How I Store My Card Stock & Designer Series Paper

In this first post in my “Storage Series” I will share how I manage my Stampin’ Up! card stock & designer series paper (DSP). I’ve adapted this over the years, and I’m pretty pleased with my current storage situation. It works well for me right now… and that is what will be important when you are organizing YOUR own space.

Full-Size Card Stock StorageFirst, here is my card stock, stored on wire shelves you can find at many different stores. To accomplish this paper storage, you will need a couple boxes of the shelves and a bunch of zip ties to hold them together.  I won’t go into how to build this today, but if you want more information you can email me! The card stock stored here is 12×12 & 8-1/2×11 full sheets that have NOT been cut.

Larger Card Stock Scraps & DSPNext, here is where I store my larger scraps of solid card stock and my DSP. The open storage sleeves to the left hold card stock by Stampin’ Up! color family. The open storage sleeves in the middle hold my DSP paper stacks by color family. The closed storage sleeves on the right hold my DSP, separated by pack, as well as one sleeve for storing all 3 colors of glimmer paper.  These sleeves hold full-size sheets and all scraps in the same holder. They key here is that I have labeled everything so I can easily find what I am looking for.

Small Card Stock ScrapsHere is my card stock storage for my smallest scraps. I used to keep them all separated by color in small zip-locks in one box, but I like this storage by color family much better.  It really helps me to NOT keep every single teeny, tiny scrap because I only have a certain amount of space per container.

Card Stock Card Base StorageIn this box (which is sold as a card holder, but didn’t work for me in that way) I keep my card stock, by color family, which is already cut into a standard card base size (8-1/2×5-1/2, scored at 4-1/4).  This really helps keep me from cutting into a full-sized piece of card stock when I already have a card base ready to go!

Card Stock Management During CraftingFinally, while I am crafting, this is how I manage my card stock and DSP.  Small pieces I don’t need to keep go immediately into the trash on the right. Everything else goes into the basket on the left (except card bases & full-sized sheets) for me to put away at a later time.

I hope this article helps you with ideas for storing your card stock & DSP. If you have questions, please contact me. If you have your own storage for paper that works great for you, share it in the comments. I’d love to hear your ideas!

Q&A With Elisa: Digital Crafting

MDS_logo

QUESTION:

I’ve been hearing more and more about digital crafting lately. How can I try it to find out if I am interested?

ANSWER:

Stampin’ Up! offers a FREE 30-day trial version of our MDS2 software (item number 130910) so you can play around with the program for an entire month to see if you enjoy digital crafting.  The trial version doesn’t include everything in the full version, but it does have everything you need to get a feel for how it works and what you can create!  It includes digital papers, stamp brush sets, punches, embellishments, and templates. You can also print any projects you create during the trial period!

I also recommend that you visit mydigitalstudio.net. It’s a fantastic online resource for answering all your questions and providing you with endless ideas!  And you can always contact me, your demonstrator, with any questions about My Digital Studio!

Send me YOUR questions and I may answer them here!

Happy Crafting!

My Recent Digital Projects with MDS2

Digital Fans! If you haven’t tried Stampin’ Up!’s MDS2 program, then what are you waiting for? I am fairly new to digital and I love it! I wanted to share a couple of recent projects with all of you.

If you are on my mailing list, then you will recognize this 12×12 scrapbook page from our visit to the State Fair of Texas last fall. This is one of the pages for my Ford Family 2012 Album, which is still very much in progress!

State Fair Digital Scrapbook Page MDS2

This adorable swatchbook project was one of my Christmas Gifts to Liam’s grandmothers! I downloaded the Life Celebrated swatchbook template, popped in my photos, added just a little journaling and embellishments and I was done! The trickiest part was choosing the photos! There are 26 pages (including the front and back covers) so I am just showing a few here today. Click for a bigger picture:

LifeCelebratedSwatchbook2012-001  LifeCelebratedSwatchbook2012-010  LifeCelebratedSwatchbook2012-011

LifeCelebratedSwatchbook2012-023  LifeCelebratedSwatchbook2012-022  LifeCelebratedSwatchbook2012-025

Stampin’ Up! offers a FREE 30-Day Trial of MDS2 – so you can “try it before you buy it,” as they say. The program has full functionality, but a limited supply of content to sample. But you definitely have enough included in the trial to know if purchasing the full software package is for you! In addition, you can ask me any questions you might have during your trial – I know quite a bit about MDS2 — I’m even CERTIFIED!

Happy (Digital) Crafting!

Super-Easy Print Poetry Card

Easy Print Poetry Card

While I love making handmade cards, and often spend quite a bit of time making each one, sometimes it is really great to make a card that takes practically NO time at all.

This Super-Easy Print Poetry Card, as I am calling it, took me about 5 minutes.  I think the trick is in the punches and coordinating designer series paper!  I only spend a short time deciding which paper to punch out with the Postage Punch, then simply used a coordinating ink color (Raspberry Ripple) to stamp the sentiment.  I originally stamped the “thinking of you” on the front of the card – then decided at the last minute to punch it out with the Modern Label Punch and re-stamped the sentiment on the inside, for a little something extra on this otherwise simple card.

I didn’t even use Stampin’ Dimensionals on this card! Here’s what I did use:

Best Dad Ever clear mount stamp set, Very Vanilla card stock, Print Poetry designer series paper stack (Spring Mini Catalog!), Raspberry Ripple Classic Ink, Postage Stamp punch, Modern Label punch, 3/16″ Corner Rounder punch, and SNAIL Adhesive.

What’s great about this card is you can use any designer series paper and card stock you have in your stash.  Stampin’ Up! has such great paper patterns and coordinating ink colors to make it Super-Easy!

Happy (Simple) Stamping!