Scrap'n Tote Sale This Weekend!

"Customer Appreciation" Sale This Weekend! 

PINK & GREEN SCRAP'N TOTE 20% Off Jan 21-23  Scrap'n Tote, in both Green and PInk, will be on sale this weekend for 20% off.  The sale runs Friday through Sunday, Jan. 21st - 23rd  Use Coupon Code: THANKYOU Scrap'n Easel will "not" be included in this sale. Head on over to check out the sale!  While you're there, be sure to enter the "Spring Is In The Air" Cricut Imagine Giveaway!

My "New" Scrap Room

I have finally finished reorganizing my scrap room! Well, almost; there is still paper to put away (there's always paper to put away, lol) and a few other things I haven't tucked away yet. But the major work is done, and I'm now set up to scrap to my heart's content. The room is now convenient for two scrappers to work at once, or, what I really can't wait for, to use as various stations during a crop.

Thanks to my husband, I was able to spend about $400 at Ikea. I bought the largest Expedit bookcase in black-brown and 2 Expedit desks to attach. I also purchased some clear drawers that fit in the bookcase to store my alterables, chipboard, acetate, etc.

I already had a stash of the Cropper Hopper vertical paper storage files. I had a mix of black and frosted since I built up my stash over time and based on what was on sale. Generally, I have my cardstock in the black and other papers in the frosted files. I love my cute labels I made for the majority of the paper files! I left my Close To My Heart paper files labeled with the old P-Touch labels for now. I'm still trying to figure out the best way to label those.

I tossed my rotary cutting mat on this desktop, as this is where I'll work when I'm scrapping alone. I can reach all my paper quickly, and all my fun embellies are in arm's reach! (You can barely see here, I have my homemade clip-it-up at the end, in the center of the two desks.) As a bonus, I can whip out my exacto knife any time without needing to find a cutting mat.

The other desktop is set up with my Cricut Expression and a jukebox. My cartridges are all store in Scraponizer cases, and they fit right in the nearest cube. There's plenty of room to use my 12"x24" mat with this setup, but if I' m scrapping with a friend we can easily move it all to an alternate location.

On this side of the bookcase, I also have my Stickles (stored upside down in a window marker stand I appropriated from a store once it was empty), my fibers, and my favorite idea books. Also over in the top cube of the center row are all of my sketch books for layouts and cards, plus some consultant publications I like to refer to.

I have loads more underneath, including my rolls of Cricut vinyl, my baby Cricut, another clear drawer, my embellishment boxes, and more.

The computer desk holds lots of assorted stuff, including some artwork from the kids, boxes of cards I've made, and assorted computer paraphenalia. You can also see my Christmas present - a nice new desk chair! (I'll probably switch the locations of the two chairs; just haven't bothered yet!)

Can you believe this is the size of my first scrap space?! This countertop was installed in a closet in our first house. My space requirements, as well as my collection of "stuff" has grown dramatically over the years! I keep all of my ribbons and buttons over here, along with my CTMH order forms, hostess info, etc. I also have a little bookcase stashed underneath to hold my favorite magazines and crochet patterns. The plastic drawers here hold my CTMH order bags and my large ziploc bags for paper and swaps. This is also a great place to work if I feel like standing for a while. (Also a great place to set my iPod Shuffle and speakers.)

Here's my stamping station. The shelves hold all of my stamp sets separated by category. The envelopes the CTMH stamps come in fit great in the little $1 CD crates from Wal-mart. So I also put all of my other brands of stamps in these envelopes so they can fit in the same boxes. I also have a zipper 3-ring binder for my large alphabet stamp sets, and some SU! storage cases for my stamping wheels. (The top shelf holds boxes of duplicate photos and more.)

My remaining wooden stamps are in a cart of drawers right below the table. These are also separated by category. The other cart holds my stamping accessories, mini albums, and my "hot" tools in the bottom drawer.

My paint rack holds all of my paints, reinkers, stamp cleaner, glossy accents, etc. The other spinning rack is from Close To My Heart and holds all of my ink pads and markers. I also have my gel pen case and pack of permanent markers, my stamp scrubbers, baby wipes, and stamp blocks set out.

This area holds my Sizzix Big Kick, my few dies, and my embossing folders. On the wall is my parts bin where I store all of my chipboard and acetate letters, numbers, etc. I also have soem miscellaneous stuff in the larger bottom drawers. The tall cart on the left houses my adhesives, card blanks, cutting templates & tools, and more miscellaneous.

The "file" rack on the wall holds completed layouts I've made during home gatherings, etc. that don't yet have photos on them. It's actually getting rather full, so it's probably time to start using some!


