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bjeans, thank you! Your suggestion is wonderful and I now have a small tray on my desk for wandering with! Let's see if that helps me to stay focused and keep things together in one place.
And yet another thing I have to have! Off to Auto Zone tomorrow...;)
Thanks Claudia and bjeans!!
They have quite a few sizes; I got the smallest I could find since the magnet is very powerful, so even if a die overlapped, the bowl would hold onto it. Anyway, it’s the tiny dies that play hide and seek under tiny scraps.
As I am cleaning my workspace today I see another one....so here I am to share so someone else does not make the same mistake.
Overestimating use
I pre-cut a ton of postcards (A2 flats) in different basic colors, weights, WC paper, etc and now there are two boxes of those on my desk for "easy grabbing". Along with a box of envelopes and another of pre cut card bases so four in total. When they get used up those go. It really does not take *SO long* to cut these that this is necessary. I only really grab a handful if that.
I had also done this with labels/frames. I must have cut a 1000 at least when starting out and a friend loaned me her collection of spellbinder label dies. I almost got tendinitis with all the cranking. Took a week. Did I use any? No. They have been sent to a good charity home.
This can also apply to supplies. If I decide to buy enough to make 50 holiday cards...then I HAVE TO MAKE THEM. Changing course just leaves me with unused stuff. I'm looking at you thick felt pumpkins!
And the one I fight with daily:
GET OVER THE OOOOO.
Yes I could use that for this or that. I can probably think of how to use everything I ever see. Not good enough reason to buy it. I may be fighting this till the day I die though. :rolleyes:
My very bad crafty habit actually applies to every aspect of my life, but I’ve brought it to the level of near perfection with crafting: whether it’s a drawer, a closet, some plastic storage item, under the bed - I feel compelled to completely stuff the area to the gills - to the point of almost being unable to open or close it. As I said - I’m the same in every area of the home - the fridge, the medicine cabinet, under the sofa. My husband talks about his fear of opening cupboards for the “avalanche” that ensues. I just have to stuff things to over capacity - a half empty drawer or cupboard somehow bothers me until it’s filled to the brim. There’s a night table beside my husband’s side of the bed and I told him “those drawers are yours”. But he left them empty for what felt like months - maybe weeks. I couldn’t stand it. The top drawer I crammed with yarn; and the bottom drawer has all my stamp and die storage materials - and several hundred little plastic bags I can’t bear to part with. What seemed like years (perhaps months) later he opened (ok - tried to open) the top drawer of the night table. “I thought this was supposed to be mine” he complained. “But you never used it!” I replied. I just thank God he’s older and can’t bend down to see what’s under the bed. Fortunately we are the complete opposite. He’s the ultimate minimalist - everything has a place and purpose - no excess, no fat. We’re like jack spratt and his wife. I do generally stop myself from letting things overflow into the general living area. I’m more like a “closet hoarder”.
I am a neat freak and super organized. That is my bad habit. I have to clean up every night and put things away where they belong. I have everything archived. I admire you girls who leave your desks in these glorious, inspiration, full of mystery messes. I love looking at your desks online. They are just an art project waiting to happen.
My worst habit is looking for inspiration for a card and getting started on it while the PREVIOUS project is still half undone. I have way too many cards in progress!
Another way to keep track of stamps & dies while you are using them is to buy a 4" x6" acrylic frame from Hobby Lobby for $1.99. Put 2 rows of self-adhesive magnet (comes in a roll) at the bottom to place dies on & stick stamps on the acrylic above the magnet rows. Since the frame has a stand for the bottom, it takes up very little room on your craft desk.
I don't generally lose my stamps since I don't stamp very often (and it's usually one or two stamps at a time), but I do work with plenty of dies. I have a scrap piece of magnetic sheet stuck to the top of my Sizzix for 'parking' small dies until they can go back in their binders.
As for worst crafty habit, that's a hard one... maybe getting behind on the indexing, or being really invested in making use of every scrap of paper.
Is it getting smudges on your Cardstock? Stamping crooked? Losing stuff? Being too messy? (Please don�t include buying too much as we ALL do that!!)
I ask because I need to vent about my worst habit. I am FOREVER taking clear stamps off the packaging to �audition� them OR taking them off the block after cleaning them and then losing them. I just lost a small stamp that came with my BRAND NEW Thankful Leaves Turnabout. Yes, the second time I used it and I�ve already lost a stamp. I usually find them stuck to my scissors or the bottom of my MISTI or the side of my water spritz bottle. Or on the back of a die I�ve put away, on the side of a marker... But this time I�ve wasted an hour and I still haven�t found it. The last place I know to look, without looking in very improbable places, is the garbage. I have a small one in my craft room but had my little guy empty it into the kitchen last night. Ugh.
Did you check the soles of your shoes? I'm speaking from experience, lol...
Not zipping a paper scraps bag closed. Was about to close a file drawer the other day when I realized I was looking at the bottom of the bag I had just dropped back into the drawer. Yep, white paper bits every where but in the bag they were supposed to be in. UGH!
I can relate to so many of these!
1) I currently have such a mess downstairs that I have been bringing stuff upstairs. Then when I am done, I pack up all that I brought up into a random box or bag that goes downstairs and doesn't get unloaded. Go to start a project another day and can't find the supplies because they're in one of those boxes and who knows which one.
#2) Making things for a specific person/event and then not sending /giving/using them with the corollary: buying specific things to make for a specific person and never making them
3) Thinking that I could sell items so I make a bunch or buy enought to make a bunch and then not following through
4) buying things on sale or at thrift stores or accepting things from friends in larger than necessary quantities because it's such a good deal....or with the thought of for #2 or 3
