22....23....24....25.....26...............

The following is my submission for the Less Is More challenge #26.... and 25 .... and 24 ..... and 23 ...... and 22........... LOL LOL

I've been really busy over the last month at work with budget season in full swing, and here at home finally getting my craft room done. So while I tried to make cards, I didn't finish most of them by the deadlines and for all of them, was too lazy to pull out the photo tent to take pictures. I hope you don't mind the huge post, but feel free to blow past everything below the current challenge. :D

LIM#26 Something Fruity
I bought this Unity stamp because I liked the way it looked, but then couldn't think of a darn thing to do with it. Thankfully I did buy it because of all the stamps I own, this is the ONLY one with fruit. Butterfly and birds stamps i have by the dozens, but fruit stamps .....





If you look carefully you'll see that the pear with the dark label has a very slightly different stamped image. That is due to the card stock. My Big Shot die plates are really old and all the cuts in it leave an impression on card stock. So now days I use an extra piece of white on top of whatever I'm cutting so the "cuts" in the plate don't come through onto the piece I'm cutting. Well when I was trying to decide how to color the stamp, I reached for a scrap piece of white to see how the Pear and Artichoke looked together. It looked good so I colored the stamp again and stamped it out on a clean piece of CS (light colored labeled card). It was then that I noticed how the scrap piece had taken the ink and I really liked the effect. So I cut both the good image and the scrap image down and made two cards. :)
~Unity Stamp; Pear Pizazz and Always Artichoke card stock and ink; twine; Memory Box Pastry Labels die~


LIM#25 Ribbon & Buttons and Sunday Snippets #30
This first card was inspired by a couple of ladies on blogspot though I can't remember where I saw their cards (I think one is Shirley's); however I remember loving the pink with the black. So I made a flower, found a pretty bright pink button, pulled out two pieces of pink ribbon and pearls and ta-da ..... a very busy and very not CAS card. **sigh**
So I went back to the drawing board and made the kite card. I used the fabulous ribbon as the inspiration for coloring (the wonderful ribbon was gifted to me by one of my very favorite blog friends), dug through my Basic Grey and SU! buttons, trimmed out the kites with a scrap of blue and called it done. Much more CAS than the first one; and though I don't normally get into really bright colors, I have to admit I really like how this turned out. :) With the exception of the ribbons, all the pieces of these cards are scraps. Even the kites; as they were in this little box I have where I toss aside stamped images that I start to use, but then change my mind.
~Verve sentiments; unknown kite stamp; Spellbinders fancy tags die; Kaisercraft pearls; scrap ribbon and card stock~







LIM#24 Circles and Sunday Snippets #30
I made the first card from kraft paper, loved it, but thought it was too busy for LIM. So I made the second card late in the week but I don't really care for it because it's too plain and too washed out; but at least it has big open white (or in this case vanilla) space. :D Oh and absolutely everything on these cards is fromthe scrap bin so it qualifies for Sunday Snippets. :)
~Unknown DP; SU card stock; Cuttlebug die cut~






LIM#23 One Layer Card /Something with Legs
BooHiss .... I do not like OLC. Period. End of story. Like the cat stamp though. :D
~Unknown cat stamp; Verve sentiment stamp; Faber-Castell watercolor pencils~




LIM#22 Shades of Blue and Sunday Snippets #30
Blue is one of my favorite colors; so you'd think I would be able to make something decent. Not so in this case. This card ranks as one of the all time ugliest cards I have ever made. It simply did not gel. Love the paper and the colors, dislike how blah it looks. However there is always a bright spot .... all the paper on this card is from the scrap bin, so it serves the purpose of lowering the bin level. :D
~Verve stamp; Kaisercraft pearls; unknown ribbon and DP, however I think the DP might be Tim Holtz~

A work in progress

The picture to the left is the reason I have been MIA for a month. My craft room make-over has taken a lot of my free time for many weeks, heck months actually, and I have to admit, I am so very pleased with how well it is coming along. I am now to the point where I can craft again and just organize when the mood hits me.

