Craft Room Redo: My Happy Place Right at Home

I didn't intend to take a long break from blogging.  I really didn't.  About a month ago, I decided to take on a little project of redoing my craft room closet.  And of course, like so many other things in my life, what started out as just a closet redo morphed into a much, much larger project that included the entire room, with the exception of painting the walls and replacing the flooring (both things I've dreamed about doing but it just wasn't in the budget).  And while I thought I would be able to get it done in about ten days, it ended up taking a full four weeks.  But I am so thrilled to say that it is DONE!  I've teased a lot about his project on Facebook, but now it's time for the total reveal.

First a little background, because that is just my style.  I've had my own craft room now about nine years, since we finished the basement at our previous house. I know I'm lucky. My current room is fairly large and I'm lucky again.  Most of the furniture in it came from other places in my house.  I have tried many, many different ways of organizing things over the years and since I am organizationally challenged, many of those ways have failed me terribly. I have figured out some things that work and have just stuck with them.  This is the time of year I always set out to make some changes.  I usually buy a few new containers and rearrange a few things and then run out of steam.  With this redo, I actually bought furniture specifically for my craft room and I pushed myself over the burn out phase to finally get it all done, exactly the way I wanted it to be.

Second, I am also a bit of a hoarder of craft supplies.  (I come from a long line of hoarders and I honestly try to fight it, but with craft supplies, I usually just give in).  I had boxes in the closet that had never been opened since our move to this house six years ago.  Inside those boxes were all the stuff I bought at the Making Memories warehouse sales and swaps from long ago Stampin' Up! Conventions.  It was a little embarrassing.  Especially when I found an envelope with swaps in it that had been looked at once and shoved in a box right before our move SIX YEARS AGO!  For the record, I donated a large box to the therapy center my boys go to and I have another box ready to go to them and another box ready for the DI.  And another box of class samples I need to find a home for besides my craft room.

Third, if supplies and tools are out of site, they are out of my mind and never touched.  That is why my new craft room does not look like a show place that you'll see on often on Pinterest.  I have a terrible habit if I can't find something I just buy a new one because that is easier than trying to dig through the mess to find it.  So I need most things to be visible and accessible and I need it to be easy to return the item to its home without too much fuss.

Also, I did 97% of the work myself. I was raised by a DIY Dad but my husband just doesn't even want to go there.  He's supportive and will help me move things around, but if I want something done, I pretty much have to do it myself. My drill is my BFF followed closely by a measuring tape and stud finder.  I do need to give a little credit to my thirteen year old son who did help me find studs and hang shelves when I needed an extra pair of hands.

And last, the lighting in my room is TERRIBLE!  It's the worst location in the entire house as far as lighting goes.  The room has one northeast window, but that window is under the deck so it's fairly useless.  When we first moved in, I had my cousin install some track lighting in the room and it does help, but it needs more (which I purchased and tried to install myself but apparently electrical is beyond my DIY ability).  So excuse the pictures.  I tried to Photoshop them the best I could to make them better.

So without further adieu, let's get started: 

First is my stamping table.  It sits in the far corner nearest the window.  This actually didn't change much in the redo.  Current Stampin' Up! stamps that I use the most sit at the back of my desk.  Along the walls, I have Bygel rails from IKEA that hold current Stampin' Up! punches and Bygel wire baskets that hold current Stampin' Up! Ribbon.  Those racks above my desk hold retired Stampin' Up! ribbon.  I also have baskets that hold Stampin' Up! embellishments that are on cards as well as another one that holds washi tape and thick baker's twine.  The table was one of the first pieces of furniture James and I bought when we first got married.  It's plenty sturdy and plenty beat up but it works very well for it's purpose.   And you'll notice my all time favorite paper cutter sitting prominently on my desk.  (There is even an extra one tucked into the closet in case something ever happens to this one).  This is the one paper crafting tool that will have to be pried from my cold dead hands.  I love it.  Tucked underneath the table are my garbage and recycling cans as well as my score boards and self-healing mats.

And the only truly new thing here is the pillow on my chair.  I used this tutorial to make a quick slipcover for a pillow form.  It really did only take me a few minutes (maybe closer to 15 since my ironing board is upstairs and my sewing machine had to be broken free from it's cage.

