Re-organizing my Crafty Space

Good Morning!

It is a bright, but chilly day here in New Hampshire. One of my New Years Resolutions is to clean, eliminate clutter, organize and use the crafting items I have on hand. Prior to the New Year, I went to JoAnn's when they were having their huge sale on totes and organizing systems. I was able to purchase two storage units designed by Iris for less than half price (SCORE!).

New System-Iris

 Here is a picture of the door organizer I purchased. These organizers replaced the drawer system I had originally purchased from Wal-mart. My old system of the Sterilite drawers was great until I stated to accumulate paper. The amount of paper I needed to store was getting too heavy for the plastic. It began to warp, crack, and break down. Plus it didn't give me the flexibility to organize the paper by theme/season/color that I really needed to.Due to the length of the drawers, I could fit a stack of 12x12 paper with about 5-8 inches of unused space. Paper was getting damaged when I opened or closed the drawers.

Old System-Sterilite

The new system of doors from Iris is a stronger plastic and has individual containers that lock shut. This provides me with an easier way to sort and organize my paper. If you enjoy purchasing the slabs from Michael's or JoAnn's, each drawer on the Iris system holds 4-5 180 sheet slabs. My two organizers sit on the floor verses on the wheels. These new organizers take up less room than the Sterilite drawer system by about 6-8 inches in depth and 12 (unused inches) in length. These means that by replacing the old Sterilite system with the new Iris system I save about 12 of floor space along the length.

Now I'm able to find what I need for paper, when I need it. I highly recommend the Iris system of drawers. Keep your eyes out for coupons in the Michael's or Jo Ann flyers. The Iris drawer carts are usually around $90 USD. However, you can get them for 50% with a coupon or during sales.

My next step is to reorganize my craft closet. It's kind of scary in there.

Thanks for stopping by. Make it a great day.

Day 2 of Winter Holiday Fun

Good Morning Everyone!

Here is the second creation in my Holiday Fun blog event.

This creations is using a stamp from Stamping Bella and paper from Core'dinations and DCWV. This is an A2 card measuring 4"x5.5".

Instructions-

• Cut a piece of Core'dinations White Wash Grandpa's truck cardstock to 4x5.5" and 2.75"x2.75"
• Cut piece of pattern paper to 3.75"x5.25". (My pattern paper is from DCWV 2011 Holiday Stack.)
• Cut a piece of smooth white cardstock to 2.5"x2.5"
• Using Tuxedo Black ink from Memento ink and stamp image on white cardstock
• Color image using Copic Markers
• Use Fiskers Heritage punch to cut the corners of the image cardstock and coordinating sized Core'dinations
• Ink edges of image with Tea Dyed Distress Ink by Tim Holtz
• Adhere image to cardstock and pattern paper to card stock
• Adhere image to pattern paper
• attach ribbon and bow
• Adhere card front to base measuring 8"x5.5" folded in half
• Write "Wishing you many 'Cups of Good Cheer' this season" on the inside of card. (Lyric from "We Wish You a Merry Christmas")

Today's challenge

Use a holiday song lyric in your project. When posting your project please state the song title. Please link through the comments section.

Let the Winter and Holiday Fun Begin!

Hello Everyone and Welcome!

 Last night my boyfriend and I snuggled up to watch "A Christmas Carol" with Jim Carey. Wow, there were some parts of the movie that were not very kid friendly for a Disney movie. I was looking all over the box for Tim Burton's name, but I guess he didn't work on this film. I love who Jim is able to project and change his voice. His voice just carries the emotion and energy of the Scrooge character so well. It was very good and followed the original work by Charles Dickens very well.

On another note...

Today kicks off my 12 Days of Christmas Blog challenge. Guess what? I'm even starting on time! Today's challenge is a Joy-Fold Card.

