Clean Desk…and room :) WOYWW

Today I spent a lot of my time in my craft room.
Unfortunately I wasn't creating.
I was cleaning, and boy did it need it.
But honestly, I love cleaning and organizing my supplies.
Sometimes I think I make a huge mess, just so I can clean it up and organize it again.
Maybe that is why my house is a mess, lol.

 I had mentioned yesterday, that I have trouble getting rid of the most useless stuff.
Just take a look at the packaging.
I have no idea how long I have held onto this because the shape is so fun :)
I kept telling myself that I can make something of this.
And I still believe I can…..but after a couple of years of holding onto it, I threw it out.
Hmmmm, do you think I should fish it out of the recycles?

Because I worked so hard on tidying up my room, I thought I will share my post on the Stamping Ground's "What's on your Workdesk, Wednesday"
So many great creative work areas on her blog today :)

I hope you all had a very Creative Wednesday :)

Tracy :)

Can you Believe I placed an on-line order?!?!?

Most of you know I am NOT an on-line shopper.
I like to touch, see in person…and yes, sometimes smell my products ;)
I like to shop in person, because when I see something I like, I don't have to wonder if it is in stock, I just pick it up in my hot little hands and purchase it.
My friend Caroline emailed me before Christmas, to tell me that Unity Stamps was having a big sale :)

I thought oh what the heck, I'll check them out.
I found some stamps here that I was looking for on our trips, but the store never had them.
The store shared the cards that they made with the stamps, but never reordered the stamps.
I was so so excited then I saw these stamps for sale on the Unity site, and even more excited to see that they had them in stock!!

I am so excited to start creating with these beauties :)
We need a crafty day Caroline :)

I have kept putting off organizing my craft room.
I love to organize, but I think I keep putting it off as I know I need to get rid of some stuff.
I have a bit of anxiety just thinking of it.
But let me give you an example of how I think.

Remember when I altered my month pages in my journal?
I had to cut these strips off with the months on the tabs.
I knew I probably wouldn't use them…probably ;)
But before I convinced myself to recycle them, I had to ask Ashely if she would use them.
Of course she didn't want them, so in the recycling bin they went.
Now if this much thought goes into getting rid of these, can you image me going through my whole room, lol.

I hope you wall had a Creative Tuesday :)

Tracy :)

New Washi Tape Storage :)

I will let you have a break from my journals and go onto my other obsession…Washi Tape!!

If you have been following my blog for any amount of time, then you know I really like Washi Tape or decorative tape.
I like it so much, that my collection keeps growing.
Growing so much so, that I have gone through 5 different container to accommodate them.
I have a few blog posts and a video that shares my growth.
Here is my first post with a video :) "Washi Storage with Video"
And another one "Yup, Another Washi post" I share a few uses, besides crafting, on this one.
Oh and I will throw in my video on how I make my washi tape thinner "Washi on a Diet"

Now onto todays post :)
This is my latest storage for my washi tape.
It is a  H=10 3/4xW=13.5xD=13  Sterilite 3 drawer container.
It is a bit bulky to carry around, but I am working on a solution for that ;)
I use to foam core board to separate the rows. The problem with that is that they would fall over when I moved it around.
Aslo when opening the drawers, I couldn't reach the back washi as the drawers don't come out without force.

I was thinking of using empty kitchen wrap containers to put the rows of washi in…but how long would that take to collect enough for my needs.
And here I thought I was a patient person, lol.
Well, look at what I found at the dollar store…they are perfect…well pretty much perfect ;)

I can fit 4 of these trays in one drawer.
Where I could fit 5 rows with the foam core board.
But with the foam core board I still couldn't reach the back washi tapes and they still got mixed up.
I picked up 3 of these trays yesterday to see if they would work.
Then picked up 9 more when I drove Kristy to work.
When I got home I got straight to work.
But then realized that I had more washi tape than trays…so I braved the -40c weather and picked up 4 more.

Here it is all nice and organized.
Oh about reaching the back trays…..I will just have to pull out the front tray and pull the others forward to reach the back one :)
I bet you noticed the trays of washi tape on the top of the drawer container….This container sits upon another drawer container just like this one, so I will just move these 4 into the top drawer of that container.
It is so much smoother to open the drawers now as tape doesn't get stick, and so much easier to see what I have :)
Ohhh this makes me so Happy :)

I think I should have been dusting instead of organizing my washi tape, as this is Luna playing with the dust particles in the sun beams, lol.
But this put a smile on mine and Heather's faces and organizing my washi tape was so much more fun than dusting :)

I hope you all had a very Creative Monday :)

Tracy :)

Creative Journal/Planner

I have shared with you how I am keeping my personal journal, with my "Fauxbonichi".
I have shared with you how I am keeping my home planner, with my "Day-Timer planner"
So today I thought I would share with you how I am keeping my Creative journal.
I used this same book last year, but it kind of took a backseat in my creative planning.
But when I look back to what I did do in here, I knew I wanted to add this to my planning set up for 2015.
If you take a good look, you can see I added tabs to the top for 2014 and also for 2015.

