Craft Room Makeover...again!

 

 Hi everyone! I have been meaning to blog what my new craft room looks like now that I have made it over yet again. As you all know my craft room is also my guest room which means that I don't have the luxury of using the entire room. But that's alright I really enjoy when we have company and want to make sure that they are comfortable while they are here. I am thankful that the room is just a place to sleep while guest visit and try to keep them busy with lake activities and such. Anyway, when Michael's had their huge sale on craft furniture last month I took full advantage of it and splurged. I have wanted some of this furniture for years but would never take the leap until they had a sale of 60% off on everything. I no longer have the table in my room for my work surface. I now have that stacked organizers and Mr. Candy Creek cut me out a table top using MDF board which was way cheaper than having a table top special made and with a couple of coats of paint I was good to go.

 I was able to clean up my bookcases more since I have the new units now and I really want the room to look neat and organized so that the guests don't feel as if they are sleeping in a mess.

 I made sure that just about every inch of the room was an area that would be useful and still stay neat and organized.

 I'm really loving the room now and think that I will leave it alone now. So chances of me posting another update on yet another makeover for this room more than likely want be happening since it's finally the way that I really want it. I think that by taking the table out of the room and making my table top with a curve I gained quite a bit of space in the room and now when guest come they can put their luggage under the table, on the table or even under the bed! Before I didn't have room under my bed for guest to slide their luggage to get it out of the way.

You can see better in this picture just how small of a room this is to start with but we have to work with what we have and this really works for me. Plus if you think about it...the more room you have the more stuff you have to keep organized. So think positive thoughts if you are like myself with a small space to craft in. Make it work for you.
Have a great day everyone!

Steamer Trunk Miniature and Mini albums inside...

 Hi everyone! Hope that you all are all having a great day! I thought  I'd share with you a little project that I finished up a few days ago. I had gotten this idea from Fiona who is Jennings644 on youtube and I will provide that link for you at the end so you can jump on over there and see what inspired me to make this little trunk. If you all have been following my blog then you know that I love old trunks and really enjoy refurbishing them. Well when I saw Fiona making a "witches chest" and showed us how she did it I had to make a little steamer trunk with my added touches.

 I had placed an order with Butter B Scraps on Zibbet and loved the little metal embellishments that I received I had cut up one of the flowers to make the little feet, corners and trunk handle ends. I used a piece of leather and then stained it with ink to make it black for the little handles.

 The above picture is of the back of the trunk. I used some mat board to make the bottom of the trunk and used chipboard that I cut little slats in (not all the way thru) for the top of the trunk. It made it so that it was much more bendable. Here's a little tip for you. I have a Fiskers trimmer and I always save my old worn out cutter blade just to cut chipboard with so I don't ruin my new sharper ones. So don't throw away the old blades they can come in handy. I love the way that the top of the trunk looks like little slats and am thinking (when I get time) that a roll top desk sure would be neat like this..... hmmm ideas ideas running through my head.

 The inside I wanted to look like some of the ones I've ran across where they have had to reline their trunk with old newspapers and such and so I mod podges some scraps of that type of paper on the inside. And of course I had to add the "guts" as I call them to it. The "guts" referring to the trays that if your so lucky, to find in the old trunks. They used to hold I believe things like their stationary and smaller items and such and then the bottom was where they had their clothing.

 Here are some of the miniatures that I made or found in my stash for one side of the "guts". I made some tiny file folders that I grudged up to look old and worn as well as the envelopes and then I made a little ledger book using scraps of the mat board and paper. And then I found an old timey magnifying glass in my stash that seemed to go perfectly with the theme.

 On the other side I made a little "journal" from scrap paper and used distress ink on it as well to make it appear old and worn. I had found a teeny tiny little old fashion pen in my stash and painted the tip of it to look like it had been dipped in ink as well as a tiny pair of glasses. I just used some embroidery floss and a button to hold the journal closed.

 Then of course I wanted to make it useful in some way. So in the bottom I added a place for pictures.

 And not just one mini album but I made 3! Again I used some of the mat board that I had and wanted to make the mini's look like the real old timey scrapbooks. I used kraft paper for the pages inside and inked every single page with vintage photo ink.

