Are they worth my tears???

Woke up this morning and so looking forward to finish up my craftroom. The cubies are starting to fill up. A whole bunch of scarpbook and stamping items are ready to be stored in the garage. Yeah, you're right, I'm running out of space in my room. Since this morning, I spent the whole time unwrapping my papers and checking my inventory. When I got done, I just realized I'm missing alot of my paper collection. The vintage ones, my MAMBI kits, my Autumn Leaves kits, my stacks of DCWV and who knows else I'm missing. I cannot take it anymore, I just burst out and started crying. I've already lost 3/4 of my Close To My Heart stamp collection and now this. Our shipment has a "FULL PRICE REPLACEMENT" notation but still it doesn't change the fact that I won't be able to replace them anymore. With all the stuff that's gone, I can't help but cry.

Update on my craftroom

Here's a bunch of pictures of my craproom oops, craftroom. I really hope I'll be done with this room. So far, most of the rooms in our house are as messy as this. Hey, most of the time, its a one man job because DH has to put in 12 hours a day at work. You should see my kitchen, it was really neat and organized especially the pantry. I really didn't stop until I organized the pantry the way I want it. I'll post some pics this weekend but for the meantime, look how messy my crafting space is:

BEWARE:  It is a sore in the eyes but if you are a crafter, you would love to be in this room...

People were asking me, "What are those cookie jars for?"  Well, its now obvious that its for my ribbon stash.  My collection had grown so big and still I can't stop collecting... but I can't! Anyways, can see my craft books?  I'm so happy browsing them again while I was putting them out of the boxes.  

Time to put out my SU Classic Inkpads.  While doing some cards for the National Craft Month, I finally unwrapped and started using my SU Craft Inkpsots.  I was pleased with it and worried that I might run out of ink so I thought of ordering reinkers set.  Oh at the last minute, I changed my mind and decided that I needed the Classic reinker.  I will be exploring a different avenues of coloring stamped images using reinkers.

You can barely walk in this room.  Boy, I'm looking forward to the day when I can look at this room and be so pleased and proud of myself.  When is that?  I hope soon too!

See those Huggies diaper box, I am reusing it as my sticker bin.  They are perfect fit on those cubies and they were very sturdy. Should I paint it or cover it with pattern paper?  Painting will be easier and cheaper...

A glimpse of the walk-in closet.  As it stands right now, it now full to the brim.  This is going to be the hideaway for things that are not so pleasing to the eyes. 

Top view of the walk-in closet.  I got three shelves and there's no way that I could put anything in there. I have here my supplies, materials I seldom used and some chemicals that could endanger my two crazy kids.

Bottom part of the walk-in closet.  I need to start putting my papers tomorrow in those paper organizer but before that, I have to check my inventory first.

 That's it for now.  I will post pics again soon...
Have a great weekend guys!!!

My newly dressed-up blog

Life lately was a little bit maddening so I didn't have the time to work on my blog.  Moving too a new house was not a joke especially if its big.  A week ago, our household goods both in GA and from Korea finally got here.  Boy, you should see my house now, it's a huge mess.  Although most of the boxes are gone with a couple that still need to work on.  My craft room was a disaster place and I'm really running out of place to put on my things.  Purging is really must.  My plan was to share some with my kids, sell some and host another blog candy for my dear craft friends.

Speaking of blog candy, my friend, Joan and I are currently hosting blog candies, click HERE and HERE in celebration of the National Craft Month. I have been participating during the first week but like I said earlier life was a bit maddening right now.  Today, I mostly work on my craftroom and I'm taking breaks in between so I can finish my blog's new look. I can say that I was very productive today eventhough I'm so beat.

BTW, below I will be sharing my NCM projects and hope you like it:

1st Entry:  Sweet Pea:

Recipe:
Paper: American Craft, DCWV, GP and MS
Tools: Memento Ink pad, Copic Markers, Spica Glitter pens, MS edge punch
Embellishment: Ribbon, Prima miniflowers, MM swirls and flourishes chipboard, BG half pearls

2nd Entry:    Fiskars, Thomas Kinkade

 

Recipe:
Paper: American Craft, MS, Embassy, GP, DCWV
Stamps: Hero Arts, Fiskars, Thomas Kinkade by Cornish Heritage Farm, The Paper Company Studio, Inkadinkado, Stampendous,
Stamp pads: Versafine Onxy Black Inkpad, Brillian Moonlight White, Versamagic Red Magic, Memento Potter's Clay
Tools: Embossing powder by Stampendous, Peral-Ex, Perfect Medium by Ranger, Heat Tool, MS edge punch, craftknife, ATG gun, nristle brushes
Embellishment: Ribbon by MS, Ribbon by Heidi Grace and half pearls

