plastic shoebox next to it for my immediate scraps. When that is full, they go into a 12 x 12 holding box that I give away - not the box, just the papers! I have several recipients as its usually got quite a lot in it. If I didn't do that, I would never be able to buy any more paper. My solid 12 x 12 are in the rolly case. The other 12 x 12 are on the clear shelves. To the very front inside the rolly case are specialty papers - like lace cuts, frisket, sticky canvas well, you get the idea. Papers I don't know what to do with!! On the rare occasion that I need to use the case, the papers stack easily on the floor!! Remember they are clipped. They stay together neatly and it makes it so much easier to remove and put back on the shelves. I can tell you that I couldn't live without my little Brother label maker. It's old as the hills and my DH gave it to me since he has more than one. So here are some photos. I am sure you can guess which is which. As for those shelves. I bought them direct from the maker online and they shipped them rather quickly in huge boxes. If I had more room, I would buy another set of 12 x 12 and get the papers out of my rolly bag. But so far I haven't figured out how to do that.