ormolu

Password keeper.

Raise your hand if, like me, you're floundering in website usernames and passwords. And, just when I start to remember them, the site asks me to change them for security. I'm not alone, right? So. I finally decided to do something about it. Rather than trying to keep all the little scraps of paper I scratch my passwords on in a neat tidy pile, I made a little password keeper. 

I grabbed my GO Ticket Book and pulled out the lovely tickets (to use on other projects). I thought the GO line was appropriate since I can't "go" without my proper passwords, lol. I also love the reminder that often the packaging is as useful as the product.

I added a flair piece (taken off its charm setting), punched a hole and used a binder ring to hold my inside tags together:

My inside tags (which fit so perfectly!) actually have my passwords and such scrawled on them (about five altogether, broken out by category...shopping sites, services, bills, social media, etc) but obviously I'm not going to share those here. ;) I like that by using the binder ring I can change the tags out as they need correction and/or as I add more sites. I can also use the binder ring to hang my handy password keeper in my office, inconspicuously. 

Ta da! So, how do you keep track of your many passwords? (Really. I'd love to know!)

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Organizing those little things

I love both scrapbooking and organizing. Which means I spend a lot of time organizing my scrapbook supplies. Not too productive in terms of scrapbooking.

I am working on that. 

Several years ago I picked up this metal tray at a nearby antique/thrift store. I typically don't ever have plans for items I pick up- I just know I like them and want to incorporate them somehow. Once I got it home it sat on the floor for weeks and I gradually started adding little metal tins to it that I was acquiring from a scrapbook kit club on a monthly basis. 

I soon fell in love with the idea of having all of these mini tins full of little items and found myself reaching for those items all too often. It's very inspiring having all of those little things in front of me as I create. 

When I moved into my new workroom I relocated it and placed it sitting on the floor. Once little man started moving though I had to get it up onto my counter. He is all too interested in it and it is a mecca of choking hazards. However, he had managed to dump out several containers on a few occasions and it's neatness was compromised. 

I decided last week to go through each container and reorganize, purge and group items differently. They had been grouped the same way for several years now (just as they came) and I was interested in rotating items out. Once little man went down for a nap I dumped out all of the contents on my table...and then I questioned if I was making use of my time wisely. 

I started sorting, purging and regrouping items and remembered I also had a box of vintage findings I have been collecting over the years so I took that out as well. A lot of the items in this photo are larger..but there were many smaller items in this box. After pulling this box out I remembered all of the awesome little items in here and now have plans to get all of those cards organized too. The whole process didn't take too long and I ended up 'discovering' treasures that had been forgotten. 

Right now it's up on my counter until I figure out if I want to relocate it somewhere else. I love having my countertop clear...and this has a low profile. But I am just not sure I love it there. Hopefully it finds it's new home soon. 

A couple of my favorite places to find little items online would be: 

• Jenni Bowlin
• Paper Valise
• Etsy: search for ephemera and vintage supplies

Locally, I like to look at antique and thrift stores and there are several stores nearby me that have embellishments and vintage items. There is actually a store that caters to art journalers nearby and they have a great set up of little containers filled of these types of objects. I also like to include tag sets in these tins, newer found items and scrapbooking embellishments. 

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There is still time to apply for the Creative Team. If you are interested check out this post and be sure to get your application to me by next weekend. 

Photo Album Labels using Sticky Back Canvas

After using the sticky-back canvas to make tags the other day- and realizing I have been looking at these ugly little spines of my photo albums for the last couple of years wondering what I could do to help them out...I came to a solution! 

I bought these albums as suggested by Stacy Julian in her Library of Memories class and they are great quality but the spine just needs some help. For those of you who do not know what lies beneath that numbered label it is a dark maroon color block with the word 'Album' stamped in gold. Need less to say I was not a fan and I had tried a few things to cover it but none yielded the results I was looking for.

So this morning I drew up a quick little colored box in InDesign (although something this easy could be done in Word or Photoshop...I just happened to have InDesign open at the time). I then layered the colored box with a white box and placed a number in the box. I set up a file to print and printed it out on some more sticky-back canvas. I trimmed the files out and then placed them on the spine. Super quick and easy and they look much better. The canvas seems to stick really well too- and in one case I wanted to move the image slightly so I pulled up and was able to readjust it very easily and yet it still is sticking well. Hopefully it holds up. 

For those interested I have provided a download with the files in case you can use them for something...whether it be albums, jars or baskets. There are two files- one yellow and one black. 

Download Albumnumbers_black

Download Albumnumbers_yellow