My Craft Room Remodel, Supply Organization, & General Awesomeness

EEEEEEE! I'm so excited to finally get to share with you my craft room remodel! I finally got off my lazy arse and took some photos and edited them and now that particular arse is sitting on the couch and typing this post so you can FINALLY all share in my eternal happiness!!!

When we purchased our new home, the garage (which is a separate structure from the house) came with 700 square feet of finished living space. Part of that space is a big ol' "man cave", as my significant other has dubbed it. But the other part was a poker room/bar area. During our initial walk-through I instantly fell in love with this particular room, because I just KNEW it would make my dream craft studio possible. 

Here it is in all its full glory! Isn't it beautiful?! It truly is my new happy place. I love walking into this, with the daylight streaming through airy windows and the smell of ink heavy in the room. I l-o-v-e creating things in here! 

So let me give you a little tour!

The craft table was custom built by my fabulous boyfriend and amazing brother-in-law.

This is my brother-in-law in action.

The table is 10 feet long by 5 feet wide. The base is made of cube storage shelves (purchased from Lowe's). The top was made by cutting 3 pieces of plywood to size and covering it with a white laminate (ordered from Home Depot online). 

I put red storage containers underneath the table to hold things like my ribbon, burlap, and miscellaneous hodge podge.

Taaaaadaaaa! This is my back focal wall. I knew right away that I wanted to use my Distress Products as a sort of decoration. And boy did I ever! When anybody walks in to the room they are smacked with a veritable smorgasbord of color, pulled from all of my favorite products. 

My boyfriend, drilling the back shelf into place ("You have to have a few process photos," I explained to him as he complained about my picture taking obsession duty).

The shelves and cupboards were all purchased from Lowe's over by the laundry storage section. If you get cupboards from the laundry section versus the kitchen section, it cuts the price by well over half. The tall cupboards were about $120 each and the shorter cupboards were $79 each. 

The back wall also has all of my essential tools, such as my paper cutter, my Cuttlebug, and my MISTI. 

Up top, the room is decorated with cards sent to me from my bloggy friends from around the world.

Underneath that is a row of Tim Holtz Distress Paints, Distress Spray Stains, and Distress Crayons. 

The products are all arranged on 24" floating shelves, purchased from Menards. 

Zigzag! haha

This wall is not only beautiful, it's sooooo great to have all of my fave products at immediate hand. I use them constantly and now I don't have to rummage around for ages trying to find which color I want. 

My absolute favorite feature of the room is the storage for the Range Distress Inks. I used nail polish display stands! I used ones that are 6 racks tall and ordered from Amazon. (Here's the link to find them, if you'd like.) They hold 4 Distress Ink pads and their reinkers absolutely perfectly. 

I also used pops of color inside my cupboards (because let's be honest - they're gonna be open all the time anyhow). This is the cupboard where I store my stamps. I have them in pull-out containers so they can easily travel from cupboard to craft table. 

Along the front wall, I created a computer-based station which houses my printer and Cricut Expression. I also have a card rack to showcase my designs and store the finished cards so they don't get ruined. Underneath the station I have wooden draws that are filled with miscellaneous embellishments for cards. 

^^This is my face after everything was all done^^ 

This face was made possible by the following people:

My super-awesome-deserves-10-backrubs boyfriend, Jimmy.

My incredible brother-in-law, Nick, who helped with the table.

My awesomesauce cousin, Danielle, who painted like a mofo.

My sister, Allie, who painted (mostly Danielle but some walls, too)

And Jimmy's uber-handy dad, Mike, who helped with SO much!

SO SO SO Thrilled with all the craft supply storage, amazing drool-worthy craft table that holds 10 people comfortaby, and a place for every craft tool that I own. It truly is my dream craft studio!

If you like it, then be sure to put a Pin on it! :) 

Thanks for popping by and I hope you love it as much as I do!

Taking a Tiny Bloggy Break - and a New Craft Room!

As many of you probably have surmised, I have died. 

Just kidding - I've been missing from the blogosphere for a little bit and I KNOW that you haven't seen me commenting on your blogs, as per usual. 

