Latest Antique Finds

It's no secret I hoard all things vintage! (have you seen my Etsy shop?)  Here are a couple of my latest finds that I have put to use in my studio as storage:

Working in the Studio

Spending some time in the studio today.  I started working on this mini but wasn't sure what photos to use so the project is stalled.  But I liked the pieces so much I thought I would share a photo - don't you just love the embossed antique book cover?  Hopefully we will see the end of this one sometime in the future....

More Cardboard

This is what my work table looks like after a project:

Actually I don't think that picture even comes close to showing you how much of a mess it is - probably because you can't see the floor (which looks about the same as the table....)

I had a little bit of cardboard left and some scraps so I made an ATC and a tag:

From the Studio

I think my studio clean up is officially over.  I still need to take pictures and do a "big reveal" - hopefully I will have that ready soon.  But for now I am going to show you what I have been working on.  We went to NYC for our honeymoon in 2007 and I have been holding off on scrapping the photos because I wasn't sure how I wanted to.  I really wished I had been doing travel journals back then because now I have these photos (and sadly not that many) and a few brochures but I can barely remember anything about that week!  (I have a terrible memory!).  So now I am going to go back and make a mini for it.  I have only worked on the cover and inside of the cover but thought I would share - the cover has a vintage NYC postcard from 1909 cut out to fit the circle on the front of the 7 gypsies book cover:

And finally a sale update: I added more items to my "Spring/Summer Cleaning Sale" in my Etsy shop.  This is the last of the items - so get them while they last.  

Summer Studio Makeover Week 11

My studio is now 99% done!! YAY!!  The floor is completely clear.  Stuff is in its place (for the most part!).  If you are a facebook fan you saw that I hung up art on one of my walls.  I also decorated one of my other walls which is what I am sharing with you today.  I really wanted to incorporate some of my collection of vintage stuff - cameras, photos, paper goods.  I hung shelves above my windows and metal pottery barn shelves on the wall (which quite frankly were a giant waste of money and are really only good for what I did with them - they aren't very practical!)

 

So what do I have left?  I few more staging and decorating projects.  I have one more blank wall I need to figure out - and a chair! I need a new chair!  I'm currently using one of my dining room chairs which doesn't match and needs to go back to the dining room!  Hopefully I will have pictures of the whole completed studio soon!

Summer Studio Makeover Week 10

I haven't made much progress in the last week - I have a lot going on that has taken me away from the blog and the studio - some good (visiting family), some not so good  and still trying to find a way to process and share.  When I get stressed I just shut down so I haven't really done much lately.  Today in place of studio progress I thought I would share with you a little bit of the studio today that is done - how I store my paper. There's the debate of whether or not you should store by manufacturer or color or theme or all in one giant pile!  I store mine by manufacturer.  This works especially well for me because I am obsessed with paper - I can name you a manufacturer, paper line, and paper name just by seeing a sample.  When I do a project I can envision a paper I want to use for it and I know the manufacturer right away.  Because of my obsession -this system works well for me.  It probably doesn't work so well if you buy and scrap more based on theme - if you sit down to scrap mostly holidays for example you probably just want to have a stack of Christmas, Halloween, etc.  I store my paper in shelving units - easily accessible and out in the open.  I find if I keep paper in boxes in a closet I won't use it - I tend to use whatever is easiest to find. 

I keep all my paper scraps and store them in individual bags by manufacturer.  I find its probably better to store your scraps the same way you store your paper - because that is how you have taught yourself to find paper for your projects.  I keep the bags stored in a box in my closet.  I tend to not use scraps that often but from time to time will go back through and use them for punches or cut them down to 4x6s and 5x7s for mini books. 

So how do you store your paper?  Any great tips or links?

Summer Studio Makeover Week 9

Do you see that?? It's the floor!!! You can see the floor!! YAY! 

In other news - I have been wanting the Distress Stains for months - and I finally bought them - all of them (because really how can you just choose one or two colors??)  I haven't really done anything with them yet other then change the color of these grey tickets - which I'm totally loving!

 

I have a great idea for a mini book for tomorrow's thrifty thursday - hoping it will work out the way it is in my head!  See you tomorrow!

Summer Studio Makeover Week 8

I spent a lot of last week working on the studio and I'm feeling good about it - I'm hoping it will be completely done in 2 weeks (or maybe 3?).  This weekend I worked on a replacement for my cork tiles.  Actually I came up with the idea - Dustin put it together!  I have been holding on to a bunch of vintage yard sticks for some time and I got this great idea to glue them to the frame of a cork board to make a frame:

I like how it turned out - it will look a lot better once I take the time to put stuff on it and put some stuff on the wall around it.  I hated those cork tiles I used to have - I do NOT recommend them!  They were crumbly and the little squares they came with wouldn't stick to them so they would keep falling - of course the squares stuck to the wall a little too good and now I have horrible little squares left on my wall.  I got the majority of the adhesive off but there is like a small layer of adhesive left - any idea how to get that off???

