My New Baby

I've been on a hunt for a library card catalog for months now..scouring ebay, craigslist, etc. I was just dying to get my hands on one. They can cost a lot of money and that's what stopped me. Imagine my surprise when a nearby university was selling 8 of them for $100! I would have gotten more, but I don't have any more space in my room. Its solid oak and weighs a TON! My poor stairwell is going to need some drywall repair but it was worth it. I'd take more pics but I'm still working on loading my baby up...as you can see on my messy floor. TFL!

My Scraproom Updated

OK, this is going to be a long one...its been a year since I posted pics of my room. I've been doing some minor changes here and there and lately my dilemma is figuring out how to organize my paper. I was using Cropper Hopper vertical storage files, which I love, but I just wanted something different, something that makes it even easier. I'll talk about that more in a bit. OK, ready for a tour? We'll start on one end and work our way to the right.

My Expedit mounted on top of 4, 2 drawer file cabinets...all from Ikea. My ribbon storage. I cut the pieces of cardboard and wrapped the ribbon around them...tried to keep the same color family on each card. I also wrote down the manufacturer on the cardboard underneath the ribbon. I cannot tell you how easy it is to find what I want. I got this fabric box from Michaels but I haven't seen it around lately.
I'm a bit obsessed with border punches...when I first started scrapbooking 6 years ago it was just punches in general. I used this basket I already had in my kitchen and switched it out to hold all my border punches. It stays on my Expedit now.

So to the right of the Expedit on the backwall of my room is a small counter space with shelving above. You see those 2 clear red cubes there? Those are from Ikea and they are made for the Expedit. Until last night I had those in my Expedit to hold my patterned paper and cardstock...I had to pull them out to look for paper and they are heavy. I also added a Clip It Up to hold my stickers and embellishments...not all of them, most of them. I keep my journaling cards in a drawer and my Thickers in a special spot. Here is a close up of one of those cubes. They are both filled up. I have the CH file dividers in there since I organize by manufacturer. I keep my smaller papers, and stack packs in vertical folders on the other side.
I gotta say that I really love having my paper in these cubes...its so easy to thumb through them. But they won't work if they're not filled.
Some jars above the cubes that hold my large buttons. I divide my buttons by size, it may seem unconventional but I have a harder time looking for the size I want rather than the color. Sometimes the color really doesn't matter. My ribbon that I get by the yard at the scrap store goes in a jar too. They're too pretty to put away. And my candy jar on the right.

I got this MM embellishment organizer a few months back from Crop Chocolate. I put my newer loose embellies in here. I like to know the manufacturer of everything I have so I clip the name of the company and stick it in with the product.

To the right of that back table is my MM embellishment center and my Ikea beno towers. I keep jars of goodies here and they are all labeled with tags. I added a 3 tiered basket (which I got from goodwill) to hold my string and fibers. I have a drop ceiling so I can just hook it right up there. When I'm scrapbooking the beno towers are right behind me so I can look for product.

A close up of the Embellishment Center...I have another kitchen wire organizer thingie below that...it has 6 rows in it. To the right of that is my thicker storage. I think I have about 30 packages...yikes! The hooks are from Scotch, I believe. Its a hook with an adhesive that really holds up. Some of my punch storage...I keep small ones in a drawer below my expedit.

Ok, wall 3...the short end of my "L" shaped work station. I just updated this last night. I purchased 3 jetmax cubes for extra storage. Last year I added the wall vinyl saying "Be Creative Everyday". I also added a hook rod from Ikea and hung it above to hang my most recent 12x12 layouts.

On top of the cubes is my Crate and Barrell tiered basket to hold my wood stamps...everything but Stampin Up sets. Got my Cuttlebug there and in the basket on the counter are my Cuttlebug plates.

Got the cute little bulletin board from Goodwill for $1...love it.

My wide format Epson printer (which I only use for photos) I got about 9 months ago. Its so big that I had to put it under my countertop. I was looking for a printer stand...finally settled on this old Ikea TV stand we had in storage. Under that I store computer paper, photo paper, my camcorder, and my Slice.

I've only filled up the right drawers so far. This one holds embossing powders, stickles, flock, glitter, alcohol inks, etc.

