Getting Organized - Ranger Stickles and Inks

I have been adding more Distress Inks to my supplies.  I like experimenting with various techniques and the colors are so beautiful.  I also have a pretty good size collection of Stickles that I have built up over the years.  I decided it was time to tackle the organization of these items.  For the most part, I have been keeping them in JetMax cubes and that works fine.  The difficulty comes in remembering the shades of the colors - some of them are only slightly different and the names can be confusing.

I started out labeling the distress ink pads with my Dymo Labelmaker.  The tapes for this gadget are fairly pricey and I wanted to be able to label all four sides to make it easier to put them away.  This would take quite a bit of tape so I looked for an alternative.

I discovered that there are a series of charts and labels available to download from the Ranger Ink site.  Just click HERE to go the the page on the site where you can find lots of free label sheet PDFs that work with Avery brand 5267 labels for your ink pads.  These labels are 1/2 inch by 1 3/4 inch and there are 80 labels on a sheet so another brand might work if you can't find Avery labels.

There are also color charts for lots of other Ranger products.  You can print these and add the colors you own for a handy reference when working on a project or shopping.

When I was at CHA last year, I had a chance to make a few of these charts.  Tim Holtz actually autographed the Distress Stain chart at the top right.  It's very handy to grab the chart and check colors.  For the stain, we did samples on sticky back canvas as well as directly on the cardstock.

I have done my Liquid Pearls and Stickles so far.  I have a Stickles color called "gunmetal" that wasn't on the chart so I added it at the top.  I am also not sure if "midnight blue" (on the chart) and "dark blue" (on my bottle) are the same color but it was the only spot left so I put it there.

You can see the effect of the liquid pearls very clearly on the chart.

 

When you fill up the chart be sure to go in order from top to bottom so you hand won't bump into wet Stickles!  All of the clear colors are across the bottom row.  

 

I did a post a couple of years ago that shows the differences between the various clear colors - if you missed that post you can find it HERE. 

One more tip for using the Distress Ink pads.  If you have the room and the funds, you could buy a handle for each color and keep the foam pad on it for easy use.  I only have a few handles and I just keep the foam pieces tucked under each ink pad (the base is recessed just the right amount).  You can add a small velcro dot (the loopy side) to keep the foam pads attached to the correct ink pad.

Thanks to the Ranger Company for providing these easy charts and labels - it helps all of us to get (and we hope - stay!) organized.  It also shows you which colors you still need - I think I'll have to go find the Liquid Pearl and Stickle colors that I am missing!

(did you hear the latest news - they are adding Distress Markers to the line - see HERE - one more thing to organize!)

A couple of notes...

I want to remind you that the Creative Memories 20% off album sale will be ending on Thursday, January 26th.  If you like these albums (I think they are the best available), this is a good time to stock up on pages, protectors and coversets.  If you don't have a Creative Memories consultant that you work with, I'd be glad to help you.  You can click HERE to go to my Creative Memories personal website.

Thanks to those of you who ordered through me on the surprise five day sale earlier this month.  I know there were issues with the servers being overloaded and I was happy to help those of you who contacted me get your orders through.  The shipping is taking longer than usual due to the huge volume of sales - thanks for being patient.  I have a couple of orders from the 15th that don't show shipping information yet but I know that everyone is pitching in at CM to get the orders out as quickly as possible!

Also, Blitsy keeps adding interesting items for sale each Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  Today they added the Pink Paislee Vintage Vogue line - I couldn't resist and ordered some of this adorable paper along with a variety of embellishments.

If you haven't joined this free membership shipping site, please use my link below to sign up

http://blitsy.com/rewardsref/index/refer/id/989/ 

Once you have joined, you can get your own referral code and invite your friends and family.  When someone you refers makes their first order of $10 or more, you will get a $10 credit to spend on the site.  If you are a Facebook user, be sure to go "like" their page and then check in the left side column for a fan coupon code that will give you and extra 10% off on your first purchase.

Christmas is almost all back up in the attic - things are starting to look more normal around here!
Just a few days until I leave for the trade shows in Germany.  I'll do my best to post while I am away but there may be some delays.  I will definitely tell you all about it when I get back next week!

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