Working my way around the room from there, these sit right next to my table.  You can see I have my stamp pads in the Stampin' Up! Color Caddy and embellishments in the Stack & Store Caddies.  Current Designer Series Paper (and specialty paper) are in an Easy Access Paper Holder made by Cropper Hopper.  I buy these online from Joann and I absolutely love them for storing 12x12 printed paper.  Up above the window are pictures of some of my favorite people on the planet.  Many of them are people I've met through Stampin' Up! and it just makes me happy to see them smiling down on me.  And yes, these are the same Recollections craft cubes you buy at Michael's. I've managed to collect 14 of them over the years buying a few here and there when they are on sale. To dress them up, I used Mod Podge to apply paper to the front of them.  I just love how they turned out.  This is what they looked like before:

You can see that they got a bit beat up in our move so adding the paper to the front hides a lot of those scuff marks and gives them a lot more interest.  The paper is from a bunch of different places, but I found the easiest to use was the DCWV Project Stacks also at Joann because it was 11x17 (no seams). But I couldn't resist using other papers too just to give it more variety.

Next to that, I have this cabinet that holds even more ribbon. I love ribbon.  Can you tell?  We bought this cabinet and a matching armoire (which you'll see in a minute) for our family room in our old house and painted them red because it just seemed like the thing to do at the time.  I have been planning to repaint them since we moved to this house six years ago.  But I was never quite sure what I was actually going to do with them in this house until I moved them into my craft room.  They are the perfect addition to store all the things I've been hoarding.  I planned to paint them gray with an antique glaze.  Then my club gals came over and told me how much they loved the red.  Really?  So then I posted them on FB and asked for some crowd sourcing help.  The overwhelming response was to leave them red.  So I swapped out Calypso Coral for Cherry Cobbler in my color scheme and left them red.  It's kind of hard to tell in this picture, but I did spruce them up with an application of Antiquing Glaze.  And I swapped out the hardware for some I found at Hobby Lobby and painted to match the room with all-surface acrylic craft paint. Also hard to tell from this picture, behind all that ribbon, I hung a piece of fabric on the back of the cabinet using spray adhesive.  Just adds a touch of class to it.

Moving back towards the door, I have these Expedite shelves from IKEA (which are now called Kallax).  I've had the shorter set since I got my first craft room and added the second taller piece when we moved in to this house.  My room has a kind of odd shape to it.  These are actually in a narrow "hallway" that leads from the door into the main part of the room.  The space would be absolutely wasted in a bedroom.  But it works great for these shelves. I use them to store books, magazines, old catalogs, shipping supplies, and to display samples.  They don't look too neat and tidy, but this is a major improvement over the way they looked two weeks ago.  I promise.

Right across from those shelves is my "gallery wall."  And it was really hard to get a picture of this, but you get a general idea.  These are projects I made for blog hops, classes or received from other talented friends as swaps or gifts.  There is room to add even more should the need arise. Again, it makes me happy to see them all right here when I walk into my room.

Turning the corner back into the main part of the room is my stamp shelves and closet.  My stamps are stored on two Gnedby shelves from IKEA.  I actually acquired these from a neighbor who was getting rid of them a few years back when I was in the middle of one of my previous organizing endeavors.  They fit perfectly on that small section of wall between the closet and the hallway.  They were that lovely IKEA Brown Black (not that there is anything wrong with IKEA Brown Black, I have an entire library full of that color) that just didn't match the rest of the room, so I repainted them gray with Rustoleum Chalked Paint.  Took about three coats, but I am very happy with the way they turned out.

Now for the closet. The first thing I did was remove the doors.  They were constantly in the way of getting to the things inside.  I originally bought two ClosetMaid cabinets from the Home Depot to go in the closet, but they got reallocated to another project I'll show you in a minute.  So I found this customizable Besta unit at IKEA and I knew it was perfect.  This one has two of the shorter drawers on the top with two cupboards on the bottom.  I used the same painted hardware on them as on the red cabinets.  On top, I have more Easy Access Paper Holders and another shelf resting on them that holds these wire baskets from Target that I fell in love with (one holds vinyl, the other a mishmash of other rolls of stuff).  In those plastic drawers are basic sewing notions and such.  I just slipped some paper into the front of them to make them look a little fancier. I built the shelves on the side using the ClosetMaid system at Home Depot and had them cut sheets of melamine board to fit.  The containers came from Lowes and Home Goods.  I probably should have taken a before picture, but just picture a bunch of random boxes shoved in there that were basically inaccessible. And yes, I realized that center brace isn't centered.  That was already like that and no way was I going to move it.  I try not to think about it too much.

