Creative Chat - Storing embellishments

It's time for the MFT Creative Chat. The My Favorite Things Design Team Creative Chat is a monthly feature, where we are challenged to explore our creative spaces and share valuable organizational methods, tools, and shopping strategies with you. You'll be able to peek into our creative spaces, ask questions, and share your own ideas in the MFT forum.  This month, we were asked the following questions:  

Show us how you store your embellishments.

What are your absolute favorite embellishments?

Any tips or tricks on how to use embellishments on stamped creations?

Visit Kim's Blog for a full list of designers that have taken up the challenge and get ready to delve into the minds of our creative team.

I was excited about this month's Creative Chat because I already had all my embellishments organized.   Usually, these require me to do some work to get ready, but this time it was snap some pics and post.  Easy peasy.  :)

I created a video where I explain my embellishment organization.  You can view it by clicking HERE or clicking the play button on the embedded video below (which you may not see if you are reading this post in a "reader").  For those of you who prefer photos, read on... I included MANY of those for you, too.  

Let me answer the three questions posed to us before I show you my organization.

Question: What are your absolute favorite embellishments? 

Answer: WOW, that is a HARD one for me.  If I HAVE to choose... I would say... ummm... brads.  They come in all shapes, sizes, and colors, and a pretty versatile embellishment.  I like to add them to the corners of my layers, but I also use them elsewhere on a card when I need a little something extra.  A close second would have to be Swarovski Hot Fix crystals.  They are easy to use, and add pizazz.

Question: Any tips or tricks on how to use embellishments on stamped creations?

Answer: Oh, let me count the ways... LOL  In all seriousness, I tend to be a "cerebral stamper", more left-brained than right-brained, so I have lots of "rules" that I try to follow when stamping.  Some things just should be mixed.  LOL  Here are a few "highlights" on how I use embellishments.  Keep in mind I am SURE there are times I break my own rules, and you should craft however your heart leads you. These are general guidelines (for me).  

• Never mix different metal colors on a card. It's just wrong.
• Don't use lots of different colors of embellishments, unless you are working in a "rainbow" palette. 
• Keep adding embellishments until it feels right.
• If at any point, something looks "off", stop what you are doing, and try something else.  

OK, now that you KNOW I am a type-A crazy lady, let's move on to the organization phase of this blog post.  LOL

This is my CRYSTALS DRAWER.  The majority of these are Swarovski Hot Fix crystals.  One day at Michaels, I found an entire display of Swarovski Hot Fix crystals on CLEARANCE.  Nothing like a large number of crystals that were originally priced at $5 and marked down to $1 each to give me a "stamper's high".  There were exactly 220 packages of crystals on that display.  Don't ask me why I know that.  I am not exactly proud of what I did that day.  LMAO  In my defense, I "shared" my loot with a group of stampers, but I kept at least half of it, which is neatly organized by size and color in the Tic Tac containers shown below.  (Walmart $6)

My less-obsessive ADHESIVE CRYSTALS collection is in this drawer.  I only buy pink and clear.  I tend to use these with sentiment-only cards.

My Prima flowers used to be a sea of assortment packs and mixed-color containers.  That was NOT working for me.  I would have to dump out the entire pack to find the color I was looking for and it drove me crazy.  My solution was to dump EVERY pack of Prima flowers I had out, and sort them by color in separate drawers.  Best. Decision. Ever.

There are my resin flowers.  I don't mix these with the paper Prima flowers.  As a result, I don't use them... and to be honest, I forgot I had them until I was taking this picture.  LOL

Buttons.  In a zillion colors.  I have tried several storage solutions and this is the current one.  I can't say I love it, but I can say it keeps them mostly in one place... except for the fact I needed three of these containers to house them all.  And I have no room to grow... which isn't that big of a deal since I rarely use buttons.  LOL  If I ever spill these containers... I will FREAK OUT.  LOL

These Sterlite storage drawers are directly behind where I sit and stamp.  I can swivel around to reach them.  These house the majority of my embellishments, which I have sorted by color.  I removed nearly every embellishment I had from the original packaging and placed them in baggies. Then I tossed the baggies in the drawers, and now I can dig for what I want, and see everything I have.  Love. This. Method. (Is the "single words followed by periods for impact" thing getting old?  I hope not. LMBO)

There are some things I don't sort by color, including the majority of my colored "normal", "plain" brads.  I keep all those together in a couple drawers.  The tiny brads at the top of this picture came in assortment packs (Michaels).  I LOATHE digging through assortment packs, so I paid my kids to separate them and place them in individual colors in a storage container I bought from Walmart.  Think I'm crazy yet?  LOL  The brads and eyelets in the Tic Tac containers are from Pink Hedgehog.

Thanks for joining me for this month's MFT Design Team Creative Chat.  Don't forget to head to the MFT Blog so you can see what the rest of team has in store for you.  (no pun intended LOL)   I'll see you tomorrow for the start of MFT Teaser Time!  *YAY*