It's Talk Time Tuesday with Ask Jo and a Giveaway!

Hello my sweet friends!

Welcome back to another Talk time Tuesday! 

I am sure by now the news has circulated all over the world that the famous musician Prince has passed away. What a shame. I was born in the early 70's and so my era of music was in the 80's growing up. Prince was someone I loved listening to and I love everything he stood for. He was very humble, articulate, talented, religious and passionate. He gave so much to his community and charities, and while he was shy, those who knew him say he was also very dedicated and kind to his fans and those who were in need. Aside from all of this, he made amazing music. I feel like almost everyone that I grew up listening to has passed on. Luther Vandross, Natalie Cole, David Bowie, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston and now, Prince. My final thought on this .... Prince, I hope you are at rest and driving around in heaven in your "little red corvette", looking for some "starfish and coffee", while flirting with the "lady cab driver"!   I know I couldn't help myself! :)

Okie dokie so let's move on to today's question, which comes from Emily Ann who wants to know, " Hi Jo. I have so many supplies and find myself so overwhelmed. My husband says I am a hoarder lol. So my question to you is what is your advice on using up everything that you own, thanks!?"

  Hello Emily Ann!

Welcome to the wonderful world of hoarders! LOL!!! As much as I hate to say this, you are not alone. I know that I am guilty of hoarding too. I hoard paper! No matter how many times I have tried to part with some of it, I cannot do it. My paper stash is enormous and I am pretty sure that I have enough paper to build a real life size home for a family of six and still have leftovers!HAH! 

Oh boy okay... so realistically I do not think it is possible to use up everything that you own especially if you are a hoarder. Usually a hoarder in the crafting world, has enough stash and supplies to fill up a 10' by 10' room in their house snuggly. And in this situation, I find it impossible to use it all up lol. But I will say this... and this is something that I have been doing for my own craft studio for the past few months now. Schedule the time into your normal schedule to do your craft "inventory". Literally make time to go through each section of your space and analyze what you have. As you start to go through everything, a number of things are going to happen. You are going to start realizing that you have things that you will never use. These items you should part with. Have a yard sale, put them on sale online (Ebay, Etsy, Craigslist, etc), donate them to a friend or local organization that could use them or at the last resort, simply throw it away. You are also going to realize that you have things you forgot you even had. You are going to get that feeling like you just won the jackpot or like Santa came early! With those things, you need to decide to keep or purge. And lastly, you are going to realize that with some of the things you own, you have no clue how to use it or what to do with it and you don't know where to put it. And these are things you need to make a decision about whether or not you are going to take a class, read up about it or find a home for it, and if your answer is no, then sell or donate. 

Once you have finished this process of going through your inventory, you will have a clear understanding of what you DO have. The next step is making sure to organize it all so that you can visibly SEE it all. If you cannot see it, you will not use it and it will sit there for another year or two, untouched. 
Ask me how I know :)  I have been going through everything in my own stash and I am surprisingly able to purge a lot of it. And because I have been doing this, I now know what I have and it is becoming much easier to see it and use it. Once you do this process and organize everything so that you can see it all, You will start using it all. The more you use it, the better you will feel that you have used it. You won't feel guilty that you spent all that money and didn't use it anymore. I think every crafter should inventory their stash at least every six months or every year. So while I do think it is impossible to use up everything that we own, I do know that it is very possible to use a lot of what we own when we can visibly see it. 


So I hope this helps you Emily Ann. Sorry for the long post but I answered your question the only way I knew how to, and that was by experience. :)  Thank you so much for writing in and I hope to hear from you again. Have a great week!

Okay and now for the giveaway.... I will be using random.org to select one winner to win this Stamp and die combo set by Hampton Art. All you need to do to be eligible to win, is to go visit my other blog, Jo's Stampin' Studio, subscribe to my blog and leave a comment on this post below letting me know you did. That is it! Easy enough! I will announce the winner next Tuesday. For extra chances at winning, refer a friend to subscribe to my Stampin' Studio Blog and leave their name in the comments below once they have subscribed!  Good luck! :)

Well friends, that is it for today. Please write in with questions you want answered or topics you would like to see talked about during our Tuesdays together :) 

 Thanks for stopping by and until next time.... Enjoy life's blessings~

It's Talk time Tuesday with Ask Jo~

Hello my sweet friends!

