My Scraproom Part 2 Storage & Organization

Yesterday I gave you the quick tour of my scrap/craft room, today I am going to give you a few close ups of how I have things organized to suit me.  This system has come about with lots of rearranging thing to get them to the point I can easily use everything.  to see how I have arranged things in the past you can check out my post here.  Of course going back and looking at my previous post I realize that I have gained a lot of real estate, when my ex- moved out and left his workbenches.

This Picture from yesterday shows you my main working space.  Today I will show you close ups of the area, as I have packed a lot of stuff in this tiny area.

This is where I store all my CTMH cardstock in color familys. It is on the left hand side of my desk. This rack was discarded by my ex-s work and he brought it home to me, it is perfect to hold all my cardstock.  You will notice that all my paper is in plastic bags to protect it from dust, as we live out in the country off a dirt road and I am constantly fighting a losing battle with dust.  You also see my youngest son's dog, Jazmine who is one of my scrapping buddies. 

Hanging on the wall next to my cardstock rack is this little shelf I moved from my bathroom (after adding a coat of paint to cover the rust) to my scrap room, it holds some of my favorite punches, with my paper sampler, and rulers hanging on the bottom hooks.  Right below it is a meduim size plastic cart that holds my tool caddy, and paper cutters on top.  My Adhesives and glitter in the first drawer and the rest of my punches in the bottom 2 drawers.

This is a close up of my tool caddy, I have filled the bottom of it with rice so my tools will stand up in it, so they are easier to grab when I need them.  Below is my adhesive drawer, I have used an old silverware tray, to hold my stuff and make it easier to find what I need.  The glitter and liquid glass are in CTMH Ribbon tubes hot glued into place in the tray, this let's me store them upside down so the glitter/glue is always at the top ready to use. 

This frame was one I rescued from the trash.  The idea is one I stole from Pinterest here. It was a hideously yellow brown antiqued looking frame from which I took the equally hideous picture out of and spray painted white.  I then stapled the ribbon in place and now have a perpetual picture frame, which I us for hanging pictures I am getting ready to scrap or that I am having a rough time deciding what to do with.

This next one is of my workspace (it is clean for a change, btw it doesn't look this neat right now:-).  I have a frame easel sitting in front of me to hold my idea books if I am following one of them for my layout.  My inks are in the CTMH ink carousel, the baskets hold my sponges, and blocks.  The bulletin board is for inspiration, and any notices I have to keep in front of me. 

This rack is strictly an inspirational item it holds a picture of my biggest inspirations My Boys, and a vase with handmade flowers in it.  This rack is another trash rescue, it had originally been in my bathroom, and I actually had it in the trash pile when inspiration hit and spray paint came to the rescue and it was given new life. 

This is the Wall I face, it has a dollar store wall cling that says with "God all things are possible", and lots of Butterflies.  You will also notice the "glittery Glare" that is from Prisma glitter I blew onto the wall when it was still wet, to add a touch of glitter to "MY" room. (the boys were ready to commit me when they saw me putting glitter on the walls :-)

This area is the messiest part of my table.  It is actually part of the side table shelves my ex built for me, this is the desk level shelf and I store my CTMH How To Books here along with my alphabet stamps, more blocks, some of my embellishments, retired inks, the current box of pictures I am scrapping, etc.  The wire rack is where I throw the paperpacks I am using to keep them out of my way while I work, yet they are still near by so I can easily get more paper out if needed.

On the right side of the desk I have all my CTMH B&T's, Current and Retired on this wire rack along with some of my school and special themed papers.  In organizing this rack I came to the conclusion that I am a major paper hoarder.  I have over 40 different CTMH paper packs, not counting the other misc papers I have stashed on this shelf and in the plastic drawers below.

Here is where I store all my cardstock scraps.  I have them separated by color family and it is always where I go first when I need a small piece of something.  To label these I broke out my long neglected stickers and used them to label the drawers.

This is my 4x6 photo storage, I have a box for each boy and then one for Family group pages.  There are 4 boxes here and the 5th one is beside my table, since I am always working on scrapbook pages.  I only have 19 years to catch up on.  The pictures are sorted by page or event in envelopes in the boxes with pieces of cardstock cut to size and labeled with the year. (will have to remember to do another post on my photo organization)

Along with the shoebox I also have 5, 13x13 boxes that hold all the stuff that is too big to fit into a plastic shoebox.  Things such as the boys artwork, sports pictures, certificates, etc.  These are stored in the black plastic drawers below the side table.

These are my stamp storage, the little 3 drawer plastic tower is full of Close To My Heart Stamps, and the top drawer of the large tower is full of stamps also. Plus I have a crate sitting on my table full of Alphabet stamps.  I think I have a stamp problem too!!!!! 

I have hot glued foam dividers into the plastic drawers, to make it easier to keep the stamps sets in rows.  Also any of my stamp sets that are not CTMH are put into the plastic envelopes that CTMH sells and stored in the smaller center space.

