23. March 2008 by Kathy.

I do occasionally come up with some good organizational techniques.  (I just need to get them all at the same time and with time to implement them.)

So - controlling beads and keeping the space down - here is one of my techniques:

These were coca cola trays that I spray painted a neutral silver.  Then I used the watchman’s storage cases to separate the crystals.  And how do they stay there?  Well I helped them - I glued a magnet on the back of each of the containers (oh - BEFORE putting in the crystals - those lids don’t always hold!).

I can stack the trays on top of each other.  Easy to carry and easy to see at a glance what I have.

So then controlling and separating my stones from my beads is another problem.  Here is how I store those.  Of note - I usually have the drawers closed but I wanted you to see they really are full of stones.

My sorting approach on these - by color.  I just could not come up with another method to sort by.  So drawers have sophisticated titles as - Pink, blue, green, black - oh I have two called pearls…so I do have different colors in those drawers.  The sign turned sideways?  Well its a mix of two colors, lol. 

This is a CD holder that looks like the old file card systems in libraries.  Fairly shallow drawers - maybe 4 inches?

I have one other way of storing beads but that will wait for another day…

Posted in jewelry, storage | 2 Comments »

23. March 2008 by Kathy.

I am lucky to have a friend who runs www.ribbonstore.com that lives close by.  First off, Carole is a FOUNTAIN of information and knowledge.  Just walking through her “store” is enough to inspire anyone.  She has ideas planted throughout to show you what you can do with the ribbon.  And some of the ribbon - oh to die for.  Oh heck, ALL OF THE RIBBON is to die for, lol.

Do you see - Carole is always checking ribbon for “pull” capability.  Its amazing how many you can pull and it gathers itself!  Aren’t those great ribbons too?  I love ribbons that are gradations, give any project great movement.

Of course I shot these photos a long time ago - Carole has since rearranged the store since she has acquired some new antique store cabinets.  (New to her, but definitely antique!)    On the last shot above - don’t you love the heads?  Carole found those at TJMaxx I think - she just has ribbons dripping out like hair.  I think the heads were supposed to be plant holders.  And the cases below are antiques.  So nice to view the ribbons through.

Now - Carole really is an on-line store.  She sells mainly through ebay - at - http://stores.ebay.com/The-Ribbon-Store.

Having said that - if you are ever in Las Vegas its worth asking if you can visit this treasure.  And believe it or not - its her GARAGE.  Ok - so it has its own AC and its a SIX car deep garage, but it blows your mind when you walk through the door.

Posted in favorite store, ribbon | 1 Comment »

23. March 2008 by Kathy.

Got packages done and mailed today for the kids for Easter.  It sure would be nice to deliver them in person. 

I also got the packge off to my Bellatoria “queen”.  That was a lot of fun.  I made everything in some way or another - mostly altering things.

I included a great card that has a woman on the cover, with a crown (of course!), saying - “The world does Revolve around me!”, lol.  Her website is www.sillysillygirls.com.

So I went with the “queen” theme.  I don’t know anything about my receiver so I had to make some assumptions -went with a mediums shirt hoping that if she was small and/or a smart dresser she could use it when painting or something to cover clothing.  If its too small I can swap it back…hopefully I will hear from Lori soon and can ask these questions (thus the reason I included my email address!).

Then I did earrings - again I assumed she had pierced ears since so many people do now.  If not I can replace it with a bracelet - but would need wrist size for that!  (Nothing is ever totally easy you know?)  You can see the stones in the above shot.  They are an opal type stone and so do not photo well so that shot is the best I can do.  But boy do the sparkle next to your ear.  I think I used swarovski purple with a finish to highlight the color.  (Isn’t purple the “royal” color?)

 I love the clothes pins that World Market puts out for Easter.  This year there were frogs.  So of course I had to make a frog prince!  He was the clip that held the “tiffany” egg package.    It was an egg decorated in the method that www.inspire.blog had put out a while ago - a plastic egg covered with vintage book paper, glittered and then wrapped with great ribbon and a button/jewel in the center.  I put the earrings inside the egg.  I put the egg inside a corsage bag (love those bags - you see thru it but it controls the gilter loss to inside the bag, versus all over the box!) and I used the prince frog clothes pin to close the bag.  Oh - I made the frog into a prince using a german scrap 6-pointed star and folded it in half, rolled it and it looked like a crown!

 And the final item - my favorite (although that crown was hard to cut and the earrings I have to admit I wanted to keep them!)…oh so the final item - I did a frenchwire rose roll pillow.  Now the pillow came from Walmart (went in to get the glue for the “tiffany” egg and came across this!) and the top piece came off making it so easy to do the work on!  I need to go see if they still have those!  I loved the “daimond” design on the ends too.  Great little pillow in neutrals!  Ok so I used french wire ribbons just recently purchased from www.ribbonstore.com. 

So my theme was all “queen”:

shirt - royal clothing

frog clothes pin - well just in case the prince hadn’t showed up yet

pillow - to rest the weary head that wears the crown of course

earrings in the egg - royal jewels stored in a royal box

And today I fixed the clock on these posts to my time instead of 7 hours ahead.

Next thing to learn on bloggins is changing the picture at the top!

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