My NEW Craft Room!

Hello everyone and welcome to my NEW craft room! This space has been in the making for months now, and it's finally at a point where I can share it with everyone. As I explain in my video, we recently moved and the house that we moved into has a very large bonus room. With a lot of hard work and sweat and tears (literally) we transformed this space from a dark, peach-colored cave into the light and bright room that you see here. I could have never completed this room without the help of my wonderful hubby, so here's a shout out to you hon! Love you!

Enjoy the videos, and if you have any questions please feel free to ask!





Here are some still photos of the room:







Thanks for stopping by today! Have a wonderful weekend, and I'll be back next week with some fun Christmas cards :)

A little bit of this & a little bit of that

TGIF! I'm so happy it's finally Friday. It's been a busy week for me (hence the lack of posts), but I'm here now to make up for the last couple of days. Let's get started!

I don't know about you, but it does it seem like house work is never done? Last weekend Travis and I were busy once again squaring things away in our new home. We've been here almost three months, and we still have quite a few things yet to do. We're looking forward to the day we don't have anymore loose ends to tie up! On the never-ending "to do" list was hanging some antique bird plates on the wall of our guest bedroom. I envision this room being a shabby-chic getaway, so I thought the plates were an excellent addition.

I got the idea to hang plates on the wall after seeing a number of shabby-chic rooms that had this type of decor. Honestly, I kind of thought that collecting plates was more of an "older woman" type of thing, but I couldn't have been more wrong. Do you know how many lovely plates are out there, especially vintage ones? I was blown away! I really didn't know what kind of theme I was going for until I stumbled across this gorgeous hand painted Audubon bird plate at my local antique store. Could this BE anymore me? LOL!

It was all down hill from there. I started perusing Ebay for vintage bird plates and was lucky enough to come across a set of turn-of-the-century Alfred Meakin plates at a STEAL of a deal. The seller said he found them in a box that he bought at an estate sale. The lady had packaged them beautifully, and they had been sitting in her collection since the 1960s. I love having a history behind the things I buy!

The guest room is *almost* done now. I have a dresser in there that needs a new coat of paint, so I'm sure I'll be featuring that project sometime soon.

Speaking of the house and things that need to be done, my craft room is so close to being finished! I bought some beautiful curtain panels yesterday as well as a brushed chrome rod and tie back set to complete the look. Here's a quick sneak peak:

After running way too many errands yesterday, I spent the evening with some friends just hanging out and crafting. Of course, I had to pack all of my supplies, and I ended up using one of my new storage solutions.

See that scrumptious avocado green train suitcase? I purchased that from Etsy a while back because I knew it would not only make a great addition to my craft room, but also because it holds a lot of crafting stuff when I'm on the go. It also has the perfect vintage feel for my craft room.

This baby held seven ink pads, countless wood-mounted stamps, several CD cases of clear stamps, a circle punch and all of my Stampin' Up markers and there was still room to spare! It's hard to see in this picture, but the perimeter of the inside is lined with pockets that I used to hold my scissors, dies and stamping mat. I'm in love with my new train case :)

While at my friend's house, I got a few holiday tags done. I still need to color them in and add a little bling here and there, but overall I'm really happy with how they've turned out so far.

I actually had a friend die cut and punch out the tags for me while I stamped the images. I'm not a slave driver, promise! He offered to help me out, so I put him to work :) He ended up surprising me with some really pretty beads! Gotta love me some silver, turquoise, coral and freshwater potato pearls. Thanks Fernando!

My other friend was playing around with a few of my new stamps...

...and she made me this adorable tag:

I love the glittered flocking she used for the sheep's body. I'm all about shiny things!

We were minus one body last night, and that was because my other friend is sick :( I made her this "Thinking of You" card a few days ago for her.

Finally, I leave you with my Friday Favorites for the week. As you can see, little Mr. Owen isn't so little anymore! He'll be 16 weeks old tomorrow. I'm always amazed at how quickly Dane puppies grow, and although it makes me a bit sad to see him grow so fast, I'm also very proud of how sweet and loving and smart he is.

