Sharing my craft room

One of my favorite time wasters  things to do is to look at all the things on Pinterest. One of my favorite things to look for/at are craft rooms and all the fun, creative, unique storage and organizing options and designs.

Long before there even WAS a Pinterest, I was doing the same thing in all the scrappy magazines.  I even created a layout about it.  Anyone remember this ad?

  

I already had a mental list of a number of things that were mandatory as you can see from my list.  It's interesting how so many of those things actually stayed consistent over time.  

Here's the whole layout.

I even heard about a contest for a room makeover and decided to try to enter it. And being the crafty soul that I am, I figured that an album would be much better as an entry than a simple essay.  And I'm sure it would have been.  If I'd've finished it and sent it in.

I'm not much of a country fan but I gotta say there may just be something to Garth Brooks' assertion that "sometimes God's greatest gift is unanswered prayers".  If I'd've finished that album it would have been sent in to the contest and I wouldn't have it as one of my favorite mini albums today.  It documents all the things I wanted and then, how I accomplished them.  Much better than having some celeb designer with no real clue about crafting doing it.  Here's a link to the album - My Favorite Room.

 

For one time in my very impatient life, I managed to do prep work.  I still have the folder with my lists, pictures and hand drawn plans.  If you'd like a good giggle, click on the link and you can check 'em out.  Despite this proof that prep work pays off, I still don't do well getting it done.  And the proof that it pays off is that the vast majority of my room is still just like it was originally planned out.  There have been a few adjustments or changes but not a huge amount considering this was done in December 2007.

Here are a few of my favorite spots in my room with commentary.

This is a look into the room, circa 2007, from the French doors.  I was so delighted to be able to include a comfy chair for Mel to sit in.  Little did I know it actually ended up having Harley in it much more than any homo sapien's behind.  You can just see the ribbon turn table that I made and additional ribbon on the pegboard.  The desk is now straight, facing forward.  It was just easier to get around once I moved it.

This looks into the corner.  The top doors are magnet and are pretty well completely covered by now with all kinds of things that make me happy.  And my poor desk has never, no exaggeration, been this clean since.  One of the coolest updates has happened to the desk.  Mel added a drop leaf to the end. This has been a HUGE help when I've got a lot of stuff I want to play with and need more room. Best of all, I can put it down when I don't want it taking up the extra space. The link shows it in white but it's actually a similar color to the desk.  Super win!

Here's an updated view with the drop leaf extended.  You can also see the super cool round, spinning organizer I got from Harbor Freight.  I highly recommend it.  A little bit of a pain to put together but well worth the time and effort once you're done.  You can also see the framed photo of Harley in his chair looking down on me and Davis.

You can also see a few of the small changes that have happened.  I added dowel ribbon storage to the side of the unit near the chair and a super cute new polka dot rug.

My die cut center is soooooooo awesome!  Having a space to keep all my dies in one place with my machine, heaven!  After changing how I do things this past year I decided to change it slightly.  Here's the original, right across from my desk

And now once it was moved to the right side wall.  Much easier and quicker for me.  Plus an added bonus is it's literally right next to my scrap storage, which you can just see peeking out from underneath the printer.  This past year I also finally combined all of my dies together.  I used to keep my Spellbinders separate from all the other companies. But I finally figured out that if I'm searching for something specific, like a flower, that it's a whole lot easier to look in ONE spot than two.  The top shelf has all my shape dies in Crop N Style PSB binders.  Those things are rarer than hen's teeth!  So if you've got some you want to part with let me know!!!  The bottom shelf has my alphabet dies and embossing folders.  You can see that I left my ink pads on the wall but moved my stamps with the unit that moved.  This was for several reasons, the biggest one was that I tend to use my stamp pads more than my stamps so keeping them closer to hand will make grabbing them that much faster and easier.

This little spot has actually changed the most.  I've added a shelf and more baskets, as you can see to the left in the photo above.  One of my favorite things is the wine bottle pen holders.  So much storage taking up so little space and leaving so much space to put plenty under them.  My big perpetual calendar has been retired.  Or more aptly, hidden. Hopefully one day I'll be able to find a spot for it again.

If you'd like to see more pictures from my office, follow this link.  I've got folders breaking down specific things as far as my room and organization go.  

