layer upon layers

remember the backgrounds i posted the other day? here are a few of them a bit farther along...

i literally just grabbed a few stamps and scraps and went with it... no thought whatsoever. pick it up and glue it down.

have a great weekend!

sprayed and splattered

i love mixed media backgrounds so much, but they can be frustrating, to say the least... each layer needs to dry, which means taking a break - um, not so much... right now, there are five pages on my desk.

each one is sprayed and splattered... tonight, it was all about stencils - the hexagon stencil is from heidi swapp. the bubbles are an older studio calico stencil. the herringbone (atleast that's what i think it's called) is hero arts, and the chevron stencil is from the crafter's workshop.

i used pan pastels, distress stains, and glimmer mists. i managed to find a clear spray at michael's to use with the pan pastels - to set them. otherwise, they seem to smear.

i'll, ofcourse, be working on these throughout the week. i'm hoping to have them finished and posted by the weekend.

do you have a favorite spray/stain to use with your stencils? leave me a comment and tell me about it.

have a great night!

scrapbook.com - get organized. week 5. scraps.

this is one of those areas where i have major issues - i just never know what to keep and what not to. i seem to hold onto every little scrap of paper - anything smaller than 12x12 is considered a scrap. i know what you're probably thinking - overkill, right? that's the point...

i spent some time tonight going through all of my patterned paper scraps.

now, what to do with them? i remember reading a blog post a while back about making page starters. check this out - scrapping the starters. this sounds like an awesome idea. i have dozens of mini albums lying around as well... might have to prep a few of them. hopefully, when all is said and done, there's not much left of these stacks and i can start over with a clean slate.

as far as cardstock scraps - remember, i consider anything smaller than 12x12 a scrap... they're organized into these iris cases. there're 12 of them - notice a trend? i organize everything into 12 colors - white, pink, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, tan, brown, black, and gray.

here's a peak at my pink and blue scraps... I've been trying to keep these limited to 8.5x11, 8x8, 6x6, and 4x6. i'm hoping that makes life a little easier. i actually just reorganized these - i pulled all of the "oddly-shaped" scraps aside for right now. i'm either going to trim them to one of the sizes i already mentioned or get rid of them. not sure yet...

i know these boxes look kind of empty right now. there are a few other things that belong in them, but that's another week. (hint - think week 9. embellishments and stacy julian's "color bins"). if you're interested, check back then.

what do you usually do with your scraps? leave me a comment and let me know.

have a great week!

scrapbook.com - get organized. week 4. cardstock and paper.

i really didn't have anything to do this week. this is one of those things i haven't had to reorganize yet. i came up w/ an awesome system during the organize your stuff challenge and it's still, more or less, the same today. here are some pictures of how i organize cardstock and patterned paper...

these cropper hoppers are full of patterned paper organized by color. i have a total of 12 cropper hoppers full of patterned paper and 1 full of cardstock. remember the little cropper hopper "minis" - they came 4 inside of 1 cropper hopper? there are also 12 of those that are full of cardstock organized by color. can't really get a good picture of them because they're "hidden" out of sight, but... they're basically just "overflow."

each of the cropper hoppers that hold patterned paper are organized like this one - the three brands i have the most of are k&co., mme, dcwv - each brand is separated by a divider. the fourth section is everything else.

there are also 2 cropper hoppers that are full of cardstock and patterned paper that is relatively new - mostly from recent kit club kits. i keep it in here for awhile, and then slowly add it in where it belongs.

the only things missing are page kits and collections. i'll explain how i organize those during week 8 - projects in progress and kits, so check back then if that's something you're interested in reading about...

how do you organize cardstock and patterned paper? leave me a comment and let me know.

have a great week!

retail therapy - simon says stamp

placed an order through simon says stamp not too long ago.

i don't order often, but i love stamps and stencils, so... sometimes, i find things that i just have to have. this stamp set was one of them - love the chevron arrow stamp. yes, i did buy this entire set only because of that one stamp. i also have quite the collection of the crafter's workshop stencils these days. love them for mixed media and art journaling!

what's your favorite stamp or stencil right now? leave me a comment and let me know.

have a great week!

pink paislee warehouse box

i finally got my pink paislee warehouse box. want to take a guess how quickly i had that box opened and scattered all over my bed?

 

 

i also got my amazon order today - because i wanted one thing that was an "add-on item," i ended up ordering $25 worth of stuff - such a shame, right? atleast i got free shipping out of the deal. lol...

