Moving In The Furnitture

I just wanted to do a quick post and show you all the latest progress on the craft room. Saturday my daughter came over and we got the furniture in place. Her SO (significant other) is coming over one day this week with a couple of the boys and is going to put my shelves up. Finally!! My neighbor is coming over soon and is going to hook up a TV in there for me too. I didn't take any pictures of the peach wall because right now it just has ladders and paint stuff sitting there. Eventually that wall is going to have my littler fridge and freezer on it with shelves above them for my small kitchen appliances, cookbooks etc, so it's really not part of the actual crafty space...lol. I don't have a lot of cabinet space in my kitchen so I needed the storage. For right now I am going to use the space to put boxes and bins to go through as I bring them in. I am hoping we can get the shelves painted this weekend and then I can really get to work putting things away.

This is a view from the kitchen door into the room. I even have space for a couple of friends!! The TV is going on the left end of the credenza that is on the yellow wall. I haven't decided where to put Big Mama, my Cuttlebug, my Bind It All and my 2 printers and camera dock yet. We'll see once the shelves are up. Please excuse the mess.


This is just my big file cabinet and my loose paper and cardstock drawers. They are just the 12x12 drawers you can get at Walmart. I have 12 sets of them here with room to expand. I think I am going to go ahead and pick up 3 more this week "just in case" they quit selling them or something. Plus I am not sure this is all my paper yet so I "might" need them...lol. The big file cabinet will have all the 8.5x11 paper that was in the smaller file cabinet, plus i have files of crochet patterns etc to go in it too. Plus whatever else I decide to stuff in it. Hmmm, maybe those DCWV stacks will fit...hmmm. LOL, I am still undecided about a lot of things and will probably change things around a million times before the room is all done.


This last one is just a closeup of my Jet Max Cubes. I have my DCWV paper stacks in them and they will be full of all my "junk" when I get putting things away. Nothing is organized yet. That was all just stuffed in them in my bedroom and my grandson just carried them all into the craft room full. I have to get the drawer handle back on that one drawer too. I forgot about it until I just looked at this picture...lol


OK, now I am off to find my surge protectors and some cable cord for the TV hookup. I also am in a stamped images swap with some girls on the Cricut Message Board so I am going to try to get them done today and mailed this week. You all have a good day and leave a comment and let me know what you think!! Hugs, Pam

THE CRAFT ROOM IS PAINTED!!

WOOHOO!! My Daughter and 2 oldest Grandson's came over Saturday and finished painting the craft room. I was really on the fence about all the colors but have decided I LOVE IT!! It kind of looks like the inside of an easter egg I think...lol. The colors are actually much lighter than in the pictures even. I love it when the sun is shining in the window!! It is so bright and cheery and is going to be such a fun room to do my crafts in when it's all completed. I am soooo excited!! My daughter said it is the coolest room she has been in...lol. And she is the one who suggested this and helped me pick out all the colors. I love the blue ceiling and the lavendar wall the best. I am so glad now that my little granddaughter insisted I have purple. And of course I took pictures to show you all. We hadn't even cleaned anything up yet...lol. Remember, the shelves still have to go up everywhere so it will break up a lot of the color. The shelves and hardware are going to all be white to match the trim. My Daughter wants to paint clouds on the ceiling but I think it would make it look too much like a nursery. So let me know what you think!! Do you like the colors? Do you hate them? Please leave me a comment!! Hugs, Pam

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Don't forget to let me know what you think!!

Craft Room Update

There has been lots going on the last 2 weeks!! The white primer coat of paint has been sprayed in the craft room!! Woo Hooo!! We are still going to have to brush a coat on the trim I think. But FINALLY the painting has begun!! I haven't really been able to go out there yet because he just sprayed the 2nd coat Tuesday but my daughter stopped by and that was her verdict. I will take some pictures when we start putting on the colors. I can't wait!! I want to get it set up sooo bad so I can start crafting!!

