New Scraproom Update & Valentine Mailboxes

So it's been two weeks now I guess since the completion of Scrapper's Paradise.....my new scraproom. I LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!

I find it so peaceful in here (yep I'm in here now). And love having all my supplies organized and so easy to get to. Even clean up is a snap!!

The girls have been here a few times to scrap and it truly is easier.....well except maybe them having to lug their bags up the stairs. I told Beth to not even ask for an elevator as it's not happening!! LOL

I decorated the mailboxes from the dollar bin at Target as one of my first projects in my new room. I completed 5 of them (my mom, Troy's folks, Troy's grandparents and my mom's parents....and one for Troy).

The ones to our family I put these little cards inside. Everyone is excited about the wedding so thought these would be fun. "Hugs and Kisses from the future Mr. & Mrs." In Troy's it was "Hugs and Kisses from your future Mrs.".


I only got a chance to take pictures of one of them before the battery in the camera died. And then I was in a rush to get them packed and shipped on Tuesday so I didn't get the rest of the pictures taken. :( This one went to Troy's Mom.

Thanks for stopping by and checking out what's up in the new room. I'm off to work on a project now!! :)

New Clear Stamp Storage

Well my clear stamp collection continues to grow, and grow and grow (it's all Beth's fault). I was up to three rather large, stuffed to the max 3-ring notebooks. While plotting out my scraproom I wanted a different way to store my clear stamps. I remembered that folks in our call center in the Phoenix office had these desktop "binders". Basically a 3-ring notebook (a rather large one mind you) that was always on their desk and easy to flip through. Off to the internet I go....no idea what this thing is called....I started with office supply websites and doing searches on various names, no luck. UNTIL.....

THE SCRAPRACK!!!

It was exactly what I was looking for. I ordered it two weeks ago and it arrived Friday with the jars (see previous post). Good mail day yesterday!! Hehehe

I ordered the basic ScrapRack with 7 Spinders to get started. And the pack of 15 dividers - figuring the larger size would work better than regular dividers that aren't always wide enough for some of the photo pages, sheet protectors, etc.

I sat down and decided on my categories and organized all my acrylic stamps today. WooooHooo

It fits very nicely on one of the EFFEKTIV cabinets from Ikea. And all my stamping accessories are stored in that cabinet so it's all grouped together....making my "OCDness" very happy! LOL I may do some more research on the pockets that they sell for the embellishments (they have many different varieties with various combinations of different pocket sizes) and see how my stamps will work in those. But for now I'm THRILLED with how this is working. So far I have 5 spinders used...and see the need to divide one or two of them in the not so distant future. I'm just using the original sheet protectors, photo pages and baseball trading card pages I was using in my binders.

I'm so excited as this is going to make my stamps so much easier to use. I'm going to put pages in each section of indexes for my stampin up stamp sets as well so that as I'm "browsing" I can see all my stamps in one place!

Color, Color and more Color

While surfing the internet looking for ideas for my scraproom I found myself drawn to the beautiful pictures posted by people that group their embellishments (Ribbon, Primas and Buttons) by color. I decided that in my new room I wanted to do this. So I started looking for jars/bottles. I knew I was going to want different sizes and that I'd want them all to match (in some areas, this being one of them, I have a major case of OCD). I couldn't find one "set" that I liked in the stores. So off to the internet we go.

JACKPOT!!

I found several bottle/jar manufactures that would sell in what I considered small quanties (hey they weren't asking that you buy 100 of each or spend a gazzillion dollars with them so I was good). Then the overwhelming task of glass or plastic, what shape, what color lids....oh my!!

I finally settled on plastic (thank you Olivia) - no breakage and portable! :) I found some cool square jars in three different sizes. I ordered all three sizes - 4, 8 and 16 ounces. The smallest quanity I could get of each size was 24...not too bad. With shipping it came out to $1.30 a jar. Not bad at all. So the box arrived yesterday. A tad larger than I envisioned, but light as could be - another advantage to plastic.

So today came the task of sorting my primas (for those that don't know those are flowers), buttons and ribbon. Thanks to my dear dear best friend Beth things went pretty quickly.

The cute "starbucks" bottles of Primas I just couldn't seperate. As I use them I'll eventually decide there isn't enough in the bottle anymore and put them in the color jars. And the Paint Can one has some BIG flowers in that just didn't fit right in the plastic jars so they stayed in their original home as well.

