Organization Week & First Page with the Sweet Charlotte Classic Kit!

Hi Everyone! It's Jana Eubank. The holidays are over, the decorations are making their way off the walls and tables, and, if you're like me, you are getting the urge to declutter and organize!

This week on the blog the Noel Mignon Design Team will be sharing with you an organization tip or two along with our projects! We'd love to hear your tips, too! Share them with us in the comments or on the Noel Mignon Member Facebook page. 

Before I share my first page with the Sweet Charlotte Classic Kit I thought I would share with you a video I made taking a closer look at the kit contents. I LOVE the colors of this kit ... so many happy, bright possibilities!

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HELLO BIRTHDAY BOY

I love a color combination of yellow, red, and teal. I pulled those colors from the kit and then combined them with black and white to create this birthday page about my son.

I was able to use 7 photos on this page by printing them in smaller sizes. I stacked the gift-opening photos all together in a column and then placed the two cake photos to the left. I like to keep like items together on a page. :)

I used the Elle's Studio tag for my journaling and then placed my titleabove the cake photos overlapping the journal tag a bit. I love those big cork letters! They add a boyish feel to this page!

I connected the title and journaling spot to the photos on the right, by using a couple of flag shaped stickers pointing to the photos. I stamped the word "Today" from the stamp set on the blue sticker from December's Mistletoe & Holly kit and then used the "Unforgettable" chipboard sticker from the January Kit. The star sticker to the right of the photos is also from December's Mistletoe & Holly Kit. 

A little bit of spray mist sprinkled here-and-there adds a confetti, party feel to the page!

At the bottom of the page, I stamped a red label sticker from December's kit with the "document" stamp, I then accented the sticker with a wood veneer star and die cut piece that came in my Sweet Charlotte Kit. I love how the leaf branch die cut adds a little softness to this page without feeling too girly. 

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Now, to share my organization tip with you!

I am quite the collector of stamps ... but I will admit, I am terrible at pulling them out and using them. I have tried several ways of storing them trying to give myself better access to them, but nothing has worked in getting me to pull them out more. Time to try something else!

Before I started this reorganization project, I was storing my stamps in Clear DVD Pockets in bins like this . . .

I liked that I could flip through them and see all the images, but I didn't like that I wasn't able to stack the bins on top of each other and utilize the space in my cupboards.

So ... after watching a few free videos by Totally Tiffany, I decided to try her suggestion of numbering the stamp sets (Video #4) and then creating a catalog of the images. I don't own her system, but was able to improvise with pocket protectors and binders that I already owned, but weren't being used. 

I took all of my stamps out of their bins (with the exception of my wood block stamps) and slid them into the 4x6 pocket page protectors, trimming the carrier sheets slightly if needed. Next I adhered a little numbered sticker to the pocket. The number range for that album is placed on the outside spine, so I know at-a-glance what numbers are inside.

The idea for numbering is purely for reference. This way, you don't have to keep all of the Halloween stamps together, for example. You merely add the newest stamp set to the end of your system and assign it the next number in line.

Then ... when you go to catalog it, you stamp the images into the Halloween section and write the number next to it telling you where to find it in your stash. I think this will work for me, because I can stamp the same stamp in several different sections helping me to come across the images more and hopefully getting me to USE them more. For example, the mice stamp picture below can be stamped in the "Halloween" section, but it can also be stamped in the "Animal" section ... or even a "Fantasy" section (for Cinderella pages) ... making it more likely to get used. Also, I can see all the Halloween stamps I have at once ... my clear stamps AND my wood stamps, without having to lug out all the bins and flip through them.

So far, I have stamped my wood stamps in my catalog (no numbers on these, because I don't have very many wood stamps and they are all together in the same bin). 

It will take me awhile to get this system in place, but I have high hopes of it helping me to use my collection a bit more. I have catalogued other scrappy items in the past (washi tape, spray mists, and embossing folders) and reference them all the time. Keeping my fingers crossed that this is finally the stamp storage system that will work for me!

Thanks so much for stopping by the blog today! I hope you enjoyed the ideas I've shared!

See you next time!