Krylon Watermelon!

A recent trip around the blog world lead me to this post where I was introduced to Krylon Watermelon. **SWOON**. I was worried I might not be able to find it in Canada but I found some at Canadian Tire yesterday. I knew EXACTLY what I wanted to do with it.

The tags are from Papertrey Inks Button Boutique set. Last month I went away for a girls weekend with two dear friends and one of them (the Amazing Char) had prepped these tags and brought out ink, buttons, and embellishments for us to put them together. It was such a fun evening, sitting around crafting, chatting, eating (oh, and drinking wine too). I knew I wanted to do something special with my tags to remember such a great time.

I had bought this frame a couple of weekends ago at a garage sale (posted here). I covered the insert with some burlap and used scor tape to adhere the tags. Easy peasy. And doesn't it look great in all it's watermelon glory? I ADORE it.

I hung it in my craft room near my button and ribbon storage.

Thanks for peeking!

I'm linking up to Sarah's spray painting party. I know it's just a simple frame but I LOVE it (have I mentioned that yet??) and want to share it :).

My Craft Room

I've been working on organizing my craft room for a while now and thought I would share some pictures, which after taking them I realize are NOT good quality. However, it is unlikely this room will EVER be this clean again so here we go.

Come on in...

This is the entrance to my craft room. It's in the flex room at the front of our house, right off of the entrance. It's a great sized room with lots of light with a west facing window. 

This is the NE corner of the room, where my cutting station, Cricut station, and large Ikea Expedit shelving unit are.

This is my "cutting" station, which is a small Expedit unit from Ikea. I put it on casters in case I need to move it around. I usually move my Cricut onto it when using that as it has more clearance at the back. I also use my Cuttlebug here. The green storage squares beneath hold my Cricut and Cuttlebug dies and folders, my nesties, Yourstory folders, etc.

You can see everything is close at hand, including the cartridges on the shelves above. The photo boxes on the bottom shelves hold finished cards, extra adhesive, envelopes, and other odds and ends.

Moving along to the east wall/ SE corner. I used to have this entire shelving unit designated to craft storage and display but my Pyrex collection started to take over. :)

My precious Pyrex collection {sigh}

This corner is pretty congested. I have 12x12 patterned paper in the clear containers and Papertrey card stock under the TV. The two grey drawer carts under the printer hold most of my embellishments, punches, chipboard, spare parts, etc.

Here's a shot of the music stand I use to hold "newer" paper. I bought this to display scrapbook pages but I am yet to make a single page. Some day!

Another shot of that corner as we move along the south wall. The ledges above are also from Ikea and are perfect for displaying cards.

And here's my work area (and my sleepy pooch). We actually have two dogs who are usually my constant companions when I'm in here.

Another shot.

This is looking to the west. Our front porch is on the other side of the window. My sewing station is on the right.

My happy "corner." I recently moved my Copics (in the white and clear stackables on the left), all my stamps and inks to this corner to have everything within reach when I am making cards.

And here's my sewing station. The grey drawer cart beside holds all my felt, threads, needles, fabric, etc. The shelf above holds my Papertrey ribbon and buttons {love}.

Here we are back at the entrance. I have another picture ledge above the doors to display cards.

Finally, what the room looks like when I am in it, with the doors closed while I craft away in my favourite room in the house.

So that's it. Pretty much everything is from Ikea. It's been a work in progress over the last couple of years from when I first moved in there. Prior to, we used it as an office. When our kids are older and have flown the nest I may take over one of their bedrooms up stairs, but for now I really enjoy being in this space on the main floor. As well, those french doors motivate me to keep it (relatively) tidy. I feel so blessed to have this space for myself to create in. I only wish I had more time to spend in it!!

Thanks so much for visiting!

Vintage Letterpress Tray...and more!

It's been a few weeks since I have been out garage sale-ing but Char and I were back in action this weekend. We headed out early Saturday Morning and hit a community sale. At our very first stop I found this vintage letterpress tray. A few months ago I wouldn't have even know what this was, but after I saw how my friend Carly is using hers I have been wanting one. These can sell upwards of $100 on Etsy so I was really pleased to find one at a garage sale for $5!

I would rate the condition as fair and very, very dirty. I spent close to 4 hours cleaning it but could probably work on it for days. My husband (who is not the world's most patient man) suggested I use his power washer on it. Ha! My efforts did improve it slightly as you can see by the photo below (taken after the first third had been cleaned).

The tray has paper backing which was impossible difficult to clean. In an effort to protect my stamps I decided to insert card stock over the paper backing and behind each of the stamps. I'll stamp the image first and it will also serve to remind me where the stamp belongs. A glue dot was used to keep the card stock in place.

And here it is in a corner of my craft room. As you can see, I don't have many wood mounted stamps but now that I have a place to to put them I am thinking there may be more in my future ;). There are lots of small openings which work great for my ink cubes. Now that I have the tray up I've decided to keep my notice boards in my craft room and will be hanging them shortly beside the tray.

Other great finds of the day were two lamp shades in perfect condition for $1 each.

I thought I might cover them but they actually work well in our family room as is.

I almost passed on these charger plates. At $10 they seemed expensive until I realized there were 12 of them, and many still had original price tags of $4 each on the bottom. They will be nice with our Christmas table setting which is orange, cream, and gold.

The other items are a new black Ikea floating shelf which retails for $20 and was bought for $5, a wire fruit bowl bought for $2, two books that were 50 cent each, and a new set of rubber alpha stamps that I picked up for $2.

So there's my haul for the day. Not bad for $27, hey? Not to mention I had a great day with a super friend.

I'll be linking this up to Southern Hospitality.

Cricut Station

No cards today but I thought I would share a pic of my new "Cricut Station" because it makes me really happy! I was inspired by Robyn (the Pink Stamper) who is the go-to-girl for all things Cricut IMO.

I'm in the process of re-organizing my craft room to make my space more functional. I will share photos when I am done.

Thanks for peeking!