Mini Makeover

More new stuff:) I'm having such a good time using the new colors and stamps! I'm also excited because my husband cut some wood to make a table top for me in my studio. There is this futon in my studio... which I have been wishing would disappear. HE thinks we should keep it, I want it OUT of here! So my idea for a temporary fix is to put a board across the wooden arms of the futon, making a table top. He agreed to make it for me. I rearranged my studio just a bit last night. I found a DVD storage thingy in Walmart and needed to accommodate it into the space.

Project Details
Stamps	Lovely Romance
Card Stock & Papers	Crisp Cantaloupe, Baked Brown Sugar, Whisper White, Venetian Romance dsp
Ink	Crisp Cantaloupe, Baked Brown Sugar
Accessories	Naturals Designer Buttons, Linen Thread, Delicate Details Lace Tape
Tools	Apothecary Accents framelits, Two Tags die, Beautifully Baroque embossing folder

DVD tower thingy from Walmart. I love being able to get to my stamp sets easier now that they are not so low to the floor. Also, This horizontal storage makes it much easier to read the titles of the sets.

Here is the temporary fix. I'm so pleased, LOVE my husband!! Love having the ribbon on a flat surface and up higher where it is easier to reach.

Very dark photo because of the window, but I think you can get the idea of that space. I moved the lamp from the corner to make room for the stamp storage. It doesn't look as good here, but functions well this way. I now have more room on my desk with the Big Shot off of it.

Next on my to-do list is to cull through all of these stamps and SELL some! I guess I will have to bite the bullet and open up a Paypal account, which scares me, cause I think you have to give them your bank account number.

Ribbon Storage

I used to store my small collection of ribbon like Becca, from Amazing Paper Grace does. Since I've become a Stampin' Up! Demo I've been using a lot more ribbon and it comes on much larger spools. My Upline, Pam shared this idea with me and I LOVE it! I found this VCR/CD storage thingy at Goodwill for $4.00. In fact, I have two of them. Spools of any size fit on the rails and if a row is not full, there is a bar you can use as a bookend type deal to keep them standing up. I can cut a small piece of ribbon off, or remove the entire spool easily. Now that this one is full, I'm going to ask my husband to attach the other one on top of this one. Then I'll have a tower of four rows. Right now it's sitting on the futon, which I wish would mysteriously vanish in a puff of smoke so that I could put a table there.... but that's a whole other story!

The interesting thing is, Pam found one similar to this on ebay. This is very cool too, I like it a lot, but I prefer my 4.00 Goodwill find:) We both think it could be made out of foam core as well.

The spice rack on the left holds non Stampin' Up! embellishments. Ya gotta love thrift store finds.

All Kinds of Stuff

You all know how our storage systems and the organization of our craft rooms, or studios as I prefer to call them are constantly evolving. Two things I added last fall are still working for me, even after I've added a lot more product and I wanted to share them with y'all. I looked at ink pad storage shelves that you buy for 50 to 60 dollars and I just hated to spend money on that rather than on ink pads and punches and stamps, ya know? So I made an ink pad storage system from foam core. I've been very pleased with it, especially since I now have all the Stampin' Up! colors of ink pads. If you think this is something you'd like to try, here is the link for directions: foam core storage.

 This is that whole section of my studio now with much more product and it still functions very well for me.

This was around 19 dollars at Lowes, it's from Closet Maid and was meant to be a shoe rack. I just tacked a piece of foam core on the back to keep the punches from falling out. Eventually, I'd like something that has shelves for each punch, but until I can rearrange space this will do. Uh... that rearranging space involves getting rid of a futon that we never use, but some husband I know just swears we might need some day.  {rolling eyes} lol!!

I just love these paper storage tabs. They were made by Cori Kozak with My Digital Studio. You can get them here.

The last thing I have to share is this sample board I made to show how well Stampin' Up! products coordinate with color and patterns. This is just for one set of designer series paper, but every set coordinates with card stocks, inks, ribbons and other different products. I thought this would be a great way to show new stampers how the products match so beautifully. What do you think?

Ink Pad Storage From Foam Core Board!

I love these storage units http://www.organizemore.com/ but they are a little out of my price range. On Pinterest I found Leslie's ink pad storage unit. She made it herself, and not out of wood either... out of foam board! I had a bunch of foam board that my son left when he graduated college and moved out. So I decided to try making one. Leslie has great directions and pictures on her blog: https://messageinafold.wordpress.com/2012/04/03/ink-pad-storage-from-foam-core-board-part-2/ I printed them out, took them to my husband's shop and went to work. This was quite a challenge for me, because I swear I do not have a left brain. Remember those aptitude tests we all took in school? Well, a monkey would scored better on the mechanical ability than I did!! lol Anyway, I could hear my friend Patty's voice inside my head telling me to measure twice, cut once, but for Carole, you better measure three times! So I did, and I talked out loud to myself and the dog the entire time while I was reasoning out how it fit together and how Leslie's measurements could be adapted to fit what I needed. My husband only had to help by lending another set of hands to tape the shelf supports on and then to tape the top/bottom and sides together. He did make one very valuable suggestion. Instead of just taping the sides/top/bottom together, he suggested using these rods (thicker than a pin but you could cut them with wire cutters) to insert into the top shelf and through the side shelf.

