CRAFT ROOM UPDATE!!

60% off + 20% off coupon = GREAT DEAL!!!

I got the deal of the year yesterday.  No, really.  It was awesome!!  Check it out!

Is this cart not to die for?  I have been coveting it for quite some time, but refused....absolutely refused...to pay $100 for it.  Since I have two cutting machines (Silhouette and Cricut), I was constantly swapping them around to use them.  Didn't really have an ideal layout for them.  My Cricut sat on a cart, which you can see in a previous post here.  My poor Silhouette sat on the bookcase next to my desk.  Whenever I wanted to use it, I had to find a spot and hook it up.  

But, now, I have both my cutters so easy to access.  Plus ALL the supplies for them are stored right there with them, and oh so neatly.  Look:

And the best part (well, one of the best parts) is that I still have lots of room for expansion.  And all I have to do to use either cutter is roll it next to my computer and plug in the USB cable.  One cable works for either machine. Awesome!  

Another great feature is that there is no back to the unit where the machines sit.  So there is no issue with the carrier mat being pulled back and forth through the cutter while in use.  I love that!

So when I saw that Michael's had these gems (plus other styles) for 60% off yesterday, PLUS I had a 20% coupon that was good on sale items, I scored this fantastic find for $25!!!  Yup....$25.  I am one happy crafter!!!

If you actually clicked the link above to see the old cart, you would have seen what my craft room looked like then.  As always with me, my craft space is an ever evolving work in progress.  It has been moved, switched and updated since then.  (Here's another chance to look back there.) Here are a couple of pics of what it looks like today:

Looking into the Room: Shelves and cubbies and storage, oh my!

Panning to the right: Expandable craft table and computer area, plus lots of storage

More storage and my awesome cart

Cutter cart plus paper storage

Closet, frame projects I'm working on, ribbon and filing cabinets

Back to the door

I love this table.  Folds down to one skinny table and opens to a huge one!

My favorite spot.  All my favorite crafty stuff within grabbing distance!

So glad I got to share (again) a little piece of my world.  Hope you enjoyed!!!

Til next time, keepin' it crafty!

Cricut Cartridge Storage

My Never-Ending Quest for the Perfect Storage Solutions

I have redone it and redone it. But I'm closer each time. I'm talking about my craft room supply storage. I swear I spend as much time organizing and reorganizing as I do crafting. Can you relate?

As I was moving my craft room, I had condensed my Cricut and supplies down to a 2-drawer wheeled printer cart, which seems to be working perfectly.  I moved my handbooks from my cubes to photo boxes in my Cricut cart. I "deboxed" the cartridges previously and made little trays for the carts for the new Cricut cart, but I just wasn't quite happy with that. 

I made little labels which I intended to just stick on the tops of the carts and be able to identify from the top which cartridge was which. Yeah, that didn't work.  The labels did not want to stick to the curvy cartridge tops. So I had to come up with another plan.  {LIGHT BULB MOMENT}

I made up some tiny little boxes that the cartridges fit in and applied the label to the top so I could store them in my CriCart (clever, eh?). The boxes fit into my flimsy trays, but they were still flimsy. So I decided to redo the boxes using some sturdy cardboard. Perfect-o!

The storage trays are 6"x11", scored at 2" on all sides. The tiny boxes are 3"x3.5", scored at 5/8" on all sides.

Now, all I have to do is cover the ugly cardboard with something pretty...I'm thinking pink zebra duct tape. I even made a few extras so I have room to grow.  

Well, that's my quick little blurb for the day. Off I go to finish up that craft room move (SO close to being finished!).

Til next time, keepin' it crafty!

I've Been A Busy Girl!!!

What I've Been Up To...

For the past couple of weeks since returning home from vacation (hubby and I celebrated our 25th anniversary [last year] by going on a cruise [this year]), I have been diligently working around my house.  My daughter, son-in-law, and two granddaughters finally got their house finalized and moved the weekend we came home.  And my 80 year old mom is going to be moving in very soon, so we have a LOT of redoing to do!

First up, 

I decided that since I live here 24/7 and we have guests only a few times a year, I should have the bigger of the two spare rooms for my craft space.  I have been packed in my teensy room (without much complaining) for a long time.  It's amazing how much stuff one accumulates over the years.  Luckily I knew a couple scrapbookers who are more than happy to take the excess off my hands.