We have now learned that I have TWO, or maybe it was THREE PURPLE buttons! Yep that's it...need to go hunt down some purple buttons. Oh and Yellow/Orange buttons - non exsistant in my collection. Some colors needed two of the large jars to hold all the Primas. And with the ribbon I used the medium and large jars - depending on how much I had for that color. I have tons more ribbon - but just sorted out the part that was in my ribbon purse thingie.

If you are interested in the company I bought the jars from check out SKS Bottle. I ordered on Sunday night and had them by Friday.

Ta-Da.....it's "DONE"

Okay so the room is "done".....of course we all know that papercrafters rooms are never truly "done". I'm very very happy with how everything came together. All my OCD and planning paid off! LOL

Every Monday night "the girls" come over and scrap here as my Fiance (Troy) plays in a pool league on Mondays. We have about 7 of us total that are regulars, but usually only 2 or 3 are available on a given Monday. So the table should work great. And if we do have a bigger crowd I have a white craft table we can setup just outside the room in the "loft" or landing area. So the early bird gets the primo spot!! :)

So here are the updated pictures.

Looking into the scraproom from the door. Everytime I walk into the room I just smile. :) I'm so loving it and can't wait to get started creating in it.

What I call "the storage wall". The bottom cabinets are the EFFEKTIV series from IKEA. I went with just the base (plinth) and the High Add On. This created a nice work surface at about counter height for the Cuttlebug, Paper Gator and it will hold my Stamps...which I'm moving to The ScrapRack when it comes. Not planning on using their inserts, just the rack itself. I already have all my stamps in the baseball card and other type holders in binders.

The far left cabinet on the storage wall houses the Cuttlebug folders and plates (in white box), my patterned paper and then some projects that I have been gather items for.

The middle holds my cardstock - for more on that see post below.

The cabinet on the right houses my stamping supplies - ink pads, embossing powders, alcohol inks, glitter glue (my Glitter Stairs from Nicole's Dad are on their way). The little white pale is holding some Ikea paint brushes that work great for cleaning up embossing powder.

Then we have the beloved Cricut Station. This is made up of the Ikea EXPEDIT (2X4) with the attached desk that they have. Then the small LACK shelf above.

Here is a picture of the Expedit cubbies up close. I made dividers for the box on the left to hold my cartridge overlays (more on that somewhere down in my blog) and then the two plano holders on the right hold the cartridge. Below are the notebooks that hold the cartridge print outs. The greyish bos on the top right is where I put cuts someone makes and then decides not to use so someone else can come along and grab them if they will work for them.

I used the BYGEL rail (found in their kitchen section) and the S hooks hold the mats and one of the 99 Cent cups they have holds the tools.

My Desk area. There is a bit of a recess in front of the window which worked perfectly for my desk and the Ikea (seeing a trend here) Alex unit. The computer is close enough to use DS with the Cricuts as well so it worked out really great. Plus I can watch the neighborhood out the window (I am the neighborhood watch coordinator, social director and the one that everyone comes to for "stuff"...we found these dogs do you know who they belong to, who drives the red truck, what's the scoop with so and so....yep we have our very own Wisteria Lane)

Next we have the right side of the two Ikea Billy Bookcases that are flanked on either side by the Ikea BENNO units (designed to hold CD's and DVD's). I found that the Stampin Up sets fit perfectly in the BENNO. My other wood mounted stamps are stored here along with the "inspiration" shelf which houses my magazines as well as binders of cards, layouts and page maps we use for ideas. My larger Xyrons and cutting tools are also stored below.

Then the left side of the bookcases. Top shelf is empty...but we'll remedy that soon I'm sure. Have my jars of skittles and then my embellishment boxes. My CAD II and Ribbon holder. Baskets with my In Stitchz and some other embellies. Then old photo albums are on the bottom shelf. And more BYGEL rails to the right to hold punches.

Now the best part of all....the scrap table! it's a dining room table from.....IKEA! DUH! it's the BJURSTA and has two leaves that store under the table. I have one leaf in now and if we were to add the 2nd you couldn't walk around it. The chairs are..........of course IKEA. They are NILS and come with two choices of covers right now. I love the blue, adds a nice pop of color. And then the TV that was in the room when it was a guest room and I had my sweetie mount it on the wall.