We haven't officially weighed him, but we think he's in the 55-60 lb range. The boy eats six cups a day for heaven's sake! He's eating us out of house and home...

...but heaven help me, I love him to death as I do all my babies.

Have a great weekend, folks!

Ribbon Galore!

Greetings bloggers! My apologies for skipping my Friday Favorites post. I have been battling a headache that doesn't seem to want to go away. Our weather has been strange lately, so I thought maybe the change in air pressure was to blame, but then my teeth started hurting so my next thought was that my braces were the culprit. Either way, I'm hoping this darn thing goes away soon because it's really hard to focus on getting things done.

Despite the nagging pain in my head, I found the gumption to tackle my ribbon drawer. A couple of years ago, I decided to spool all of my ribbon onto wooden clothes pins. It was quite the endeavor! I even got my mom and Travis to help, and thank goodness I did because at the time I didn't realize just how much ribbon I actually had. You can see some of that organizational project here.

As you can imagine, I've collected *a few* more spools of ribbon since then. Instead of winding them around the wooden clothes pins when I got them like a good girl, I threw the new ribbon in my drawer and said, "Ah, I'll get to it later." Well, later came this past weekend. I had had it with the mess I created and was ready to clean it up. The first thing I did was wind the ribbon around the wooden clothes pins. After that, I sorted the clothes pins into piles based on color.

Yeah...I have a lot of ribbon. I would so love to display the ribbon in glass jars, but alas, all of the counter space in my room is currently occupied. So what's a girl to do? Stick them in a big 'ol drawer!

You'll notice a few things about my ribbon drawer right off the bat. First, you can see I have a few packs of ribbon that are not wrapped around the clothes pins. The reason being is that the large one you see is 60+ yards of ribbon, and there's no way that baby is fitting on a wooden clothes pin, so that one stays put. The other ribbon is specialty holiday ribbon that won't stay on a clothes pin, so they stay as-is, too. The second thing you'll notice is that some of my spools are in Ziplock baggies.

I decided to separate the spools by color so that when I need a specific color, I can just grab the bag I need and hold it against my project. It's easy for me, and that's what you should think about when doing your own organizing because what may be convenient for me may not be for you.

I hope you enjoyed this quick ribbon organizing session! Have a good rest of your day!

Change is good

Wow - it's hard to believe it's been nine months since my last blog post. I apologize to my faithful readers, but I'm back now to share my crafty life with everyone!

So much has changed for the better that it's hard to figure out where to begin. Travis and I have had many adventures together since my last post, and I will be catching up on those in the days and weeks to follow. I think our biggest news is that we moved into a lovely home and have been making it our own for the past six weeks. We've been busy painting and doing random home repairs, but it's all been so worth it. I finally have the craft room of my dreams, and I couldn't be happier! It's still a work in progress, so for now I'll just give you a few sneak-peaks. I'll be doing a video of my room in the months to come as I get it more and more organized. This first picture is a quick sampling of some of my favorite things.


Over the summer, my good friend gave me a big box full of vintage buttons that belonged to her grandmother and mother. Keep in mind that she herself is 80 years old, so these buttons are truly antique. I actually have the really old metal buttons stored away in a mason jar, but I'll get to that later. The buttons you see here are housed in a divided unit I picked up at a shabby-chic outdoor fair. It's the perfect organizational button solution!


I'm hoping to get in my craft room soon and do something other than organize and put things away. I certainly have quite the spread of beads and findings to make a fun chic piece! Lucky for me, there's a bead store no more than five minutes away :)


Before I sign off, I'd like to take a quick moment to share some of the updates I've made to the blog. First of all, I have restructured my blog lists by breaking them down into three categories: Jewelry Blogs I Love; Scrappy Blogs that Inspire Me; and, Shabby Chic/Vintage Blogs. I have single-handedly checked every link on my site, and they all lead to the appropriate place. If you happen to click on a link that doesn't work or is for some reason woefully out of date, please let me know. I want to keep my blog as up-to-date as possible. You'll also notice that I've expanded my blog to include more of my jewelry making and my new found love for all things vintage. I have new links to some seriously cool sites that offer handmade beads, jewelry kits and unique jewelry pieces. If you have the time and are so inclined, I urge you to check them all out!