I have been a shopping fool this past week. I got my tax return back last Friday and it's been spend, spend, spend since. I got 3 more jet max cubes from Michaels which gives me a total of 15 now. I just love those things!! I also got a bunch of their little $1 bin stampers and ribbon. Walmart loves me this week too. I got a bunch of stuff I have been putting off, plus I got 2 more of the Sterlite 12 x 12 drawers for my paper. Now I have decided I need 2 more and hopefully that should do it. I also bought a blue Bind It All from an online friend. It should be here soon and I am so anxious to try it. One of my first projects I think will be to make my Mom a book with pics of all 5 of her grandkids and all 5 of her great grandkids that she can show off. What else did I buy? I placed 2 seperate orders from Joann's. I think I got 7 new DCWV paper stacks all together, not all the new ones but all are new to me. I also ordered 2 Ott Lights for my craft tables, some Disney Princess paper and some cute mini stamps. Other places, I ordered some house mouse stamps, 2 12 x 24 mats for my Cricut Expression plus the Wild Card cartridge, and some O wires and covers etc... for the BIA. Peachy Keen Stamps is having a sale Saturday so I am going to order the Animal Kingdom Faces and the Doodlecharms Winter Faces then. I can't draw to save my life so I NEED these stamps..lol. I am on the fence about an ATG gun too. I have TONS of adhesive already so it's up in the air. I have to curb my spending after that because I still want to get a new computer. I haven't decided if I want another laptop or a desktop to put in the craft room. I am keeping this laptop too so I will have portability no matter what. Decisions, Decisions...lol.

OH, I ordered A Scrap Rack!! And it should be delivered today!! I am watching for the UPS man to come. I just ordered the base unit with 7 spinders to start with to see how I like it. Remember all those green PSB Binders on my bookcase? I am hoping to empty all of them onto a scrap rack eventually. It is kind of pricey but I need to get all that out where I can see it and then I will use it more I think (I hope). I also think the dividers and pages I have in the PSB will fit the Scrap Rack so it will just be a matter of transferring everything. What I like about the scrap rack is that it is expandable and you can expand it a little or a lot at a time. I just ordered it Saturday and it is due for delivery today so their shipping is fast too. I will definately let you know how I like it. Well, one thing is for sure, if I ever get this craft room done I will have plenty to keep me busy. I have been playing some in Design Studio and actually pulled out the Expression and made a few cuts from it so I know it works...lol. I also downloaded Inkscape and the trial version of SCAL. I LOVE SCAL!! I have almost 20,000 fonts and it was WONDERFUL to be able to use any one I wanted. I am going to get the full version as soon as I find a little time. Now Inkscape is another story. I used Paint Shop Pro X when I had a signature tag group over on Yahoo, and Inkscape looks pretty similar, but I was not very good at vector graphics even after taking some online classes. I think it is just overwhelming me a bit and I need to take some time to sit and play in it and figure it out. I will also look for some tutorials for it. Doing helps me a lot more than reading about it. Wish me luck!!

On the home front, my oldest grandson is wrestling in the State Wrestling Tournament up in Denver this weekend. He took 1st in his weight class last weekend at Regionals and my sophmore took 5th, just missing states by 1 place. My oldest grandson is ranked #1 in the state in his region and weight class right now. I am hoping like crazy he wins 1st place this year. He is pretty determined after his 6th place finish last year, and when that kid makes up his mind to do something it is pretty much done. I wish him all the luck in the world.

For those of you that don't know what a Scrap Rack is click HERE to check it out.

OK, I am going to go stalk the UPS man and the mailman both to see where some of my stuff is...lol. You all have a good day and I will update again real soon!! Hugs, Pam

Craft Room Is Ready To Paint!!

My craft room is all ready to paint!! I am so excited. My Daughter and oldest Grandson came over Saturday and we got it all ready. Everything is moved out, except 2 heavy file cabinets and a credenza that would take 10 men and a boy to move, and it's all covered in plastic, the windows are covered in newspaper, and the blades are off the ceiling fan and the rest of it is covered too. I talked to my neighbor and he is hoping to spray it Wednesday. He is going to do the whole room white, which will be the primer coat for the walls, and the trim is going to stay white so that will save us a ton of work trimming. We still need to take the doorknobs off and I have to cover the doorway into the kitchen in plastic so the fumes and paint in the air don't get to me, ( I am on oxygen 24/7 ) but other than that it's all ready!! My 2 oldest Grandsons have Regional and then State wrestling tournaments the next 2 weekends so my daughter won't be able to get here, but she said she will try to come one day during the week and at least get the ceiling done. I know I won't be able to take the fumes while he is spraying but if I do ok while my daughter is painting, I am going to try to paint the walls on my own. We'll have to see though. It is getting closer though!! Did I say I am excited!!

It's hard to believe we went from this (view from the kitchen doorway);


To This (same view from kitchen doorway);

And this ( view back to the kitchen doorway);

Did I say I was excited!!...lol. ( Edited to add; I think I set the date on my camera wrong...lol. )

Cricut Expression Giveaway - Drawing Over

Danielle, over at Life, One Layout At A Time is giving away a Cricut Expression!! Hurry on over there and leave a comment. You can enter 5 times a day until February 6th at 9pm EST. Be sure to tell her PamInColorado from Big Mama's Craft Room sent you and we could both win a prize!! Her only requirement is that you be a resident of the US. Good Luck!!

