Craft Room Pretties!

Happy Friday!  We're two weeks into the new year and already at the beginning of another long vacation, which I'm happy with, if only because it gives us the opportunity to make some fun plans as a family (sometimes I wonder who is in charge of the school calendar and why they insist on SO MANY long weekends).  But before I change my focus to having fun I thought I'd do a quick post on what I've been working on the last couple of weeks here at home.  In the spirit of my Word for the Year (see my OLW post here) I've been trying to make a real effort to turn my intentions (thoughts/plans) into action and be more aware of how I choose to spend my time.  I have also found myself with a lot more wiggle room/free time in my daily life (probably from not being up to my neck in Girl Scout Cookies as I was this time last year.  I'm sure this state of affairs is only temporary) the last few days - and it's been great! ;)  Not only have I been able to tackle a few deep cleaning chores, but I also spent some time almost every day trying to get my craft room decluttered and reorganized.

 

Look!  Isn't it pretty?!
Wait, wait.  I need to show you a couple of Before shots so you can get some perspective.  This is mid-December when the room was buried under all sort of Christmas, Girl Scout, Etsy orders, school projects, and all manner of other things.

And this is the room this morning.

 Just in case you might be looking for a little organizing inspiration of your own, let me walk you through what I've done.  In the black dresser I have:

 The top drawer with my Most Used small items like pens, scissors, and tape.

 The second drawer - which until two days ago was stuffed full of ribbon (I'll show you my solution for that one later, once I get it finished) - now holds packing/shipping stuff and a few larger items.

The bottom drawer has some crafting supplies that I don't use as often.  Though that big space on the right seems like it needs to be filled with more than just the hole punch.  I'll have to think about that.

 Under the printer holds printer paper, ink cartridges and more craft supplies (my CuttleBug die cut machine is in that blue bag)

 I love those craft storage boxes.  I have three of them, but I wish I had a lot more.  There is an inner tray on the top for smaller stuff.

 And plenty of room in the bottom for bigger things.

 And under the Silhouette I have all the vinyl, transfer tape, and more random craft/scrapbooking supplies.

 On the other wall is the scrapbook cabinet my husband built for me.  I keep my tool tote on top (even though I rarely use most of the tools in it since I haven't done much scrapbooking - though I fully intend to change that soon).  I bought the green bucket yesterday.  I had a smaller one there before but it was overflowing with the things I like to keep handy like my Ipod and headphones, phone cases (I have one for exercise, one that I put on when I'm painting so I don't ruin my good one, etc) and gift cards I haven't used yet.

 I also have this card sitting up there.  My mother-in-law sent it to me for Mother's Day a couple years ago and it's been on display ever since.  It serves as my reminder that I'm my own toughest critic and that it's ok to let things go because from the outside my life looks entirely different than how I view it.

 Inside the scrapbook cabinet is my paper (of course) and the things I use most often in my daily life or want easy access to whenever I get the time to work on it (like my One Little Word album).

 And I finished it all off yesterday with those large black and white photos - which I love!  I have had the photos printed for months now, just sitting in a closet.  Yesterday I spent the day shopping, with one of my main goals being to find frames for those photos (another one of my intentions - to get some of my photos off the computer and displayed where we can all enjoy them).  Found them for $15 each at AC Moore - score!  The photos are each 16 x 20, so I thought that was a great price for frames that big.  And thankfully I didn't have any problem talking my husband into helping me hang them up as soon as he got home.
Yay!  I now get to declare my craft room completely decorated!

 Don't be too jealous - I still have some clutter hiding in the craft room. SHHHH! LOL  Most of those boxes will be gone as soon as I finish up my final paperwork and drop offs for disbanding the GS troop.

 And I still have ongoing crafty messiness in my "other craft room" (as the husband likes to call it).  Bet you can't wait to see what I've been working on for Valentine's Day! ;)

Pallet Wall Art

This post has been a long time coming.  The project itself was a series of starts and stops over a period of months, then once I got it finished it sat for weeks before we mounted it on the wall and then the photos have been waiting to be blogged for quite a while now.  So before I get distracted again, let me share the latest addition to my craft room.

It all started with a stack of wooden pallets that the builders in the neighborhood abandoned.  And like a lot of my ideas lately, I had seen a number of fantastic Pinterest projects using those weathered pallets - everything from outdoor coffee tables to flower boxes.  I found myself drawn again and again to the pallet wall art and finally I decided that the perfect place for some wall art of my own would be above the dresser I refinished for my craft room.

Have you ever tried to pull apart a wooden pallet?  Geesh!  Those babies are built to last! LOL  Eventually the husband got sick of watching me struggle with them and helped me pull them apart.  I have a phobia about bugs, and since moving to North Carolina it has only gotten worse.  So I laid out all the pieces on the patio and hosed them down.  Sprayed them with bug killer and let them sit.  Did it all again when I decided they had been sitting too long.  And one more time before moving them into the garage.  Just for good measure, right?

Eventually I found a day when the power tools were out and I used the nail gun to attach the weathered wood pieces to some newer 1x4 scraps.  Then realized that the finish nails, though well hidden weren't going to keep it all together well enough.  So I added some screws, stained it to bring out even more of the character in the wood and left it to sit again while I decided which quote I wanted to display.  See, this is where the perfectionist in me rears its ugly head.  Was that one too cheesy?  Did this one fit the feeling of what I had in mind for the room?  It took me weeks to come back around to my original thought of simply using the word Create.

 

It was a pretty simple matter to cut a stencil using my Silhouette.  A bit trickier to get it all lined up right and keep all the edges of the contact paper down while I added the paint.

In the end, I was very happy with the result, but it felt like there was a bit too much "white space" now.  So I free-handed some swirls.  Then let it sit in the garage for a while longer before I decided I liked the swirls and could finally recruit the husband to hang it on the wall. 

Oh wait!  We were out of picture hanging supplies! LOL  Eventually though it did make it onto the wall and I get to admire it every time I use my printer.