I used the 2015 Creative Calendar from Scrapbook & Cards Today.
I love this planner, as I had one last year as well.
Now how to combine both the calendar/planner pages into my planner.
I did this last year as well. If you want a closer look in how I did this, just click on the link here "My Creative Journal Altered".

Like I mentioned above, I just love the Scrapbook & Cards Today  planner and wanted to add it to my Creative planner.
Not only do I love the calendar, but I also love the blocks on the back of the pages…but I won't be showing that today, teehee.
Today I am showing you how I tweaked the Goals page up to suit my needs.

I wanted a page to record my Creative Goals for this year.
This page was perfect…well almost perfect ;)
The heading on the banners didn't suit my creative planning needs, so I had to alter them.

The prompts were:
Personal Goals
Things to do
Places to go

I was just going to use my label maker with the white tape to cover up the words.
Turns out, I used up the last of my white label tape on my other planners this weekend, teehee.
I went to my paper scraps file and found a pretty close match to the banners.

I then used my clear tape in my label maker and typed out my prompts.

They are:

Creative Goals

Monthly Challenges

New Techniques

I then started to fill in my Creative goals for 2015!!

I have been working in my planners and working on my goals in detail this weekend.
I have also worked on some time management, to better achieve these goals this year.
I will be sharing what and how I have been working towards them this week :)

Did you make goals this year?
If you did, did you organize your goals to make them more manageable so you can succeed with them?

I hope you all had a very Creative Sunday :)

Tracy :)

January Planner insert..dissected

Today I was getting my planner ready for the New Year.
I know a bit late to the party, but I didn't have time to get to them before the holidays.

If you remember from a previous post, I didn't like the monthly inserts that came with my new planner inserts, that I received for Christmas.
They were 1 month on 1 page.
I like 1 month on 2 pages.
The reasons I prefer 1 month on 2 pages, is I think they are more fun to decorate…..and I love to decorate my planner.
The second reason is, I have bold primary writing and need the space.

I thought I would just go with the flow and try 1 month on 1 page for this year.
After decorating it, I changed my mind, lol.
That didn't last long, did it, lol.
See how tight everything is, plus not too much room for adding my personal touch.

I found some inserts I liked and copied them out on my photo copier…I did 2 sets just in case I needed them for next year.
But they didn't work out how I thought they would, so I scratched that idea.
Good thing I didn't use them, as I can now return them :)

I received a full planner with inserts included, for Christmas…I will share that planner at a later date ;)
What I am going to use my new planner for, I won't be needing the inserts.
The inserts were dateless, besides the month header.
Because I wasn't going to use them in the new planner, I thought I would try them in Yearly planner.
I just needed to alter the left hand page.
I cut the header off, as I like the font in my 1 page month inserts more.
I then cut off the sides and a tad off of the bottom.
So I was left with just the calendar.

In this photo my 1 page month insert is on the bottom, and my left page (cut up) of my 2 page inserts is on the top.

Then I adhered the insert, that I cut to size, to the insert of the month on 1 page.
I didn't have to do anything to the right hand side of the 2 page month calendar.
Looks good so far…except there are no numbers on the blocks.

In other years I have added the number with my label maker :)
But this year I picked up a couple of Heidi Swapp monthly number rub-ons.
Thank you Heidi….I love these!!!
A tip for working with these is to cut the numbers in a strip so you are only working with one month of numbers.
Also pull back the backing sheet for only the number you are using, cause once the paper touches the rub-on part, it sticks….this includes sticking to your fingers ;)
Last tip for working with these, is to cut off the numbers you don't need. If a month only has 28 days, cut the last numbers off. Once you get going, you may just keep rubbing those numbers and not pay attention to stopping at 28 ;)

If you are wondering why I went though all of this trouble, instead of just using my new monthly inserts..I will tell you.
I like the colours of the tabs, I like the font in the header and I like the other side, where the month title page is shown.
Yes I am particular in what I want, lol.
And if I can make it happen, I will.

