I want this: Embellish Your Story

I want this Embellish Your Story Memo Board for my craft room! It's customizable with magnetic words & images.

Purpose: New Pretties

Recently acquired accessories for my craft room.

Thank you Target and Hobby Lobby!!!
In the past I would have walked right past or felt guilty for buying these.

PURPOSE: To enjoy Beauty.

I feel like a T. I. double "g" r.

That's the bouncy enthusiastic Tigger of Winnie The Pooh fame, in case you didn't follow that reference. It's a little more difficult to convey in print - see the video below.


I have two work surfaces in my craft room. I have just one rolling office chair, the second seating solution in my room is a medicine ball. Yeah, you heard me right. One of those silver balls from the Yoga equipment section of Target. How on earth did I come up with THAT idea... well I'll tell you.

I was at dinner one night with a friend whose company had an ergonomic expert come in and review their offices space. Her office chair was taken away and replaced with a medicine ball. Something about how it makes you sit up straight and is much better for you back. I have back problems, so within the week I ran out and bought a medicine ball.

So now that I am getting back into my newly (and still in process) organized craft room. Today I decided to try the medicine-ball-as-chair. I tell you it is fabulous! I DO need to find the pump for it, it's been sitting for awhile and needs a little more air... it is a tad low for my work surface, but just fine for computing. I had my coffee in here this morning while catching up on email & Twitter, with music playing. A more bouncy and energetic morning I have not had AND I AM NOT a MORNING PERSON!!! I have been bouncing and rolling along with the music. As an added bonus my abs are getting a fun little workout and a stronger core is always good for your back. I wouldn't have this as my only chair... but it is incredibly fun as a second option.

To quote our friend Tigger my morning has been "Bouncy, trouncy, flouncy, pouncy, fun fun fun fun fun! That's saying something for a Monday Morning that we missed the bus.

Craft Room Shaping Up

Today I got in and worked on tidying up my scrap room.
It feels so good to be able to get in here and have a clear surface to work on.
I'm participating in the Capture The Memories, clean up challenge.



I have 2 closets in this room. Both tiny and so strangely shaped you can't use them. This closet is about 16" wide at the back, then has a strange angled wall, the door is narrow, not standard width. I found this Damask Closet Organizer in the dollar spot at Target (It was $2.50) it was the only one in damask. All the rest were bright colors. Don't know if it will work because the shelves are fabric only, but for $2.50 you can't go far wrong. Especially if it allows me to do something workable with this space!


I intend to add 2 lights like this to this workspace. I got this for my husband for his work area and it works real well. I got either from Target or Wal-mart, I forget which, I know I hit both stores that day... The light bar has a toggle on/off switch at the left.

in this photo you can see how little it shows from the front, against my white shelves it will be barely noticable. Over desk lighting is needed in this room as the main light source is a fixture in the center of the room... so I cast a shadow onto my work surface.


Other Posts about my Craft Room: http://thefragranthand.blogspot.com/search/label/Craft%20Room

If you would like to see before pictures, they are here, but I suggest you just enjoy the clean and leave the messy alone.

Damask Photo Box

Look at this beautiful photo box I found yesterday... The decor in my stamp room is coming along nicely. If I ever get organized enough to get back in there.

I don't think I ever mentioned that I decided to go with blue walls and black & white Damask & a Parisian theme. Hey, were else in a house of boys am I going to get to do that?

You'd be surprised how hard it is to find damask in black & white fabric for curtains.

I Bought A Pattern.....

So the shelves are not completely up in my craft room, yet... but I talked to Diana at work about sewing some curtains for me.

My Dad painted my room when he was here for Thanksgiving, now I have the shelves I wanted... I know what I want for curtains.... and today I bought the pattern. I just have to find the fabric that matches what I see in my head....
This might actually all come together!

Yay!

elfa Sale at The Container Store thru Feb 9, 2009

The 30 % off elfa shelving sale is going on right now at The Container Store. The sale ends Monday February 9th. This is the type of shelving I have in my craft room. Go down the left to Labels (or the bottom of this post) and click Craft Room to see the post with a photo of my shelves. I have noticed that is one of the most looked at posts on my blog (along with the grilled cheese and roasted chicken recipes) so I thought I would put a heads up here that the sale is running. They only go on sale 2x's a year.

Hubby is supposed to install phase 2 of my craft room, today. It will be a 7 foot length of wall with shelves. I'll have a work area at the bottom where I can work with machines. I have a sewing machine, Cricut, Cuttlebug, and a Bind-it-All. It will be so nice to have a space where I can set up a machine work station.
I'll have to learn to sew all over again, I haven't sewn since I was a teen, and then it was just a few really easy projects...so don't expect anything fancy.
I'm so excited!

