{Chalk Art Fest} with the "Vintage Spring" Kits

Hello all, it's Meridy here and today I am working with pieces from both "Vintage Spring" Kits, the Classic Kit and the Daily Diary Kit.  I also mixed in a few pieces from last month's "You Go, Girl" Classic Kit. 

I started with a single picture from a chalk art festival, and I wanted to incorporate many of the colors from the kits, so I decided to just use simple strips of paper, ribbon, and washi.

I decided my layout needed a little more texture and detail, so I decided to machine stitch in between the strips of paper.  Some of my stitches are straight, regular stitching, some are zig zags in various widths.  I decided to use various colors of thread to add more color to the layout.

Next, I added a few small embellishment clusters.  I added one on each side of the photo to draw a little more attention to it, and another cluster around the title and journaling.

For my title, I used Thickers from last month's kit along with the black letter stickers from the Vintage Spring kit.  I sprinkled in some chipboard stickers, a star epoxy embellishment, a phrase sticker, and trimmed a journaling card down quite a bit since I didn't need a whole 3x4 space to journal.

That wraps up my layout for today, I really love all of the colors and the stitching.  This was a great way to use up some scraps. 

Have a great week!

Sweet Charlotte and a little peek into my space

Hello again!

I am so excited to be back on the Noel Mignon team!

I enjoyed my time here before and after taking some time off to devote more attention to family matters I decided I missed scrapping so much. I jumped at the chance to be back on the team here and am grateful to Noel for the opportunity.

Today I have a layout to share with you using the beautiful Sweet Charlotte Classic Kit:

For this page I started out by mounting a piece of white cardstock to a piece of Sweet Charlotte kit patterned paper. I used spray mist on the background and then went to work on the grid on the right side of the page. This piece came with my daughter's Candy Land game that she got for Christmas. I saw it after she punched out the playing cards and knew I could put it to good use on a project. I just cut it down to use on this layout. I chose pieces of patterned paper and adhered them to the back of the grid piece. 

I used a piece of white washi tape at the top and bottom to anchor the piece and then added a few embellishments and stickers to finish it off. 

I like to incorporate a lot of layering on my projects and the stickers and tags were perfect for just that. I used the Patina spray mist to "paint" the edges of the tags with the spray nozzle before tucking them behind my picture and then added more stickers and my title.  I mixed some heart rub-ons and sequins to the spritzed background. 

Noel always has such a great variety of stickers and other embellishments in her kits. I love the mix of textures in Sweet Charlotte- the combination of cork, wood and the pretty florals is so fun. 

Our design team has shared some great tips here this week, some of which I really need to try and incorporate into my scrappy routine. I know I could get a lot more done if I were more organized. 

One thing that I try to do in my room is follow the old adage, "a place for everything and everything in its place." This is not to say that the rest of my room isn't a cluttered mess with piles of miscellaneous products on the floor, leftover scraps from previous projects on my desk and a hodge podge of things here and there. I do, however, have some things quite organized and out in the open where I can see them well. 

The problem in my scrap space is that if I don't see something, I don't tend to use it, so I like to have my favorite and most commonly used products within easy reach. 

I like to find cute containers to display some of my favorite things like these two that I got at craft stores. They keep items in view and easy to grab as I need them. 

For these last two items I really lucked out since a friend was getting rid of them and she passed them on to me. On this shelf I have some of my favorite washi tapes, spray inks and other embellishments. I also have some of my favorite punches, some on the shelf and some in the zigzag box.

This rack is a great way to store the washi tapes I use for freelance trade show projects. I slide this into a small space on another of my shelves but can grab it and see what I have right away since the tapes are organized by which release they were from.  

I have vertical organizers for my patterned and cardstock papers, 12x12 storage boxes to keep paper collections together with embellishments and storage bins for things like twine, paper punches, alpha stickers and other embellishments.

Do you have a great organizational tip that you'd like to share? 

We'd sure love to hear about it in the comments or in our Facebook group, "Noel Mignon Members".

Thanks for stopping by the blog today. 

How I create amidst the mess...

Hey guys! I'm rounding out our week of organization and I will be the first to admit that the best has definitely not been saved for last! haha If you came here hoping to see some dream studio you sadly won't find it. But what you will find is some tricks and tips that maybe you haven't thought of and I will share how I scrapbook & craft amidst the mess that is my scrap room/craft room. 