3rd Entry:  Flourishes

Recipe:
Paper: GP, American Craft, Recollection, The Paper Studio, K & Company, DCWV
Stamps: Flourishes
Inkpads: memento, CTMH, Versamagic, Versafine
Markers: Copic markers
Tools: Spellbinder dies, Cuttelebug machine, MS edge punch
Embellishment: Prima Flowers, Melody Ross buttons, Karen Foster floss, Heidi Grace trim, MS Ribbon, rhinestone, half pearls

4th Entry:  Password Journals

Recipe:
Paper: Neenah, The Paper Studio, DCWV, Bazzill and American Craft
Stamps: Prima, Flourishes
Inkpads: Memento Dew Drops
Embellishment: Grossgrain ribbon
6th Entry :  Flourishes

Recipe:
Paper: Recollection, DCWV, Embassy, Neenah Paper, K & Company, Bazzill, and GP
Stamps: Flourishes
Inkpads: Memento and CTMH
Tools: EK Success edge punch, Spellbinder dies, Cuttlebug machine
Embellishment: Grossgrain ribbons

5th Entry: Prima

Recipe:
Paper: Neenah, The Paper Studio, DCWV, Bazzill and American Craft
Stamps: Prima, Flourishes
Inkpads: Memento Dew Drops
Embellishment: Grossgrain ribbon

7th Entry: Prima

Recipe:
Paper: Recollection, Luxe design, GP, Heidi Grace, Embassy and The Paper Studio
Stamps: Prima, Hero Arts and Stampin' Up!
Inkpads: Memento
Coloring: Copics
Embellishment: Half pearls, rhinestones, pins, ribbons

8th Entry:  Assorted Projects mostly cards

A GIFT FOR A FRIEND

Recipe:
Paper: The Paper Studio, Bazzill, PTI, Recollection and DCWV
Stamp: Imaginence, Stampin' Up! and Hero Arts
Inkpads: CTMH and Memento
Tools: EK edge punches

Embellishment: Dress Up buttons and grossgrain ribbons

A GIFT FOR MY BROTHER, CARLOS

Recipe:
Paper: Luxe Design, Recollection, The Paper Studio and GP
Stamp: Hero Arts and Stampin' Up!
Inkpads: Memento
Tools: Copic markers, EK edge punch and Fiskars edge punch
Embellishment: Heidi Grace ribbons, Karen Foster floss and buttons

UPSY DAISY & CTMH

Recipe:
Paper: The Paper Studio, PTI, Recollection and Bazzill
Stamo: Upsy Daisy and CTMH
Inkpads: Stampin' Up!, CTMH and Memento
Embellishment: MS trim, PTI jute string, buttons and rhinestones

THOMAS KINKADE; REDISCOVERING BUTTONS

Recipe:
Paper: Recollection, the Paper Studio, GP and K & Company
Stamp: Thomas Kinkade by Cornish Heritage Farm
Inkpad: Stampin' Up!
Embossing Powder: Stampendous
Tools: Heat tool
Embellishment: Groosgrain ribbon, buttons and PTI jute string

STAMPIN' UP! - VINTAGE VOGUE

Recipe:

Paper: The Paper Studio and Recollection
Stamp: Stampin' Up!
Inkpads: Memento
Embellishment: Grossgrain ribbon, buttons, Karen Foster floss and half pearls

* A gift for a friend:

REDISCOVERING GLITTERS

Recipe:

1.) I stamped a vine image in Tsukineko glue pad unto a black cardstock.
2.) Then I sprinkled it with my newly bought jewel Glitter Ritz, a very fine glitters.
3.) Adhere it to couple mats and added ribbon as embellishment.

 CHALKBOARD TECHNIQUE:

1) Stamped vine image to a pigment inkpad.
2) The way to apply the chalk is by tapping. Tapping will let the pigment ink grab the chalk. I used 4 different shades of green.
3) Adhere to couple mats.
4) Added sentiment.

 

REPURPOSED RUBBERSTAMP MOUNT

I have been unmounting my stamps lately. Some of my stamps like Belles & Whistles came in a laminated sheets. Instead of just getting rid of them, I thought of altering it. Last week, we went to Hobby Lobby and I finally found a nice trim that would look good for this bookmark project. So far, I'm happy with the result....

