We recently painted my Making Memories Embellishment Center

I think I'm the last person on the planet to buy one of these. I did not have the wall space for it until I turned my Expedit (Ikea) unit horizontal to hold my printer and new Cricut Expression! I know there are more tweaks in store for this unit. I threw a few things up there for the photo. My husband painted it black for me, I may alter this further, not sure yet.

This "Scrapbook Connection" sign used to hang in the mall where my store was. My husband thought it ought to hang in here.

Scrapbook Room Decorative Touches

Deciding on a theme for my room was fun! I already had my desk my husband had altered to fit the wall in our new home. I had to work around the Murphy bed so when we had guests they would feel comfortable in my workspace.
My children had given me a cute little sign that said "One shoe can change your life" - Cinderella. This stems from one of my favorite movies and storybooks as a young child. I always believed my prince would come, and boy did he! So the pink, black and green struck a cord with me. I went to Hobby Lobby looking for fun additions to the decor, I liked the French theme and chose black and cream toile for fabric. These cute inexpensive home decor items add such fun to the room. The two diamond shaped plaques are tin. Notice the little block letters mounted on a dowel that spell magnifique! The letters were painted black spelling "create" and edged in pink. The two large photos were taken in my garden. I had the walls painted and shopped for bedding and draperies.

I made the clock from a Heidi Swapp kit.
Continuing across the top shelf of the desk unit.

Camera reel tins that gifts came in, old cameras, feathers cute framed saying my daughter gave me. Check out my glass slipper, good thing he didn't ask me to try that tiny thing on! :)

Note the dress form draped with the boa, I had to have this to go with my antique child Singer sewing machine I used to play with at my seamstress grandmothers home. Just fun stuff, surround yourself with things you love!

The Paris themed wall hangings came from Hobby Lobby. I picked the "memories" up on a trip.
Oh, and YES the French phone does work.

Desk level views

Before my carousel was painted, oh I like it so much better painted black! I love the Quickutz Magpie Black Nesting Storage System with the little pink tins!

So many cubbies to store things in this desk! I'm so glad my husband was able to alter it to fit!

Look right, check out the explanation of this checkered storage in my other post!

The magnetic strip on the back came from The Container Store, the tins with clear lids are available at Ikea, I think its the least expensive place to get them. I have since added a second row of the strip. The black and cream box houses ribbon stored on wooden palettes.  I have tried ribbon looped as a skirt on my dress form, purchased one of those ribbon see thru storage thingies, wrapped it on paddles, wrapped it on wooden clothes pins, wound it on spools. Nothing has struck me to leave it all in one place yet although I'd like to. Ideas? So I have it on my embellishment center on a rod, in this black box and stored in the shadow boxes and some in the jars you see here.

This is an old VCR cabinet. I hung on to it thinking it might come in handy because it matched the furniture in the room. Here is what I ended up doing with it. Can you say "Punch it UP"?

You may be asking why I have SO many punches? I owned a store and I let my customers use these during crops. Truthfully all of them do not even fit in this cabinet. I have some extra large ones stored in the closet, along with alphabet punches.

Texas Lady's Gallery: Croppin' Heaven!

Texas Lady's Gallery: Croppin' Heaven!

A look inside the drawers!

Adhesive Storage (Left Top desk drawer)

Cardstock stored in file drawer  (Beneath Left Top desk drawer)

Drawer to the immediate left of work station. Tools I use all the time: Colorful staples, Making Memories Distressing Kit, Silent Setter, MM Tools, Stapler (large and small)

Items I cannot scrap without! Portable paper cutters by Fiskars

Work Surface

I have beautiful natural sunlight that streams in the window. However, the under cabinet lighting makes such a difference, along with the ceiling fan and lighting from above. The lighting came from Lowes.