Turning the corner again, I added a peg board to the wall and another set of craft cubes.  I love the way this corner turned out.  I purchased the pegboard from Lowe's and painted it a shade lighter than Lost Lagoon.  To mount it to the wall, I used nuts to hold it away from the wall (although you can buy kits that included plastic spacers at Ace and Home Depot. I didn't discover that until after I mounted it to the wall).  In those frames on the pegboard are quotes about creativity.  The frames are thin unfinished wood that came from Hobby Lobby and I painted them gray.  The metal flowers also came from Hobby Lobby.  And I know it seems strange that I have a Christmas sign hanging from the middle of it, but I love that "Deck Everything" sign.  And I know what you're thinking.  Why would you put all of those tools way over there so far from your table.  Because remember those ClosetMaid cabinets I was telling you about before?

I think this might be the thing I am the very most excited about.  I have always wanted a counter-height workbench for the center of my craft room.  (If you follow me on Pinterest, you already knew that by the number of pins I have of such things).  For many years, I would frequently have a folding table right there anyway so it made sense to just build something a little more sturdy and permanent.  The idea is that this work bench is for wreath making and other general crafts to keep it separated from my stamping table (and my goal is to try to keep my stamping stuff from creeping over to this project workbench).  To make it, at each end is a ClosetMaid utility cabinets that I bought at Home Depot.  They are 24" wide and 36" tall, have a finished top and are designed to go in a garage or laundry room.  The table top is the 29-1/2" x 59"  Linnmon from IKEA.  To make it a little less permanent, the top is not actually attached to the cabinets.  Instead I used rug gripper strips applied to the ends of the table top to keep it from slipping around.  Inside this cabinet is my retired stamps and punches.  The other end houses paint supplies and a small hardware store.

The stools were upcycled from my kitchen.  Again, they were just basic saddle stools from IKEA (I don't know that they carry them anymore, but I've seen them all over the place).  I painted them gray and added padding and fabric to the top to cutify them.  (And yes, I made that word up.  Thanks for asking.)  I was inspired by this tutorial I found from Studio5.

Back to the wall. Next to the pegboard, I have this armoire.  It's kind of an odd size and in a lot of ways, it would work better if it were a few inches narrower.  Inside is my sewing machine and various floral decor supplies.  Again, I applied a coat of antiquing glaze to the cabinet and updated the hardware.  I just love how it turned out and I thought about moving it to a more prominent location in my house because it looks pretty darn amazing.  But really, I have no other space in my basement for it and James might leave me if I asked him to haul it up the stairs.  Haha!  The nice thing about how big it is: it's perfect for storing the long rolls of deco mesh:

Look!  There is even room for more!

Tucked back in the corner behind the armoire, I hung my stock of wreath forms and floral stems.  I used Variera Bag Holders from IKEA to hold the tall stems.  These come with foam tape on the back and throwing caution to the wind (and realizing that sooner or later the drywall in this room was going to need some repair), I taped them right to the wall.  The forms and other cans are hanging by Command hooks.

One final corner turn brings me to my card stock and Big Shot station.  I was fortunate enough to pick up this paper rack from Xpedx years ago when they were clearing out some of display items.  I store my 12x12 and over stock of 8-1/2" x 11 Stampin' Up card stock.  There is nothing worse than cutting for a class and discovering that you are out of a pack of paper.  So I try to keep one extra on hand, especially for the colors I use a lot.  And maybe two extras of Whisper White and Very Vanilla because I've been known to use more than one package to cut for a class before.  In the file box on top of the cabinet is where I store the open packages of current Stampin' Up! card stock organized by color families in hanging files.  I keep scraps in the same hanging file.  Otherwise, I would never use them.  Next to my Big Shot is a container to throw scraps in as I cut and go.  I'd like to think that I would simply put them back in the folders, but I know from experience that doesn't happen.  So to keep them from piling up on my desk, I slip them in there and then ever few weeks (months, ok, maybe years, eek!) I go through and file them.  Behind that is  plastic crate that holds current Big Shot dies, embossing folders, platforms and cutting plates.  I have the Thinlits and Framelits on magnet cards that I purchased from Stamp N Storage.  (I've made a few of my own too).  The cabinet itself was another recycled piece of furniture. My dad actually made this as a TV stand back when we still lived in an apartment.  I used mod podge to apply some paper to the front panels and painted the hardware to freshen it up.

