After All These Years

{Scraproom Part 3}

Hi everyone! Today I want to share some of the other detail of my scraproom so let's get into it straight away!

Under my desk is my small one-drawer file cabinet where I keep all my scraps sorted by colour. I've repurposed the large, flat basket on top to keep all my *new* items before they go into what I call "general population" (that is, organised into my stash).

I love having a designated spot for my newest items as I often will use them straight away. I recommend you have a create one too!

And here's a peek inside my file drawer at all my colour tabs.

I have a thing for baskets. I found this beauty above at Myer a while ago and only just gave it a purpose. It sits at the far end of my drawers and is my dumping spot for magazines before I file them away. I use a HEAP of page flags to mark layouts that I like or techniques to try or titles that jump out to me etc!

After I moved all my furniture into my new room, I still needed a spot for my cardstock. I only had the one wall free but didn't want anything too obtrusive there as it would make the room a lot smaller. This trolley fit the bill perfectly. It's from Officeworks and is very sturdy (it had to be to hold all that cardstock and paper). 

On the top shelf are vertical paper holders from Cropper Hopper that hold my cardstock, patterned paper (sorted by colour, in display folders) and lots of wallets for planned pages or unfinished layouts.

The second shelf houses my printer. It's so easy to wheel the trolley over to my desk and plug in my printer to use! 

The bottom shelf is where I keep my trimmers as well as my Cuttlebug and behind it you can just see my mail sorter full of embossing folders and dies for the Cuttlebug.

Here's a closer view of my stamp shelf - I'm so in love with this! It's actually a wardrobe drawer from IKEA that I found in the as-is discounted section. I knew its potential as soon as I saw it!

I painted it white and adhered paper to the back. The inside dividers are actually one piece. My husband cut some of the dividers out to make room for my larger stamps and then glued it in place. Perfect!

I've actually culled my wood-mounted stamp collection over the last couple of years. Unmounted stamps are much more storage-efficient aren't they?

And here's my flower collection, housed in theribbon organiser from Clip It Up. I have shared this before on the Simply Renee blog but I'll share it again - being thorough here!

 

 
 
A piece of foam in the top part was perfect to keep my roses organised by just poking the wire stems in the foam. 

 

The clips along the bottom keep my flower packets very accessible. Some of my Prima flower sprays etc are kept in their original packaging while most other flowers are stored in plastic pockets according to colour.

This frame hangs above my flowers as a little bit of inspiration and colour - my favourite colour scheme of aqua and watermelon pink!

As always, if you have any specific question, please leave a comment! I'll be back tomorrow with an in-depth look at how I organise my Expedit shelves!

   

{Scraproom Part Two}

Today I want to go into a bit more detail with my drawers. They sit to the left of me when I'm at my desk which makes them all very accessible.

On top are my carousel (with all my essential tools) as well as my Clip It Ups. 

I'm now the lucky owner of two Clip It Up base units and two upper tiers. When I recently added the upper tiers, I totally re-organised all my hanging items so they are completely sorted into categories now. This not only makes it really easy to find what I'm looking for but easy to maintain/add in new items.

One unit holds all my alphabets. The top tier in the picture above was the perfect height for all my rub on letters, sorted into colours of course.

The bottom is chock-full of my other letters - stickers, chipboard etc. For the colour dividers, I punched a flower out of the corresponding colour cardstock. Oh how I love letters . . .   

The other one holds all stickers/embellishments etc with the smaller items on the top tier. Here are the categories that work for me: 

(top tier)

• Fancy brads
• Paper doilies
• Pearls
• Bling
• Misc

(bottom tier)

• Border stickers
• Misc epoxy stickers
• Misc chipboard accents
• Misc 3D accents (dimensional stickers, flair etc)
• Misc stickers
• Bling
• Word fetti (I have lots of these)
• Quotes
• Journaling Spots
• Rub on words/phrases
• Rub on accents

Now, onto my drawers starting with the ones closest to my workspace.

All my ink pads and mists are stored in the first drawer so they're nice and handy. I keep them all separated in cheap plastic containers from Crazy Clarks or a shop like it. 