 

can't wait until tomorrow! the only two things on my agenda are dishes and laundry. you know what that means, right? studio sunday! so excited!

do you separate your collection kits? how do you store them? leave me a comment and let me know!

have a great weekend!

scrapbook.com - get organized. week 3. choose your challenge.

it's time for week 3.

this time, we're going with challenge #1 - i have some things that are already working for me, so we're just going to fine-tune things a bit... try to make life a little easier when i sit down to make a page.

here are links to my organization inspiration boards on pinterest -

studio spaces - cool things i've found
studio spaces - organization
studio spaces - storage
studio spaces - finishing touches
studio spaces in unique places

here's an awesome blog i found about organizing your stash - crafty storage blog.

there are a few things i'm doing differently this time. first of all, the focus isn't so much on organizing - i've already done enough of that.

over the course of the next 25 weeks, i want to do blog posts about each individual aspect of my organization. i want to show you, in detail, how i organize all of my supplies. also, i want to add links to various sites i've used for inspiration as i've worked through the process - basically, create a "cheat sheet" for organizing ...

really, i'm looking to "use it or lose it" - all of those odds 'n ends - scraps of patterned paper and almost empty packs of stickers and embellishments? no more... i've planned a few pages and projects along the way to use them up and you're more than welcome to play along.

i started putting together two baskets of stuff - they are my "use it or lose it" baskets. they're slowly filling up. i have one for scrapbooking supplies and one for mixed media/art journaling supplies.

remember the inspired by shimelle challenge? yep, what's left of that kit is in the scrapbooking basket. scarlet lime mixed media kits? no doubt they're in the mixed media basket.

i also have a pile of ufo's (unfinished objects) - these are pages and projects that i need to get finished up. throughout this challenge, i'm going to be working through these things and posting them, so keep an eye out for them.

alright, well then... that, more or less, wraps up week 3. next week, it's time to actually start organizing. if you want to see my space in it's entirety, you can check out this post - rearranging and reorganizing (2013).

leave me a comment with a link to your organization inspiration board(s). i'd love to see them!

have a great week!

scrapbook.com - get organized. week 2. brainstorming.

this week, it's brainstorming - easy enough, right?

here's a link to my brainstorming pinterest board - studio spaces. a while back, i discovered the wonderful world of pinterest. ever since, i've been pinning rooms that i find and love.

i'm very patiently waiting for my husband to finish our enclosed porch; but in the meantime, a girl can dream, right? some day soon, i'll get to move into my new room.

to wrap things up this week, here's one more before picture of my space.

keep in mind, it only looks organized. lol... there's still some work to be done.

leave me a comment and tell me one thing about your dream space.

have a great week!

scrapbook.com - get organized. week 1. space assessment

i hosted the organize your stuff challenge on two peas several times. each time, i ended up making some changes. the more you work in a space, the more you realize what works for you and what doesn't. i love organizing. in fact, i might just love it more than i do actually scrapbooking. such a shame, right?

i started rearranging and reorganizing a few weeks ago - actually, i do it just about every time i do a lot of shopping in a relatively short period of time. at the time, i had forgotten that i signed up for scrapbook.com's get organized workshop.   it was merely by chance, as i was going through old emails and cleaning up my inbox, that i stumbled across the weekly emails for get organized. i figured i may as well...

so, here's goes nothing.

this challenge appears to be 27 weeks - it's similar to the challenge i hosted on two peas. there seems to be some additional material and a few new perspectives, though.
    
you can find the original challenge here - organize your stuff challenge.

you can sign up for/download the get organized version here - get organized.

also, if you're interested, all of the two peas threads for each round of the original challenge can be found here - organize your stuff challenge master thread.


week 1. space assessment.

the point of this week is to assess what works and what doesn't. the first step is making a layout - no such thing.

what works -

1. cardstock - cardstock is sorted into the cropper hopper minis by color
2. all of my favorite embellishments are easily-accessible.
3. most-used tools are easy to find

what doesn't -

1. the remainder of my embellishments are scattered all over the place
2. pattered paper - it's well-organized, but hard to get to
3. my pictures are a disaster zone - i've just been putting them in random folders

i may come back and add to this list later. for right now, though, let's call it good.

to wrap up this week, here's a before picture of my space.

leave me a comment and let me know what works for you and what doesn't.

have a great week!

rearranging and reorganizing (2013).

almost every time I bring home new stuff, some part of my space gets rearranged and reorganized. I periodically take pictures to post on my blog - definitely once a year, but usually more than that.

these are the latest ones...

