Craft Room Stuffs . . .

This is a post of this and that in the craft room. . .  Cleaned up the bunny mess from Easter and put all those things away and decided to make some changes in the craft room that I have thought about for awhile but just never did them.  First my work table in the craft room DH had built for me and it holds my thin dies - here is an older photo of that:



I decided to move my die cutting machine cart next to my work table so when I am doing all my die cutting I have everything within reach.  This cart I keep my Big Shot and Cuttlebug on is a kitchen cart that I had picked up a few years back at a thrift store for $15.00 and it has served the craft room well:

What began the moving things around was making all the treat holders for Valentine's Day and also for Easter. Looking for dies I had and not really knowing where they were - due to holiday, theme, or even sizes of the dies - I decided after Easter that I had to make a much better storage plan for these dies. Many times when I am making holiday cards I am not working on the treat holders at the same time so no reason to keep the dies together. Long ago I bought two of the pink Zutter storage boxes with the Zutter die storage sheets and dividers inside. Wanted to use them for the larger, longer dies.

With me filling those boxes with dies I decided I would need a third box for extra sheets but before I went online to order a third pink Zutter box... on a trip to Walmart I found a white box with navy blue handles and it was the same size as the pink Zutter boxes. I bought one and brought it home and the Zutter magnet sheets and dividers fit in the box perfectly. Eventually I bought two more of the boxes at Walmart - with the royal blue handles - and these boxes are about an 1/4" of an inch smaller inside so the Zutter sheets do not fit inside but I keep border and edge dies in those boxes and some are on the magnetic sheets I cut to size using the magnet vent covers from Lowes. The plus for these boxes is they can be stacked and the lids keep the dies from getting dusty.

After the last two holidays I gathered up all the 3D dies I had on hand so I could now keep them together. I emptied out two of the die storage boxes and began organizing and sorting the dies. Looking at the photo under the cart are two of the die storage boxes - one of them is for bags, boxes, treat holder dies and the second box is for holiday dies only -- BOO Day, Christmas, Easter, Fall, etc. The Zutter sheets are bigger magnet sheets and they can hold a lot of dies or a die set with lots of pieces. Here are a couple of photos to show the dies on the sheets:

The above photo shows a gift bag set on the left from Pink & Main, and the bag die set on the right is from Mama Elephant. This next photo shows dies for Fall/Thanksgiving from the holiday die box:

Keeping these 3D dies and holiday dies in their own boxes will save time when I want to work on treat holders. Also it is easy to flip through the magnet sheets to see what dies I have on hand.I keep them under the cart so they can easily be removed and put on the work table. I used the label maker and one box is labeled "Bags, Boxes, Treat Holders" and the other box is labeled "Holiday" so if I buy more dies I can easily put them away until they are used.  No longer will I have to try to figure out where everything is. With moving the die cutting cart next to the work table I will now have plenty of room using the work table to make a lot of the die cuts for projects ahead. 

But also on this die cutting cart I have two clear bins on the shelf below the machines and these bins hold all the extra cutting plates, foam sheets, shims and platforms for the two machines. With the cart having metal shelves the bins would get stuck on the metal parts so I asked DH to cut me two pieces of luan plywood to set on the two shelves on the cart so I would have flat bottoms on the shelves. Here is a photo to show the two bins:

In the bin on the left for the Cuttlebug I have extra plates/platforms as well as two clear plates I have marked so I use them for embossing folders only. By not using them for die cutting the plates stay flat and give me a nice embossed finish that is even on my card stock.  The bin on the right is for the Big Shot and that has extra plates and platforms for that machine as well as foam sheets and shims. Sometimes with more detailed dies you need to use a shim or maybe a metal plate on your platform to help the die cut the details better. This way everything I would need for each machine is right below it in the bin. Moving this cart next to work table was long over due ... but once I moved that I then reorganized the 3D dies as well so this is a big improvement for crafting using dies but . . once that was done....

For awhile now I have wanted to change the layout of my trimmer table, Right now I have it on the wider, lower Alex unit with casters from Ikea.  But there is not much room left for paper scraps, etc.. So I measured and decided what I wanted and off to ask DH if he could build me what I was looking for. I told him it did not need to be out of oak or great wood as scraps would do as I was planning on eventually painting it white. I did want him to put a backing piece like luan plywood on it so nothing would get pushed through the back. Within an hour he came back into the craft room with exactly what I wanted, built and sanded and ready for paint:

Now I can keep a bin under the trimmer for the card stock scraps and I also have room under there to store my junk trimmer for plastics and card boards and such. In time I will probably paint this shelf  but for now this is a welcomed addition to the craft room. Happy me to have that area improved for storage and use.

A couple of months ago I had seen a spinning rack for storage from an online craft store. The price for this plastic storage unit plus their shipping fees made this an item that I did not want to pay so much for - esp since it is plastic. So I decided to go on Amazon and I found these two holders that are for makeup storage but they look just the same as the one I had seen online. Plus with Prime the shipping was free. I ordered two of these and a few other items I wanted and when they came I put the boxes in the craft room but did not get to open and assemble them until this week. Here is a photo of them:

Right now I just have my Nuvo drops and pastes on them but I will organize them better once I have them in place where I will use them in the craft room. My concern was how well they would spin with weight on the holder and even with the items on it it spins well and evenly. It does not wobble and with the adjustable shelves you can easily move them around for taller or shorter items. Good item for upright storage and they can hold a lot. They look just like the ones from the online store but they were cheaper on Amazon.

