My Scraproom is ALL ORGANIZED!!!!!!

I'm so excited to report, that after many many hours of working, my scraproom is all done and it feels GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!! Yeayyyyyy!!! I've got tons of pictures to share!

First, a couple that I took during the cleaning and organizing process. I just couldn't resist...

Check out the cat in the box - lol...

and Willie giving his stamp of approval on my cat fort idea...

Okay, now for the FINISHED ROOM. These pics start at the left side of my room, and work their way to the right...

This is my desk area and inspiration wall. This is where I do my day job, as well as my personal computer work, so it's a mix of both things. The beautiful "Beauty" painting was made by Aimee. The rest of the artwork in this picture is mine. You can see my Project 52 ATCs from last year hanging from the ribbon, still waiting for the last four to complete the series. (Note to self - get those done)...

Another angle of the same wall. On the left, you can see a washboard I altered, where I keep my to do and project lists. It comes in soooo handy...

Moving to the right you can see my personal printer and my two adorable scrapping companions Johnny and Willie. Below the desk are two carts. One is full of art journaling stuff, and the other is rubber stamps. The beautiful pillow was made by my sister, and the gorgeous green throw was made by my mom. I love them both so much! Then you can see one end of my ikea bookcases. These cubes house cardstock, patterned paper, and other miscellaneous goodies. The tall boxes are repurposed postal boxes that have scrappy kits in them...

Here's the rest of the bookcase, along with my attached scrapping desk. This is where almost all of my scrappy stuff is organized. The red and orange buckets next to the desk house my newest kit, and other newest items, so they are easily accessible..

These are the most important cubes, because they are right next to the desk. They have my most frequently used items in them. Markers, mists, paintbrushes, tools and some adhesives...

Here's a closeup of my spray inks/mists, pan pastels, and most frequently used inkpads...

I just love this retro suitcase I got at a garage sale. It's just my style...

I keep masking and packing tapes in it...

Continuing to the right, you can see the newly organized part of the room. On the far wall, is a set of blonde cubes that house printer paper, ink, Blank CDs and various other tools.

The wall is where I'm going to tape my most recent layouts for awhile, before they go in albums...

A close up shows the newly organized clip-it-up. I decided to keep only alphas on the bottom row. This is where I keep paints, and also my beloved retro 70's typewriter...

and this is my new Ikea entertainment center. (Well, it was new for Christmas.) The big space in the middle will eventually hold a flat screen tv (when I save up the money for one - which might be awhile); but for now it's a good place to display my art journals and layouts. The entertainment center also has albums, books, stereo, embellies, fabric and other miscellaneous stuff...

Here are a few closeups of the cubes. One thing I love is that I still have room for expansion. Like, for example, there are still some empty jars to fill...

Here you can see a vintage train case, which is now my portable art journaling kit. And the big roll of paper from Michael's papermill...

Some happy tapes in a Margarita glass that is a souvenir of a trip to Colorado...

This is a soft sculpture that I got at a women's spiritual retreat. I just love her...

Here is my little ATC pouch. I made this at a make and take led by the adorable and talented Jeannie Lutz...

It holds lots of ATCs!



And that's it! My new room is complete and I am feeling SOOOOO INSPIRED!!!

Thanks for coming on my tour with me!

I Have Been Bitten...

Do you ever have a situation where you can live with something for just so long and then, all of a sudden YOU CANT STAND IT ANYMORE??? That happened to me this morning! I wasn't even out of bed yet, and all of a sudden I thought "I absolutely HAVE to get my scraproom organized TODAY!!! It's been a mess since I got my new bookcase back in January, and I just can't stand it anymore! HA! I have been bitten by the cleaning bug!

Here are some quick pics of how things are looking now, and believe me, they look worse in real life...





EEEEKKK! Off I go. I will report back later with how it went. Wish me luck and continued motivation!!!

Here's wishing you all a wonderful Saturday!!! I hope your crafting areas are more organized than mine!

Binding it All Up...

I finished binding my Let it Loose Journal tonite and now it's all done! It feels great to finish a big project, doesn't it? Here's how the finished book looks...
I used a grocery shopping bag that already had a sunburst graphic on it, and wrote the title on with a white sharpie. The rest of the cover is happy tape, and Love, Elsie adhesive fabric.

Here's a closeup of the binding...
I used some Stampin Up ribbon, and a bunch of beads I still had from my beading days. I just love this binding technique and I can tell I will be doing alot more of it!!!

Let it Loose was a fun and inspirational class to be sure! Here's a recap of all the pages I made...










I don't know if I could pick a favorite lesson. I think what I loved most about the class was the variety! I also really loved getting reacquainted with my markers again! Now, I'm thinking I might have to invest in either some copic markers, or some of those Tim Holtz refillable alcohol ink markers. For any of you who have either of those types of markers, what do you think? Do you recommend one over the other?

