Craft Room Cleanse

Kate over at Sparkle Tart is doing a 30-day Craft Room Cleanse and I am joining her!  Unlike Kate, I have a whole room to myself (sort of) and some cupboards and lots of stuff to use, but I am woefully unorganized and a mess maker so I need to do this cleanse.  However, it may take me a little longer than 60 days....  I know, it sounds like a cop-out, but my room does have stuff in it that belongs to other members of the family and in order to get it out of my space, their space has to be rearranged too, so that part of my cleanse is not totally dependent on me.  So to begin with, and I think this will be embarrassing enough to actually make me do this since I will be posting pics and keeping you all posted on my progress, here are some pics of what my "craft room" looks like right now

I told you it was scary!  This is from the doorway.  To the left you can see a closet, which is filled with my hubby's stuff.  So that has to be moved out.  To the right behind the water bottle, is a bunch of boxes and stuff that we all need to go through.  Above those is my window.  It does get pretty nice light in the daytime and I have the dreaded fluorescent bulbs in the ceiling.  And I have the lovely Clip it Up by Simply Renee but it is definitely not being used to its full potential.

I have cabinets up and down and they are metal which are great - I like to print out current challenges I am working on and have them up there with magnets so I can refer to them as I craft.  That counter underneath is pretty much unusable as I have it covered with stuff.  The magazine holders I got from the dollar store and they are perfect for holding 8-1/2 by 11 paper, but I don't know where to store my 12 x 12 paper.  I do have a paper holder from Creative Memories but it does not nearly hold all my paper.  I have a bit of a paper addiction.  and the same goes for my ribbons.  Yes that basket is full of reels of ribbon which have come unrolled and I have left them that way - I know it is shameful.

 I was looking for specific stamps and left all my stamps out all over - yes I need a new way to organize those.

These 2  pics above show my "work space"  I have a 4 foot table in the middle of my room which I can work on, but I have so much stuff on there that I leave myself about a 2 foot space to work, but the bottom picture is what my work space looks like right now.

So now you have seen a little of what I am working with.  What I did not put in my pictures is what else is in my room.... One wall is filled with my boxes of fabric - about 10 large plastic boxes of fabric and fabric related stuff - once upon a time I thought I would have time to sew.  I have actually down-sized my fabric already.  If I could clean out the closet, that is where my fabric would go.  On the other side of my room is my hubby's reloading table (for reloading bullets) which he has not used in 20 years but won't get rid of so we need to find a place for it.  Also other assorted boxes of stuff I need to go through, things like the kids' school projects which need to either be put in memory books or something, not sure what, and wrapping stuff for wrapping presents.  Also some more cupboards which are filled with my crafting magazines - cannot seem to get rid of them, but these I have not looked at for years so will be going through them again to see what I can live without now.  Also 2 cupboards that have lazy-susans in them which I cannot even get to because of the crap that is in front of them.

Now, see why I said it might take more than 30 days?  But I am determined to at least get my crafting area cleaned up.  So now I am going to go browse some web sites to get some ideas for what I would like to do and figure out my lists for what I have, need and want like Kate has done.

If you are interested in doing this for your own craft room, join us!  I can use all the encouragement I can get.  Needless to say, I may not be crafting for a while.  Lately I have been using my work desk (I work at home) and so now my "office" looks like my craft room and no I am not posting pictures of that!!!

Wish me lots of luck - I am going to  need it!

Hugs,
Becky

Kristin's doing it again!

Remember that wonderful goody box I won from Kristin a while back, that is Kristin from LilSweetpea's Place...  Well now she is being extremely generous again with a $100 GC to scrapbook.com!  Just think of all the goodies you could get with that!  She is starting a new blog and wants you to check it it out.  It is called Kristin Wilson Handmade and you can check out both blogs to find out info on this giveaway, but you can only sign up on one - don't be naughty :)  Good luck everybody!

God Bless,
Becky

My POSH organizer - picture/chat heavy

Hey friends!  I still have not made anything new to share, but here are the pictures of the POSH organizer that I made using Kathy Orta's tutorial from Paper Phenomenon! Personal Organized Simplified Handbook - that is what POSH stands for and you have got to check it out over on Kathy's blog.  She has it on Ustream I think, or it might be Youtube, can't remember it has been a couple of months since I made it, but I bought the tutorial and then made it along with her.  And I love it!  I made it for a friend who has not decided if she is going to keep it or sell it in her little boutique store in Ephraim (that is a small town in central Utah).  Kathy has the option when you buy her tutorials to either buy a personal copy that you can use for yourself and/or for gifts, or you can buy a commercial copy so you can sell them or a licensed copy which you can then teach it.  I bought the personal, but will be updating to a commercial if I decide to have her sell them.  Anyway, too much rambling - sorry.  