The top one is for adhesives. I have an entire drawer under my Expedit stuffed so this one will be the ones I use most often. Paints, crackle paints, glazes are here.

The 4th wall and to the right of my computer is my workspace. Its about 7 foot long...to the right is my trimmer and my MM carousel and to the right of that is a large Tonic trimmer, not shown. Just got this Cropper Hopper Ink Pad holder yesterday. I love it. It holds 12 ink pads...I have a lot more than that so I just put the ones I use the most. I use my ink pads a lot so this will come in handy.

I have to add that my room is in our basement so I don't have a window. I decided to use white shelving and counters to brighten it up.

Well, I hope you enjoyed my little tour.

Week 11: 365 Project

Another week here and I'm so excited that I will receive my 365 album this week, thanks to my friend Laura!! It will be so awesome to have that album in my hands and actually start it! I have a lot of work to do but I'm up for it. Been a good creative week as well...its feeling more and more like spring and our moods are picking up. I think it also helps to have more sunlight in the evening. I didn't add Saturday's shot from last week so I'm adding it here.

Sat, March 7: Kendall is always saying that she wants her hair short like mine, so I finally caved. We got our haircuts at the same time and she's happy! This is a gorgeous pic of her! We actually took this pic today because we didn't take one last weekend.

Sun, March 8: OK, terrible quality here!!! The kids built a tent in Kendall's room with sheets and made quite a mess. They asked me to join but it didn't last long. I'm too uncomfortable. LOL! And my kids look really funny here, as do I, but it was the only shot of us all looking at the camera.

Tues, March 10: My junior xray students. This was taken at 8:00 AM at the hospital I work at and we had terrible weather outside. It was pouring and it looked like night-time out there. I'm definitely planning on taking more pics in the future. I like this location because its a brand new building and there's tons of windows facing east.

Wed, March 11: Just starting giving the kids a shower rather than a bath. Its easier on me so I don't have to stretch over the tub. We have a glass shower stall in our master bath so its easy for me to watch them. They have so much fun in there.

Thurs, March 12: My favorite shoes...wear these all the time. I think I got them in Dec or Jan but I had to take a pic. Love them. These are Dansko shoes, which are very popular with health care workers...and I don't wear my jeans that high, lol, just pulled them up for the shot. We switched to these terrible gray scrubs so I like to wear fun socks and shoes with them.

Fri, March 13: Made this for Kendall's room. I purchased an open stock frame on clearance, spray painted it white, added cork and some chicken wire, then added some butterflies. Most of them were made with my Slice. And I added the "Dream" with the Slice using some of their vinyl paper. I have to add that some of the butterflies fell off before I took this picture and I didn't realize it.

Sat, March 14: Ozan is very much into his bike riding...he'll ride about 20 a day. He hasn't purchased a new one in almost 9 years. He finally got a new one today and don't ask me how much it costs, we'll be paying this off for about a year. At least he uses it or I wouldn't have agreed to it!

OK, now for a few extras. I made this layout of when Aydan was born. I had these photos printed out a while ago. I trimmed them down and layered them on white cardstock. I did blur out two of the pics in this picture...not that there was anything bad, just don't want my bare belly shown nor a picture of my son before he was cleaned off. Used KI Memories sheer 12x12 sheet and then used a lot of Making Memories products on it...tons of Animal Crackers here.

This was my project this evening. I've been wanting to make jar labels for my scraproom for ages. I finally just grabbed some generic shipping tags, cut off the end a bit, stamped a journal background on it and wrapped some ribbon around it. I have a TON of American Craft ribbon so I used that for all the jars. I completed about 25 of them tonight and still have 27 to go. I actually ran out of the tags, so I'm stuck until Monday. But I liked how they came out.

And this is how I've been storing my clear stamps lately...use a Making Memories stamp folder and just put it in this Kassett box from Ikea. Its so much easier to flip through this and just pull out what I need. I have 17 sets in here and its only 1/3 filled. I know they make a binder to hold these in but it only holds so much.

OK, been a long enough post, right?? Have a good weekend.