I had a plan of how we needed to accomplish the move...Hubby painted and helped me move a couple of pieces from my mom's house into my room....and I worked on the rest.  And worked.  And worked.  And worked.  And am still working.  Wow!  I had no idea in my little brain that it would take this much WORK!  But that was the deal I made ("But, Honey, all you have to do is paint and move two pieces of furniture and I will do EVERYTHING ELSE!")  What was I thinking! But I'm about 95.3% done now.  Just need to figure out what to do with the extra crap important items I haven't fit in the new room yet.  I can almost see the floor of the old room.  lol

Here are a couple of pics of the old room as a reminder of how much I had crammed in there. Mind you, every single cabinet, basket and drawer is FULL!

Didn't I tell ya?  A lot of STUFF!!!

Here is the new room, 95.3% done. (And I have several drawers and baskets that are still empty.  Hoping to get a couple more drawers cleaned out and condensed when I have more time.)

Fish Eye Looking Into the Room (Taken with my fish-eye lens for my iPhone)

The walls are a soft grey and I kept all my pink and orange storage from the previous craft space which adds a really nice pop of color without overdoing it.  Now I just have those pesky little things from the other room to put away yet and I will be done and can get back to my passion of crafting!  Oh, how I've missed it.  WEEKS I've been working on this!

Next up,

I got a new toy piece of very important equipment....A Silhouette Cameo!  And my first cut?  The "designer" control panel.  Pretty darn slick if ya ask me!  Cannot WAIT to get to play with it some more.  Check this out!

Now all I need to do is find time to play with it and make beautiful things!  That is, after I finish cleaning out the old craft room, mudding and painting it, painting my mom's new bedroom, repainting the living room since there seems to be a lot of unexplained chips out of the wall (they weren't there when the kids moved in!), and creating a utility room so Mom can access the washer and dryer.

Also,

I have been playing around with revamping my blog a little.  Finally figured out how to do a header.

It's not perfect, but it's a start! Once I get it how I really want it, I will move on to figuring out how to do my very own blinky.  I have zero money to spare with all the remodeling I need to do (not to mention the Cameo...thank goodness for flex pay), so I am determined to accomplish this on my own.  (Of course, by the time some of you read this, I will have already changed the header numerous times! lol)

And finally,

I reorganized my Cricut supplies and condensed everything down to one cart that I can roll to wherever I choose.  I used a couple of photo boxes for the manuals and overlays, and I created a few "holders" for the cartridges. (I used to have them in one of the stacked drawers). I just need to print out the labels for the tops of them for easier identification.  What do you think?

Hope you enjoyed my "shares" for today.  But for now, I have a terrible backache.  Time to take a break and hug a chihuahua.  Next week I will have more ditties to share with you, including something for the FCCB Design Team.

Til next time, keepin' it crafty!

Craft Room Organization

ORGANIZATION 101: Or How to Cram Tons of Stuff Into a Tiny Room

Hey, crafty bloggers!  Happy New Year!  I've been busy in my teensy-weensy craft room trying to get some organization done (again).  My daughter tells me I organize as much as I craft.  Too true.  But I find that a clean and organized craft space helps me be more creative.  Less distractions = More creativity.  

My craft room is maybe 8x10.  And I have enough "stuff" to easily fill a room 16x18!  What I have learned over the years is how to condense and organize without doing a lot of purging.  I am admittedly a paper hoarder.  I can't seem to part with any paper I've accumulated, no matter how dated or ugly.  I vow that I will find SOMETHING to use it for SOMEDAY!  But when I can't find anything because I have so much "product" laying around, it's time to do something about it.

What prompted me was the fact that I needed to make more room in my bedroom closet.  I had a tall black shelf in there holding shoes for my DH and I, but it took up too much space.  I needed something shorter.  So, without having to spend a dime, I repurposed a shelf from my craft room to hold my shoes in my closet and thus created the space I needed.  But then I had all the crap that came off the shelf from my craft room and needed to put it someplace so I could go back to crafting.  Enter black shelf.  After a few hours of putting away and reorganizing, I actually ended up with a few empty drawers, got labels on one of my units, and found a couple of treasures I forgot I had or couldn't find.  Whew!  It was worth it!

While I don't have any "before" pics, I have a few "after" pics that I wanted to share.  Here is a little peep show into my special little place.