The next two drawers contain my punches. To ensure they don't slide around in there I first put non slip liners in them. It works a treat :)

Most of my drawers look like this, storing all my smaller and loose embellishments by colour. If I can take it out of its packaging, if it's predominantly one colour, it goes in my colour drawers. This is my pink and purple (just a small amount of purple) and clear drawer.

Next drawer down is for my green, blue and aqua embellishments. You can see I use more plastic containers and trays to keep everything divided. The flat tray at the back was from Target and is perfect for 12 inch edges etc.

Another plastic tray, this one storing tags (manilla and metal rimmed) and staples as well as embroidery thread and brads/eyelets.

The next embellishment drawer holds black and white embellishments as well as anything metal (bookplates etc).

 

My last embellishment drawer holds anything brown/beige, red, orange and yellow. Some of the items you will find in my embellishments drawers include:

• Journaling spots
• Decorative tape
• Doilies
• Dymo tape
• Die cuts
• Tags
• Clips
• Frames etc

Finally, the very last drawer holds a plethora of mediums such as paint, stickles, glitter, embossing powers etc.

Thanks for looking and I'll be back soon with a look at even more of the nooks in my scraproom! Thanks for your lovely comments too!

 

  

{Come Inside . . . }

 
I will do a few posts to give you an IN DEPTH look at my supply organisation so for today, I'll give you a basic overview. Refresh your memory and see the before photos here of my room all painted and ready to go. 

We have a back room running the length of the house, like an afterthought, that was always just a dumping ground for "stuff". You might remember also that I transformed one whole end of the room into a toy/play room for Amelia (see it here) leaving the other end for me and my scrapbooking supplies. Descriptions are below the photos.

It is slightly smaller than my old room, it took some trial and error to get the furniture configured right.

 With a whole wall of windows on one side combined with the light colours I've used, it's such a light and airy room!

To solve the problem of the cheeky toddler getting in, my handy husband dismantled an old wooden playpen and turned it into a "fence" and painted it white. Perfect.

 

Here's the gate, opened up to let me in!

Of course, my Expedit shelves from IKEA are the most prominent feature of my room! They ended up covering most of the aqua wall, but it didn't work on any other wall (as was my initial plan).

My drawer unit now sits nice and close to my desk. There's plenty of room on top of my drawer unit for my two Clip It Ups as well as carousel with all of my essential tools.

Desk is from IKEA. We got the tabletop and legs separately.

I love my little easel that sits on my desk to put ideas that I'm working on or newly completed layouts.

You can see my Clip It Ups here in all their glory! Sooo good to have them handy as I scrap.

 

Aaaand another view. Got a bit snaphappy :) Chair is from (where else) IKEA. My old black office chair was just too big and bulky for the small space. I kept getting stuck on furniture and I don't wheel around on it anyway. I love this new chair - it's very comfy and has a removable cover! 

Now, see that cute cushion?

Inspired by my friend Donna and some absolutely beautiful cushions she's been making, I actually made this cushion myself! Based around the beautiful aqua and pink fabric, I've teamed it with some white chenille and dyed doilies and I love it!

Here is where I now store my wood mounted stamps out on display. This is definitely one nook of my room that I will go into more detail over.

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Thanks for all your interest in my organising. If you ever have any questions, please don't hesitate to leave a comment or email me!

I have plenty more photos to share in the coming days. Thanks also for being patient with me as I struggle to find time to blog as much as I want to lately due to a toddler who doesn't nap much anymore and a serious head cold this week! Promise, I'll be back soon . .

  

  

{Editing Photos Right Now}

{Working On . . .}

• Tidying my scraproom! Part of this is setting up upper tiers to my Clip It Ups.

As a sidenote, while sorting my alphabets, I made the discovery that I have absolutely NO purple alphabets! And waaaay too many pink ones . . .

• A couple of custom orders for Greatest View. It's fun to create flower kits in different colours - very inspiring!

• Lots of class pages for Blossie's. Here's a couple of sneak peeks:

• And someone my Mum works with gave her this old suitcase for me! Squeal! It's just what I've been looking for as it's not too big! I will share photos when I've completed its transformation . .

{More Goodies & A Layout}

I have a couple more things to show you today. You know I love mini banners. They've proven to be quite popular . . . I've lost count of how many I've made! My newest banners are made from bookpaper/vintage dictionary pages and are sooo very versatile as they are quite neutral.

