How time flies :) New Crafting Area and a few links.

Hello!  Yes, I am back again.  And yes, it has been quite a while since I posted.  Life has been busy, new job, family time, and some work around the house.

Have missed posting here, have posted a bit more on the Facebook page, though not as much as I would like.  Hoping to change all of that from today onward.

One of the house projects has been to move my crafting area which was situated in the family room.  Or, should I say taking over the family room.  Anyhow, we now have a spare room and after two years finally decided to fix the room up, make it into a crafting area, guest and media room.  And no, the room is not big, it is 11 x 10 feet lol

Was dreading moving everything, just too much stuff!  And yes, it was every bit as bad, actually worse, then I thought it would be, but the end result is oh so wonderful!

Here are pictures of where the craft area was:

And here are some photos of the new craft area:

 This is the new sofa/sleeper for the room, called a "EuroLounger."  This is a view of the room from the hallway.  We removed the carpet and put in new flooring (which we are also installing in the hallway, dinning room, family room and maybe the kitchen).  We also repainted the room, the walls are a taupe (the inside of the closet is taupe, just a shade darker), and the ceiling/molding is an off white. 

This is the other side of the room, new white cabinet :) and crafting area.

This is part of the crafting area, we took out the closet and put in a desk top (cut down some wood to fit the closet) added a few more shelves. Ordered a larger DVD shelf unit (on the left in the picture) for stamp storage ($38), works perfectly.  Had a smaller unit (next to the larger one) that I am using as well.

Here is a close up of the baskets from Bed, Bath and Beyond (the top basket is not a new one, just the ones below).  I love how they stack, lots of room and they are very sturdy.  These are on top of the new large DVD storage unit, smaller ones are on the desk, and large ones are underneath the desk.  The peg stamps are stored in metal CD storage, I can move the container easily, or just grab stamps.  The bottom basket has clear blocks for unmounted stamps.

This is the smaller DVD unit next to the larger one, had this in the old area.  Still have one more shelf for the larger unit, (you can see the shelf next to the plug), not sure if I need it or not, but will keep it for a while.

I decide to use baskets to store things on top of the desk, bought the ones on the right at Bed Bath and Beyond, they stack perfectly and allow me to store supplies that I use all the time.  Had the storage for the copics, and the clear containers on the far left. In the far right of the picture you can see more shelving which is currently being used for ink pads. On the far left is the computer, can actually use it and craft at the same time lol

 Here is a close up view of the ink pads and how I have stored them.  The shelf above the ink pads also holds H20's, small ink pads and glue dots/mounting tape. On the far right, bottom, behind the coffee cup, are Viva Decor pens.

Here is a front view of the new cabinet, took me forever to find exactly what I needed.  What I love about this cabinet is that the door on the top can swing open, or it can fold down into a table, see below.  Top shelf of the open storage has Martha Stewart punches, middle shelf has glue, baby wipes, modge podge, embossing paste and so on.  The bottom shelf has water color paints, chalks, and some special paints.

Here is the door open, on the top shelf I have glimmer mists (on the left), mica powders (on the right), some clear glitter and a few odds and ends.  The middle shelf has embossing powder, glitter, (in boxes on the left), markers, colored pencils, water color pencils, intense pencils (in utensil baskets, on the right).  I wanted to be able to grab all of the markers or colored pencils at one time and thought that the utensil holders would work best, bought the holders at Bed, Bath and Beyond.   Bottom shelf has the tool turnaround, and tape gun, and a few other odds and ends.

Here is the tale top down, with the chair.  My old area was very cramped and the work area very restricted, this new set up allows me to spread out, a dream come true lol  I will be able to set up the cuttle bug and not have to stop to put it away to continue working, same for the paper cutter and so on.  So far I have just been playing around and mainly using the desktop in the old closet (no time for crafting as the rest of the house is being worked on).  I can leave the table down or when we have guests spending the night close it up.  

This is the unit that was in the old crafting area, we turned it on its side and bought baskets.  Using it to store odds/ends, yarn (am now crocheting), embroidery supplies, zentangle supplies and eventually we will have a tv on top.

And here is the family room, minus the crafting area lol.  See the boxes on the right?  That is about half of what was purged, will be donated soon. Still need to donate/sell the items on the left (white drawers and my old sewing/crafting table).  The oak unit with the TV is going as well, we are planning on putting a TV above the fireplace, as well as putting in new flooring, new fan and painting.  

Here is a video of the new room as well (for some reason I could not upload the video from my ipad directly to youtube, had to use an app which made the video "skinny," sorry for the poor quality)



One thing I learned, crafting is an addiction, and while I did manage to pare down and get rid of about a third of my stuff, there are still things I can get rid of from the move, and I will soon.

Looking forward to posting again, there are just so many GREAT things out there to post!  And of course I am on Pinterest (my god one can spend a great deal of time on that site!).

Missed you all, and missed the blog!  Looking forward to being back.

Of course I have to provide a few links to goodies if you have read this far lol  Found a few things on pinterest that were amazing (at least to me they were):

Bigganded's blog:  WOW, WOW, WOW!  Have seen her work on SCS, went to her blog and spent hours (yes, hours) admiring and casing for my own projects.  Truly an inspiration and an artist of the highest level, you will enjoy every moment of her blog and projects.

GREAT video on how to make card bases in a flash:



Interesting Rainbow business cards:  found the site through pinterest, and though it is not in English all of the directions can easily be followed because of the pictures.  Really want to try this soon!

Take care, and I should be back later next week with links and all sorts of fun things :)