PP77, CCMC184, SSC237 {Whew}

It's not very often that I combine three challenges to make one card, but I managed to do it for this card!

The Paper Players challenge is "All You Need is Love" so I made a Valentine's Day card with the Love You Much stamp set.  I combined it with the color challenge at Create With Connie and Mary and the sketch challenge at Stamping 411.

It's fun to sometimes use non-traditional colors for holidays, so that's why I thought I'd make a Valentine's Day card with Blushing Bride, Pool Party and Soft Suede.  But by the time I put this together I wasn't at all sure that I liked the result.  I thought about coloring in the "love" sentiment with Blushing Bride but I was afraid that the Soft Suede outline would run.  I ended up by lightly sponging the embossed Pool Party vertical pennant.  I'm not sure that it jazzed this up all that much, but it looks a little better to my eye.

I also remembered that I mentioned last week that I wanted to share some photos of an ink pad storage system that I received for Christmas, and then I completely forgot to upload the photos!  So here it is:

This holds 96 ink pads plus markers and ink refills!  Oh my!  Here's a close up.

It came unfinished, so I stained it then gave it a couple of coats of polyurethane.  I love it.  It's big, but it is exactly what I needed to keep everything organized.  Santa is so awesome!

Thanks for stopping by for a visit today!

Welcome to My Stamp Room

I have officially lost my MOJO this week.  I'm not sure what's wrong with me, but every time I sit in my stamp room I create something awful.  Hopefully, I'll snap out of it soon.

Today I was talking to my friend Sylvia about how we organize our stamp rooms.  She was going to go to Ikea to buy another Bygel Rail (which is something we both use to hold our punches).  I think I need another one too and that brought us to a discussion of how my stamp room was set up.  She's never seen it, so I promised her that I would take some pictures and post them so that she can see.

The story of my stamp room begins here.  One year later this is what I have:

This is my punch station.  I've actually got more, but they are the new-style SU punches so I'm not sure how I'm going to store them.  The big ones definitely fit here (see the bird punch) but I'm not sure how I'll deal with the smaller ones.

This is a lateral file that I got from Ikea.  It holds all my 8 1/2 x 11 cardstock in hanging files.  On the top is my paper cutter and my Scor-Pal and Score Board.  (You can't see the Score Board because it's under the Scor-Pal).  Notice the cardboard mailing tube on the right.  I have this habit of saving things like these because I think I can use them in some future creative project.  Usually I don't and after about a year, I decide it's ok to throw them away.  I think I've got about 28 days before I can safely throw this one out.

This is the Expedit bookcase (also from Ikea).  This one holds my stamp sets, which are somewhat organized by theme.  On top is a place for my Big Shot and my light box.   

This is another Expedit bookcase where I've got LOTS of supplies.  I've got my stamp pads on top, and the cubbies are filled with 12 x 12 paper, embellishments, adhesives, Sizzix dies, and whatever else I can think to put in there.  I sit in front of it so it's easy to just turn in my chair and grab what I want.

This is my totally awesome table.  It's an old drafting table and it's a really good size to spread all my stuff out while I'm working.  Usually it is completely covered in stuff with a fairly small area where I work.  I also have a TV tray next to where I sit where I keep my laptop.  Very useful to have it handy as I troll blogland for ideas and inspiration.  Thanks to Sylvia's suggestion that I photograph my stamp room, I cleaned the table off.  I'm really going to try to keep it clean.  HA!

 And finally, these are my ribbon organizers.  They also are right next to my table so that I can quickly grab something while I'm working.

Thanks for joining me on this little tour of my stamping world as I try to figure out where my MOJO went.  And a special thanks to Sylvia who inspired me to clean up my room!