Featured Studio on RNEST!

I was featured on the RNEST blog yesterday! Their "Make-It Mondays" series is now featuring a different artist each week, interviewing them about their creative process and workspace...and I'm the first artist to be featured!

CLICK HERE TO CHECK IT OUT!

My "Studio"

Here's a glimpse into the evolution of my workspace.
Here's what it looked like during our "walk-through" of the house before we bought it. It was the smallest bedroom upstairs, and I immediately said "This will be my craft room!"

Here it is shortly after we first moved in (but weren't completely moved in. I should have taken a picture of it on our "big" moving day! There were so masny boxes that I never thought I'd get everything organized!)

And here it is now!

Don't let the mess fool you! I actually have things pretty organized! But tell me that the rest of you don't have craft rooms that are as messy as this (or worse!). Those shelves are reused/repurposed bi-fold closet doors from my parent's house. I originally took them because I thought I would use them to make big paintings...but I think they're serving me better as shelves!

And this is where the magic happens! My sewing station!

The table my sewing machine resides on is an old school desk I picked up from the curb outside the house of a local Amish family who were moving. The top was really dirty, after some scrubbing and magic eraser, it was as good as new!

And here is my newly installed monster clothesline!

I LOVE my monster clothesline! Whenever I do another craft show (or if I ever have my own shop) this is how I want to display my monsters!

On My Desk...

I continued the ongoing epic battle with my craft area this past week. I made some progress...mostly with a section of my desk. It still could use some work...but I took some pretty pictures...

I got this idea for using a vintage glass juicer to hold buttons from the Princess Lasertron blog. I just happened to have this gorgeous colbalt blue one that looks beautiful with an assortment of blue buttons.

Salvaged drawers on their sides used as as shelves.

Yay for pretty-colored semi-organized chaos!

On My Desk...

So...I'll read some blogs that occasionally have a "on my desk" post. Well, here's a glimpse into mine. This week I've been in the process of slightly overhauling my side of our craft room/office. I've been wanting to clean up/switch things up for a while...kind of my unofficial New Year's resolution for myself. But this week's overhaul was really sparked by this awesome old-school chest of drawers Rachel gave me.

She'd obtained it from Freecycle, thinking it was a trunk she could put blankets in, but when she picked it up, it wasn't what she'd expected, plus it ended up being bigger than she'd expected. She had no room for it, but thought it looked like something I'd like. Does my friend know me or what? :)

My favorite part is those little drawers in the middle. They're perfect for storing my rubber stamps!

I don't know if it's just the newly obtained drawers or what, but I'm finding that I'm leaning toward a vintage-y feel decor-wise in my craft room. It reminds me of a look that an early 1900's/late 1800's British researcher or scientist would have in their office. It makes me think of Arthur Spiderwick in Spiderwick Chronicles or Helen Magnus in Sanctuary, but with more of a an artsy flavor rather than science-y. I love using old things like mason jars and cigar boxes to store my supplies.

I also like things like this old Blue Willow tumbler that I keep my paintbrushes in.

A project I did in a graphic design class in college. The project was to use my first initial x4 arranged into a design. Do you see the "K"? I think the overall design looks either like an hourglass or a scarab/ladybug. Kind of a Rorshach test (ie: inkblot test).

The "I heart handmade" postcard from second storie that I found in the ladies room at JoAnne Fabrics (I was bummed that I found it a day too late to go to the event!). It's tucked in with some cardstock scraps in a wood cigar box a friend gave me back when I was in college.

A Crayola collecter's tin atop some pretty hardcover books.

I'll try to remember to post more pictures once I get things better situated and organized. Most of the room is still a mess. And not a delightfully quaint kind of mess either.

Tag Making for the Household

On those days where I didn't get around to hanging/folding/ironing the clean laundry the night before (which ends up being more often than I'd like to admit), my husband always asks me in the morning when he's getting ready for work which basket is clean laundry and which basket is dirty. So I used this as an excuse to make these pretty tags today for easy identification without relying on sniffing the laundry...or asking a sleepy, semi-coherant wife at 5:30 in the morning. ;)

I've been on a tag-making spree lately. I went to a Creative Memories open house a few weeks ago and my mom bought me a nice tag punch.( I bought the little alphabet stamp sets for $1 each at AC Moore).

And I bought this magnetic alphabet stamp set at a craft store in Ohio called Pat Catan's when I was visiting my in-laws over Thanksgiving weekend (using some of the money my mother-in-law gave me for Christmas). I love the little symbol stamps that came with it...especially the leaf and the snowflake.

I have a thing for alphabet stamps lately. I like them for card/tag-making and scrapbook page titles. It's time-consuming to spell something out with rubber stamps, but it's pretty. I tend to get picked on for my semi-illegible cursive handwriting that my mother describes as "jagged". So I save that for signing my name and/or personal notes and try to type or stamp the rest.