What's Happening?

...And I don't mean the 70's TV series. Hi! I'm back starting another late night post so that it is available on Thursday morning. I never mean to start these things at one in the morning, it just works out that way!

We have some new things for you this week and a reminder that there is one Stamp Camp left this
time around so reserve your spot before it's too late. We've had a great first two sessions so come join the fun.

I wanted to throw this stamp in first. It's part of our new shipment of IO stamps. This stamp summarizes why Sharon gave me a very large 'List' pad for Christmas! Welcome to senior multitasking!

New stuff! First up is Darcie's Tin Pins and coordinating stamps. These are perfect for you little ghouls and goblins for Halloween!

Next up is StazOn PIGMENT white ink. I''ll be honest, I'm not the best person in the store to tell you about the merits of ink pads. I'm still on a 12+ year learning curve. I have faith in Sharon and everyone else at the store that they know the best use for these pads and I will be asking!

Nuvo keeps cranking out the product! I spy Sparkle Spray, in some gorgeous colors, and a beautiful selection of pastes for your stencils and projects.

I mentioned I wanted to talk about finding a way to keep track of all the stamps, dies and other supplies we all accumulate. I've been trying to save screen shots and have had a little bit of trouble doing so. I have one so I thought I'd go with just this. Airtable is an app on your phone that can be used to catalog what supplies you have for an easy way to prevent re-shopping product and to find out exactly what you do have in your ever growing stash. I like this app because I can view it on my iPad and on my phone. It's portable! Also, you can EASILY add photos of your product, which to me is a big plus. 

Airtable displays like a table. You can easily set up your columns how ever you want. I've decided to list my products this way, Manufacturer's name, a photo of the product (which can be enlarged), the manufacturer's product name, does it have a matching die, category (an easy way to help search) and a more detailed or personal description of the stamp. You can easily add more columns and customize those columns. For example, you can specify that a column entry be a multi-line entry or a shorter single line, like my company name column. You can color code an entry, like my category entry. You can make a column entry be a 'yes' or 'no' entry buy selecting it to check a box as you enter information, and for me, the best part is the photo feature. For the 'attachment' column I've specified 'photo' as to the type of attachment I want. 

When I make an entry I start with the name of the company, then I click the photo icon and take a photo of my product. Airtable directly loads that photo to my entry when I specify 'use'! It DOES NOT store the photo on my phone in the photos app! I don't have to save a photo on my phone then find it in my photos and move, download, change the extension - NOTHING! it goes directly to my table and I'm done! Easy, Peasy!

Category is also easy. As you enter you can create new categories. You don't have to figure them all out before you start! I've chosen to color code mine. So as you can see, all my 'Word Set' stamps are purple, all my 'Flower' sets are pink and I can have multiple categories. For example, looking at Altenew, Majestic Mistletoe is a Christmas, Nature and a Layered stamp set and I can search my stamps using any of these categories!

Now, there is another side to keeping a list like this of your product. How do you find the actual stamp once you know which one you want? For many of us that's an even bigger problem to solve! I've got some ideas and I'll talk about that in a later post. For now, check out Airtable and see if it works for you.

We recommended last week that you get your pre-orders for Lawn Fawn's new release in as it will probably go like hotcakes. Well it looks like we're not the only ones who are feeling the purse string tug of Lawn Fawn...

Have a great crafty week and I'll see you next time.