FUSSY CTTING DIGITAL PEOPLE, STUDIO ORGANISING AND THE EPHEMERA DILEMMA

Fussy cutting

Digital People

I have long been intrigued by Tim Holtz’s Paper Dolls and have toyed with the idea of buying them, but when I signed up to the Graphics Fairy Premium Membership site, I discovered that they had a bundle called “Digital People” which is very similar – stand-alone figures and small groups, extracted from original vintage black and white photos and converted to high quality png images for us to use – either fussy cutting them and collaging them, or incorporating them into other images or backgrounds digitally. This gives you a great deal more flexibility as a) you can make them any size you want, and b) you have an unlimited supply because you can print out any quantity. I like how some of the figures are in a seated position, or leaning on something; these objects have been removed, so you can put the figures in whatever environment you want, to give a realistic effect.

I selected most of the images from the collection and imported them into my desktop publishing software so that I could resize and arrange them (the average original picture size is about 6 inches which is too big for my current purposes – however, having them this big does mean that you are not going to lose much resolution if you enlarge them further, and most people wouldn’t want them much bigger anyway).

After I was satisfied with the resizing, and arranging as many as possible onto two landscape pages, I exported them as a pdf and printed them. This was by way of an experiment as I wanted to try some coated card I have had for a long time –  it said it was suitable for “printers and copiers” as well a “inkjet” so I was assuming that meant it was OK for laser. It printed like a dream! I printed out two copies of each sheet, which set me quite a task as far as the fussy cutting went, especially as they are quite small and detailed. The laser printing does produce a slight sheen even on matte card, but I think the coated paper added some extra sheen, and they probably fairly closely resemble the slightly shiny Tim Holtz ones.

The fussy cutting in progress.

I am not the best fussy cutter in the world, and my failing eyesight doesn’t help much – having cataracts really is a pain when doing detailed work, especially in the evenings! When I saw the optician last year he said they were not ready to be dealt with; I think you’ve got to be virtually blind before they will do anything! – but I digress.

The cut edges of the figures will need inking as they are definitely showing white. Inking them should help to conceal any bad cutting and give a more professional finish.

I have put the ones I’ve cut so far into the large photo album I bought at the village fete on Saturday, just as a temporary measure. Although this looks really cool for ephemera storage, I don’t think it’s an efficient use of space, and it’s a bit of a faff getting them out.

Other fussy cutting

While sorting through stuff (see below) I came across various sheets of printed out images, so I decided that since I was on a bit of a fussy cutting binge, I’d deal with these, too. Being on paper, they are a lot easier to cut than the Digital People, so I’ve been alternating them in order to give my hand a rest.

Studio organising

Yesterday afternoon I had hoped to do something creative in my studio, but ended up having a major sort-out. The problem is, it still looks as untidy as ever! Organising seems to be a matter of simply moving stuff around, and not actually getting rid of anything!

I have never had a proper system for storing fussy cuts, ephemera, collage papers etc etc. When I started out, a place was assigned for each different aspect of my stash, but as time has gone on, additional things have been stored differently, so it is hard to find anything. I am trying to rationalise everything. I was still undecided about the best way to store small bits and pieces such as ephemera – there are so many good ideas out there, and I wanted to find the least space-occupying and most efficient system which is also very accessible and easy to use. Recently I thought of adding further baskets similar to those I use for my stamp and die storage, with Avery Elle pouches containing small baggies of organised material.

However, the baskets do end up with quite a large footprint on the surface, and having recently added another one which makes them two deep under the window, I am finding I am having to move things in order to work in that space. Also, that system works very well for larger things like dies, but most of the ephemera are small.

I did make some progress with my general organisation though. I went through a lot of the polywallets in the large Really Useful Boxes and started to organise those a bit better.

I removed the digital printouts and filed them in clear document wallets in a lever arch file, and I also sorted the various fussy cuts and recycled elements from old greetings cards etc. I now have quite a collection of cardboard packaging with interesting windows cut out of them, and old greetings cards with printed frames which I have cut out, and these are now sorted and more organised.

Further work is needed to organise this box (which has now spread over to a second one, taking up too much space!). The polywallets need labelling and I need to sort the categories better.

Ephemera storage

I have a large white ring binder with transparent pockets on all three outer cover surfaces which I bought back in 2013 (and decorated accordingly) for my Zentangle catalogue.

I bought a pack of transparent ATC-pocket pages to store the individual design cards in, so that you can see both the pattern on the front, drawn as a little art piece, and the step-out instructions on the back.

The Ebay shop sent me double the quantity of these pages by mistake. When I contacted them they said just to keep the second pack, so I have far too many of these and shall never fill them all with tangle patterns! In the last couple of years, the plastic cover of this binder has started to deteriorate badly and eventally I think it’s going to fall apart, so I may have to rethink this, too. I was wondering whether to put some of these ATC pocket pages in the lever arch file with the digital printouts, and use them for storing ephemera. There would be plenty of pockets for them, and I would be able to sort them so they are visible. The problem with this system is that they tend to fall out, and also the pockets are so small for the larger ephemera. At the moment some of the ephemera are stored in small plastic boxes but as the collection grows, it means taking up more space with additional boxes in order to separate them into categories. It’s doubtful I’ll have enough to fill each box, so they are taking up more space than necessary (boxes filled with 90 percent air!).

