Picture heavy!!! My craft room

My craft space is fully furnished on junk that i have repurposed from the local hopsice/  goodwill.

 i promised to share something of my craft space with you so i decided since i am probably not gonna be able to craft for a few days since i stabbed myself in my finger with an awl, had to go for a tetanus injection and am on anti biotics AGAIN! i should probably take this lul in crafting and share my untidy studio with you.  Above are my paper stands that i just couldnt llive without, this is certainly not ALL the paper but i put the newest ones on here as i get them so i know what i have, there are other papers stashed away that i go through every now and again when i cant find what i want.

 there is a debate going on about the best way to store ribbon amongst some local crafters on a group that i belong to so i decided to share what works for me.  This was a really fugly bookshelf, minus the shelves, but when i saw it i knew exactly what i was gonna do with it.

 i bought these little brackets, not sure exactly what they called i got them at the habby and normally it think they are used for bathroom curtains

 i screwed them into the sides of the bookcase and threaded my ribbon onto a dowel and then just popped them onto the bracket

 I have two of these large printers trays with all my charms and metal bits in, i find that this is the easiest for all these little bits cos then you can find what you looking for at a glance

 All my pearls and rhinestones are kept in these bottles, my mother bless her, made all the little jam jar covers for them so that i could have a color scheme going on in my space.

 i had a long hard think for my punches, i found a cupboard thingy, not sure what it was originally used for, but i drilled holes in the side panels, threaded dowels through it and mountedit onto the wall so i could see most of my punches, unfortunately there are a few still in drawers, not many though

 My stamps i stamp into a file, then give each stamp a number

 you can see the numbers written in red next to each stamp

 then i have each of my stamps, some of them more that one, in a cd case, i look in the file for the stamp i want, take the number and find the box that its stored in, voila!! easy to find stamps

 these large sweet jars house all my roses and flowers, the jars were around R10 a jar, my mother and a friend of mine Sue made the covers for the lids for me

 here you can see into the jar, each jar has a color, some of the colors spilled over into more than one jar.

 these are my brads, i bought these great plastic boxes that have little partitions that open individually, so if i need to throw out a whole lot to scratch through i dont have to empty the whole box and also the colors dont spill into one another

 i also have anther similar plastic box with eyelets so i know where they are

 these were cardboard boxes that i found a gazillion of, they were flat packed and easy to assemble and just covered with some paper and added a label

 this the sad story of all my embossing folders that  i just had to have and hardly see the light of day, perhaps i need to find a better solution for these so that i would use them more often

 this here is my pride and joy!! i had an old tv stand in my wood workshop, it was calling to me for months before i had one of those lightbulb moments!! i made a frame to fit the top, added pin boards to the frame, then added another layer inside so that i could stick magnetic sheets to it for all those dies that cant hang.

 here you can see the panel that opens with the magnetic sheet on the inside.  this stand, being on wheels can turn and move around, each of the four sides opens like this, so i can store a WHOLE LOT OF DIES!!

 here you can see two of the sides

 this is above my desk that i sit and craft at, these are all my colorbox chalk ink refills and the bottom rows are copic refills and distress ink refills, on the side is another magnetic sheet that i keep my Magnoia dies on so they dont get forgotten

 My diestress ink stamp pads right in front of me while i work in case i need them.  Also distess markers, and memento stamp pads

 more stamp pads

 all my Martha Stewart punches on a crib rail that i picked up at the junk store and mounted onto the wall

 this was some kind of cutlery caddy that my dear friend Moz's husband altered for me so that i could put all my prisma pencils in.  i just covered it with my paper when it came home to me

 My copic storage system, boy this one has been so many things before i found this the best system

 A cup stand that i sprayed an antique white rustoleum, houses my most used scissors and lives on my desk

 these last few pics are an overview of my space.  the table in the centre my husband kindly donated in case i feel like sharing some of my space and time with fellow crafters/ friends.  My children sometimes come and sit here with me while i work

 thats the desk i sit at in the far corner

 Here you can see the junk piling up in the corner next to my paper stands till i have another clean out and find what i want to do with these items,then the ribbon stand with paint brushes etc on top of it, and then the stand that has all my little bottles of pearls and rhinestones.

