Card making on a blustery day

It is a windy, blustery day outside.  So I got my scrapbook room all cleaned up so I could create a new mess!  Here is what I came up with...  I am going to put these in the mail to a cousin who is a college student on Thetis Island.  I just love snail mail surprises.

Last year about this time, I was just getting my scrapbook room set up.

You can view the before n after of this wee room here.

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Grace at home

Organizing your clear rubber stamps for scrapbooking....and a giveaway!

Hi everyone!  Woke up to some snow on the ground here in Southern Alberta today....brrr.
I have been busy getting the last of my scrapbooking space organized.  We moved over a year ago and the room got refreshed fairly quick, and things just got put in the cupboards and the drawers.  ( you can see the before and after of this wee space here.)   Now that I have had some time to work on some scrapbook pages I have enjoyed "re organizing" the little space so that I can actually find things!!

I thought I would share a solution I came up with for storing my clear stamps better.  I like the magnetic clip on the metal bulletin board idea, and will keep just my clear letter stamps on the board now. I found that if the stamps were used a lot, they would not stick to the clear sheet that they come on.  The sides were open on the plastic card, and things would tend  to fall out the side as well.

Will stay with this system for my letters and see how that goes.

I have been on line a fair bit looking for storage solutions and I think I came up with something that will work for me.  I purchased DVD cases ($1.25 at the Dollar Store) and cut a piece of cardstock to adhere the stamp collection page onto.

I liked that the DVD case has the plastic cover where you can slip the piece of cardstock into.  Easy to see what you have in your collection.

Then I just used the left side of the open DVD case to put the stamps onto.  They may still move around a bit, but atleast you have everything contained in one place and won't lose some of the little pieces.

The next thing I have been doing some research on is the Spellbinders "Nestabilities" that you can use in different embossing/cutting machines.  Make use of the sales that Michaels have and that will help bring the cost down a little bit on them.  You could really get carried away that is for sure, so sales will help keep the cost down!  I have the Cuddlebug and want to start using it more.  I think these basic shapes will be the perfect solution to making all those perfect cuts for matting and layering cards and scrapbook pages.

The "dies" for the Nestabilities are metal, so to hold them in place I purchased magnetic photo sleeves and adhered that to the DVD case.  The Nestabilitie pieces then just stick to the magnetic and stay in place and organized too.  Be sure to shop at the Dollar Store for storage solutions, the magnetic sleeves ( 2/pkg) were $1.25 as well.

Then I just put all the DVD cases in a storage container that I already had and they are all in one spot and easy to flip through.  How about you,,,,do you have some good storage solutions for your craft of choice!

Now, if you have stayed with me to the end of the post,,,,I will tell you about the GIVEAWAY that I want to do.  I have a favorite number and the person who ends up posting a comment on that number will receive a set of homemade cards from me!  What a perfect way to try out my new Nestabilities!!  So, hope you will join in the fun and I will reveal the winner on Sunday, November 18th.

Have a great day everyone! 

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Before n After Small Space Scrapbook Room

Since I am kind of on a roll with scrapbooking, and I have some time off of work, I am ready to get some photos posted of my scrapbook room!

This is just a small room in the basement and it was one of the first that we renovated when we moved into our house just over a year ago.

BEFORE

This room was being used as an office.  Big oversized furniture pretty much filled it up!

This is a shot from the main room in the basement, crazy cables for internet hung in the weirdiest of places and a shelf on the back wall was pretty much it.

Add some color, a new, inexpensive storage solution, and new flooring and you get a pretty good space to scrapbook in!

AFTER

The light is terrible in this room, so don't mind the terrible pictures!

Darrell rescued this drafting table from the discard pile at work. $25  I wanted an "island" type of work space that I could walk around and this was a good solution.  All the other items in the room I already had and it was fun to have empty walls to decide what to put where.

Darrell put up a piece of metal that I could use as a bulletin board for clips with magnets on them to hold my stamps, easy to see and get at.  I still have more ribbon and would like to come up with a better solution for it.  Anyone have some good ribbon storage ideas, please share  :)

I already had bins and drawers for paper, stickers, etc. but wanted to have them hidden behind doors.  The easiest solution for that was a trip to JYSK where we found these storage cupboards on sale.  2 of them filled the one wall perfectly!  They are not the best in sturdy construction, but will fit the bill just fine in this room.  Plus it was a quick easy solution that didn't require us building something from scratch and i was able to get this room unpacked and organized in no time.

Not sure if I will keep the bench on this wall.  It takes up a bit too much floor space and the one cupboard door is a little crowded when trying to open.  I do like the collage of pictures on that blank wall though.  

There you have it!  One small scrapbook room!  This is my second small space room that I have done for my scrappin collection.  You can view my wee room under the stairwell at our previous house here.

One more time,,,the Before n After

I am off to a card making class today, so hope to gain some good tips.  Then I guess I better come and spend some time in my little room and put all I have leant to good use!

Have a great day!

To see the DINING ROOM reno click here

To see the FAMILY ROOM reno click here

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From the Farm

Here's what I got done this past week end!