In a week, March will be over and I hope everyone will be looking forward to celebrate with us again the National Craft Month next year.  Please keep on posting your craftwork on the blog candies. I am so dying to finish my craftroom and the whole house so I could start playing with you guys, again.

Hope you like the new dress of my blog.  Dressing it was the next best thing to crafting.  Have a great day...

Happy Crafting...

My Space

Often times when I'm having crafter's block or when I'm simply not in a mood to be crafty, I would watch videos or search pictures of somebody else's craftroom.  I frequently get goose bumps upon seeing such beautiful and well-organized crafting space.  Organization is a must for someone who has an OCD like me.  I maybe be good at organizing things but I'd like to explore more.  I always like my supplies to have a special neat place.  Often times I like my stuff to be hidden away as I really don't like to see clutter.  It sure drive me nuts!  Heck, almost all craftrooms are messy and cluttered at some point of time.  From time to time, that's a reality check for me.
As I was saying, like any other crafter's who had kept away some supplies, they tend to forget about it.  I must admit, I do too, even though I know where to find my supplies 90% of the time.  Yeah, I sometimes forget too, hey, that's part of aging.  One thing you need to consider about organization, is planning.  Lots of planning.  If you are being careless, you will end up spending alot of money just by organizing your planet (that's how my GF Joan often referred her craftroom).  Guilty, again!  But now that we're back in the mainland, choices and options are just great and  awesome!  So without further ado, I would like to share with you a glimpse of my partially done creative space.  Oh, just to give you an update, our household stuff will be delivered by first week of March.  Yehey, I so terribly missed my stash...
Before we proceed, if anyone of you decided to redo your craft room, you really need to do alot of planning and check prices for comparison.  As for me, I am mostly after storage.  If I can have a storage that is wall to wall and ceiling to ceiling, I would love to have that.  But storage and organization requires alot of money.  This time I limited myself for $1000 budget and so far I'm still below that.  I considered investing money on Jetmax storage system which I can use coupons but decided not to.  I also considered kitchen cabinets from Home Depot, Lowes, Pattery Barn and Ikea.  But in the end, I decided to go for these cubies and wide depth bookcases from Ikea.  I think I made the right choice.  I think it all depend on what you want and what you need.
Okay, just got carried away a little bit there...  So, let's take a short tour now in my scrap/rubber room:

 I know, I know, I know.  You probably wondering why these bookcases, cubie and drawers were not the same colors considering they're all bought from the same store.  I'm guilty, my mistake.  Rather than drag it all the way back to Austin, which is about 45miles away from our house, I might as well use it.  I could paint it later if I want to but why, right!? Whether,  I want it or not, somehow, this room will end up having too many colors around.  Anyhow, it's not so bad, right!? Or am I convincing myself?

To note: It was not really hard to assemble these furniture.  What's hard was the fact that we have to carry each board upstairs.  And those boards were way too heavy.  DH and I spent a whole day recovering from aches and pains after a day of working on these furniture.  Not a joke promise!

I bought a bunch of these big cookie jars from Walmart.  What will I put in there?  That's gonna be a surprised!  

A 3-tier carousel for some goodies that had been kept for quite a long time in a tin can. It's time to put it out.

Now,  here's a glimpse of my room with goodies out of its boxes. I have thrown a whole bunch of packaging and boxes just by taking these toys out.  These are just some of my stash that we mailed from Korea and my 6-months acquisition. I know I'm bad and I honestly believe, I need rehabilitation.

I bought those tin buckets from Hobby Lobby at 50%.  It was a nice storage for all the stuff that's poisonous and dangerous to my kids.  Also a good way to store your die-cut machine accessories, sandwich and cutting mats.  One of the bucket has all my acrylic blocks, cleaners, black pigment/dye inkpads and probably anything you will need to stamp images.  I like the fact that you get one bucket and you have all the supplies you need.

 

Ella shakes hand with Mr. Froggy.  I always want to collect some frog collectibles even before then.  I'm not sure about you but way back home, I used to read Witch comic books.  Will, who is one of the characters has a collection of frogs in her room.  And they talk to her but I hope mine wouldn't start talking.  Okay, no more silliness.  I guess, I just missed my "prodigal sister" and somehow I am trying to reconnect myself with her.  We both like Will and the Witch comic books.  

As of now, I got two pets in the room:  Mr. Frogg (from the Princess and the Frog) and Missy Frogg. I got Mr. Frogg from a Disney outlet store while Missy Frogg was given to me by darling daughter Ella, during one of our trips to Walmart.

