The Card Castle Clean-out Sale

UPDATE: All the boxes are sold and shipped! Thanks so much to all who participated. 

I finally took a minute to take pictures and tape up the boxes.  Remember when I started this project a couple of weeks ago.  My dear friend Gina packed the boxes for me as she pried my wonderful (unused) goodies out of my hands.  I really needed to purge because my space was no longer a place I could feel comfortable and create. tooo much clutter. --tooo, tooo much stuff.  I got rid of a lot. And it feels like it to me. Some of those who came in the room expecting it to be empty after seeing the piles of boxes outside the door were disappointed. My daughter Julie said, "Mom, when you have a lot lot, and you get rid of a lot, you still have a lot." That seriously cracked me up! :) I had the stuff packed in. Have you ever seen me pack the trunk of the car with all the stuff seven people can and want to carry? or load the dishwasher after a big dinner?  It's a gift I have. :) A gift and a curse.  If I have space to put it away, whether or not I will ever use it again, I'll just put it away.

  Unfortunately, I don't use the stuff I don't see.  And then it was organized, except I got to a point where all the stuff that didn't fit in its designated space.  That stuff was on the floor or sitting on another surface. That's when I knew it had to be done. As hard as it is to let go of stuff you've spent hard earned money on, it had to be done.

But thanks to Gina (and a little help from Jillana and Emmaleigh on the sorting side, and MJ on the taping and mailing side.) I did it.

It's done. The boxes are being taped as I type.

If you like grab bags, this is for you. You have to be an adventurous bargain hunter.  I promise you at this price, there is no way you will be disappointed, but if you are, send me an email. I let Gina pack the boxes and she tried to evenly distribute each box with all styles of stamps.  Some of the boxes have complete sets of stamps. I know for sure that two of them have those big 30 piece stamp sets from CTMH/DOTS. Most of the "stamps only" boxes even have an alphabet set. 

They are going to sold as is. I know me, I couldn't go back and look through them or I'd start getting ideas and these boxes would not ever be mailed. The "card making misc" boxes have a variety of envelopes, papers, punches, ribbons, embossing powers, paints, chalks, ink, buttons, decorative edge scissors, and most have stamps too--- you name it is in these boxes.

I'm asking $25.00 per box. This includes the 

Medium Flat Rate Box U.S. Priority Mail Postage of $10.70... since they are already boxed up, I guess that means I can only ship to U.S. addresses. 

I'm sorry, because I waited until the last week I'm here I can only take Paypal payments. If I receive your payment before 3 pm on any day between now and Friday, I will ship out that day. After 3 pm, it goes out the next day.  After Friday at 3pm, I won't be selling anymore until after I've moved in to my new house... whenever that will be. 

P.S. If you're local and you can pick it up, deduct the shipping charge. :) 

I numbered the boxes so if you have a favorite number, you can specify and I will oblige you on a first come first served basis. Specify whether you want STAMPS only (1 to 10) or CardMaking Supplies (1 to 13).

Don't leave your order as a comment here.  Email me first at thecardcastle@yahoo.com first before sending payment so that I can confirm availability. If you have any questions be sure to ask. Just don't tell Gina, that I'm selling them so cheap.

I'll post again later with a card and the latest news... TTYL Choosing Joy! Jacki.

The Card Castle Re-Do/ Re-duce/ Rearrange

I'm cleaning, and purging, and really purging....  Have plenty of before pictures, and I can't wait to take after pictures. The "in-progress" pictures here make the room look messy, but you are really seeing is empty drawers were stuff that I didn't use was kept.  I also moved some tools like the Bind-it-All and the Rollabind that I didn't use because they were not very accessible.

Here are my helpers... two of them quit after on sorting job.  The other one... the one texting while she sorts paper is my rescuer.  I was having a hard time making decisions and letting go, but she is more than motivating me.  I would say she is actually a little mean, but she's doing what I asked her to do.  She is imitating the dude on Clean Sweep (my favorite). 
The last picture is the stuff that is leaving here so far. Gina has packed up TEN flat rate boxes of misc. embellishments.  We are going through the paper and stamps today after a brief trip out for coffee... 
I can't wait to finish my room and get started on my scrapbook about me!! (That sounds a little self centered doesn't it?)
Have a blessed day!