Welcome back to another Talk time Tuesday! I hope everyone had a great weekend and a beautiful Easter! Our family always gets together every year for an early dinner and a fun filled afternoon and evening down on the boardwalk here at the New Jersey shore coast. It was a very cold and dreary day. We even had a few rain drops here and there. So most of our boardwalk time was spent inside an arcade. We did have a great time overall. Here are just a few photos from my Easter Holiday with the family. 

Family Dinner

 

Ski Ball-Left to right, my niece, cousin and daughter

Carousel Ride L-my cousin, R-my daughter 

The entire Family

So moving on, today's question comes from Karen L. who wants to know, " Do you usually finish a project within a specific time frame or do you work on it over time? Also, do you have any unfinished crafts that you never seem to complete? How do you motivate yourself to complete those projects, or do you just scrap them (or take them apart) after a certain period of time? Those unfinished crafts always seem to haunt me and I wonder if they'll ever be finished?"

  Hello Karen!

Well Karen these are some great questions and I am willing to bet there are a ton of my readers that are facing the same problem.  Okay so let me answer your first question first. When I sit down to work on a project, my mindset is to finish it right then and there. I have always worked this way. I would go to crops and see people working on more than one album or would be working on a new project while the other one was sitting there drying from stickles or whatever. I could never understand how people could work on more than one project at a time. Today, I still don't know how they do it lol. I have to finish a project before I start another one. That is just my mindset. Now because I do have health problems, there are times that I'm unable to finish a project. During those times, I will work on a project until the pain becomes too much to deal with. At that time, I will just walk away from it, go rest and come back to it later. But I still will not start a new project until the one I was working on is finished. 

Your second question, " Do I have any unfinished crafts that I never seem to complete"? YES! I have quite a few craft projects that I have set to the side that I know I want to do, but just haven't found the time to do it. I actually have a crate full of altered wood projects that I would like to get to. I also have a running "to do" list of projects that I would like to cross off my list. I hope to get to them very soon :)

How do I motivate myself to complete my projects? I honestly can say that I talk to myself all the time (i know sounds crazy lol) and remind myself that those projects are still sitting there. And when I do this, I keep my mind on it and I keep it at the top of my list of things to do once some free time opens up for me. I am a very busy person. While I do not have a job that I go to work at ( I am disabled), I do still have a job at home. I am a full time mom to a 12 year old that I homeschool. Schooling my daughter takes up a good few hours during the day and when I am not in teacher mode, I am in mom mode. Anyone knows that being a parent is a full time job in itself. Also, I am a designer and I am currently on a few design teams and so those obligations come before my personal crafts. Add to that, I am disabled and I suffer from a great deal of ailments that cause my body to be in pain 24/7. My body can only take so much and then I need to lay down and rest. So when that small window of "free time" does open up for me, I will go get crafty. So those crafts that sit neglected right now, will eventually become a finished project as soon as time allows it. But I never think negatively about it nor tell myself that I'll "never get to it". I keep it in the forefront of my mind and I look for those windows of time for me to go grab a project and work on it. 

I have never taken a project apart and redone it and I have never thrown anything out just because I couldn't get to it. I enjoy looking back at my work when I first started crafting because it shows how far I have come in the crafting industry. My work in the beginning looks like a 5 year old did it LOL ... but it was who I was back then and it allows me to look back and see how much my style has evolved. Never redo your projects, they are a small fraction of the crafter you are now... you had to start somewhere right? :)

As far as having those unfinished projects haunting you... My only response to you Karen, is why? Why are you allowing them to haunt you? There is no time limit. These are YOUR projects that you will do at your own pace. These projects do not need to be rushed. 

 Look at those projects as a positive for you.. a way to have some alone time, something to do when there is nothing else to do. And if you are that worried about getting them done, schedule the time into your days so that you are making time to craft. If you see a window of time during the week of an extra hour or two that you have open, set that time to craft a project that has been sitting there for awhile. :)

I hope my answers have helped you a little bit today Karen. I really do appreciate you taking the time to write in. I hope to hear from you again soon! 