My Semi- New Space

Well, for the past month or so I've been gradually working on my scrap space...took a while but got a big chunk of it done. Finally got my Expedit from Ikea. The wall that its on is in between two doors so my space was limited. The 16 squared one is nice but pretty short. I wanted to utilize any height I had so I put them on top of these 4 cabinets...also from Ikea. Ozan painted the room for me and replaced a door to our crawl space to a bi-fold door to save space. I put together all of this furniture and used plates to screw them together AND attached it to the wall. I have learned to be handy around this house...someone has to be. LOL! I love this unit and I really work well if everything is somewhat easy to grab and use. Love to see all my stuff that I've collected over the past 5 years. And 8 drawers below is so convenient! I stored some extras on top...have just enough space to put my Sizzix diecuts and some Maya Road tins. I'm able to reach up there so its easily accessed.

I had purchased a lot of the red Ikea Kassett boxes but I didn't use many of them...really realized that what I had worked better. I have a very ecclectic style so I tend to mix things up{This is going to be a super long post}

...some close ups...the white boxes are by Cropper Hopper to store my stickers and rub ons. I divided them by manufactuer, type, and theme. The blue drawers are ancient...got these about 12 years ago at Borders...they have a fabric finish and I really like them. Use these to store markers, thin die cuts, some ink pads, and masks. The large red box is filled with embellishments that are larger in their packages.

Some more...that small brown basket holds bling and gems. The white one holds all card making supplies...just pull it off the shelf to use.
My Stampin Up Cardstock...I cut out small pieces and wrote the color of the paper down...haven't done that yet for my newer purchases...

My new way to store my Cuttlebug Embossing Plates. Got this from Borders too...matches the drawers. I store them with a piece of white core cardstock (DCWV) that was embossed in the folder and then I sand it and put the paper back in. Its so much easier to find the plates. I use them all the time! And notice the labels? I own several label makers...love them!

I store the smaller Cuttlebug stuff in this open tin, easy to grab! And so pretty!

I love looking in other people's craft space...especially drawers and things like that. I have 2 drawers filled with my Stampin Up stamps.

And this is my favorite drawer below. I found this basket at JoAnn's and cut off the handles. This basket stores my tags, journaling papers, and small paper pads. Kinda keep them loose in the basket and I can just grab something. This has been real convenient so far.

I also arranged my cropper hoppers paper holders to one of my work tables. I really wanted this space for a paper trimer and for my Cuttlebug but I just didn't have the space to put them on the Expedit. And my favorite basket that holds loose wooden stamps...

To the right of that table is my making memories embellishment center and some racks I hung up below to hold all my making memories jars. Love seeing everything out. I hang my american crafts ribbon on a ring and leave it on the side of the center.

One of my other projects are these Benno CD towers from Ikea. I purchased some more jars to hold more embellishments. Here is a close up...

a different view...

a view when you enter my room...its really not too big. Really have to use the wall space well! My carpet looks funny...theres a shadow on the floor in the picture but thats from the light! LOL!

OK, I've made quite a few cards lately...I made a baby girl card for a co-worker who is expecting his second baby any day. But they don't know the sex so I made a boy card the next day just in case... I'll post the supplies later but used a tons of old school stuff and a shabby chic style that I used to have a long time ago. Super old supplies here. My friend Laura inspired me to use the tag on a card...and to emboss it. Love it. Oh, and I lifted one of her LO's here...you can see it later in the post. Yes, there's more.


Kendall made this at school for me. I thought it was a picture frame but she calls it a scrapbook page! Love it...have it hanging in my room.

And my LO! I was stuck on what papers to use. I just created a new Cropper Hopper paper holder to store all my newer papers...this is how I came up with these colors. I got some new Swiss Dot Bazzill cardstock...love, love this paper! They had some cute Pink Pailee stuff too. On the pink paper there is some typing and my mom's name is on there (Jeanne), so I didn't cover it up. I took this scan and didn't like it...took some pics and didn't like those, so i'll stick with this scan. I did use my new SU die cut and some cute cork paper.

And some leftovers for a card...super quick. I just found out that its one of my friends B-days tomorrow. Her husband works with my husband and then we found out that we both work at the same hospital...maybe I'll run this over to her! We always call each other Chica...thus the title!

This is the other side of the room...my workspace and computer. Its still a mess from these projects (and unpainted).

Have a great Halloween!!