Stamp storage (mini binders)

Hello blog friends!  This week was...shall we say..hectic at work, so instead of a fun project to share I thought I'd pop in an organization post, just so you don't think I've forgotten you.  I hope to get up to the craft room to spend a bit more time creating this weekend if it rains, but if it's nice I'll be outside enjoying the last weekend of summer.

This is a storage idea that I've been trying for almost a year now, and I really like it so I thought I'd share.  I don't have a ton of clear stamps- I mean, I have a lot, don't get me wrong, but not as many as I could have, so this storage seems to be just right for my medium sized stamp collection.   I also have a regular sized binder that I keep an inventory of all of my stamps by theme (I just stamped them onto paper that I labelled with themes like "Christmas, birthday, misc") so if I'm looking for something specific I know where to find it.

I went to Office Max and bought some of the 2 inch 8.5x5.5 binders and the page protectors that go in them.  I also already had one of the 1 inch ones, but it doesn't quite match.  It bothers my compulsive tendencies, but not enough to do anything about it.  

First I pulled stamps by the two companies that I have the most stamps from and gave each of them their own binder.  The third binder is stamps that I think of by manufacturer, but only have a few sets of each.  I made one binder for miscellaneous stamps that I use mainly for cardmaking, and one for miscellaneous stamps that I mainly use for scrapbooking.  The 1 inch binder I use for my alphabet stamps.

They're all labelled with stickers from Simple Stories.

Stamp binders, sitting on my shelf

A peek into my Jaded Blossom stamp binder

Back to School

This card might be a little late in most parts of the country, but here in my neck of the woods we have one more week before school starts.  I was inspired to make a clean & simple card by some cards I saw on Pinterest.  There's no die cutting involved in this card at all, which is kind of unusual for me!

The card base is regular black cardstock.  For the patterned paper, I knew I wanted it to look like a composition book, but I couldn't find any free digital papers, so I made my own paper by making a copy of a composition book I happened to have in the house and cutting it down to the size of a card mat.  I got the chalkboard tags a long time ago in the Target dollar bin, and then stamped the sentiment from Joy's Life with some white ink.  Super quick, and just the way it looked in my head.  :)

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:
Craftin' Desert Divas- Back to School
Simon Says Stamp, Wednesday Challenge- Back to School

Fortune Cookie

Here a little fact you may not know about me: I'm a comic book movie nerd.  You'll never see me at a romantic comedy, but you better believe I'll be sitting all the way through the credits for even the tiniest morsel of goodness at the end of a comic book movie.  So, when I saw on Facebook that SVG Cutting Files was giving away a set of Rocket and Groot freebies just for entering this month's Fall Colors challenge, well...I just entered faster.  Because let's be honest, I love them and I just about always enter their monthly challenges anyway.

Anyway, here's my card for this month's challenge.  In the past, I've made fall themed cards and although I like them, I never send them because "fall" just doesn't seem like a card sending occasion.  So I used my fall colors (all from my scraps file, just the way I like it) to go along with a fortune cookie.  I popped him up on glue dots, which is hard to tell on the photo.

I used the second half of a sentiment from Pink by Design that I thought sounded kind of like a fortune to stamp on the paper.  I thought it might be a kind of neat non-traditional card for an engagement or when someone announces they're having a baby or something.

Sunshine and Smiles

Hi everyone!  I hope your summer is wrapping up nicely!  The weather has been so nice here overall lately- I don't love super hot temperatures, so this mild summer has been great for me.

Even though I don't love the heat, I do love the sun.  It's just such a staple of summer!  For my project, I went kind of clean and simple to highlight the sun.  Plus, I don't like to make bags overly decorated because they might get destroyed.  Of course, I had to use my very favorite Doodlecharms sun.  I used a scrap pieces of paper behind it to highlight it and some gems in either corner as an embellishment.

The sentiment is from Jaded Blossom's Simple Sayings 2.  I used a gel pen to highlight the word "Sunshine" so it would really stand out.  Now I just have to find someone to give a present to.  :)

I'll be entering this gift bag into the following challenges:
Simon Says Stamp, Wednesday Challenge- Summer
Jaded Blossom- Crafter's Choice

Root beer float

Happy weekend!  At my house, my husband is spending the day working on the floor in our family room which means that I am spending the day in my craft room.  I decided to look through some of the challenges that were open right now and make a fun card!

I started with this super cute Root Beer Float file from Pretty Paper, Pretty Ribbons.  Instead of sprinkles, I put some gems on the whipped cream part and I used some Stickles on the red straw.  Then I made the background, following the sketch provided by Die Cuttin Divas (see the link below if you want to see the sketch) and following the color scheme of the float.  I stamped the sentiment from Jaded Blossom's Simple Sayings 3 and then added the buttons on the bottom for an embellishment.

It's been awhile since I made a card that incorporated a few challenges, because most of my crafting has been focused more on the memory-keeping side lately, and it felt good to stretch these creative muscles again. I'll have to remember to do it more often.  :)

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:
Pretty Paper, Pretty Ribbons- Yummy
Simon Says Stamp, Wednesday Challenge- Make it Sparkle
Die Cuttin' Divas- Sketch Challenge

"Silhouette Challenges #16 "Create a Shadow using the Offset Feature"

It's the time for another challenge over at

Ch# 16 "Create a Shadow using the Offset Feature"

Begins: Friday, August 1

Ends: Sunday, August 31

A blog dedicated to the Silhouette Cutting Machines.

You MUST use a Silhouette somehow in your project.

Sponsor this month is:

My Crafting Channel

Silhouette 25-Pack Chipboard

Hello everyone!  For this month's challenge, I decided to incorporate one of the things that really means summer to me- fireflies!  The background of this card is pretty simple- it's two scraps from my scraps bin that I thought looked cool together, with some orange ribbon between them. I put them on an orange card base- it's not often I get to use orange outside of Halloween! If you're wondering why my picture's at a slight angle, it's because the blue paper has a shine to it and my super bright craft room lights were not cooperating with the shiny paper, so I had to put it at an angle to photograph it.

I bought this cute firefly from the Silhouette Online Store, and created a shadow to go around it to make it really stand out from the background paper.  I added some gems to its' antennae and a TON of glitter glue to its' bottom. It's kind of hard to tell, but he's adhered down with foam squares.

To finish it off, I cut a banner by hand from another scrap of paper I had, and stamped my sentiment.  It's actually from a Pink by Design stamp set, and it's only part of a saying, but I just masked off the rest.

Head in over to see what the DT has created for you inspiration and link up today.

Click HERE

On a sadder note, this will be my last post as a Design Team member at Silhouette Challenges.  I hope you'll all continue to play along with the challenges and get to know your Silhouette machines better. I know I will!