Well friends, that is it for today. Please write in with questions you want answered or topics you would like to see talked about during our Tuesdays together :) 

 Thanks for stopping by and until next time.... Enjoy life's blessings~

It's Talk Time Tuesday with Ask Jo & a Giveaway!

Hello my sweet friends!

Welcome back to another Talk time Tuesday! I hope you all had  a wonderful weekend. Can you believe we are in March already? Wow. And how about Easter is just 3 short weeks away!! Do you have any special Easter or Passover traditions that you do with your family or friends? And how about a giveaway? We haven't had one of them in awhile. Leave me a comment on this post and tell me what I would experience if I spent Easter or Passover with you! I will draw one winner to receive one free cut file  from SVG Cuts valued at $6.99 (USD) :) I will announce the winner on Saturday, March 12th!

   

So moving on, today's question comes from Monika who wants to know, " hello jo. after seeing last weeks talk tuesday post of someone asked you your favorite blogs i want to have a little bit of fun with you. so if you will play along i have the ten questions before the sun comes up game questions for you. i think this will be fun to see your answers. and thank you so much jo for your challenges and your wonderful blog. i have good time and fun when i visit. 1. favorite movie, 2. favorite food, 3. favorite colors, 4. favorite place to visit, 5. favorite craft tool, 6. favorite stamp company, 7. favorite sound, 8. favorite animal, 9. favorite craft technique, 10. favorite accomplishment?"

  Hello Monika!
Ok this sounds like a lot of fun! This reminds me of those little "get to know you" games that would go around on social media. So YES!! I will play along for you! Ok you ready? Here I go.....

1. My Favorite Movie- Mommie Dearest
2. My Favorite Food- Italian & favorite dish- baked ziti with sausage & meatballs
3. My Favorite Colors- Purple, Pink & Turquoise 
4. My Favorite place to visit- Hands down, Disney World
5. My Favorite Craft tool- My Stampin Up Trimmer
6. My Favorite Stamp Company - aside from my own company 3 Twenty Crafts (which will relaunch soon, I promise), .. Yikes.. I have a few of them actually... so I'll name them all...  in no specific order my favorite stamp companies are: My Creative Time, Stampin Up, Lawn Fawn, Altenew, Mama Elephant, Hero Arts & Sunny Studios (<----new company, check them out here)
7. My Favorite Sound- I have a few of these too... in no specific order my favorite sounds are: my son & daughter's beautiful voices, the ocean waves crashing, birds chirping, and the sound of rain 
8. My favorite animal- I'm a dog lover so realistically a dog but if I could have an owl or a dolphin for a pet, they would be right up there with my dog. :)
9. My Favorite Craft technique- Watercoloring with Masks & stencils
10. My Favorite Accomplishment- Hmm... this is a good one.. and a very easy one... My favorite accomplishment was bringing a couple of beautiful kids into this world and teaching them the way of the Lord but if you were looking for a more concrete answer as in life accomplishments, than my favorite accomplishment is having 3 college degrees under my belt. I was the first person in my entire family to go to college and get a degree so it meant a lot to me. I have an Associates degree in accounting, a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance and a Masters degree of Business Administration with a concentration in Global management. And I graduated on the Dean's list with a 3.8 :) The only sad thing is that right after my 2nd year of college, my health started to go down hill and from there it is history. But is it okay... I am very proud of myself that I have put myself through college and have those degrees. That is a huge accomplishment. Whew! Kinda got choked up a minute there just thinking about it all. 

Well Monika I hope you enjoy reading my answers! That was actually kind of fun! I did enjoy playing along with your game, so thank you :) And thank you for writing in and I hope that I hear from you again soon!

Well friends, that is it for today. Please write in with questions you want answered or topics you would like to see talked about during our Tuesdays together :) As you can see from Monika's post, it doesn't always have to be about crafts. You can write in and just ask me anything at all, providing it is appropriate ;) .  I only have 4 more questions left to answer during this segment of my blog so please start writing in and asking those questions! Otherwise this particular segment will not survive and if it goes, it will not be coming back unfortunately. I cannot keep doing the TTT segments if I don't have your participation. So think of something you would like to know and ask Jo!