 

these shelves are to the left of my workspace. They hold mixed media texture supplies, rubber stamps, albums in progress, and I recently put most of my patterned paper on these shelves as well. the pink basket is full of things I need to use sometime soon.

this is my workspace - sewing machine, 2-tier serving tray for mists and distress stains, and the organizer that was made for me with washi, embellishments, etc.

these shelves are to the right of my workspace. the top two baskets hold punches and acrylic stamps. below that are some embellishments that I wanted to keep out... my printer, ofcourse. the little white tin is actually a utensil holder, I thought it was cute. right now, I have blank journals and my corner chomper/I-top/crop-a-dile in it. the bottom shelf that you can barely see has mixed media projects in progress. my project life stuff is on that shelf too.

this is a closer look at the embellishments. the muffin tin holds brads and buttons. the little glass dishes have flair in them. the stainless dish holds blank chipboard (non-alphas). my wood veneers are temporarily in the little iris container, which I hate. Sooner or later, i'll find a container that I actually like.

this is how I organize my project life stuff. everything that I typically use is in this tray - core kits, mambi cards, corner rounder, date stamp, etc.

I love this little cart. as soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted one. from top to bottom, it holds more embellishments, letter stickers and smash stuff, and thickers.

these are the infamous black bookcases. they hold, more or less, everything else. lol... die cutters, books, paints and inks, watercolors, adhesives, mixed media ephemera, etc. the little divider with the pink canvas bins has 6x6 paper pads, stamps for mixed media/art journaling, and big brush pens. All of my black pens and water brush pens are in those baskets as well.  

hope you enjoyed taking a look around! I know I love to look at others' spaces.

have a great week!

studio sunday - cleaning up around the studio...

I did some major shopping Friday and Saturday. Went to Hobby Lobby, JoAnn's, Michael's, IKEA, and Target. I also ordered some things online. Picked up one of the infamous Raskog carts from IKEA, which prompted ripping apart my entire studio (as usual) and reorganizing/rearranging...

Here's a pic of the Raskog cart - top shelf is embellishments in an Antonius tray. The middle shelf is letter stickers and smash stuff. The bottom shelf is all of my thickers.

The other thing I bought was this cute little 2-tier tray from Target. I put all of my mists and such in it.

Ah, organizing... almost as much fun as scrapbooking... Leave me a comment and let me know all about your latest and greatest organizing find.

Have a great week!

more on organizing - out in the open...

out of sight, out of mind... well, that's the way it works around here atleast. because of that, this is how i organized my brads and buttons and some other miscellaneous embellishments.

hope you have a great week!

studio sunday - organizing at it's finest...

all of the recent shopping meant it was time to find a better solution for storing my wood veneers. for the moment, this is it. obviously, i'm going to have to dig another one of these boxes out of the basement.

this isn't necessarily a long-term solution, but... for now, it works. i also spent some time organizing all of my brads and buttons. i'll post about that a bit later.

happy sunday!

retail therapy - there should not be an m's between work and school...

there should not be an m's between work and school... there also should not be a certain message board that's quite known for enabling, but it doesn't look like there's much I can do about either of those things, does it?

a friend and I stopped at Panera tonight to grab dinner then went to m's. totally loving all of the new stuff - ss snap, recollections veneers, and the mambi card packs. here's what I left with:

I still want to get pink and aqua ss snap albums and two black wrmk 12x12 albums, but i'm hoping I can use coupons for them. besides, it's not as if there isn't still 3 more weeks of class this semester, right? lol...

leave me a comment and let me know what you've bought at m's lately.

have a great day!

making mists...

This was my project for tonight - bought some 3oz. spray bottles and made mists.

I used Dr. Ph Martin's Bombay Inks - teal, magenta, violet, and blue.

this is what they look like... love these inks!

have a great week!

sudio sunday - a week of art journaling...

I know I've mentioned before that I tend to "batch" things as much as possible, especially when it comes to gesso - no sense in getting it out and getting it everywhere to only gesso one page, so...

Tonight, I took a few minutes and started enough art journaling pages to last the rest of the week.

I also started the background for each page. I really wanted to try the Heidi Swapp Color Shines. I got primrose, black, teal, and peach. I also used a little Glimmer Mist and Mr. Huey's.

