Inventory Book

Hello and happy sunshine everyone,

I was inspired... hmmm... not strong enough of a word to describe my excitement to do this project, I was energized by Ranger Ink's "Organize Your Ranger Products" section of their website. In this section they provide beautifuly presented colour swatch charts that you fill in with the products that you have. I felt like I was playing bingo when I filled in the swatch chart for my distress inks.

They also provide coloured label sheets. You print the labels, punch them out with a circle punch and place the label on the cap of the Adirondack Dabber, the cap of the Distress Stains, etc. It all depends on which labels you have printed and what products you own.

If you haven't seen "Organize Your Ranger Products", it's a must see.

The Upcycling book by Danny Seo inspired the front and back cover of the inventory book. I used the leftover flooring from our new basement bathroom to create the cover. The flooring was not sturdy enough on it's own, especially if I wanted to stand the book up in my library. I gave the flooring some strength by glueing it to a photo mat board.

Inside the book I have various sections. The sections are divided as follows:Ranger products; Copic markers; Other inks; Stamps; Cricuit cartridges; Dies; and Embossing folders and plates;



I have incorporated the Copic image for my personal use.
I have not, nor will I sell this inventory binder. 

 

The book may seem like a lot of work to create and a lot of work to complete but I created the book to keep me organized on a couple of different levels.

I like having my friends come over and play in my studio. I enjoy sharing the tools and products I have. However, I came to realize that as they used my stamps, removing them from their sets, I was lost by the end of the day. I couldn't remember where the stamps belonged and was not able to return them to their proper home.

On the other side of the organization coin, I like to remove my tools and products from their original package and place them within my own organizing system. The upside to this is that things are placed in a more logical, easy to use, easy to put away system. The downside is that I don't have the name of the stamp set or the name of the company included on the item's new home. As you can see, in the inventory binder, I have indicated the name of the item, the company, if it's a stamp I have also included how many are in the set, if I have the coordinating die and if they are cling or wood mount (which will tell me where to find them).

To my surprise, as I was recording the various stamps that I own, the stamped images were inspiring different projects. A stamped image provides a better visual than the stamp itself.

When starting a project, I don't have to search through my supplies for inspiration, I can flip the pages of my inventory book for that perfect ink, stencil, stamp, cartridge, etc. The great thing with the book is that it is portable (obviously). If I want to assemble my ideas on the bus as I commute to work and home, I can do that.

I created the dividers using the We R Memory envelope punch.

I created the holes for the book binding using a cardboard template and the Crop-A-Dile. I laid the spiral on some heavy cardboard cut to an 8.5 x 11 size sheet and made a pencil mark at each place the spiral touched the cardboard then I used the Crop-A-Dile to make uniform holes all along the edge. I paperclipped the template to the printed pages, about 10 pages at a time and punched all the holes. I repeated this process until the entire book was punched. To assemble the book, I threaded the spiral into the stack of papers, one hole at a time.

I am very happy with my inventory book. My only fear is that I am going to run out of pages. However, that's a minor fear because I can simply undo the book, use my template to punch more papers and then reassemble the inventory book.

Hope you enjoyed this post.
Until next time, happy paper crafting.

Paper Organization

Hello,

PJ Challenge asked us to share one of the ways we organize our crafting supplies. Unfortunately, I am too late to link this post to the PJ Challenge blog but I want to share my organization secrets just the same. I am going to share how I organize my papers.

Before I organized my collection of over 800 pieces of paper, I would get quite frustrated when I sat down to create a scrapbook page because it would take me a very long time to find the right papers for the layout. To help with my paper selection I have divided my full sheets of paper into 6 categories; solid colour cardstock 8x11, solid colour cardstock 12x12, one sided patterned paper 12x12, two sided patterned paper 12x12, children themed paper and Christmas/Winter Holidays themed paper. I use Cropper Hopper 12 x 12 and 8x11 paper holders, Scroll Texture Box by Office Harbour and various art boxes purchased at Wallacks or Michaels.

In one container are the solid colour 12x12 sheets of cardstock. In a smaller container are the solid colour 8x11 sheets of cardstock.
 

I have all my patterned paper seperated into two categories. In one container are one sided pattern paper organized by colour and in the other are the two sided pattern paper also organized by colour. This has made my life so much easier. In the two sided paper container, I shuffle through each sheet one way, then flip the container around and shuffle through the other side of the papers. Time is saved by removing the one sided papers from the two sided papers.

 

One of the other things I do is organize my scrap papers. Any paper that is 12 inches long and larger than 6 inches wide goes into a Scroll Texture Box with a chipboard label hanging from the handle (the label maker tape would not stick). Any cut paper that is 12 inches long by 6 inches or less goes into another similar container.

 

 

 

Through my years of crafting I have come to realize that I can't look past the shape that was previously cut out of the scrap paper to see that I can use the left over in my new paper project. Therefore, when I am finished a project I trim any remaining pieces to a square or a rectangle removing any evidence of a shape or curve.These pieces are placed in a scrap container. 

 

Specialty papers such as velum, cork paper, sequence paper and so on are place in a seperate container.

These organization methods have saved me plenty of searching time, as well as, cleanup time.

I hope that it may help you as well.

Till next time. Happy paper crafting.