The next two drawers are full of my ribbon. Yes I know I have way to much, but it has been thinned down. My Ribbon used to fill up this entire 3 drawer strage system along with another smaller drawer and a shoe box, and I couldn't find anything. My Sister in Law gave me two big boxes of ribbon awhile back to play with, and for awhile I kept all of it thinking I would use it.  It just sat there and took up space with me using only a very little, so I went through it and kept only the ones I loved or thought I would use up. 

Now all the Ribbon is sorted by color, and displayed so I can easily see what ribbon I have and selecting the ribbon is much easier, plus I am not buying any more doubles of ribbon, thinking I was out.  I also think I shouldn't need any more Red ribbon for a very long time. LOL  These drawers are also divided by foam board hot glued into place in the drawers.

Next we move over to my work benches here is where I have my Cricut, and Cartridges.  Though since getting the CTMH Art Philosophy Cartridge I have not really used the rest much.  I had had the Cricut on my main workspace but found it was taking up too much space.  Now with it on the benches it forces me to get out of my chair and move around a little, and it actually is helping me keep from getting to stiff from sitting for long periods.  You can't see it but all my mats are hanging on a hook in the pegboard which makes it quick & easy to get them when needed.  When it was on my main work table I was constantly losing my mats under piles of stuff.

Finally we are on to my button's I love using them as embellishments, they are cute enough to use on girl pages yet they aren't too girly that I can't use them on all my boy pages.  I keep most of my embellies near me so I can use them, but I saw another  scraproom where they had all their buttons in jars, and I loved the look.  So my button's aren't only a tool they also serve as a decoration to my room.

Right above my buttons is this bulletin board that I made folowing an idea on Pinterest here.  This was an old worn out, cork bulletin board that the cork board part was starting to fall apart from use, and the frame had once been covered with contact paper to cover the ugly brown frame.  I cut out the cork, recovered it with batting and fabric, then slowly added my ribbon.  I then spray painted the frame and put it all together.  Violla another piece of trash given new life.  I use this as another staging area for pictures I just haven't figured out how I wanted to scrap.

Lastly, a tour of my scrap room would not be complete without pictures of my scrappin buddies.  Jazmine (Jazzy for short) and Sadie Sue.  These are my son's dogs but they love to come in and bug me when I am working.  Sadie even jumps up and warms my legs while I work.

Jazmine

Sadie Sue

Hope you enjoyed my little tour of my scrap room.  Now that you have all seen it, it is time for me to go in and mess it up.  PLAY TIME!!!!

Jenn

My Scrap Room

I have been doing some major cleaning/purging in my scrap/craft room lately so I decided to share how my Creative space looks with the rest of the world.

My craft room started out being the boys toy room. Since they have outgrown most of their toys, I have taken it over with my toys.  I have taken so many pictures of my room that I will be posting them in 2 posts.  Today's will be the outside walls, with quick glimpses of my storage, the next will be a closer look at some of the storage areas.

This first picture is looking into the room from the doorway.  If you notice the back wall is only half painted, I got most of it painted before wrestling season started and have not had time to finish it since because most weekends have been filled with wrestling tournaments.  Now that Wrestling season is over, and all 3 boys still at home are not planning on doing any spring sports I can hopefully get the last section painted. 

This is my main work area, I have all my inks, and papers within easy reach of my desk. 

You will notice most of my storage is an eclectic mix match of both handmade and old furniture repurposed, along with lots of plastic containers. My main work table is our old kitchen table, it is the perfect height and it gives me plenty of room to spread out. The side table/bookshelf next to the table was made by my ex-, to give me more work space and storage area.  The wire rack where I store my CTMH B&T paper was given to me by a friend cleaning out her scrap room (Thanks Karen). 

Below my side table is my stamp storage the white cart, and the black carts hold my bigger pictures that won't fit in the shoe boxes in the crates (one for each boy and one for our Disney trip), some miscellaneous (non Close To My Heart) papers I couldn't bear to part with, along with other odds and ends.  The tall Black cart is where I store my scraps, more on that in my next post.

Here is where I store my albums in the bottom wooden cupboard.  the wire shelf on top used to be behind the toilet in the bathroom, but we cut it down and I lined the shelves with cardboard covered in contact paper to cover the wire.  It now holds my Creative Memories cutting systems, my card basket, and various other items.  The shelf next to it is actually my catch all if I can't figure out where I want to store something I usually put it here.  It does have some of my idea books and lots of printed tutorials, along with my embroidery floss, and lots of precut borders.