those boxes that you see at the bottom of that stand were tamato boxes kindly donated by Dale a friend who also has a lot of them in her studio, i painted mine and then put a black chalk board paint strip across the front so i could label what was in each box, i also made liners for them, thats the checked fabric you see peeping out of the box.
I hope that some of these storage ideas will help others.
have a great weekend
smiles
Paola

The Paper shelter celebration

Just a quick post from me to give you a heads up that The Paper Shelter are celebrating their 100th challenge this week and they are generously offering you a chance of winning a fabulous $20 gift certificate.  There are not only one but FIVE chances to win!  Hop on over to the challenge blog and enter your creation

smiles

Paola

Paper Shelter guest dt

Happy Valentine all my friends in bloggy land, our challenge to coincide with todays date, is Be my Valentine.

Today i am using "Jurassic Love" available in the store, isnt this just the cutest little image for that monster love we feel for our other half?

of course colored with my copics and loads of details to highlight my image and inspire you to do what makes you happy.  I stitched each of my layers, added loads of pearls.

I do think that the rest of my card is pretty self explanatory, i dont seem to have very much to share today besides for my card, lol.  I hope it will inspire you to join our challenge at the  Paper Shelter, if my card doesnt do it for you, go check what the rest of the dt have done, sure there's something to get the mojo going.
have a great weekend
smiles
Paola

DT call

I am rather late in putting this up on my blog, life gets in the way of my good intentions sometimes.
you will be thrilled to know that the Paper Shelter are having a dt call and let me say right here, this is a fab team to work with and their images so versatile.  I have been on the team permanent and this time just doing a geust stint for them, but i would be thrilled to be on this team anytime.  If you wanting to get in with some great girls and FABULOUS images to work with, this is the time.
good luck and have a fabulous week
smiles
Paola

Tilda with heart socks

Can you believe i am posting again this week?  i know, i dare not outdo myself, it may become a habit, lol.
I just had to share this card with you since i totally got carried away enjoying the process of putting a card together for a challenge as apposed to doing it for a commitment.  Its been a long time since i did something just for fun.

I am using the sketch from sketchy challenges


i just loved that it has so many layers
i am also gonna be entering a few other challenges with this card, hope i have read the rules correctly and dont disqualify myself by entering too many challenges with my card.

the paper is kinda old from Amercan crafts, all the other drek is from my endless stash.  I intend to do a little video sometime this week to show all of you that are interested in seeing, my STUDIO!! boy i sure have come a long way as far as having my studio done and organised so you can look out for that if you would like to see how the other half live in South Africa.

hope you like my newest card, thanks for visiting
smiles
Paola
challenges i am entering with this card:
sketchy challenges  see sketch above
Magnolia down under love is in the air
Totally Tilda Picture inspiration
One stop craft challenge anything goes

things dont always go according to plan

I had a vision for this image, but if i tell you when i look at it now, i ask myself "what was i thinking?"
the paper is too busy and my image seemed to get a bit lost.  However i thought i would share with you anyway, since i know that i havent posted much lately.
I was reorganising my studio a few weeks ago and pushed a wall unit that i hadnt unpacked, across the room and managed to tear the ligaments in my back, so i have kinda been man down!  will be a few more weeks before i manage to feel 100 % again, but am pleased to share that i am feeling a lot better.

so for my card i used lots of layers of die cuts and doillies, tons of Gesso on each layer, a pearly flourish and i would have liked to have made the image appear as if she were on a layer of flowers, oh well you win some and lose some.  I haven seemed to recieve any new stamps in months so i went ahead and bought this one as i just had to have her.  Hopefully the postman will bring me some new stamps soon so i can get inspired by all the new stamps out there and start to share some more of my work.
smiles
Paola