Time Redeux

I had an old retro looking clock that the mechanism had gone out on.  I really liked the clock, so I figured it shouldn't be too hard to fix.  I went to JoAnn's and found a $8 (-40% for the coupon) mechanism with a long shank.  Figured that had to be it, since the clock was so thick.  Wrong.  It was so long that the clock wouldn't go back together.  I decided it had to be the shorter one.  So I went back to JoAnn's.  Returned the long shank, got the shorter one (same price, but 50% off coupon this time).  Took it home and the thing hit the glass, thus it wasn't moving time! 

I was in Wal-Mart one night and found this little clock though.  It appeared to have a really short shank.  Plus, the clock was just $4!  No coupon necessary.  I decided to buy it and try it.

I ripped into it as soon as I got home to see if this was the solution.  I pulled the "retro" clock back open and changed one mechanism to the other.  It wouldn't move!  Turns out the the hands were too long!!!  I looked at it for a bit and then after ruling out burning and melting the ends off - little too dangerous and figured the smell wouldn't be good.  I took an electric nail file and filed off the end of the longest hand, rounding it to where no one would even know the difference.  Well, if you look really, really, really close...you might.  But why would you want to?  The good part is that the clock finally worked!!! 

But then there was another issue.  What to do with the $4 leftover clock from Wal-Mart.  Or rather the frame with the glass and paper liner with numbers on it that certainly wasn't much of a clock now.  I had a thought, but then it was making it work that was another issue.  I was going to try to find chalkboard contact paper locally.  It wasn't easy.  I did finally find it at a Hobby Lobby, even after a clerk told us that they didn't carry that.  Actually, they do.  It just didn't have the phrase "contact paper" attached to it.  You have to be so precise when asking for things apparently.  He did direct us to some 12x12 sheets of paper that were also chalkboard surface.  One sheet was $1.99.  A roll of the adhesive paper was $7.99.  It can also be found online, by clicking here.  Okay, so now onto what I did.  I took the new clock that saved my sanity and gave it a new life as a small chalkboard.

I took it back apart and using the glass pressed to the backside of the chalkboard adhesive paper, I marked around, cut it out (duh!), peeled off the backing and stuck it down.  It is repositionable...luckily because I did have to do that a few times.  You may want to have a credit card handy to smooth out any bubbles.  That does cause a problem as well.  Not sure yet where I'll place it.  Right now I just took a quick picture for this post.  It's not the easiest thing to get a photo of with the glare that it causes when the flash hits even the chalkboard.

Note that SOME chalkboard surfaces such as these require that you rub all over it with a piece of chalk to "condition" the surface a few times before first use.  This particular paper took the chalk very well.

Tip: Batteries

I always have rechargeable batteries in my camera bag.  At one time, they would end up all over the place and you'd have to put them all through the tester to find out if they were charged or not.  I was in the Wal-Mart cosmetics travel type area when I saw these soap holders in green and red.  Only $0.50 each.  SOLD! 

I now keep good batteries in the green and spent batteries in the red.  (Same with regular batteries when you don't have a place to dispose of them.)  I know when I get home that I'll only have to charge the batteries in the red case.  Problem with that at times is that some rechargeable batteries will only hold a charge for so long and some will only take so many charges.  Thus, I try to leave them until a day or two before I know I'll need them.  (Exception being the new eneloop batteries by Sanyo.  I charged them when I returned home one night near the end of December (Garth Brooks) and didn't use them again until the last week in March (Shawn Camp) and the batteries had held a FULL charge!  They are my new favorite thing because I don't have to worry about whether I've charged batteries.)

Anyway, the cases fit really nicely in my camera bag along with a charger - just in case.  (Some chargers - like the eneloop - have fold down plugs so there is little chance of damage in transport.)

Tip - Inventory of Supplies

This has been one of the most helpful things that I've come up with for myself anyway. I carry it with me in my purse all the time. It is an index card notebook that was originally purchased for my genealogy research and I decided that it would work perfect for this. Now if I'm in a store, especially good when there is a sale, then I have a list of what I have, so I don't duplicate any purchases.

I have kept the file, just in case anything were to ever happen to the notebook, but have also put my cell phone number inside it just in case I were to leave the notebook laying anywhere by accident. But within Word, I was able to make tabs for every aspect of my artistic type things using the table format. This is where a little obvious logic plays in. Make a two-row table with five-columns. The 2nd row will be merged together and sized at 3" x 5" (the size of the index card). The five columns, in the first row, should be one-inch each. Now, whether that is the first row or the second row, is up to the individual, just make sure one is five-columns, one-inch each and the other is merged together and is 3" x 5". Think about which direction you want your tabs to face. If you do the 1st row as your tabs, they will be printed facing into the notebook; 2nd row will face outwards. If you do a border line through the table with a light grey/silver color - it will give you a nice guide to cut with. Remember, you only do one tab on each table. The next one, you would do the second tab and so on until you get all of your tabs done. A couple can be printed on one sheet of cardstock. Margins can be minimized since they don't matter in this case anyway so you can maximize use of the sheet. Click here for Dividers file in Microsoft Word format.

