Guy Birthday Cards

The other day I was driving home and I saw one of the new VW Bug cars and I was admiring the shade of grey that also had a wee bit of color added to it, which inspired me to try something similar. The car was grey and red and I thought maybe a little green instead would work here. DH will be 56 this year and I figured making him a birthday card now even though his birthday is months away would be as good as any.

I have to say I did enjoy the color scheme and thought this would also work well for a anniversary card.

This card I made for my grandson since I didn't get to celebrate his birthday with him this year but will be making him dinner and a cake this coming weekend I thought it might be fun to make him a belated birthday card and let me exercise my word bubble die.



ReOrganizing the Craft Room - 3

So in my previous post we saw my desk and now I take you to the corner as well as behind me and to the right and to the left.

First up to give you a better idea of my entire workspace which isn't just limited to the desk and shelving above and on top.

As you can see I have a corner piece where my Clip it up that I was fortunate enough to win sits and then to the right another set of adjustable shelves.

And underneath the area where my Clip it up sits are my inks which are set in a cassette holder box that my friend gave me and then on top are my copics

After taking this picture I am ashamed that underneath didn't get painted but I guess since I don't really see it I never noticied it before.

I store my copics in these acrylic boxes from the Container store, I think they are about $3-5 each. I love having them in this and then I just pop on the lid and they are easily transported to a crop.

Now here is the other shelf to my right. I did reogranize this a bit by getting rid of a bunch of jars that held paper flowers (that my bff is happy to take off my hands) and then used some baskets to store my paints, stencil supplies, dies and washi tape. (I basically was using these storage containers before but after reorganizing a few things for aesthetic purposes I had them leftover so I found new uses for them)

I keep most of my dies in baggies that I labeled and put them in a basket and I also have a few in my artbin on the shelf. Nothing too fancy but it seems to work.

I keep my embossing folders in this sterilite container which again works handy when you're headed off to a crop.

And under my shelf is another Ikea cabinet. And the best thing about this is it's shorter than the desk so it fits neatly beside it and not too deep so the drawers from the Ikea file cabinet can still open. I have my Cricut bug right at an arms reach without taking up desk space. I can't tell you how much I love that. And see that hand crafted clay mug, my oldest ds made that for me eons ago and I uncovered it in the closet cleanout so I knew it needed to be seen so I could cherish it, especially now that he is going to be 31 this year.

And if you can read what's in the drawers you'll notice I keep my CB mats in there.

So a brief detour from the room to visit all the places I keep my punches and there are quite a few. I have two drawers for punches that are seasonal or that I don't use that often. Then you can see below I have taken a kitchen storage box from Target and hung them on the wall and keep my border punches as well as a few favorite.

And then I also keep a basket tucked under in my file drawer shelf which holds the most frequently used punches like circle punches.

And now behind me is the window seat that again my oh so talented hubby did for me. He was off at Christmas a few years back and decided to make me this but he loves to do trim work so he got a bit carried away with it and was much larger than I envisioned but I think it turned out great.

As you can see there are more shelf units at either end of the bench seat.

Behind that yellow pillow is where my kitty hides away from everyone that's why it's sitting up to make a semi secluded area for her.

Since taking this photo I added labels to these baskets. They keep my rolls of ribbon, toille, vinyl and little windows supplies.

And back to the closet side, this is the bookcase which got a bit of a make over too.

And lastly to the right of the desk I have two large baskets that hold all my project and pages in progress in giant zip lock bags, acrylic storage boxes and shopping bags.

So that's it. I hope you enjoyed an indepth look at my like craft room, it's not much but it works for me and always makes me happy to be in here and that's what really matters, right?

Now any takers on how long until this is messy again?

I hope everyone has a Happy Love Day!

ReOrganizing the Craft Room - 2

This is my desk setup. As I mentioned in my earlier post I was very fortunate that my dh built all of this for me except for the two Ikea filing cabinets. The desk top is a solid door that was stained and varnished. Being solid gives me the opportunity to sand it and restain and varnish if I were to badly damage it.

Here we have a bit closer look at the main shelves above

Lets examine a bit closely shall we what exactly is in these adjustable shelves.

