Die Organisation & Craft Room Progress

I'm so chuffed with my latest crafting endeavour that I can hardly contain myself, I guess that I really do need to get out more 😂😂😂 For such a long time I've suffered from the misplaced die problem, you know the one, the I need "THAT" exact nesting die that just happens to be missing from the set in the box (and which box did I put it in anyway?) and no matter how hard you look, your favourite sentiment die or shape has disappeared? So, so many times this has happened to me, but not any longer, this week I finally got organised and its made a huge difference to my crafting endeavours already.

I have a system in my room, well its a work in progress but as each stage of organisation occurs, crafting in my small space gets easier. My stamp and die combos are stored in plastic storage boxes which are labelled with the names if the companies in the box, and until now storage of my nesting dies was a little pot luck and I found that most used dies often went missing as they got covered over with other stuff. Or they would wind up sandwiched between cardstock and packages in a box that they aren't supposed to be in. Hunting for the die I need turned in to an epic adventure and often I'd give up and put the project to one side, or end up using another die that wasn't the right shape/size.

My brainwave isn't original, I've seen lots of similar ideas on Pinterest, but for once I did more than just think an idea would be useful and actually but it in to effect, because it would be practical, but also because it made me think of an additional use for the new Sizzix Tim Holtz Impresslits dies 😉 So I ordered a roll of 3M Self Adhesive Flexible Magnetic Sheet for just over £11. The sheet I got has a pulling force of 40g/cm2 is 300mm wide and 1 metre in length and is 0.85mm thick.

I cut the sheet in half to make 2 x 50cm pieces, and cleaned the door with some cleaning alcohol before adhering the sheet pieces to the door. It went on really easily, if you don't press too hard initially you can quickly peel the sheet off again to reposition it if it all goes wring, once you're happy with the position use a cloth (I used an old tshirt) and smooth it down pressing hard to help adhere the sheet to the wood of the door.

As I said above, it occured to me that the new 3D Impresslits I got recently would make a nice frame for the die holder, it looked a little raw prior to this and I wanted it to look a little more decorative. I cut enough strips of gold metallic card to make enough pieces to go around the whole of the magnetic sheet area and cut 4 of the smaller dies from the 3D Impresslit 'Burst' dies following Tim's instructions (mist with water and pass through the machine 3 times) and the pack instruction sandwich guide for my Big Shot.

Once I had all my pieces ready I then added a gave them a little distress treatment to tone down the colour a little, it was too shiny gold before. I added a small amount of 'Patina' Alcohol Ink and pounced on some 'Gunmetal' Mixative Alcohol Ink to all of the pieces.

When the ink was dried I added a little Cosmic Shimmer 'Chocolate Bronze' Gilding Polish and buffed it off the strips and the bursts and left them to dry. The final step was to squeeze some 'Ruby Slippers' Nuvo Glitter Drops to the centre of the bursts and allow it to dry and set throughly. The magnetic sheet takes a good quality glue really well, I used some Cosmic Shimmer Acrylic Glue to fix the distressed strips in place along the edge of the mat, starting centre bottom and working my way around, once all the strips were in place, I adhered the bursts to the four corners.

When it was all finished and I'd waited for the glue to dry I began adding my nesting dies to the newly created storage area, whilst I was doing that and rummaging in boxes I found a pack of Xcut A5 Adhesive Backed Magnetic Shims that I'd bought from The Range a couple of years ago. The original plan was to use them in some folders for die storage, but the logistics of how many I'd need etc put me off. When the A5 shims surfaced initially I was going to attach them to the door, but I realised that when I want to add more layers of the 3M stuff in the future, the the smaller shims would be in the way.


I couldn't decided where to put them initially, but then I got a secondary brainwave! At the side of the door I have a bookshelf that I keep a lot of my crafting stuff on, its almost 8 inches wide and the A5 sheets would be perfect, its a dead space as the door opens on to it, but its perfect for storing dies. I have some space to add a few more shims in the future and I have some free space on the large sheet for adding more dies. The pull for the shims isn't as strong as the 3M sheet, but its sufficient to hold the dies you can see in the photo.

