Inky Organization

Are you in the usual 'organizing' frenzy that surfaces at the start of each new year? Look at these ideas for organizing your stamping inks.

Kathy’s Color Chart - January 6, 2011 - by Jenyfur

The Penny Black Design Team was recently tasked to create ‘anything but a card’ using Penny Black stamps. Kathy Racoosin took the opportunity to create a color chart showing all of her distress inks. Kathy used the butterfly portion of “Butterfly-Kissed” 4124K. What a great way to organize and visualize your ink colors, brilliant!

And from the Spotted Canary website:

A Spotted Canary Project by Crafty Canary - 3 January 2011

I fell in love with this Creativity Keeper as soon as I saw it, and knew it would be a perfect spot to catalog my growing collection of inks!

Instructions

STEP 1:

Decide how to divide your inks. I chose to split mine by ink type, but you could also sort by color, manufacturer, etc.

STEP 2:

Write divider name onto tab stickers included in the Creativity Keeper. Apply to dividers and adhere decorative stickers as desired throughout the book.

STEP 3:

Write name on "This Book Belongs To" flap inside cover

STEP 4:

Use printed papers that come with the book or cut regular office paper down to size if you'd prefer to have an all white background for your ink catalog.

STEP 5:

Choose a stamp (I selected a rubber stamp with a mix of small detail and a larger coverage area) and stamp each ink pad in your collection. Stamp each color twice in order to show the effect of second generation stamping for each pad.

STEP 6:

Label each ink color.

STEP 7:

Be sure to thoroughly clean your stamp between each ink color.

STEP 8:

For specialty inks, get creative. I wanted to show off the most options possible in a small space with my spray inks. I used stickers included in the kit to mask off a few spots, and for each color I sprayed once lightly over the entire area. Then toward the right I sprayed a second time to show a darker coverage option.

STEP 9:

If desired, remove the "I Love Art" image from the front cover frame and replace with a custom design. I trimmed down a green page from a photo mat pad and slid it into the pocket. Then through the frame window I added dimensional felt stickers to spell "Ink".



Another similar idea from Corrine Mihlek-Brzys on the Spotted Canary website:

I’ll come right out and admit it, I’m a color addict. I love color and am obsessed with all facets of it—intensity, tone, shade and especially the interplay between colors. As a stamper who is happily color-addicted, I am forever buying inks, drawn in by the endless amount of choices. I’ve found a system that allows me to not only restore order to my inks (and stop re-buying shades I already have), but also assists me in finding the right shades of color at a glance, and I’m more than happy to share it; it’s an ink catalog.

What is that woman talking about, you ask?

An ink catalog is simply a visual display of ink colors one owns, placed in an easy-to-manage-and-use format. And it’s a snap to make!

Let’s go through the steps to creating your own:

1. Purchase your “housing.” the structure that will hold your ink information. I bought a small, 3-ring binder. I liked this option best because I can use white cardstock for the pages, giving me a true representation of ink color with the paper I usually use for projects. The binder option also lets me manage my pages easily and you can add more if needed.
2. Create your pages. Create labels to name the color of each page or section.

3. Fill in your pages. Select a color family and gather the appropriate inks. Using a small, solid image, ink and stamp each color onto the page. I inked once and stamped twice, recording what each color’s 1st and 2nd generation shade is.
4. Keep records. After you stamp a color, jot down some basic information to help you find it later. Next to each ink color, I wrote the manufacturer’s name, added a simple “code” that tells me the manufacturer and the type of ink it is. For example, “CB-C” tells me that it’s ColorBox chalk ink, and “AP-D” means it’s Ancient Page dye. Because I store my inks by color, I can easily find any pad with this information (if I want “Sienna” from Ancient Page, I go to my stack of brown ink, look at the Ancient Page section, and easily find that shade). Make up a code that is simple for you to recall and use according to your storage system.
5. Add pages for “special cases.” If you have multi-colored pads or other specialty inks that don’t fit neatly into a color family, create another section or pages and repeat the above process.

Creating your ink catalog is easy and fun. You’ll likely discover inks you’ve forgotten you had! It’s a great way to get and stay organized, too. When heading out to the craft store, you can pop your catalog into your bag and have your entire inventory on-hand. Keep it handy for internet shopping, too. And let’s not forget the terrific resource your catalog is when you’re crafting. Having the ability to see on paper what each shade truly stamps is an invaluable resource you’ll come to treasure.


Something more for me to aspire to . . .

Recycled Rubber begins at 10:00 a.m. tomorrow morning (Saturday) . . . you're gonna like the new donations!