Mmmm. Strung on nice, thin, natural twine.

I also have a layout to share today. 'Twas a hard one to photograph. It has such a blue cast to it . . . but here it is anyway:

I've got another layered flower from my kits on here.

And some oh so cute felt clouds that I've stitched onto my layout.

I had a great time at the Blossie's crop on Saturday - I haven't laughed that hard in a while! And I confessed that I love clouds sooo much that I have a whole little section of patterned paper devoted to just clouds . . . . .

I hope your week is off to a great start!

  
  

{Flower Kit Layout}

So I've already been playing with my new flower kits . . . I'm afraid that I spend waaay too long playing with the different combinations! The colours in the Bloom kit were perfect for this layout featuring papers from Basic Grey's Green At Heart range.

A simple stitched button in the centre of each flower is perfect!

I added a couple of leaves from the kit too.

So what do you think now you've seen them in action? I've added a felt scallop border and felt butterfly too and I'm thinking of creating some multi-colour packs of these for my Etsy shop.

I'm hopelessly addicted to felt embellishments! 

{Random Thoughts Friday}

Just some random things to share today:

• Looking forward to cropping at Blossie's tomorrow! It's been too long since I've been to a crop and I can't wait to have a good laugh . . . as we always do!

• Starting to prep some layouts for my upcoming Outside The Square class so I gathered some of my shaped and fancy edged patterned paper. Whoa. I have a lot. And notice I said *some*.

• I mentioned this blog in my class last weekend so thought I'd link it here: Christine Middlecamp. She is sooo inspiring me right now. She's even got me using my decorative scissors again!
• Love this card idea. Simple and stunning.
• Love this layout. In fact, I might even scraplift it tomorrow at the crop!
• I will finally be reunited with my good friend (pictured below) on December 14. A stadium full of people and I that is! Oooooh I can't wait!

See? A totally random post . . . have a great weekend everyone!

{Thank You Nigella}

Oooooh lordy this is the best recipe ever! Easy. Decadent. Chocolatey. Three of my favourite characteristics in a recipe. From Nigella Feasts, here it is . . . the choco-hoto-pot!

Hmm. Not the best photo. Mine was slightly burnt around the edge but still tasted divine. You see, the choco-hoto-pot has a crisp top, it's cakey around the eges but the centre is still nice and gooey! Eat them straight out of the oven while they're nice and hot! 

Choco-hoto-pot

You will need:

• 125g unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
• 125g dark chocolate (60% cocoa solids)
• 2 eggs
• 150g caster sugar
• 3 tablespoons plain flour
• 100g white chocolate chips

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees and grease four ramekins.
2. Either in a microwave or in a bowl suspended over a pan of simmering water, melt the butter and dark chocolate, then set aside to cool a little.
3. In another bowl, mix the eggs with the sugar and flour (I use a whisk) and beat in the cooled butter and chocolate mixture. Fold in the white chocolate chips and divide this between the four buttered ramekins.
4. Bake in the preheated oven for about 20 mins by which time the tops will be cooked and cracked - like a macaroon - and the chocolate gungy and gooey underneath.
5. Place each ramekin on a small plate with a teaspoon and serve. Make sure to warn children that they will be HOT!

That's it! Please try it and if you do, let me know if you love them as much as I do!

  

   

{Felt Embellishments}

As well as making lots of flower kits, I've been having fun creating felt embellishments! Especially good for boy/male projects when flowers aren't appropriate and there isn't a huge number of embellishments available.

I just love the look of layered circles and the addition some stitching is just perfect! In the embellishment set is also a felt scallop edge.

I was just itching to put my felt embellies to use but (not surprisingly) I had to search to find appropriate (non pink) photos!

I actually trimmed the scallop down slightly and used it to accentuate my title. And you know how I love layers - I've raised my felt circle accents on some journaling die cuts that I had in my stash.

But I couldn't stop there - I always need cards for boys so I used a few of the leftover embellies on this one:

I'm working on some more of these felt embellishment sets in different colours - think aqua, brown, pink, pastels (not all together of course).

You can find the boy set here. I'll let you know when I have the other colour sets available!

Thanks for looking!