In order to cover up the silvery kind of metalish duck tape stuff, I used contact paper on the top and sides. Some of the foam board was ink-stained so I used contact paper to cover the edges of the shelves too. I can't begin to tell you how extremely proud I am of my creation! I've never built anything in my whole life before, and I did this all by myself. My husband always helps or ends up doing stuff for me. He is such a sweetie!!

New Art Stamp and Organized Ideas

My Stampin' Up order came in this week and I've made my first card with the truck. I've been looking for an old pickup for quite a while. I didn't want whimsical, and it had to be from the 50's. I found it in the Stampin' Up catalog and drove it home.

Updated: I just got home and looked at the truck below and thought YUCK that ribbon does not go. So I disassembled it and put burlap behind it instead. I'm much happier with it now.

Still playing with that peach blossom:)

After Jamie suggested 'see through' yesterday that made me think of tackle boxes. So, while in Walmart buying printer ink, this cute little box just cried out, "take me home, I'm only four dollars and I don't want to be in some old  fishy smelly boat." So what could I do?

 Do you collect directions and tutorials?  I do and I print them out. I also have written many of my own for classes that I've taught or for my blog. Naturally I save them (some are way over ten years old) in binders.

Inside the covers are pages from an old calendar I made. I hated to throw them out ya know?

Magazine articles, directions I wrote for classes and tutorials I found on line are arranged alphabetically in these binders.

I couldn't bare to part with this piano hinge book after I made it, so I keep notes about various stamps and ideas inside.

I made this flower press a long long time ago. I stained some old plywood scraps, drilled holes in the corners and put in some screw thingys. I think they are called wing nuts?  You can tighten or loosen them as needed when pressing flowers and leaves. The decoration on the outside is nothing I did, it's just a card that has great sentimental value to me.

I cut up old corrugated cardboard for the inside layers.

I use sheets of white paper so any moisture and/or colors will be absorbed by it. When they get icky, I toss them and add more.

Remember that Spellbinders inventory I posted last week? I bound the pages so it could live on my shelf and not a mess of papers.

Organizing Embellishments?? Yikes!!

It's a good thing I shared my obsession with boxes, because that got me into this one... which is a mess. In a  blog I follow, Jamie's Stamping Cafe, Jamie wrote about organizing her buttons in rainbow order. I love that! She put hers in salt shakers and they look great while helping her find things. So, with this idea in mind I decided to tackle my box of "stuff." I can't do it like Jamie did, I need help!! My collection is not just buttons, it's all kinds of other stuff... and I don't know what else to put it/them in after I sort them... and if I sort them by color, will I be able to find stuff? There are all kinds of things, so sorting by theme wouldn't work, at least I don't think so. I'm at a loss here. (The stupid futon is still in my way and it's not flat, so I had to lay down some felt so it wouldn't roll off. I really hate this thing. We don't need two spare beds! I HAVE to convince my husband that we don't need it, or at least NOT IN MY STUDIO)

I think I'll just leave them out on the futon until I figure it out, maybe one of you will give me a good idea. Hey Jamie!!!

My first attempt at sorting things. There are all kinds of things I forgot I had!

This stuff, I just can't sort. There's not enough of any one type of thing to sort into color or theme, and some of the broken jewelry is large. And then there's that bottle of sand a shells.... what the heck is that doing in there?

What IS IT With Boxes!

I think I'm a box addict. Seriously.

Do you think there is a group for this? Maybe Box Anonymous?

You're laughing, I can hear you. I'm not kidding. I LOVE pretty boxes. I can never have enough of them. I buy pretty boxes. I save pretty boxes that things come in. I even make pretty boxes. Oh, the boxes I made would be wonderful gifts you say? Oh no no no! I can not EVER give them away! Gasp!! Once I make them, then I have to keep them and use them. I know there are much more efficient ways to store things, but I love my boxes.

The Victorian Needle Box. This was an adventure. They are supposed to be covered with fabric, but I saw one like this in Somerset Studio about 10-15 years ago. I HAD to make one. Well, at that time the only place I could find  the pattern was in Canada... on Victoria Island. That's waaayyyy up north in Canada, which is already up north. It was September. I had to wait until the spring when the pass opened up so the mail would go through. I am not kidding. When the nice lady sent me the package I was naturally intent on making one right away. That very day, in fact. Except it took me 2-3 days to get the pieces cut out of mat board and figure out how to construct it. No way would I ever give this one away. Yeah, I know NOW there are patterns all over the internet for this. Probably because everyone else liked it when they saw it in the magazine too. Except, they had the sense to wait until someone figured out an easier way to make one!

