When space is limited...

One of the topics on a forum that I frequent a lot is ORGANIZATION:

So with that I though this was a perfect time to give you all some ideas on how I organize my space... I have a craft room that is very small... Probably 10'-8' (if that) We blocked off part of a second master bedroom in our house to use as my own space... I have two closets in the space which helps A LOT with organization, and then the "wall" that we blocked it off with is just a piece of ply-wood and then my husband put a kitchen counter on that wall with legs and all for my desk.

Some of the key points in my space are:
I have a cart in my closet where I keep all my misc. mounted stamps. (my daughter knows she can use the stamps in here!) Kind of hard to see in this picture (it is the pink one at the bottom right side.) I got lucky enough to find mine at a garage sale. but you can look on ebay or for something simular!

I also have a Kitchen Cabnet in this area... this is where I put the envelopes, and extra stuff (My bottles of rubbing alcohol and baby powder)

I think that filing cabnets (whether real or these plastic ones are great for keeing books, catalogs and such!)

Above all this is a shelf where I put these -->

Magazine racks and shoe boxes. I got mine from ABC Distributing Co. They are plastic and come in 6 pretty colors. I keep all my Stampin' Up! magazines and inspiration sheets here, along with any Magazine that I choose to keep. I have an extra Ink Pad rack in here so that I have a place for the stamp pads that I give away at workshops or what ever!

Old stle photo albums are a great way to store die-cuts, and stickers. Or UNMOUNTED stamps fit well in them too...

This is where I keep my paper addiction... this thing has a voice... I tell you... seriously It is always saying "Feed Me!" It is the leaning tower of Pappah! ha ha ha

I have all my paper seperated by color family and then I have all my patterened papers and then toward the bottom I have all the paper that is NOT Stampin' Up! I love the cordinating colors with ink and stuff so I almost always use the paper and ink from S.U!

On top of this shelf I have a "bill" organizer, I have poems that I print out and don't use right away up here. (for an example I may print out a bunch of Teacher poems and instead of using a whole piece of paper for one poem I print it a couple times more and put the extras up here so that when I make another project that needs that poem... it is already at my finger tips. (already printed) The other thing you see here is a Magnet board... it is actually just a piece of sheet metal that my husband had extra from some work he did, and I "stole" it. Hung it up and hang all those sweet notes from my kids on this one along with a calendar and some reminders.

This is my bookshelf that my hubby found ... I think it's original purpose is for C.Ds... it's a very shallow book shelf. I organize my stamps by "favorites" I get in my "ruts" and use the same stamp set for a month then move back and forth to a different set... Since I don't do a TON of workshops anymore I organize them according to what I love most toward the top and then work my way down... They change places every month. The top shelf though, always has my backgrounds, my cuttlebug embossing folders, and my "salutations" anything that has words or phrases in on the top shelf.

I have an index card box for my unmounted stamps that get used frequently but that are NOT Bellas... they all get their own sheet of cardstock and they get filed away in the little box. I have a little binder that I put my Bellas.
On top of the bookshelf there are Jars, and Canisters for extra ribbon, I have my prisma flowers here, I have baskets That I got from Southern Living at Home (2 for $20.00) They hold the spounges, daubers, and and things of this sort. I have containers from The Container Store (they were like 39 cents) that hold Baubles, Eyelets and Brads and stuff... (You can't really see these colorful little treasures in this picture very good but they are wonderful!) I also keep a 3 drawer storage unit where I keep my hardware, and my sharpie markers, and marbles and stuff that are misc. tools.


As you can see in this picture I put my ribbon and wheels on dowles... Which I have hanging on the wall with hooks... But these are not ordinary hooks because it is hard to find hooks that stick out from the wall far enough... so here is a hint: LOOK IN THE WINDOW COVERING SECTIONS at the nearest store... I found these on the aisle at Lowes where Blinds and Curtains are kept.


Here is my Ink Pad Rack... it is an old Cassette Rack... which I have been wanting to spray paint but haven't gotten around to it yet... But for now I store the pads according to family... it is like a grid system ... each color has a specific slot!


I have these three vases and some misc. decor on top of the shelf. . I try to surround my self with wonderful phrases and beauty! This in some's opinion is wasted space! but I love it!


this picture also shows how I put some cork on the wall so that I can hang other tools... I put my heat gun here so that it is at arms reach.

Okay so here is my desk... We left the wall only half way up because I like to watch t.v. and my husband has an area on the other side where he works on his remote control cars... We like to spend time in the office together at the same time so we didn't completely wall off the area.
This picture shows the best BUY I have ever made... this Totally-Cool Tote 2 is wonderful!!! It is a must have! It hold sooooo many tools...!
I have yet another 3 drawer unit on my desk for the Zig markers, and other things like wire, wire cutters and so on... an then I also keep my Embossing Powders here!
See the little book on the desk, that is my Bella Bindah! Love them enough to make them their own place in my space!
There are so many ways to organize your things... no matter how big your space, you always need more!!!
Thanks for reading!

Advent Calendar

This is my advent calendar... which was a fun thing that they did on SCS. So here is mine... It is strips of paper, that are intertwined kind of weaved so that they can hold mini candy bars between them.

Okay so here is how you can do it...

