New Storage Finally

Ok, I finally got around to taking pictures of my new storage method. I certainly hope you all can actually make out what you see in the pictures below.

Above I have a picture of the box with the lid off showing the "folders" that I cut down and put the stamps inside.

Then there is a picture of one of the "folders" pulled out and laying closed on top of the box.

The last picture is one of the "folders" opened up with the index sheet laying close by.

I do love this method as it makes it so easy for me to just pick up and take all my stamps with me rather than having to flip through a ton of CD's trying to find just the right set. This way I have all my current stamps with me at one time. As sets retire I will take them out and put them in a retired box. I have more retired boxes than I do current. LOL

I get 2 "folders" out of each full size folder. There are 12 of these laminated folders in each pack. So that makes for 24 of the cut down mini folders for my stamp storage. Each pack of full size folders are around $4.50. And the boxes are around $8 at Walmart. So this makes for a very economical storage system.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

NSR - Culinary School

This isn't stamp related....BUT....I'm just so proud of my son that I had to share.
My oldest son is in Culinary School (he just started and is in his first semester). So yesterday he asked me if he could make dinner himself. He wanted to make one of the meals he'd learned about in school.....and he needed to practice some techniques with potatoes.

So last night he did chicken breast in a white sauce (white wine, chicken broth, seasonings, heavy cream and something else that I didn't pay attention to LOL), asparagus steamed and sauteed, and potatoes cut some weird way steamed and sauteed. OMG!!!! This meal was FABULOUS!!! We usually have some left overs.....not last night. Every one of my crew went back for seconds and left mom with NO SECONDS!!!!!! LOL I went in the kitchen to get another piece of chicken (not a whole piece....I only wanted a couple of bites) but there was NONE left. LOL

Ok, so during this whole cooking of dinner process Anthony was getting really frustrated. We didn't have all the spices he needed. He thought mom would have had everything since mom cooks a lot and loves to cook......but mom apparently didn't use the same seasonings he needed. How could I NOT????? LOL Anyway, then he needed cheesecloth for some of the seasonings but we didn't have that either (I dont' use cheesecloth for anything) so he had to make do with a tea strainer. We didn't get clarified butter for the white sauce so he had to make do with what we had.

So this whole ordeal has helped him to learn to improvise and make substitutions in a pinch. Sure he was frustrated. But I am hoping that he learned something from this experience. He pretty much had all the substitutions figured out but was not pleased with the fact that he had to do that in the first place. I have explained to him that there are going to be times in his career that he is out of something or missplaced something or whatever the case may be he'll have to substitute and think on the spot of a way to make do with what ingredients and tools he has on hand.

All in all, he did a GREAT job...especially considering we didn't have everything he needed. Today I am planning to go to Bed Bath & Beyond and get one of those spice/seasoning things that hangs on the side of the refrigerator with the metal tins and then I'm going to make sure we have every single seasoning you can possibly imagine so that my baby will have what he needs when he cooks for us next time. :-)

Anyway, I'm so proud of him that I just had to share.

UM Stamp Storage

I am so excited.....my new stamps arrived the other day and I actually got a chance to play with them last night. BUT, I am so over storing them in the CD cases. These CD cases were really starting to overrun my stamp area and it was such a pain trying to decide which ones to take with me when I go places to stamp with other people. Soooooo, I figured something else out.

I bought several of the photo storage boxes (in pink and brown of course. LOL )
I also bought several packages of file folders (the ones that have laminate on one side - also in pink and brown)

I cut them in half both ways so they would fit inside the photo storage boxes. Then flipped them inside out. The Creative Cling sticks perfectly to the laminate side of these folders. I like to have an index sheet with each set of stamps so I cut pieces of CS to slip into each "folder".

Then I turned the index cards that come in the box on its side and cut them to the right size (so they just barely stuck out over the stamp "folders" and labeled them with the section titles as they are in our catalog.

So now all my stamps are organized nice and neat in these boxes. I removed all the retired stamp sets and have seperate boxes specifically for my retired stamp sets (these are also organized according to category as they are in the catalog).

This is so much easier for me to carry my stamps away from home rather than trying to figure out what I'm going to put my CD cases in and which sets I will be taking with me.

I'll take a picture of how I did this later this evening.

My 7 year old's card

This is the halloween card that my 7 year old made the other day. He loves to stamp and play with mom. The only thing I helpded him with on this card was getting everything centered. He did the stamping and selected his own stamps to use from the stash of "kid" stamps they have. He plans to give this to his teacher when it is closer to halloween.

I will post the calendar books we do when they are finished. We will all be using TAC stamps on our calendar books. :-)

Business Card Holder

Being that I am involved with a few different companies and have 4 different business cards it was always an issue of how and where in my purse to keep all of them. And then, having to fumble around with them to find the right one to give out was just a hassle. So, this is the solution I came up with.

I created a template to fit the business cards. Then cut out several of them. The front and back are covered with various decorative cardstocks (what a great way to use up some of the scraps I have laying around LOL). The cards are all attached using a Paper Tagger so that they all stay together. They just slide out of the side of the pocket. So now when I need to hand out a business card I can just hand out this cute little "pack" of business cards.

Calendar Page - May

This is my May Calendar page for a calendar swap I'm participating in. All the stamps are, of course, TAC. :-) The stamped images are colored with chalks and glaze pens. The letters spelling out "May" are affixed with foam dots. The dates for the month are actually on the hang tag rather than in the daily boxes.

New Projects

It's been a while since I've posted, I know. I have a few new projects that I will be posting here either tonight or tomorrow. I have to take pictures of them.

I have a cute pink and brown card that I made last month. I've also been busy making business card holders for all my business cards (TAC, Sweet Wrap Workz, The Chocolate Works, etc). I got tired of having a bunch of different cards and trying to weed through them every time I was giving one out. So figured it would be easier if I just had some premade pouches with one of each of my cards. So I'll post a picture of that when it's done....just trying to decide how I want the outside of it to look.

I'm also working on a May calendar page for a swap. I should have that completed this evening as well. I couldn't think of what to do for it so I've just had to make it up as I go along. Doing things that way just about kills me though as I prefer to have it all planned out nice and neat. LOL

Let's see, I know I have a few more projects laying around here that I'm working on...just can't recall them at the moment. Oh, one is a clear card and the other is a folding album (been working on that one since June though....I'm just not great at the scrapping thing LOL).

So watch for an updated post by tomorrow with new projects.