This is the outside. Oh and it is on top of another box! A hanging folder box where I store all my cardstock. Of course I had to cover it with the crumpled tissue technique so it would be pretty.

inside the first layer

inside the second layer

The very inside. Geeze I don't even have anything in it!

This had shelf paper in it. It was a gift from a student. It's so pretty, I just had to keep it.

So I use it to store my ribbons.

More boxes

Tee tiny beads, African embellishments, and postcards from Ireland. Yes, I have another huge box for my postcard collection, but I carried this one to Ireland with me and, well those post cards need to stay there. It's just so pretty. Besides I think the postcard collection box is full. I need to make another one.

You think I'm done huh? Nope, not even close.

Some of my online friends store their embellishments in rainbow order and in containers you can see through. They put them out on shelves where they can get to them. One friend even organized her buttons in salt shakers by color. 

I am so ashamed!

This is one drawer in my desk. Every one of these boxes has something in it.

This one is just for cute/whimsical  things. See the only cute things I do are House Mouse.

One of my students gave me this pretty box with ocean pictures, so naturally it has my tiny shells. Don't worry, I have another box with the bigger shells.

This box holds all my eyelet stuff and it has more boxes inside it!!

I decorated this tin with alcohol inks and I just had to use it!! I just love those little round tins. I discovered them several years ago too, and the only place I could find them was in a tool catalog. Now they sell them in all the craft stores.

This is the embarrassing box. It is just stuff. It's not sorted in any kind of order or color. And I call myself an organization freak. Right before she died, my Mom saved this box for me. It's very old and I just like it.

No, this is not all of my boxes. I have MORE.

Do you think there is a treatment for this?

Reorganization is Complete

My studio reorganization is now complete, and it made me so happy:) I tried to be finished yesterday, but I saw a three drawer unit on sale in Walmart for 12.88 and it was just crying for me to take it home. I tried to resist, I really did. I walked away and drove home.... and I kept thinking of how that unit would make it so much easier because it has drawers that could be simply pulled out to get to things instead of unstacking and restacking boxes every time I wanted something. Plus, it would allow me to eliminate one of the two layers in a couple desk drawers. That is efficient right? It was only 12 dollars, and it came in blue and you know how I love blue right?. So this morning I went back after it. I practiced my calligraphy skills making labels for the drawers too.

You can see my stash of matboard and foam core on the right leaning up against boxes of Christmas decorations. The tree is in the large box on the left of my stuff.

I won!!!! I organized, and I Played With Mousetraps

I'm so excited!! I won the challenge at Impression Obsession!!! Doin' the Happy Dance:)  I just LOVE their stamp images. I now have a gift certificate and you should have seen me looking at their stamps. I was drooling all over the keyboard:)

No, the mousetraps didn't have any mice in them, they were clean. Otherwise I couldn't have touched them. When I was a kid and lived on a farm, we'd get mice sometimes. Whenever one got caught in the trap, Mom and I would sweep it up into a dust pan and take it to the burn barrel (where we burned paper trash). Then we'd burn the dead mouse, trap and all, with the papers.  We NEVER touched a trap or a dead mouse. Mom said they had germs and were icky and I believed her of course. Oh, so why am I playing with mouse traps? Well I'm making something with new, clean, unused mouse traps. I bought them at Lowes and then took them out to my husband's shop so I could operate on them. I found some plyer grabby thingys and performed a trapectomy. I removed the plastic gizmo that the bait goes on, then, I removed the trigger gadget. Next, I used a sanding block to sand off the picture of a mouse and the words. I remembered to carefully put the tools back where I found them after wiping them off of course. I painted them with spray paint. As soon as they are dry, I'm going to glue a magnet on the back and a stamped image on the front, and put some designs on with my paint pens. Then I'll take them back out to the shop and put some sort of varnish or spray clear coat over the top - which ever I can find. See I don't want to ASK himself,  because then he'll just take over and do it for me. Which takes all the fun out of it ya know? Do you know what I'm making yet?  A note holder! You magnet it to the fridge or the storm door, and the killing/snapper bar holds the paper note for you.

I have been reorganizing my studio and I found the best idea on Pinterest. You take 2-gallon zippy bags and clip them to pant hangers. Then you can hang them in the closet.

Now I can use that wasted space better. The closet in my studio also houses the Christmas ornaments.

All the stuff in these boxes are now in the hanging bags and the box below.

This box holds all my jewelry making stuff and all my Vera Bradley patterns can stay together and be pretty.

I got all my binders and catalogs off the floor, on these shelves, turned the card basket around to the front, and all the boxes that I covered with this book print can be together and match. Yeah, I know I am such a dork!