New Craft Studio!!!!!

  My new craft studio! 

Finally, its done!  

 
Back Story:  I had major surgery back on December 15 (still getting my energy back) and towards the end of my doctor imposed six week recovery, the Hubs suggested we turn our 5th bedroom into a craft studio for me.  I had actually been perusing over this idea for months.  However, since our youngest son was just beginning his 2nd semester of college, I felt it a tad early to do so.  Particularly since for the last 6-7 years it has been our sons' "xbox lounge", painted black and lime green just for it, even the ceiling.  Frankly, for the past four years it hasn't even had an xbox in it .  Instead, our youngest kept his drum set there along with a weight bench, weight machine and boxing bag.

Yet, it didn't take much for the Hubs to convince me to go ahead and redecorate!  I think in the beginning he truly regretted mentioning it!  LOL  Now, he is very happy and pleased with all of his hard work.
 I am sooooo indebted to him for helping me create this wonderful craft studio for me!  Since I am still on a restriction of what I can lift and do, he did all the wall priming and painting. carpet installation, built closet shelves, hung peg board and lights, and even made me a stamp shelf!

So, get a cup of tea or beverage of your choosing, come in and take a look!...

 

First, I decided to take off the closet doors for easier access to supplies in the closet.  This is a shower curtain from Anna's Linens.  It wasn't my first choice, but I was trying to keep cost down, and it was $15 cheaper than my first choice.  I added a little homemade bling by sticking pink gems in the flower centers.  I'd show you the shelves,but it is truly a mess behind there!  Once I have had some time to craft and get used to my room, I will venture into organizing the closet better.

 

 My pink fan light, used to be all white and in our kitchen.  Over the door, I hung my name plate from my teenage years of painting lessons and art shows.  My art teacher founded the Rhodendron Art Festival in Charleston, WV and allowed her students to display their art for free.  I took lessons with my cousins and my best friend.  My uncle made us all display pegwalls with name plates.  

 

Next, the stamp/paper corner.  Along the black wall are my craft cube organizers for my inks,various embellishments, stickers and smaller stamps. I found the bright pink baskets at Lowe's.  The black basket I spray painted black and along with the pink ones, they house my cling and clear stamp sets.  The white plastic shelf houses most of my paper --- cardstock, DP paper stacks.  

  

 I borrowed an idea I found on Pinterest to store my paper in magazine holders.  I bought cardboard ones at Office Depot and covered them with three different colors of wrapping paper (above).  Above the paper shelf, I repainted, for about the tenth time, a wooden shelf for some whimsy knick knacks.  The clock was purchased on our honeymooon and I repainted the roof to match my pink theme.

Above the stamp shelf, are inspirational words to feed my creativity -- Live, Love, Laugh, Believe, Dream, Create, and Imagine.  Beside the shelf is a collage of my some of my favorite photos I have taken, which I enhanced to look like paintings.

 

One of my all time favorite items in my room is this fabulous wooden stamp shelf (above) the Hubs made for me.  We got thin white boards and white trim molding from Home Depot to make the shelf,  First, I laid out all of my wooden stamps to get the dimensions correct of what I would need, determining the number of shelves and height of each shelf.  As you see, I have room to grow!
Centered between the two identical plastic shelving units I placed a refurbished bench seat. All of my fabric is stored in the bench, close at hand. This seat is at least 45 years old, made by my same uncle Charlie who made the name board.  This was my toy box as a child.  He made my older brother an identical one also.  They were plain pine panel board with a red formica plastic cover on the lid. 
 I now have both chests in my possession.  One I refurbished and is in our family room.  This one, I finally redid for my studio.  I spray painted the pine board with white paint.  Once I had chosen my room colors, I found the material for my chest at Jo Ann Fabrics.  It turned out to be perfect.

I also made other seat cushions, one for my work chair and one for the wicker chair in the far corner of the room.  As you see, my Jack Russell, Cricket, has claimed the wicker chair as her spot in my studio, even though she has her own "pillow pal" (below).

  

Opposite the stamp wall is my tool center --- for my die cuts, Big Shot, scissors, brushes, punches, emboss folders, etc.  The peg board is such a big help.  I don't have to hunt in tons of bins for all of my tools.  They are right at hand.  I placed an old table for an extra work center below the pegboard and covered it with a pink plastic gingham tablecloth to protect the tabletop.  Now I have a place to die cut and sew and I don't have to rearrange work areas. 

   

More of my photos line the top of the pegboard for added inspiration as I craft.

The flower fan is a keepsake from my older brother's wedding, the bouquet I used as a bridesmaid. 

