WOYWW #187: Getting Back Into the Swing of Things

What's on my worktable this Wednesday? Well, a mess, but not a very big one. I'm getting back into the "making" mode, starting with thank-you cards (nestled between the tripod legs) for Christmas presents. Soon there will be posts on this blog that indicate I do more than buy crafty supplies: I use them, too!

I think I'm going to re-use the card designs into bookmark designs, although without the "Thank You" aspect. I mean, I like the designs, why not send them away and keep them?

The socks aren't a project of mine. They are nice and warm, and I want to put them on -- but they are also new, and I couldn't get the stitching that held them together in the package apart. So they await a scissors before they can warm my feet.

To the side of my table is a chair, and in the chair is a cat. He really likes to sit there -- whether I'm at the table or not -- so we have outfitted it with a little heating pad. He's an old cat, you see, and he loves the heat for his achy bones.

The chair was originally my boyfriend's desk chair, but Mister Snoozy here (not actually named Mister Snoozy) kept sitting on it. Every time he got up. So he accepted the inevitable, and now he sits on a low piano stool... which actually is a better height for him, as the desk is kinda low and he is fairly tall. All's well that ends well, I suppose.

WOYWW #185: Organizing Stamps

It's been a spectacularly un-crafty week: I blame a new computer game and finishing the semester's grading. But many new stamps have showed up in the last few weeks, so this evening I spread them out so I could figure out a) what size plastic envelope they should go in and b) whether I needed any more envelopes.

I have half of a stamp storage system: I have each stamp set tucked in a polypropylene folder with white cardstock, inspired by Scrapperia's clear stamp storage. This takes care of the stamps very neatly. But I haven't yet figured out what to put the folders in... I want to be able to flip through them. Meanwhile, they live in a box, fairly tidy but not optimally set up for flipping.

It turns out I need a bunch more 4"x6" folders. I'll probably get some more 5"x8" when I order them, as I'm starting to run low.

For the curious, the folders are "Econolopes" -- the brand seems to be either Angler's or Advantus (maybe they're the same company?). Last time I bought a bunch, the best deal I could find was at SupplyGeeks.com. (I'm not any kind of affiliate... but as I've been frustrated looking for other people's storage solutions before, I figured I'd link these.)

WOYWW #184: New Stamps, Not Much Mess

My desk is in a rather in-between state this Wednesday. It was gloriously messy on the weekend and on Monday with the last couple of projects; yesterday I didn't do much but shuffle it into an imitation of tidiness and clean the stamps and stamp blocks I'd used. And the only mess I added to it today is that bunch of Lawn Fawn stamps! And while they were very exciting (I was actually jumping up and down), they hardly count as proper crafty mess.

WOYWW #183: Re-Inkers

Well, I don't have only re-inkers on my desk this Wednesday, but I've got to admit they're dominating a bit. They're new, you see, and I haven't figured out where to store them yet.

Also notable are a couple of bookmarks, waiting for photography or just to be finished, and a stack of unmounted rubber stamps topped with a "mounted" one. Well, it is mounted, but not on nice foam and lovely wood -- just on a chunk, because it was too big for me to successfully stamp with otherwise.

"Have you got a chunk of wood about three by four inches?" I asked. "No," was the reply, "but I've got a saw." And tah-dah, such a chunk was made. A little glue stick work later, and some rough trimming with the craft knife, and the stamp was, if not beautifully mounted, at least useable.

(You can see one of the attempts at unmounted stamping on the upper right -- rather smudgy in some places and understamped in others.)

WOYWW #181: Absolutely Nothing

Zip. Zilch. Nada. There is absolutely nothing on my worktable.

Okay, probably some stray grains of embossing powder.

Now, I know you regular WOYWWers. You think you've got me. You think I've piled everything on the floor!

Well, there is some stuff on the floor, but it's not mine. It's a project of my boyfriend's: there was an incident involving a curb and our wheelwell lining, and he's sewn the lining back together with strong fishing line and is busy covering the joins with Sugru.

I don't know if I've mentioned it, but my boyfriend is pretty awesome, yes?

It is actually due to the wheelwell project that the table is clear, though: the table was called into service as a photo surface for pictures. My boyfriend also has a project-y blog, you see. He's a bit too busy to be writing posts at the moment, but he does take pictures so that he can write up projects later.

But all my stuff is neatly -- well, okay, mostly neatly -- stashed on the shelves where it belongs.

The poor table looks so bare and lonely. Don't worry, I'll soon have it covered in bits and bobs again.

WOYWW #179: The Growing Piles

There's not much to see today -- or rather, there's a lot of mess, but no projects-in-process. I think there might be one hiding just below the heat gun, but all I can see the is the background paper... which blends right into the slowly growing mound of scraps.

Oh, the piles... in the middle of the table is the result of "push back", and on the sides the result of "pile high". Really only the right side should be a problem, because all the plastic folders on the left side are part of my half-completed stamp storage. That is, I've had the stamps in the folders for weeks... I just need to get the folders into a box or something.

Likewise, the growing pile of scraps on the craft sheet ought to be organized as well. I have a plan for organizing my paper and scraps; I like my plan; I think my plan will work for me... and I keep not quite buying the organizers. I want to use Cropper Hopper's new Page Arranger thingies, because they have all sorts of pocket sizes and I can put all sorts of scrap sizes in them. But very few places are carrying them yet, and even though they look great I'd rather see one in person before I commit, you know?

