Category : Craft Room

3 posts

Yes, I have a new craft room, and it’s dedicated to only papercrafting. There is not my computer with paper clutter from bills, office work (I work from home), printers, other computers, etc., etc., etc, . . . .  So refreshing!

It all began when my son moved out. I had initially wanted his and Ryan’s old room because it has built-in shelves and drawers (my husband made them – he’s sooo talented at woodworking), and I thought this would be perfect to store all my crafting supplies, but the room is the smallest room in our house and I wanted a little stretching room; so, I took over my daughter’s old room, which had become my son’s room when she married and moved out; therefore, the Electric Lime walls you will see in the before pictures below (Josiah never cared about repainting – such a guy thing).

As you can see in the closet photos, it was still full of his things and he has been moved out for several months.

Josiah, my son, has been painting as a side job for the last year; so, I paid him to repaint my walls a nice light blue/green color. In real life it looks more light blue (FSJ Pool Party). I was aiming more for FSJ Cool Pool, but I am definitely not good at determining what pain chip colors will look like on a wall and in different lighting. Even though, it’s not the color I thought I was choosing, I really like it. It is light and bright and invites you to come in and create.

He painted the room while I was on vacation so the room could air out before I got back.

Here are the pictures of right after Josiah painted.

Once the room was painted. I got my son, Josiah, to go with me to The Container Store to purchase the desk tops. I chose these because the comparable ones at Ikea were a little too wide and when two desks are back to back you cannot easily pass supplies to the person across from you. Then, we went to Ikea to purchase the file cabinets, legs and small desktop. Here are the items I purchased:

Ikea has a corner desktop for $49.00 I may purchase in the future, and I will probably purchase another desk top from The Container Store as well. Note: If you have any chemical sensitivities, the Ikea table top and file cabinets give off a chemical smell that could trigger an asthma attack or cause bronchial issues. I had to have my husband seal the underside of the Ikea table top and as many of the desk drawer bottoms as he could – he had already put together one whole file unit before I asked him to seal any exposed areas.

Once my husband put everything together for me, the process of moving crafting supplies began. Here are some moving into the room pictures.

 

The stacks of paper, trimmers, shelves, die-cutters, etc., is a result of my friend, Cheyenne, deciding I needed my bookshelf my husband had made for me years ago in the closet of the craft room. I told her it could not be placed in the room because we have a right angle turn and the shelves are ceiling height. That did not deter her. Before I knew it, she had taken everything off; thus, the stacks of supplies, and had Kenneth helping her to move it to the room. Here is the picture where they decided it couldn’t fit through the hallway into the room.

Well, never to be hampered by any obstacles, Cheyenne asked Kenneth to cut the shelves in half and then we could stack them on top of each other in the Craft Room closet. Bless his heart, this was one of the few and rare days he had off and there he was sweating to death in the blazing heat cutting the shelves in half. He is the best!

I did not get a picture of Kenneth in the process of re-imagining the shelves, but here is a picture of them in the closet.

I took the top one and flipped it upside down to add a little interest to unit.

I will be taking more pictures of the room in a more finished version. I still need to have either my daughter or husband spray paint my stamp pad holder white and I want to purchase some pvc gutter pipe and make a few ribbon holders. I am very pleased with how the room has developed. If you look at the closet picture above and to the right of the bookshelf is un-used wall space. I need to spackle the holes in the wall (where the previous shelves were hung) and paint the wall white; then, I’ll have my husband make a few more shelves. My goal is to have nothing on the floors; everything on a shelf.

Make sure to keep an eye out for New Craft Room – Part Two.

 

 

 

 

I worked diligently to clean up my big mess (SU! projects scattered throughout the office/craft room into the kitchen, onto the kitchen table and an additional portable table. I was fairly satisfied with my results and then Cheyenne called about 6:00 p.m. and said did I need her to come on over. Sure, I’m not exhausted, yet.

So, she came over with her lovely daughter, Brooklyn, and started cracking the whip (so to speak). She makes me focus on the detail cleaning part, like putting away scraps (I think I forgot to mention – I HATE FILING), asking me questions such as do you really need this, can this be shredded, are you going to finish this card, what is that for, etc. I know exactly how those “hoarders” feel on the reality shows that feature their cluttered dilemma. It is exhausting trying to decide where this goes and that goes, and then I get sidetracked; it goes on and on. I get to the point where I just throw away perfectly good paper scraps. My question is . . . . Why can’t I be rich and hire a personal assistant to do this for me? Wah-Wah 🙁

She, finally, left around 9:45 p.m. and the office/craft room looked great. As I’m typing this the kitchen areas look great as well, but I only took office pics this morning because I hadn’t had my Wednesday make-n-take class and the kitchen areas still looked better but not great. So, for all you ladies that know me personally and have been to my house on numerous occasions, here is the clean office pics below. If you want to see it in person, better get over here quick – I give myself 2 weeks before it starts looking a little disarray. LOL

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I have to make a confession. I am a clutter-a-holic when it comes to papercrafting and anything to do with paper. I am exposing a hidden area of my life in the attempt to motivate myself to persevere toward a clean and organized craft room that doesn’t spill out into various and sundry places throughout my house. It is my personal belief that many crafters are wired this way.

Please don’t recommend Fly Lady or anyone else. I know all about them and have given “them” a whirl. I’m just a tad bit deficit in the area of keeping my mind focused on one thing (even for 15 minutes – it’s sad but true). I have even resorted to calling my friend and some time co-designer, Cheyenne, to come over and whip me into shape. She doesn’t have a wandering attention span. In fact, if I tend to wander about, she reigns me in by bellowing, “Get in here, we aren’t finished with ___________.” I, usually, after a rebuttal, apply myself to the needed task. Hopefully, she is managing her time so she can make it over here and help out a friend in desperate need.

Anyway, here are my BEFORE pictures (please don’t judge – you could be walking in my shoes one day):

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And, there you have it! The dining/breakfast table, a temporary table for the Big Shot cutting (I had a class Saturday and I’ll have another one tomorrow), the kitchen bar top/counter, one desk in the office, the paper shelf, the floor, and my desk. Before you ask, I did make both challenge cards and fourteen bible study cards at this very desk yesterday and today. I did misplace quite a few polymer stamps, which were right in front of me, amongst this jungle mess.

I hope you can laugh with me and say a pray. I would like to get this back in order by tonight (LOL). That WOULD be a miracle. Well, if Cheyenne comes over it will happen. I WILL post AFTER pics or in progress updates as they are made.

Have a GREAT DAY!

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