I recently moved the Making Memories black shelves with pink bins to the desk area. I found I was forgetting about supplies kept in them, now they are within arms reach! My dh painted my Making Memories carousel to match my other black storage pieces. I like it so much better. I used to have a Pampered Chef carousel, its new home is inside the closet for the grandkids crayons and crafts. Many people have inquired about the little shadow boxes on either side of the workspace. I found these unfinished at Hobby Lobby. They have divided compartments and a small latch on the side. There are various colorful embellishments stored in each, they are fun to look at inspiring and almost like a piece of art. The clear bucket has my embossing pens! I love these! So fun to use and no heat needed!

The Xyron Sticker maker is handy where it sits, the two Ikea buckets are magnetic and came from Ikea, the sassy magnets on the front make me smile. One holds my colored pencils, the other a few pair of Fiskars small scissors, which is one of my favorite tools.

Note: See the paint can opener hanging from the hook by ribbon on the magnet board? Comes in handy when I am opening those Prima flower bucket, saves the nails!

Glitter Anyone

I found this adorable container at Target! It is a perfect storage solution for my glitter. I love keeping colorful supplies in view, they inspire me and this? Just makes me want to sprinkle something! :)

When I work

This desk used to be a corner unit when I owned my business. Due to the shape of my room and the placement of the window, there was no way to use a corner desk. My husband altered the desk to fill the wall of my scraproom. As I began to crop in my space I soon discovered I liked using an L-shape with my roll around desk that slides perfectly out of sight under the desk when not in use. The chair came from Ikea, I pounced and scooted on many a chair before finding this one! I love this chair! The two wooden Ikea bins fit perfectly side by side! I covered them with cute cream and black papers to match the decor of the room. Actually there are six more narrow bins on top of each wooden box to add additional storage. The empty wooden piece that came with the extra bins? Turned vertical it fit perfectly in my shelf and holds all my 12x12 Bazill cardstock, love that. I used the extra narrow bins in my adhesive drawer to section it off. Having the TV in here is nice and my guests love having it when they stay. (I like that the desk can go under the desk facing the wall too in case there are small fingers visiting. Less temptation too!

Shown below, what is stored inside.

Bling and punctuation chipboard.

My brads are stored in a couple of different ways. The ones pictured in the screw together tubes purchased from The Container Store, these are specialty brads with patterns or designs on them, I also have some jump rings stored with these. Additional ones are stored in these individual containers purchased at Hobby Lobby. I love that I can see what I want in a glance as they are sorted by color, style and design.

The Tour

If you were to step into my room on June 7, 2010, this is what you would see. As I view how my room has evolved since its inception, I like the outcome. It is a place where I can go to create, preserve family memories/history, sew, paint, or craft whatever. I can set up a long table when friends come over to scrap, or a card table when my three grandkids spend a Saturday where they can build their own books and learn the proper way to store their own photos and write stories about their young lives. My guests can relax in a comfortable atmosphere with a pull of the Murphy bed my husband and I built. Then like magic disappears back into the wall when guests are gone.

I moved my containers of pink bins to the wall where I sit. The contents are easier to reach now. This change necessitated changing my magnetic Ikea frame to a vertical orientation. I like it fine like this. I like to tack little reminders to myself on it. When I am working on a page I sometimes place my journaling ideas on it while I work. Note: My husband painted my Making Memories carousel black, I like it much more and feel it blends very well with my other design now.

Continuing around the room, this corner hasn't changed too much.

Looking directly into the room you see the Murphy Bed to the right.

The room beckons my guests and makes a cozy comfortable spot for respite. Comes out of the wall made up like this!

