Organizing your scrap room

Doesn't it seem that when January comes around everyone is thinking of doing some organizing and even the stores are pushing all kinds of pretty baskets & bins to organize your "stuff" in. Well I got the bug too but mine came for a different reason. Kevin came home with a nice wooden tv entertainment center and he thought I could use it in my craft room. Well you know what that meant...................re-organizing everything. The end result turned out really nice so I thought I would share a few of my pictures and tricks that I use.

This is my nice sunny room that I share with the washer & dryer (that way I can work while I scrap). It is in the south east corner of the house with windows on 2 sides so I enjoy the time I spend in there. It also has an attached bathroom and a nice small tv on my desk. Lots of cabinets and storage everywhere. I have a large oak desk and that nice big table under the window but when I'm working on a project the space gets used up quite quickly!

Of course I am like just about everyone else and store my buttons and flowers in jars by colors. I have 2 shelves on my desk which hold jars of flowers so not only organized but pretty. I learned my lesson from having all of them lined up on the shelf under the window when the shelf came loose and everything fell. Those jars add quite abit of weight. Now those shelves hold and display many of my stamps.

Ribbon is another problem and I do have a few jars of certain types but the majority I have found that if I hang it...............I see it and I use it. So I used one of those hanging tiered baskets that some people use for fruit. On the bottom basket I threaded the ribbons by color into all the little spaces of the weaved basket. I keep some extra rolls in the basket and colorful clips are all along the edge. I know they sell things out there for ribbon but why spend money when you might have something at home that will work just as well? Plus it is so pretty!

Just like my "clip it up"................no it's not the one you can spend some big bucks on......this was found at a resale shop for just a few dollars and I think at one time it might have been a jewelry display or some merchandise display. I did buy the clip ups and now have all kinds of things organized on here from my bling to stickers etc. It was big but fit in nicely where the tv should have been. My Cricut fit above it and all my cartridges on one of the shelves. The 2 spots on the bottom with doors hold my sewing machine and the other side has all my empty scrapbook albums. The drawer holds all the page protectors. I hate to admit that the spot below my cartridges is kits and projects waiting to be used or finished. Now you can see why I will not be shopping at Michael's for awhile. This year I will use what I have. Who would have thought that this Saunders entertainment stand would have worked so nicely for all my scrapping stuff.

I never feel like the time I spend cleaning and organizing is wasted as I usually find something I forgot I had or I pull aside things needed for a project that I'm working on. Like this past week I was making a scrapbook for my brother for his birthday so during my cleaning time I was finding family related items, hunting embellishments etc. It obviously helped as I finished his album yesterday and his birthday is still a month away! I will end this blog with 2 pages from his album. With as cold as it has been here in Wisconsin.............I have not been out all week and I enjoy spending the sunny mornings in my room!

Glimmer Mist Class

Last night Jen & I drove to Appleton for a class in the glimmer mist. It was supposed to be 3 hours but probably was only around 2 and during that time we made the above book. Jen has used the mist before but even tho I got a bottle for Christmas I hadn't tried it. I watched a video on the computer last week and did have some thoughts on how it worked.

There was only 8 of us in the class (2 at a table) and this is the back of the book we made. The instructor didn't seem overly familiar with the product especially when I mentioned using the brayer over the screen with a piece of paper towel. On this back page I used a borrowed screen which was actually bigger then the page itself. I really liked that look.

She did show us a few things like how to mix the glimmer stuff on the bottom of the bottle. We used kind of an open box to spray the items that Archivers sold for $5 but I thing any type of box at home would work well without spending that additional money. The class came with 3 small bottles of different color mists so it's nice to come home with something to play with.

We also got a small screen which you will see used on some of the pages here so that will be nice to have. The page above it was used on both of the corners. Unfortunately the selection of screens was very limited and I was hoping to either find the gate screen or possibly some type of swirl. Didn't want the halloween ones or to start off with birds and butterflies. Maybe later but not when I'm still at the experimenting stage.

I have included pictures of most of the pages of the album we made. Noticed how it had some really neat embossed images like the clock and the suitcase. We actually used some Ranger ink on those to make them stand out so nicely.

I should have waited till I had pictures inside and the whole album finished but maybe that will motivate me to finish it and post those results. It was a fun class and of course we got to do some shopping afterwards as this is the closest Archivers and it is an hour away. If it was closer I'm sure we would be taking more classes as it is always fun to see how a new product works and what you can do with it.

Farmville

8 days ago, I would have given you a blank look if you would have mentioned Farmville on Facebook but today it is a different story. On New Years day when we went down to visit my son Travis, we saw both him and his girlfriend Jamie playing a farming game on their computer. We asked a few questions and watched them plant and harvest crops. I walked away saying.......I just don't get it. Plus it looked like it could be time consuming.

Well last Saturday night Kevin went and started Farmville on our computer. On our way to bowling I insisted he call Travis to tell him that I didn't do it. Sunday I kinda looked on as I watched Kevin plant some crops and harvest them. Monday when he was at work I thought I better keep an eye on things and harvest stuff etc. And that's how it all started..........next you know I was collecting chickens, eggs, horses and trying to earn points to get to the next level. Here it is ONE week later and I am at level 20. I have 4 penguins, 2 horses, 2 goats,2 sheep, 6 cows, 3 kittys, 58 chickens and 17 calves. Ooops forgot that 1 pig and the 2 ducks. These were all gifts that I received or presents from eggs that I hatched.

