The Big Reveal

Well. Here it is! The moment you’ve all been waiting for. Okay, okay, the moment I’VE been waiting for.

The! Big! Reveal!

Here she is-- my new and improved create space:

I waffled for a long time about what to do to make the table look better and covering it in fabric ended up being the winner.  BUT. Even with a coupon, the amount of fabric it would take to cover the length of the table with enough to hang over the front (to hide any mess stored items underneath the table) would cost a pretty penny. So I bought a set of sheets instead. Yes, you heard me right. The “fabric” covering my craft table is actually the top sheet of a $14 twin sheet set (Better Homes & Garden brand from Walmart). I figured it was cheaper than the cost of fabric, and it if gets less than stellar treatment (from glue guns or paint) then it’s no big loss if it has to be replaced eventually.  And better yet—the set came with two pillowcases and a fitted sheet which can be used for other projects. I already used one of the pillowcases to cover two of my cork memo boards. And I’m planning to eventually use the sheet to sew liners for my baskets!

The only other investment I made in the space was the bookshelf. For $25 (Walmart) it was a small price to pay for maximizing the organization in this space. Using baskets  I already owned, I corraled all of my fabric, spray paint, and extra odds and ends.

Overall, I’m very pleased with the way this space turned out. Its not the fanciest craft room, but it works for now. And honestly, it looks SO much better, there’s a place for everything, and I have so much room to spread out projects and work.  It’s brightened up the space down in our laundry room and I no longer cringe every time I run downstairs to switch out a load of towels.

And, oh yeah, I've finally been able to get my sewing machine out of the box!

Here’s the budget breakdown for this space:

Four Cork Squares: $10

Sheet set: $14 (and I still have lots of fabric left over!)

Lamp shade: $7

Bookcase: $25

Total Cost: $56

Organization and peace of mind: Priceless J

Get the Memo

The last leg of my Craft Area World Tour brought me to the wall space behind my craft table. There is a large plank of wood stored behind the table (It’s actually a piece of wood cut out to be a table-topper that turns into a train table. It belonged to my father in law as a boy and we’re holding onto it for our own kids. Pretty cool!) At any rate, it’s stuck where it is, and it isn’t exactly pretty to look out. It doesn't exactly scream "crafty".  So I set out to find some solution for giving it a makeover without permanently altering it (painting wasn’t an option).

I picked up a four-pack of cork squares at Michael’s on sale for $5 (they are normally $10 for a 4 pack). Using some fabric I found during my great closet clean-outs this month, I laid the square out and cut the fabric so there was just enough left around the edges to wrap it around.

I secured those edges to the back of the cork square with a little hot glue.

**Helpful hint!** If you want to get “hospital corners” on a project like this, cut a small incision INTO the corner of the fabric. That will allow you to lay each side of the corner flat so you don’t have any ugly bunching. Make sense?

Once my fabric was on, I took some ribbon I already had on hand and laid it out in a pattern that looked like a memo board. I pinned down the ribbon to hold it in place, and then fastened the ends to the back with hot glue.

The ribbon isn’t exactly functional yet. In order for it to hold things on without the aid of a push pin, it will probably need a fastener of some sort at each cross section of ribbon. I didn’t really have anything on hand that would work, and I didn't want to spend any more moo-la on this space, so this will do for now.

Using the double-sided tape that came with the memo boards, I fastened this to the wall/wood behind my table. Not only does it help to spruce up the look of the area, it’s the perfect place for display pictures, inspiration I clip out of magazine and catalogs, or instructions, fabric swatches, and craft store shopping lists.

The Copycat Rundown:

Total Cost: Five dolla! Holla!

Total Time Spent: About an hour for all four. I burned the HECK out of my finger with the glue gun during this project, so about 10 minutes of that hour was spent hopping around holding my finger and throwing angry looks in the general direction of the glue gun.

Would we do this again? Yes! I’d like to try my hand at covering an actual bulletin board next.

Credit: Yours truly. Its getting crazy over here, what with all the originality and all!

Check back tomorrow for--are you ready for this-- THE BIG REVEAL. Oh, dear. I'm afraid I've built this up so much you're going to be disappointed. But I'm excited! So, yay!

One man's trash is a crafter's....Ballard Designs Inspired Container?

Super easy craft alert!

With my craft space re-do in full swing, I knew I needed some sort of containers to corral crafting supplies like glue sticks, scissors, and foam brushes. I also knew that I didn’t really want to pay a lot of money for something, and I wasn’t exactly digging the plastic-and-metal options my local Dollar Tree offered.  So I did what any other crafter would do and I started trolling through the blogosphere. And lo and behold, Brown Paper Packages did not disappoint (as usual).  With her tutorial on these formula containers, I knew exactly what to do!

I started by washing out some empty Gerber snack containers and made sure they were thoroughly dry.