Let me explain...about 3 1/2 yrs ago we moved cross country from Georgia to Washington (and if you follow my blog you know most of this so feel free to skip this paragraph, I won't mind ;) Anyway, we drove 2400+ miles with 2 kids, 2 dogs, a guinea pig, and everything we owned to, once again, move to a state where we new no one and nothing. Did I mention I was 8 months pregnant with our 3rd child at the time?? Fun times!! haha Actually, they were :) So, the last 3 yrs has been spent getting used to new schools, new sports, new friends, new everything, all while navigating with a new baby (who is now 3 1/2). So, needless to say, my scrap room  has been so far down on the priority list that I can barely even see it on the list! My 'space' is in our unfinished basement that has cement floors with an area rug thrown down and cement walls covered with insulation. Not pretty. And, quite frankly, there's a lot of disorganization going on down there! However, I'm happy to say that this spring the hubby is going to work on getting some walls up and carpeting down. Yay!!! So - fingers crossed - I will have a new post on organization in a few months!

All that being said, I made the situation worse by getting rid of the table I used for crafting on. It was too big and I'm going to have my hubby build me a table that works better in the space. So for now I've been doing all of my crafting on either the kitchen table or the desk that's in my living room. This means that whatever I work on has to be moved once I'm done (although, occasionally, I've been guilty of having my kids eat dinner in the living room because I had a project all spread out on my kitchen table!)

And that brings me to my first item of organization that I've been using the last few months...

I found this white tray at Target a few years back. Over the years I've used it for works in progress when I wanted to keep the pieces of a project together (like a mini album or December Daily). But now I use it to hold all of the contents of my current kit so that I can see everything when I'm working on a project. And when I need to I can just take the tray and move it to another room. 

All of the papers fit nicely in the tray and I use vintage tins to hold all of the smaller embellishments and another container to hold the bigger embellishments from the kit. Once I've used up most of the kit I will add the leftover items to the rest of my stash (or put it in a bin for my kids to use).

After seeing Brittny's post this week I had to take a trip to Michaels and get some of those metal containers with the chalkboard on the front. Love chalkboards!

This year I'm using an Erin Condren planner and so this one holds all of my planner stamps, stickers, pens, etc so that I can easily grab what I need to plan out my week.

And yes, I still have my Christmas cover on my planner because I just love the colors :) 

Here's a couple more items that I've had for years. The blue container is from Target. I couldn't get the stupid tag to come off the front (why do companies do that??!!) so I covered it with washi :) The 2 tier wire basket is from a thrift shop. I'm planning on spray painting it when the weather gets warmer (don't use spray paint when it's cold...trust me).

Another one of my favorite items is this divided plastic container. I got this at Hobby Lobby but I know a lot of stores like Joanns, Michaels, etc have them as well. I kind of have a thing for wooden embellishments lately so this is really good for holding those & keeping them all organized.

These boxes are one of my favorite things in my room because they hold all the stuff that needs to be put away or scanned...finished layouts, school projects, school stuff, drawings, etc. I've had these for quite a while and I can't even remember what brand they are but I know you could find something similar at the craft stores.

Here's a few more of my tips for organizing your craft space:

Before you buy anything, take a look at what you have and figure out what you need. What kind of containers do you need? Do you need containers to hold big items or containers with small compartments?? Make a list of your needs! And be prepared that it might take you a while to find everything you need.

Shop thrift stores, garage sales, dollar bins & clearance sections. I have found so many of my items second hand and in dollar bins at Target. It also saves you lots of money. Don't overlook something that's not the right color. There are so many paint options these days that you can paint just about anything (even laminate!).

Shop your house. Go through your house and figure out what's not being used effectively. Would it work better in your craft space than where it's currently at? I'm notorious for moving things around in my house. After 3 1/2 yrs I'm still moving things around because over time our needs change. One of my shelves in my room is the changing table from my daughter (you can kind of tell in the last photo). It works perfectly. No reason to go out and buy new furniture when I had a perfectly good item right in my own house! Once she was done with it it went right downstairs! The best part? I paid just 15 bucks for it at a thrift store about 4 yrs ago.