On the inside doors of the cabinet are adhesive magnet sheets that hold the more basic Framelit shapes.  Inside the cabinet are more crates of retired Big Shot dies as well as the current Bigz L dies.  There is also room for my extra Big Shot to tuck away inside. 

So there you have it!  Right now, it makes me happy to just sit in there and do nothing.  It's almost too nice to actually use.  The real test will be to see if I can keep it clean (don't count on it, but it's a nice thought.) I probably should add a few more labels to things to help me along the way.  What do you think?

And while I'm still in project mode, I am moving right along to a quick redo of my guest room that is on the opposite side of the basement.  Hopefully that won't take me four weeks to finish since I have company coming sooner than that.  Stay tuned!

Wright Holiday Traditions

I trust everyone had a wonderful holiday season and is doing their best to fight off the post Christmas blahs.  Around here, the inversion has set in and that always drives me to the edge and leads me to ask the following questions: when will winter finally be over (I know, it's only two weeks old officially); and why, oh why, don't we have another vacation planned to warmer climes this January?  (Darn Jr. High!)

But as we start to take down the Christmas decorations today, I've been reflecting on the little things we do every year that bring us closer together as a family and provide some consistency from year to year.  (However, I did discover last night that my kids don't actually remember we do these things every year and get them all confused anyway, so I'm not entirely sure why we bother sometimes.  I suppose it's just so we can say we have some traditions.) It's probably a little strange to post these after the holidays, but here it is anyway.

Our biggest and most elaborate tradition is our Christmas Party.  It came about because after we moved to Farmington, I made of list of "neighbors" I felt we should do something for at Christmas time. It was 25 people long by time we included all our immediate neighbors, primary teachers and scout leaders, visiting/home teaching families, those we served with at church and a few others we started to call our friends.  Yikes!  So we decided the next year, to just do a big party instead of neighborhood gifts.  So far, it's always been the Friday before Christmas.  We pretty much invite everyone we know that lives anywhere near us or is willing to drive to it.  We don't let others bring anything for the party itself because it really is our gift to them.  We do however pick a charity and encourage those that want to bring something, to bring it for that charity and then we deliver it.  And one would think I would stop to take pictures of this party, or at least the food.  But it never happens.  I'm always so caught up in making sure all the food trays are sufficiently full, that I don't think of things like taking pictures.  Maybe next year.  (Although every year when I nurse sore knees and feet for a couple of days and carpel tunnel from whisking and scooping for a week after the party I swear it will be the last time we do it.)

Our other traditions are much simpler than this.  At Christmas, we generally have our big meal on Christmas eve.  I think this actually came about because one year when AJ was very small, we all had a stomach bug on Christmas Day.  We stayed in our PJ's all day and did nothing.  While the stomach bug part wasn't fun, the doing nothing part was heaven!  So unless we have family in town, that's exactly what we do on Christmas: as little as possible.  Obviously we eat, but just breakfast and left overs.  (Although this year we DID break that tradition a bit by going to see The Force Awakens on Christmas Day.)

One tradition my boys don't forget is that they aren't allowed to open their presents until we've had breakfast on Christmas morning.  While I'm making Christmas Eve dinner, I also prepare a breakfast casserole for Christmas morning.  Then we eat that and Rhodes orange rolls (because who has time or energy to make orange rolls and mine never turn out as yummy anyway).  The boys do get into their stockings before we eat, but not unless I'm there to take a picture.

 

Another Christmas time tradition at our house that I brought with me from my own childhood is jigsaw puzzles.  My family would always have a puzzle out over Christmas break.  So as soon as our party is over and all the presents are wrapped, I start itching to do a puzzle.  Unfortunately, my family does not enjoy them and isn't as practiced at them as I am.  So I usually end up doing them mostly alone. Sure they will come put a few pieces in, but when they can't find any easy matches, they walk away.  I have become terrible about stepping away from a puzzle when it isn't complete so twice last week I stayed up well past my bedtime to finish a 1000 piece puzzle I started earlier in the day.  The second time, it was the brand new puzzle that we got for Christmas and my family was a little bit sad that they didn't get to help.  So we took it all apart and put it back together again as a family (again, in one day because I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep until it was complete, again!)