Prior to adding the sheet to the door I had a couple of hooks on the door that I hung an assortment of clutter and an apron from, the clutter forced the door to not open properly and it would often swing back trapping my arm, since moving the clutter that doesn't happen and that means no more doors closing on me and bruising my arm 😁

The additional bonus which hadn't occured to me prior to doing this but has turned out to be so useful is the fact that I can take the stamp I want to cut or mat and see what size and shape it would look good on, before I even stamp the image. The whole project was rather quick to put together, the longest part was the die cutting and distressing the pieces to make the frame. Having the right size die to hand is briliant and as soon as I've finished using a die, I put it back on the sheet so its there ready to use again, which means no more lost dies 🙌

There's been some more changes to my craft space and its tidier with more room to craft, before now my alcohol markers, Zig pens and an assortment of other items were in front of my Distress ink/oxide racks making getting the lower colours of Distress ink out a royal pain.

It was cluttered and cramped, so this week I set too re-organising things, I packed away some books I don't access very much and changed where I stored some items and generally made things easier to access. There's still some work to do, but already its less cluttered and everything is so much easier to use. If I want to colour with my markers they can be brought down on to the desk to be used and put back when finished.

I sorted through all the boxes of card stock and papers I'd printed off to make cards (I had 6 scattered around the room!!!) I try to save every scrap, so when I cut something out I stick the left over card stock/paper on a pile, piles build and end up in a box, they were all higgledy piggledy so they needed sorting. The irony is I save the offcuts but I don't use them because I can't remember which box the relevant bits are in!!! Now I have a coloured cardstock box, a printed papers box and I've put all the white card (watercolour, Neenah etc) in a poly bag, same for all the mirror card and black cardstock and put the bags in a magazine rack!

I still need to add colour swatch labels to my Oxide inks and I have some none nesting dies that need to go into the folders I got a while ago so I can find them when needed, but already my room is so much tidier and a more efficient space to craft, most of what I need is around me to easily access, and if I thin out some of the stuff I'm not using then there will be even more space.

This week I've also been stocking up on Distress Re-Inkers Black Soot in regular distress and oxide for making galaxy backgrounds. I've picked up some more alcohol inks, blending solution and acrylic paint for splattering on galaxy backgrounds and I'm gearing up for making Halloween and Christmas cards and gifts as well. This afternoon I've been playing with little monsters and action wobblers, just some card blanks to make and I can layer it all up. I have to admit though that I am now looking for more ways to add impresslits to the room decor, yes I'm still patting myself on the back lol!

Stash & Craft Room Catch Up

I've been acquiring some new goodies, some I've bought, some were subscription gifts and I've even won a prize from taking part in a Facebook competition run by Making Cards magazine more about that below, but I thought I'd have a quick catch up on my craft area. Si has put me another light in, its a temporary fix, he's recycled a lamp and attached it to the ceiling, it plugs in to the mains and I have a smart bulb in it so I can turn it off and on with my voice and alter the brightness which is brilliant.

I still have to label all the Oxide Inks I have in the rack that my niece and nephews got me for Christmas, I better get my skates on as I expect the next batch of Oxide colours will be announced very soon. My stash is continuing to expand, but my aquisitions are a lot less frequent than they were before Miserly March. I'm spending less than I did before and trying my hardest to use what I have in before I buy something new, don't get me wrong, there are still LOTS of things that I want, but I'm learning that their is a difference between want and need.

Over the past few months I've added the Tonic Nuvo Diamond Inks to my ink collection and recently collected all the Tonic Alcohol Pens, I've yet to properly play with both items to know how much I like them, and whether I think they are better than promarkers or not. I have to learn to just try 1 or 2 of a set and work with them before I buy the whole set, these save money to buy the whole set deals look worthwhile initially but if you don't use the whole set because you can't get on with it, its wasted money! The only other major purchase I've made is a Tim Holtz Glass Media Mat which is due at the end of June, fingers crossed.

Until this weekend, there hasn't been much crafting time recently, we got a new RPG game that both of us are loving playing, its another of those games where I get to run round collecting herbs and making potions and remedies and Si can do all the fighting and hunter gatherer stuff that he likes to do, its kept us both sane recently. Being ill, and more problems with the neighbour means we've now had to convert part of my craft room into a TV area to escape the noise from the neighbours music, when its bad we just can't sit in the front room the music vibrates through the sofa and drowns out the TV, when its very bad we can't even sit in our makeshift TV room (my craft room) on the other side of the house with the TV turned up full!

