This week I received some unexpected 'happy mail' from Mary Dinucci (SCS's seamom). Mary, who won last month's smART-Word Challenge giveaway, used part of May's 'flower' prize to create this pretty card, and thought I'd enjoy seeing it in person. She was right! I really like it, especially the color combo, and how the yellow accents, add such 'pop'. I also appreciate knowing that Mary is enjoying her prize goodies.
By the way, June's smART-Word prize is still up for grabs, so if you've made any card with 'ribbon', all you have to do is post a link at the bottom of the challenge's invitational post, and voila! you'll be entered... The posting deadline is June 24.
Speaking of 'yellow', this is my yellow embellishment drawer from the organizational system I adopted back in October. The initial execution of the system was A LOT of work, but long-term it has really worked well for me... I have a drawer for each of the eight, original 'Crayola colors', plus drawers for 'white', 'pink','metallic', and 'holiday'.
Originally,I stumbled across a similar idea while blog hopping. I embraced the concept immediately, but it took me about three months to muster up the courage to execute... By then I wasn't able to relocate the post, and could only remember: "Organize embellishments in a drawer by color."
Focusing on that as my plan, I waited for a weekend when all the males were away, rented a stack of chick flicks, bit the bullet, and 'sorted'. What a project! Especially sorting through all the packages of multi-colored 'mixes'. About halfway through, I was ready to give up, and rent a dumpster instead!
The set-up itself is really quite simple. I already had the 3-drawer, Sterilite storage units (from my wood mounted rubber days -- available at WalMart). These stack wonderfully well, and as you can see, I tagged the front of each drawer with a color swatch (punched circle from the scrap bin).
For inside storage, I chose to use a combination of containers. Again, ones that I already had -- multi-compartmented acrylic boxes from Craft Mania, peek-a-boo jars (formerly available at smARTworks), and some soft, plastic, mini boxes by Cropper Hopper. I also used various sized 'zipper' bags, and some small, petri dish looking, acrylic rounds which I've only ever been able to find at Craft Mania. The key here, for me, is see-through!
I can't tell you that this is the best system in the world for everyone because any mode of organization must suit the individual, but I can tell you that so far, I love it, and feel the initial expenditure of time/energy to implement was completely worth it:
- When I need something, say 'yellow' for a project, I simply remove the yellow drawer from the storage unit and bring it to my work area. I can see all the different types of embellishments at once, all the shades, sizes, etc. I now spend my time sampling the embellishments instead of looking for them... or worse, deciding not to dig them out because I don't want to have to put 'more' away...
- In general, my work area stays less cluttered because there are only drawers to put away, and not the separate, 'category' containers for brads, buttons, eyelets, etc.
- It has helped me evaluate my spending habits because I can really see how much of everything I have... Now when something 'yellow' catches my eye, I think about how full my yellow drawer is, and almost always pass... almost always. LOL
- Upkeep is super easy! Much easier than my former 'by category' system... Whenever I buy something new, single color packs go straight into the appropriate drawer, and items from multi-color packs get sorted into single color piles, which then go to their respective drawers. Then, every once in awhile, I re-tidy a drawer. It's painless!
So, if you happen to be looking for a new way to organize your embellishments, maybe, just maybe, something similar would work for you. At least it's food for thought...
All on the sharing block for now,
Susan T.