An Organizational Notebook

I have reached the place in my cardmaking where I've accumulated enough supplies in certain areas that it is helpful to have a record of what I have so I don't purchase more of the same. Unfortunately, I didn't have this little notebook with me last night when we were at K-Mart and I bought a whole other set of Bic Mark-It markers identical to the ones I already have. Bummer! I thought I was getting some new colors. On the bright side, I have replacements ready to hand now if the ones I've been using run out.

So anyway, besides the stamp image index that I mentioned in my previous post, where I've stamped images of each stamp I have and sorted them into categories in a 3-ring binder, I decided it would be helpful to have a purse-sized notebook I could carry with me that would help me remember which inks, punches, etc I already own. I have a couple of these handy-dandy index card notebooks on hand and thought it would make a nice, sturdy notebook for my purposes. I had thought to decorate it and make it all pretty like you see on papercrafting blogs where people doll up boring journals, but I decided against that idea after considering what carrying it in my purse would do to all the things I might adhere to the cover. So it is going to stay boring.

Inside, I have sections for inks, punches, glitter glue, embossing powders, and markers, so far. Here are some samples of my pages...

First, a page showing some of my pigment inks by name and color swatch. I used cotton swabs to "stamp" the color swatches. I also put a dot of the ink color on the back of the VersaColor pads, so I can see easily what color the ink pad is. I store my ink pads upside down and even though the VersaColor pads have their color name printed on the bottom, it's nice to see what the color looks like, too.

Next up is a page from my punches section, showing samples from each punch, along with its name.

Here's a page from my glitter glue section, with the name of the glitter and a sample of it. I had to be VERY careful when I did this page.

Lastly, is a page from my new marker section, showing names and color swatches of my Bic Mark-It pens. Now, as long as I remember to carry this notebook with me, I won't be fooled into buying more Bics that I already own.

So there you have it...another organizational tool. As I think of other items to keep track of, I'll add a section for them to my little notebook. Oh yes, one other tip...the section tabs are made from labels that I rescued from the trash at my previous place of employment. I cut them in half to use them as tabs. They work really good for this! Thankfully, I have a nice stack of these labels saved. Sometime I might try stamping on them and using them on a card, especially the white ones. Just another frugal tip for how to make your own stickers or file tabs.

Til my next post, happy cardmaking! Take care and may the grace of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah be with you!