Reuse & recycle. Sometimes you only have to look at the containers that hold items that you've bought recently. This container had cookies in it that I bought back in December. Why throw it away? I quickly realized it was a pretty great container so I'm saving it to put to good use very soon. I might use it to hold all of my tiny stamps. And I may paint it or just decorate with washi, we'll see.

Hopefully you've found some inspiration this week. I know I have! The key is finding what works for you!

My Workstation Tour

Good morning friends! I'm here to show my little workstation area for my crafting! It's been so fun to get a peek into everyone's spaces this week here on the blog. I hope you guys will share your spaces with us too on our facebook group! 

My workspace has evolved over the years. It changes size and location fairly often. Right now, what's working for me is to have a corner in the dining room. It keeps my family near by and is easy to hop over to in order to grab a few minutes here and there. It's really important to me that my kids are nurtured creatively, and that comes with seeing me working and coming alongside fairly often. So for now- even though it's probably messy, I'm loving the casualness of having it in the corning of our dining room. 

I do not keep all of my scrapbooking supplies in the dining room. I have a shelf in another room that stores the bulk of my stuff, old kits, papers, embellishments, albums, etc. However, I've learned over the years that keeping too much stuff around overwhelms me, so I try to purge often and only keep my favorites. I also keep two or three recent NM kits here at my workstation, but after a few months, I retire them to my big shelf. 

It's really important to me to have ALL my artsy supplies handy, and when I found this old random drawer at the thrift store, I knew it would be perfect for corralling all of my jars! It just makes me happy to see this out, and my kids like it too. ;) 

I keep a small basket with the latest kits' small embellishments right in front of me on the desk so I can see it easily. These little strawberry baskets are perfect for them. 

My kit papers goes in this organizer to the left, along with sketch books and watercolor paper. You can see the papers peeking out! 

Right above where my papers go is this frame. I love to hang all of the embellishments from the kit on here that I can, because it keeps them in mind for me and is an adorable themed decoration for the month, too! 

To the left of my chair is this cart with stamps, tools, and leftover embellishments from previous kits. I try to keep this rotated and cleared out every few months to restock with new items. 

I hope you like my messy little corner! It sure does make me happy! : )

My Creative Mess (aka scrap room)

Hey there!

Today I am going to share my scrappy space with you.

I will admit that I am not a clean scrapper. I do my best to have things organized in my room, to have a place for everything but my desk is very often quite messy. I try to clean up between projects but that doesn't always happen and I often have piles of things left over from previous projects.

I have been on various kit club and manufacturer teams over the years so I have quite a bit of product and keeping it organized is often a chore. I like to store items by type and I keep my design team product together by manufacturer so that I can quickly grab what I need for an assignment.

I lucked out when a friend gave me the shelf above. It is there that I have most of my spray mist, some of my washi tape, some punches and other little things like glitter glue and flowers.  

I share this craft room with my kids (I won't even show you their side of the room! It is such a mess!). Because of this I like to make the most of the space I have. I like to build up so that I can take advantage of the space better. I have lots of little storage units/shelves that I stack up on top of each other to use the space to its full potential. 

Here you see lots of buckets and baskets. They are my go-to when it comes to keeping things organized. 

I like to store things by product type, so I have a basket for alpha stickers, others for paper punches, twine, embellishments, etc. I also have that handy thread holder that I use to store some of my washi for Queen & Co trade show projects. I love that I can store it sideways in that small space and still see all of the tapes. 

As you can see, right now my desk is a mess and that is just the way it is. 

I've seen pics of other scrap spaces that are immaculate. I wish that I was more tidy but I tend to pull out a lot of things when I scrap so my desk isn't always clean. When I am working on Noel Mignon projects I dump out everything so that I can see what I have and be able to grab it quickly when I need it. 

I store my paper in vertical storage cubes and like that so far. I have cardstock together in one unit and patterned paper in others. I have to sort through periodically and put the newest papers together for use in magazine and other assignments where I need to use the most current product. 

I use magazine holders to store lots of things because they are thin (thus not taking up lots of shelf space) but can hold a lot. I use them for paper, embellishments and to hold my photos. 

As you can see, I also have a little dvd player. Sometimes I like to have it quiet when I scrap and other times I play a movie or Gilmore Girls re-runs for background noise. 

