New Room!!

So I finally got my room how I want it! My room is around 10' x 13' and I have tried to squeeze as much in as I possibly can...at one point this area was actually my kids playroom, but as they have gotten older it has become mom's playroom. They still have some space in here, but everytime I re-arange the room they get less and less...

This first picture is from the doorway to my room, some of my stamps are to the right, and I reclaimed one shelf to put my papers back on.

My desk is a HUGE, heavy desk we got at Costo last year and I really love it!! It has tons of work space and lets me keep my most used items close at hand!

The next picture is of my main stamp storage rack...current stamps are on the top 2 shelves, papers are next followed by retired, hodgepodge hardware, pretties kit and my scissors. The black hard case to the side is my Tech club files. I really like having my stamps so close to my work area and the extra chair is nice for being able to ponder my choices before I start a project.

This is one of my new shelving units I got to help with the storage issues in my area. This stores my brads (which are stored in a tackle box...) eyelets, cards, label maker, embossing powders, pearl-ex powders, twinkling h2o's, scrap ribbons, and my 12 x 12 papers. I still want to get a better paper storage system going, but to quote Flylady...babysteps!! I also keep my paper towels and supplies for messy projects on this.

To the left is my floral storage and my business supplies. The huge blue binder is the largest binder they make and is full of all my SU! images. I will have to take a few pics of it for a later post...I am quite proud of how it turned out. I also have my card folder and technique journal over there. The bottom shelf has my cross-stitch books and several years worth of Stampin' Up! idea books and Close to My Heart catalogs. My sewing stand is next to that, right now it is mostly being used as a display area (albeit a cluttered display area...)

Next comes the closet, which big surprise here, is full of shelves and (more) craft supplies!! I moved my wreath storage into the closet and this is also where I store my yarn and cross-stitch fabric. On the other side of the closet is the kids crafts supplies. Has anyone guessed yet that I LOVE shelves?? I would make this room nothing but shelves and storage if I could...at least I'm on the right track for it...LOL!!

This would be where the rest of my retired stamps are along with my Cricut cartridges...I do try to keep the stamps organized by theme, but that is hard to do sometimes...for the most part this system work alright for me, but Suzanne's post about unmounting her stamps really has me thinking...the first thought is "Do you know how many more stamps I could get in this area??!!??" I would have to venture a guess that thought would not be the first my DH would have...

Next to the retired stamps and cartridges is my ribbon storage along with my cutter storage and scrapbooks. If you look closely you can see the only shelf my kids have in this room, all the board games are stored on the bottom of this shelving unit. The wooden ribbon holder was hand made by my DH...If you ask me I need LOTS and LOTS MORE of them. The ribbons are semi-grouped into like colors/themes...I have found that I could buy ribbon all the time, in fact when we get new shipments of ribbon in at Michael's I have to make myself not look at it or I will take most of it home...The pink and black binders hold my Cuttlebug shapes, one binder is mostly embossing plates and the other is dies. I need to look into storage for my Nestablities, right now they are stored on top of my scrap ribbon bin...

Here is underneath my desk, I have 2 giant drawers stacked for scraps, the top one is SU! only and the bottom is everything else. The paper holders down here hold most of my non-SU! papers. The purple drawers hold my non-SU! stamps (which I need more space for...) and various tools that I want close, heat gun, stamp cleaning pads, non-SU! inks and markers.

I use the keyboard tray to hold my coloring supplies. This is a great way to have them close but keep them out of the way when I'm not using them. I'm kinda wanting to put my Prismacolor pencils in cups and have them on my desk, but I'm pretty anal about keeping them color coordinated, so I guess they will stay in the tin they came in. I also store my rulers here, so they are easy to get to.

This is what I call my inspiration wall...here I keep cards that have been sent to me mostly by my friends on SCS, when I'm feeling blue or un-inspired I like to look at them and it makes me feel better! This is also the area I store all my current SU! ribbons, and of course my Cricut Expressions.

This last picture is of the inside of the hutch part of my desk, right now it is holding most of my punches, different hardback books, my xyron and all my paints, glitters, stickles, primas and other stuff that I'm not sure what to do with...