You will need 3 pieces of 12x12 cardstock... (I used Old Olive) and an 8 1/2 x 11 (Real Red) and a piece of whisper white. stamps of numbers and punches to cut out the numbers. ... I also have white ribbon, and silver cord.

How to:

1. Stamp all the numbers from 1 - 25. and then I stamped one star for the day of Christmas... I guess it depends on when you are going to start counting down... you may only need 24 days. punch each number out with a circle punch and set aside.

2. Cut a 12x12 sheet of cardstock into 2" strips.

3. Lay the cardstock long-ways on your paper trimmer and cut slits only 1" through the strip, every 2" (You will need 8 strips so use a second piece of paper when you need that.)

4. Now you are going to basically weave the strips together interlocking the slits. (each square alternates one in front of the other...) This forms little pocket like spots between the two strips of paper... you will need to tape or glue the ends together... *just about a 1/4"

5. Cut One 2" strip off the 11" side of the 8 1/2 x 11 cardstock... cut in half and do the same as step 4 to this one... I cute a 1/4" from end so that I had a little tab to start the pocket. this is for your Last day to count.
6. Now use the rest of the paper... score at 2" from edge and fold on that score line to make a "topper". I stamped the words DAYS TILL CHRISTMAS on this part... you could say count down till Christmas or what ever you want.
7. Now adhere the strips down from the topper and tape slightly under edge... to the longer part of the "topper"
8. Now is the time to stick the numbers to the pockets... I went from 25 in the bottom Right hand corner up the strip to 20 and then 19- 14 on the strip from bottom to top and so on...
9. Decorate how you want, I stamped my kids names and popped them out and doubled them up and ran cord through them... I put this under the number 1.
I used ribbon to embellish the edge of the topper... you don't have to do that... it is just for decor. this is so much easier than it is to write... you should try it.
load up the pockets with Hershey Mini candy bars or Nuggets might work too... something thin and small works best. (tootsie rolls work as well.)

And now you are ready to count down to the holiday.

A Hodge-Podge of cards

Okay so I thought I would post a hodge-podge of cards on here just for fun... First Bellas;

Okay and here is my daughter's birthday invitation with the new stamp set that we got for FREE from Stampin' Up! (Thank you SU!) You can earn it for free too... just have a party in the month of January or February and earn a Level 3 Free Stamp set.

Thanks for looking!

Clever little bella...

I amaze myself sometimes when I work on a card and then it turns out better than I had anticipated! I LOVE this card:

This is Snowbunnybella from Stamping Bella and the best part of this card is the snowflakes... and SOOOO simple!!!

Okay so on the edge of my white paper I punched out the snowflake. (I used Martha Stewart's collection from Michael's) But the trick is to only punch HALF OF THE PUNCH... so you put the edge of the paper halfway through the punch... and then you take the piece that you popped out and lay it beside the negative space from the edge. SO SIMPLE RIGHT??? Oh my gosh...

Then I used Stampin' Up!'s Lumiere as a glue and glued a Bauble from Stamping Bella down in the center of the snowflakes. Is this not soooo Cute? I love it! You should try this technique with hearts, or flowers, or any symetrical shaped stamp... even stars (which are very popular right now) or ... well you get the drift... You could probably even come up with a creative thing to do with squares or circles.

Here are a few other SnowBunnyBella cards I did! she is my favorite at the present time... although when I get Glideabella and daisyboardabella it will probably change!

This one I used "liquid applique" on the cuffs and hood, and then I touched it with lumiere to make it look shimmery! It is sooo pretty.

Patterned paper

Okay so now that you have stocked up on wonderful patterened paper from the November special I wanted to give you a few insights on how to use it... I wanted to give you a few tips and reminders....

First off... here are a few cards that I made with one piece of paper out of the Wintergreen Paper Pack.

I used my "Snowflake Spot" Stamp set to create a background on Not Quite Navy... (With Whisper White Craft ink) and then I made the main block out of wintergreen snowflake paper... There is some soft white organdy ribbon tied along with some silver cord... and then the snowflakes are made out of Silver metal tape that you can find in a hardware store... Probably in the "Duct" section (my husband gave me a piece from his truck... He works in Heating and air conditioning.) A simple tip for this though, is to put the tape on paper and then punch it... other wise the sticky adhesive from the tape gets into your punches and it is hard to get out... so stick the piece of tape onto cardstock and then punch the shape you want out of it...The punch I used here is one of Martha Stewarts Collection from Michaels. I then put some Baubles from Stamping Bella's website in the middle of the snowflakes, and Popped the snowflakes up off the page with different dementionals. Simple card! VERY impessive in Real life... the scan doesn't do it justice. This is a great and easy card for Christmas Cards.

Here are a few more ideas:

Now a few tips for patterned paper...

• Pattern paper is great for scrapbooking but if you put a picture on top of the paper you should always "mat" the picture with a solid color so that it pops of the patterened paper.
• Always use it in moderation... too much makes a project look way busier than it really is... remember that when you have patterened paper it acts as paper, and element...
• It is always a good idea to have a Solid color to go with your patterned paper so that it show cases the paper more... see how I have solid white on the Merry Chistmas card... and then I have a solid paper backgrown on the Happy Holiday's Card too.