I promised a friend that has listened to me go on and on about this room for the last few months, that I would post pictures before she leaves on vacation today. So that is why I am posting before the room is completely done. Also, please forgive the poor quality of the pictures. I'm still getting used to this new camera and can't seem to get the hang of it. The thing with HiDef cameras is you have to have a very, VERY steady hand .... which is clearly something I don't have. LOL

Anyway on to the room. The first picture (above) was taken standing in the doorway looking in. The mess behind the desk is a window seat that has my son's junk on the bottom and various craft storage containers on top. I plan to tackle this mess over the weekend. All the necessary furniture is in place and everything that was once scattered all over my house is now in this room. It may not be in its final place yet, but I'm hoping by the end of August to have the last of the organization done.

These are the shelves I had been waiting for. They are perfect and by perfect I mean storage and size wise. There is less than half an inch between closet door and left edge; and just shy of an inch on the right edge and the main door. The unit is 55" tall with the space on the inner shelves slightly less than 12". Not much on this shelf other than the jars and SU card stock bins and surplus is in its final place. I need to determine what I want on the Elfa wall unit before I can finalize this one. The big bag of Martha Stewart punches will go on metal shelves next to the hanging wall unit eventually.



These next two are of the shelves on the craft table. The Bazzill card stock storage will remain where it is, I like it there. However the items in the shelves on the side may or may not stay put. For now it works.





Here is another shot of the short wall with all the Elfa storage (the Container Store just loves seeing me pull up) and a few labels to show how I have organized some of it. The best thing about the lower units is I can switch things around anytime I get the urge. Other than the narrow units in the center, all the drawers on the outer units can be rearranged. For the most part, I have the labeled drawers where I want them. Oh and that Cricut over in the junk stack; never been used; can't figure that thing out to save my life. Of course I think something like the Cricut requires patience, and I'm in the negative on that score. LOL




This one is obvious; my stamp holder. The old style full size craft pads are in the lower unit and the regular SU! stamp pads in the upper. There are a dozen or so colors that I have, but rarely use, tucked into the lower unit as well. I have my Distress pads stacked on the top of the lower unit.



This is a shot standing in the corner by the closet shooting into the opposite corner. The mesh shoe hanging thingie holds my old style SU! punches and a few other types. I'm not sure if I will keep this once I get the metal shelves on the wall next to the Elfa unit, but for now its a great fit.





This is how I store my Spellbinder and other dies (excluding Verve). These fabulous folders are magnetic and very sturdy. I have them sorted by shapes or style; or by company. I haven't figured out a good labeling system yet so I have to pull the books out of the bin partway so I can see the small sticky notes on the front to determine what is inside. I think I will number the edges and then keep an excel file for look up. That’s the plan for now anyway. :)


This is all my surplus SU and Bazzill card stock. Off to the side is the last of the Cool Caribbean and Soft Sky; two of my all time favorite colors SU has ever produced. I tend to stock up on the In Colors if I really like them knowing they will sadly never return. Kiwi was another In color that I loved and am sadly down to my last two packs. :(


These fabulous containers are made by ZIA and were purchased at The Container Store. I LOVE them. They hold the SU! cling stamps perfectly. They are currently sitting on the workspace top, but will go up on the shelves above once I get a row of those canvas bins sorted and reassigned.

I'm still here .....

Just a quick note to say I am still around and have not fallen off the face of the earth. :)

It's budget time at work and since I'm in charge of the process it takes up all of my at work hours and more than a few of my home hours.

Also, I have been working very hard on my craft room and though not done, its really getting there. I will be posting some pictures tomorrow to share with a friend that has been listening to me go on and on about it every morning.

I also made a card last night (for the Less is More challenge) but haven't taken the picture yet.

I hope everyone is well and I promise to be crafting by this weekend.

Oh and ...... as of last night I have reclaimed my gorgeous kitchen, no more craft supplies spread all over half my counter tops. YEAH!!!!


PS - Old picture from 1984 of my two boys and my ex. Dirty faces and all, this is one of my favorites.