Transformation of The Blue Lady

I have this picture, I bought it at Michael's years ago. I love the lady in blue but the frame just doesn't go in my house.
How to re purpose? Hmmmm Had an idea...


Told idea to my Dad and of course he knew just how to make it happen.
(These are his paintin' clothes.)

Aren't Daddies wonderful!
Anyone care to guess what I am going to DO with this now fabulously made-over picture?!

Stamp Storage Question Answered

I had the following question in response to my post about my Craft Room.

YOU DID A FANTASTIC JOB...TELL ME HOW DO YOU SORT YOUR STAMPS IN YOUR STORAGE BOXES? AND THEN KEEP TRACK SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO GO THROUGH EACH BOX TO KNOW WHAT IS IN WHAT?
THANKS BETH A ROOKIE!
(((((HUGS)))))) GREAT JOB KIDDO!

Thanks, Beth!
I really am happy with my newly organized stamp room.

I will start with an overview of my stamp organization system and explain in more detail below.

I store my stamps in the My Acrylix Organizers according to Color Coded Category.
I have a clear label on each box with the category name of stamps in each box (made with my Dymo label maker.)
I keep an Inventory Listing of all my Acrylix stamp sets in a Microsoft Excel File.
All E-sized stamp sets are stored in a large white 3 ring binder.

Click photos for larger view

Inventory Listing Microsoft Excel File
Sometimes when I'm looking for a stamp set, I can not figure out how a particular stamp set would be categorized so I look it up in my Stamp Set Inventory. I have inventoried all of the stamp sets that I own in a Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet and I just look up the name and see what color/category it says. Then I know which box to look in (it also helps me keep track of which stamp sets I own.) When I receive an order of stamps I sit down and put my initials on the stamp set with a sharpie marker, then I log the stamp set into my Inventory file in Excel.

Each stamp set is on a line by itself, the information I track is Item Number, Stamp Set Name, Color, Category, Status. I use the Status field to indicate Retired, Stamp of the Month or Special stamp sets - for regular stamp sets I leave the status field blank. With more than 100 stamp sets this is a quick way to know what I have & where to find it. I can quickly re-sort the information by any category to quickly find what I am looking for.

Color Coded Category
Did you know that Close To My Heart stamp sets are color coded by category?
Categories and Colors are as follows:

Alphabet - Indian Corn Blue
Animals, Outdoor, Travel - Topiary
Autumn - Olive
Celebration - Amethyst
Everyday Life - Crystal Blue
Frames, Tags, Borders - Lilac Mist
Sentiments - Pink
Spring - Yellow
Summer - Sunflower
Winter - Desert Sand

And that is how I organize My Acrylix Stamp Sets. If you have further questions, leave a comment (Click COMMENTS below) and I'll answer here so all the info is in the same place.

New Shelves in Craft Room

This is my stamping and scrapbooking area. Having supplies organized on this main work station has made such a nice change. Now I love to work in this room crafting or on my laptop. The white desktop makes it lighter and brighter than the old dark table that I had before.

Click Photo for Larger View

I have a lot of challenges in this room. Every wall has some obstruction to it, windows, closet doors, or access pathways into the room or closets...

This is an elfa shelving system from The Container Store. The entire system hangs from a support strip across the top. Robert installed the top strip for me, then I was able to place the standards (vertical keystrips) and brackets and shelves, myself. The beauty of this system is that I can change it around whenever I want to fit what I need at the time. I'm able to make the shelves whatever height I need and have a few options of shelf depth as well.

The desktop I am using at the bottom is 24" deep. It is completely supported by brackets on the key strips. NO TABLE LEGS AT ALL. I can zip all over in my rolling office chair and never bang my knees! At the back of the desk area I have Sterilite Show Off containers (Walmart) without their lids as storage for embellishments, distressing kit, and a power strip for plugging stuff in without having to crawl under the desk.

The next shelf up is 8" deep and holds my Ink Stak ordered from Stamper's Storage. I have the ShortStak which holds 60 ink pads and markers. I need Robert to paint it white for me. However, I am considering switching to the new carousel Exclusive Inks organizer from CTMH as that would free up a whole shelf of storage space. The small frosted drawers on the left (Container Store) hold adhesive and acrylic stamp blocks.

The next two shelves hold my stamps, sassy strands, buttons and flat packaged accessories. My Acrylix Organizer boxes are from CTMH.

The top shelf is 12" deep and holds (from left) my design books, binder for E-Size stamp sets, and My Accent, Eyelet, and Ribbon Rounds Organizer Cases. Finally all of my solid cardstock is at hand stored in Vertical Storage Files (Cropper Hopper.)