Sept. 5 (First Day of School)
My Scrap Space
Wanna know where I work? I have a room in my basement that's JUST MINE!! It's not pretty, yet....but it's getting there...and the more I purge and decorate, the more creative and inspired I feel in there. I'm very excited to have my own computer in there for message board stuff and submissions and just general inspiration! Running up and down the stairs every time may have been good for me, but it really cramped my creativity :) I had to take some pictures the other day for a before & after challenge so I'll share those with you!
Before: Here's what happens when I'm packing kits for classes I'm teaching and trying to re-stock cards in the stores and doing DT work....it gets a bit, uh, messy:
And then, I cleaned it up a little so you could see what it's supposed to look like. Keep in mind...it's still a work in progress and it's not going in any "Home-style" type magazines or anything :)
After:
As a way of explanation....my eventual goal is paint out this room in either the Breadfruit or the Waterfall paints that I've used from the leftovers of my bathroom reno. For now....the lids on my cannisters in the cupboard are blue and the insides of all my white cupboards are the yummy green that I love. The hutch (pic. 2) is an inheritance from my parents. It was in the farmhouse my Dad bought when he was getting married to my Mom and she fixed it up. It will always have emotional significance for me....I can still remember what she kept in certain drawers and how fun it was to look through her button jars, and stationary. I'm thrilled to have it. (Sadly, I broke the glass windows during restoration so I'm thinking about a wire mesh window treatment). The far wall has a shelf on it that I just found at MCC. I painted it out the same way and it's housing my stamps (which I use, if I can see them....and don't if I can't). On the table, there's another shelving unit that used to be dark brown, with legs. I painted it out and it's not exactly efficient storage yet for what I need accessible, but it's getting there!
Anyway....this is my space.
I create here...hide here...learn and grow here...parent here...cry and pray here...laugh and drink coffee here...crank the music and the audio books here...chat and stay in touch with friends here...sometimes alone, sometimes with friends or family....my space.
Before: Here's what happens when I'm packing kits for classes I'm teaching and trying to re-stock cards in the stores and doing DT work....it gets a bit, uh, messy:
And then, I cleaned it up a little so you could see what it's supposed to look like. Keep in mind...it's still a work in progress and it's not going in any "Home-style" type magazines or anything :)After:
As a way of explanation....my eventual goal is paint out this room in either the Breadfruit or the Waterfall paints that I've used from the leftovers of my bathroom reno. For now....the lids on my cannisters in the cupboard are blue and the insides of all my white cupboards are the yummy green that I love. The hutch (pic. 2) is an inheritance from my parents. It was in the farmhouse my Dad bought when he was getting married to my Mom and she fixed it up. It will always have emotional significance for me....I can still remember what she kept in certain drawers and how fun it was to look through her button jars, and stationary. I'm thrilled to have it. (Sadly, I broke the glass windows during restoration so I'm thinking about a wire mesh window treatment). The far wall has a shelf on it that I just found at MCC. I painted it out the same way and it's housing my stamps (which I use, if I can see them....and don't if I can't). On the table, there's another shelving unit that used to be dark brown, with legs. I painted it out and it's not exactly efficient storage yet for what I need accessible, but it's getting there!Anyway....this is my space.
I create here...hide here...learn and grow here...parent here...cry and pray here...laugh and drink coffee here...crank the music and the audio books here...chat and stay in touch with friends here...sometimes alone, sometimes with friends or family....my space.
Scrappygiraffe Kits July 07
Rusty Pickle Pashmina mostly.....delicious.
Some wedding cards for some cousins' weddings this summer:
A 6x12 Layout for Leah's challenge to do that size. Also some pretty raw journaling at the time.
Some doorhangers for my kids' rooms: Mica's has a magnet strip down the left-hand-side so that the metal photo turn can be adjusted according to what she's doing. And the boys' has their pictures on it.
A tag for a quote-tag swap. The back has a layer of magnet on it as well...to hang on the fridge.
Some wedding cards for some cousins' weddings this summer:
A 6x12 Layout for Leah's challenge to do that size. Also some pretty raw journaling at the time.
Some doorhangers for my kids' rooms: Mica's has a magnet strip down the left-hand-side so that the metal photo turn can be adjusted according to what she's doing. And the boys' has their pictures on it.
A tag for a quote-tag swap. The back has a layer of magnet on it as well...to hang on the fridge.
Ta-da
Here it is. The finished project. We're still waiting to find a slide for off the back but the rock wall is up (left hand side) the staining and painting is done, the rope ladder is constructed....and we've actually slept the night in here already once (Girls on top, boys on the bottom floor). Whew....now, on to the next project. My kitchen??
Scraphoria Kits August '07
My second kit with Scraphoria....and I'm completely hooked. I used this kit UP. Seriously....what I have left from it looks like I've put a few pieces of scrap paper through the shredder. I loved this kit.
Some misc. cards from the leftover scraps:
Good Job card (above) was published in Ready-Set-Create Ezine (April/May '08)
3 layouts:
Altered items and cards made for my DT commitment:
Con-GRAD-ulations was published in Ready-Set-Create Ezine (April/May '08)
This Come in/Stay out sign was published in PaperTrends May '08.
This BFF card is going into PaperCrafts Card Creations 6 - YAY! I'll replace it here when it's been out for awhile. This one is particularly exciting for me - I've been trying to break the PaperCrafts barrier for awhile :)
Some misc. cards from the leftover scraps:
Good Job card (above) was published in Ready-Set-Create Ezine (April/May '08)3 layouts:
Altered items and cards made for my DT commitment:
Con-GRAD-ulations was published in Ready-Set-Create Ezine (April/May '08)
This Come in/Stay out sign was published in PaperTrends May '08.
This BFF card is going into PaperCrafts Card Creations 6 - YAY! I'll replace it here when it's been out for awhile. This one is particularly exciting for me - I've been trying to break the PaperCrafts barrier for awhile :)
Scraphoria Kits July '07
This is my first Design Team kit with Scraphoria and it is so soft and feminine that I fell in love immediately. Here are my creations:
This is holidays??
Holidays so far haven't been very restful. We decided to build the kids a play structure. After many online plans and catalogues, and not finding the kit or the plans that seemed right for us, we went ahead and had a family meeting and designed our own plans.
So in the past 3 days, we've gone from this:
and we added this:So in the past 3 days, we've gone from this:
and we got THIS:
It still needs a LOT of sanding and we're staining the top and painting the bottom sort of rock/castle-ish. We've purchased rock-wall holds for the far right side - all 9' to the top of the railing. We've also left some space off the far left side and the back of the second landing in case we stumble upon a slide/cargo net/climbing rope/fireman's pole either used or cheap. Mica's already been cuddled up in the top reading a book and the kids have had friends over who think it's the coolest thing ever.
The kids are beyond thrilled.....and I am so sore I can barely move. In fact, if I don't get off this computer chair right now...I may never get up.