Also, if you took the Let it Loose class, I'd love to hear what your favorite part was!

I hope you all have a fantastic Friday! Thanks for visiting!

Summing it Up...

The idea behind the last page in our Let it Loose journals was to sum up our experience, and I chose to go back to a couple of my favorite lessons - doodling and altering photographs. I had so much fun with this - again while watching more episodes of "Heroes..."

My glossy Stampin' Up Cardstock, is so old it is yellowing on the edges, and now I am finally using it - and LOVING it! It's super fun to color on with markers!

I also finished my cover tonight, but I think I will wait to share that until after we bind them. That is our last lesson and it will be up on Thursday.

Let it Loose has been such a fun and inspiring class! I highly recommend it - whether you have never tried art journaling, or you've been doing it for awhile. The lessons are fun and easy to follow, open enough for interpreting in your own style, and the atmosphere is super supportive!

That's it for today - I hope you have a wonderful Wednesday! Thanks for visiting!!!

Quoth the Raven...

The Letting it Loose class is winding down. I finished the second-to-last page of my journal, and I'm really liking how it turned out. The lesson was all about using color to create a feeling/mood. Here's what I came up with...
I decided it was a good time to pay tribute to my totem animal, and one of my all-time favorite poems - The Raven - by Edgar Allen Poe. I got the raven image from the web. The rest of it is glimmer mist, acrylic paint, gesso, thickers and sheet music.

I've been meaning to do a mini-album based on "The Raven" in it's entirety, but I haven't gotten to it yet. I love that poem so much! The mystery, the cadence, the lost love and yearning - the whole thing is just a masterpiece if you ask me. The minibook is for another time tho.

Oh, hey, did you hear that Prima is now offering free, live online classes now? It's really cool! I tuned in for some of Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's class today and loved it. You can chat with other audience members and ask the teachers questions live. Check out their video site here. If you can't be there for the live class, they are archiving them too.

Now I will leave you with a picture of Willie with one of his fascinations - the printer. He absolutely loves watching the paper shoot out...

I know I am biased, but seriously - how cute is he???

Okay, now I'm off to finish my last page for my Let it Loose journal. Then it's on to the cover and binding! SO MUCH FUN!

Thanks for stopping by! I will be back tomorrow with another update. Have a fabulous Tuesday!

Monday Update...

The new song this week at Scrapping The Music is "Anyone Else But You" from the movie Juno! Here's what I came up with for the challenge...
I used my Studio Calico "Baker's Dozen" kit for this one, and I misted the glitter alphas with brown ink to make them a little more manly. The pic was taken on the skylift at the San Diego Zoo last year.

There's a great prize this week - a kit from the Magpie Kit Club! Come on over to Scrapping The Music and check it out! We'd love to have you join in the fun!!!

There's an AWESOME post at Kelly Kilmer's blog today called "Thoughts on Journaling." I found it to be really inspiring and thought-provoking. Check it out here.

I'm in the middle of a Let It Loose lesson, and I'm hoping to get it done before bedtime. Hopefully I will be able to share tomorrow! Have a great Monday my friends and thanks for stopping by!

February Project 12 Layout...

Part one of my February Project 12 is done - the sketch layout. Here is the sketch that Becky Fleck created...

and here is how my layout turned out (click on the photo to see details)...
I used my new Studio Calico "Quilting Bee" kit (so glad my neighbor delivered it!!!). This kit is going to be one of my favorites! I love so many things about it! That background paper is by Studio Calico and I wish I had more of it now! I can't wait to do part two - the calendar page! I have some design team and class assignments to finish first tho. For more info on Project 12, click on the widget in the sidebar.

The slideshow for "What's So Bad About Feeling Good" is up at Scrapping The Music - click here to check it out! The new challenge will be up tonight around 8pm, so stop by and see that too - it's movie song week and we've got a good one for you!

Alrighty, I'm off to catch up on my Let it Loose lessons - wish me luck!

The Tale Of The New Kit Debacle...

I waited excitedly all day today for UPS to deliver my new kit. It never came. I checked the tracking info and it said it was delivered and given directly to a man at our house. This did not happen. When I called UPS they said it must have been given to a neighbor and I should check with my neighbors and if they did not get it then I could contact Studio Calico and they could contact UPS and then they would start an investigation. I live in a townhouse development so asking my neighbors would be an ordeal. I have a lot of close neighbors and I have no idea which one would have gotten it. I asked them if they could just ask the delivery person where they delivered it and he said no, they can only do that if they start a formal investigation. AARGH.

