Mission Organization Update: Designer Paper Swatch Book

Good Afternoon Friends!

I'm a wee bit late with today's blog post.  Sorry about that!

I spent the morning working on my stamp room closet!  I haven't been able to close the door in months!

It is still not as "organized"/"cleaned out" as I would like but, I am excited to announce that:

 I CAN CLOSE THE DOOR!!!!  WhoooHooo!

Hey, this is very exciting stuff here!!!!

Anyway, I had to go out shopping with Hubby this afternoon and we just got back so I'm late.

Today's post is a continuation of my "mission organization" posts.

My latest giant accomplishment, prior to the closet cleaning, was the completion of what we will call my Designer Paper Swatch Book.

I attended a meeting at my Upline's house over the summer and she had a page of swatches, from a Christmas DP pack, that she had gotten in a swap (?) at a convention.  I had taken a picture of it to file away - "just in case".  Well, I could never get this idea out of my head.  It was awesome!  It was just what I needed!  See, I am a "visual learner" and I need to "see" something to figure it out and be able to  replicate it or learn it.  I had tons of Designer Paper packs, that I had been "collecting" for YEARS!  

I knew what I had but I didn't "really" know what I had - do you know what I mean?

Creating this system allowed me to literally touch and feel every single piece of DP in my collection!

I came to fully realize the extent of what I had AND I got to fall in love with it all - all over again!

Now, at a glance, I can flip through 48 packs of Designer Papers - all in one book!

I admit that I have a few packs that I did not/have not put in the book.  

For example, I own the Subtles DP pack but I did not put them in the book.  

I know I have it and I know what is in it so I didn't bother.

Someday it will bother me and I will create pages for it ;)

I also have not done samples of the Core'dinations papers... I probably should... 

and maybe embossed samples and not embossed samples... another day maybe ;)

So, what this book contains is 8-pocket baseball sleeve protectors, one page per Designer Paper Pack.

One pocket contains the "name" of the Designer Paper collection, 

the item #, and the retail price (for current product), and if it is a Spring Catalog item or not.  

Then the second pocket contains a list of every coordinating color found within the designs 

in the Designer Paper - along with a punched out circle of each one of those colors!  

The remaining 6 pockets contain swatches from each of the 6 papers contained in the pack!  

Since each designer paper is two sided, and the baseball sleeves are clear, 

you can see both sides of the papers!  

I am so excited about this!!!!

I now can see, at a glance, all of my papers 

and know what colors coordinate with each one and vice-versa!!!!

I have already used it when I needed a Designer Paper for a card - quickly!

I just flipped through my book and looked for a collection that coordinated 

with the colors I was using at the time and worked with the "feel" I wanted for my card.

It was super easy, super fast, stress-free and I found the perfect paper for my project!

Now, don't get me wrong.  This book did not go together without a lot of work!

It took time to format my document on the computer so that my typing would fit in the space required.  It took a lot of time to look up the coordinating colors in all of the packs of Designer Papers that I had - which meant flipping through a few years of old Idea Book and Catalogs 

(boy was I happy that I save everything!!!). 

 I even had to research a few online because 

I had bought some off of the clearance racks and did not have a back-up reference!  

I am grateful for people selling DP packs on Ebay 

who listed the coordinating colors of DP's they were selling :) 

It also took a lot of time to punch out all of those card stock circles!

However, I will tell you that I LOVE my book!!!!!  

It was worth every hour of work that I put in to it!

I am grateful that I was able to work on a lot of it when I was sick

 and felt too lousy to do anything else.

I am also grateful to my blessed Mother, who was visiting me that week,

 and did not get upset with the amount of time I spent working on this book instead of sitting with her while she sipped her morning coffee and ate her oatmeal :)  

She never said a word when I took my coffee upstairs and puttered 

or brought my paper and cutter downstairs and cut swatches 

while she read her book at the kitchen table in the evenings!  Mom's ROCK!

So, there you have it!  I wish I knew who the original creator of the idea is!

I owe them a high-five!

I hope this inspires you to re-visit all of your own Designer Papers and, 

if you don't have a system in place already, create your own "at a glance" system 

of knowing what you have and what it coordinates with! 

 I know that my paper crafting will be a lot easier now that I have a reference 

to all of my beautiful papers that went abandoned.

Happy Crafting!

Mary