These pictures are of my L-shaped workbench.  It is where I use my cricut, heat gun and other tools I don't have room for at my main work space.  I also have creatively stored my buttons in glass jars on top of the bench to add a little color to this side of the room.  I also work here when I get tired of sitting, and it is my nieces workspace when they come over to play.  Underneath is where I store all my CTMH catalogs, jewelry making supplies, tote bags, picture frames, sewing machine, and other miscellaneous items.  The small white square boxes in the first underneath picture hold my page protectors, completed pages that aren't in albums, 12x12 bags, etc.  The bigger white CTMH boxes hold all my Non-CTMH paper that I am either going to donate to the local 4-H girls or our community center.

So we are now back to the doorway and that completes today's tour, tomorrow I will be back with close ups of the way I organize some of my toys.

Thanks for Looking

Jenn

3 ways to use Inspired Stamps $3.99 Scripture stamps

This week at Inspired Stamps we are focusing on our favorite  $3.99 Scripture stamps, and showing yhou three ways they can be used.  For my projects I got one of my old favorites, Vellum!

It has been a long time since I had used it and I had forgotten how much fun it was to play with.  I had a blast playing with it and am very satisfied with what I have come up with.

I used the $3.99 Scripture stamp Mark 10:27 for all 3 projects. 

This is most definately my favorite card and it is way different than what I was imagining when I started and I love the feel it gives. It reminds me of my Dad's well worn Bible, with the gold edges. 

For this card I first stamped the Scripture in rows on my vellum in Cocoa ink to create my background.  Below is a close up of my background sheet.  I then cut it to 4x5-1/4 an slowly tore the edge of the vellumall around the edges.  I then inked the edges in Desert Sand ink making sure some ink got onto the page to give it a distressed look.  It is then mounted on a piece of Colonial White with the edges ink distressed.  This is then mounted on gold paper from Pizazz.

For my second card I once again stamped the Scripture onto my vellum, but this time I used Versa Mark ink and then heat embossed the scripture with clear detail embossing powder.

After I had embossed the page I sponged Desert Sand ink over the entire page, the embossed Scripture resisted the ink leaving a negative "white" image on my vellum.  Below I have an example of what my background looked like before I covered it up.

My last card is my least favorite of the 3, it was the first one I created and the more I played the better the cards got that night.

:-)  For this card I Stamped the Scripture in Cocoa ink on the vellum then heat embossed it.  The nice thing about Vellum is your ink don't dry that fast so you can emboss your image using just your inks, and don't have to use Versa Mark or embossing inks.

This time I also tore around the edges and inked them to give the vellum a distressed look.  Sorry the Scripture looks blurred, I couldn't get a good picture without the embossing reflecting and making it look blurred.  Below is a close up of the Scripture showing that it really isn't blurred.

Thanks for looking at my artwork, Please feel free to leave some love.  Don't forget to check out what the other members of the Design Team have created,  You can find their blogs by following the links in my side bar.

Thanks

Jenn

Materials Used: Inspired Stamps $3.99 Scripture Mark 10:27
CTMH Materials Used:  Cocoa, Sunset & Desert Sand Ink, Colonial White & Sunny Yellow Cardstock, CTMH Exclusive Srt Philosophy Cricut Cartridge.
Gold Paper Pizazz, Ribbon Ofray. Vellum The paper Company




 Materials Used: Inspired Stamps $3.99 Scripture Mark 10:27
CTMH Materials: Desert Sand and Sunset Ink, Chocolate, Sunny Yellow, Colonial White, Garden Green cardstock,  Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge, Clear Detail Embossing Powder
Versa Mark Ink, Ribbon Ofray, Button from stash Vellum the Paper Company

Materials Used: Inspired Stamps $3.99 Scripture Mark 10:27

CTMH Materials: Desert Sand and Sunset Ink, Sunny Yellow, Colonial White, Garden Green cardstock, Typeset B&T, Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge, Clear Detail Embossing Powder
Kraft Cardstock & Vellum The Paper Company, ribbon Ofray



Inspired Stamps Scenic View

Gee after a 2 week vacation (consisting of working 3 jobs, chasing my wrestling sons around, and one "Mom's time"  Crop) I am back with a Nature stamp post for the Inspired Stamps Design Team.  This week I have used the Scenic View stamp set to create a mountain scene for this simple "Masculine" card.  The sentiment and Inside Scripture come from Inspired Stampers Favorite Collection #2

Front of the Card

Inside of Card

For the clouds I stamped them on a Post-It note at the sticky end, then cut them out and put the on my card and sponged my chalk over them creating the cloud look.  I did remove the top layer and very carefully went  along the edge of the bottom cloud to divide the clouds.

Materials Used: Inspired Stampers Favorite Collection #2, and Scenic View
CTMH Products used: Black, Desert Sand, Topiary Ink, Pacifica & White Daisy Cardstock, Blending Pen,
Chalks, CTMH Exclusive Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge, Ribbon from stash,

Please make sure you check out the rest of the Teams artwork by following the Design Team links on the left.

Thanks

Jenn

P.S. Now I am off to bed as all that running around last week has wore me down to the point I now have a bad cold, and want to spend most of my time sleeping.