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Post by Linda on Mar 30, 2025 16:23:30 GMT
How have you found these challenges? What's your biggest takeaway/lesson learned? Biggest success story? Favorite challenge/category? Remaining organization frustration/challenge? Should I plan to do this again in Q1 26? I always like the organising challenges even when I don't follow them to a tee. I would love to see them again in 2026 Takeaway/lesson learnt? micro organising isn't for me. I'm using more of my supplies when I store them in broader categories - smaller embellishments by colour rather then subdivided into die cuts, stickers, eyelets, brads, etc...' dies/stamps/embossing folders/stencils by shape or design groupings rather than all embossing folders together and all dies together and so on; sentiments together rather than with the individual sets... My other takeaway is that I have enough (probably more than enough) and I'm noticing that it's harder to hit buy on shopping carts because of that. Shakti - I've never really bought much Pinkfresh - just two warehouse boxes - I love the embellishments and alphas but find the papers hard to use (colour/design as well as the fact they don't always cut down well). I haven't tried their cardmaking supplies mostly because they looked very floral and that's really not my thing.
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Post by wordfish on Mar 30, 2025 16:48:14 GMT
It's also interesting that you can shed the inventory stuff if you want, which to me sounded kind of dreadful though I know others really benefit from it. I'm not entirely sure what you mean...that I don't really need my online inventory, even though it makes me happy? Or that I seem to be strong-willed about culling durable stuff like stamps and dies? That you don't really need it. That way if you don't want to keep up with it or get behind, it's not a problem for you. But you are strong-willed about getting rid of stuff, which is also pretty awesome. I've been considering whether I want to use something a lot and then get rid of it as a general rule. Thinking about stamps/dies more than anything. For example, I have used the C R A P out of some stamps for Christmas cards. Am I realistically ever going to use them again? Probably not. So far I've kept all of those types of things but I'm sort of pondering whether I should move them along every so often. Then I think, "well, there are other ways to use the same stamps and they would look totally different." I have a good collection of stamps and a reasonable amount of dies, so it's not an issue so far. Just sort of pondering. |
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Shakti
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Post by Shakti on Mar 30, 2025 17:07:30 GMT
Then I think, "well, there are other ways to use the same stamps and they would look totally different. That right there is one of the things that bothers me about Pinkfresh -- those all-in-one stamps and dies are supposed to be easier to use because you only have to line your die up once, but they are so huge that I find it almost impossible to not distort the stamp at all when laying it on the stamping platform and then it just doesn't line up right to cut it. And if you want to use multiples of part of an image (which is often multiple images really, so a single image) and not the rest, it's virtually impossible without wasting a ton card stock. But then their frame dies are in multiple pieces that all have to be lined up identically to layer up a frame, which I can never do. And I guess it's so they're more flexible...but why should the frame dies be more flexible than the image bundles? Or maybe it's just so that the frames are every bit as fiddly and difficult to use? But how do I really feel -- yikes! Last fall I think I took Justine Hovey's Christmas card class and also the Online Card Classes one featuring Kristina Werner's collection for Concord and 9th. Both emphasized versatile elements you could mix and match in different ways to keep things fresh. I guess it was a big influence. |
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Post by wordfish on Mar 30, 2025 18:03:08 GMT
Then I think, "well, there are other ways to use the same stamps and they would look totally different. That right there is one of the things that bothers me about Pinkfresh -- those all-in-one stamps and dies are supposed to be easier to use because you only have to line your die up once, but they are so huge that I find it almost impossible to not distort the stamp at all when laying in on the stamping platform and then it just doesn't line up right to cut it. And if you want to use multiples of part of an image (which is often multiple images really, so a single image) and not the rest, it's virtually impossible without wasting a ton card stock. But then their frame dies are in multiple pieces that all have to be lined up identically to layer up a frame, which I can never do. And I guess it's so they're more flexible...but why should the frame dies be more flexible than the image bundles? Or maybe it's just so that the frames are every bit as fiddly and difficult to use? But how do I really feel -- yikes! Last fall I think I took Justine Hovey's Christmas card class and also the Online Card Classes one featuring Kristina Werner's collection for Concord and 9th. Both emphasized versatile elements you could mix and match in different ways to keep things fresh. I guess it was a big influence. This is very interesting to me. What are the types/manufacturers that you prefer? I'm assuming the Kristina Werner stuff for Concord and 9th. For me, I like looking at things people make with Lawn Fawn, for example, and I do have several sets that appealed to me. But as a general rule, it's too cutesy and fiddly for me--though as I mentioned, I love looking at what others create with it and think their creations are adorable. |
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Shakti
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Post by Shakti on Mar 30, 2025 21:09:54 GMT
My irrational love for Hero Arts has been documented all over the place. I do like Concord & 9th, Honeybee, some Gina K, and some Altenew.
