Tuesday, April 17, 2012

My Spray Ink Addiction and Organizing

Today's post is to tell you about my recent organization attempt!  One of my favorite things about this hobby is organizing!

First, I found this 5'x12'x 6" bookcase-like structure by the trash can in my complex.  I wasn't "dumpster diving," but my apartment is right next to our complex' trash compacter and this is the second time something caught my eye.  I think this was probably one of those tall, narrow, shallow bookcases for CDs or videos as it had the little shelf pegs in it.  Anyway, I took out all the shelf pegs and placed it horizontally across the back of my craft table.  It serves as a 2 level shelf and has really helped me clear off the majority of my table and enlarge my workspace!  Yippee!  One can never have too much workspace.

However, and here is a question some of you might have an opinion about - Why is it that no matter how much space I clear, I either fill up everything outside of my double craft sheet or somehow end up working in a space about 18"x24"?  It never ceases to amaze me!

Then, I decided to catalog my spray inks - I have a lot.  No... that doesn't really tell the story... I have more than 150 spray inks.  I am almost embarrassed about that!  Yes, there are some colors that are practically duplicated from one manufacturer to the next, but barely!

A while back I had gotten the idea from another crafter (sadly, I don't remember who!) to store them in the Swivel Store.  If you haven't seen these, check them out on Youtube.com; they are very cool!  And more recently, the idea to create a swatch-book of colors from another creative soul - each swatch has the color sprayed on, the name and manufacturer written on it.  And still yet a 3rd idea from another to create a numbering system - each bottle has a number on the top and the corresponding number on the swatch  card.  Then, my own idea, which has proved most useful - So each swivel store has 2 shelves within each of the 2 sides and they hold about 7 per shelf or about 24 per Swivel Store.  I created a little index card with columns representing the rows of the SS (Swivel Stores) and labeled the index card columns with the numbers and the color families. 

So now I can find colors in a couple of ways.  I can decide on a color family, look at the index card to see what rows it is in and open up the SS to look or I can flip through the swatch-book to find the color I want and then refer to the index card to find the number's location!

Lastly, I created a spreadsheet that has the color family, manufacturer and color name, number as well as qualities about the color like sheer, opaque, glimmer or flat.  I am hopeful this system will keep my spray ink addiction in check!