Our other traditions revolve around New Years.  On NYE every year, I make all our favorite finger foods and we play games together (usually the ones we get for Christmas) and try not to make each other crazy before the ball drops in New York City so we can go to bed.  This year, the boys got Clue for Christmas.  We decided last night that we are all terrible Clue players (I dropped my cards so everyone else could see them) and make it too easy to figure out whodunnit.

Then on New Years morning, just when everyone else is starting out healthy, we have Utah scones for breakfast.  (All those health goals can just wait until the kids go back to school!)  If you aren't familiar with Utah scones, they resemble more of a sopapilla or beignet than what the English would refer to as a scone.   In the past, I've just used either Rhodes dough or just regular bread dough.  But this year I followed an actual scone recipe I found on Pinterest from the Creme de la Crumb Blog. Seriously so much better than years past.

 

James and I also celebrated our 20th anniversary on December 29.  I guess you could say that's a tradition too.  This year, we gave up on any hope of finding someone to take the boys and decided to make it a fun family day instead.  We drove down to BYU for the Norman Rockwell Exhibit and then went to one of our favorite family-friendly restaurants, Tucanos.  Who doesn't love meat on a stick, especially when that meat is turkey wrapped in bacon.  Yum!

 This all makes our Christmas break seem rather idyllic.  I assure you it hasn't been.  You know when they wrote that song with the words, "and mom and dad can hardly wait for school to start again" they were talking about me.  Two weeks is just too long for them to be home and us not to be out exploring something far from home (impossible this year because James took so much time off earlier this year).  So Monday cannot get here soon enough!  Happy New Year!

Six Steps to Beautiful Christmas Tree

Last week, I showed you my silver and gold Christmas Tree from my dining room and promised to share more this week about how I decorate my trees.  So when I started on my Teddy Bear tree in the living room, I tried to take pictures as I went to give you some ideas.

Step 1: Set up the Tree I bought a brand new tree this year.  I shopped around a bit because I knew I wanted a prelit tree that had the "sure-light" or "smartlight" technology so that if one bulb went out, the rest of the lights stay lit.  And I also knew that I wanted a "quick shape" tree so it wouldn't need as much fluffing as a regular tree.  I found this one at Hobby Lobby and it lived up to it's promise.  AJ and I got it out of the box and up, lit and ready to start decorating in about 10 minutes.

Step 2: Add Garland  Garlands can be anything from strung popcorn or beads to florals.  On Pinterest a few months back, I saw where someone had taken apart a grape vine wreath to use it as a garland on a Christmas tree.  When I was making fall crafts, I came across two grape vine garlands I bought way back before Roberts Crafts went out of business and I knew exactly what to do with it:

Step 3: Add Fabric  After Christmas last year, I bought a couple of rolls of this burlap at Walmart on clearance.  I had planned to use it for Valentines but never got around to it.

To put it on the tree, I just pinched together the end and ran floral wire around it and attached it near the top of the tree as far into the branch as I could get. 

Then I bunched it back up and attach it to a lower branch like this:

Then I just did a second loop on it like this:

I didn't want to make this a long garland down the tree so I cut it off and then placed five more on the tree.  When I'm placing things on my tree, I always try to form triangles with them.  That helps with a random but uniform look like this:

Step 5: Add Ribbon Streamers  I knew I wanted to put natural burlap on the tree so I found six other ribbons I liked and made two different groupings of ribbons.  I wanted to make sure I mixed patterns and solids and textures.  I took four of the ribbons, made a loop at the top, and added floral wire like this:

Then I attached it to the tree, again setting it back into the branch a ways and letting it cascade down or drape over neighboring branches, however looks best.