We've tried to resolve the issue, we've talked to her, I've gone round sobbing asking her to please stop, Si has been confrontational, we've got the noise people and council involved, it goes quiet for a while and then it starts again. This has been going on for 10 years now and its having a huge impact on my mental health, if I could afford it I'd move, but we can't so here we have to stay. Most days I spend all day in this little room and at times I sit with headphones on playing my own kind of music to drown out the reggae stuff from next door with its thumping bass or I end up a blubbing wreck. The TV area addition has meant that stuff I usually store on or near the bed has had to be stored on my craft desk and the area in front of it so I haven't been able to get at my desk to play. I'm scheduled to try and sort it out this weekend and move things so that crafting can happen, fingers crossed.

Sorry for the moan above, now back to crafting, it did feel good to be able to get it off my chest though so thanks for reading/listening. 💓
I started collecting Tim Holtz Distress Markers around October last year a couple here and there, until that point I thought I didn't need them, but after watching some techniques on You Tube and on other peoples blogs I decided that indeed I did.

I picked up about 20 pens for around £1.50 each when Craft Barn began their closing down sale last month and found a few more colours on other sites for around £1.75 each. So currently I have 40 of the colours with 21 left to add, I'm buying them a few at a time and should have the whole set by Xmas, the crafty magpie in me wants to go buy the whole collection but I know I can't afford that at the moment so I'll have to get then a few at a time.

Whilst I was ill last month Simon surprised me with some trays that stack together to store my Distress Markers in. Currently I have 7 of them but he's going to 3D print me enough to hold all the pens for when I have them all. He designed the trays and printed them, he's a star and his creation really cheered me up when I was feeling ill. His genius creation makes storing the pens and accessing them very easy and as a bonus they are stored in the correct position so that they don't dry out. With the racks, Zig brush holder, wreath stamper templates and other goodies Si has made for me, my craft working space is slowly getting a bright plastic look, its a bit mis matched colourwise but its certainly easier to store things and it makes me smile knowing that my fella created them for me.

The bundle above arrived recently, its the recent subscription 'gift' for taking out a years subscription to Making Cards Magazine. I was absolutely amazed at this bargain, the years subscription (13 issues) cost me £49.99 the WOW goodies are valued at just under £45 which means I get 13 issues of the magazine delivered to my door for less than £5!!! I've been wanting to try out the WOW embossing pad and pen for a while, the embossing powders I've used for a while and highly recommend. I now have an extra heat gun so if I ever had a craft night with friends I don't have to share lol! That said my 14 year old neice is is coming to stay with us soon and I've promised to show her some card making techniques which I'm looking foreward to so much.

This weekend saw another first, I discovered that there was a card making group occuring locally a few months ago, I finally got the courage to contact the lady to find out more, she replied but I chickened out, when the neighbour 'kicks off' my anxiety kicks up, its never gone away since 2010 but I can usually supress it, when it takes over I won't go out, the smallest thing upsets me, I stress, worry and avoid the world. Anyway, Tracey, the lady that runs the class contacted me to say she was having an open day and would I like to go, idiot me thought I'd missed it already.

Turns out I hadn't so I decided to go along, on Saturday morning my anxiety kicked in big time, I was about to go out and meet people I didn't know. The weird thing is if Simon is with me I'm fine, alone I'm a basket case, Si wasn't going to be there, and I knew I would be alone. I tried an assortment of ways of wiggling out of going, in the car on the way there my stomach was doing flips and my heart was racing. I told Si and he said basically I had my mobile if I wasn't happy he'd come back and get me, having lived in Derby now for almost 16 years and having no friends the rational part of me wants to get out there, so I did it.

I had a really nice time, I made a make and take card and picked up some water based markers for £1 each, there was coffee cake, craft bingo and lots of chat, although this time I didn't really say much because I didn't really know anybody. The 2 hours I was there felt like a lot longer, in a good way, yes I was nervous as hell and my stomach was in knots but the ladies were all so friendly and it helped that I could escape in to some colouring and creating so the focus was outside of me. My colouring isn't that brillaint because I didn't take my close up glasses, so I couldn't see the details, but it came out fine.

I'm looking forward to going to a more classes in the future, but have to admit that I'm a little concerned that the classes are Stampin Up based and my curbing spending head is worried she'll get tempted to spend what she doesn't have, but hopefully it won't be an issue. Well that's all for now, next time I'll share some cards I've been making, I actually got time yesterday to make not 1, not 2 but 3 cards and dabble with some new ideas for using products I have in inspired by my friend Jennifer Kray.