I bound each mini with some black embroidery floss. It just looks like something you would of seen back 100 years ago or so. What photos do I plan on putting in this album you ask? Well since I never have gotten around to making myself a family reunion album that I will keep for me, I thought it would be perfect for that and I will add the little black corners to each picture like they used to use to hold the pictures in their albums.
I hope that you enjoyed this post and that it has inspired you to step out of your comfort zone like the video that Fiona did with the miniatures did for me. Here are the links where I got my ideas and inspiration along with the link for Butter B Scraps.
Fiona who is Jennings644 on youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdcbCCKwuFU
Butter B Scraps on Zibbet http://www.zibbet.com/ButterBeeScraps#
Have a great day everyone!

Little boxes to file things away in...

 Hey everyone! I thought I'd show you these little creations that I made. Suzie from over at Our Happy Shack had sent me a link for these little boxes and said she thought I could make them. Well I did but I changed some things about the construction of them. They were originally made using just heavy cardstock but I didn't feel that was durable enough so I used chipboard and then covered it with cardstock.

 I wish that I had bought more of this paper when I got it. I can't remember now where it came from. It's Basic Grey's paper but I don't remember where I purchased it. The colors are so nice. Look at that gorgeous robins egg blue on the birds along with the black. Do those colors remind any of you of my kitchen????

 

I love how they turned out and will be making more of them to sell in craft fairs hopefully.
Have a great night everyone!

Mixed Media..not just for canvas's right?...

 Hey Everyone! Thought that I'd share with you one of the things that I've made lately. I finished this up late last night. I'm really starting to LOVE this mixed media thing. Unlike the other painting techniques that I've tried my best to do and miserably failed this is something where it doesn't have to be perfect to be pretty. Matter of fact if it's perfect then your doing something wrong. Plus I don't use a paint brush. 90% of the time I use my fingers which brings out the inner child in me. That's always a good thing right? Well anyway, while I was in the process of reorganizing my craft room/guest room I was working on a bookshelf that this plain little crate was sitting on and was whispering to me (you know like those inanimate objects do in the Ikea commercials). So it spoke and I listened. Yes I stopped what I was working on to take care of this project.

 Plan on seeing more mixed media stuff from me because this is my new crafting love!

 The paper collection is from The Girls Paperie that I found dirt cheap at Tuesday Morning and not only got the paper but it had all of the embellishments with it for a little nothing. The colors make my heart flutter with happiness.

 The stamps are from the same company except for the little butterfly and that is a Prima stamp that I bought from Scrabadabadoo when they had their stamps on clearance.

 See it once again houses my glimmer mist except now its screaming happy happy at me when I look at it. Oh by the way. These are more than likely the last glimmer mists I'll be buying because they are so darn expensive. I have found a recipe to make my own dirt cheap and so if that works out then I'll be making them for little to nothing. Sorry don't mean to offend anyone but crafting supplies are expensive and we have to cut cost wherever we can and when we can.

 I thought I would show you that Zoe is getting into crafting now. She loves to help out when she can..see???

Oh and never mind her ponytail coming down..you should see her mommy's hair, its downright frightful. But us girls can't be worrying with looking pretty when we are on a crafting mission.
Have a great day everyone! Me and Zoe are back to reorganizing and hopefully nothing else will speak to us until the job is done! I've been working on this room for weeks but can't seem to stick with it. I get to many other ideas in my head to work on. Which by the way I'll be sharing some of those with you as well real soon.
Another little note. I had found the little crate at the thrift store years ago if I'm not mistaken. I know I didn't buy it at a regular store so don't forget to look for things you can alter and make beautiful.

Blog Hop Announcement!

Hey Everyone! Just thought that I would give everyone a heads up about a blog hop on Saturday May 4th, 2013. Just a Few Friends are getting together and having it and I've always been greatly inspired by this big bunch of folk so hop on over there and let know that I sent you. You all know how much I've loved Elsa's work for years now. Well there is an entire gang of crafty people now and I'm sure you will get inspired from it. The starting person is at Just a Few Designs.blogspot...you know you all can find Elsa's channel over there on the right hand side. Make sure that you stop by RJ's blog as well he is Thriftycrafterdude.blogspot on his blog and Thriftycrafterdude on youtube. Be sure to subscribe to all of their channels please. I get a lot of my inspiration from these people.
Have a great weekend everyone!