 Thanks for stopping by and until next time.... Enjoy life's blessings~

It's Talk Time Tuesday with Ask Jo~

Hello my sweet friends!

Welcome back to another Talk time Tuesday! I hope you all had  a wonderful weekend. How was your Valentine's day? I spent my day with family playing board games and enjoying great conversation. I was given some gorgeous tulips and chocolates. Tulips are my absolute favorite flower and gosh they are beautiful. Have a look :)

   

So moving on, today's question comes from Aleisha S. who wants to know, " Hi there jo. If you could only choose 2 what are your favorite blogs to follow and why?"

  Hello Aleisha!

Wow... this is a good one! I can only choose just 2?? Yikes.. LOL .....I am one of those people that follow a lot of blogs. I have so many people that I follow for various reasons and not all of the blogs I follow are craft related. But you did ask my top 2 and you didn't specify that they needed to be craft related so I will give you my top two favorite blogs that I enjoy. 

The first blog that I follow is craft related. I enjoy reading Jennifer McGuire's blog  , "Jennifer McGuire Ink". Wow... Jennifer really manages to cover it all. I love reading her blog on a daily basis because she is just so inspiring and full of life. She has an amazing and beautiful heart and her personality shines brighter than the sun rays. Her blog is no different. Upon arriving, one might feel overwhelmed at first but she has made it so easy to navigate and her blog is done up in happy colors. It is kind of like walking in someone's home where it makes you feel very comfortable... warm, cozy... inviting. Her blog gives me that same type of feeling and then each blog post is jam packed with all kinds of information. Jennifer has hours of videos spotlighting new releases and products and she breaks everything down for you. The pros, the cons, the how tos, the price... this girl is awesome! She is a great teacher and has such an array of projects in her arsenal that she shares with you for free!!  And another reason I love visiting Jennifer   is because of her beautiful heart. Whenever she can, she is always supporting and blogging about a cause and has been the jumpstart behind "an act of kindness". She goes above and beyond to make sure she puts a smile on someone's face. She is always sending sweet cards and messages to people who just like you and me, may be going through a little something and just need a little pick me up. I highly suggest visiting her blog. Be prepared to be there for a couple of hours. :)

My second favorite blog is The Lady Loves Couture . This blog is a wonderful blog that is owned and operated by an amazing woman, Marjorie Harvey. She is the wife of TV personality & host, Steve Harvey. This blog keeps you in the up and up of fashion and everything that is trending. Marjorie teaches you the ins and outs of fashion and teaches you how to get the look of the celebrities, without the top dollar price tag. She is great for giving tips and tricks on makeup, accessories, fashion, hair, shoes and all the while, doing it on a budget. And I love this blog because there are always giveaways and glimpses into her private life with Husband Steve and family. Anyone who knows me, knows that I am a very huge fan of Steve Harvey. He has gotten me through some very tough times in my life and I watch his talk show religiously every single day during the week. :)

Well Aleisha I hope this helps give you a little look into what I read while reading blogs. I enjoyed that question very much actually. It is nice to sometimes talk about other things that are not always geared toward crafts. :) Thanks for writing in hon! 

Well friends, that is it for today. Please write in with questions you want answered or topics you would like to see talked about during our Tuesdays together :) 

 Thanks for stopping by and until next time.... Enjoy life's blessings~

It's Talk Time Tuesday with Ask Jo!

Hello my sweet friends!

Welcome back to another Talk time Tuesday! I hope you all had  a wonderful weekend. May I just say how awesome this community is? In the past few days, I have received some beautiful comments and personal emails about my latest cards that I have made. So many of you have expressed how happy you are to see me creating again. And your kind words about my cards have been very sweet! So thank you! It has been awesome to be creating again and I hope that my health continues to stay where it is at, so that I may continue to create. :)  

Today is also a very sad day for me as my grandmother would have been 84 today if she were still living. My family and I lost her 31 years ago on March 11th to ovarian cancer, just one month after her 53rd birthday. We would always celebrate February 9th with cake, music and dancing during the early evening and then my grandfather would take my grandmother out to the casinos or to bingo. Oh how she loved her bingo and her slot machines! Do any of you have moms or grandmoms who love bingo and casinos too?

