Boy or Girl?

It is such a stress relief to spend some time away in my craft room.  Today, I made some samples for a gender reveal project I am working on for a friend.  I don't have all the details of the event, but I do know these cute fish and ducks are going into a fishbowl with names written on them.  I can't wait to see how she uses them for the event/party.  I have some more work to go into these cute cards.  I plan to add a little glitter to highlight some of the areas, like the beak, wings and fins.  I also need to make the duck a little bigger so it is more inline size-wise with the fish.  So cute!

It's Not Easy

Being a full time employee, a mom, a wife, and a crafter is not easy.  Take for instance today at work...I believe that I sat at my desk for maybe 2 hours total.  The rest of time was spent busy networking, mentoring, ensuring that things were accomplished, and making the place better.  I truly enjoy my job, but it does keep me busy.

Being a mom, on the other hand, is also busy.  It's not easy corralling four children, under 7, to get ready in the morning, when they don't want to get out of bed.  Boy do I know that feeling!  It's not easy to be the mean mom when they've misbehaved and school or daycare and they are destined to spend additional time in timeout.  Some days are better than others.  It is the joy and overwhelming love I feel when they are excited to see me when they get picked up, or the artwork they just have to show me that they created, or something new that they learned about at school, or when they just randomly come up and give you a hug.  It is those times and moments with my kids, that it is all worth it.

As a wife is also full of ups and downs.  Some days I simply do not want to carry on a conversation or am so sidetracked with other things that I may seem inattentive.  Other days I wish that I had more time to spend with my husband.  Today, I am simply thankful that my husband does so much of the cooking in our house.  I used to cook all the time.  Now he does most of it.  It gives me the time I need to get all those other things done that I want or feel that I need to do around the house...and of course extra time to craft.

And finally, there's that need for crafting.  I wish that I had extra hours in the day to be able to create something daily, but that is just not possible with my current situation.  I have a lot of ideas and creativity that I so dearly desire to let flow.  I am excited to help other people put their visions on paper or a product.  Tonight I am working on a baby gender reveal project.  I am delighted to her vision to reality.  Of course, I will show you the finished product in the next few days.

The WorkBox 2.0

Yesterday I showed you my WorkBox 2.0 in my craft room.  This is just one of the many units by The Original ScrapBox.  Today, I am going to take you inside to show you how I have it organized currently.  As I go through my supplies, I tend to reorganize, so it is always a work in progress.  Here's the image of the entire unit.

Starting with the left-side, opened, my paint daubers and stickles are stored upside-down at the top.  This ensures that the paint or glitter glue is always at the opened end for when I need to use them.  Directly below that is some of my embossing powders, glitter, and other misc small items.  They fit nicely here with the acrylic bar, allowing me to easily see and find what I need.  Continuing down the door is my gel pens and fine-point sharpie markers.  They are easily in reach for journaling.  Next is the hangars that store my design cutting scissors.  The hooks can hold two of these on each one and I try to keep similar cuts together.  Below that is my punch storage, which is great on the little rail for the "whale-type" punches.  I have other punches, but they do not work on this rail.  I have nothing below that in the velcro pouches, just yet.

On the next part of the door is my acrylic shelving that I use for my 12"x12" cardstock.  I separate it by color family, so I can easily find a coordinating color.  Below the acrylic shelving are pull-out fabric bins storing printed paper and paper packs by type.  I have Wedding, Boys, Christmas, and Disney in this section. Finally, the smaller bins on the right-hand side of the left-side door are ribbon spools, each bin holding a separate color.

Over to the middle of the unit are more pull-out bins holding more paper and other items.  Again, these are all organized by theme.  First is plain colored paper, military, spring, summer, girls, and fall/Halloween.  In the middle taller pull-out bins, I store small scrapbooks in progress, journals, and my cricut vinyl, transfer paper, fabric, and cutting mats.  These are not organized well or nicely, as you can see, but I have a plan to change the way they are stored soon.  On the right-hand side of the middle section, I store my large 12"x12" sticky letters, page shortcuts, miscellaneous templates, chipboard books, gift & treat bags, and large embellishments (jolees, stickers, etc) that do not fit in the other pull-out bins, which you will see soon.  The three little pull-out white wooden drawers hold other pens and cricut tools.  My cricut sits right below these, as well as a power strip which allows easy access to plug in any tool or device that I need, as well as the awesome LED light at the top in the crown, which provides plenty of light while I am crafting.