I also really have a thing for cute containers. I find most at places like Hobby Lobby or Target and use them for a variety of things: 

Here you can see that I've used some buckets and other containers for embellishments, tape, glitter glue, twine, scissors, roller stamps and wood veneer. 

I use plastic storage containers to keep my punches organized by type. This one has border punches. I have other containers for my shape punches. 

Here is another example of some of the containers I use. The green one is a large photo box and the other is just a big pail I found in the spring decor section at Hobby Lobby. I use it to store my big spools of twine. The small bits are in the purple container above and admittedly some more twine is thrown together in a big Ziploc bag, but at least all of the twine is together in an organized way. 

On the wall next to my table and other storage shown in the pics above is a closet and this tall bookshelf. Here I store my magazines (which I am glad I kept since they are now almost non-existent) including those I have projects published in. I also store my albums here. The albums on the second shelf are still empty because I am horrible about getting projects put away. I have boxes of layouts that need to be sorted and put in albums, unfortunately. I would rather spend my time scrapping.

The fabric bins are supplies from previous design teams. I really need to go through and purge a bit. 

The plastic organizer houses older embellishments from Sassafras and other companies that I just haven't been able to get rid of yet. 

Thanks for indulging me in this little tour of my scrap room. I hope that it will help you to be creative and find items you already have at home to organize your own space. 

Have a great day! 

♥♥

My Scrapbook Space and Storage Ideas

Happy Friday! Jana Eubank here. I am lucky enough to have a dedicated scrapbook room in my home. It hasn't always been that way over the years, and so I definitely appreciate having a space to call my own.

It feels like I am in a constant state of reorganization in my scrapbook room as I acquire new things, clean out the old, or adjust to the subtle changes in my design process. Today, I thought I would take you on a tour of my room and also show you a few ways I organize specific supplies. Are you ready?

Several years ago when we built our house, we ended up with an odd-shaped, small bedroom on the 2nd floor of our home. It was meant to be a guest room with a walk-in closet and small bathroom, but since we don't entertain many guests, I was happy to claim it for my scrapbooking space with all of its west-facing sunlight.

When you first walk into the room, you walk in front of my main work area. I really like that my computer, sewing machine, and work space are all connected so that I can just swing myself around to each space in my swivel chair and do what I need to do. The drawers and cabinets around this space keep my most-used supplies, tools, and printers neatly tucked away. This is perfect for me since I am easily overwhelmed by a lot of visual clutter.

The drawers behind my desk house my punches, embellishments, twine, journal blocks, etc. These are the items that I reach for most often while adding the finishing touches to the projects I create, so I like keeping them closest to my work space.

Just off the corner of the main work area, you will find a space that was initially intended as a walk-in closet for this room. Here we added floor-to-ceiling cabinets with roll out shelves to house all of my 12 x 12 patterned paper and cardstock. We also added an additional work surface that allows me to pull out my die cutting and embossing machine for use on projects.

Above the roll out shelves are more cabinets. This is where I store my Noel Mignon kits, collections by manufacturer, letter stickers organized by color, and supplies and tools that I reach for on an occasional basis. I put everything in Iris snap-close cases. I loves these things! I can group like items together and then stack them horizontally or vertically without worrying about items falling out.

Across from my desk is the area that was originally intended to be a small bathroom. We omitted the wall and added more cabinetry, another work surface, and a small clean-up sink.

These cabinets house all of my "messy" supplies: stamps, ink pads, acrylic blocks, paint, spray ink, glitter, etc. On the shelves in the glass-front cabinet, I keep idea books, gifts from scrappy/family friends, and framed pieces of my children's artwork.

By glancing at these photos, you have probably guessed that I love containers. I love grouping things together in a bin that I can pull out and bring to my table as I need it. I have tried out several containers over the years, and thought I would share with you a few of my favorite right now.

I use Iris Snap-Close cases quite a bit for my paper collections and kits, but I also like to use them for other things. I really like that they take advantage of the vertical space on my shelves. Here I have used a case for all of my tags.

Recently, I have discovered that they also work well for ink pads. When the case is open I can flip through them to find the color I need ...

And then when the case is closed and on my shelf, the ink pads are stored face down where gravity can do its work and keep the ink settled to the top of the ink pad making them nice and juicy for when I am ready to stamp an image.

I love the Iris 4x6 photo holders, too. They are perfect for separating embroidery thread into different color families.