 
My inspirational quiet corner where I can sit and read Paper Crafts, Stampers Sampler.  It is also filled with things I love, including photos of my boys I took when they were younger and a bulletin board covered with the same material as the bench and cushions.  Of course, as I mentioned earlier, Cricket, my Jack, has pretty much claimed the wicker chair as her own and so I must shoo her away when I want to sit.

 

 My boys' photos:  Ben, now 17 and a freshman at UNC Chapel Hill, is on the left (vertical photo).  Patrick, now 20 and a sophomore at University of Central Oklahoma is on the right (vertical photo).

Beside the wicker chair is a smaller bookshelf for all my brads, embellishments, and markers.

 Turning full circle, a look towards the front door.

Thanks for stopping by and visiting with me in my studio!  I look forward to lots and lots of hours of creating in this new space along with my "assistants", Cricket (Jack) and Riley (border collie).  Of course, now the Hubs knows where to find me!

In Dreams...

Happy Sunday! I've been playing around in my new craft room, finally. I tried out some new paint dabbers from Adriondack. I love the result! Dabbing each color on 1/3 of a brayer at once I got a nice smooth flow between colors. I painted on white cardstock then stamped my images after the paint dried. Next, I distressed and inked the edges and added a corner ticket punch. It is adhered to brown cardstock corner punch the same, which is then adhered to lime green cardstock. I wrapped the double framed image with brown baker's twine. For some depth and texture, I stamped the sentiment onto a smaller piece of painted cardstock, used a die cut label, distressed and inked, then adhered it to a tag made from brown cardstock. I added a bit of orange paint to an already orange button to brighten the color. Finally, I added some yellow gems to the butterflies, brad on the tag and button on the twine for a little pizzazz.

SPIES:
Stamps: Images (Inkadinkadoo); Sentiment (Tim Holtz).
Paper: White, brown, lime green cardstock.
Ink: Timber Brown (Staz On); Sunset Orange, Sunshine Yellow and Lettuce paint dabbers (Adriondack).
Extras: Label 14 Die cut (Spellbinders); tag; bakers twine; brown brad; orange button; yellow gems.

Grey Wolf

My first card made in my new craft studio!  I'm just so excited!  I cannot believe how much easier it is to find things, move around, do things, EVERYTHING.  Such a joy!

This card is for my oldest son's 20th birthday.  He is out in Oklahoma, so we will miss being able to celebrate with him.  So, I wanted to make something grown up masculine but also with something that is him.  He has always been an animal/nature lover so the wolf is perfect for him.

Lately I have been very obsessed with everything Taylored Expressions.  So, I decided to use their sketch challenge for this week for the card.  It is clean and simple and works great for masculine cards.Then, over at The Paper Players, the challenge was to make a masculine card with clean and simple lines.  Finally, my colors were inspired by the color challenge at City Crafter.

As you can see the card is very clean and sleek. I embossed the black background to give more depth to the card.   Also for more depth, I crimped the kraft scalloped border and added more kraft behind the sentiment, which I punched the sides of with the scallop punch and also crimped.  I couldn't decide whether to put any embellishments along the cloth ribbon.  I finally chose one brad to put in the center underneath the sentiment and added a metal round paper clip for a little extra man touch.
 

SPIES:

Stamps:  Sentiment  (Inkadkinadoo); Wolf digital stamp (M&M Designz).
Paper:  Buttercream, black and kraft cardstock.  DP - Little Black Dress (Basic Grey).
Ink:  Copics for image.  Tuxedo Black ink (Memento).
Extras:  Labels die (Spellbinders); diamond emboss folder(Provo Craft) scallop border punch; paper crimper; cotton ribbon; brown brad; brown paperclip ring.

City Crafter Challenge #97 -- It's All Natural

Thanks for stopping by!

Life Is An Adventure

Eat Sleep Stamp Sketch #159

The title of this post definitely says it all!  Life is truly an adventure and the last few weeks in the Salkeld abode has been moreso.  I am in the process of moving into my new craft studio so crafting has taken on a new meaning for me over the past couple weeks.  My studio is a wonderful Valentine gift from my husband to help me get back in the groove and even maybe make a little spending money at it.  I will share pics in a later post.

Of course, in the middle of it all, I was trying to get Valentines made and a few other special cards for some special events coming up.  This cute 'adventure' card I sent to my son who will be participating in UNC's Dance Marathon this weekend to raise money for NC Children's Hospital.  I think the dog stamp is so adorable!  It is from Artistic Outpost.  They have some gorgeous stamps!