This book plate or whatever it is called is from Kristin - that big box of goodies I finally posted about a couple of days ago.  It says Live With Passion and I thought it was perfect for this little book.  This is a plain elastic closure which I colored with a Sharpie and the paper is from Walmart - Colorbok I think?  All of the papers in this little min were from the same 12 inch pad.  

 

That elastic in the middle is for a pencil or pen, which I forgot to add.  This tutorial comes with the calendar printouts for 4 years starting with 2011.  It also comes with the Things to Do and other papers that you can print out to put in the pockets.  It is hard to tell from this picture but both sides open up from here.

This is the left side from the picture above opened up.

and this is the right side opened up.

some of the other pages in the book.  They all have the calendar on the top and then open up to reveal the long vertical pocket and a small corner pocket and then on the back is another corner pocket.

and the bag has a notebook that is inserted in a slot so when it is empty, you can insert a new one.

So, if I have confused you totally by taken only stills, I am sorry, don't have a video camera at my disposal at the moment.  Just go check this out on Kathy's Ustream and you will see how cool this really is!  A little time consuming, but well worth it and I think now that I have made one, it won't be so hard to do it again.  I always have to actually do the project to learn it, then once I have made all my mistakes with the first one, I can take it from there :)  

Happy first day of spring - what is left of it.  It is evening here in my world and cold today :( but hopefully it will warm up again soon.  Hugs!

God Bless,

Becky

Stickpin swap

Tanya over at Scrappy Scavenger has been having stickpin swaps for the last couple of months.  We are about to end the 3rd one at the end of this month.  I just love making stickpins and I love getting new ones even better - so many fabulous pins from all over!  It is just too much fun.  So wanted to show you the pins I got in February.  With the play rehearsals and such, I never had a chance to post these.  I am sorry to say that I took them all off their cards a while ago and I cannot remember who made what, but they are all lovely!

Here is the whole lot - sorry really bad picture.  I used orange paper hoping that would offset some of them better...

Wanted to show a close up of that cute puppy bead

Love the silk flower and the gold button and that really cool bead inside a silver square - these are all so much pretty and sparkly in person.  Love the tiny pearls too.

This one is so gorgeous and about 5 inches long - need to find out where to get pins that long!

This one is so amazing!  Wish I could remember who sent this one... 

These were mine - very simple, especially compared to the other gorgeous ones I got.

So that is that - I might have missed one.  I think I used one of them already.  I gotta go finish my cornbeef and colcannan for dinner.  Will try to put pics of the organizer later. 

God Bless, 

Becky

Box of goodies from Kristin

Ok, I while I go I posted that I had won a fabulous box of goodies from Kristin from Lilsweetpea's place and I had made a movie with my daughter and her new video camera and she had erased it.  So I was going to make another, but she cannot locate her charger at the moment and I don't want to forget....  besides I am dying to use some of this stuff so I took still pics instead.  Not the greatest, but at least you can see what was in that amazing box.

  2 packs of recollections paper - love Recollections!

15 sheets of chipboard goodies, some alphabets, some words, some name plate and such!  I must admit I have used a few of those already :)

  Various clear stamps - sorry this picture is bad

another bad picture -this is a 12 x 12 pack of bright CM paper, colors like orange and teal - yummy!

G45 travelogue stamps and 8 x 8 pad of paper- I love everything G45!  Can't wait to use this - I am thinking my honeymoon album (we went to the Carribbean) is perfect for these :)

Two mini albums ready for me to decorate :)

Some page kits and project pad

Another page kit that includes ribbon and buttons and the paper is gorgeous.

Two punches - can never get enough of those!  Love the cute steaming mug!

Flower frame and acrylic buttons - aren't they cute!

Assorted little embellishments

More fun buttons, stamps, ribbon and teardrop in one of my favorite colors - avocado!

Bling!!!!

and 4 boxes of Maya Road goodies (love MR) - including Chipboard blossoms - I was just looking at those the other day to buy them :) and the rest are vellum - alphabets in black and white and Tickets - love love love these things!

See...  I told you it was fabulous!  Thanks again so much Kristin and sorry it took me so long to post this!

Much love to you Kristin!  

God Bless, 

Becky

I'm back! Did you miss me?

So the play ended last weekend and I am going thru heavy withdrawal!  Saturday night was closing night and then we had to take the set and scenery down (hate that part - it is so sad).  Then I had to work Sunday thru Thursday and I have just been exhausted!  Caught a cold on Sunday too.  Wah wah wah!  Okay, enough of that.  I am ready to start crafting again - need to do something to get my mind off the play and all those kids I am missing - I really kind of adopt them you know?  So nothing to show yet today, I do have pics of a complete mini organizer and some stick pins from a swap and hopefully I will get that video re-recorded from the goodies I won a long time ago now.  And of course I will have pics from the play, but right now I need to clean up and organize my craft room a bit as it has gone thru a hurricane recently apparently.  Hope to be back to  normal soon.  Lots of love and hugs to all my blogger friends and family!

God Bless,
Becky