Ok so let's get to our TTT question. Today's question comes from Bunny who wants to know, "What type of paper do you like coloring on with Copics that is economical ?"

  Hello Bunny!
 Copic markers are so fun to work with, wouldn't you agree? You may have heard a lot of people say that when they work with Copic markers they like to use the Copic X-press It paper because this paper was specifially created with Copic markers in mind. I have worked with this paper and still have some. I really enjoy the way the Copic markers work on this paper, it gives crisp clean coloring. On average this paper comes in  packs of 10 sheets and costs between $4.99-$7.99 a pack. To me, that is a bit steep.

Others like to use Neenah Solar White cardstock. This usually comes in a ream of 250 sheets for a price range between $9.99-$37. Again way too steep for me. So now I will tell you my absolute favorite cardstock to use with Copic markers.

My favorite cardstock to use is the Georgia Pacific cardstock found at WalMart. It comes in a ream of 150 sheets of paper and retails for $5.48. Now I am going to give you 5 reasons why I love this cardstock.

1. The cost! For just $5.48 per ream, this makes the cost of one sheet of cardstock $.36 cents! Very cost affordable in my book, ya get more bang for your buck.
2. The weight. This cardstock is 110 pound weight. Perfect for card bases, mini albums and die cutting.
3. The color. This cardstock is a nice white color. Some white cardstocks have an off white hue to them. This cardstock is a nice true white. Not super bright white until it blinds ya but it is a very good true white.
4. Very easily accessible. It is at every WalMart store and who doesn't shop at Walmart? So it's easy to get your hands on it. 
5. Lastly, this paper works well with most inks and printers. If you do a lot of digital printing for stamps or have laser printers, this paper will work like a charm! It is very versatile to inks and coloring mediums and you cannot beat that! Especially not for that price either!

So I hope this helps you out Bunny and I hope I have given you some options for your next cardstock purchase. If anyone else knows of any other type of cardstock that works well with copic markers, please leave a comment below in the comments section. We would appreciate it! And thank you Bunny for writing in! I hope you write in again very soon :)

And before I end this post, I just wanted to let everyone know that Sale-a-bration is still going at Stampin Up  and now is the best time to stock up on your favorite products because you can earn a lot of free product too! And while I am trying to reach my 500 followers on this blog, I am also trying to gain more followers on my Stampin Up Blog so if you can head on over there and subscribe that would be much appreciated! I will be giving away a $25 Stampin Up shopping spree once I hit my first 50 followers. Please go subscribe so that you can  receive updates about SU and to be able to get in the drawing for that $25 shopping spree! I am actually in the middle of working out a schedule that will give me more time to create and do videos on that blog and if you are a subscriber to the blog, you will be eligible for all giveaways that I will be doing with SU product. :)  

For those of you who will be placing orders, Please use hostess code S3NPRMUA when placing your order! :)

Well friends, that is it for today. Please write in with questions you want answered or topics you would like to see talked about during our Tuesdays together :) 

 Thanks for stopping by and until next time.... Enjoy life's blessings~

It's Talk Time Tuesday with Ask Jo!

Hello my sweet friends!

Welcome back to another Talk time Tuesday! I hope you all had  a wonderful weekend. Can you believe it's February? I am looking forward for this month as our family celebrates several birthdays, we have one of my favorite holidays this month, Valentine's Day and it's tax season! Do you have a favorite day or special occasion this month? 

So today's question comes from Mendi Y. who wants to know, " My question for you would be this: As a Stampin' Up demonstrator, what's your favorite tool, die or punch of theirs? Is there something you find yourself reaching for over and over again that gives you great bang for your buck?"

