My First Cards EVER!!

Hi Everyone!! I had 2 birthdays in December, My Mothers was the 12th and my Daughters was the 26th so I decided to try my hand at making a couple of cards. I have never made a card in my life so this was a whole new venture for me. After asking a bazillion questions over on the Cricut Message Boards ( Thanks Night Owls ) I decided to use some premade cards I had and just do the fronts. I made them both the same. I used SCAL to cut the font and I used Bazill Bling for the background. Everything else is from my stash. I did realize that I need to buy some sentiment stamps though. I hope you like them!! This first one had a bad glare on it so I took a couple of others. You get the idea!!

Craft Room Update.

Well, how about some pictures!! I am by no means done with the craft room but I have been making a lot of progress. I just have sooooo much stuff to clean and sort out and organize that I am starting to wonder if this isn't a lifetime project, and if I will ever be able to grab my coffee in the morning and go sit and just craft...lol. That is my ultimate goal but I don't see it happening anytime soon. If you have been following my blog since the beginning you know what a mess I started out with a year ago. We packed it all up and moved it mostly into my back bedroom and pretty much all over the house...lol. We painted and put up shelving and arranged and rearranged the furniture and changed our minds a ton of times...lol. Well, I have the all over the house part tamed now and have started on that back bedroom. OMG!! What a mess!! NEVER have 3 TALL teenage boys move boxes and bins into a room without CLOSE supervision...lol. I had to have one of them stop by one day just to get some of the stuff that was stacked ABOVE MY HEAD down...lol. Slowly but surely I am making some progress with it though. Some days it overwhelms me though and I just have to walk away. I just wish this cold weather would go away so my arthritis would let up some and I could walk a little better. It would sure go a bit faster I think...lol. So, here are some pictures. You can click on them to make them larger.

This first one is a bunch of unfinished crochet projects and yarn I sorted out to go on my needlework shelves and in my yarn bins when I finally get to them. I am also scrubbing down all containers, drawers etc... as I go so this is actually more of a project than it looks. EVERYTHING is soooo dusty and dirty from sitting so long!! I am just glad that I was organized enough back then to containerize everything. Oh, this is happening in my living room...lol.

These are my needlework shelves before I put all the above away. They were turning into a catch all since they are right inside the door from the kitchen.

I nipped the catch all shelves in the bud though and got them all cleaned off and got everything put away on them. My sewing machine is on top with room to expand if I need it. Crochet books on the next 2 shelves down. Plastic Canvas books, yarn and canvas all on the next shelf. General Craft books and then Cross Stitch on the next shelf. Under the shelves it worked out perfect for my unfinished projects and a set of drawers to hold all my crochet hooks, knitting needles, sewing notions etc..

These are my scrappy shelves and Jet Max cubes. I have been labeling as I go and trying to organize them more but I keep finding more of what I have already done to add so decided I am going to get like with like and then organize it after I get it more together. The cubes on the left are actually going to go under the TV whenever I get one of my strong grandsons over to put them there for me. My shelves aren't necessarily going to be very pretty but they sure will be functional...lol.

These are all markers etc.. that I got all sorted out and labelled. They are ready to go on my "Wet" Shelves.I am hoping I can find some more of these containers because I have a ton more buried in that back room yet.

This is how I decided to do my stampers. I have all my wooden rubber stamps sorted and labelled in the clear containers by what they are. Then I have all my clear stamps in the zippered binders. I like them for the Studio G stamps but I am not thrilled with the binders for the bigger sheets of stamps. I am checking into CD or DVD cases instead. I have a few in some cd cases and I like it a lot better.

You can see my paper/cardstock drawers on the left here and then this is what I call my "Wet" Area and shelves. Again, still a lot of organizing and work to do here too. My wet area will hold all my stamps, markers, inks, paints, anything "wet". I have 3 paint racks on the desk for all my little bottles of paint. and a whole lot of stuff to go on these shelves yet that I haven't found in that darned back bedroom...lol. OH, those are all my punches hanging on the door to the garage storage.

This is my office area. I have a ton of office supplies and I have just been stacking the boxes in the garage for now. This will be the last area that I really get organized and finished. Who cares if the bills get paid. I want to do my CRAFTS!!!   LOL

These drawers are what I am working on now. Cleaning and sorting them out. I have 8 of them total and put 3 in the corner of my craft tables and put my Making Memories Carousel on them. I really want to keep these drawers because they are great for bigger things.I am going to see if I can fit them in next to the Jet Max cubes the TV is going to be on. We shall see.

Just one of those drawers is full of adhesives. This is why I can't justify buying an ATG gun right now, though I would love to have one. I think I need to use some of this up first. I TOLD you I have a lot of stuff...lol.

And THIS is all that is left to go through in that back bedroom. Thank goodness all the big bins will go into the garage storage. They just need cleaned up and labelled but are for the most part organized.

And this is the little bit of carpet space I have won so far in that room...lol. It doesn't look like much but I am pretty proud of it since I haven't seen any of it in a while. I keep telling myself slow and steady wins the race, but boy it would be nice to have all this done.

And that is my progress so far. I am trying to have the back bedroom cleared out by March 1st. I think I am going to call and see if I can get my daughter to come help me one Saturday. It is really hard for me to do all the carrying and moving the heavy stuff by myself and she is a great help. Plus if I can get one of the boys to help too that would be WONDERFUL!! Please leave me a comment and let me know what you think!! Believe me, I know I have a long ways to go yet but I have a good start!!