My friends and family know I can
pack ten pounds of “stuff” in to a 5-pound sack and make it look like it is meant
to hold that much. Some may think that
is a good skill to have, right? Well, you
first one must ask; “How did she attain such a handy skill”? Simply put, I acquire so much “stuff” in my desire
to full fill my instinctual need to gatherer (you know, that latten gene left
over from more primitive times); that my packing skills have become a necessity
– that is if I do not want to live in complete chaos.
All that said, to let you know I share my craft “room” with
the home office. Have I told you we are
a family very dependent on our computers? We have five personal computers in the house
with four of them having stations set-up in our 11 X 13 office. Yes, that is five-work station in one room. I have the larger half of the room and the
three guys (DH, and 2 DS) each have a desk space on the smaller half. That is a perfectly fare split if you ask me,
after all, I have gathered more stuff.
In our previous (larger) home, I had a closet with all my “stuff”
crammed very neatly into it. I could
just close the closet and no one would be the wiser about all the plunder that
lurked behind. Not only that, it was
upstairs off the game room – adult gussets did not normally go up there
anyway.
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| My offic looked in 2008 - 6 months after we moved in |
Any hoo, when we first moved in to this house, 4 plus year ago,
I had a Hodge-podge of “furniture’ used to store my crafting “stuff” and no
extra closets. It was such a sore thumb
in our brand new home. After all you really can’t say, “Hey come see our new
house, but please don’t look in that room with the glass doors”. Not to mention it is off the hall next to the
front door and across from the gust bathroom.
Something had to be done, and quick.
I needed the Best Scrapbooking Furniture
I could find. So I did a yahoo search on
the “Best Scrapbooking Orginizer” and
that is what I found. It really is
called “Best” and it is great, even fairly easy to put together and very
sturdy.
Click here if interested (they often have a 20%
off code in some of the scrapbooking magazines). I am not a
ffiliated
with them in anyway – Just a happy customer .
 |
| I didn't even have room to work |
At first, my DH was not so keen on me ordering new furniture
after we just spent so much on all necessities associated with a new house – so
I had to wait. I finally wore him down
in time for my Birthday, and he had to admit – It was looking pretty bad! Here
is what it looked like BEFORE (Big sad face).
 |
| Over flow in the hall |
 |
| It was colorful anyway |
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| All the boxes on my front step 7 July 2008 |
My birthday Present arrived 2 weeks before my big day!!! Here are the big wonderful boxes on my front
porch back in July 2008.
I am the “putter together” person in the house – Just part
of my spatial ability I guess.
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| My initial finished space - photo 7/11 |
It took me a while to get everything all nice and organized. I always get messier in the processes of organizing;
it is a talent that cannot be rushed.
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| After some more orginizing |
This is the scrapbook page I did in regard to my space.
Here is my newest addition and the prompt for this post – I just
bought the hutch to the desk. The new purchase
is because, of course, I have “gathered” more “stuff”. I also needed some space for my business supplies
(all the Close to my Heart goodies (CTMH)).
For the CTMH business supplies I also bought the tuck-away that fits
under the desk, but I have that over by my computer.
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| 4 years lalter - Nice new hutch - 2012 |
What you don’t see in these photos is the
other half of the office, my computer area, or my Imagine (which is also
sharing the other half of the office with the guys).
Okay, okay, here are some photo of the rest of the office, cat,
and all.
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| My cumputer spot (See the kitty ears behind print looking out window?) |
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| The space my guy's share (3 ares on one side of the room) |
And a few more shots of my craft space.
Hope you enjoyed the tour.
God bless and Happy Scrapin’
For the 1st layout I used Hello Kitty Font (for font), and Art Philosophy for all the leaves and acorns. I also used CTMH Stamp set Harvest Happiness to stamp all the
leaves and acorns in several fall colors. I added the CTMH Burlap Ribbon for texture.
Here are 2 cards for my kidos for Halloween. I used CTMH Artiste Cart for the gift-card holder cards. I also added an action wobble for motion. 
Other items: 6 brads,
paper clip clothes hanger, pop dots, adhesive, chalk, & coordinating scraps
of paper.
First is a bulletin board for the
birthdays of the children in the class.
I used Create-a-Critter
for the candle flame and balloons and I used Storybook for the big letters. I used regular construction paper and
laminated it. Laminated paper cut wonderfully on the expression. I used colored laminated copy paper for the
various candle colors.
Now for my favorite project. This was so fun to make. It is a homework reward board. The teacher found the idea on-line and she
just wanted me to copy it and then color it – I HAD BIGGER IDEAS. Here is what I came up with. I used several carts on this – Everyday Paper Dolls, Plantain Schoolbook, Hello
Kitty Font, Life’s a Beach, and Locker Talk-- sorry I do not have all the
measurement for this. I printed the game
cards on the computer. This was fun for
the kids and they used it all year.
I used the new chalkboard paper for the black board, and also used
liquid glass on the apple. I also used the cuttlebug and the woodgrain folder for the board frame. In addition to the exclusive stamp set
included in the Scholastic kit, I also used the Approved Stamp set. I
did scrap lift the card file and the stacked books from the CTMH Idea Book --
it is defiantly filed with great ideas!
I only used my Cricut for the
fence rail. I wielded 3 fences together
in Design Studio for both levels. The
Fence is from Paper Doll Dress-Up and the three wiled together were cut 11.5 by
.75. I also used my Cuttlebug for the
roof (Mosaic Texture folder) and a Fiskars wood grain-embossing card for the
walls. It was a little tricky putting the
paper in the Cuttlebug to make the pattern cover the entire length of the paper. I had to turn it and put it thru on the other
end (I do not have the long boards for my Cuttlebug L ). After I embossed them, I scored the walls at ¼-inch
intervals so it would look like wood planks.
Some ribbon and a tooth pick for the flag, a circle punch, and a mini
square punch for the windows. I even
pulled out some decretive scissor for the grass around the base (I hadn’t used
those in a long while). Of course I did
some inking and glued everything together. 
The can of beans is the perfect weight for the base. I put an individual serving size can in the
middle level as well. 
The hardest part was
getting the paper to fit snuggly around the cans at even intervals and figuring
the score lines to make it the hexagon shape fit. I have a ¼-inch flap on top and bottom of each
level so I could fold it over and have a surface to glue the sections together
with. 
