We all have tough subjects to scrapbook, wouldn't you agree? For me, mine is scrapbooking my parents. They died when I was 19 and it's taken me awhile to learn to live with it. My "new normal" as I call it. I finished my mini album of my mom, took me 11 years but I was "happy" while working on it and didn't shed one tear. It truly was a big stepping stone for me.

I ordered an entire color scheme of vinyl. When it got here I was a bit timid about using it. However once I dove in, it was amazing!

The designs are all cut with my silhouette cameo (have I mentioned I love that machine?!) and were given as gifts to friends or family. Everyone has loved them so far.

If you have made something with vinyl what did you think?

Today is the last day of the organize this challenge. For now :) I may be taking more photo's once my camera reader comes in. These mobile pictures are a bit too hazy for me, so I promise to replace them once my camera is back to working order :)

Sizzix. Another item that is old school. I only keep the dies that I truly love, and I use them just for cutting chipboard or foam. I love chipboard and this has saved me alot of $ on buying simple chipboard shapes. I use the white jetmax cubes from michaels to make a small die-cutting rea. These 4 drawer cubes fit the dies (all colors!) perfectly. Even my stampin up ones!

Do you still have your old sizzix dies?

My biggest supply is stickers. I have them all over the place, well I did. Seems I never have the right one. I am trying to not buy themes as much. I prefer the stickers that match the papers, but for now this is what I have.

The drawers are those multi colored ones in the cart. I labeled each drawer for a theme (the one shown is fall/halloween). It's nice to have, I just grab an entire drawer when I'm working on halloween cards or pages and I know exactly what I have to use. No more forgotten stickers!

This post might show my age a little, or at least how long I've scrapbooked. Yes, I still keep brads. I know they are very old school but sometimes they work! I love them for flower centers or to hold together paper. But storing them in anything hidden made me forget they were there.

These cork boards are the kind you put under a plant! I just stuck the brads in there and hung them in my room. I have 3 of them, a friend of mine gave me this idea and its perfect. I see them and use them more.

There is something about tools. I seem to collect them, each one does something different. We need them all don't we? I needed something that could be easily grabbed from where I sat.

These white metal buckets are from targets dollar spot. I used blue vinyl and my Silhouette Cameo to cut out the titles I wanted. Now it's all organized and I can just grab for what I want. When I go to a crop I just bring the buckets in a tote and I'm ready for cropping on the go!

Well my next huge thing is journaling cards. I don't do project life (but I'd sure like to!) however I love journal cards so I have quite a few. They used to just sit, in a pile, and not get used. I made chipboard dividers and seperated them by theme, now I grab for them all the time!

Do you organize yours?

Just wanted to quickly share how we've been keeping cool. Hope you are too, this weather is quite warm!

Misquamicut Beach in RI is 1 1/2 hours away, or we'd go more often. They have the nicest waves, well at least on this coast. We'd love to visit CA one day but for now this is where we go.

Any other wave surfers?

Since I seem to get more supplies all the time (really, don't we all?) I thought I'd show the way I have things organized currently. However I re-organize All.The.Time. It's never ending, I always think their is a better way.

First we'll start with scraps, we all have tons of those right? I found I wasn't using mine. Now I cut them into 6X6 sheets and organize them this way by color. The leftover 12" borders go into a giant ziploc so that I can use them for punching borders. I've used up alot of scraps this way! I think I found the way I'm going to keep them.

How do you organize yours?

I realize it's only July. However as I've been doing my shopping each week I can't help but notice the back to school stuff is pouring into stores. Have you seen target?? Aisles of stuff.

Since it has "started", I figured I would start too. Plus some of the things I like for making bento lunches sell out quickly so I grabbed them while I could find them. As I've posted, my goal this school year is to make bento style lunches for my boys. It will basically be fun shapes since they don't like sushi, and my little one is Mr. Picky Pants!

Excuse the terrible mobile picture. Last night I managed to drop my card reader and step on it all at the same time! Of course I broke it! I used my Silhouette Cameo and Oracle Vinyl to personalize these. Hopefully this means that the containers will come home every day :)