I took them outside and gave them a quick coat of brown spray paint. Since they were going to be covered in jute, I didn’t worry too much about perfection with my paint job. Why paint these you ask?

Well. I did a trial run with these and just started wrapping willy nilly. Since the jute is naturally uneven, no matter how tightly you wrap it, there are going to be gaps in between the rows. Which left me with some school bus yellow container peeking through. Not very Ballard-esque. And NOT what I was looking for. So heed my warning and paint first!

We’ve already sung the praises of jute before, but seriously, if you don’t already own a spool of this stuff, RUN, do not walk to your nearest craft store and get some.  This stuff can be used for so many different things, you’re doing yourself a disservice by not having some on hand.

After the paint dried, I got to wrapping. I started by gluing one end of the jute to the top of the container. I would put down a line of hot glue and then fit the jute on top of it, lay down another line of hot glue, fit jute over it, lather, rinse, repeat.

A little time later and voila! A container that is perfect for keeping my craft room neat and tidy...and looking good while doing it. Can't beat that!

The Copycat Rundown:

Total Cost: FREE! A spool of jute costs $5 at Walmart and it will last you FOREVER. Just do it.

Total Time Spent: About 2 hours for all three. I wrapped the jute while watching a movie, so the time flew!

Would we do this again?: Absolutely. I'm a total jute junkie.

Credit: Brown Paper Packages! While mine don't have cute labels like hers do, I figure its something I can at least work up to at some point!

Create Space

If you’ve ever done any amount of crafting then you probably already know what I’m about to tell you: Crafting requires a lot of stuff. There’s the Mod Podge, the foam brushes, the extra glue sticks and scrapbook paper. There are piles of fabric scraps and tiny containers of pins and embellishments and spool after spool of ribbon as far as the eye can see.

And thanks to the hustle and bustle of everyday life, that stuff can get a little out of hand if you don’t have a system for organizing it. In fact, it can get so bad that it looks a little something like this:

Oh my. How embarrassing for me. (It’s no wonder my husband gave this table (and me) the side-eye and a huge sigh of defeat on multiple occasions.) Oh, and in case you didn't already notice--my craft table lives in my basement/laundry room/storage room. Glamorous, I know. :)

And in addition to being down-right ugly, this pile of crafting chaos was preventing me from seeing the supplies I already had—which is a recipe for a buying stuff you don’t actually need disaster. Something I am trying very hard to avoid this year.  Not to mention that I couldn’t even take my brand new sewing machine out of its box because there wasn’t a place to put it, let alone set it up and use it.  Something had to be done.

I wish I was kidding when I said I looked for that cupcake carrier  no less than 5 separate times before remembering that, oh yeah, its on top of the sewing machine that is STILL IN THE BOX. Of course! Why wouldn't it be there? Makes perfect sense! Oy.

So over the course of the last couple of weeks I have made some small changes in my crafting space to make it one that is both more visually appealing and functional. I’ve worked hard to do this on a MAJOR budget and to use what I had to make it work. I’m going to show you some small projects I did for the space and work up to the “big reveal” of how it all came together later in the week.

For starters, I want to show you all a (super) simple transformation that took something we would have otherwise relegated to the Goodwill pile and made it fit and functional for another space.

This little mail holder (from Walmart) used to live in our kitchen (back in the old days before the re-do) as a collector of mail, wedding shower invites, spare keys, and other odds and ends that landed on the counter as we came in the door each day. In short, it was a catch-all for junk.  And it drove.us.crazy. Rather than helping us to stay more organized, it became a crutch—the reason we didn’t sort through our mail, file our income tax statements right away, or put that $0.13 of spare change in the spare change jar. So we took it away—and now? Our countertop stays clutter free. Funny how that works, huh?

At any rate, it was just sitting downstairs among the crafty mess and so I figured why not give it a new life with some spray paint? Besides, it gave me a chance to use this puppy for the first time:

And hoo-boy, did he make things a lot easier! Shout out to Mr. P for hooking me up with that little gem for Christmas! J

A few coats of primer and Heirloom White later, and we were in business.

 Now this little guy has a new life—holding my craft paints and Mod Podge, and those little drawers are the perfect size for holding my pushpins and little pieces that are harder to corral.

Ahhhh, organization. I do love you so!

Are you tantalized by the possibilities of the "big reveal" yet? See how I gave you just a little taste of what's to come? Oooh I just love the drama of it all!

Stay tuned tomorrow for how I turned old Gerber snack containers into Ballard Design-like organizers!

The Copycat Rundown:

Total Cost: FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! Yeah, baby.

Total Time: About an hour including drying time for the paint.

Would we do this again? Yep!

Credit: Me!

Be Still My Heart(s)

So my two undeniable facts are being proven more and more with each post.

I LOVE BOOKS!

Copying this heart punch Valentine's Day art has been on my to-do list since the day I saw it.