Organizing The Card Castle: Part 1

Here's what I did to make my craft space work for me. What works for me might now work for you, but if you are thinking about organizing a space dedicated to crafting, here are some quick tips to remember~

• Knowing yourself is the key. Put things in places that make sense to you.
• Be willing to make changes when necessary.
• Location, Location, Location! If you have to hunt for it, you won't use it!

We've moved a few times over the last few years as I've mentioned before. Moving, especially relocating is unsettling. My desire is always to get set up and comfortable as soon as possible to speed up the whole transition-- for all of us. One of the things that make me comfortable is knowing where our things are and having them easy to get to (my biggest pet peeve is wasting time). I am a very organized person but I'm not disciplined (I'm working on it). I learned from all this moving that planning ahead is a time saver. Before the moving truck arrives, I know exactly where every bowl and cup is going to go in my kitchen. I look around the empty kitchen and figure out how much space I have and what will work better in which cabinet. When the boxes are all over the place, I don't have all those decisions to make. It really does make it all go easier. Actually this last time I had the teenagers unpack the kitchen while I was on a college visit. Because I'd already made all the decisions ahead of time, I could tell them exactly where to put things over the phone. For instance, I keep the cups in the closest cabinet to the refrigerator. The plates are usually near the dishwasher and the pots are near the stove. Things that are alike are together and within reach of where I use them. My baking utensil are in the drawers below the mixing bowls. Makes sense, right? But you didn't come here to find out about how I organized my kitchen did you?

I brought up the kitchen because I applied the same principals to my craft space. I have modular and movable storage pieces instead of built ins because we've moved a lot. ( I put that in past tense hoping to ward off any evil moving spirits) lol.

Designate a Work Space

~ The Desk ( Tools and Embellishments)

I started in a corner of our bedroom 3 houses ago. I now have a whole room to myself in the basement.
I began to get more crafting done once I had a designated space. Even if you start out with a fold up table and a few containers what I learned from my personal experience is that the basic thing to remember is accessibility. If you can't get to it quickly and easily, you won't use it, often.

This same desk is still a part of my work space but as you can see, I've added a lot to it since 1999. LOL.

I stamp standing up, so I can take advantage of height. I use the drawer storage units made by Iris (aka Iris carts). What I like about them is they can be taken apart and reconfigured to suit my needs. I didn't buy them all at once, but I've been adding to them over the years as my needs change.

I stacked the units on either side of my desk. I have the equivalent of two carts (the three deep draw carts) plus one drawer on each side. Then I went to Lowes and for less than $10 I was able to purchase a piece of wood board ( 12 inches by 72 inches) in the section where they sell shelving. To dress up that piece, I asked my builder ( who happened to live 2 doors down with all his tools) to use his router and make the edge pretty for me. It barely took him two minutes. I sanded and stained, and polyurethane'd it.

Most of my frequently used items are within arm's reach while I stamp. On the bridge above, I keep markers, color pencils, adhesives including glue dots and pop dots, small scissors, post it notes for masking, blank cards, glitter, eyelet setter... you get the picture.

On the left "tower" I have envelopes, embellishments, including buttons and brads and 3d stickers etc.. I keep the extra Xyron and other adhesives in the side too. Just to the left of the left tower is where I keep my punches.

I prefer to keep my embellishments in drawers because I don't have any more shelf or table space, but I want to show you a beautiful alternative. My friend Dawn, designed this hanging/clipping system. It sits on the corner of her work space. See Dawn's embellishment storage .

The right tower has become a life saver. I keep scrap paper in the smaller sized drawers sorted by color. Whenever I need say a purple piece of card stock, I check there first. When it's time to clean up (theoretically) I open all the scrap drawers at once like steps (with the lowest drawer opened all the way and the next one up a little less etc). I can clean off my desk very quickly that way (theoretically). Next to it, you can see it a little in this picture is where I keep my ribbon, also sorted by color and also in smaller drawers.

Under the desk and still within reach, I keep embossing powers, cutting tools (like Coluzzle) and paper trimmers with accessories, paints, chalks, bigger adhesives ( like the Xyron) and glues.

Other embellishments like flowers are stored in jars on the other side of the room. They are not as practical, but they make the room pretty. The light bulb shaped jars are actually salt and pepper shakers . I sealed up the holes on top and I use them to store micro beads and similar embellishments.

I'm going to do paper and stamps in part two to follow.