Here's to hoping I can find a few minutes throughout the week to work on these.

Is there anything in particular that you "batch," either because it's messy or, maybe, because you hate doing it? Leave me a comment and let me know.

Have a great week!

studio sunday - retail therapy

About the only thing I've had time to do lately is shop. My lab mid-term is tomorrow... and then, it's on to bones and muscles, so...  6 more weeks! maybe, just maybe, I'll have some free time between this semester and next semester.

I spent some time on Amazon and Etsy and stopped at M's. Got some Heidi Swapp Color Shines, lots of Studio Calico wood veneers, and fell in love with A Flair for Buttons. I also confiscated some little glass dishes from the kitchen. lol...

I also got the wood veneer cameras from Studio Calico and the school ones from Recollections.

Unfortunately, I haven't seen my workspace in weeks. Right now, it's occupied by my A&P book, flashcards, etc.

Someday soon...

What's your favorite Etsy shop? Leave me a comment and let me know.

Have a great week!

studio sunday - tissue slides mini and kitchen storage...

my studio sunday project for today was making a little "mini" of slides of tissues to study for my lab mid-term. sad, but true... i've been putting this off for a while because it almost qualifies as a scrapbooking project - and dh didn't waste any time reminding me that i was supposed to be in here studying, not "scrapbooking." lol...

i made color copies of all of the slides, cut them out, and adhered them to one side of the little cards. i wrote the name of the tissue, location, function, etc. on the other side, punched a hole in each card, and used a binder ring to hold them all together.

i'm sure if you're in school (or have kids that are in school), you've found some useful things within your stash, right? i know, around here, dh is constantly asking questions along the lines of, "do you have..." - he's asked me for everything from spray adhesive to felt circles.

scrapbooking supplies always seem to come in handy for something other than scrapbooking...

along those same lines, i've noticed that i have a tendency to confiscate things from the kitchen to store scrapbooking supplies. i posted a thread about this on two peas today.

here's the current list of useful storage items that i've found in the kitchen:

1 set of cookie cutters - for clay
1 pink visionware pan - for melting wax, etc.
2 cake pans - to put plife stuff in
3 bowls - for jewelry findings
4 cups - tools, brushes, etc.
4 little glass dishes - full of flair at the moment
1 colander - mixed media supplies
1 spice spinner with jars - little embellishments
1 muffin tin - remember stacy julian's twelve?

so, what have you confiscated from your craft room for school projects or from your kitchen for craft room storage? leave me a comment and let me know.

have a great week!

project life - working my way through january

just a really  quick post today - i spent some more time this weekend working on project life...

pulled out the old typewriter to make this:

love this! i'm obviously going to use my seafoam kit, but the cards i make - love this! need i say more? lol...

have you been making your own journaling cards or subbing to a monthly kit or just using a core kit? leave me a comment and let me know...

studio sunday - a beautiful mess...

since i know how much everyone loves organizational posts and i haven't had much free time lately between work and school, i thought i'd post a few of my favorite organizational finds...

 

a serving tray + 2 vanity organizers + 2 cake pans = portable project life storage. i found the cake pans at m's and everything else at target.

 

 

this container is from target as well - from the organizing section. it holds all of my thickers. they fit in here perfectly and it's easy to flip through them to find the pack i want. these are all organized by color.

 

eta: someone asked me for the dimensions on this bin - this is the one: itso fabric bin. hope that helps!

 

 

 

i brought this little non-magnetic stainless steel dish home from work - one of the benefits of working in a scrap yard. it holds all of my chipboard, metal, and wood veneer embellishments. i'm sure you could something similar, though.

 

 

 

these black cubes came from staples, along with the pink bins. one of the pink bins holds 6x6 paper pads (again, they fit perfectly) and the other is filled with packs of mm vintage findings. the little brown baskets came from m's a few years ago, but i've seen them recently as well. they are full of th and christy tomlinson stamps and markers and watercolor brushes - basically, stuff i use for mixed media and art journaling.

 

 

 

this organizer was made for me, but it'd be easy to make. it's similar to the mm embellishment center, but a bit larger - washi, mists/spray inks, twine, sequins, and distress paints/stains live here, along with jars full of embellishments that are organized by color.

 

leave me a comment and let me know what your favorite organizational find is... have you repurposed anything from around the house for your space?

 

have a great week!