I hope you have enjoyed this virtual tour of my room, I love having people come over and play with me...if only I could find more to do that!! My best customer loves telling me I need a 12-step program...and after all this typing and picture taking I'm likely to agree with her...Suzanne - feel free to show your hubby there are other people with loads of supplies...

Now if I could only get the rest of my house as neat and organized as my craft room...I'd have it made :)

Sneek Peek

So I finally got my craft room organized the way I wanted...or so I thought...until Mother Nature decided we needed rain every other day for a couple of months and my basement started to seep, then mildly flood...since my craft room is in my basement that lead to a problem...here are some pics of how my room looked when I re-did it about a year ago. It stayed looking mostly like this until about a week ago...

This is my main stamping/crafting area...no matter what that desk will stay in that spot until we move, it weighs a ton and is too big to fit anywhere else...in front of it is my stamp shelf (yea right...the paper packs are long gone from this shelving unit...stamps have way over-run it...)

This is how my stamp shelf looked about a year ago, notice how bare it looks and remember that for the after picture...all the white stickers say retired so I can easily locate the proper stamps for classes and camps. It would not be a good thing to take a retired set and have a customer fall in love with it so I figured glaring white labels would work great! I really liked having my paper in that area, it made it easy to find what I was looking for at a glance. The container next to the paper holds my various brushes.

This is my flower storage and ribbon storage area mostly. I also kept some of my counted cross stitch materials on this shelving unit. The middle shelf was for my DH & DH's model cars and the bottom shelf was the kids games.

This was my ingenious idea for how to store my wreathes...the white bar is a tension shower rod with bent hangers being used as hooks to use some of that wasted space. This was also the shelf that held my embossing powders, pearl powders and twinkling h2o's as well as eyelets, brads and magazines and idea books. The brown thing to the left is my sewing machine (that I barely know how to use...)

Stay tuned and in the next few days I should have my room to my liking (again) and will post new pics of it...it has changed quite a bit from these pictures...

Double Pocket Fold

This card was for the Try a New Technique challenge on SCS TLC164 - Double Pocket Fold the instructions for this striking card can be found here. I knew right away I wanted to use some of the Ginger Blossom DP I have and was totaly thrilled with how this card came out until I realized I didn't have a stamp that matched :( I made due with A Beautiful Thing, but am a little sad that I didn't have anything close to a hibiscus to be able to use...Oh well, life goes on!! I also used my circle nestablities for the first time on this card...I was worried about it but they look really nice and were uber easy to use!! I really like how the laced ribbon turned out on the sides and how cool is it that the narrow satin ribbon I have had for years matches the Groovy Guava?? I love the look of laced ribbon (thank goodness for floss threaders!!) I used Groovy Guava and River Rock as my coordinating colors and stamped in Purely Pomegranate and Groovy Guava for the flowers. This is another card my DD has laid claim to, so I guess I will be making another, next time I will be checking my stamps first ;)

Triangle Fold Card

Hi again! This is one of the card designs I decided against for the showbox swap. I really like how it turned out, I just didn't have enough of the patterened paper to make 13 cards with...this was my first attempt at a Triangle Fold card and it was soo easy to do...I've had this paper for ages and haven't been wanting to cut into it cause then I wouldn't have it anymore (true sign of a paper hoarder...) I thought it matched a stamp set CiCi510 sent me awhile back, so I took the plunge and cut into it and am so glad I did! I used Elegant Eggplant as my base and this beautiful PP from Making Memories as the accent paper. I also love this reversible purple ribbon that I got at Michael's a few months ago (and I have to mention that I have been hoarding that as well...) Inside has the same PP with Whisper White over it and another paisley stamp in the corner. My DD has claimed this card to give to her art teacher, so I think I will have to make more...good thing the PP was 12 x 12 :)

p.s. The finished size for this card is 3 x 3, the next one I make will be 4 x 4. I will have to custome make any envies for these and due to them being square, the postage will be higher :(

Acetate Card

Hi everyone! I got to go to a shoebox swap with a bunch of wonderful ladies I met on SCS who are in the St. Louis area on Sat and had a wonderful time!! This is the second time in about a year I have got to go to one of these and am really looking forward to attending many more. It is so nice to be able to learn new techniques and make new friends while getting good and inky!!