And for keeping markers and pens on their sides ... which is the best way to store them for optimal ink flow.

I use other types of stacking snap cases to store my mini alphabet stamps. The tiers can be separated and placed side-by-side on my desk while I work allowing me to pick and choose from the different styles.

Stickles and other small paint bottles also work great in these cases.

I store my loose ribbon lengths in jars on a shelf in my office. This work great, but I struggled with how to store spools of ribbon in the least amount of space possible.

More tiered, snap-close cases to the rescue! Since I don't reach for ribbon very often, I like that I can tuck this in the bottom of a closet and stack other items on top of it.

The different tiers makes it easy to find the color I need without having to dig through everything.

Binders and sheet protectors are another favorite storage solution of mine. I keep all of my acrylic stamps in binders on the shelves above my sink. 

Most of the time, I throw away the packaging and then use adhesive to adhere the carrier sheet to a piece of white cardstock. I write the manufacturer and name of the stamp set on the cardstock. I try to keep the stamps in themes to make them easier to find.

This method works especially well for all of the mini stamp sets I can't seem to resist!

If a stamp doesn't have a carrier sheet, I stick them on clear report covers and slide that into the sheet protector along with the white sheet of cardstock.

If I want to sort a particular stamp by manufacturer instead of by theme (for example, stamps I have from design teams), I keep them in their packaging and put them in 5" x 7" photo pages like this.

I also love creating Reference Binders for my supplies. For example, here is a look at my mist binder. I used white cardstock cards to create color samples for all of my spray inks. This makes it so much easier to locate that "perfect" shade for the project I am working on. I can just look at the cards, instead of digging through everything and wasting my creative time trying them out on scraps of paper. (I'll be doing this with my stamp pads someday soon, too!)

I also have a reference binder for my embossing folders. The folders are stored alphabetically in stacking boxes ...

Instead of browsing through the boxes ... I can just flip through my binder with all of the sample cards and find the perfect pattern. The patterns are grouped together in categories like dots, stripes, checks, nature, etc. The baseball card sheet protectors allow me to see both the embossed and debossed versions of each of the folders I own.

I have also used binders to create reference cards for my washi tapes, only this time, the tapes are adhered to a clear report cover card, instead of white cardstock. This allows me to pull the card out and "try out" the tape on the papers I am working with.

Speaking of washi tapes ... I haven't found a "perfect" solution for them yet. I have seen a lot of neat ones around the web, but I don't like storage options that take up too much counter space ... so for now, I just my most used colors in an old 12x12 shipping box. I used a Silhouette washi tape box file to create rows within the box so that they don't roll around as much.

But, I have more washi tapes than this box can hold. For now, the overflow of multi-colored tapes and less-used patterns are kept in jars on my counter. (Pssst ... if you happen to know of a stacking/space-saving idea for LOTS of washi tapes, link me up in the comments ... I would love to see it!)

The last thing I wanted to share with you today, is how I store my papers and scraps that are smaller than 12 x 12. I do a lot of digital die cutting on my pages, and was trying to find a storage solution that would allow me to easily utilize my smaller papers and scraps. I was reading Betsy Veldman's blog awhile back about how she stores all of her 6x6 papers by color, rather than keeping them together in their pads. I decided to take the plunge and give it a try. There are a few pads that I still like to keep intact for my manufacturer design teams, but after awhile, I tear them all apart into colors. It has worked out really well for me so far!

Scraps that are smaller than 6x6 are stored in a drawer with my punches.

And then, finally, the scraps that are larger than 6x6, but smaller than 12x12 are stored under my desk in a rolling paper cart by Anna Griffin (purchased from HSN.com).

The paper cart came with a tray that fits on top, but I removed it so that it would fit under my desk. There is an opening on top which makes it easy to flip through the files and grab what I need.

Okay ... one last thing ... I gotta keep it real. My room hardly EVER looks this clean. Usually the counters are filled with stacks and stacks of projects and supplies that I am working with. Sooooo ... one last behind-the-scenes picture .... this is all the STUFF I had to put into the hallway outside of my scraproom so that I could take decent pictures for you. Haha!

Thank you for letting me share my space with you today. I hope you have found a few inspiring ideas that might work for you in your own space. If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comment section below and I would be happy to answer them.

Wishing you a creative weekend!

Jana Eubank