Do you have an album or layout with images from your craft room?  Or favorite pins for rooms or clever storage and organization solutions?  Please share then with me.  I'm always looking for new ways to waste time, rather new inspiration.  :)

Sharing some creations

When I was at my last job I created the office birthday cards.  Very often I would search Pinterest for ideas and LOVED pinning images or projects that sparked me and then put my twist on them as I used products from the company to accomplish it.

Here are a few of the Pinterest pins and my take on them with commentary.  I apologize for the photos.  Oddly, I usually forgot to take any pictures of the cards and only remembered when they came across my desk to sign.

This really was one of my very favorites.  The pops of color and simplicity work perfectly together. My version used Spellbinders Birds on a Wire & Sentiments 3 dies

                                       

     Here's the  original post 

                                                                             
This next one was really fun and so stinkin' easy!  I used Sentiments 3 again and pulled out an older set, the Classic Ric Rac Edgeablity dies.  Part of why it was so easy is that I had 2 of the Ric Rac die and used painters tape to hold them together and down to my paper.  That made die cutting plenty of chevrons fast and simple.

Here's the original pin.

I really loved trying to figure out how to create this last card.  My version features Papertrey Ink Friendship Jar Fillers set and the Summer Fillers set.  The really neat details on this card aren't immediately noticeable - the 3 little colored dots are actually perler beads that I melted - here's how - and the large scalloped frame required creative die cutting.  I'll show that at the end. So easy and a great way to get more out of your dies.

This is the original post 

Since I didn't have a scallop die large enough to create the opening size I wanted I had to create my own.  Here's how!

- Cut mat to your finished size to make it easier to line everything up.  This will also help avoid trying to cut narrow margins around your finished "negative" frame.
- Cut your first scallop rectangle with the bottom lined up where you want it.  This photo shows the original big scallop rectangles cut from my cardstock

- Reset the scallop die so that you're actually only cutting a portion of the shape

- Whalla!  You can now make negative frames any size you need! This will work well with squares and rectangles especially.  If they've got a design feature, like the big scallops here, it's super easy to line up for the second time through your machine.  Make sure to keep the pieces you've die cut as they'll work perfectly for another project down the road.

What are some of your favorite pins or Pinterest successes?

Jumping in again....

I knew that blogging would be a challenge for me but I never expected all of the things that would happen to distract me from blogging on a regular basis.  Just a few of the things that have kept me busy since I last blogged (8/13):

- I made a team (10/13) and now bout regularly.  If you haven't come out to see it, you really should.  I'm on the Brawlaz but am working my tail off to be put on a state level team.  www.azrollerderby.com
- our nephew now lives with us.  Mel's mom passed away (11/13) and he was the last rugrat she had guardianship over.
- Bret has started the fire academy.  And since finished it and gone again to refresh before taking the various tests.
- Bret also tested extremely well for the Phoenix Fire Dept and got into the first and second round of interviews with them.
- He also moved out and has an apartment in Tempe with a friend.  A bittersweet event for sure.  But mom and dad hooked him up with all the kitchen gear they'd need.
- I've changed departments and jobs at work and am a million times happier.  And was let go (8/15) which makes me sad.
- we have a 4th dog (1/14).  Though he's so damn small he's more of a rat or a cat but he def has big dog attitude.
- we lost Harley (3/15) and Pablo (8/15) and are down to 2 dogs and a turtle.
- I got surprised with an adorable new car (8/13).  Her name is Rosy and I really dig her.
- And my mom has visited (9/14)and returned to Texas.  And has moved here permanently as of 6/15
- I broke my right ankle (3/15) and had to have surgery.  This one has a plate and 11 pins.  Since the doc put my first (and logo) tat back together perfectly I'm not not giving him a hard time about the missing 12th screw so that it would have matched my left side.

And now I'm looking forward to another big adventure.  Since I'm no longer gainfully employed, and am having a challenging time finding a new position, I want to combine my love for creating with helping people, which I also love to do.  A seed was planted by a friend of mine for a business opportunity and I'm hoping to explore it.  As well as devote some time and energy to my Etsy site.

So I hope you'll follow along, send ideas/suggestions/comments/funny jokes.

Have a lovely day!