MFT - Creative Chat

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.

The majority of my embellishments are housed on this shelf beside my stamp desk. I use the Craft Mate binder organizers. Each of the binders contains four, seven compartment organizers. I absolutely love these binders! The lids are nice and secure, if they fall all your goodies don't flow onto the floor.

I take all my embellishments out of the package as soon as I get them. I have the embellishments organized by color. I used to have them organized by the manufacturer, which worked for awhile but I outgrew that system. I found that I was having to pull down ten different binders just to find the right embellishment. With my new color coded system I just pull down the color binder that I want. It makes finding embellishments so much easier!

Some of these binders are overflowing with embellishments while others have a bit room to add more. I am really trying to limit the colored embellishments that I buy as I already have a ton! I do however "need" some more black and brown ones! LOL

Most of my embellishments in these boxes are not labeled as I tend to know which manufacturer they are from. I did label some of the assorted embellishments. I cut out the name of the embellishment from the package and taped it to the bottom of each container.

Here is a quick look at all my binders.

Blue

Red

Pink

Silver & Pewter

Purple

Black & Grey

Yellow & Gold

Green

Orange & Brass

White

Ivory & Brown

Felt Flowers

HodgePodge Hardware

Seed Beads & Confetti

Dew Drops

Assorted Colored Brads

Assorted Colored Brads & Ribbon Slides

In front of my Craft Mate organizers I have a number of jars from Ikea. Each jar contains a single color of buttons. Most of these jars are jammed to the top. I guess that means that I can't buy any more buttons!

 Under my desk have a three drawer plastic Sterilte container that holds my other embellishments. On top of the drawers I have a number of old Stampin' Up! clear stamp boxes. These boxes are just perfect for storing embellishments. I have a number of them that contain flowers and one really large one full of felt snowflakes.

 

The drawers of embellishments are filled with things that just don't fit anywhere else. The first one contains some of my larger HodgePodge hardware.
The second drawer is full of Prima flowers. I never really got into the whole Prima thing so my collection is quite small.

The final drawer is my favorite, it's full of bling!

One of our questions was, what is our favorite embellishment. It's a question that I really don't think I can answer! I love all sorts of embellishments. I love brads, buttons and bling! The one embellishment that I have a ton of, that I really don't like, are eyelets! Why on earth did I buy so many and what the heck am I going to do with them?

 As far as tricks and tips for embellishments go, I only have one important rule, less is more! There is no need to add every embellishment you have to any one card! A few well placed embellishments have far more impact than too many.

I hope you have enjoyed this little trip through my embellishments! Be sure to check out Kim's Blog to see how the rest of the Design Team organizes their embellishments. I just know they have some great ideas!