As you can see besides having my papers seperateed by color, I have also have a shelf for 8.5 x 11 pp, there are bins for Project Life, Ribbon, Flowers, Chipboard, 6x6 pads and just odds and end stuff.

Below is what I purchased and organized for my PL items. I am using Linus bins that are either available in the kitchen or bath section at Ace Hardware, Container Store, Storables, Wal-mart and Target if you are lucky enough to find them.

I have two of these for the small cards

I then found these great plastic dipping and pill containers to hold some embellishments at the Containers Store. the dipping tubs were 6 for $5. The larger boxes were $1.99 each.

And additionally I am using these tin pailss and boxes

And then for my larger PL cards I have those in a plastic basket along with other plastic baskets which hold smaller chipboard alphas and all my odds and ends I hate to toss like punched borders or dies that I just hate to toss and try to reuse on some other project on my desk.

And lastly just a close up of the shelf sitting on top of the desk. Again my dh made the shelf and then on the top I added spice racks to give me better storage for all those small things like stickles, mists and way in the pack you can see my Tim Holtz ink pads. On the middle shelf in the plastic bin below are those small ink pads and some frequently used small stamps and {shudder} the metal tins full of eyelets and brads I have had forever.

Come back on Friday and I will share the rest of the room. My copic storage, the window seat behind me, the book case and where I keep all my punches.

ReOrganizing the Craft Room - 1

So my bff and I decided to challenge ourselves to re-organize our rooms after drooling over some pretty pictures of other people's craft rooms. These were my before pictures but in all fairness I had already pulled most of my stuff out of  my closet because while I have storage for most things, the closet was a mess. 



I am fortunate that my husband built my shelving unit over my desk with adjustable shelves, as well as a windowseat bench that has storage at both ends plus storage underneath.

My room is a mere 10 x 10. Nothing too elaborate and I am one of those people who likes everything within arms reach and for the most part it all is.

So now you have seen what a mess it was before and now we add a few changes.

First off I needed to get rid of all the wrapping supplies from the closet. These are everyday ones as I keep the Christmas ones outside in the garage in their cupboard.

I purchased the Elfa system from the Container store to hold all the misc stuff I had instead of just piling on top of piles in the closet.

After relocating all the wrapping supplies, I then proceeded to purge myself of stuff I just didn't need or want into two piles; garbage and donations. I think I made 4 trips to the garbage can and just two boxes for donations. Not too bad. I just tend to hoard things I believe I can repurpose and needed to let some of that go. Not all but some.

After 3 trips to Target here is what the closet looks like. I added a curtain from Pottery Barn kids and proceeded to label all the baskets. I also purchased shoe storage racks to give more storage on the top shelf.

Next up I have my stamp storage. Now to confess I already purchased these stamp drawers but added some missing labels (which were added after I took these photos) and just wanted to share with you what I use.

This is a nice insert to have for these drawers, as you can see it holds lot of little embellishments.

So come back on Wednesday and we will explore my desk, the main shelves, storage for Project Life and those pesky embellishments you tend to use with PL.

V-Day Project 3: Little buckets of candy

Browsing the aisles of JoAnns I found these cute little clear buckets and thought they would be great treat containers for Valentine's Day for some of my girlfriends.

I layered Sweetheart candies, M&M candies and added a few dark chocolate Dove hearts

V-Day Project No. 2

I don't know about you but I have a real problem when it comes to throwing things away. I always feel like it's a waste just to toss items that could be repurposed. That is my down fall because I don't have a lot of room to save everything and eventually I am forced to toss/recycle some things as I found out this weekend when I regorganized my craft room (which I will share next week)

So this cute box I think was from Prima, it's been so long I have forgotten. I originally wanted to keep it a wood tone and tried a few different techiniques but alas the wood didn't look quite right and I was forced to paint it. I did try brown at first but eh that looked quite crummy so opted to do black. And lets face it black and red is a striking color combo.

V-Day Project No. 1

I purchased this frame a few years ago at an after Christmas sale at Michaels. I recently discovered it and Valentine's Day was approaching so it seemed like I should use it for something.

I checked my stash of silhouette projects and decided this one would be perfect for it. I really didn't have too many Valentine's Day decorations so it seemed like a good idea to add to my sparse decorum.