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Shakti
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Post by Shakti on Mar 30, 2025 21:13:59 GMT
I have another question for the group. This idea came together very much at the last minute or probably even later. I know it would have been better to at least get the monthly bonus categories onto the quarterly challenge list so that nobody spent January on embellishments only to find they were the bonus for March or whatever. But I just didn't come up with the idea early enough to be that organized.
But does anybody have ideas for other bonus categories I missed this year or other challenges? If I start jotting suggestions down in Simple Note now, I won't be panicking on New Year's Day 2026! Well, not about this anyway....
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Post by wordfish on Mar 30, 2025 23:59:59 GMT
My irrational love for Hero Arts has been documented all over the place. I do like Concord & 9th, Honeybee, some Gina K, and some Altenew. I like Honeybee, too. Altenew is very exotic to me. I now own a tiny bit of it. I think I have the turny wreath stencil from Gina K and a couple of C&9 stamp sets. I have another question for the group. This idea came together very much at the last minute or probably even later. I know it would have been better to at least get the monthly bonus categories onto the quarterly challenge list so that nobody spent January on embellishments only to find they were the bonus for March or whatever. But I just didn't come up with the idea early enough to be that organized. But does anybody have ideas for other bonus categories I missed this year or other challenges? If I start jotting suggestions down in Simple Note now, I won't be panicking on New Year's Day 2026! Well, not about this anyway.... Laying out the bonus categories ahead of time is a great plan I would say a general tidy at the start would be good. Or you could put a general tidy for each month as one of the challenges. Kits would be good. Most people have kits. Or if they don't have kits, they probably have collections. What about a "put your layouts/cards away if you haven't?" I dunno, maybe that's too basic. Maybe a "go through your stuff and toss all the dried-up adhesive and wet media?" I'll keep thinking about it. I'm trying to gauge where I'll be in this odyssey next January.  |
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Post by Linda on Mar 31, 2025 0:36:10 GMT
I would say a general tidy at the start would be good. Or you could put a general tidy for each month as one of the challenges. I would agree with that - after holiday cards and December Dailies and gifts of new supplies - most will need to give the scrap space some TLC at the beginning of the year. |
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Post by dewryce on Apr 1, 2025 14:47:55 GMT
grammadee That must feel so nice to 1) be able to shut it all away and 2) do so knowing it’s organized! AussieMeg That looks so helpful! I will want to implement it when I start using my silhouette and collecting and organizing a lot of files. Start how I intend to continue! It's a bit less intense than previous summits - just one video/day with a 10 minutes homework challenge. Since my goal with signing up was to give me a push to tweak some organisation, that's working for me. But it's very much a declutter, sort, organise overview rather than specific tips and ideas. That sounds like a definite improvement; had I known, I might have signed up. I'm considering intermingling dies/stamps/embossing folders. I did this last year and haven't looked back. I sorted by "function" rather than product type -- focal images (combination of stamps, dies, stencils, a few embossing folders), backgrounds (embossing folders, cover dies, background stamps (including turnarounds), sentiments (stamps & dies), basic shapes/frames (all dies). The only theme/category I store separately is Christmas and only the Christmas that can't possibly be anything else. Trees, winter critters, greenery, snowflakes, etc are just in with the regular images. I missed the summit but I think I would have preferred some specific tips, love it when I’m watching a video and someone shows some specific idea that I’d never considered and it’s a lightbulb moment for me! linda , like Shakti I switched to sorting by type/function rather than type of product and I love it. In the middle of a tweak actually because I’m breaking it up further. For example, the mixed stamp/diecut sets that contain different types of sentiments. Now I’m putting all Birthday product together, stamps/dies/embossing. They’re all stored the same way so it works well for me. That’s a project I need to add to my list because I forgot I started it and then set it aside last year. Before I invest in better storage - I'm going to live with this for a bit and see how I like it. Yes, such a great idea! Figure out what tweaks you want and the organization product yo get will work even better for you! One word of advice for everyone making changes. Start crafting as soon as the changes are made! I just spent 15 minutes looking for my Scrappin Easel, it’s not small, my stash isn’t large compared to many, and my space is neat and organized! The issue was that it has had a specific home for over a dozen years and I changed some things up last year and haven’t crafted much since. Completely forgot I moved it to a new horizontal storage piece on my desk and it was blocked by something inline to be repaired. In not accessing it from its new spot it never cemented it in my memory. Sort of like not using new stuff when you purchase it, you file it where it goes and you forget all about it. I forget where I saw the suggestion for a bin for new things, but it’s brilliant!