This is the first glimpse.  Here you see my shelves and carts in my pink and orange paradise.  I wanted bright colors that reminded me of my vacations on Captiva Island.  Everything is very "beachy" with lots of bright colors and seashells.  (Notice the stuffed pelican sitting on my printer in the lower left corner.)  These spaces hold all kinds of crafting supplies including stamping, jewelry-making, clay, sewing, and anything else that catches my fancy at any given time.  You also see the place where my furry kids like to hang out.  (I have 7 dogs.)

What you see when you enter my room.

This is panning a little to the right.  Here you see my black shelf repurposed from my bedroom closet, my pegboard, "guest" chair (actually it's to prop my feet up when I'm reading), and the back of my stackable cubes. 

Straight In from Doorway

Here you see the upper half of the wall next to the doorway.  It holds (top to bottom) boxes with my computer cables, spiral binding supplies, photos, CDs and DVDs, my printer, office supplies, more equipment, vinyl and tools.

Wall Next to Entryway

Lower Half of Wall Next to Doorway

Turning to the next wall, you see more crafting supplies and shells (which I use on a lot of home dec projects), markers, decorative scissors, and sewing supplies.  

Pan Right from Doorway

Gazing down you'll see more storage for jewelry, distressing products, embossing, stamps, and other miscellaneous supplies.  Notice all the Cricut boxes in the lower left.  I just moved them from the cube drawers and condensed the space the contents took from 4 drawers to 2.  Haven't decided what I'm doing with the boxes yet.  I hate to get rid of them.  I'll think of something....someday.

Lower Half of Wall Panning Right

Continuing down the wall, this is the upper section of storage.  I have lots of pens, markers, embellishments, Stampin' Up! Stamp Pads, Unity Stamps, buttons, and Xyron machines, in addition to many other crafting items and doodads.

Movin' On Down the Wall

The lower half shows all my carts which house my prefolded card bases, envelopes, unfinished boxes and frames, clay, paper-making supplies, stamps, punches, tissue paper, painting supplies, small-sized cardstock, etc.

Lower Section of Wall and "Footrest"

Hanging right to the wall opposite the entryway, you'll see my pegboard of often used tools and the cart which was repurposed from my kitchen and now holds all my cardstock and 12x12 papers.  I added some tacks to the front to hold the rulers and label stencils that I use most often.

Wall Opposite Doorway

This is the corner where I create.  I love the natural light coming in from the window, little drawer organizers to hold things like "bling", Stickles, Dimensionals, Markers, Ink Pads, Scoring Boards, Stamp Cleaners and other miscellaneous crafting tools and supplies.

The Craft Zone

Upper cabinets hold magazines (on top), Stampin' Up! stamp sets, RubberStamp Tapestry stamps, my mini sewing machine, embellishments, Sizzix Dies, Spray Paints and Spray Adhesives.  Below is my computer and TV.  Under my desk is another storage unit and a rolling cart which holds my Cricut, which I just roll out and off to the side when I'm cutting.

Computing Area

This is the repurposed shelf.  It holds my pressboard, ribbon, more embellishments and tools, bin of stamps not yet "cataloged", stamp catalog, some current craft magazines and my Dremel.  (One of these days I'm going to learn all the neat stuff that little Dremel can do for me!)

Repurposed Shelf

I had to share with you my "find"....I saved my old shower rack just knowing I'd find a use for it in my craft space.  And I did!  It now houses my glue gun, my canned air, favorite glue, stamp cleaner and water/alcohol mix.  It also gives me a great place to hang my little dust pan and brush, and my brayer.  On the wall on the left, you can see where I store my punches.  It's an old crib rail.  I had my DH remove every other bar.  It is PERFECT for all my favorite punches.

Side View of Shelf

Repurposed Shower Caddy

My 9-cube unit holds a lot of the paper embellishments and specialty papers that I use most often.  It also houses my glitter, embossing powder, ArtBin full of metal dies, and Hot Off The Press stamps, plus a few card books and my photo book where I store my unused Dazzles.  

Next To Computer -- Area with Most Used Supplies

I took all the booklets, overlays and cartridges out of all their boxes and made dividers for my cube drawers.  I was able to condense four drawers down to just two!  MUCH BETTER!  Now I just have to decide what I'm going to do with all the boxes (as I said earlier).  They're too nice to just throw away. 

Cricut Organization

I hope you enjoyed the tour, and I hope you got a couple of storage ideas in the process.  I'm now busily crafting away, making a few cards to have on hand for those special occasions.  I'll be sharing those tomorrow.

Until then, Happy Crafting!!