Video #718: A system that will help you to become a super smart shopper when it comes to stocking up on your arts and craft supplies.
In this video I show you how to set up an art supply inventory system that you can use in your paper planner. I also show how to adapt these ideas if you just want to have a small booklet that can easily fit in you purse.
In a previous video I demonstrated how to set up a planner for your studio, to help you stay organized with your projects. In that video I promise to share more info about my inventory system, so here it is.
When you have a lot of art supplies, like pencils, glues, paints, markers, inks, etc, it can get hard to know exactly what you already have in your stash, unless you have a way to keep track of everything. An inventory book or planner is a great way to avoid double purchasing the same items, instead of spending your hard earned dollars on other supplies that you don’t yet own.
My first system utilized a small blank journal, in which I put color swatches of different products, identified by the appropriate brand name. That system is simple and works quite nicely, as you will see in the video.
When I switched over to an A5 sized planner, I wanted to include the color swatches in to the planner using pocket pages and printed color charts. Now I am able to list products that I do have, which in tern helps me to also see what I don’t have yet.
Below this video I provide a long list of products I used for my inventory system and the links to the printable charts that I have found online. Feel free to add your own suggestions for color chart resources in the comment for this post.
- Related Video: Carpe Diem Paper Planner
- Related Video: How I Organize By Zones in My Polymer Clay Studio
- Related Video: Favorite 2015 Polymer Clay Tools And Supplies
- Related Article: Organizing And Storing Polymer Clay
- Related Resource: Carpe Diem A5 Planner on Amazon
- Related Resource: Simple Stories Plastic Pocket Pages on Amazon
- Related Resource: Project Life Plastic Pocket Pages on Amazon
- Related Resource: 6 Hole Punch for A5 Planners on Amazon
- Related Resource: Prismacolor Premier Soft Core Pencils on Amazon
- Related Resource: Copic Markers on Amazon
- Related Resource: Clearsnap Colorbox Paint Box Ink on Amazon
Links To Free Printable Art Supply Color Charts:
- Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencil Blank Color Chart
- Prismacolor Premier Nupastel Blank Color Chart
- Prismacolor Premier Art Markers Blank Color Chart
- Faber-Castell Color Charts
- Copic Marker Blank Color Chart by Paperfections
- Staedtler Karat Aqua Colored Pencils Blank Color Chart by Ywana
- Clearsnap Do It Yourself Ink Charts (multiple brands)
- Ranger Products Printable Blank Color Charts (multiple brands)
- Tsukineko and Fresh Ink Color Charts
- Derwent Watercolor Color Chart
- Spectrum Noir Blendable Pencils Color Charts
- Spectrum Noir Marker Color Charts
If you know of other printable charts, feel free to post about them in comment section below… so that they can be added to the list.
My goal is to help you to learn quicker and easier ways to bring up the professionalism in your polymer clay art.
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Looking forward to hearing from you!
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I love this! It is so organized yet seems fairly simple with some prep work. Of course I’d actually have to follow through with adding the colors I bought as I went, but I just love the idea of having the information with me when I’m out at the store in case I see something on sale or something catches my eye or whatever.
Once you have it set up, adding the new stuff is fun. It isn’t a big deal to add one or two new colors and it makes you feel like you’re completing something… like sticking those stickers onto the Safeway card to get the glassware or something. It does help you when you’re in the store to not buy something you have or choose a color, too similar to what you already have. Sometimes it also prevents you from buying too much. When you flip out that page of washi tape and see how many you really have, you think maybe you really don’t need any more of those for awhile! ;)
Cindy, I think this whole idea of getting [creatively] organized around your creative works and supplies is great! I am having fun just thinking about it. I am an organizer from way back, but what I have used so far for my clay stuff is coil-bound notebooks, which quickly become frustrating for so many reasons. So I am scouting around looking at some kind of loose-leaf system that appeals.
I have a question about the Project Life planners. When I went on line to look at them, the description said the capacity for the binder is 35 pages. I am pretty sure this is the pink one you show in the studio cam videos. Number one, 35 pages does not seem very much/enough to me, and number two, it looks like you have a whole lot more in yours. What’s the skinny?