 

I found this pretty lamp a Hobby Lobby and paid half price for it.  It was really gorgeous and it's perfect for my craftroom.  For the meantime, it sits on top of the cubie since I still don't have yet a working table.

There goes sweet smiling Missy Frogg...

Guys, meet the nice ole' Mr Frogg.  Behind him was a bunch of unused EZ mount panels, which I used to mount my unmounted stamps.  Still got plenty of packs for future use.  I got these at half price, so I splurged a bit. By now, you guys know that, I don't know exactly know the definition of  "a bit".

 

I always envy a friend of mine Joan, how she organizes her pens and markers.  I want my pens to be out in the open, so I know what I have.  Not my coloring markers though.  It has a special place of its own.  I was referring to scrapbooking, embossing and stamping pens. Going back to what I was talking, these cubie pen holders were already discontinued.  I was so happy when a store rep at Office Max offered to help me find these pen holders from their other branches.   It took almost two months but then they called when it all arrived in their store.  What makes it more of a good deal was I got it at bargain price plus it was a buy 1 take 1 deal.  Bravo to some store reps who would really go out of their way to help customers.

These wire racks are part of the Bygel rod collection from Ikea.  Still couldn't figure out where will I mount the rods, so these racks still sit in one of my shelves.  Oh BTW, these are glimmer mist from TAC.  Looking forward to play with them and looking forward to selling my Shimmer paints.

 

These Jetmax paper organize cubie were bought from Big Lots 6 months ago.  We bought those in prep for the supposedly job offer in Germany that we turned down.  The houses there barely have storage cabinets.  Well, I it was a good investment.  Now its out in the box and in use.

Still debating if I will paint these or not.  But since they were tucked away in the closet cabinet, I think I would keep it the way it is now.

This is one of my best buy from Ikea.  Originally, I was planning to use this for my 8 1/2 X 11 cardstock and the other one for my scraps, but opted not to.  Guess what's inside...

These are the jacks in the box:  my ever-growing punches!!!

 

There goes my EK punches collection...

then, my easy to store MS punches collection... 

another drawer full of MS punches...

 

another drawer for the craft and corner MS punches

another drawer for this and that punches...

 

a drawer with foam stamps, ATC, and watercolor papers.

a drawer with shimmerz, pearl-ex, assorted mediums, glitters and flower soft in it.

 

a drawer with embossing powders and inkpads...

This little tower of joy is really awesome.  It maybe not be big enough but it was indeed a good storage system.  I am thinking of buying two more.

Ever wonder how to store your Justrite stamps.  Couple months ago, I went crazy buying them.  It was a bit of a disappointment combined with  frustration as to how its going to be stored.  I wish the company would make provisions on how these stamps were packed.  I would honestly spend money on the stamps than buying storage for it.  I tried couple things yet it didn't work all that great.  Recently, I came across someone who had shown how she stores her Justrite stamps.  She had a built-in dividers in all of her drawers.
Then, I remember, during one of our weekend trips to Ikea, I found this plastic drawer organizer.  When I grabbed it, I honestly don't know where to use it.  But look how perfect they are for those Justrite stamps.  Just be very careful in where you store them, so you won't lose anything.

 

There goes the well-organized unmounted stamps.  No more CD cases that also eats up space.  Mine were now all mounted in an EZ mount panels and store in a plastic binders.  How neat could that be!  Labeling will have to wait till we can get back all our stuff from storage.

A bunch of rubberstamps I picked here and there...  Most of these are Cornish Heritage Farm backgrounder and a collection of Thomas Kinkade stamps.  I was in heaven when I found a store that sells these goodies for almost give away price.

Now these 3-tier carousel has my stickles, dimentional pearl paints and smooch paints.  

 

I got these unfinished CD racks for almost next to nothing at IKEA.  Still debating if I would let it sit in a table or mount it on the wall.  One thing is sure though, I will definitely paint this black.  BTW, these CD racks houses my Spellbinder dies that was stored in CD jewel cases.

I might as well use the rods on the walking closet, right!?  With the right size binder rings, it was yet another possibilities.  Those blue pouches was acquired from Target for a buck a piece.  It was a perfect storage for my Cricut solution cartridges.

My unopened metal rulers, masks, stencils and templates were hanging in this rod too using big binder rings.

And just below those pouches and templates, are two boxes.  One is for papers that needs to be shredded and the other one is for giveaways, gifts or possibly a future money generating sale.

That's it for the meantime,  I will post yet another updates once I'm all done with this room.

Hope you had fun looking at My Space...
Have a great weekend everyone!