On the bottom half of the unit below the table, I store all my infrequently used items.  On the left-hand side in the blue box is small ink spots for the kids to stamp with.  In the two boxes with lids below that are ribbon spools, which don't fit into the fabric pull-out bins because I have too many.  In the striped bin below that are punches.  On the right-hand at the top are my crafting CDs and DVDs, which have been copied onto my computer already.  I keep these in the unfortunate event of a computer crash.  In the pink box is my spare loose ribbon scraps.  The purple bin holds more punches.  The next box is my awesome Canon photo printer, perfect for scrapbook sized photos.  Finally, the bottom shelf just holds my sticker creator and not shown is my box of jewelry making supplies, which I pulled out recently.

On the right-hand side of the door in the smallest bins are some embellishments.  First I have googly eyes, wood chips, clips, and then my small stamps, which will be going into baseball card protectors and stored in a three-ring binder soon.  Below that are all ribbon spools that are multi-colored.  In the right-hand side pull-out bins, are my extra embossing folders, which didn't fit into a binder (to be shown later), my tag maker and tags, and embellishments (jolees, stickers, flowers, words, rub-ons, etc), sorted by theme (girls, boys, Valentine's/love, summer/beach, St. Patricks, wedding, Easter, military, 4th of July, Halloween/fall, misc, Christmas, birthday, travel, flowers, friends, alphas, and family.)

I have yet to storage anything on the velcro right-hand door, also.  There are plenty of clear zipper bags allowing me to easily see what is there and store items separately, which can be pulled off and replaced, as needed.  The backside of this door, as well as the same door piece on the left-hand side is magnetic allowing storage of metal dies and other small magnetic items, but I am not using it yet for this purpose.

I hope you enjoyed seeing how I store things in my WorkBox 2.0.  I will post in the future other storage techniques that I use in my room.

My Craft Room

When it comes down to being able to create, it is imperative to be able to find everything you need.  My room is constantly a work in progress.  Every few months, I will reorganize and find better ways of storing my papers and supplies.  I think that I have a good knack for organization.  There is little in my house or craft room for that matter, that I cannot find.

My most recent craft storage is the The Workbox 2.0 from The Original ScrapBox.  This unit not only looks great, but it holds so much stuff.  It folds in and closes up, in the event you keep it in a room that is multipurpose.  I mostly leave mine open, with the exception of the outer doors.

As you can see, everything is nicely displayed and organized.  This unit holds all my stickles, design cutting scissors, punches, paper, Cricut and supplies, ribbons, embellishments, and more.  I still have room to put more things in it.  It is well worth the price, especially if you have a lot of craft items.  The fold out table is great, but I only use that when I am cutting with the Cricut.

My Ikea drawers and desk top is my work station.  This is where I spend the majority of my time crafting.  Since I mostly make cards, I have three different boxes that sit on this desk so I can easily put away what I have created.  Of course, these are organized by the type of card it is.  I also have my Big Shot and Making Memories Slice Machine on this table.  The desk drawers on the left side hold my office supplies, such as post-its, stapler, paper pads, etc, and the desk drawers on the right hold my sewing and cross-stitch items.  The task lighting is a necessity to ensure I have the right amount of light, no matter what time I find myself crafting.

My Ikea Expedit 4x4 unit holds magazines and idea books, as well as my card and envelopes, clear stamps, die cuts, chalk, glitter, and embossing powder, ink pads, templates, and other general cardmaking specific supplies.

Lastly is my Scrap'N'Cube.  This is another sturdy piece of furniture, that I have turned into my computer desk.  It houses my scrapbooks that are in progress, 8.5" x 11" paper, punches, adhesives, markers, and all other additional tools that aren't elsewhere.  You can see my tool turn-about, which was purchased from Michaels.  This holds my frequently used tools and adhesives, so they are always at hand.

I hope that you enjoyed the quick tour of my room.  In the future, I will go more in-depth with some of my storage and organization techniques in my room.