Now after all of that work, I got to the fun part of decorating it :)
I changed up how I am going to mark birthdays.
Last year I stamped cupcakes on a sticker sheet, coloured them up with markers and fussy cut them out.
One thing with my planner pages (I have had this planner for 3 years) that I don't like, is when my markers and inks bleed through…this really irks me.
Last year I used many sticky notes to solve the bleed through problem.
This year I will use chalk inks to stamp (as it doesn't bleed through) and just regular ink pens.
I would rather write in markers, but I will have to get over this ;)

Now if DayTimer would only make 1 month on 2 page inserts that are prettier, and use a better quality paper so bleed through is no longer an issue…my life would be perfect, teehee.

I hope you all had a very Creative Saturday.
I did, and I have the mess to prove it ;)
Do you keep a planner?
If you do, do you prefer 1 month on 1 page, or 1 month on 2 pages?

Tracy :)

Fauxbonichi pages

On yesterday's post, I shared with you my "Month Page" for my "Fauxbonichi Journal".
Today I will share my daily pages :)
I attached 2 pages together at the edges with washi tape.
I don't like marker bleed through, so this was my way of fixing this.
I then added a header.
On my header I wanted to add the day, the week and the month.
I was also hoping to add the weather and how many steps I take in a day.
I was worried I wouldn't have room to do that in this new Miquelrius journal, as it is much smaller than the Moleskine grid notebook I was using last year.
But I just put the week and month in the same block, and it all fit!!!

The dates are done with some stamp sets that I have.
I then added some washi tape to the top and bottom to decorate it up, because you can never have too much washi on a page, right ;)
The large blocked areas are going to be used for drawing, stamping, colouring, photos or just to add a piece of memorabilia that I pick up here and there.
The bottom long block will be used for something I am grateful for.
I have been adding something I am Grateful for, to my journals for many many years (like 10+). I used to add 3 things that I was grateful for, but now I am just documenting one. Not that I can't think of 3 things though :)

These pages are all filled in now, but it is my journal, so I won't be sharing my writings.
Most of my days are pretty boring, but I still want to keep them to myself.
I will do a month end video showing my pages, but it will be for showing what I have done or put in the art/decorative blocks.
If you want to see how my last journal looked all filled in, I shared that on my "Fauxbonichi Journal" post.

Are you keeping a journal/diary this year?
Do you or did you ever keep a diary/journal?
I would love to know :)

Hope you all had a very Creative Friday :)
I keep thinking it is Sunday today, I know my Honey is happy it's not, lol

Tracy :)

Fauxbonichi: New month New Year :)

Remember my "Fauxbonichi" from the other day?
I am finished with that journal and started my new one.
I have seen so many using this grid journal made by Miquelrius from Barns and Noble.
I picked 2 up on our last trip.

Well today being the first of the month, I got to work on mine.
Believe me when I tell you how much I was over thinking this, lol.
This book has 300 pages (yes I counted them), so that means 600 sides.
But I like to washi tape 2 pages together, so that equals 150 pages, or 300 sides.
Which also means not enough for the full year…plus my monthly calendar pages.
I really don't need a calendar page…but I want one, teehee.
So after hours of over-thinking and whining to my friends, I think I may have figured it out :)
I am going to adhere my pages together with the washi tape, but for some months I will put pattern paper on one side (as I don't really care for bleed through and don't like to worry about which markers I can use) I will also add washi tape to the edges of those pages so they all look cohesive from the edge.

Now that wasn't my only problem…
I had to figure out the spacing for the blocks, as this is a different size than my Moleskine journal.
After I was happy with the spacing of the blocks and added my (overpriced) week day stickers, I grabbed a calendar to get the numbers on the blocks correctly.
Well look at this….Yup, I got distracted and just started add the Heidi Swapp rub-on numbers.
Now these suckers are here to stay.
I tried to scrape them off with the tip of my scissors…nope they are stuck good.
But how to fix them?

There is a blank page in the front of this book.
I added some personal information, so if anyone finds this in 200 years they will know who's journal this was ;)
On the back side of that page I added some pattern paper and this quote I printed up.
I love this statement.
It had 2014 for the year, but I just covered it up and used my label maker to write out this year :)

Now lets take a closer look at these over-priced stickers I purchased at Typo.
I think they do work perfectly for this space though ;)

I just used my stamps for the Date at the top.
See how I corrected my rub-on error.
I used another set of rub-ons and adhered them to some snowflakes on some pattern paper.
I then punched out the snowflakes with my Martha Stewart snowflake corner punch.
I really like how they look :)
A mistake isn't always a mistake, it is just a way to be more creative ;)

I have done a bit more stamping on my days, but I will share that on a video come month end.
I will also add my goals to the left of the page :)

Are you keeping a journal this year?
I have really enjoyed writing in my Fauxbonichi these last 2 months.

I hope you all had a very Creative 1st day of the year :)
I did, I have all my supplies scattered around me and on the couch to prove it, teehee.

Tracy :)