The closet to the right houses my printers and shelves with various things on them....like my Envelope stash.

I also left room for the girls to store their scrap bags in the closet if they want. As several live in the neighborhood.

I know most of the info is repeat from previous posts, but wanted to make sure to provide the info as I've had tons of questions about the new room - which is awesome as I'm happy to help. I searched the internet for months collecting ideas for this room and am happy to give back.

So that's it...all done! Tonight is the Grand Opening of Scrapper's Paradise. We are going to have a little celebration in honor of the new room before we get down to some scrapping.

Thanks for stopping by!

Cardstock Storage

So this morning I spent some time setting up my new Cardstock Storage. Can't claim this as my own idea as I saw it on the internet somewhere while looking at pictures to get ideas for building my room.

The EFFEKTIV units from IKEA are deep enough to hold the 12X12 paper holders, and the shelves are adjustable so height isn't a problem.

I used a Cropper Hopper Paper Holder for each color.
And inside each one is the smaller "project" holders that holds that colors scraps. I can really see me using my scraps more this way as they are so easy to get to. And they are easy to file the scraps when cleaning up after a project.

I also had plenty of dividers so I've placed a divider in each CH and have paper (or lighter weight cardstock) on one side and cardstock on the other.

And then above that are the other two shelves. The middle one is just tall enough to hold my Iris container that has a stack of papers that I found at CostCo or Sam's some time ago. Then the top is my 12X12 stacks, magazine holders on their sides holding Vellum, Transparencies, GP White Cardstock, and a small CH holding some of my smaller stacks and packages (like freebies from Archiver's).

There will be no doors on this cabinet so the paper is easy to get to. Plus I love the way the Cardstock looks with all the colors.

Everything is in the room - WooooHoooo

WOW it's been a busy day. We got up this morning and tackled putting the table and chairs together right after breakfast (I made Troy pancakes to butter him up for the work I needed him to do today Hahaha). LOVE LOVE the table and chairs.

So all the furniture was finally built and the fun began....carrying all my SCRAP CRAP upstairs. Who knew I could have so much stuff crammed in a closet that was like 3 ft by 8 ft. After a gazillion trips up the stairs everything is finally IN the room. And for the most part organized pretty good. Here's some pictures....still lots to do, but it's coming together.

First picture - looking into the room from the door.

Opposite end of the room looking towards the door. TV mounted right over the scrap table.

This is looking into the closet. We installed the Closet Maid Shelf Track system and I used the shelves I had downstairs in the closet. Funny thing - this closet is the same size as the one EVERYTHING was stored in before. To the left is my HP photo printer and Dell color laser printer.

The bookcases. Far left - my Stampin Up stamps, then my other wood mounted stamps, some notebooks with inpiration ideas in them, Xyrons, my "cutting" shelf with scissors, paper trimmers, CM shape cutters. The next bookcase is probably going to be "embellishments" and then the little one is all my primas and buttons. Then the Rails from IKEA for my punches.

The "storage wall". The end two cabinets will have the frosted glass doors on them (tomorrow) and then the midle one will be left open. The middle is where all my cardstock and paper will be stored. Then the left one is cuttlebug printed paper/cardstock and some other misc. Then the right one is my stamps cabinet - inks, embossing powders, etc. The top will be cleaned off to use as work space when using the Cuttlebug and paper gator, etc.

The Cricut Station. LOVE LOVE LOVE IT! I used the Expedit 2X4 with the desk that attaches. I have a set of LACK lights that attach to the top of the Expedit to shine light down on the Cricut Table. Used the BYGEL Rail with one of the plastic cups they have (99 cents gotta love it) to hold the tools, and then S hooks to hold my mats. In the expedit cubes are a cool box I that fits the overlays perfectly. I made dividers. More about this further down in my blog. I also have the booklets printed and in binders, then the carts are in the Plano Flipsiders. Underneath is a plastic storage cabinet that I got at J's last year - it's now empty but fit there very nicely.

The Alex - Troy painted it as it only comes in White. Looks great. It houses my office supplies in the top drawer. Prisma pencils and blending stumps in the next one, Other pens and markers, then Ribbon, embellishments and in the bottom drawer my various adhesive refills and blade replacements for various tools.

