Megan Hoeppner

Welcome to Magazine Monday! As a friend of the Paper Crafts family (former PC editor), I’m delighted to be guest blogging here today. My name is Megan Hoeppner and I’m the creative editor for Creating Keepsakes magazine. 

In this month of goal setting, I’m here to share an idea inspired by “Taking Inventory,” an organization idea I featured in my January “Tips & Tricks” column. It’s an easy-to-use tracking system to help you remember the supplies you have, using the Inventory Tracking Sheets below. In this example, I transformed the sheet for my supply of pink and red inkpads. 

Download your own free tracking sheets here.  

Inspired by these sheets, I want to share a few additional ways to keep track of the product manufacturers on your supplies, so you can toss the packaging but remember all the information you need. So often we sort our goodies by color or type, which can complicate replacing and/or sourcing products for projects (such as when you submit your work to Paper Crafts and CK, of course). Here are a few easy tricks for remembering where your product delights came from, long after you’ve tossed the packaging. 

Images
Thanks to digital cameras, snapping pictures is free and easy. Create a product file on your computer and take a pic of your product packages before you discard/recycle them. If you want to take this idea a step further, print small pics of these images and write the product info on the image. Here’s how I created an inventory card for photos of some of my accents before I separated them. 

Inventory card for accents

Patterned Paper
If, like me, you file patterned paper by color and occasionally find yourself wanting to reunite a collection, you’ll like this simple solution. Punch out small samples from the collection sheet (the one that comes in the paper pack) and adhere them to a note card with the collection name and the manufacturer. 

Inventory card for paper

Stamps (Clear and Rubber)
Remember which images came together in a stamp set by visiting the company web site and saving the image of each stamp set you own. Then write or type the name of the set and company on a card with the images. Don’t forget the name of the stamp set, the item number (if you want to get that specific) and the company name. This way you can keep track of your original sets, even if they get divided up over time or due to your unique filing system. 

Inventory card for stamps

Ribbon
Ribbon scraps oftentimes end up in jars, which can make sourcing them a challenge. Remember who made your favorite trims with cards containing small scraps of the ribbons. 

Inventory card for ribbon

With the new year upon us, I hope these tips get you off to an organized start. Speaking of organized, I’m always on the lookout for fresh organization ideas to feature in my “Tips & Tricks” column. I’d love to read your ideas in the comments section of this blog. I know you Paper Crafts peeps are a super creative, organized lot, so I’m going to take advantage of this opportunity while I’m here visiting. Thanks for letting me stop by! 

Cheers!
Megan Hoeppner

Jennifer Schaerer

Sometime during the months leading into December, my life becomes one that is characterized by Christmas carols because I start thinking in lyrics. It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, and it’s definitely the most wonderful time of the year. 

Although I love the drama of the decor, the sweet sounds of singing voices and the promise of tasty pastries and other festive holiday foods, it’s the spirit of giving that really helps me dance my way through the season. There’s nothing better than the feeling of helping those who need it most. 

In the spirit of giving, the elves in the Paper Crafts workshop have been busy the last few weeks. Monday was decorating day for our donated tree for Utah’s Festival of Trees, and this year’s labor of love is now complete. 

This was Holly's very first Festival of the Trees. Judging from that big smile, she really enjoyed herself.

Cath, our moxie fab elf, helped us wire ornaments.

Our chief wire elves Brenda and Kelly whistled while they worked.

Brandy became our chief garland elf and did a great job.

Susan was our chief bag elf since she went around and picked up little bits of trash. After all, every artist needs a clean workspace!

And every artist needs a canvas to paint on. I happily took on the role as chief tree elf. Does it look straight?

Ta da! What do you think of our finished tree?

This event is an annual fundraiser for the patients at Primary Children’s Medical Center in Salt Lake City, and every penny raised at the event goes directly to the children at the hospital who couldn’t otherwise pay for treatment. 

Brandy Jesperson, our managing editor, has been involved with this fundraiser for 10 years after being a patient at Primary Children’s as a teenager. She urged us to get involved, and we decorated our first Paper Crafts team tree a few years ago and have been doing it ever since. 

Here's last year's "Home for the Holidays" tree.

This year’s tree was auctioned off to the highest bidder and we’re certain that it brought a generous sum for the hospital. All of us at Paper Crafts are grateful to the manufacturers who helped make this tree possible with their heartfelt donations: 

• Karen Foster Design 
• Clearsnap 
• Cornish Heritage Farms 
• Marvy Uchida 
• BasicGrey 
• American Crafts 
• Fiskars 
• Little Yellow Bicycle 
• Hambly Screen Prints 
• Doodlebug Design 
• Provo Craft 

We’d also like to say a very special thanks to all the designers who sent in handmade card sets for us to include with the tree: 

• Debbie Olson 
• Alicia Thelin 
• Kim Hughes 
• Cindy Etienne 
• Charlene Austin 
• Linda Beeson 
• Latisha Yoast 
• Gretchen McElveen 
• Laura O’Donnell 
• Lori Roop 
• Carolyn King 
• Jean Cross 
• Becky Olsen 
• Melanie Douthit 
• Sandy Rollinger 
• Jennifer Scull 
• Debbie Seyer 

All of our lovely donated cards!

It’s definitely the most wonderful time of the year!
Jennifer

Susan Neal

I

felt.

We all grew up with felt; it’s one of those fond crafting memories of childhood. It’s fuzzy, warm and comes in a rainbow of colors. You most likely have a stack of it somewhere in your own craft room.

It’s time to FIND it! Felt is an inexpensive and creative way to add a little ‘something’ to you next project. Here’s my latest card:

I used my Cuttlebug to cut the felt. I had to shim it with a piece of cardstock to get a nice clean cut, so be prepared to experiment a bit. I also used this adorable new paper from Cosmo Cricket and one of the cool new Colorbox inks from Clearsnap, SURF.

 Besides die-cutting, try:

• Layering felt accents for even greater dimension
• Sewing it by hand or with your machine
• Letting a piece of felt peek through die-cut silhouettes
• Embellishing it with buttons, brads, eyelets or ribbon
• Painting, writing or stamping on it (experiment with this)

You may have a stack of felt, but I have BAGS of it! I’d love to send a few of you a sampling of my colors: 

Leave a comment and you could win some of this fun felt!

Warm and fuzzy wishes,
Sue, Paper Crafts Pro