I also wanted to show you what I did with the other gumball machine.  I filled it with ribbon bits:

And remember to check out my studio destash sale in my etsy shop here - I added more die cuts

This post is linked here:

Summer Studio Makeover Week 6

I made some real progress this week!  And by this week I mean last night at midnight!  I decided to rearrange my studio a bit.  I moved some of my shelf/cube things on to the wall of cubes.  (now they are stacked 4 high instead of 3). 

I also moved my table to the middle of the room:

And I moved my antique sewing table to a different wall:

And see that horrible cork inspiration board thing?  Yeah I hate that - the cork tiles don't stay up and they are sorta crumbly - BUT I have a FANTASTIC idea to replace - seriously I got this great idea at like 2am - I'm hoping it will work out and am excited to show you!  (but I'm not telling you just yet!)

Thanks for sticking with me on this studio makeover journey!  I know it feels like its taking FOREVER!  But I did warn you it would take the whole summer!!  I only work on it a couple hours a week and only because I know I have to post it on the blog - which is a good thing because its forcing me to work on it and I know I'm going to love it when it is all finished! 

And remember you can purchase some of the items I am purging from my studio in my Etsy shop - here.  And if you are interested in buying multiple items from my sale (particularly the larger items) convo me - I would love to make you a deal!

Summer Studio Makeover Week 5

Not much change in the studio this week.  The big change was in the closet:

I cleared almost two shelves worth of stuff.  Where did it go?  My etsy shop of course!  Lots of stuff - check out my SALE items here.  And I am still trying to figure out how to purge my huge stash of paper - paper costs so much to ship! But I basically have a closet full of it to get rid of

Summer Studio Makeover Week 4

Two steps forward.. two steps back

(we come together 'cuz opposites attract!) - sorry for the Paula Abdul tangent...

So good news and bad news - good news my sister came to visit so I cleaned the entire house.  Bad news - my sister came to visit so I threw all of my craft supplies back in the studio (unorganized).  

But more good news - etsy supplies are all organized (and stacked in the dining room):

 

And if you didn't catch it last week I still have a few chipboard grab bags left here 

Summer Studio Makeover Week 3

Well it's week 3 of my summer studio makeover and I don't have a picture of the studio to show you because I didn't do anything in it this week.  I did however work on organizing my etsy stuff (which I am including as part of this makeover).  I went out and bought 3 large plastic bins that hold file folders:

 

They are all filled with etsy paper - one is for united states travel, one international travel, and one miscellaneous paper for my etsy kits.  They are all FULL and it took me about 4 days to organize all the paper into these bins and I'm still not done!!  I didn't realize I had so much stuff until I started to sort through it.

How you can use this storage idea:  The plastic bins are ugly but they are functional for me because I have such a high volume of paper I need to store.  For the normal scrapper/crafter you can use this idea to organize embellishments (maybe stickers or alphas?) or paper scraps.  Target and office supply stores have smaller (and cuter) versions of these boxes that might be perfect for organizing items in your craft room!

And I got a little ambitious and decided that I would turn this into the summer of organization (to include my entire house - don't worry I won't bore you with pictures of my organized closets etc).  I bought this book:

Which:
A. Means I have run out to target every day to buy new storage containers making this the most expensive $15 book I've ever bought and...
B. Means I have started little organizational projects all over the house - creating more of a mess - I definitely like to start little projects everywhere versus finishing a project before starting a new one!

And finally - I found another drawer of die cuts to get rid of - find die cut grab bags and more in my spring cleaning sale section of  my etsy shop here.

Summer Studio Makeover Week 2

Ok so you might not see much of a difference from week 1 to week 2:

Some of the clutter is gone from the floor and half of the table is cleaned off.  I did clean out an entire drawer of die cuts i still have 2 drawers full)- and sold all of them on etsy!  I also went through the process of moving all of my ribbon from these carts to drawers.  I like the carts but they take up a lot of space. I am selling a bunch of my ribbon here. 

I also didn't show you my closet last week - actually a lot of my stuff is already organized - most like items are in a drawer or container.  I have all my paper organized by manufacturer and I have containers for flowers, brads, etc.  The real problem is getting rid of stuff.

Oh and I spent most of my week finding art on etsy to buy for the walls of my new studio - yes when faced with the challenge of cleaning/organizing a room I go straight for buying new stuff to put in it!  And if you have any suggestions for cool prints for the wall I would love to hear them!  I am trying to support other artists on etsy.