Organizing The Card Castle: Part 2

Paper
For the past couple of years, I've been storing 12 x 12 paper in the Crop In Style paper trays on my table top. I used to store this paper in 12 x 12 file boxes and an hanging file cart until my collection out grew the space. You'll see that the cart has been re-purposed in a few minutes. The paper is sorted by color with a very few exceptions. When I purchase a new paper collection, I keep that separate for a while. Some of the Stampin' Up collections as well as the Basic Grey and Chatter Box were kept under the table in these drawers. I'm actually going thru and re-sorting those this week into the color section. Another exception is themed paper or multicolor paper. If a paper has too many colors to correctly choose one, I have a tray designated "Multi". I also have a few themed trays. There is one for holidays and another for baby etc.. I don't buy a lot of themed paper anymore so I don't need a lot of space for those. The 8 1/2 x 11 textured card stock is in file drawers that you see next to the table and you'll see the other larger file cabinet next to the Big Shot's station. It holds regular solid color card stock, specialty papers like vellum and glossy .

Stamps
As we transition from paper to stamps, let me show you something that used to hold paper and now is the home for my clear stamps and large punches. You can see in the smaller picture below was in a former life. There in the closet floor? Yup, it is a hanging file folder cart.

It was purchased at an office supply store and adjusted by me to fit the 12 x 12 hanging folders. It hadn't held those folders in two year and was bound for the trash pile when one day I saw on a blog or a gallery that someone was using a larger shelf like this to hold her punches. I rescued it and made it work for me. I went back to Lowes to the shelving isle of the lumber section. I bought one pine board and had them cut it down into two that would fit on this cart. Another note about this section of Lowes. They have stain grade and paint grade boards. Paint grade is a lot cheaper and that is what I usually buy for my craft space. Even for the bridge over my desk in part one, I bought the best paint grade one I could find and stained it.
And while I'm talking about shelving, notice the white 'bridge' I have above the paper table.

The two small shelving units were purchased in Target on clearance. The White shelving material was purchased that way at Lowes too. I went in there with the intention of buying and unfinished board to paint white. I was so excited when I found this. I'm pretty sure it was even less expensive than the pine boards. I love a good hardware/home improvement store.

So now this cart holds my larger lever type punches on top and basket on the shelves below. I keep clear stamp sets together and in clear CD cases in the baskets. So far, I have one basket full and two partials. One of the baskets on the bottom holds Nestabilities. So that means I have room for my collection to expand-- at least two more baskets worth.

Other than the clear unmounted stamps, I have wood mounted stamps. They are sorted by theme or category but not sets. Yes, even the Stampin Up sets with a very few exceptions.

This is my tulips drawer... well one of them anyway.

As for the other supplies, I keep them close to where I use them or easy to get to.

That's all I have for you unless you have any specific questions. If you do, go ahead and leave a comment or send me an email.

World Card Making Day at The Card Castle

I should have known better than to declare, here in public, that I was going to do something...

It's almost 6 in the evening and I'm just getting started with the actual card making. I FINISHED the cleaning and organizing (finally, yippee!!!) that I couldn't seem to finish before. Every time I'd start, I'd find something hidden or buried under a pile that I'd previously started and that would inspire creativity. Before I could stop myself, I'd find my self making cards and not cleaning. Today I was determined to finish. After all, I couldn't have the video camera in here with the mess. Still pictures is entirely different. I don't think I've ever actually had it totally finished before, because I remember moving stuff from one side of the room to the other for the pictures. Anyway, I digress. I also spent time this afternoon getting my hair straightened.

And the other reason I didn't get started earlier was I didn't want to make the videotape alone. It felt weird talking to myself. With this beautiful weather we are having, it's not hard to see why The Boy would choose going outside over staying in and making cards with his mom. The teenager did what teenagers do. She took a nap after her practice. She was up late last night and literally slept all afternoon. I'm going to call them and see if they are ready to play. I'm still hoping for company, but at this point, I'll work without them if necessary. Here are a few pictures while I wait for my artists to join me. You know, I should make this world card making week since my room is finally cleaned up. I can finally do those tutorials since the space is organized. In the meantime, I'm going to show you a couple of pictures of the cleanness and then get back to the creating. So without further ado, here is The Card Castle, October 2008

The first picture (above) is what you see as you enter the room.