I know I'm going to have to add more tabs as I get into the project, but so far I've got the following tabs in my notebook:

• Beading
• Books (helps to remember what you checked out from the library or actually purchased)
• CDs
• Cricut
• Cuttlebug
• DVDs
• General Crafts
• Magazines (because some stores have special sales on past issues and it helps to know what you have)
• MCPT
• Knitting
• Polymer Clay
• Refills (pens, printer inks, p-touch, etc)
• Scrapbooking
• Stamping
• Stencils
• Software

Word has a page setup for the Index Card size. I've set up a fiile for each topic in my notebook so I can keep a running file going of these. If you've already printed off some of the cards in the file, just make sure to change the printer properties to only print the ones you need. I've put instructions for some projects, so I can refer back in case I see something that might work in place of something else. Just make sure that the print isn't so small that you can't read it! You can test on a plain sheet of paper, so as not to waste the cards, and see which way the print feeds the cards (if they're pre-punched). Also keeping a card with a MCPT reference chart so I'll know what colors I have available at home - works the same with paints. (I also have a larger chart that I keep with my MCPT materials, so I can reference it - will put another post with close-up photos of those and details on the set-up).

I've been working for a while on getting all of my stamps into an 8½" x 11" notebook and hopefully (fingers crossed) I'm also going to be able to reduce those down to the index card size for the little notebook. I would just put the names and numbers of those, but sometimes it helps to actually see the image in case it's similar to another. It's all a personal preference. Some manufacturers have photos of their items on the websites, but sometimes it's faster to just lay things out and take digital photos yourself to add to the book and then you get what you want. I've actually used both. It's still a work in progress and obviously will always be since I'll obviously purchase more and as I use things up. It'll just get easier when I've got the basic of it done and only have to add things here and there.

The notebooks can be found at Wal-Mart for less than $4 and I had already purchased many packs of index cards when I found them on sale. Best to do it when they have back-to-school sales. I've gotten some packs for as little as 10 cents and 33 cents for 100 cards...so it's really affordable.

Tip - Shopping Lists in a Photo Book

I gave new life to an old photo book - which I rarely use anyway because of too many photos! These things are easy to find at thrift or dollar stores. I started out with one cover and then changed it to one I designed with the Cricut. The lettering was from Alphalicious and then the scrolls from Wedding Solutions - using two colors of paper and then just linking them together before sending it through the Xyron and adhering them to the black cardstock. The covers are a bit larger than the 4" x 6" photo pages, so measure the cover they have in there before creating your own.

For the inside, I created a base for a 4" x 6" card (to make it cheaper, I just cut down cardstock to the proper size with a paper cutter and saved the scraps for other projects) and just changed the location name with each print. Then on another word file, I created a sheet with 4" x 4" blocks of checklists for inserting into each page. Those are printed on standard copy paper to save on the cardstock. After I fill up one checklist, then I toss it into recycle and put in another insert. Helps if you can get it worked out to print the paper two-sided as well. Just keep your margins evened up for it to work. Obviously, by the photo, I put any current store coupons I may have on the corresponding page.

After I came up with my frequented store list - some are obviously lumped into one such as "Home Improv" (ie Lowes, Home Depot) to save some space. I do still have some empty pages, but lumping those type stores together helped with that. I didn't lump my craft stores together because I'm sometimes more specific with what I want from where. Also at the end, I created an index for the front with an alphabetical list (which they are in the book alphabetically as well) for a quick reference to see what stores I have in the book.

This has been so much easier than having a list or multiple lists just stuck everywhere. Plus I can pull out the book whenever I think of something that I want to get the next time I'm at a particular store! Especially after reading the Sunday ads.

Tip - MCPT Color Chart / Paint

This was briefly mentioned in my post about my little index card notebook. After creating a reference card for my MCPT colors, I realized that it would be helpful to have with my supplies to see what the color would actually look like after blending with the mineral spirits on a larger scale. So I created the 8½" x 11" sheet above.

I utilized the Microsoft Word table feature, and of course Excel could be used in the same manner. Because my pencils didn't have "color names" like a box of Crayola's, I ended up just using a number for each block above where I was going to place the color. Then I created two rows below that - the first more shallow than the second. The first I put a deep color and then the second was just for the blended color with the mineral spirits. I've only been doing this for three months now, so I haven't gotten into mixing colors yet. But once I do, I have plans of doing a similar reference chart for that. Obviously starting off with handwritten notes and then dressing it up a little.

This could be really helpful if you purchase your colors in singles. I may eventually P-Touch my pencils though because the numbers are a little hard to see even though I keep them in their container in numerical order. I think the P-Touch could just make it a faster reference. Would also be good if you paint and have a large inventory of paints for the large scale and the portable book.