Ooooo, AHHHHHHH

Like any good book, there is also a lesson in this post. Learn from my mistakes my babies (channeling Conan O'Brien here)

Things I assumed incorrectly in this project:

1) I had an 11x14 white frame. Wrong! I have an 8x12 and a ginormous IKEA frame.

2) It would be possible to use the ginormous IKEA frame. Wrong! One piece of scrapbook paper won’t cover the opening of the mat, so you’ll end up with a pieced together backing which is downright sad.

So after all of my incorrect assumptions, I finally got the right cast of characters (the right size frame, mat and scrapbook paper) which was TERRIFIC!

Sarah at Cozy Cottage Cute was nice enough to offer her grid to save time on this project. You should definitely head on over to her blog and so kindly ask her for the grid as well, you won’t regret it!

To get the hearts to line up just perfectly you can use her grid to make faint pencil marks on your scrapbook paper, that you can later cover with you foam dots and hearts. SO HANDY

In true Copy Cat form I used a white 11x14 frame and double mat from Michaels. I too found an old tattered copy of Charlotte’s Web from my mom.

I randomly chose words and phrases in the book and made sure to get “Some Pig” and “Radiant”.  I just kept thinking how much I miss reading books that have pictures J

Instead of a scrapbook heart, I Mod-Podged and glittered one heart red.

All in all I’m completely smitten with the final result and can’t thank Sarah enough for the inspiration!

Copy Cat Rundown:

Total Time: For me about 3 hours. Hopefully for you, this would only take about an hour to prep the hearts, mark the grid and adhere the hearts.

Total Cost: $17 for 11x14 frame, $3 for 11x14 double mat, $2 for foam sticky dots, book was free. Total of $22 but worth every penny!

Would we do this again? For sure. Sarah has another awesome version with brown paper hearts and stamped names. This is next on my to do list!

Credit: Props to Sarah at Cozy Cottage Cute. YOU ROCK!

Love Spell

I love words. A lot. If you know me in person, then you know that I am a “talker” (and would probably say that term is a gross understatement). If you are a reader of this blog, then you have probably noticed by now that I have a tendency to be a little on the long-winded side. Verbose. Wordy. What can I say? I love words.

Naturally, I am drawn to crafts that feature words so when I caught a glimpse of this project from Melissa at 320 Sycamore, I was instantly smitten.

The best part of this craft? I already had all of the supplies! Which brings me to my most favorite word of all: FREE!

The cast of characters:

·         2 dollar store picture frames

·         Scrapbook paper

·         Scrabble tiles

·         Hot glue/Glue gun

The hardest part of this project was deciding which scrapbook paper I wanted to use. I kid you not.

I started by cutting my paper to size and putting it in the frames. Since the tiles are 3-D, I didn’t want to put the glass back in. However, I did put it behind the paper to help stabilize it (and because I wanted to keep it in case I ever decide to use the frame for something else down the road).

Once the paper was secured in the frames, I laid out my scrabble tiles and glued ‘em down. Just like that! Easy as pie.  And SO adorable!

For now, one frame lives on my mantle, while the other one hangs on a kitchen cabinet.  I’m swooning over here!

The Copycat Rundown:

Total Cost: I actually had everything on hand so it was free for me, but just for fun, the breakdown is this: Scrabble Tiles: $0.50 for a game of Scrabble at Goodwill, Scrapbook Paper: $.59/sheet at Michaels, Frames: $1 each from the Dollar Tree. Total Cost for both projects:  Around $4.70!!!

Total Time Spent: 10 minutes. For serious. So stinkin’ easy.

Would we do this again? Well that’s a silly question, now isn’t it? YES.

Credit: Big ups to Melissa at 320 Sycamore! Check it out here along with the rest of her sweet valentine vignette!

For a girl who wasn’t into Valentine décor before, there certainly is a lot of love floating around this house.  Next thing you know I’ll be whittling a bust of cupid out of wood. (And if that happens, please call for help.)

Much Ado About Monograms

Two Undeniable Facts:
1) I love monograms
2) I love books

So these super cute book letters were a no-brainer.

I followed this simple tutorial and ended up with a surprisingly similar result! I only wish I had used a book with white (instead of yellow pages) but I was unwilling to part with any of my white page books!

N is for no-brainer!

Sorry White Oleander, but now I have a cute monogrammed letter for my office!

The CopyCat Rundown:

Total Cost: $3 letter from Michaels. I already had the book and glue gun on hand.

Total Time: About an hour and a half. This definitely wasn’t a bad hour and a half though. I had to take breaks and come back to the craft. I would get burnt out and sloppy, so it helped to walk away and come back refreshed.

Would we do this again? Most definitely. Super easy and super cute. I can’t wait to add a rosette on mine!

Credit: Katie at Little Things Bring Smiles. Thanks for the inspiration!