Each part of the room tells a little story or two. The mirror with the sequin crown has a little saying on it, "Still the fairest of them all..." When I look in the mirror I remember my third grade teacher telling me that she chose me to play the wicked queen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs because I was so beautiful. (I didn't want to play someone mean) :)

This is the last view of the four walls, aside from an odd corner (5th wall) shown next. The green bins belong to my two granddaughters, they have their pink albums stored along side their bins. The black on on the bottom belongs to my grandson who also loves to scrap. They each have a tote with all their tools and supplies in their bin. The Ikea door and the pink bin below it house all of my Tim Holtz stuff, including my acrylic stamps. The two Ikea drawers hold things for my printer like photo paper and ink cartridges and CD's for software for the PC. The pink bins to the left hold items for Cricut. As you can see, my dh sprayed my Making Memories Emblishment Center black for me. I just hung it up. I think I am the last person on the planet to get one of these. I didn't think I had room for one until I turned this Ikea Expedit on its side to house the printer and the Cricut I got for Mother's Day. I love the cute little Crystal knobs we put on the Expedit. 

This funny little slanted wall became the perfect location for this Ikea desk. The two framed photos are pictures I took of my garden. Two of the things I love to grow Plumeria and Roses. The sticker binders on the bottom are beloved by my grandchildren. They get to go through them and choose things for their pages. My kids bought me the cute plaque, "One shoe can change your life", -Cinderella. It became the inspiration piece for the decor of my room. Cinderella was a favorite movie and story of mine as a young girl. I knew someday my prince would come, and he did. He spoils me as you can see.

Momma always said you can't judge a book by its cover!

Looks like an ordinary book sitting on a shelf. It's labeled: Nail down Scraptime as a reminder to "take time" to pursue this priceless activity. These cool containers were wooden boxes that look like a book, found at Hobby Lobby. 

Then I found these nifty tic tac containers that I could sort all of my little scrap nails in. The cool thing is...I can even get the containers out with my salon nails on! I found the cute pink and black checkered book binding tape and didn't know what I would use it for when I bought it. I just loved it. Here is the container slid open making it easy to see all the colors. No wasted space and within easy reach resting on a shelf of my desk hutch pictured here.

Scrapbook Studio

The items pictured here inspire me so! The little cream buckets and rack came from the Ikea kitchen section. The little jars are filled with my small flowers. I am in love with Prima flowers, when they first put them on the market they came in the cutest containers, like the cute clear buckets shown here. There is a section on top that holds matching buttons for the array of colors. I found the little cream tray that fit the bottles of Prima mini flowers, even the lids are adorable. The black frame sectioned shadow box to the right holds various embellies. I found these at Hobby Lobby and painted them black. There is a nifty latch on the side that holds the door closed so it can stand up. The container keeps things in view for inspiration!

Paper Storage, Paint Storage

I have a lot of 8 1/2 x 11 cardstock left from when I owned my scrapbook store and there was no 12x12 paper out there. I still use the sheets on pages. The file drawer is perfect for the paper to be easily accessed. The pink boxes above are wooden and come unfinished from Ikea. I have specialty 8 1/2 x 11 papers in these, such as vellum, parchment, ivory, black and white.

For the Making Memories paint I purchased an expandable tiered teak shelf riser from The Container Store and used half on the top shelf and half on the bottom to give me clear access to my scrapbook paints. I love customizing my chipboard with this paint. I can add glitter to them as well. Sometimes I drag out my Tim Holtz and distress them after painting them. Scrapbooking is such a great creative outlet which melts stress!

Ikea is great

I simply got lucky with this great little rolling desk! Two of the 5 drawer Ikea wooden boxes fit perfectly side by side! The whole room is done in cream and black toile. The walls are pink and green! It is a bit of a French theme, very girly! All I want now is wood floors, but I love being in my space!

My Scrapbook Connection

I found these perfect see-thru containers at Hobby Lobby. They are the ideal solution for storing and sorting small embellishments for scrapbooking. They fit perfectly inside the Ikea wooden drawers!

Glitter Anyone

I love bling! With glitter you can add bling to anything! I love stamping and adding glitter before the stamp design dries. I also have been known to paint my brad if I lack the proper color and dip it in glitter rather than pay big bucks for a pack if I only want one or two of that color. I use the little popcorn things that come as packing material to stick my brad in when I paint it or glitter it. Holds it until it's dry!