Thanks as ever,
Fran
Hi Fran, the planner I have is the Carpe Diem Planner by Simple Stories. It will hold a lot more than 35 pages. I currently have 127 pages in mine (I counted because I was curious). Some are regular paper, some are dividers and some are the pocket pages with two pages in them. Plus there is a large pocket with stickers in it and the zipper pocket. There is still room for more pages yet, so unless the binder you found is way thinner, then I don’t really understand why they would say it only held 35 pages. Of course if you put really thick items in the pockets it would take up more room, but you should be able to figure out something that will work well for you.
I loved the video and the chart are so helpful. Now my supplies will be way better organized and no more double purchases of some product. Thank you Cindy!
Hi Cindy!
I just made a quick and dirty Pinata Alcohol Inks Chart for myself, which other people may find useful as well :)
thanks Molly, that sure will help.
Excellent Molly! I have printed one up, added my new Pinata Inks I just got this week and have already put it in my planner. Thank you so much!
Cindy, what a great idea. I have made up this type of thing for my polymer clay to know exactly what I have bit I do admit to having doubled up on supplies a few times now so this is a perfect idea.
This would also be useful when you purchase texture stamps, stencils, moles and silkscreens.
I have purchased a few of the textures from cool tools and do need to check I do not double up.
And you are right, this will help to only purchase what we do not have. Thank you.
All are excellent ideas. Love the inventory sheets. Does anyone have a link to the polymer clay sheets for premo, fimo, kato etc; Thats my biggest problem, knowing how many I have and of each color!
G’day Dixie Ann,
Like you I have a problem remembering how much clay I have especially when I have supplies in two countries so I built a small Excel spreadsheet to keep track of it. It’s programmable for individual needs with formulae built in so you can see what needs to be bought to keep stock levels up.
I think I have linked a copy to my Dropbox account but I’m not entirely sure of that so please excuse me if I don’t get this right first time! If anyone else reads this please feel free to download it and edit the numbers to suit your needs.
It does not have the newest Premo colours or any Souffle at all as it hadn’t been on the market when I first built it. If there are enough people interested I will create another workbook for Souffle. Feel free to adapt it to Fimo or Kato clays or any other brands.
Cheers,
Chrissie
Thanks Chrissie, I really don’t want another excel spread sheet. I like the new inventory sheets with the actual color or package showing for a planner. I know some of the companies have color lists just don’t know where to find them.
Thanks Chrissie for this idea – personally I’d rather have a list that I can scan quickly rather than samples. (Using the names alone isn’t perfect but it is at least fast!)
Nice job, Chrissie!
Thank you so much Chrissie for doing this chart for the community! You are a tremendous person and it will be very helpful to many people.
Hi Cindy, I have a question about your planner. I got looking through all my stuff and I have a bunch of SNAP items that are 2 hole punched and are 6×8 size. I am wondering if they will fit in your binder being that it has 6 rings? I hate to not use them if the two holes line up with 2 of them in that binder and the rest I can punch. Center hole to center hole it measures 4 and 5/16″ or 11cm thereabouts. Do any of the holes in your binder line up to that measurement.?
Hi Dixie Anne, yes those 6×8 pages from your SNAP binders will fit into the A5 Carpe Diem Planner as well. You just need to punch the extra holes. In the video I mention the pocket pages only having two holes (They are from the same binder system that the SNAP system is from all made by Simple Stories.) Anyway, you will see the the video that the two holes line up perfectly with the center holes in each set of three binder rings, so by punching matching holes on either side of the two holes, you’ll have the six holes that you need.
It was because of this that I bought the Carpe Diem planner, because I too had pages that I wanted to transfer over to the new binder, so that I wouldn’t waste them. The 6 x 8 pages are the same size as the pocket pages I showed in the video, so they are larger than the A5 pages in width, but they still fit in this planner quite well. The only issue I had was with the dividers that were next to the snap strap, got bent over when the planner was snapped up, but that is because the dividers stick out even further than the pages. The whole cover is large enough for the pages and the dividers though, so if you don’t mind a couple of the tabs getting pushed over, than it will work fine for you until you eventually change over to the new planner pages… that is if you want to.
Hopefully that made sense. From what I can tell the Carpe Diem Planner has been such a huge hit that they will most likely add a lot more accessories with the six holes including pocket pages and stuff in the future. I don’t think this trend is going away any time soon.
Thank you so much Cindy, it looks like everyone is out of these planners they are so popular. I watched the YouTube video for it and it was really extensive. Some places are selling it for $35 but are out of stock. Hopefully I can get one soon. :)