I have not died, I actually am in the process of moving. Sigh*
I'm just moving 5 blocks over, but all the work is still the same. I have one post scheduled for this Friday, but other than that, I'll probably be MIA until all these boxes are packed, moved, unpacked and everything is CLEAN at both places. 


Have I said, Sigh*, yet?


Anyhow, I did manage to move my craft room last night and I'll leave you with these photos of my new studio! 

The whole shebang! All put together, with my own artwork adorning the walls! (thank you panoramic setting)

The desk, where the magic happens! Patterned paper down below, cardstock up above and stamps sorted into bins! Along with some cards from crafty friends living up top! 

The Cricut/Printer station and the Embossing Station (dry and wet!)

 OOoooo - a mixed media shelf thingamob (I found the shelf at a rummage sale - it's an insert for a medicine cabinet) Front side holds Distress Spray Stains and texture pastes, back side holds Distress Paints and gesso/mod podge.

My coloring station/close up of my work space. 

My window of cards sent to me by blog followers/crafty friends from all around the world! I definitely feel blessed every time I look at this window and it will be fun to change it out with the seasons! 

So anyhow, this is what I've been up to, if you've been wondering. I'll be back in full force on October 1st to start the Hop to Stop! 

How to Organize All Those Card Making Challenges

Holy schmoly! This girl is crafted out today. I spent all day long on one project, but I'm so excited to share it with you that I just couldn't wait (even though I've already posted once today)!!

I've been following a lot of card making challenge blogs. It's been so much fun to participate and even if I don't win, there is so much inspiration that it keeps me in my crafting room and constantly creating.

But the problem is, there are quite a few challenges out there that I follow, and that means when I want to go looking for inspiration on my feed I have to click, scroll down, scroll back up, click on the next blog, scroll down. Repeat until I find something that just clicks. It's also bad because sometimes I forget about challenges and remember just in time to realize they are already closed. Bummer!

 AAaaaand when I want to combine challenges, like a sketch, word, and a color challenge, then I have to have multiple tabs open and refer back to my computer during the process. 

 I really like to watch PBS specials (yes, I'm a nerd) while I craft...sooooo...kind of need my computer. I got this genius  CRAZY (I've now come to admit this) idea to create an inspiration board that helps me keep track of all the challenges.

Firstly, I went looking for some colors from one of the challenge blogs I follow and after much back and forth debating (this is going to be displayed permanently in my craft room, after all) I settled on Curtain Call's Boho Brights challenge. Who doesn't get inspired by bright and cheerful colors?

It all started with this old window that somebody was selling on a garage sale facebook site:

I gave it a thorough scrubbing and, with the help of some handsome muscle, mounted it on my craft room wall.

Next, I used some of my favorite products - Distress Inks and Stencils!

The bright DI colors are Mustard Seed, Broken China, Dusty Concord, Shabby Shutters, Spiced Marmalade, and Festive Berries

I made some day of the week blocks with tiny wooden squares and white puffy paint, to help remind me when a challenge is ending.

Next, I took some gold cord, and ran seven strips down the window and attached Tim Holtz clips. These will help hold the inspiration images. 

I made a title for my project using chipboard letters and dabbing them with DIs.

After some thought I decided to go with "Inspiration Station".

One trusty glue gun, a couple of second degree burns, and a few hours later....

I have a finished project board!! Woohooo!! It's much grander in real life.

It's so bright and beautiful! I added some flowers and bling to the window, too!

Now as the challenges are announced, I can simply print out the images and put them in the row by the day the challenge ends. I follow more challenges than this, but a lot of them were announced today and I have to print them later.

Challenges that are bi-weekly or monthly are put on the day of the week they'll be due, but they're put closer to the top and the date is written on it.

I think I'm going to be inspired for a looong time to come!

Speaking of challenges, In addition to the Curtain Call challenge, I am going to make my third and final entry to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Blog "Anything Goes" challenge.

Hope you've all enjoyed my madness! Please follow my blog and leave a comment so that I can return the favor on your creations!