Craft Room – Post 2 Getting Organized

Last week I shared with you the construction of my craft room and promised to share some of the ways I have organized my crafting goodies. With my desk complete it was time to get organized and start moving my craft supplies from working on a sewing desk out of a large scrapbook tote and my closet to my new craft room.

The first item I want to share with you is my paper organizer – I LOVE this beauty. While trying to determine how to organize my scrapbook paper I was searching eBay and I got really lucky. I found someone who only lives about an hour away and makes beautiful craft organizers. Once I got it home all I had to do was paint it and separate all of my paper so it would be organized.

Another time-consuming project was separating out my brads and other metal goodies. I had a spice rack in my kitchen I never used and I knew it would make the perfect way to organize them. Me and Jessicia sat in the floor for about an hour separating everything by color. When we were finished I punched a color coordinated flower for the top of the lids and used my label maker to label each one.

Now for the other love of my room – my Craft Accessory Organizer from Michaels. Over the last two years I have changed it up some as I reorganized to make room for more goodies. This organizer is now home for all my glitter, Stickles, Smooch, beads, more glitter, flowers, and smaller chipboard containers. As you can see it use to be home to my ribbon but as my glitter and ribbon collection expanded I moved my ribbon to my organizers under the desk.

A couple other organizers I added to the room is this cute turquoise and brown bin I found on clearance to hold my crafting magazines and this basket is home to all my letters (which might have grown a little since this picture was taken). J

Michele at The Scrap Shoppe has shared her organizing tip for clear stamps and with the design of the desk it was perfect for my cubbies. I had several old CD cases with no CDs so I started break the centers out of the cases and adding my stamps. To help me find my stamps I added a label to the edge of the CD cases and organized the stamp sheet in a notebook that cross-references back to the cases.

Ok, well that is it for this craft room post. Next week I will show you my refurbished dresser.

On a side note - I have shared my love of photographing weather and I had a great chance tonight to take some pictures so I thought I would share my favorite one with you.

Tracey

Craft Room – Post 1 Under Construction

Hello everyone! Since starting my blog I wanted to share my craft room with you but have to admit I knew it would take some time gathering everything to create my posts but I finally decided there is no time like the present. I created my craft room about two years ago so a few things have changed. This is the first of a few posts I will share with you taking you through construction to the finished room. Without further ado here we go.

Before creating my room I did a lot of research trying to determine the layout of my room from selecting colors, how to organize, and the most important part my workspace. I knew I wanted the colors to be bright and fun so when I found something the color I wanted I had the paint mixed to match. Then it was time to invite my friend Jennifer over and get started painting with my favorite color - turquoise. Once each wall was done I stenciled around the top of the room using a really cute flourish stencil – I wish I would have counted every time I went up and down that ladder.

After Jennifer and I finished painting the room it was time to call in the guys to start building the desk. I knew the biggest expense in the room would be my desk and I wanted something that would give me a lot of storage, fit my room and not break the bank. My surfing the web paid off as I found a great desk design with lots of storage. You can find great instructions and design layout for creating the desk at Jannypie. The best part, I was able to modify the layout to make the desk bigger giving me more workspace and storage. My husband and my Dad did a great job of customizing the plans I had found and spent a lot of time making it just right.

Once they were finished it was time to break out the paint brushes to primer and paint the desk – this took a while and I was really tired of painting by the time I was finished. After the painting was finally done I hung my curtain and placed the desk in the corner.

The room was starting to come together – next week I will share some of my projects to get organized.

Tracey



Sand and Shell Frame

Remembering Our Time Away

I hope everyone is having a great weekend. We are getting a lot of rain so it is the perfect day to be in my craft room. It has been a hectic week in our household this week and our youngest started his Junior year (enjoy your little ones they grow up way too fast).

A couple of weeks ago I shared my relaxing getaway with you and that I had collected some shells while we were strolling the beach. Today I wanted to share one of the project ideas I had for my shells. While it is not a new idea it is one that will help us remember our time away and allowed me to bring a piece of the ocean home with me.

For this project I used a plain wood frame I had purchased from Michaels some time back, Mod Podge, sand, shells, and canvas. If you do not have shells you can purchase these at any craft store.

I wanted to use sand as the base of my frame and had planned to use a wonderful product I purchased a couple of years ago at the CKC convention – it is sand that already has adhesive mixed in so you just have to spread it on – but I had used it for a previous project and it was hard as a rock. In the trash it went and I had to think of another way to use sand. I was able to find a small bag of sand at Hobby Lobby so I put a thick layer of Mod Podge and sprinkled it with sand. This did not give me the coverage I wanted so I cleaned off the loose sand then covered that layer with more Mod Podge and sand. After removing the excess sand I applied a light layer of Mod Podge by dabbing it on the top layer of sand. This allows the sand to stay in place so I do not have sand falling off the frame. Now that I know this technique works I will not purchase any more of the sand with adhesive because in the future I will remember to gather sand from the beach to use when I get home.

Once the top layer of Mod Podge was completely dry I started arranging my shells and then adhered them with 3-in-1 Beacons glue. I then created a tag using canvas fabric, outlined it with a brown marker, and added it to the frame. The edge of the frame was bare wood so I decided to use aqua rick-rack to add a little color that compliments the ocean.

Now I can remember our getaway and the fun I had collecting the shells during our trip.

Tracey