On Saturday, my friend and I went to a scrapbook retreat day!  It was awesome and I got some more pages done for Ben's hockey albumn.  Just a few more pages to go and his minor hockey years are in the memory book!  I am a little tired of seeing black, yellow, and white.  I really wanted to get this albumn done and I have been working on it for a few years.  Sticking with just the team colors was a huge help in staying focused.

Ben's last year of hockey saw the Colts taking home the provincial gold!  It was a great way to end his hockey years in our small home town, on home ice, where this team of boys had huge support!  I posted about that victory back in 2011 here.

It was a nice treat to be the "scrapbooker" on Saturday and have someone else make us lunch and supper!  When we were running the BnB and I would host a week end for ladies to come and scrap, it was a lot of work!  You can read about one such week end here.

 Do you have any "card making" tricks?  I did some research on the Nestabilities dies and decided to treat myself and purchase them at Michaels.  They haappened to be 30% off as well!!  Bonus!  The dies can be used in my Cuddlebug and I hope that it will speed up some of the matting and cutting I do when making cards.

I got this set of cards done and used the Nestabilities on the larger card with the scalloped oval in the middle.  I think they will work great and now I just have to get into a groove where I can produce them a little quicker!

How about you,,,,do you scrapbook, have a favorite hobby?  My little scrapbook room in this house was the first room to get paint and new flooring.  I will work on getting a post done for that this week as I have a week off!!!  Yeahhh,,,had to take my holidays before the year is up.  Not going anywhere, so will maybe get lots of scrappin done!!  Have a great day everyone, and thanks for stopping by the country.

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Lotsa scrappin in the country!

Good scrappin that is!  Jacquie, Heather, and Sheila were back for a girls getaway and a week end of scrapbooking.  Once again, they moved in with all their {stuff} and took over the breakfast room.  I am so glad when we have repeat guests.  You can see the wonderful pages these ladies created last time here.

The lights stayed on until after midnite a few nights in a row and you can see that once again they put their memories down on paper with great ideas, colors, sparkles, embellishments and words.

Heather was working on baby day pages

I like how she incorporated her baby card on the page...

Jacquie has three girls who love to pose for the camera...

Sheila has fun teenagers....

Thanks for booking with us ladies.

See you in April, 2012

If you are in the area of the Canadian Badlands and want to book a girls week end

check out  www.thatcountryplace.com

We'd love to share our hospitality with you!

Roomspiration..the Scrapbook Room

Welcome to my scrapbook/craft room.  It is just a small space underneath the stairwell downstairs, but it is just enough space for me!  Great way of practising self control when buying scrapbook supplies, cause if it doesn't have a spot, then it best not be coming in!!  It may be a small space but it sure can get messy!!  I have spared you those pictures and will show you the clean version!

Red is not my absolute favorite color, but it went along with the rest of the

"man cave"

Wicker storage containers from Ikea, as are the floating shelves

Carrying on with the culvert and medal wall from the man cave...

Some cheap pictures from Walmart and some Wall Talk

The ribbon holders are actually small curtain rods that had magnets on them.

Darrell cut me a piece of tin and the magnets attach to that.

The top of the desk is actually left over flooring and the desk is made

out of 2 file cabinets that were really cheap at Liquidation World

Storage containers from Walmart and Home Hardware

So, thanks for stopping by my scrapbook room.  Hope you feel a little bit inspired!

I am also close to being at 100 followers,,,,so hope you will follow along if you aren't already

Linking this to the Roomspiration Blog Hop happening at 

Family Brings Joy blog.

Wow Us Wednesdays

Find your direction in life...

I found this layout in a scrapbooking magazine awhile back and always kept the idea of these layouts in the back of my mind.  So, one day I was off to take pictures of "signs"...

My biggest prayer for my boys, as Kaleb has already left the nest and Ben is getting ready to test his wings, is that they will trust in the Lord to direct their paths.   My job is to trust that God will take care of them and keep them,,,that is what I struggle with some days.  I think this "growing up" is more of a test of my faith.  My one word motto is "TRUST"

"The Lord Himself goes before you and will be with you.  He will never leave you

nor forsake you.  Do not be afraid, do not be discouraged"

Deuteronomy 31:8

I included a sign of the Hway that we live on, Hway 36N.  This way, my boys will always know where to find home!  and I also included a shot of our BnB sign that is on the Hway.

Have a great day!  It is snowing "AGAIN" in Alberta!  I don't know that we are ever going to find our way out of some of these snowdrifts!  and there are baby calves scheduled to arrive soon.  Yikes, where will we find dry ground to put them on!  

Also linking this to www.funkyjunkinteriors.blogspot.com

Some more scrapbooking pages..

I finally got some pictures of my scrapbooking pages onto the computer so I can share them with you.  It is a very blustery evening here in Alberta.  Is spring ever going to come?  Would be a good evening to get some things done in the craft room too.  How about you, what are you up to on this March evening.

This is one of my favorite pictures of "cousins"...boys playing cowboys and  soldiers with homemade guns, some that look bigger than they are!  The straw cowboy hats usually got worn right out.

Kaleb's first job at A&W.