This is what happens...

...when you clean your craft room! They move on in and take it over!

A birthday card for my nephew

I am a bit behind on my posts, so without further ado....

My nephew William is turning 11 this year! I can hardly believe it!!! It seemed not so long ago he was this little baby! Well now that he is older, he loves to go fishing! I don't know if it is the fish or that he gets to play wit the worms! Just kidding! Michelle Zindorf had this on her blog a while back, and when I saw it, I knew it would be perfect! So I had to CASE it for him! Here is her original post on the card:

http://zindorf.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/2010/01/04/gone-fishing-tutorial-292/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+http%2Fzindorfblogssplitcoaststamperscom+%28Freedom+in+Creating%29

I still have to get a hang of my brayer, but I don't think it turned out too bad! :)

An altered bottle

I am in a swap on my Favorite MB. We each get a partner, who we learn about and then create some goodies for. This round I am paired up with Sheila, aka Mopster67. have to say this swap is by far the easiest Partner swap I have ever done! Sheila is great! And the themes are awesome! Not too hard, which is what my brain needs right now! LOL. The theme for this one is "flowers".

Anyway, I got the bottle of flowers from a craft store, removed all of the labels, including the one that held the lid on. then I used my sticky strip to hold all of the pieces on. I used my circle punches and Scallop circle punch from SU. The images are from the "Circle of Friendship" and the "Petal Pizzazz" sets. The patterned paper and ribbon are from stuff I had on hand.

Stamping on candles

These are also for the Valentine's swap. The theme for this one is "Love". I used a white candle I had on hand. Then used Stampin' Up's new FABULOUS "I {heart} Hearts" set stamped in various shades of pink and red. I love how this one turned out!

7 days of Valentine's Swap

I am in a swap on my Favorite MB for Valentine's Day. There are 7 days, each with a different theme. This theme was "container". I used the Ornament Punch from Stampin' Up to make the strawberries. I trimmed off the point, and the part the hook would go in. Then I freehand drew the stems. I used the new "Dot, Dot, Dot" stamp from Stampin Up, inked in Versamark, and then embossed with black embossing powder.

A Little "Bugs and Kisses"

I was playing around one day making cards and came up with this design. I actually had done a card swap a while back and we used this card sketch. I though it was pretty cool then, and I still like it.
I used Stampin Up's Wide Oval, Scallop oval and Large oval punches, as well as the 1 1/4 " square punch. I used inks as well as cardstock I had on hand for this one, but i liked the end result so much, that I went back and made some in Stampin Up Colors! They will be on my Stampin Up blog in a few minutes! :) The set I used for this was "Bugs and Kisses".

It's finished!

Ok so here it is. Now mind you it is NOT one of those craft rooms you see in magazines, or are featured in some write up bout organized rooms, but it is my little space, improved! LOL. I spent the last half of my Christmas Break cleaning and straightening, recycling, and tossing, stuff from my craft room! It may not be the most organized room out there, and certainly not the prettiest, but am happy! Gone is the pile of "stuff" from under my table, replaced by the cart seen in the post below. Gone is the pile of stuff from both corners of my craft table! And more importantly, gone is the dangerous lopsided pile of stuff from in front of the bookcases! I even straightened and de-cluttered the rack on my door to hold all of my Stampin Up ribbon, and punches. YEAH! Even my hubby complimented me when he came home from work!

But I have to say, if it were not for my friend Terri, who was also straightening her room in Lancaster, (PA) and all of the texting between each other to stay motivated, it would still look like a huge mess! And just as I was about to give up and call it a night, Cheyenne came to the rescue!!! She walked in and asked if she could help with anything, and she did! She found spaces I hadn't seen, and did a lot of the bending for me, not to mention, give me a second wind! So to Terri and Cheyenne, thank you!!! Couldn't have done it without you!!!

And now, that I can find stuff, and move....I should be able to make lots of wonderful creations!!!

My new cart!!!

Part of my Fiscal goals (read more about them on my other blog:

http://ginathorntonstamping.blogspot.com/ ) for Stampin Up and my New Years Resolution is to use it or lose it! LOL that is in craft supplies! I have already gone through my closet (that had everything from half finished projects, to soap, candles, plaster, wood, cross stitch etc etc) and reduce, reuse, recycle. I was able to get a good amount of stuff out from under my craft table, which made room for the cart above! I now have space for my Bug, my BigShot, my cutter, my Stampin Up markers, and the bin for all of the booklets for the bug. And the best thing? $17 at a big box store for the cart! It was meant to be a TV cart. I just left off the wheels, and added those magic glider things underneath of it to make it slide! It also freed up some space in my bookcases, which I still haven't finished organizing. And you'd be proud of me, a good amount of scrapbooking magazines are now at home in the Recycling Plant! I mean really I had YEARS worth of them! I still have MANY more to go through though!

True there is still stuff under the table, BUT it isn't as bad as it looks! There is a milk crate under there that I need to go through and get rid of more magazines, and then two folding files with paper in it, and then some misc stuff that didn't really fit elsewhere, but then again I am NOT finished. It is a work in progress! And I do still have more room in my bookcases that I can now rearrange stuff! But I am happy that there is now room or my feet under the table, and the huge stack of stuff that was in front of my closet is now gone!

Another New Years Resolution is to use my Bug more. I have it and so many cartridges, but rarely use it. Mostly because of lack of room! But now that I have a permanent place for it (so I don't have to drag it out into the kitchen to use, or worse sit on the floor an end up with a sore back) I plan on using it a lot more!

So there you have it! Now off to work on it some more!