I'll be back soon to share more exciting new stuff. Thanks for stopping by!

Bead Storage Station

Thank you all for your kind words about Poker. Since his passing, I have removed all weasel-related items from my house most notably their large luxurious cage that used to stand proud in one corner of my craft room. They always used to keep me company when I crafted, and I enjoyed having them with me. After moving the cage to storage, I wondered what I would do with the empty space. It seemed so sad and barren, and I knew I needed to spruce it up and make it more joyful.

After a few days of pondering, the idea to consolidate my beads into one centralized location hit me! I was bound and determined to find some sort of shelving system that would fit nicely in that little niche of my room. I searched high and low for days combing through thrift stores, antique stores and big box stores until I realized that my good friend had a bookcase that she wasn't using. I called her up and asked if I could borrow it, and she said yes! After bringing it back to the house, the last thing left to do was to fill it up. I ended up buying a bunch more plastic storage containers (lucky for me JoAnn's was running a 40% off sale on their bead organizers at the time), and I spent a week moving beads around and sorting through little caches here and there. In the end, I'm super happy with how my new corner looks. It's both stylish and functional, but best of all it makes me smile.

I also filmed a very short video giving you a more up-close look. Hope you all enjoy it!

I'll be back soon to introduce a new member of the family! Stay tuned :)

A more detailed look at my craft room

Howdy folks! Today I have another quick video to share showing a few more details of my craft room. In the last video, I wasn't able to show everything due to time limitations, so I thought it would be fun to show you all what you missed as well as give you peeks inside drawers and baskets. Maybe you'll find one of my organizational tips handy for your own needs! Enjoy :)

Organzing your stamps + a video

Hi everyone! I wanted to share a quick video I put together showing how I organize my Stampin' Up stamps, my random wood mounted stamps and my clear and unmounted stamps. Please let me know if you have any questions. Enjoy!

Ink Pad Organization and Bulkless Bling

I've been wanting to share a new organizing system that I ordered a few weeks ago, but with Isabel's passing and the time I took off from blogging, I didn't have a chance until now. For many months I had been pulling my hair out trying to figure out the best way for me to store my Stampin' Up ink pads as well as the numerous other ink pads I have. After doing some exhaustive internet searching, I found a deal that couldn't be beat. The name of the store - Organize More. They're a small family business situated right here in the USA. All of their products are individually hand made using environmentally friendly products right down to the biodegradable peanuts they use to pack their organizers. By far, this company offers the biggest bang for your buck, and who doesn't need a good deal now a days? I was able to order the Pro Ink Pad Organizer which houses 80 ink pads and have it shipped all the way across the country for a mere $60. Seriously, you can't beat that price!!

As you can see, I had Travis hang it on the wall for me. Since I have no more available desk space, I need a storage solution that could easily hang on the wall. We picked up some dry wall screws at Wal*Mart, and he had it up for me in a matter of minutes.

The unit easily holds all four Stampin' Up ink pad families (that's 48 ink pads total) plus the old and new In-Color pads (12 ink pads total) which are on the very right column. After putting my SU pads in their appropriate spots, I still had quite a few slots left over. My Basic Black SU pad and my Whisper White Craft pad took up two more spaces, and the rest I filled with my most used pads such as my Black Staz-On, Versamark, and Chestnut Roan and Alabaster Fluid Chalk ink pads.

The last few spots went to my collection of Ranger's Adirondack ink pads. I was a bit miffed after putting them in their slots because I could not tell the color of each ink pad, so a light bulb went off in my head, and I came up with a solution using my handy-dandy label maker and some inexpensive garage sale stickers I picked up at Wal*Mart.

I labeled each ink pad with its appropriate name, and then I stamped a flower image on the white label using the respective ink pad color then affixed it next to the label. Here's the pack of labels I used, but you could use scraps of paper and run them through your Xyron machine.

I got so into labeling my ink pads and stamping at the same time that I went on to do my Distress Inks, too!