To get the ringlets in the ribbon, I used a narrow cardboard tube (the one that the red burlap was wound around) like this (sorry this one is a little fuzzy):

Once I got all the ribbons on, I looked like this:

Step 4: Add Picks  Next I added three different kinds of picks to the tree.  The first one I found in the floral department, not the Christmas pick area, so it needed to be cut apart before I placed small sections of it around the tree:

Here are the other two picks I used:

Again, I use the triangle method to place the picks in the tree too.  When that was done, it looked like this:

Step 6: Add Ornaments Of course the last step is to add your ornaments to the tree.  I always start with the largest ornaments first (stuffed bears in this case) and work my way down to the smaller, more traditional ones.   Here is what it looked like when I did all that:

I suppose step 7 would be to finish the tree with a topper and skirt.  This tree is still a work in progress so I don't have those to share with you yet.  I'd still like to some more "chalkboard" style signs to go on the tree.  When it is just right, I'll post another picture (which might be next year).

If you prefer video tutorials, the Jennifer Decorates has a good one that inspired the way I do my ribbon streamers and the first pick I used.  But remember, there is no right or wrong way to decorate a tree.  As long as you love the way your tree looks when you finish it, then that is all that matters.

I still have one more tree to share and of course, I'll continue to share about other Christmas decor projects I have done around my house too.  

Pinspiration: Once there was a Snowman

Thanks everyone who has welcomed me back so warmly to the blogosphere.  I was a little worried and I still am, but right now I'm just going with it.  Last night I laid awake for hours because I could not turn my mind off from all the things I have inside that I want to write about.  But first off, I have a craft project to share with you.  Now it's a little early for Christmas decorations at most of your homes.  But I have found if I want to make a Christmas decoration, early November is the perfect time!

My fellow Stampin' Up! demonstrator Mickey Roberts tagged me in a photo on Facebook a few weeks back.  It was a Deco Mesh Snowman head that was oh so cute!  I'd post it here, but that photo had no attribution and I'm always leery of posting something when I don't know it's origin and who to give credit to.  I had seen these before on Pinterest, several of them in fact, and at first I thought hey, that's cute but I'm not going to make one.  Then I saw some that were more than just the snowman's head, and included his body too.  Now I wanted one for my front door for sure!

So this weekend, I did:

How fun is that?!?!   I had originally envisioned him having three circle parts, but once I got the head done and realized how big he was going to be, I decided to just make one circle for the body instead of two.   Do you want to make one for yourself?  I have a few tips:

• First, you'll need some stuff: I used one 12" and one 18" boxed wreath forms (those are the wire frames that you find in the floral supply department), three rolls of white 21" Deco Mesh, a package of white chenille stems (just a fancy name for pipe cleaners), a fun foam top hat, a yard of ribbon for the scarf, and another 18" or so of ribbon and a pick to decorate the hat.  
• For the face and buttons, I happened to already have these wood pieces that I believe came from Wood Connection in Midvale, Utah.  We made them at a Super Saturday in my old ward several years ago.  (Actually, my extremely talented friend Jen made these so we could have a sample for Super Saturday and I ended up with them after the event.)  They are suppose to be used when you make a real snowman but mine never made it that far. 
• Find a tutorial on how to make a Deco Mesh wreath.  The internet is lousy with them so you don't need me to make another one.  I've seen these snowmen made with the ruffle technique and the roll technique (are those even the real terms?) but I would suggest you use the 10" Deco Mesh if you are going to use one of those techniques.  I could not find that length this year, so I just attached the mesh to the wreath form with a stem and then bunched it before attaching it to the form again.  That might not make sense now, but it will when you see a tutorial.  
• The difference between this and a regular wreath is that you need to fill in the middle too.  So I took some stems and strung them across the frame so I would have something to attach the mesh too.  Here's a picture of the back so you can get an idea what I mean (Poor little snowman, all face planted on my tile):
  
• There are all kinds of different snowman hats available at the craft stores.  I picked this foam one up at Hobby Lobby in the Christmas craft section.  One of the nice things about Fun Foam is it's very lightweight and it's easy to poke holes through it to attach the pick and another stem so you can attach it in the back like this:
  
• And yes, there was a long discussion in our house about the pipe.  I didn't originally put it on there, but the savages came behind me and added it so I left it.  

So what do you think?  Do you want to see more Christmas decor projects?  And yes, I do take custom orders. I'm not entirely sure how I would ship this one but I'm willing to check into it if someone really wanted something like this for her front door. 

(And for the record, I only had this on my front door long enough to take a picture. While I might start putting a few Christmas things up in my house before Thanksgiving, I will not be changing out my fall decor on my front porch until after.)