Spring Cleaning

Spring has sprung, the grass has riz, I wonders where the birdies iz..... 

Well.... Spring is peeking out and thinking about it... and then getting brave and running out for a while.... before getting all scared and shy and hiding away again... 

In an attempt at persuading it to stay.... (oh and trying to "organize" my earthly dwelling place... yes... those of you who know me all too well... don't be too shocked but I did say organise...) I have been spring cleaning my craft stash. Which normally implies throwing stuff out right? Except that my fellow crafters will KNOW that even though you don't have a use for that paper/card/set of brads/goodness knows how many scrumptious crafty doohickeys and whatnots (this is not mentioning all the tools one can get....) EB**y is a very dangerous place! The Range/HobbyCraft (UK craft stores... not so sure about the rest of the world) are possibly nearly as dangerous! All this to say that.... one can never throw such stuff away because the day after one has parted with it... one will inevitably find that one NEEDS to use it! Sooooo..... Spring "cleaning" becomes "Spring Organising"!

 I have nearly completed organising all my "notelets" sets into a more  readily useful form (lots of cutting and trimming there.... but have sooooooooooo many gorgeous photos - the boxes have been utilised for these too! - AND  all the spare plain card around the notelets will have a use too... have been cutting it in straight "block" shapes (thin strips, oblongs and squares) .  Plus have goodness knows how many envelopes to put to use for card decorations (am thinking carefully cut the front "address" side from the back "stick the flap down" side - leaving a load of nice white stampable, inkable etc rectangles, and  a load of  faux "envelopes" that can be stuck to a card front using little added on flaps (for a pocket) or just plain stuck down. As a bonus, quite a lot  of the notelet sets had an A6 size piece of packing cardboard in the box (the type that has a wavey sandwich between two thin smooth surfaces) that will be very handy for easel card stoppers, or for homemade "chipboard", or even for a raised greeting/topper panel. 

Mom has been "spring organising" too  - and found a load of old (oooh at least 5 years ago!)  craft magazines of mine which she brought round. Sooooo.... had a lovely "lazy" morning yesterday looking through them and carefully (ok as carefully as I can... sometimes this is more carefully than other times LOL!) tearing out the articles that I wanted to keep. I keep all my crafting magazine articles in plastic pockets in lever arch files these days (to help preserve them as well as for ease of reference).... so.... looks like I will need to get at least another 2 files.... and probably 4 big packs of pockets (it's always good to have spares!)

My most favourite "organisation" items for my crafty stash are my Deluxe Foldaways (sold by Storage4Crafts).... Everything in boxes, each box on its own shelf... sooo easy to get at what you want when you want it! And the boxes are clear too...so it's easy to see at a glance what is basically in each box.... I have a label printer... so when I have really finished organising things into their places I aim to print out labels to go on the side of the boxes with the exact contents of each box (This of course will NOT apply to paper products... just to things like punches, dies, craft cds etc) .  But.... I need to get at least 2 more mass storage units from them... as I now have loads more things to store away.... LOL...

Talking of paper products.... Is anyone else kinda torn between the digital cardmaking thing and the paper goodies that are still out there? I love my cd roms and downloaded kits (and there are some very very talented ladies out there when it comes to digital paper crafting goodies - Claire Williams of Making Handmade Cards, and Mary Fran of  Nitwit Collections.... you rock ladies!) but Hunkydory have me hooked with their fabulous cardmaking kits! Oh and their magazine..... Oh and Debbie Moore does great cds... and did produce a magazine..... ARRRRRGHHHH....! Too many fab crafting goodies to use... and not enough hours in the day!!!!