Believe it or not, I have quite a bit more ink pads out and about, so I just may have to order another storage unit in the future. You can be sure I'll get it again from Organize More!!

In other craft-related news, I made a card the other day for my friend's grandma, the one who sent me that darling rock-owl I posted the other week. It's a super simple card, but I really like the way it came out.

I was able to use one of the new items I bought the other weekend when I was out shopping with my scrappy girlfriends. I call it "Bulkless Bling," aka, Class A'Peel Stickers by Stampendous.

You can see in this close-up shot that I used the bulkless bling stickers for the middle of the flowers. This stuff is so awesome, especially if you're sending the card through the mail.

That's all I have for now :) I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Keeping Busy

I am happy to say that today is going much better than yesterday. That's not to say that I haven't been busy doing stuff around the house, but at least it's stuff I want to do :) What have I been doing? Why my favorite thing, of course - organizing!

The other day as I was trying to find a specific Stampin' Up stamp set, I realized that my way of organizing my rubber mounted stamps just wasn't cutting it for me. Each clear plastic box had the original SU label on it, which if you have any SU stamps, you'll know that those labels are printed on clear plastic making it hard to actually read what's on them. So, I decided it was time for an over-haul, and you know me. When I want to organize, I go full speed ahead!

Since I've been a demonstrator for eight months now, I've accumulated quite a few SU stamp sets. Many of them are retired, and I needed to find a way to quickly identify those sets at a glance. My second problem was that all of my stamp sets were in no particular order, meaning I had Christmas sets mixed in with nature sets and so on. That's when I decided to turn to stickers for help. I'm sure this is by no means an original idea, but I was happy I came up with a solution :)

Here's a peek into my newly rearranged closet. Each set is now clearly identified with a white label (much easier to read than a clear label). I also now have a quick visual cue that let's me know which sets are retired (red-dotted) and which ones are current (no dot).

Each set is also marked with a colored star or a heart. Here's how I broke down my categories:

My gold star is still available for use as a category. For the heart sticker, I used my SU three heart punch and my mini xyron runner to create my own sticker. I'm still on the lookout for a cute pumpkin sticker so I can add those to my Halloween stamp sets.

You can see the star stickers in action on this photo. As you can tell, I have A LOT of "nature/animal" stamp sets! Go figure!

For sets that have multiple themes, I just add as many stars as I need to. For example, "Pun Fun" not only has animals in it (green star), but each stamp also has a phrase (silver star). For hostess stamp sets, I identifed them by adding an "H" after the title. "Fall Flair," for example, is a retired (red dot) hostess set (H), so I labeled it "Fall Flair - H."

That's all I have for you today. I hope you enjoyed my new organizational project!

More Organizational Tips + A Card

Happy Monday, bloggers! The sun is shinning. The breeze is coming in through the windows, and all is good over here. I'm tickled because I just finished cleaning the house, and there's nothing like the smell of clean to make a girl happy. Not that the house was a sty or anything, but I love the way it feels after dusting and vacuuming.

Today I have some more organizational tips to share with you. I bet all of you have an assortment of brads that you just don't know how to keep together. Well, I have the perfect solution for you! I have this great Cropper Hopper Embelishment Organizer Case that perfectly holds these Mini Box Embellishment Essentials. What I ended up doing was purchasing a whole bunch of mini boxes and organizing my brads that way. I poked a hole through the top of each one, inserted an example brad, then placed the rest of the brads inside the box. Now when I open up my embellishment box, I can see all of my brads! Plus, the case is small enough to fit in your crop bag and take with you to crops. How fun is that?!

My next tip is for organizing those fun Spellbinders Nestabilities dies. For quite a while, I kept them in their original plastic packaging, but that system became cumbersome as my collection grew and space became limited. So I decided to use some items I already had on hand to organize them. I had a huge roll of magnetic tape which I placed inside empty CD jewel cases. Since the nesties are made of metal, they easily stick to the magnetic strips. I labeled the outside of the cases using my handy-dandy label maker (LOVE that thing!) and I also put a label on the back of the case with the actual product number so that I wouldn't accidently buy the same set of dies twice. I then placed all the cases on my shelf, and presto! Instant organization.