  Hello Mendi!
Oh gosh what a hard question! I love everything from Stampin Up . My most favorite and most used tool is the Stampin Trimmer #126889. I absolutely love this trimmer because of the craftsmanship and size increments. The trimmer is light and portable which is always a bonus. But I love that the trimmer has a full ruler, going down to 1/16th of an inch! Another plus to this trimmer is the fact that you can cut up to 6 in a half inches before you would even need to open up the extended arm! This trimmer also scores for you! There are two blades that are housed on the trimmer track and one will do the cutting while the other will score. It's so much easier to be able to score card bases on the trimmer instead of having to pull out the scoring boards and taking that extra step. It saves room on my work desk by not having to keep the scoring board on there. And I really love that there is a compartment under the trimmer to store things like adhesive, bone folders, etc. Very awesome trimmer and by far, my most loved and used tool! 

As for my favorite punch that I reach for a lot, I would have to say is the Triple Banner Punch, #138292. I like this punch because I can make perfect banners and fishtails each time. You know how most of us just get our scissors and cut a little slit and then cut at an angle from each side to create the banners? Well I don't know about any of you, but I do not always cut them straight and I end up with one end a different angle than the other lol. So this punch has helped me to get perfectly straight banner ends each time. This punch cuts 1", 1-1/2" and 2" banners/fishtails.

 And another tool that Stampin Up has me reaching for a lot is the Gift bag punch board, #135862. This tool is a great tool to have! I love to give little treats to my daughter and my niece for special occasions and for holidays and this punch board creates the most perfect gift bags to package up the treats! The gift bags are also great for gift giving. I had made one of these gift bags this past Christmas to give to my mom actually and inside I had a pair of soft and fuzzy slipper socks with a gift card to mom's favorite coffee place. I only wish I had a photo of that to show you but I do have a photo of a bag I created last fall. This photo was for the grand opening of Sunny Studio Stamps and the theme was school time. Here is that bag that I'm sure you remember.

 

My daughter was kind enough to pose and take a photo with the bag on this day. As you can see from the above photo, the bag held a bottle of shower gel from Bath & Body Works. If anyone has had Bath & Body Works products before, then you know how tall these bottles are. This bag was a bit taller then the bottle, so you can make them to hold items on a larger scale.  I like this gift bag punch board because you can create different sized gift bags just by the different sizes you cut your cardstock down to. 

And lastly, my absolute favorite "must have", is SU's cardstock. The cardstock comes in 12x12 and 8-1/2x11 in size and is a great 80 pound weight. It is one of my absolute favorite types of cardstock to use, especially for creating card bases and gift boxes and bags. Not to mention that the colors are all fantastic! And you have asked which products do I think would give you a lot of bang for your buck and I would say definitely the trimmer, any of the punch boards, the cardstock and the ink pads. The price tag on any of these products definitely are worth the value and with the ink pads, they last a long time before having to refill them. I have yet needed to refill any of my ink pads and it has been 2 years.  One thing I am proud to say about Stampin Up is that they make all of their products to last. Their products are high quality products and I would rather have good quality over cheap any day. You have to remember that most of us create cards or projects to give to special people in our lives and we want these handmade items to last them a lifetime. This company definitely delivers on quality products that are well worth the price tag.  So I hope this has helped answered your questions Mendi! Thank you for writing in and I hope to hear from you again soon!

And if anyone would like to purchase any of the products in this post, now would be the best time to do so as we are celebrating Sale-a-Bration! That means more savings and free product for you with any qualifying $50 order! And if you choose to become a host and have an online party, there will be more rewards and savings for You. And if you have been sitting on the fence about becoming a SU demonstrator (even if just to get the discount), there is no time better than the present! I can definitely help you with signing up and You will receive $155 in products for only $99 BUT if you host an online party, you can apply your host dollars from your party's sales to that $99 startup price and you could be only paying $50 to join!!! So again, you will receive $155 in product for $99 or less, depending on your online party's sales and the best part is that you get to choose which products you want! In addition, you would be receiving $60 in business materials to help start up your Stampin Up business. And this sweet deal can only be taken advantage now during Sale-a-bration. I would JUMP on this deal if you have been considering becoming a demonstrator. I would love to help you get started! Please email me if you are interested in knowing more. 

For those of you who will be placing orders, Please use hostess code S3NPRMUA when placing your order! :)

Well friends, that is it for today. Please write in with questions you want answered or topics you would like to see talked about during our Tuesdays together :) 

 Thanks for stopping by and until next time.... Enjoy life's blessings~

It's Talk Time Tuesday with Ask Jo- Very Long Post~

Hello my sweet friends!