I Have Been Tagged!!

I feel so honored!! Thrifty Granny over at Granny's Thrifty Scrapbook Blog thought enough of my blog to tag me...lol. Check out her blog. She has a lot of wonderful cards over there. From what I understand, when you are tagged, you are to go to your pictures and pick the 6th folder and then the 6th picture in that folder. Post it and explain what it is all about. So here is my 6th folder and 6th picture!!

This is my 9 year old Grandson Dre opening one of his Christmas presents at my house Christmas Eve. I am just glad it wasn't the 5th picture because he had the present in front of his face in that one...LOL. He is my 4th grandchild of 5 and a definate charmer. They were all here that day/night and we had fun baking runny cookies and cake that didn't rise and then we ate pizza and Gramma's Creamy Cheesy Hammy Potato soup for supper. The soup is a tradition I think now because they always ask for it. Our baking skills were definately lacking because we forgot the high altitude adjustments...lol. Now I remember why baking cookies at grammas house is slicing the ones with the pictures in the middle and baking them...lol...

So now it is my turn to tag 6 well deserving bloggers that I love. I've chosen Amber, Okie, Nilda, Glenda, Alex and Alice. I follow all their blogs very close and every one of them have tons of learning tools and ideas. Check them out!!

Paint Colors

It's been a bit since I have posted so thought I would show you the paint colors we picked out for the Craft Room. We have been kind of at a standstill the last couple of weeks because my 5 grandkids have been keeping my daughter very busy with their sports and school in general. Hopefully she can help me more this weekend. We do have the room almost all cleaned out now though. We just need to get some help with the heavier boxes and furniture. My neighbor said he would primer/paint the whole room with his sprayer since our first coat in the room is going to be white anyways. The trim is going to stay white so that will save us a ton of time trimming. Plus he said he would spray all the shelves too!! I am really getting more excited the closer we get. So here are my colors!!

They look a lot darker than they really are here. I think because I scanned them in. They are actually more pastelly. (is that a word?) The ceiling is going to be blue (sky) and as you walk in the room from the kitchen the left wall will be purple (flowers?), then yellow (sun), green (grass) & peach as you go around the room. My little granddaughter insisted I have purple and I like peach so that's what we ended up with. So what do you think!! I want this to be a FUN room, but didn't want it to look like the inside of a circus tent either so I didn't want any bright or primary colors. My daughter actually suggested doing all the different colors and I figure it is only paint and we can paint over it if I don't like it. Besides, I can blame her if it turns out bad...lol. I want whoever owns this house after me to walk in this room and go "What the ???? was she thinking???"...lol. I actually think it will be fine with the white trim, white shelves and hardware to break it all up, plus my craft tables and jetmax cubes are white. Once the shelves do go up and I get done filling them with all my jun ...er... "stuff", I don't think you will be able to see all that much of the wall colors anyway. The white should break it up a lot. My daughter wants to paint clouds on the ceiling too but I'm not too sure about that. We'll see!! Leave me a comment and let me know what you think!!

Moving It All Out

Hello again!! My daughter and grandsons came over December 23rd and started moving all the bins, boxes and drawers out of the craft room, or as they call it Gramma's Crap Room...lol. They worked hard and got a lot of it moved into the spare bedroom. We had taken the bed down in there and leaned it against the wall just to make more room, but it still wouldn't all fit. I wanted to get these pictures posted to show you where we are at now. Things have been on hold with the holidays and all but hopefully I will be able to get in there and get more of it packed up this coming week. She will be here next Saturday to finish up packing and moving the furniture out, and hopefully we can start painting then.

As you can see we did make some progress.

View from the kitchen door

The bookcases. We haven't packed them up yet.

The wall of bins is gone. Now you can actually see the door outside.

Not much change here yet.

What a mess!! More boxes to be packed and more junk to pack in them...lol.

There's that file cabinet!! I knew it was back there somewhere!!

And there is the little file cabinet that is full of paper!!

Almost all of the wall of drawers are gone too!

These really aren't good pictures but they give you an idea of what my spare bedroom looks like right now...lol. These were taken from the doorway. Everything is stacked wall to wall and pretty much floor to ceiling. That is the ceiling fan light in there and it is solid boxes and bins all the way back to the walls.

Thanks For Looking and Please Leave Me A Comment!! Hugs, Pam

New Years Goals

I have decided to post my goals for the New year here so I can see how I did next New Years. The last one will be the toughest but I can do it.

