Yeah for chipboard, blue paint and flowers

Sizzle here. I have been drawn to chipboard for awhile now. I love it. It is thick and you can paint it, cover it with paper, embellish it and it has its own dimension. I bought a pack of chipboard from the craft store years and year ago. I still have it because I could never figure out how to CUT IT.

They say you can cut it with scissors or a craft knife but it reality that takes a long time and doesn't provide professional results. I got the deep cut blade for my cricut hoping that it would cut chipboard.

It cut it but it didn't go all the way through. I had to do multi-cut the maximum x of times but it still didn't work. I had to cut through the rest with a craft knife and it ended up looking like this.

Not good. I COULD sand it and make it look okay but what is the use of using a tool if you end up doing all the work. So I decided the cricut doesn't work for chipboard - how disappointing.

The next step was finding these little tags at Michaels for 4.99:

I thought these tags would be darling in chipboard and I'd see if the cuttlebug would do a better job.

It did.

See how sharp that little tag is? I love it and it was so easy. I decided the manual die cut machines can cut a lot thicker material and a lot better. Now I am looking for a thick alphabet I can use with my cuttlebug to cut letters.

Here is my newly painted scrap desk. I decided that it works better for me to have all of my supplies in one place so here it is. You know something works for you when you make time to be there everyday. I LOVE the blue. It is bright so it motivates me.

Here is the page I finished. I am still working on the corresponding page.

See that little me and you piece I showed you before? The flowers fold so if it is flat you can see it better. I cut the flowers at three different sizes, inked them and used a blue brad in the center to pull in the blue from her hair bow. The flowers are from Mothers Day cartridge. I like flowers...

Creative Space

I finally got my craft room finished.  I love it!!  I could seriously spend all day in there if I could.  All it needs is a big clock on the back wall between the bulletin boards.  I am hoping to find a great deal at a garage sale or a thrift store and paint it blue to match my desk. 

There are two 6 foot tables.  It gives me plenty of space to spread out and if I make a mess on one, as in this picture, I still have a clear workspace.  In another case, the kids can color at one while I work on the other.  The bonus is that I set it up so I can sit facing a giant window, look outside and watch the kids play and not feel cooped up. 

I used to keep all my craft stuff in a closet in the basement, but after moving bedrooms around I got space to put everything out in the open.  I still need to organize it a little more but it is so nice to easily see what I have. 

I made the four memo boards so I can hang up patterns, to-do lists, calendar etc and also to decorate the space.  I bulletin boards! 

I covered them with fabrics that make me happy.  I love the color they bring to the space and because they are small I can use a lot of different fabrics. 

My pegboard is useful to keep scissors and other things I don't want the kids to get out of the way.  I wanted a basket for the glues but I have 1/8 in pegboard and the ones they sell most places are for 1/4.  If I would have known that I would have got the 1/4 in size.  Live and learn, I guess.

I keep all my nice fabric in this although I might need to rethink that because the other day my son Wesley cut into one of my favorite fabrics.  He told me he wanted to make a bat. 

On the top I keep files of the kids artwork and patterns I want to try out. 

The last part of my space is my sewing table and chair that I re-did.  I put it right by the window so I have all the natural light and can look outside while I work.  I also have a standing lamp in the room that I can use for crafting at night. 

There you have it, my creative space.  It is just right for me.  I don't think you need a whole room for a creative space but it is sure nice.  Where do you create?

Creative Factory

My soon to be favorite room! It is coming together, slower then I would like but that whats happens when you have three kids, a lot of mess and a lot of hobbies.

My shelves are up. My pegboard is done and ready to be mounted - I am debating whether to add some blue. My bulletin board - I am going to have four all in different fabrics - two with ribbons, two without.

These are my beautiful fabrics to make pillows for my front room. They are all from different lines and aren't made to go together but I think they look great. The spice color -you can't really tell from the pic - is the same color are my curtains.