The closet hasn't changed - this is where the hubby & I keep assorted other craft stuff. It's mostly counted cross stitch books (hubby's) and crochet books & stuff (mine). I also have some assorted larger alterables and completed items.

Finally, the peg board wall. this is where I used to keep a lot of my paper packs and coordinates before I got my bookcase. It currently holds my Cricut mats, brochure racks, rulers, and specialty items like shrinky dink plastic and "sticky pages". I also try to keep my camera handy here (although I still sometimes can't remember where it is, lol), along with my color wheel, and my Glue Glider Max I use for larger projects.

Hope you enjoyed this peek at my space! It's been a lot of fun setting up, and it's even more fun to use.

A Friendly Reminder

Don't forget, today is the last day to enter the huge Scrap-box giveaway! See my original post here for the details.

ScrapBox - HUGE WorkBox Giveaway!

Are you dying for some organization in your life? Need to get your scrapping supplies off of the dining room table? If you're looking for some great Scrapbook storage, there's nothing sweeter than the Workbox from the Original ScrapBox!


How would you like to win this sweet setup? Take a visit over to the Midnight Madness blog, and get hooked up! Make sure you tell them I sent you.

Here are the other blogs where you can win:
Make It and Love It
Vanilla Joy
Auntie Thesis
The Mommy Files
My Organized Chaos
Life As Lou
Cricut Christmas
Capadia Designs
Rachelle’s Writing Spot

While you're waiting to find out if you're a winner, cruise on over to The Original ScrapBox and check out my favorite product, the super sweet MiniBox. There's room for this in any home, and they have enough colors/styles to choose from to match any decorating style! It only 37" wide, but stores a boat-load of crafting goodness - here's a photo:

And now, a great discount too! Enter this code when you place your order to get $100 off your shipping: 100Writes

Ingenious Idea!

Well, I've been MIA for a while, thanks to Spring Break with the kids and a sudden urge to completely reorganize our office/my scrap area. But, I've also managed to finally complete a cool project I've been working on.

Those of you who know me, know that I am a collector of scrap stuff, especially embellishments and ribbon. I've looked at that nifty Clip-It-Up, but the price tag left that out of the question completely. Then, thanks to another CTMH consultant, I stumbled across a do-it-yourself version of this expensive toy, made entirely out of lamp parts!

After a few go-rounds with the guys in Hardware at Lowe's (who, in my opinion, never help a woman unless she hunts them down), I wound up ordering most of my hardware from an online lamp store. Now, let me tell you, before you look at the picture, mine is nothing spectacular, and I went plain black because 1) the color works with my other stuff and 2) we had leftover spray paint that color. So, if it's hard to see, I'm sure you can find "prettier" examples out there in cyberspace.

So, here it is: my DIY version of the Clip-It-Up. Nothing fancy, but it works REALLY well! And I love having all (OK, a few) of my goodies out where I can see them. I did have a few of the clips on hand, from some curtain rings I no longer needed, so I used some of those. I also used some plastic hang tabs on most of my items. The downside to these is that they aren't really reusable, but I had them anyway, so I'll use them and get more clips later. You can also use safety pins to clip up your packages; they probably take up less room than the clips so you can fit more on.

The beauty of this is that you can make it as wide or narrow as your space allows. It's pretty much gonna be 30" tall, because that's how the lamp rod comes, unless you are handy (or hubby is) and can cut it down. I didn't feel it was worth the trouble. The big thing is that your base (which is a terracotta plant saucer) needs to be about as large as your largest spinner so it wont tip over.

The base is the most expensive part of this whole deal, but even so I think I got mine in under $25. I think that was way better than retail on the real thing! Now, are you all set to make your own?! Here's the link to instructions for the one I made: http://forum.rockymountainhobbies.com/showthread.php?t=3272&highlight=spinning
I'm sure you can find more if you Google make your own clip it up or diy clip it up, something of that nature.

I wound up not using any finial (as called for) because all the ones I found were too small. Oh, and I purchased old lampshades from a thrift store (the Morningstar Treasure Chest II in New Lenox, for those of you in the area) for my racks as it was cheaper than buying new frames. Plus, I bought the most beat-up ones they had, so nobody was probably going to buy them for anything else! I bought the saucer and lamp rod at Lowe's, but everything else I ordered online from The Lamp Shop; my total was about $7 including shipping.

If you find anything to be tricky, feel free to ask me for help. I found it easier to just do it myself once I had all the right parts than to try and follow the written instructions! Good luck, and enjoy!