I really racked my brain for a card to make that would be fairly easy, yet still offer a "WOW" moment. I threw out about 4 designs before I settled on this card...I have been really wanting to try my hand at an acetate card for awhile, and shocking-ly enough I had about 50 sheets of acetate in my scrap room, so I decided to take the plunge and try this card...I was also inspired by one of the challenges on SCS LCS159 - Tool Free. That challenge was to make a card using no special tools, which can be a challenge in and of itself for me sometimes...I really love my tools!!

I discovered that pigment ink never dries on acetate...so thankfully I stocked up on colored Stazon onetime when it was on sale at Michaels... ;) I used Royal Purple and Blazing Red to add the swirls on the top piece of acetate only. I would have never guessed that Blazing Red would be so close in color to Rose Red...who knew?? I picked the set Priceless for this card, as I seem to have fallen in love with it lately!! I hope the ladies at the swap had as much making this as I did...I will also attach a photo of all the cards we made...

There were a total of 14 of us and I think I missed making one card... :( Each card was beautiful and fairly easy to do. I got to play with Copics for the first time (lighthouse card) and got to use some FABULOUS paper that came over from Florence, Italy (that would be the purple scalloped looking paper...that card will be staying on my inspiration board). We also learned a new folding technique that is a great size to put a gift card in (graduation card) and made a seed packet holder card (large flower card at the bottom). All in all I had a wonderful time and enjoyed some great company!! Here is a link to all of the cards so you can see bigger pictures...

I can't wait for the next go round!!

Clyde Card

What could be better than finding a stamp the matches one of your furry babies?? That was my first reaction when I saw the Stampin' Up! set For Father (Occasions Mini page 21 - available until May 31, 2008) When Clyde was a pup he would sleep on Tony's boots just like the pup in the stamp, so needless to say I had to make Tony a card showcasing our furry baby... It is a little hard to see in the picture, but this puppy even has what I call dalmation paint on his paws to match our Clyde. I stamped the image and colored it on Whisper White card stock then sponged Creamy Caramel around it to make it look aged. I did the Cracked Glass technique (this has to be on of my favorites to do...) on the image to add to the aged look. The card base is Kraft and I added a layer of Close to Cocoa that has had the edges roughed up and Close to Cocoa ink rubbed on them, then layered Close to Cocoa DS on top of that. I mounted my cracked image onto a layer of Basic Black that has been sponged with Whisper White. I finished it off with Aged Cooper Hodge Podge Hardware and Chocolate Poly-Twill ribbon. The sentiment is stamped on a piece of Kraft in Close to Cocoa ink. I'm so very happy with how this card turned out, and thankfully it brought a smile to my hubby's face... :)

Spring Craft Kit

Hi everyone - I've been invited to my step-brother's wedding in a few weeks so I made him and his bride a card and a purse (to hold a gift card). The card and the purse were made using the Spring Craft Kit from SCS Flybabies. I thought of my husband when I first read this quote, but soon realized it would work wonderfully for a wedding as well. I stamped the saying first and then masked it off to stamp the roses. I think the idea looked a little nicer in my head, but I am totally happy with how this turned out.

The purse was a die cut that I sponged color onto first, then used some of the matching striped paper to cover the front and back of it. I also used the matching ribbon to create a little handle. I used a rub-on to add some decoration to the flap and a matching eyelet to help hold it closed. I used linen thread to tie the bow in the front. This really is a great size to tuck a little gift card into along with some Hershey's kisses (cause what is a wedding without some kisses??) I'm really hoping they enjoy these items.

Rain, rain go away!!

Hi everyone...we are having more rain here (again)...and unfortunately the ground is soo wet that all the excess water is going into basements...I would love to be playing in my room during all the rain, but unfortunately all items I don't want to get wet are stacked on my desk, just incase water decides to trickle into my room...it is a rareity but I don't want to loose ANY of my papers...especially my retired papers...I'm looking into getting plastic shelves that I can install around my room so everything will be up off the floor (just incase) and if (heaven forbid) some water does leak into my room the plastic won't absorb it and distribute it to my papers...

