Colour Q Challenge #243

I really enjoyed working with the palette at the Colour Q this week.  I used the Bermuda Triangle kit and template from Pixels and Co.  

Just a quick post...

Here's a quick card I whipped up.

The soccer ball is a digital clipart image.

The stamps and paper are from Stampin' Up!

Birthday Wishes

Here's a little card I whipped up using paper from Authentique.

I cut all those banners by cutting strips with my paper cutter,

and then cutting a little v shape out with  my scissors.

I also cut the sentiment by hand from a piece of patterned paper.

I ran it through the sewing machine to finish it off.

thanks again for stopping by...

Sandra

Where I create

I have been wanting to share my little room with you all for a while now.  But the time needed to be just right (I mean, I needed to do a major clean up)  So I just spent the last weekend ( a long weekend here in Canada) and reorganized and tidied the whole room - yes, finally everything has a home.

There's a story behind this room.  We moved into this house 3 years ago, with the plan that one day we would renovate and redecorate.  At the very bottom of this post is a 'before' photo of my craft room.  Then, 6 months after we moved in we had a flood.  The entire basement needed to be gutted and replaced.

We found that a little insurance money can go a long way - lucky me!  So I got my dream room earlier than I ever imagined.  This room is totally me!  I absolutely love the colour purple more than any other colour.

And this is the only room where Brad didn't have an opinion about the decor.  I think I married the only man who actually notices or cares about home decor.  It took a while, but by the end of last summer this room was almost done. And I have been happily crafting here ever since.  So welcome to my little tour.

This little corner is for the obvious.  My Mother-in-law found an old sewing machine in her attic and I removed the antique and my new one fit right inside so now I have this cute little case.  I think I might paint it white and distress it this summer if I have time.  The desk is from Ikea and the chair was an old one I found on the roadside many years ago.  I painted it with white chalk paint and distressed it.

Next to my little corner is the fireplace.  One day we plan to put a gas insert into this baby, but for now it makes a nice home for my silhouette machine.  I just attach the cords and use it right there.  It's a great use of extra space that wouldn't be used otherwise.  Brad built the mantle and hearth and I tiled it with the rocks.  Now I think all I need is a nice decorative grill to hide the machine.  On the wall are some frames from Pier I, which I use to display some of my creations.

Here's a wider shot.  I have a dining room table from Ikea as one of my workspaces.  I use my computer here and I have some cork boards to put up ideas and inspiration.  I also have two other chairs for when my children come downstairs and create with me.

On the near wall I have my counters and cabinets.  

I found the ink pad storage at a thrift store for $5.   I painted and distressed it.  The other one I have jimmied together from an Ikea box, but I plan to get another ink pad storage shelf one day.  My big shot also lives here with all my electronics.   One of the things I really appreciate about this shelf is the undershelf lighting that my hubby installed - check out the photo below.

The top cupboards are kitchen cabinets from Ikea.   In there are my stamps and accessories.  Being a former Stampin' Up! Demonstrator means I have a ton.  The bottom drawers are little drawer sets from Ikea that my hubby hacked together to form a bottom cabinet.  In here I keep my silhouette cutting pads, my pens, my adhesives, bit shot dies - tons of stuff.  Once Brad hacked together the bottom drawers, we had a small space left over.  I am extremely lucky that my dad is so talented that when I asked him to custom make me this little storage unit, it was no problem.  In this unit I keep printer paper and photo paper.  On top of the unit is my printer, and the top drawer is actually a sliding shelf for my scanner.

The whole unit is on casters and I can roll it out for easy use whenever I wish.

At the other end of the counter is my paper cutter.  

Next to that is my massive paper storage.  We bought a whole bunch of these paper trays from Ikea and stacked them all up.  Brad built a little wooden frame around them all to keep them from bowing under all the weight.  On top of the paper storage is a little birdhouse that my Dad made and my Aunt painted for me many many years ago.  Next to this are some tiny little shelves I found at Home Sense which I painted and distressed with the wall paint.  They are another one of my little display areas.

And below that is my dear music cabinet.  I bought this at a thrift store for a few dollars.  

I painted it with chalk paint, distressed it and added the crystal knobs.  Inside are little shelves which used to hold phonographs and records.  They are perfect for my 12x12 patterned papers. 

Here's a before picture of the room when we bought the house 3 years ago.

I call it hunting lodge chic.  It wasn't my style.  That stone fireplace got covered up pretty quick!

I hope you enjoyed the tour.  Please let me know what you think.

thanks again for stopping by!

Sandra

Colour Q Challenge #242

Here's my take on the challenge this week

It's a bright palette which made it a big challenge, but I'm happy with the result.

Here's the kits I used to create this.

  

  

  

  

and the template was from

thanks again for stopping by...

Sandra

Tweet

I couldn't wait to try out this paper from Authentique.

I used this card to try out for the DT over at the Alley Way Stamps!

And I got a guest designer spot for August.

YAY!!!

So check back for more about that in a few months.

I printed the digital images on the patterned paper.

Then I paper pieced the bird together.

The Challenge #6

I put this little card together for the challenge over at Always Playing With Paper.  

As usual, Lesley has a great sketch for us.

All the paper on this card is from Die Cuts With a View.

I also decided to add this card to the challenge over at Seize the Birthday.

Thanks for stopping by...

Sandra

Seizing the Birthday

I decided to try out some cool paper I picked up while in California and made a few birthday cards.  

The stamps are from a Hampton Art/ Echo Park die cut set from Sizzix.  

I pulled together some ribbon and buttons from my stash, and some small acccessories from the dollar bin at Michael's.

I'm submitting this to the challenge over at Sieze the Birthday.

Colour Q Challenge #241

I really love this photo of my hubby.  That T-shirt is just his sense of humour.  And then we found those Darth Vader mouse ears at the gift shop in Disney land, so he hammed it up for the camera.

I'm so glad I found some digital gold foil in order to make this page digitiallly.  I used bits and pieces from all the kits below.

 

 

 

 

 

The Alley Way Stamps

Here's a little card I whipped up to try out for the DT at the Alley Way Stamps.

(I'm a Guest designer for August BTW - check back when that time comes.)

If you go their website (here) you can get some digital freebies which is what I tried out.

Hop on over to their site and get your own.

I printed them out on different colours of this cool paper from Authentique

and then I paper pieced them together.  I really like this little pen image above.

I made this cute banner and gave it a bit of a ripple to add dimension 

I'm super excited about August.  Can't wait to try out some actual stamps.

thanks for taking the time to stop by.

Sandra

Every Little Bloom from Deena Rutter

Deena's newest collection is Fan-Tas-Tic!!!

I just love the colours in this set, especially the deep teal colour.

And the dark pink, and the lime green, and - wow, it's hard to choose which one I like best.

You can pick it up by clicking

HERE

The little digital elements are cool too.

I attached this little wheel with a brad so I could spin it.

And the little heart-geotag makes a nice arrow if you spin it around.

You can pick your attribute to describe your mother.

You can't tell from the photo but I attached the sentiment on top of some pink glitter paper to make it pop.

I can't wait to give this to my Mom on Sunday, but I can't figure out where to spin the wheel to yet!

It's a dilemma, but a good one to have because I have such a great Mom.

thanks for stopping by again!

Sandra