By the end of the day I was still pondering what is the best way to proceed, and decided I needed to watch more YouTube videos…

I did this today, but didn’t get much further. There seem to be several options:

1. Store them loose in boxes. Advantage: easy to rummage to find what you want. Disadvantage: boxes take up too much space, especially if they are not full. If they are full, it is hard to rummage.
2. Store them in pockets in albums and folios. Advantage: looks pretty (especially if you make the albums yourself). Disadvantage: limited space for the ephemera compared with size of album, hard to organise them into categories, more difficult to access. Album size is finite.
3. Store them in pouches in a box. Advantage: Easy to sort into categories and easy to access. The pouches are flat and take up very little space. Disadvantage: the box takes up space – if it won’t go on a shelf, it is occupying work surface.
4. Store them in photograph albums. Advantage: each one is separate and you can see exactly what you’ve got. Looks great. Disadvantage: hard to organise as collection grows, inolving moving them around. Difficult to access as you have to pull back the film from the sticky surface each time you want one. The photograph album can be bulky and takes up a lot of space, with less efficient use of space for the ephemera.

I didn’t really like any of these options, partly because of the space some of them would take up, and partly because they would be more difficult to access. I was still drawn to the pouches in boxes idea, though.

I wondered whether one could store them in CD cases in a box. From previous experience with these, to make them useable you have to remove the inside part of the case, which then leaves a gap at the hinge side, through which small things could fall out.

Vaguely looking around my office I spotted a small box on a high shelf, with some CD cases in it – they fit exactly and it’s quite compact.

I rejected the idea of using these plastic cases, and discovered two envelopes stuffed with paper CD envelopes with transparent windows.

Bingo!

The CD envelopes fit perfectly in the small cardboard box. They are easy to open and get the ephemera out. You can write along the top edge.

Until I get enough envelopes to fill the box, I can use the empty CD cases to fill the space and keep the envelopes upright. I could also make dividers to separate them into categories as the collection grows.

Here are the ephemera in the envelopes so far.

I do have some which are too big to go in these envelopes, so for the moment they are in one of the original plastic boxes.

The wall unit near my desk houses a lot of small cardboard boxes which also need sorting through, and a lot of stuff getting rid of. I was storing a few bits of ephemera in plastic boxes there.

The new ephemera storage box fits in there very neatly now I’ve cleared a space.

The one remaining plastic box contains the ephemera too large to go in the CD envelopes. Underneath is a stack of smaller plastic boxes with dividers, in which I keep my brads and eyelets. The black box whose end is visible contains my Japanese screw punch. This box is too big for the tool so I may find a smaller one.

This ephemera storage system is going to work just fine. Another huge advantage is that I haven’t had to buy anything extra! I already had everything I needed, and even a nice compact box to keep them in. If the collection gets too big over time, I shall have to rethink things, of course, but for now it’s perfect.

I shall continue to keep the cuts from my cutting machine in the larger Avery Elle pouches in the white baskets. I have a medium-sized cardboard box of miscellaneous die cuts which need to be sorted. I shall probably amalgamate these with the cutting machine cuts and the greetings card frames, and sort them into categories – most of them are shapes (circles, hearts, leaves, flowers, butterflies etc.)

Corner shelf

I have a free-standing corner shelf which I got with my office desk set-up, on which my old inkjet printer sat (now belonging to my hubby). It was not large enough to accommodate the new colour laser printer so for a while it was knocking around serving no useful purpose. It’s always been a bit of a pain because it’s hard to find a corner where it will fit, and be useful. Yesterday I put it in the far left-hand corner of my continuous work surface, where my mixed media storage is (wall cupboard above, shelves below). It fits nicely, and provides a shallow storage area underneath, and a reasonable triangular-shaped surface.

It fits neatly under the power point, but here is the problem. My hand-held Dyson vaccuum cleaner lives in that corner, with its charger plugged in that particular power point, handy and ready for use, but the transformer plug extends below the power point and with the shelf there, it can no longer be plugged in.

The problem was easily remedied, however, with the addition of an adaptor, enabling the Dyson to be plugged in at the top.

The cable tucks away neatly behind the shelf.

My splat box will go back in that corner, and I shall probably keep the laminator and my plastic lace mats and doilies for coffee dyeing underneath. That corner is already looking a lot tidier than before.

Lost papers

During a studio organising session a little while ago, I decided the pile of large papers, mostly Amazon packaging, and some newsprint paper, with mark making, coffee-dyeing and other experimental stuff which involved generally splashing a lot of ink and paint around, had to be tidied away. I found a good place to store them, but now I can’t find them! It must have been a very clever place indeed… These papers are far too large simply to be hidden away in some nook or cranny and overlooked.

Conclusion

So… a somewhat frustrating afternoon yesterday, in which I had originally planned to do something creative, but today’s efforts have at last yielded fruit and I’ve found a solution that I think will work for the ephemera. The corner shelf now has a useful new home, and I shall continue to get my papers better organised. I am hoping to get some real creative stuff done tomorrow! I shall resist the temptation to do any further organising for now.

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