Now onto some crafty projects! First of all, my Sunday was so packed with things to do that I didn't have time to complete my friend's challenge from yesterday. When I have time this week, I'll certainly do that. Sorry, Christy!

I did, however, manage to finish up a card that I started on Saturday. I had so much fun making this card! It's so me.

Supplies: Cheap Talk stamp set; Whisper White, Pacific Point, YoYo Yellow cardstock; Good Morning Sunshine DSP; On Board So Tweet chipboard; Chocolate Chip, Kiwi Kiss, YoYo Yellow, Pacific Point, Tangerine Tango stampin' pads and/or markers; Spellbinders Nestabilities Classic Scalloped Circle; Googley eye

That's it for me at the moment! I'll catch you all next time.

Yippeeee-Skippy!

Hello bloggers! Gotta love a good Monday morning feeling, right? Did everyone remember to spring forward over the weekend? Yeah, I kind-of flaked out on that one. Needless to say, I slept in a little past my normal wake-up time yesterday, but that's okay. I'm back on track today.

I'm happy to report that I had a fabulous weekend. I spent Friday night at my friend, Ana's, house making cards and chatting away with the gals. Could it get any better than that? Yes! Saturday we went over to a BBQ at my other friend, Jackie's, house. We ate, drank, and were quite merry! Sunday was even more exciting because my hubby finally found some time to install some shelves in my craft room closet as well as hang my $5 scrapbook garage sale find above my new table. I spent the rest of the day moving stuff around and organizing some more. You know, I really ought to organize for a living. I mean, I love to find long-term storage solutions not only for myself, but for others, too. I've helped many friends get their areas squared away. Who knows? Maybe I'll start my own business! LOL!

Without further adieu, here is my new and improved space. First up, a before picture of my shelves:

This system was working okay for me, but I really didn't like having my Stampin' Up sets out in the open. It was too cluttered in my mind. So, here's what it looks like now:

I moved all of my Stampin' Up sets into the newly installed shelves inside the closet. All of the ink pads went with them. The individual wood-mounted stamps got moved to a new, better location which you'll see in just a minute.

Now let's move onto my main creative space. Here's my new table before my honey put up the $5 garage sale find:

And here it is after:

I moved the wood-mounted stamps that used to be on the other shelves above my table so that I could see them while I'm crafting. I also found a new home for my spice-spinner that houses most all of my buttons. You'll see where I put that in a minute.

Here's a quick pic of that $5 find I found at a garage sale:

I love, love, LOVE this shelf unit! I like that I can have my favorite wood mounted stamps out and in the open where I can see them while I create. I still have room for more stuff, but I'm going to leave it like this for now. I don't want it too cluttered. Eventually, I plan to paint it, but for now, it works.

Now here's what table looked like underneath before:

And now here it is after with just one more 12x12 paper storage unit added. I still need to sort through my drawers and organize them a bit better. I'm probably being neurotic, but I'm okay with that ;)

My honey also installed some shelves inside the closet for me. I don't have a before shot, but there really wasn't anything there to see anyway. Now, I have three shelves that hold my Stampin' Up sets and Paper Trey Ink sets as well as my ink pads. My button spice rack is also now located inside the closet. The top fourth shelf already existed and currently holds old Big Red (i.e., my old Sizzix die cut machine), dies, and my PaperGator.

Here's the other side of the closet:

This side houses the rest of my wood mounted stamps as well as my clear stamp collection which is located in the black binders and in the two 12x12 d-ring albums (with the black and pink spines) on the top shelf. The large basket houses my polymer clay tools. As you can see, I also have some of my favorite magazines in here on the top shelf. I got those magazine holders at Target for $1 AND they have birdies all over them! Can't beat that.

To finish it all off, I actually did a little scrapping last night! Woo-hoo! Here's what I'm working on:

It's a 12x12 page for Sedona's album. Obviously, I still have some pictures to add, but at least I got to try out my new table. Yay! I hope you all have a wonderful day!