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Post by Linda on Apr 1, 2025 14:53:26 GMT
I forget where I saw the suggestion for a bin for new things, but it’s brilliant! pretty sure Shakti has a new things bin |
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Post by dewryce on Apr 1, 2025 14:57:29 GMT
I have another question for the group. This idea came together very much at the last minute or probably even later. I know it would have been better to at least get the monthly bonus categories onto the quarterly challenge list so that nobody spent January on embellishments only to find they were the bonus for March or whatever. But I just didn't come up with the idea early enough to be that organized. But does anybody have ideas for other bonus categories I missed this year or other challenges? If I start jotting suggestions down in Simple Note now, I won't be panicking on New Year's Day 2026! Well, not about this anyway.... Laying out the bonus categories ahead of time is a great plan I would say a general tidy at the start would be good. Or you could put a general tidy for each month as one of the challenges. Kits would be good. Most people have kits. Or if they don't have kits, they probably have collections. What about a "put your layouts/cards away if you haven't?" I dunno, maybe that's too basic. Maybe a "go through your stuff and toss all the dried-up adhesive and wet media?" I'll keep thinking about it. I'm trying to gauge where I'll be in this odyssey next January. I love the idea of a general tidy up to start the challenge so that we can get an idea of what needs be worked on, have everything gathered together at least so we are ready to hit the ground running. Maybe even the end of December start ramping up to it. I think a lot of people have some time off work then and are motivated for projects for the new year but aren’t quite over the holiday and need some non-thinking activity to do to get their feet wet. Also, at the end of each month a challenge to go back over previous areas that have been completed. Neaten up, note what worked and what didn’t. Maybe make tweaks so it works even better. Shakti I’ll go back and see what’s been listed to see if anything missing stands out! |
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Post by Shakti on Apr 1, 2025 16:07:53 GMT
I don't think of the post-December general tidy because my craft room is also my home office AND guest room, so my mother stays in it over the holiday. You better believe it's tidy! Shakti I’ll go back and see what’s been listed to see if anything missing stands out! Each month's challenge post is linked in the first post. |
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Post by Shakti on Apr 1, 2025 16:12:27 GMT
I forget where I saw the suggestion for a bin for new things, but it’s brilliant! pretty sure Shakti has a new things bin I have a bin for new things and at some point I started putting things from event bundles in it after the event. I decided making a card in class was not the same as choosing to use something because it's my style or I enjoy using it. Some things that made it into the destash pile during Q1 were event items that had languished for a year or so. |
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Post by dewryce on Apr 2, 2025 5:27:16 GMT
pretty sure Shakti has a new things bin I have a bin for new things and at some point I started putting things from event bundles in it after the event. I decided making a card in class was not the same as choosing to use something because it's my style or I enjoy using it. Some things that made it into the destash pile during Q1 were event items that had languished for a year or so.So you think I should get rid of some layouts I didn’t complete from classes at GASC around 2003?  |
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Post by Shakti on Apr 2, 2025 10:06:07 GMT
So you think I should get rid of some layouts I didn’t complete from classes at GASC around 2003? Am I?! I'm not sure how to answer this question.... In the instance I was speaking about, I did finish the event class project and it was the durable goods used for it that I destashed when I hadn't used them again a year later. But I think this is a difference between scrapbooking and cardmaking. I have taken one scrapbooking class recently and there aren't any of those durable goods -- the kit was all book, papers, embellishments. Another difference is that if I finish the card and hate it, I can donate it. If you completely finish a layout and hate it, it has your photos on it, so you have to remove them and re-scrap them. Totally different. So is this a layout you haven't completed because you hate it? Because you don't have photos you think work with it? Is it not your style or just very dated-looking? All of the above? None of the above but you just turn away from it because it makes you feel bad because it's languished so long? I guess I'm saying that whether you should grit it out and finish it or toss/donate/recycle it (that is to say finish scrapping it or scrap it, haha) depends entirely on an honest assessment of why it's still there unfinished. I will say I now just don't even start a project within an event/class that I don't like enough. Leaving things unfinished feels much worse to me than simply not starting, making that intent clear and overt from the jump. |
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Post by dewryce on Apr 2, 2025 10:54:39 GMT