I started out planting strawberries and have worked my way up to grapes. I still don't know all the secrets of this game and when I visit other farms I am amazed at all the buildings and how pretty their farms are. Speaking of other farms I am looking for neighbors so if you are playing this game too and want to add me as your neighbor I would be happy to come over and feed your chickens and fertilize your fields.

It's actually very addicting and competitive but FUN! I have quite a few friends on there and some of my family so we are interacting in a new way. I've even found some of my crafting friends and fellow Fiskateers on there.............so if you are out there playing too........add me as your neighbor and send me some trees!

Creative Cafe Journal

I don't know about the rest of you but when I make or create things they are generally for other people. This time I made something for MYSELF!! I got this 3 ring binder journal kit last year and it is 8.5 x 10.25 so a nice size. Included were 12 photo pages (one for each month) and 72 journal pages. 12 of them were printed with calendar inserts which I had to stamp & decorate for the appropriate month.

I decided I wanted to use this book for my yearly journal. So the first thing I did was make each monthly calendar. Some of the months I was lucky enough to have appropriate numbers and decorations to use but the others well lucky I have lots of stash to use.

So for each month the first page would be a monthly calendar and then below it a space to record your dates to remember. It also came with tabs to put on the edge for each month too. The back of that page is all lined paper.....decorated with some embellishments....and ready for me to journal the things I want to remember.

The second page had the top section with little boxes where I plan to make notes of things I want to do that month and the bottom section was just lined for journaling. The opposite side of the page is lined on the top half for writing but the bottom half is a big box labeled "ideas & doodles".......how neat is that?

The third page is just lined on both sides for more journaling or notes. It was fun finding embellishments for every month to make every page "special". I love how my May gardening page turned out........don't you?

Last there was the photo insert page which will hold four pictures. I really like this because some pictures are not meant to be scrapped but they hold allot of memories for me. For example.......I have a neat picture of Travis & Kevin playing Wii last week-end early in the morning.

The book also came with a dozen various pockets to use but not sure what I can do with them yet. Maybe in my next blog I will post some pictures of these and you can give me your thoughts on what to do with them.

Since this book was for ME, I decided to use some of my favorite papers I have been saving to cover it with. I used Webster Pages........I just love them but actually hoard them as they are each prettier then the next. The paper I picked was so appropriate as it has a circle on it that says On This Day surrounded by the days of the month and the outside circle has all the months. I added a glittered blue bird and a butterfly and for a finishing touch a piece of green velvet ribbon. The picture of the front of the journal is at the beginning of this blog. On the back of the book I used the same paper but just added a rub on glitter saying.

I am really happy with the result and will enjoy using this all year. Almost would like to make this a yearly thing from now on..........guess I will have to see how long this Creative Cafe journal stays around.

Happy New Year!

Well they say better late then never so here I am to wish you all a happy and healthy new year filled with love and laughter. It kind of reminds me of my prayers every night when I pray that my sons are safe, healthy and loved.... something we can never get enough of. I used to end all our phone calls with "I love you" hoping that one time one son would say it back to me but that never happened and I kinda got the feeling that they hated hearing it so much so now I just say thanks for calling and talk to ya soon. I raised my boys with lots of hugs & I love you's but they didn't end up that way as adults which is kinda sad because the women in their life (including me) miss that stuff. I was very lucky to find a man (Kevin) who not only says those words daily but shows it ....... sometimes just little things like holding hands mean more then words.

Boy did I get off track............but I hope you all had a nice Christmas and New Years too. We've had some weather issues here around the holidays so ours was pretty quiet. New Years day we went down to Lake Mills and spent the night at my youngest son's house. We had so much fun on both days just spending time with Travis and Jamie playing Wii. I brought down a few of our games and our remotes but we really enjoyed playing his Monopoly game. There was so many different versions on that one disc and every round there was a chance of the winner turning into the loser so you just never gave up hope. Plus you never had to count out money and there was also little challenges every round that were fun. On Saturday my daughter in law Justin came over, picking up Alex along the way, and we got to try out my new game which was called Just Dance. Us gals and Alex thought it was a blast and you really got a workout doing it. Kevin & Travis had more fun watching us and laughing. We sat down to a nice ham dinner and before you knew it, it was time for Alex to go home and us to make that long drive home. It sure was a relaxing 2 days and I was quite impressed with all the work my son was doing in his house.

My job at Lands End as a personal shopper for Sears is just about over. I'm only scheduled for one day a week and often I get sent home early for work reduction. With our Wisconsin winters, I really don't mind staying home especially on days like this where it has been snowing all day. It's gonna be our first chance to try out our new snow blower that Travis found for us for Christmas.

I did get some scrapping done this week and did 3 layouts of Travis and Alex during the snowstorm they had last month. Thought I would end this blog with those pictures. Hopefully you will see me blogging more often now that I am home more.