Here is a picture

The card measures 4"x5.5"

Materials:

• Core'dinations Vintage Cardstock in Kisses and Clover Patch
• SEI Holiday Traditions Dreams of Wonder Cardstock
• (3) square metallic green brads
• Smooth white paper from the Paper Loft
• Tuxedo Black Memento Ink pad
• Adhesieve
• Outlines small and medium snowflake
• boner folder
• paper trimmer

Instructions

• Cut a piece of the Clover Patch to 4x8.25" score and fold at 2.75"
• Cut a piece of the Clover Patch to 2.25x7.5" score and fold at 3.75"
• Cut 2 pieces of the Clover patch to 3x3" and adhere back to back
• Cut a piece of the Clover patch to 1.75x1.75
• Cut a piece of Kisses at 2.75x2.75" and one at 1.5x1.5
• Cut a piece of smooth white to 3.5x2"
• Cute a piece of pattern paper to 3.75x5.25", and (2) pieces 3.75x2.5"
• Stamp images on smooth white and trim around the edges

 

• Adhere images to coordinating sized cardstock
• Punch holes and secure brads in lower right hand corner of larger panel of pattern paper. Adhere panel to inside of larger green cardstock
• Adhere one of the smaller panels of pattern paper to the flap of card base. Reverse pattern for inside of flap. 
• Adhere folded strip of green cardstock so that the flap of the card base is sandwiched between. Center the strip on card base before pressing into place
• Adhere smooth white strip to the front of the strip flap then adhere medium snowflake layers to the strip flap
• Adhere small snowflake to inside of the card

HERE is the challenge-
Create a Joy Fold card using snowflakes. The snowflakes can be part of the paper, stamped, or both. Be creative and link your card through the comments (meaning put you blog/flicker/etc. address in the comment) Deadline is December 31st 2012.

Fun Things in the Works

Hello Crafting World!

Only a few days left until the 12 Days of Christmas online fun. I plan on posting a variety of cards, scrapbook pages and other projects to spur on your own holiday creativity. All the fun starts December 13th. Remember you can join in the fun by linking your projects through the comments section. As the date gets closer I will post more information.....



I'm working on new posts for the Technique page too.  Joy-fold cards, alcohol ink and more

On another note-

An exciting opportunity has presented itself. On December 26th, I will be at Steele Hill Resort in Belmont NH from 1pm to 3pm. I will be giving paper crafting lessons, selling kits (scrapbook and card), scrapbook layouts and greeting cards. Here is a link to the resort.....just click here

Thanks for stopping by,

T

Core'dinations Online Holiday Crop-Lydia's Sketch Challenge

Good Evening Everyone in Blog land!

Whew! I finally found the perfect pictures to finish Lydia's sketch Challenge for the Online Core'dinations Holiday Crop. As I was going through my pictures I realized that I don't have many pictures of winter events. (Memo to self-take more pictures in winter. :) )

If you haven't heard of the Core'dinations Online Crop here is the link.
This challenge can be found here.

On to the final project....

Here is the sketch that Lydia gave as the challenge.

Unfortunately my camera doesn't work at the moment so here is the layout in scanned pieces.

I used paper from the White Wash collection. the border around the page is punched using a Fishers punch. I then sanded the edges to add a little more blue color to the edges. The pattern paper is from the 2012 DCWV Stack. I trimmed the pattern paper to 11x11".

I created the center divider using two punches from Fiskers and flipping one strip color side up.

 

The Snowflake in the corner is crocheted by me. The ribbon is from Michael's.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you feel inspired by this layout.
Toni

Core'dinations Online Holiday Crop-Margie's Challenge

Good Afternoon Everyone!

As you may know I'm participating in the online Core'dination Holiday Crop. Today I have finished Margie's gift bag challenge using die cuts.

Here is a picture of the final project.

 To create the die cut light bulbs, I used Core'dination's Vintage papers and my Cricut. The lights are from the Christmas Cheer cartridge.

I used the "Blackout" function to cut the base in the darker color. Then I cut the first layer using a lighter color.













The cap of the light bulb is cut using the shift key. I then "strung" them across the front of the bag using a piece of green ribbon.

2012 Holiday Gift Bag-Winter Landscape

Good Morning Everyone,

It's a busy day for me here in New Hampshire. Outside it feels like Old Man Winter is gearing up for a little snow. This inspired me to create a winter landscape gift bag.

 I used paper from the Core'dinations Chocolate box collection to create the trees and sky. The trees are cut at 3" and 3.5" using the Christmas Cheer Cartridge for Cricut. The snow landscape is embossed using the Swiss Dots folder for the Cuttlebug.

The ribbon is from Michael's.

 I found the snowflake jewels at JoAnn's last year.