I wanted to make a masculine, yet youthful card.  My son, Ben, is a freshman at UNC Chapel Hilll.  The sketch at Eat, Sleep, Stamp this week is very streamlined and simple and perfect for a masculine card. So, I took some Tim Holtz grunge paper, sprayed it with blue and orange glimmer mist and then stamped the image in Staz On Azure.  It gave it a more grungy look.

I thought the notebook DP paper was pretty appropriate too.  So I used a notebook border punch on one side.  Then, I chose some wood looking DP, used a wood grain texture plate on it to make the wood look more defined.  And I used some of the same wood paper as a border for the sentiment.  I finished off the card with an orange leather and metal brad and a metal arrow on the compass in the image.

SPIES:

Stamps:  Image and sentiment -Artistic Outpost;
Paper:  Grunge paper; white cardstock:  DP from stash.
Ink:  Staz On Azure.
Extras:  Wood grain texture plate - Taylored Expressions; notebook border punch; glimmer mist; orange leather and metal brad; metal arrow.

'Owl' Love

Taylored Expressions Sketch Challenge #151

It's been a very hectic week here.  My Hubs is painting my new craft studio for me.  The downstairs is all torn up due to the redecorating. I've been busy trying to get Valentine care packages together for my sons away at college and staying out of the Hubs' way at the same time.  So, with all of that going on, what do we do tonight?  Scrap it all (no pun intended, really) and have an early Valentine date at the circus, Ringling Brothers!  I hadn't been to the circus since I was a little girl.  It was wonderful!  I think we may have been the only adult couple there without kids!  LOL  We definitely won't the oldest ones, but most of the older adults I noticed had grandchildren on their laps.  I have a few years yet before getting to that stage.

Before we went, I put together this Valentine for the Taylored Expressions Sketch and now am posting it before the deadline. I had a lot of fun with this card.  I bought a bunch of stamps from Taylored Expressions weeks ago and just hadn't pulled many of them out yet.  So today was the day.  I love those sweet little owls!

I decided to make my own little tree die using the stamped image from the stamp.  I textured some kraft paper with the wood texture plate from Taylored Expressions.  Then, to make it more defined and stand out, I went over the grooves with some Copic markers, outlining the edges also.

Then, after coloring the Owls with Copics, I cut them out so it would pop out on the wood.  Next I added a piece of kraft twine for the branch the owls are sitting on.  I decided to carry the twine out by lacing it through the squares and added a twine bow to the sentiment to bring it all together.


SPIES:
Stamps:  Owls, tree and sentiment all Taylored Expressions.
Paper:  Kraft, pink cardstock; DP from Taylored Expressions card kit.
Ink:  Staz On Timber Brown; Colorbox rouge.  Copics.
Extras:  Spellbinders scalloped square dies; Textured panel- Taylored Expressions; twine; heart punch; pink grommet; heart button stickles.

Framed Hearts

Trying to stay out of the Hub's way today as he paints my new craft studio for me.  I am sooooo excited!  I will finally have my own studio room to craft,  paint and stamp and not have to worry about cleaning up right away.  Not to mention my own little space in which to disappear!  LOL   Another plus too is that we will actually be able to play pool on our pool table instead of me using it for an extra work station! But I digress, here is my card....A quick and simple card for PPA Color Challenge today.

 

SPIES:

Stamps:  Sentiment - Hampton Arts; Victorian Frame - Recollections.
Paper:  Rose, Red, Deep Red, white cardstock; DP - My Mind's Eye 'Stella Rose'.
Ink:  Colorbox
Extras:  Ribbon, heart gems, Spellbinder die cut; scallop punch.

Layers of Love

The Paper Players #80

My first time playing at The Paper Players today and I'm just under the deadline.  Ive been playing around with different papers and textures.  I wound up with lots of tiny tissue paper hearts.  What to do?  So, I took a piece of craft plastic and Mod Podged a bunch of them on the plastic.  Then, I took others and using a tissue paper method to making flowers, I made the puffy heart. Had to play with it a bit to get it to look how I wanted.  I am very happy with the outcome.

Unfortunately too I am having camera issues, a loose lens that won't stay fastened since my camera fell off the desk earlier this week, so my photos aren't doing my work much justice.  So, please bare with me until I can get my camera fixed. 

SPIES:

Stamps:  Sentiment:  Hampton Art.
Paper:  Tissue paper in red, orange and pink. DP from stash.  White cardstock.
Ink:  Colorbox.
Extras:  Lime green ribbon, lime green sticky gems, Spellbinders label die cut.