Crafting Studio Remodel

My Newly Remodeled Craft/Sewing Studio

So I love that my husband loves to build things with wood. What this means for me is custom closet organizers, shelves and a new crafting studio. He knows that my world revolves around my family and crafting. We recently needed to expand a bit because it felt like all my stuff was just shoved into drawers and was never seen or forgotten about. I am a very visual person. So this is actually what we started out with.

Then the other night I was going through Pinterest and showed my husband a couple of ideas that I would like.

Within a couple hours he turned it into this. At first I was like I liked the dark wood better. He told me to wait till it was done being painted.  
We painted it with white paint. He kept saying trust me it will make everything look a lot more open when it's done (again going back to I am a visual person). I just kept looking at him, however I was loving the new deeper shelves.

After we were done painting and putting the second coat of paint on to make sure their were no bare spots. I  just hated the wood edges. Unless wood has a lacquer finish, I really don't like to touch it. This meant that the shelves now had to be laid with fabric and the wood edges had to be embellished.





I picked a slightly darker fabric to offset the white. I love lots of color so I was desperately looking for color, and still keeping in mind that people will see this space so I didn't want to go over board and make it pink. In the tutorial that I posted Yesterday on my other blog Smalltown Dreamz I went over the process on how I embellished the wood edges.

I was very lucky to have been given some ribbon by my Husbands Grandmother that actually went perfect
 with the fabric and the look I was looking for. I think the ruffled edges give it a nice touch. I also added some buttons as an extra embellishment. Buttons are one of my favorite things. I have a small collection, at least in my eyes it is a small collection.

My husband also had built me this rack shelf which is able to store all my beads, buttons, and other small embellishments. I love jars and bottles to store all my stuff in and this shelf came in  handy to hold all those things.


This new area also gave me a place to store all my yarn and make it easily accessible to see what colors I have and roughly about how much I have left of what colors. This is still a work in progress, so that is why it is still a mess. I have another whole container of yarn to add to this so I am hoping there will be enough room.



I was so excited to get all my fabric on to 2 shelves with more than enough room to spare on both. I have been slowly adding to my fabric stash. I always try to get a good deal when I can. My last great fabric deal was my National Monument Panel which cost 79 cents.



It is so nice to have an area to sew on and then a big table to do all my cutting and other projects. That way I don't have to worry about picking up and moving my sewing machine all the time.I think the best part for me was being able to get all my supplies out in the open like my glue, glitter, markers, embossing powders, etc.........

We also had picked up this cute little white shelf and it works perfect to hold all my paper and containers for my foam pieces.

We are currently working on the new ribbon system for my area since I have accumulated 4 times more ribbon. This will be presented in another DIY Tutorial hopefully next week. I can't wait to start working in my new area. Today I put all my crystals that I have collected in the window so when I am working during the day the sun can shine in and reflect rainbows all over my studio. That always brings a smile to my face. I look forward to a fun and creative year.

We always love to hear from our readers. If you could do anything to your crafting area what would you do?  What secrets do you have at organizing all your crafting material.






Happy Crafting
Stephanie

Dad's Treasure

Hi Everyone! Like many households, we're preparing for Father's Day! It's great day to celebrate all the little things, and big things, that my children's father does for them and me!

My son loves to paint! From sun catchers, to figurines, plain paper and even a treasure chest, he can sit for hours and continuously paint! Good thing for me because I'm running out of ideas of what my husband would want for any holiday! A treasure chest from my son is perfect though, and let me tell you why. When Ethan got old enough to learn about hiding and finding people or things, my husband started playing the treasure game with him. And I'm sure he will carry on the tradition of playing with our youngest son when he's old enough.

Just before Ethan's bed time every so often, my husband finds Ethan's little treasure chest and fills it with mini M&Ms and finds a hiding spot. After he found a good spot, my husband asks if Ethan want to go on a treasure hunt! He is always excited about this! With all the lights turned out and flashlight in hand, they go searching. They run into scary bears (stuffed animals) and wolves (stuffed dogs) and every now and then a scary mommy gets in the way!! In the end, the treasure is always found with a happy little boy emptying the treasure into his mouth!

With this, we decided to give daddy his own hand-painted treasure box! We also added a few special things...

Ethan painted wooden circles yellow for gold, a key to keep the 'key to mommy's heart' safe, a mirror that says "Best Dad in the World," a small bottle with 'love' confetti, a painting made by Ethan and a few other fun things!! This treasure chest can be personalized for the 'dad' in your life, and so much fun for the kids to do! For the older kids, a wood burning kit would be a great opportunity to learn something new as well as be creative!

Until next craft...
Crystal