Thank you all so much for your suggestions about how to add a bit to the pirate girl bookmark last week! The consensus seemed to be pretty focused on bling, but I think I'm going with the eyepatch idea -- it was brilliant! I do apologize for not reciprocating your visits -- and I'm afraid I will be absent the next few weeks as well. I very much appreciate your visits, and I'd love to go visit you in return, but I am very very busy right now with the real life side of things.

WOYWW #178: Halloween & Pirates

Happy Halloween! And happy Wednesday!

This is my desk as of about 9:00 AM this morning, when I realized that in fact it was never going to get properly light today so I shouldn't bother waiting. We've got a fairly tidy pile of scraps and a couple of works in progress. The Fiskars cuttermajig was out to cut those two ovals you see beside it... neither of which I ended up using. Oh well, I'm sure they'll be useful for something eventually.

I could use a little bit of feedback on this bookmark with the pirate girl on it -- I'm pretty sure there's something missing in the design, but I don't know what.

I'm not any sort of a colorist, but it's the composition I'm having that nagging feeling about, not the coloring.

WOYWW #177: All The Things

Oh lordy, it's definitely one of those "What isn't on your work surface?" days.

This week I've taken my picture from the other side of the table -- I have the cutting mat on one side and the craft sheet on the other, because the cutting mat isn't terribly happy with heat (and ink's annoying to clean off) and the craft sheet is by no means self-healing.

This essentially means that when I "push back" to clear space, it unclears the other space. Woe is me when I switch back and forth a lot!

Things that are on my table include:

• tripod
• tub o' stamp organization, which needs a different tub
• stack o' bigger stamp sets, which don't fit in the tub above, hence the need for a different tub
• a couple of stamp sets out to do some stamping with (I'm thinking cat/Christmas bookmark, hence the red & green scrap paper nearby)
• clear contact paper for covering paperback books
• paperback books, both covered and to-be-covered
• little embossing lever-thing, for the putting of my name in said books (fancy!)
• Sugru
• boyfriend's old-fashioned pen and Sculpey-fashioned pen case (He tried writing with some red Smooch spritz as ink, which worked okay except that he insists it is actually pink. Which it is not.)
• punches, Fiskars cuttermajig, stamp cleaner, extra envelopes for stamp-organization-in-progress, ink, paint pens, paper scraps, scissors, embossing powder, etc., etc., etc.

Oh, and on the floor on the right you can see the box o' paper.

It's not a matter of keeping my storage shelves tidy, you see -- it's a matter of putting things back onto them!

Miss Grumpypuss (note: not actually named Miss Grumpypuss) here is not on my table. But as I am stamping a stripey kitty, I thought I'd take a picture of the stripey-est real kitty I've got. She's not terribly stripey. (Or maybe she is, and just has so much fur that the stripes blur?)

I imagine most visitors to this post will be coming via this week's What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday -- but if you're not one of them, and you'd like to take a gander at other workspaces, head on over to the Stamping Ground and gaze your heart out. There are so many other desks and tables and all that I can almost guarantee you'll find several messier (or at least with less free space) than mine!

WOYWW #176: Somebody Else!

It's really still Wednesday, I promise. I must be quick, it's off to dinner with me.

Here's the table this evening; I've just finished making a bookmark. A... birthday celebration bookmark? I dunno, I wanted to use those colors and the birthday stamps seemed to go with them.

I mentioned my storage on Saturday. My accumulation of papercrafting stuff is new and recent, and my stash is small. I keep it in these lovely stacking bins, obsessively labeled with blue painter's tape. Love that stuff.

What's that on my worktable? SOMEONE ELSE! My boyfriend fixed our friend's sewing machine (actually it just needed the right size bobbin; he used his internet research skills rather than his mechanical repair skills), and printed off a copy of the manual since she didn't have one. "I have several sets of sewing-y stamps!" said I, and stoutly refused to do anything with them myself. He gave in to the inevitable and stamped a bit on the back cover, hurrah! COME TO THE INKY SIDE.

WOYWW #175: Stash & Scraps

What's on my workdesk? Nothing, I don't have a workdesk!

But we weren't really using our table for anything 'cause we rarely have organized meals, so. That's where I craft. Also, I'm a graduate student. I'm allowed to have picnic dinners on my living-room floor.

This is from Tuesday night -- there's not much here, just some new stuff I was photographing for Saturday's State of the Stash post. You can see the legs of the tripod, all tipped over funny to take straight-down shots, with a weight to keep it from tipping over... we're pretty good at making do around here. I mostly make bookmarks, which don't stand up well, so straight-down shots are great.

Possibly I should have made it taller and used it for this shot rather than trying to keep my hands steady. Oh well, I'll give that a try next time.

You can also see, on the left, a collection of scraps that I'm beginning to put together a bookmark using the sample image of the musical fairy that I showed on Saturday. I liked the purple-red so much on that orange I thought it was worth doing something fall-ish with it. (The streaks on the cutting mat are from edging her right side with a copper pen.)

So: not over-messy, definitely not over-tidy, with not much going on, that's my "workdesk" today.