Because of this one stick tile, I was motivated to finish my Art room, and to get all my stuff together. And since the tiles go to the washer and dryer, I haven't been behind on laundry since. Kinda weird. I think I like the nice clean bright basement to work in, as opposed to the deep dark guava (long story see floor above) basement.
Yesterday, I sat with my coffee monkey cup. Mia was at her art desk, and Alex was in his bouncer. I had me my Creating Keepsakes magazine and I was inspired. Not just to create, but to enjoy the day. It was pouring outside. But I was still optimistic about having a nice day with my kids and my new space.
The clean and pretty basement, with more storage then a crafter could dream, then lead me to fill my drawers. First drawer, of coarse, my adhesive drawer! Snails, mono, dimensionals, mini glue dots, pop up glue dots, repositionables, dottos, refills, sticky strip and more! BEAUTIFUL!
The next drawer is the color drawer. All those little bottles are my ink refills, there are also my pastels, and my daubers (one for each color pastel) my oil pastels, colored pencils, mini paint palettes, my art pencils, my Prismacolor pencil set, and blender pens. (how green are you right now? Huh?! Huh?!)
So here is the counter top space. With out getting too confused. I took the pictures from left to right. This is the end I normally sit at. And if you don't know these black bars are all from IKEA's kitchen department. Well the buckets, hanging shelves and spice jars are too. Oh and that little wooden box on the end of the counter is IKEA (there are more across the counter)
And here is a front view of what you just saw. Yes that is my beautiful new Stampin' Up! Fall Winter catalog right there. Oh and check out the big who's your daddy scissors to the left. Those are Stampin' Up!'s Craft and Paper scissors ($29.95) but damn, once you use them, you will no longer use the cheap ones.
Moving on down the counter... lets go from the left side, you can see my awesome set of Stampin' Up! markers (yes the are worth it. Yes they last forever. I have had mine 4 years this Christmas, and only replaced a few, BUT that is because I teach class with them! So spend the $125.95 or the $31.95 to get each color family when you can. LOVE THEM!)Anywho, there are those other little wooden IKEA pen holders, that is for my aqua painters (fancy paint brushes) blender pens, Xacto knives, funky tools. Next to that is a note pad holder that I use for my mat pack, hole punch template, colluzle templates.
Oh check out the buckets hanging. We have wheel handles (for my Stampin' Up! wheels) then a bucket for my foam brushes, and white acrylic paint (mostly for painting chipboard!) Then there is a whole bucket for my Crop-o-dile (oh if you know what that is, you know that big boy needs his own space!)
Check out the new Home Decor flower on the wall! Look out Uppercase Living! Stampin' Up! has it too!
We are now at the end of my beloved 10 foot counter of holy craft supplies. The big box right in from is holding ALL of my 48 classic ink pads 6 In Color classic ink pads, below is my Craft ink spots in all 48 colors, then the 4 color families of Water Color Crayons, with my craft white ink on top. Next to that is 4 little cubbies with my Jet Black Stayzon ink, Versamark ink and Glue pad.
Oh and my green monkey coffee mug is there to the far left! Ok now onto the other kitchen bars from IKEA. See the ones on the inside wall, far left. Those are not as deep as the other towel bars. These are CRAZY strong magnetic. The one on top (for safety sake) is holding all my scissors and pokie tools (again good scissors!) There are two pairs of Snips (usually around $10 SU! sells them and, well so does everyone else for that matter.) Also my Craft and Rubber scissors, great for all kinds of tough stuff to cut into! Oh and the new Fiskars finger exacto knife! Then the other magnetic rack is for all my thumb punches. These are WAY smaller, and will fall through the towel racks. They all line up nicely, and I can add these cool little black hooks to hang stuff from! (5 in a pack at IKEA too!)
Underneath is all my paper, of coarse by color family, then by color (in order as to how they are listed in the catalog)below are some nice containers for stampable stuff. Inside the cabinets, are Stampin' Success and On Stage magazines (Demonstrator magazines we get monthly and quarterly) My chipboard is in there too.
So that is the room. And that is only one wall of it! HA! I have another wall with a desk, mini fridge, and a cabinet of all my current rubber stamps. Above this counter (shown above) is 12 IKEA $1.50 boxes. Full of paint supplies, and stuff to sell, and some other stuff.
I have a small school desk with my Cricut machine, and sewing machine on it. My dad hung a ton of racks, and shelves, I have collected over the years from garage sales, or family.
Then in my old art room, the original space. The 5x5 closet sized space next to my dryer will become my office for all things SU! related!
Oh and under the stairs was a mess, BUT with the inspiration of that one shiny black tile. I cleaned out and made it a wrapping paper station. With organized gift bags, tissue paper, and bows! I needed to find somewhere to put my old table. BECAUSE... my dad built me a huge 3x6 table for my classes, and cropping!
AND he just put up a florescent light over the table! Oh the glory of it all! Then I put a dry erase board behind my door with all my classes listed. The window is a basement window, but I still get outside light in. And I am thinking about putting my plants in there next year!
So HUGE props to my dad. For spending the greater half of his summer in my basement, making this the perfect 30th birthday present he could ever give me. Now all my friends have basement envy, and my mom is up his ass about redoing parts of her room.
If you are totally lost on what all those tools are that I listed, be sure to visit my Stampin' Up! website, look at the online catalog, and order some of it! Wow that was a LONG post. But I have been wanting to share with you. And Candid Carrie inspired me to do the Friday's Photo Finish, go check out her site, and everyone else that played along too! (sorry I know it's Saturday)
I must go back and soak up some more inspiration...