My goals for the New Year are;

1. Finish Craft/Scrap room redecorating. Paint, shelves etc..

2. Unpack & Organize my tons of scrap and craft supplies ( packed for room redo. This one will take months...lol )

3. Stop COLLECTING supplies and actually use them...lol.

4. Learn to make cards

5. Learn and use Cricut Design Studio more.

6. Explore the different uses for my Cricut Expression - etched glass, vinyl, making embossing folders etc..

7. Organize my pictures and do more LO's

8. Buy and learn SCAL

9. Keep track of my crafting expenses for the year. ( not sure I really want to know this one...lol )

10. De clutter and organize my house more. Get rid of my HOT SPOTS!!

11. Go back on South Beach Diet ( I lost 44 lbs in '08 - Long way to go yet but I LOVE this diet )

Leave me a comment and let me know what your goals are!!

Hello Again!! Since I am totally new to blogging I am going to attempt to put some before pictures here of my craft room. We had already started on it at this point but you can still get an idea how bad it was. I am really embarrassed to show these but since this is the beginning of my journey I need to. This room is actually the back half of my garage that was already remodeled when I bought this house. Kind of a bonus room since my house is pretty small. The front half is used for storage, and yes, I have MORE craft "stuff" out there buried in boxes and bins.

This is the view from the door of my kitchen into the craft room. We had already cleaned off the shelves on the wall back there and the corner desk. My 2 craft tables are buried right in front of the wall of bins. They used to be in the middle of the room facing each other but I moved them to make room to work.


This is inside the door to the left. I have 2 bookcases there and on top of them I have my template, sticker and die cut binders. I used fabric paint to label the handles so I would know what was in each one;


Here are the same binders, my bookcases and the start of my wall of bins;


My wall of bins. These are all full of various craft supplies. Yarn, dolls, glass jars and wood things to paint, fabric, you name it. There is actually a door to the outside behind them;


Bins & Shelves;


My old desk. There is a huge, gray, 4 drawer lateral file cabinet behind the bins and boxes;


My punches are hanging on the door into the front half of the garage. You can see the end of the gray file cabinet here and there is a white metal cabinet to the right of the door too;


My wall of drawers. The white metal cabinet is on the left and there is a 4 drawer file cabinet full of 8 1/2 x 11 paper in the corner. These drawers are full of embellishments, cutting systems, cross stitch supplies, plastic canvas supplies, and just crafty junk. There are unfinished crochet projects in the small tubs on top of them;



More of the Wall of drawers back to the door to the kitchen. I have a small white pantry on the end that I keep kitchen appliances in. This wall will have a small refridgerator and upright freezer on it and some shelves above it for kitchen storage when the room is all done. ( My kitchen doesn't have a lot of storage ) The fridge and freezer are in the front of the garage right now and I need easier access to them.


Last one for now!! We are back at the kitchen door.


So now my journey really gets started. I am so excited about it!! My older grandsons are coming over one day next week while they are out of school to help me haul all the boxes and bins to the spare bedroom. We are hoping to get it painted ( wait until you see the colors!! ) between Christmas and New Years and to put the shelves up right after that. We are going to get the shelves cut to size and then I will have to paint them once they are cut. That will take me a while. I am hoping we can be all done and I can start sorting and putting things away by mid January. Wish me luck!!

Welcome To My Blog!!

Hi!! Welcome to my blog!! A little about me first. My name is Pam. I am 52 years old and I live in Colorado. I have 1 daughter and 5 grandkids that I am very proud of. I am starting a new journey in my life after retiring in July '08 due to several disabilities and I am hoping you will join me as I blog it here. I have a room in my house that was my craft room and over the years, as my health deteriorated and my hours increased at my job, it became sorely neglected and a big catch all. A disaster area in other words...lol. Since I have been home now for almost 6 months and have a lot of time on my hands, I am finding I am really missing all my crafts. This blog is to record my journey of completely redoing my craft room and then showing you all the different things I create after it's put back together. I recently purchased a Cricut Expression (I named her "Big Mama" and since I am a bit of a Big Mama myself, if the shoe fits I say...lol) and a Cuttlebug and am really anxious to try my hand at cardmaking and a few other papercrafts. I also purchased Design Studio and am hoping eventually I will master it well enough to make some .cut files of my own. SCAL files may be a good possibility in the future also. I also love to crochet and do some decorative painting, but I'm not all that good at it. Donna Dewberry I am not, though I have tried to learn her style of painting. I love to paint clay pots and glass jars though...lol. I am hoping you will find something to interest you here and will come back often!! Hugs, Pam in Colorado