Welcome back to another Talk time Tuesday! 

Wow what a crazy storm the north east was hit with! Thank you first off for all of your prayers. I hope all of you who were in this blizzard's path were safe and that your homes and vehicles were not damaged. I live down at the NJ Shore so we were hit very hard. At one point during the storm, I thought that our house was going to be flooded out. All day Saturday and most of Sunday, my entire city was under water, nearly 7 feet deep in some areas. Many of the homes in the next town over from me in Ocean City got flooded and some of the businesses and homes here also did. I am glad the storm is over! It was a very scary experience and I just kept praying to the Lord to keep us safe and He sure did! Bless Him! Today our streets are completely clear. It does not look like there was any flooding here. We do have some snow and ice on the sidewalks and driveways but our roads are clear. Here are some photos from my neighborhood. This is my street....

This is my porch

Do you see how high this got? I was really scared it was going to continue to rise and flood my home.

Now this is what it looks like today in my driveway, clear roads now but snow and ice lingering.

Here are a few photos that I took off the news.

 This is my city of Margate

As for the rest of my family who live in Central NJ and in Bucks County PA, they got slammed with nearly 3 feet of snow! YIKES! I feel bad for all of you who were hit by that snow. It will take days for many to dig out of that snow and I bet that made a lot of kids happy! No school and a fun snow day! I just feel so bad for the families who lost loved ones during this storm. So sad.

Okay so moving on,  today's question comes from Bobbie Lathrop who wants to know, " Well Jo I guess I will start your Tuesday talk time with a question on organization. As you know I finally have a dedicated craft room and I am finally having a chance to set it up. I have managed to file my stamps by maker but having a hard time organizing the dies. What would you or your views have for suggestions on organizing dies that don't have matching stamp sets and a way to make it easy to find them??"

  Hello Bobbie!

Great question! Organization is one of those topics that we all struggle with. What works for one person may not work for another. It is always a never ending job because as our needs change and stash grows, we need to come up with a different method to fit our needs. 

I store my stamps in these Avery Elle storage pockets. They fit a 4x6 stamp set inside or they can also fit two of the smaller stamp sets. What I normally do is cut down a piece of white cardstock to fit inside the pocket and then I add my stamp set and if the stamp set has a matching die set, I will add the dies in the back of the stamps in the same pocket. I store my dies on these magnetic sheets. It keeps all my dies together and that way if I want to work on a project, I can just choose the stamp of my choice and if it has the dies, they will be in the pocket with it, all in the same place. Easy!

Now this will work for you for storing your dies too, as I also use these same pockets to store my single dies (no matching stamps). I will create a label for each pocket for my stamps and my dies using my Brother P-Touch label maker. My label maker allows me to create two lines at a time so I will always have the Company's name and the name of the Stamp or Die. I then store everything in alphabetical order by the company. Right now I have my stamps and dies stored in separate shoe box plastic containers, These containers by Iris and they work just fine for me. I have them in clear. I have 3 for my stamps and one for stand alone dies. Again, I just keep all my stamps in the bin according to company and I have created my own dividers from chipboard to separate each company. It is very easy for me to navigate through my stash this way. I can see everything and if I know I want to work with a certain company's products, I can get to it very fast. Another option a lot of people are using to store stamps and dies are in these refrigerator clear bins. I would like to eventually switch over to these bins too because I like the sturdiness and size.  

I got my organization method from Jennifer McGuire. She has an amazing stamp and die storage organization method. Click the link with her name on it and it will take you to her blog where she has tons of videos of how she stores her stamps and dies.I have tried to follow her method and it has worked so well for me.  So I hope this helps Bobbie with helping you to get your dies organized a bit better. Remember to find what works for you. Everyone has their own setup and works in different environments so if you find a method that you can adapt to, please share it with us. We are always looking for new ways to keep our stamps and dies organized. Thanks so much for writing in and I hope you write in again soon!

Well friends, that is it for today. Please write in with questions you want answered or topics you would like to see talked about during our Tuesdays together :) 

 Thanks for stopping by and until next time.... Enjoy life's blessings~