I know it's only scrap supplies, but still I was disappointed because I really wanted to use my kit at my monthly crop today!

The good news is the story has a happy ending. About 9:15 p.m. a kind stranger delivered the package to our door. They had delivered the package to him on a completely different street! Needless to say I thanked him profusely, and proceeded to lay out my kit to ooh and aah over it...
I had wanted a second add-on but didn't have the money for it. I did, however, have a credit (from the garage sale) over at my LSS; so I went over there and put together my own add-on! Totally fun! So, here's a pic of how my new kit looks with my custom add-on incorporated into it...

I know at first glance it doesn't look much different, but if you look closely, there are six new pieces of patterned paper, four new sets of embellies, and a piece of cherry veneer. I also added some more cardstock in bright colors and a couple different kinds of ribbon - both from my own stash.

So, now I am off to get ready for my crop! I am so excited! I am going to work on my Project 12 sketch layout, and also make some cards!

I wish you a super-duper Saturday, filled with inspiration and creativity! Thanks for stopping by!

The Unknown...

The February 15th prompt at Artful Amblings was "Unknown," and the technique was to stitch on the page. Here's what I ended up with...
Materials used are magazine images, poster paint sharpies, watercolors and embroidery floss.

The Artful Amblings Journal Group is free and a lot of fun!!! To check it out click here!

I got my Studio Calico shipping notice for this kit today...

Quilting Bee

and this add-on...

Honeycomb

So much cuteness I can hardly stand it! EEK! I'm so excited!

Alrighty then, I guess that's it for today. I'm off to start on another project. What are you working on?

Thanks so much for visiting!

Rediscovering My Markers...

Our 8th lesson in the Let it Loose class is all about doodling! OMG I had SO MUCH FUN doing this one! (I know I say that all the time but it is truly TRUE!) I have a pile of Stampin Up shiny cardstock that I never use, so I pulled it out and tried my markers on it and wow was it fun! The coating on the cardstock makes the marker colors come out so nice and bright - yeayyy!!! I stamped three of my fave stamps with Stazon ink (necessary - so it doesn't smear) and then just doodled and colored while watching numerous episodes of "Heroes" on my computer! The three stamps are the spirit girl (designed by Angie Delarie), the frog (rubber soul) and the word dream (Love, Elsie). Here's how it came out...
One of the things I am loving most about Marit's Let it Loose class, is that the lessons are open enough to let you interpret them in your own style, while giving you ideas and techniques to expand your boundaries! I know I am going to be using what I've learned in the future and I love that!

Now I'm in the middle of the "Unknown" prompt for the Artful Amblings group, and while the background is drying I've got time to start the next Let it Loose lesson which is all about color - YEAYYY - I LOVE COLOR!!!

I hope you are having an inspired week my friends! Thanks so much for stopping by!

Bold As I Wanna Be...

Sooooo, I just finished my 7th Let it Loose assignment, and I have to say this class is really getting me to stretch my horizons! I had so much fun making this wild and crazy-looking woman...

I used the Studio Calico "Baker's Dozen" kit, plus pieces of magazine images, and sharpies.

I feel so honored that Davinie Fiero chose to feature my Project 12 layout as one of the examples for this month's Project 12 post at her blog! Check it out here! Thanks so much Davinie!!! I can't wait to get started on this month's sketch and calendar pages!

We announced our March guest designer at the Scrapping The Music Blog today, and she is awesome! Help us welcome her here!

I will be back tomorrow with another update - thanks so much for stopping by!!!

New Scrapping The Music and Fave Things...

The new song at Scrapping The Music this week is "What's So Bad About Feeling Good" by Ben Lee! It's one of those songs that is light and fun and makes me smile! There's a line in the song that goes "We can share a moment in time," and when I heard it, it made me think of the day of Obama's inauguration. What a historic moment in time that was. I had been saving a newspaper article from that day, so I scanned it into my computer and shrunk it down to make this layout...It's funny cuz my original plan for this layout was kinda the opposite of how it turned out. I made a "stars" stencil out of a piece of cardstock, and then misted thru it to make red and blue stars on a white background. That background turned out to be rather underwhelming, but when I looked at the stencil itself, I LOVED it! So, I added a little doodling and just used the stencil as my background! I love happy accidents! :0)

Anyhoo - come on over to the Scrapping The Music blog and play along! It's going to be a fun week!

The new challenge at the Fave Things blog is to scrap your favorite friend! I decided to go with my favorite furry friends Willie and Johnny...
Come on over to the Fave Things blog and play along! We would love to see your interpretation of the challenge!

Now I'm off to scrap because I still have some catching up to do.....

Have an awesome Monday my friends! I will be back tomorrow with another update! Thanks for visiting!!!