So that's my room. I'm so excited!! Can't wait to finish organizing and play!!

Thanks for stopping by! Check back for my updates! :)

We have furniture

Well it's 8:40 PM here and it's been a long busy day. Actually let's back up to yesterday. Troy and I went to Ikea last night to get the first car full (and I mean FULL) of the new furniture for the Scraproom. 2X4 Expedit, and the desk that attaches to it, 3 Effektiv units. 8 boxes in all. The car was truly full.

So this morning I get up about 8 AM and in PJ's start building furniture. Took me about 3 hours in all to get them all built. Only one injury...smashed my finger putting two pieces together. Unfortunately, my finger was also next to a screw and it took a nice chunk out of the finger along with smashing it. A little bit of cusing and a band-aid later I head back to it....Finger still throbbing like crazy, but I was almost done dangit!!

So after lunch I run to Ikea for car load #2.....by myself mind you. Was just going to get the LACK shelves for the wall above the storage stuff and then a few small things. But once there I decided that there was no reason for Troy and I to go back tonight or tomorrow for the dining room table and chairs that will be our scrap space....so I got it while there. So this car load....

• very large dining room table (thankfully IKEA stuff has to be assembled)
• 4 dining room chairs
• two of the long LACK shelves (~70 inches)
• one short LACK shelf
• some odds and ends (small ones thankfully).

If there are security cameras in the IKEA parking garage I'm sure the security guards were having a blast watching me try to fit this stuff in my little Audi A4. First one of the dining room table boxes...I honestly do not want to know how much that sucker weighted (and neither does my chiropractor). Of course it's on the BOTTOM of the stack on my flatbed cart. So I unload everything and set it aside. Then I stand the box up off the cart...no way I could actually lift it. The cart shoots out from under it as I tip it up of course. Good thing no one was coming down that aisle in their car. DOH! So it's now resting against the bumper of the car. Hmm width of box looks bigger than I thought now. I center it with the trunk opening, and grab the end on the ground and tilt it into the truck. UGH! BARELY fits width wise...seriously it BARELY fit..like maybe 1/4 inche on each side if that. So then box #2 of the table (first one was just the pieces for the top)...thankfully it's not too bad weight wise, but it's long. Good thing Troy wasn't with me on this trip....pushed the passenger seat ALL the way up. Box barely fits. WooHooo Okay so now the chairs...hmmm those boxes look bigger now too. Took some thinking and a few tries but they fit. Now at this point I had NOT bought the LACK shelves (forgot them until I was next in line for the cashier). So back in I go...since they were the main reason I went to begin with.

Back to the car with the shelves. Now where to put these things in this already packed car. Oh did I mention they are ~70 inches long...yes I know I did, just making sure you remembered. They were longer than the 2nd table box...remember I've already pushed the seat up as far as it will go. First one went in pretty easy sliding it on top of the chair boxes. However the second one took some doing. My trunk itself is very large, but the opening....not so much....width or height wise. The small shelf thankfully was small enough to go behind the front seats with everything else. Oh dang, forgot I also picked up 4 glass shelves for the Billy bookcases I already had in the room. GLASS....those were placed in the safety of the front seat. Yep good thing nobody was with me.

So home I head...with two LACK bookshelves peaking through the front seats. No fast stops or I'd be needing a new windshield. On the way home I decide to make a quick stop at Home Depot....needed an extension cord that had a flat plug for behind the storage stuff. Well I decide to pick up the pieces to put the closet maid shelf track system in the closet so we don't have to run out again for that (not that Home Depot is that far away...but heck I'm here right?). Thankfully I just needed the rails and not any shelves (moving the ones from the coat closet up there). But those things are 84 inches long.....yep you guessed it, slid up between the seats with the LACK shelves. Okay home we go.

WOW - long post! Sorry to go on and on....it was a very interesting day to say the least. Troy arrived home a bit after I did and he started hanging the rails in the closet, then on to the shelves. I decided to go with just one of the long LACK shelves after all. Yep have to put that darn thing back in the car to take it back. Yippee!!

Okay now for the part you have been waiting for.....PICTURES.

This first one is the Expedit with the desk that attaches to it...very cool. This will be the Cricut station. My computer is just to the right where you can't see, so I'll be able to use Design Studio with it.

