Closer look at my workspace

So here's the second part to my blog about organizing my workspace. As you can see, I reuse alot of things I had laying around the house and repurposed them to hold other things! Hope it helps you guys out a little. :)




I got this at Home Depot...it's supposed to hold nuts and bolts!

but I put all my embellishments in them (in alphabetically order)

I repurposed this box to hold my more frequently used adhesives

A top view of my stash of adhesives

These are two little containers I put my thread

A top view of my thread

A tin box I got with something I bought a long time ago...now I keep all my word chipboards.

As you can see I Xyron'd the chipboard so it's already for me to use when I feel the need.

These are the repurposed boxes I used to keep my thread in as a child...now it holds my buttons.

This came with a set I bought on QVC, now I use it to hold my spillover of buttons. It was made to orginally hold something else.

My button box closed up.

I can't remember where I got this clear plastic case from...but it was like the thing above, came with something else and I repurposed it to hold my many embellishments!

I have alphabet transfer, tiny buttons, flower buckles, metal party hats.....it goes on and on :)

And these little plastic tins come right out!

I bought these at Michael's I think.

They hold my ribbons now....

And one holds all my alphabets.

I put all the A's in one compartment, B's in another...that way when I need a letter I don't have to go searching.

This is where I store my stamps. I had these trays as a little girl too, don't remember what I kept in them.

but what's nice about them is that they accordian (or spin) so that I can access the bottom ones. They also lift off of each other if need be. I stamped all the stamps in a notebook, though, so I could see them all at a glance.

where I keep my sharp little scissors that I use all the time, my pens, chapstick, little eraser...

this is like the first picture, but littlier drawers. I keep all my embellishements here that i use the most....

...like mini brads

just another pic of my most frequently used things.

This is a standing plastic folder that I got at Orential Trading Magazine for really cheap. This one holds all the projects I'm working on, my notebook that has all my ideas in, the stamp notebook with all my stamp pics in.

These ones hold my 8 X 10 papers that I got at Hollo Papercrafts (this awesome store that sells paper by the pound so you can get TONS of papers for only a couple bucks. And they have great texture and heft to them)

these ones hold my 12 X 12 papers. Put in a rainbow order.

this is a filing cabinet one of parents had laying around....

...it now holds my 8 X 10 pics in rainbow order....

and the bottom drawer has folders with things like "seasons", or 'Halloween" papers, in alphabetical order

an old plastic container with drawers. As you can see it has my scissors, glue, .....

closer look of a drawer

an according folder that holds my 12 X 12 scraps

an inside view

this is how I hold my ribbons that came on a spool thingy . I got this at Joann Fabrics I think

closer look at my ribbons

this used to be my mom's cookie jar. Now it holds my silk flowers!

this is a tin container I got as a gift. It had lotions in it...i use it to hold my fabric paints!

This is a shoebox I use to hold the envelopes I got for free at Hallmark and American Greeting (did you know they will give you envelops for FREE!)

A basket my mom had that now holds all my envelopes

baskets I got at Michaels on sale. They hold my inks, chalk, some projects, pictures....

closer look inside the basket of inks and chalk

another old plastic container drawer. It now holds my pens and punches.

where I keep all my scrapbooks and idea books

my new and improved workspace

Here are the pics for my new workspace. After 2 years of being in the cold, dark basement (shared with unwanted spider friends!!), I've been moved to our Family Room (thanks to the understanding and help from my wonderful Hubby! :). I know it's kind of weird to be using space in our living area, but we do have another Living Room that we can entertain in. And I'm a very organized crafter, so I don't think it will be an unsightly problem. We decided that it's our house, so who cares what others might think...if it's going to help me create, than let's do it! Now I have a window to look out of to help inspire me, and I can create while me and Eric watch TV. Plus, I'm not that far away from Molly while she's napping. So take a gander at the photo's and let me know what you think!

(my workspace from when you walk into the Family Room)

(a closer view of my table)

(the view from my desk!!)

Farmer's Markets

To do, or not to do...that is the question. I've been pondering whether to venture out into the Farmer Market world to sell my cards. So I decided to do some research today...googled 'Farmer's Markets Ohio' and came up with a nice list. Of course I know nothing ABOUT those markets. If they are busy, expensive, take non-food venders....etc. I e-mailed the ones near me and am waiting back for info. The only one I did hear from was Grafton's (I know, who knew that my little town has a Farmer's Market!!) and unfortunetly they don't do non-foods. But she did say she'll contact the councilman to see if he'll consider broadening the market this year. So we'll see.

I tried to go on the Cleveland Handmade forum on Etsy.com to get their opinions, havent' heard much back from that either...oh well. Mabye when the weather gets nice, me and the family will pack into our card and take a little adventure to all the nearby ones. See what the foot traffic is like and talk with the vendors. I still need to bulk up my inventory before I do this anyways. I'm slowly adding to my collection.

Take a gander at my new ones :)

Sneak Attack!

I was recently the 'vicitm' of a etsy Sneak Attack. It is something sponsered by http://www.handmademovement.com/ and three days a week at an appointed time, an Etsy shop with few or no sales is announced on this site. As many people as possible then buy items from that shop, resulting in a frenzy of surprise business to the unsuspecting shop! I was the chosen one on February 20th.

I became aware of it when I went to check my e-mail right before me, my hubby, and 22 month old daughter were about to leave for dinner. When I clicked my e-mail and saw that I had 22 messages from Etsy my heart stopped. My first thought was that it was a malfunction, because they were all within a minute apart. Then I feared it was a spammer who was buying my cards, but not paying for them (I've heard about someone being a victim to that recently)...but then I saw the Paypal notification. Okay...breathe...breathe, what the heck is going on! When I clicked on HappyClouds e-mail and read that I was a 'victim' I was estatic, floored, and flattered. As an artist, you want your things to be admired by others, to be validated some way. And this little message showed me that I had a product out there that people wanted!

So after I came back from dinner (oh yeah, and a Jewelry party) I got busy creating some of the orders that were ordered from my custom listing (already sold cards that people can buy and get custom made to fit their style). Needless to say it was a busy weekend...but I was floating on cloud nine!

Thank you all who participated in the sneak attack, and thank you Handmade movement. You made a gals day! :)

Spring is in the air

63 degrees today in Ohio! The warm air gets my creative juices flowing. It makes me want to go in my craft room and sit among all my papers and grab the vibrant greens, buttery yellows, and blushing pinks. To grab my flowers accents and use them. I need to replenish my stock anyways because I was fortunate enough to make a big sale recently. Someone bought 22 cards! It pretty much wiped out my stock though (as you can see) so I need to get working! So I think tonight I'll go down, crank up the tunes, surround myself with the senses of spring, and create :)

Cat in the Hat

I got an order in Wednesday for a "Cat in the Hat" card. I was totally up for the challenge! I was a preschool teacher and a craft teacher for the last 15 years before I quit to be a mom, and in those years we celebrated "The Cat in the Hat" alot. One of my passions is drawing, so I was always the designated person you came to when you needed something drawn...pooh bear, flowers, and "The Cat in the Hat". But this was many years ago, so I didn't know if I still had it in me! So I sat down in my craft room, and tried to remember what it looked like.....blank, nothing, nada, zip. So I got up and went to my computer and cheated, and googled. Found a picture of him and sat and stared at him. How could I make this into a card? Then I thought, "Why not just do the hat?". So I got my sketchbook out and sketched away. After many trial and error (the bottom was a bit thin in my earlier draft) I came up with this card. It felt so good to create something out of nothing. And it brought back alot of memories of when I used to draw all the time. I hope my client loves it as much as I do. :)