So you think I should get rid of some layouts I didn’t complete from classes at GASC around 2003? Am I?! I'm not sure how to answer this question.... In the instance I was speaking about, I did finish the event class project and it was the durable goods used for it that I destashed when I hadn't used them again a year later. But I think this is a difference between scrapbooking and cardmaking. I have taken one scrapbooking class recently and there aren't any of those durable goods -- the kit was all book, papers, embellishments. Another difference is that if I finish the card and hate it, I can donate it. If you completely finish a layout and hate it, it has your photos on it, so you have to remove them and re-scrap them. Totally different. So is this a layout you haven't completed because you hate it? Because you don't have photos you think work with it? Is it not your style or just very dated-looking? All of the above? None of the above but you just turn away from it because it makes you feel bad because it's languished so long? I guess I'm saying that whether you should grit it out and finish it or toss/donate/recycle it (that is to say finish scrapping it or scrap it, haha) depends entirely on an honest assessment of why it's still there unfinished. I will say I now just don't even start a project within an event/class that I don't like enough. Leaving things unfinished feels much worse to me than simply not starting, making that intent clear and overt from the jump. I do have some layouts started that I never finished, but that is par for the course for me. Mostly they need journaling so they’re languishing in that binder. I was referring to some classes I couldn’t attend last minute so my MIL picked up the packets for me. I have gone through to make sure I still really like them, have donated those I don’t. But, it’s been a while since I looked at them so I should do that. And keep an eye out for those I want to break down for the product rather than complete the layout design as is. But really I was just impressed that you had things in your destash pile so quickly…and making fun of myself for how old some of my own class packets have been just sitting around  . |
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Shakti
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Post by Shakti on Apr 2, 2025 15:10:45 GMT
But really I was just impressed that you had things in your destash pile so quickly…and making fun of myself for how old some of my own class packets have been just sitting around I'm not sure that I consider 6 to 18 months after the event to be "so quickly" but thanks. Now do you want to ask me about scrapbooking projects rather than cardmaking supplies? |
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Post by dewryce on Apr 2, 2025 15:34:50 GMT
But really I was just impressed that you had things in your destash pile so quickly…and making fun of myself for how old some of my own class packets have been just sitting around I'm not sure that I consider 6 to 18 months after the event to be "so quickly" but thanks. Now do you want to ask me about scrapbooking projects rather than cardmaking supplies? To be fair, 6 to 18 months is better than 252 months  . But these are from scrapbook classes, not card classes. I’ll let that make me feel a bit better! Will Q2 be in a separate thread? |
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Shakti
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Post by Shakti on Apr 2, 2025 19:30:17 GMT
I actually planned this to be a Q1 thing only. I'll be back next January. Now if someone else wanted to host something similar sooner, I wouldn't stop them. Or if someone wants to add one-off organization challenges to this quarter's challenge list, things they didn't get to this quarter....
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Post by joblackford on Apr 2, 2025 20:15:57 GMT
I actually planned this to be a Q1 thing only. I'll be back next January. Now if someone else wanted to host something similar sooner, I wouldn't stop them. Or if someone wants to add one-off organization challenges to this quarter's challenge list, things they didn't get to this quarter.... I can come up with something for Q2  It might just be an organizing chat thread, but I’m happy to do it. |
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Post by Shakti on Apr 2, 2025 21:12:30 GMT
For the record, I have at least three scrapbooks in some partial state of completion from 20+ years ago. I pulled out anything I could use for card making two or three years ago but the scrapbooks are still waiting, hoping that I will get brave and pick them back up. They are tucked away in the dresser in my fully fledged/launched off-spring's former bedroom.
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Post by dewryce on Apr 2, 2025 21:25:49 GMT
For the record, I have at least three scrapbooks in some partial state of completion from 20+ years ago. I pulled out anything I could use for card making two or three years ago but the scrapbooks are still waiting, hoping that I will get brave and pick them back up. They are tucked away in the dresser in my fully fledged/launched off-spring's forner bedroom. That makes me feel so much better! I have several d-ring albums with layouts in various states of completion like waiting for journaling, waiting for photo reprints, need product, and irritating me and don’t know where to go from here. Plus lots of loose ones filed by date. I look through them occasionally and enjoy them, but I should probably get on that |
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Post by Linda on Apr 2, 2025 23:04:31 GMT
I have completed scrapbooks but also many in various stages of progress I think that’s super common dewryce |
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Post by cbscrapper on Apr 3, 2025 3:49:00 GMT
I have a bin for new things and at some point I started putting things from event bundles in it after the event. I decided making a card in class was not the same as choosing to use something because it's my style or I enjoy using it. Some things that made it into the destash pile during Q1 were event items that had languished for a year or so.So you think I should get rid of some layouts I didn’t complete from classes at GASC around 2003? 😂 I have so many of those from conventions. Never got around to putting photos on them. You’re not alone! |
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. But these are from scrapbook classes, not card classes. I’ll let that make me feel a bit better!
It might just be an organizing chat thread, but I’m happy to do it.