We got about 1.25 inches today in rain fall in about 12 hours...thankfully the storms that were in question for this evening seem to have broken up before they got to us. Area farther south got around 3 inches today so we are thankful that the flooding here is not as bad. This is the same system that went through Arkansas and Oklahoma yesterday. I know they caused alot of damage in those areas as well. Please say a prayer for everyone who is having to deal with record breaking rains and spring storms. I know ours is more of an inconvience of time and energy but alot of people are having to deal with loss of possesions and loss of life over these storms. Please also say a prayer that we don't get the massive amounts of floods we did in 1993.

Since I haven't gotten to play as much as I would like I will share a pic that I forgot to post the other day. This is a double gatefold card that I made using my Scor-Pal (I don't know how I lived without this tool for so long!!) I was really wanting to play with the Bali Breeze paper and decided to match my Embrace Life set to the flowers. I used twinkling h2o's to color the flowers, which were heat embossed using detail black powder. I tried to match the colors of the paper to the h2o's. It has a tropical flair to it that is different from my usual style, but I think is kinda fun. The longest part of this card was the cutting out of all the flowers.

I hope you enjoy the card! Happy stamping, I hope to be back into my room by tomorrow to stamp some more!!

Channeling my Inner Lee

For all of you who know Lee or read her BLOG you know she LOVES bling and glitter...so when I first started working on this card I knew it would be perfect to add a little bling to...so I decided to let myself go and get nice and glittery...

I started with Not Quite Navy as my base and tore the bottom edge off. I used some of my new puff embossing powder from Ranger to emboss the snowflakes along the Ballet Blue strip. I also cut a square of Ballet Blue to layer under my snowflake image. I used the Ticket Corner punch from SU! to add a little interest to the corners. I stamped my main images on Bashful Blue in Ballet Blue ink and then used the Dazzling Diamond Dust technique on them to really give them some sparkle. The large snowflake image is a stamp we had at Michael's around Christmas time and the small scalloped image is from Stampin' Up!'s Sale-A-Bration set, So Many Scallops. IRL it is quite glittery!! I think I liked this channeling Lee...I will have to do it more often!!

Card Swap

This is a card I did for my upline's technique swap. About 12 of us picked different techniques and made a card front out of them to share with everyone. The idea was to be able to mount them for a 6 x 6 technique book or to be able to use them. Since I already have a tech journal for the classes I teach I made my samples into cards.

I picked the cracked glass technique for my card front and of course I had to use the Blossoms Abound set (I just adore this set!!) I love this technique - I think it makes my cards look older, more distressed. You could also use the same basic technique to create a tile, just don't crack it when it cools. I hope everyone will decide to give this technique a try, it is really quite easy to do.

Stamps: Blossoms Abound

Ink: Old Olive, Always Artichoke, Lovely Lilac, Elegant Eggplant, Creamy Caramel, Versamark

Paper: Very Vanilla, Old Olive, Always Artichoke

Accessories: Clear Ultra Thick Embossing Powder

Cards

Hi there!!

I wanted to stop in and say "Hi!!" I may not have been posting much lately, but I have been stamping every chance I get...which isn't too much lately. We have been sooooo much rain lately and our basement has been seeping a little along with everyone elses in this area...so my stamp time has been cut. Here are a few of the cards I have been able to get made...I hope you enjoy them!!

I made this card for a Floral Swap on SCS. This is the card closed. It is a little hard to see but there are purple stickles on each flower to add a little texture. This is a new style for me and I really like how it turned out. It is 12 inches wide and cut on a diagonal from about 5" down to about 3" and scored every 4". I brayered Elegant Eggplant onto the back of the card to add some dimention and interest to the card. Finally I tied Old Olive and Elegant Eggplant ribbons to the short side. I am so loving how these cards turned out!!

Stamps: Blossoms Abound

Paper: Always Artichoke, Old Olive, Whisper White

Inks: Always Artichoke, Old Olive, Lovely Lilac, Elegant Eggplant

Accessories: Ribbons, Stickles, Brayer

This is how the card looks when it is opened all the way...

Here is another version of the same card that I made for a co-worker who just found out she has colon cancer.

Zoo Adventure

Hi there!! I know I've been MIA for awhile, so I wanted to share some of the things we have been doing...the kids had their spring break a couple of weeks ago and we decided to go to the zoo one day...the day was really nice but most of the animals were not to be found...here are some of the pics we took that day...