Thursday 5 December 2013

Tangled Christmas

 
 
Happy December Everyone,

It's no secret that I love making cards, but did you know that Christmas cards are my favorite cards to make! Perhaps I love them because of the playful, festive spirit that's so often depicted in Christmas images or maybe it's because Christmas is so ** sparkly** and full of "Bling". Either way, making Christmas cards makes me happy.

Just take a look at this new card I made for today's Thursday's Twist Challenge over at Outlawz Challenges. Seriously, how can you not get a smile on your face when you look at this adorable image from "Stitchy Bears" (our sponsor the month of Dec). I love Christmas lights and I love cute little critters.

If you would like the opportunity to win some lovely digital images from Stitchy Bears, be sure to stop on over at Outlawz and enter our Thursdays Twist challenges during the Month of December.

Monday 21 October 2013

Craft room reno

Hello Friends,

I'm sure many of you can relate when I say that my stamping addiction has caused me to outgrow my craft space. Unfortunately increasing my floor space isn't presently an option, so "plan B" Renovate!

I needed more place to put " My stuff" A major revamp was a must. Without added floor space, I needed to find a way to create more storage in the space I already had. Thankfully I have a very loving an supportive husband that is so understanding and accommodating when I get these sudden urges to turn the house upside down and renovate (my husband is a carpenter by trade).

So to start with, let me show you what I had and then I will show you what the new room looks like. The first photo below is what used to be my guest work station. Basically a place by the window for someone to work at when they came to card make with me. To the left was a book shelf where I kept all my stamps. I outgrew this and had nowhere to put more stamp sets.

                                                                  The Old Room


 
This next photo is taken with me standing at the entrance into my craft room, guest station to the left. Straight ahead was a 10 foot work counter with storage cabinets above and below. To the immediate right (not very visible) was my work station which you can see more clearly in the next two photos. Notice the two rolling file carts that I use for my paper storage? Previously these carts floated around and got in the way as I had no place to tuck them out of the way.  
 
 
 
 

 
My old work station. Everything was relatively tidy but I had limited work space and I found it frustrating.

 


 

Ok, so here's where I start to renovate!

 
 
Of course no renovation would be complete without a fresh new colour on the walls!

 
Starting to reassemble the cabinet sections in a new configuration.


 

Finally the new improved craft room!!!

Standing at the entrance looking in. My work station is now straight ahead instead of to the immediate right.
 
 
My work station is much larger and notice how one of my file carts fits neatly under the counter so I'm no longer tripping over it. My stamps sets are all now above and in front of me. See the empty space? Which means I can now buy more stamps cause I have a place to put them. Woo Whoo!
 
 
Remember my guest work station and ugly book shelf where my stamps were stored? Well, not any more. Now I have a counter space for my lap top or Cricut when need. I built a new shorter white book shelf where I now keep all my Nestabilty dies, my Christmas stamp sets and extra card stock. Notice how my second file cart fits nicely under this counter. No more carts floating around the room and getting in my way. I also added a wire cart to hold all my loose ribbon, air compressor and misc. embellishments, etc.
 
 
Remember my old work station? Well, now its the big shot station. I added a book shelf at the end of the cabinets to provide more storage. And one of my favorite additions is the wonderful Lazy Susan style tower I designed and my father helped me build. I use it for storing punches, stickles, liquid pearls, water colour crayons, etc. My case of Copic markers fits nicely in the top. Its on wheels so I can roll it near me and give it a spin to find whatever I need.
 
 
Here's a better look at my Lazy Susan as well as another bit of cabinetry where my printer lives.

 
 
I love my storage for my rolls of ribbon.

 
There's still a couple things to finish, like the counter top edges, etc, but over all I'm pretty happy with my new space.


 
Photo below: This was previously just one of those ugly battleship grey storage things from Home Depot that guys usually use to store screws and nails, etc. Well I sprayed mine with white Krylon spray paint and use it to store all my pearls, gems, flowers, etc. and it now it looks pretty!

 
Well, I hope you've all enjoyed touring my craft room and that I've been an encouragement to those of you that are struggling with limited space. With careful planning, even a small space can work. 
 
In my next post, I'm going to give you an even closer look at how I organize and store my stuff.
 
Thanks for stopping by. Hugs!
 
Laurie
 


 
 

Wednesday 11 September 2013

Merry Mistletoe


Greatings Friends,

I'm finally back in the game and am able to post to my blog again. On my last post I promised to post some more cards that I made for a magazine card challenge a while ago. For this card I created the picture frame using Nestabilities. The mistletoe is embossed with black and coloured with Copic markers. I used dimensionals to pop the frame up. The image and greeting are from a set called "Christmas Blessings" from Stampin Up.

Here are a few more for you :)

 
 
 

 

 
 
 
 
 


Hope you like them!!


Happy stampin'

Laurie

Friday 3 May 2013

Love you card


Hello Friends,

As promised, I will be uploading some cards I made for the 2013 Stamping Royalty contest in the Paper Crafts magazine. Unfortunately none of my cards won but I had fun making them anyway. This first one is my favorite. I hope you like it too.

Thanks for stopping by. :)
Laurie

Thursday 18 April 2013

Window cards



Hello friends,

Today I have a couple of cards for you. Recently I relieved a lovely card from a dear friend of mine (thanks Penny) It was so pretty I just had to CASE it. I did switch it up slightly because that's just what I do.

Both the birds and flowers are stamped on the inside of the card and are visible through the window. The card I cased (shown below) does not have coloured card stock layered beneath the window cut out. For my cards I decided to add some. I like how it draws the eye to the flowers and birds and makes them the focal point. I hope you like them.

Here's a picture of the card I CASED (made by Penny O'Dell)


Thanks for stampin by,
Laurie

Card with a Tag


Hi Everyone!

Happy Thursday to you! I have another Twisted Thursday's card challenge card for you. This time the twist is to add a tag to your card. Here is what I came up with for the challenge. If you're interested in joining in on the fun, be sure to hop on over to "Outlawz Challenges" They have daily challenges with many great prizes to be won.

Thanks for stampin by,
Laurie

Friday 12 April 2013

Card with Food


Hello Everyone!
Today's card once again is for the Twisted Thursday card challenge on Outllawz Challenges. As usual the challenge is "Anything Goes" with a "twist". You can make any kind of card you wish and have a chance to win a fabulous prize. If you decide to add the "twist" which in this case is to add some kind of food to your card, you double your chances to win a prize.

This challenge is open for participation from April 11th to the 17th. If you miss out on this challenge, don't worry, there is a new one every week. In fact there are challenges for every day of the week so be sure to hop on over to Outlawz and check it out!

I recently made 10 really nice cards that I'm just dying to show you but I can't just yet. I made them for the Stamping Royalty contest in the "Paper crafts" magazine. I am so hoping I win one the their awesome prizes!!! There will be 15 winners chosen and each winner will win $750.00 worth of stamping products and will also have the opportunity to submit cards for upcoming publications! Woo hoo! Contest rules say the cards submitted for the contest must not have been previously published anywhere which is why I can't show them just yet. Winners will be notified on or before April 19th. Any cards that don't win ca be published after that so stay tuned for more posts, ok.