Determined to Try!

I know it has been MONTHS since I've posted anything.

I set aside this blog to focus more on my homeschooling blog.  I willingly stopped posting and writing because I also stopped crafting and that was my mistake.

I have been feeling lost and listless and realized I was missing my creative outlet!  

I spent the last few weeks getting back into my craft room and have been scrapbbooking up a storm.

It feels so good!

I also spent the weekend cleaning out, organizing, and re- designing my room.

I can't wait to show you all!

Here is just a little teaser....

I moved the ribbon jars away from my windows; I had a whole empty shelf and they were getting discolored from the sun (and not using them!).

I moved some of the small stacking bins up onto the shelves and used my calligraphy markers to label each bin so I know just what's inside! 

My biggest organizational feat was taking apart all of my stamp sets and ordering them category then color coding them.  I only party way through this process but think it will help tremendously when I'm looking for stamps.  So far I have pink cases that are for hearts, weddings, and love.  Bright orange cases for tools and transportation.  Lilac cases for Easter.  Sage Green cases for plants and flowers.... you get the idea. 

The colored cases with hand written labels 

A peek at one of the pink cases 

Linking Up With: Together on Tuesdays, Wonderful Wednesdays, 

Coming together

      Though I haven't been posting, I have been working on my room a bit here and there.  I was waiting for some thing to come in and for some help from my husband.  Today it's all finally starting to come together.  My husband was home early and helped me hang up the magnetic board with my brads.  I also ordered 5 (yes you hear me right 5!) towel rods that I had him hang to help me display my punches.  I have a bunch of them but with them all thrown into a bucket I never remember which ones I have.  My hubby is pretty talented when it comes to making things out of wood or metal and he was going to make me some rods but I found these towel rods at Amazon for only $5 with free shipping so I figured I'd save him the trouble.  They're all hung and filled and I just LOVE it!  I'm getting so excited to finish so I can finally use the room again.  I love the thought of having most things in reach and sight!  I also received the last two 12x12 paper holders I was waiting for and now have all my paper organized and put away. 

        While he was hanging the rods and magnetic board I was color coding all my markers, gel pens, and stamp pads.  I somehow ended up with two packs of Stampin Up! markers-- one set in the old colors and one in the new colors so I ordered a marker holder from Amazon and combined the two sets into one large one.  I then took one of the marker containers and removed the Stampin Up! insert naming all the colors and filled it with my gel pens.  I already had the Stampin Up! stamp pad holder (with extender) and all the stamp pads so I decided that since I was color coding everything else I might as well color code the stamp pads too.  I received my stack and store caddy from Stampin Up! and spent the day sorting buttons, eyelets and metallic accessories into all my Stampin Up! bins.  



       My Amazon order also included one more Cricut cartridge holder so I consolidated all my cartridges, books and keyboard covers into two very thin bins that fit nicely onto this tiny shelf I have.  I love that the bin is see- through so I can see at a glance which bin I need.   The clear stacking drawers that used to hold all my scrap papers now hold stencils in one drawer, my Coluzzle cutter with re-fill blades, mat and stencils in another drawer, a drawer of page protectors and clear bags from Stampin Up!, and a drawer of just envelopes. 

Scraps, scraps, scraps

           I had a bit of time this morning and decided that rather than do the dishes I'd prefer to work in my craft room.  I had 4 drawers that were filled with scraps of all shapes, sizes and colors and
I often pull all 4 of them out when looking for a specific piece or color of paper.  It seems like I've gotten to the point where I don't want to throw any scraps away.  I look at a piece and think of all the possibilities, especially with my Cricut when some of the accents are so small and require only a tiny piece.  I've seen so many wonderful ideas for using scraps on cards on Pinterest; if you're on there try searching for card scraps you'd be amazed at all the ideas you can find. 
Try these sites for some ideas:

1. A glass ornament with paper scraps
2. Scrap card
3. Video tutorial about making cards with scraps 

        But I'm starting to feel like scraps are taking over my room and most of my time too.  I finally decided to organize my scraps by color too so I dumped all the drawers out and started sorting.  I used my hanging file cart to store all the paper scraps once they were sorted, but I'm already wondering if this system will work well.  I know sorting the scraps will save me time but I'm afraid many of the paper scraps will fall out the sides of the hanging files.  I'm also afraid the scraps may get wrinkled.   I guess time will tell.  My room is now a much bigger mess than I started with as I promised myself I'd focus on one small area of the room each day and organize just that one small area.  It will take time (and money) but I think it's high time I dedicated myself to making the room all I want it to be.  I love the idea of sorting everything by color because 9 times out of 10 I know what color I want.  I also just love how pretty the rainbow of colors looks.  Perhaps one day my room will be so organized and pretty I won't want to leave it!

Organization is the key

        Looking to "neaten" up my craft room I've been searching Pinterest for ideas and inspiration for creating my perfect space.  Sometimes I spend what feels like hours searching for the right color or pattern on a paper to go with the photos for a scrapbook page, or I'll end up ordering a tool, stamp set, or embellishment & end up realizing I already own it!  I thought my craft room was pretty well organized but it has never been "perfect."  In the beginning I was just to happy to have one I didn't mind that I didn't have much money left to spend on organizing it and I made do with bins and containers I found around the house.  Here we are several years later and I don't think I've purchased anything to help organize it yet.  I have, however, purchased a lot more "stuff" and now the room is looking very unorganized.  While I am usually pretty messy while I'm crafting and often thrive in the chaos it's starting to get to me.  Especially when I start looking around at other people's blogs, magazine articles and Pinterest.  I've poured through room after room, idea after idea, looking for those that really get me excited.  Here are some of my favorite inspirations:

1.  Nicohol's Craft Studio; not all that surprising since all her stuff comes from Pottery Barn and while I LOVE that catalog and their stuff I'm never willing to spend that much money.
2. Scrap- therapy:  Honestly as I looked through her blog, I just loved her whole house!  But I loved the idea of taking apart all stamp sets & putting them together by theme NOT by set! She also unmounted all wood sets to use as clear mount and gave instructions; something I'm toying with as a space saver 
3. My scraproom by scrapbook.com features rooms all the time-- I loved the inks and punches all lined up and easy to see/ use        
4. Dragonfly Dreams:  what can I say? Her space is totally Dreamy!

       Taking a page from almost ALL the rooms I looked at I decided to tackle one small corner of the room today.  My 12x 12 scrapbooking papers.  I decided to color code all my paper this morning.  It took a little over an hour as I even went through all my bound "books" of paper like DCWV (Die cuts with a view) and pulled them apart page by page.  I thought it might get tough when they were heavily printed but I had read on one blog where she decided what stack to put it in based on what color she'd most likely use (or the color that inspired her to buy it).  It ended up being fairly simple as most pages had a color or two that really stood out.  I did keep a few "themes" separate though; Disney, Halloween, Christmas, and Wedding.  I did that only with paper that could not possibly be used as anything else.  If it was Disney paper but was just colors, dots or stripes I mixed it in with the color stacks but if it had a character on it or a ride pictured on it I left it in it's own stack (same goes for Christmas, Halloween, and Wedding).   I love how it looked in the end and used my label maker to further organize.   I think this should help cut down on the time I spend looking for just the right paper... if not at least it looks pretty!