The "storage wall". Next to the Expedit is the Effektiv units. I went with just one of the high add ons so that it's just above counter height. This will house the cuttlebug, Bind-it-all on the top. Then storage. The two outside ones will have glass doors on them then the middle one will be my paper storage. The cropper hoppers fit perfectly in them (they are deep enough).

The storage wall after Troy hung up the LACK shelf.

So that's where I'm at for now. IF I can move tomorrow morning I'll continue bringing everything up from downstairs and getting it put away. We also have the dining room table and chairs to put together too.

More updates to come........

Let the transformation begin.........

Yesterday morning Ryan came over to pick up the Bed and Dresser. They are "storing" it in their Guest Bedroom that didn't have furniture in it. While he was here he helped Troy move the treadmill to the other room....that thing is heavy, akward and just a royal pain. So here is a picture of the empty space where the bed was and the new wall of storage will be.

Next Troy tackled mounting the TV on the wall for me. It is awesome. Hmm just realized I don't know where the remote ran off to.

Here is my desk under the window. LOVE it. It has the computer on it now. And I can sit here on the computer and watch the activities of the neighborhood.

Well that's all the updates I have for now. Next weekend is the big trip to IKEA to get the rest of the furniture. So stay tuned for pictures of the room coming to life. I so can't wait!!!!!!

Before the transformation began.....

Here are the shots of the room before. Normally it didn't look this cluttered. BUT Troy wanted to park in the garage when it got cold so I moved the Care Packages for Soldiers project up here. The bed is covered with stuff that still needed boxed up.



Can I just say BOXES BOXES EVERYWHERE!!!



MORE BOXES!

The bookcases that are staying in the room...the only furniture staying. But they were going to hold craft supplies, so what to do with all the books. I ended up buying one of the Expedit's (2X4) from Ikea and putting it in our master bedroom laying on it's side (2 high, 4 across). It looks great.

So there ya have it.....

Designing Scrappers Paradise

So in my last post I mentioned that IKEA has software to help you design the room with their furniture. Here are a few screenshots of the room design.

This one shows the room as if you were looking through the walls. On the right are the original bookcases that were in the room. It's hard to see with this shot, but under the window is the desk and then the ALEX unit that I got from IKEA. It only comes in white, so Troy is painting it black for me. Have I said what an awesome Fiance he is? He's definately a keeper. :) Okay back to our tour of the room....on the left in the "back" is the EXPEDIT (2X4) with the desk they now have that you can attach to it. This will be the Cricut station. Then there are three cabinets from their EFFEKTIV system. Two will have doors and one is open shelves. The open shelves will hold my paper holders. On top will be the Cuttlebug station. I'm putting shelves above this stuff - just not quite sure what I want yet, so waiting until I get that wall of furniture in place to decide. Then in the middle is a dining room table from IKEA that will expand to accomodate my dear friends when they come over to scrap. And even found some cool and comfy dining room chairs at IKEA for the table.

So that's the planning. I, being the OCD person that I am, have a word document with the various pictures from the software pasted in and then notes about what is going where.

So here is the floorplan. Above the Dining Room table the TV is hung (another Troy project - thank you sweetheart).

Stay tuned - more to come as the transformation continues.

Why have a guest room when you have no guests??

So I've finally decided that I WANT A SCRAPROOM!! The dining room table has been great as it gives us room when the girls come to scrap. Though we've expanded to TWO white folding tables and sometime even a card table. But - I'm tired of either looking at the clutter (when I leave everything out) or putting it all away. I've also outgrown the Coat Closet we original converted to my scrap storage.

So....Why do you need a guest room when you have no guests?? Granted mom has been out to visit a few times and one or two other people may have stayed, but that's it in the two years I've lived in the house. So I made the decision that the guest room was going to be converted to my new Scraproom....Scrapper's Paradise we are calling it (Thanks Beth). We have a nice queen size air mattress (even one that is up off the floor) for anyone that wants to come visit, so guests are still welcome. :-)

So then the task began....designing the new scraproom. Oh what fun this was. I already had 4 bookcases in the room that are black, so knew I wanted to go with the black (or black/brown) furniture so it all matches. And Troy's desk is also the "black/brown" so we swapped desks. For the rest IKEA here we come! Did you know they have tihs really cool program that allows you to design your room using their furniture? It's AWESOME!! Pictures in next post