Working on items here and there but nothing serious since I just put away all the bunnies stuff for Easter. I did die cut my "wicked" word die for future BOO Day projects and have them in an envelope for now to keep them together:

Back to cleaning up the craft room but wanted to share some photos I had not yet posted. TFL

More Easter Treat Holders

This post shows more of the treat holders I had made for Easter:

This Carrot Treat Holder die is from Lil Inker Designs. My PIC (stamping Partner In Crime) had bought this die for me during the going out of business sale from Lil Inker Designs.  This is a really nice die as it cut the heavier orange card stock I used for the carrot.  I used an Easter printed card stock from a 6x6 pad to decorate the front and back of the carrot box. On the sides of the box I used a green printed card stock:

Once my box was assembled, filled, and tied closed I added small orange crystals to some of the carrots on the printed card stock on the front of the carrot. Here is another one of the 5x6 card stock baskets I made using the tassel trim from Hobby Lobby:

Inside is paper shred and two Ghirardelli chocolate bunnies and a gold chocolate bunny by Lindt in the front. I used a holiday paper pack from Sunny Studios for this other treat holder:

This holder holds four of the Hershey chocolate egg candies. Here is a photo of the back to show all the tulips on the printed card stock:

Their holiday printed card stock has a good weight to it and that helps this holder to be free standing and also for the scored lines to hold their crease well. This was my first purchase of their 6x6 card stocks and I am happy I bought it! Time to pack away all the loose bunnies in the craft room and start working on some other holidays.  TFL

Easter Policy Envelope

This is a post showing my first policy envelope I have made. To begin with after seeing a few of the policy envelopes made on YouTube I had to decide if I wanted my envelope to close on the front or on the back. I wanted to use a velcro closure so I decided I would have my envelope close in the front. I was making this envelope for Easter but I did not want a holiday themed card stock so I decided on floral print.

I measured the item I was putting inside my envelope and that decided the size envelope I would need to make. Here is my finished envelope - not decorated - to show this:

I used a scoreboard to make my envelope and for the corners I used a corner rounder punch. For the bow at the top I used a Pink & Main bow die. With the envelope put together I sponged the edges of all sides, and top flap, using a dauber and a light peach ink. To decorate the envelope front I wanted to have different layers and different textures. To begin with I used decorative edge scissors and cut out a rectangle from pink striped card stock from the stash. Once that was cut out I sponged the edges of that. Wanted some texture on this piece so I used a rose stencil and white texture paste - here is a photo showing the piece with the stencil and paste on the top of it:

I lifted off the stencil to reveal the rose pattern:

With the texture paste still wet I could have added glitter to it but I did not want any sparkle on that layer. Set this piece aside to dry and rinsed off my stencil to remove the texture paste. Wanted to have a vintage printed floral piece so on the computer I printed out a free vintage floral design onto white/GP card stock. Cut out one of the prints using scissors. Used #110 weight white card stock behind this rectangle piece and put them together using the ATG. This gave the floral piece some stiffness and shape. Used a brown ink and sponged the edges of this piece so you can not see the white card stock on the edges. Once that was done and dry I used a clear Wink of Stella pen and went over all the edges of this piece to give it some sparkle:

For the greeting "Happy Easter" I used a stash die and cut those words out of peach card stock and again white/GP card stock. Used liquid glue and put those together which gives the words dimension. Once they were dry I went over them with the clear Wink of Stella to add some sparkle. Die cut two white/GP banner pieces and put the words onto the banners using liquid glue.

The first layer on the front of the policy envelops is a piece of white cheesecloth. Cut that to the size I wanted using scissors. Ran the ATG over the front of the envelope and laid down the cheesecloth. For the textured paste striped piece I used a white doily that I had cut in half and put that onto the left side of the piece using tear and tape on the edge. Used hot glue and added a small white feather, then a flower from the flower stash with smaller pink flowers hot glued on. Used a leaf punch and a large sprig punch and punched out a couple of pieces using peach card stock. Cut those to size and hot glued them onto the front striped panel piece. Below the feather and under the large flower I hot glued a sparkly piece of white tulle to add some sparkle to the piece:

Die cut a bunny out of white flocked card stock using an old Lil Inker Designs bunny die set. I added the clear Wink of Stella to the bow, added a pearl to that, and used a small white pom pom for the bunny tail:

Used the ATG and covered the back of my front panel piece and put this onto the policy envelope front. Added the banner pieces over the vintage floral piece using tear and tape. For the white bunny I used foam tape behind that. Once all pieces were on the envelope front I added some mirrored sequins using Glossy Accents. Here is a photo of the finished Easter Policy Envelope:

The camera does not capture all the sparkle and shine on the envelope front, nor the layers and the dimension of it all. Fun project to put together. This is a good pattern to use for die cut pieces, or bling or other items for gifting. I am sure it will get more use for the holiday season ahead - easy pattern as there are only 4 score lines.  TFL

Here is a photo of the two dies that I put inside the policy envelope for the Easter treat bag I had put together for my PIC (stamping Partner In Crime):