Tuesday Tips and Techniques: Clean House!

OK. I know including the word "clean" in my post title will scare a good number of readers away, but let's face it - sooner or later, "clean" is a necessary evil in creativity.  We creative types are natural born hoarders who see the creative possibilities in nearly every item we look at, and more often than not, we welcome and embrace the item into our home to give it new life.  I don't know about you, but I have a terrible time getting rid of these treasures.  

SORTING


Let's begin with those avalanching piles of crap, er, precious papers, postcards, and ephemera right next to your my work space.  Make sure to weed out everything that doesn't belong (oh - that's where the water bill went!)

Now, let's go through all those folders, bags, and other places you have your  I have my stash.  When's the last time you looked through all those magazine images, quotes, phrases and other items that you've torn from books and magazines?  If you're like me, you've had some of these images for a couple years or more.  Do they still speak to your creative muse?  Did you come across a page, flip it back and forth and wonder, "why did I save this?"  You've outgrown it.  Get rid of it and make room for new images that appeal to you!

OK.  On to the paint.  (Am I the only one that has little piles of art supplies everywhere?)  I have paints located in several different areas.  I have my "stock supply" (which is fairly neat and organized), and I have a bag of assorted paints in a tote bag.   When I run out of a color in my bag, I go to my stock supply to replenish.  

Now is a good time to assess your paint.  What colors are you running low on?  What colors might you add to your collection?  Do you have tubes with just a smidgen of paint left?  Put those aside and use those up first when you begin prepping more background pages.

It's also a good time to remove those items that don't belong to the paint family!  (Anyone know of a Stevia technique?) You may also want to look through your mediums, pens, brushes, etc.  Make a list of the things that need to be replenished.  It's not too late to ask Santa for some help!

ORGANIZING


If you haven't guessed by now, this post is selfishly more for me than you today.  Cleaning is a breeze, but when it comes to my 100 list of strong points, organization comes in at around 637.  Seriously - when it comes to organizing my materials the word that comes to mind is "overwhelming".


I'm determined to start my 2012 year of journaling in an organized fashion.  My main dilemma is categorizing paper.  Do I group by color or subject?  Do I group by genre, ie., Asian, texture, primary, seasons?  It makes my head spin!


I'm working on this today and it occurs to me that I'm over-thinking the entire process.  So here's what I'm going to do until I hear from you.  I'm going to sort all of my paper by color.  Then I will sort each color into 4 categories: 1.People (faces/body parts)  2. Nature (plant life, animals)  3. Things (inanimate objects)  4. Textures.  


That will at least put some organization into the paper for now.  I'm already thinking that I will make "Asian" a category as I already have plans for an Asian inspired journal in the new year.  


I WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!  Please let me know what has worked for you when organizing your materials.  I'm especially interested in organizing the paper, but please do feel free to leave a comment on any helpful solutions you've found!

TIE UP THOSE LOOSE ENDS!


Do you still have a couple projects that need some finishing touches?  Now is the time to complete those journals so that you can begin fresh in the new year.

Think of how wonderful it will feel to have your 2011 projects completed and tucked away for safe keeping as you move forward into new adventures in 2012.  When January arrives, all you'll have left to do is "Celebrate, LOVE, and Create!"