A Quick and Easy Christmas Card

This time of year is super crazy at my house.  No matter how often I say that we are going to have a relaxed and enjoyable holiday, it seems like everything goes nuts starting the day after Thanksgiving.  And this year is no exception.  So last week passed in a blur of holiday craziness with work and school squeezed in. 

But over the last couple years, I've learned that a few quiet minutes in my scrap room each day go a long way to maintaining my sanity.  So this weekend I was determined to get back on track.  My craft room is a disaster right now which makes me crazy, but I squeezed in some crafty time - the organizing is going to have to wait.

I woke up Sunday with an idea for a card inspired by paper from Studio Calico's card kit last month.  I knew it would come together quickly, so it was perfect project for this time of year. 

I started with a plain white card base - I know they are easy to make, but I buy them just because it makes things so quick and easy.  I trimmed the great tree paper from the Walden card kit so that it was slightly smaller than the card.  Then I added a piece of vellum over the patterned paper. 

I knew I wanted to create a simple cluster in the bottom corner of the card.  I pulled out the stamp from this month's embellishment kit - Waldorf.  It had a small pine branch that was just what I had in mind.  I stamped the image a couple of times with Studio Calico Color Theory Yes Peas Ink and made sure the images overlapped slightly.

For the sentiment I used the stamp from the Garland Road project life add-on (November 2014) from Studio Calico and Gold Galax Brilliance Ink.  I placed the image just to the side and below the branches.  I pulled out one of those "vintage" wood veneer "tweets" from Studio Calico to link my sentiment and pine branches.  I colored it a soft red with a pale tomato Hero Arts ink dauber.    It just took a few tiny gold star sequins to finish it off.

I love when a project is inspired by a paper or embellishment.  They always seem to come together so quickly.  Link me up with your last project inspired by a supply in the comments.  I will pick one link at random for a $5 Studio Calico gift card.  I will choose a winner on December 21 - that way you will have the gift card in plenty of time for the January kit reveal.

I still have to pick the winner of my holiday giveaway - hopefully in the next few days. It totally got away from me last week.

Thanks for stopping by!

Organizing My Stash

As my husband likes to say, it seems like I'm always trying to come up with a better way to reorganize my stash.  This weekend the spring cleaning bug hit and I was at it again.  I'm really happy with the end result, so I thought I'd share what I ended up with along with some pictures of my scrap space (with lots of pictures).  (This post is kind of long but I tried to use headings in case you were looking for a particular section of it.

My Desk
Last fall my husband built me a great custom desk made so that I can work comfortably while standing (since I seem to do most of my scrapping that way).  It has cubbies down both sides of the front and shelves along both sides.  Technically, it can be used by two people (like a partner's desk) but I really use the whole space by myself.  The fun stool came from World Market

.

The top of my desk is my primary workspace.  I use a magazine holder on its side to hold file folders with inspiration pieces and memorabilia related to current projects.  And I have two spinning racks to hold small embellishments and adhesives that I use frequently.

The Spinning Racks
Just before Easter I asked my husband about making a run to Harbor Freight to get a Harbor Freight spinner.  We didn't have a chance to go before the holiday, but on Easter morning I found six round divided trays in my Easter basket.  I call the poor man's Harbor Freight Spinner.  They are each divided into six compartments and are stackable.  I divided mine into two sets of three and love them. He got them at Home Depot where each tray was only $2.50. Roll of washi  that are current favorites sit on the top post of the spinner And the best part is that I can easily add additional tiers if my stash grows (not that anyone can see that happening :))

 Thickers
I have a real weakness for alphas and my collection of thickers might be out of hand.  They were taking up tons of space, I couldn't keep track of what I had and they were everywhere.  Because they are so bulky, my alpha storage was totally inadequate.  Organizing my thickers was a priority this weekend and I ended up with this basket where they are sorted by color.  A few other favorites are along the side and mini alphas sit in front.  The basket fits perfectly on one of my shelves so the thicker problem is solved - they are organized and accessible - and there is room for a few more.

Cardstock
I'd been keeping my cardstock mixed with patterned paper (sorted by color).  But as my paper collection has grown, this has become less functional.  When working on a layout and looking for coordinating cardstock, it was cumbersome to dig through those piles.  And it was difficult to know what colors I had.  This was a problem because I like to stock up when cardstock is on sale and I want to be able to identify what colors I need quickly.  A smaller version of the thicker basket now holds cardstock, sorted by color.  I can find what I need quickly and get a quick idea of colors I need when cardstock goes on sale.  This basket sits nicely on the same shelf as the Thicker basket.

Embellishment Tray
I made a brief attempt at Project Life and had acquired this melamine tray to hold my supplies for that project.  But I'm a project life failure, so the tray was just taking up space.  I filled it with baskets holding some of my favorite embellishments - tags, envelopes and bags, sequins, PL cards, and enamel dots.  The tray serves two functions. First, it is deeper than my shelves so it extends my shelf space.  And when I'm working on a layout I can pull the tray out on my desk and have my "go to" supplies easily available.  It makes cleaning up after a project easy too.

Sequins
My newest addiction is sequins - they are inexpensive, so much fun and add so much interest to projects.  But I like to keep them sorted by color.  I bought these clear plastic tubes on etsy to hold my sequins.  (The tubes are intended to hold seed beads but they work perfectly.  The tubes fit neatly into a basket (see above).  I can see the colors, check out different combinations and not worry about my colors getting mixed.  (I do use one of the compartments on my spinner to hold a mix of my sequins too because sometimes a random selection works better - and they are so pretty.

Wood Veneer
Wood veneer is my other addiction - I can't resist.  But I like to take it out of the package and store in a way that is easy to use and sort.  I found these divided plastic boxes at the container store.  You can get them in a variety of sizes and with different compartment sizes. (I have four now and need to add one more.) They work perfectly to store wood veneer.

The Rest of My Space
I'm not showing you here, but I have a cropping station along the wall behind my desk.  My most commonly used tools sit along the top and it holds my patterned paper, other tools and less frequently used supplies.

Now if only I could get motivated to organize the rest of my house.  In the meantime, I'd love to hear your storage tips for supplies. Have a great Monday.