Saturday, September 28, 2013

 I have had some ask about my craft room, so I thought I would share it with you.


First, let me explain...
I am an empty nester who lives in a small home. I used to have my crafting supplies spread out everywhere and I would work on the dining room table! Well, it dawned on me one day.
I never used the dining room except to craft in, so why not just make it my craft room!
Now you have to understand...the dining room is in the middle of the house, so you have to see it when you walk thru the front door and go through it to the rest of the house. I didn't know if my husband would go for it. But to my surprise, he was ALL for it!
So we packed up my dining room furniture and put it in storage and went to IKEA!!!!

This is what you see from my kitchen:


And this is from the living room:

So I have to be pretty good, not perfect about keeping it clean! heehee

Now I wanted everything to be within arm's reach. I was tired of having to go here and there to gather up my supplies. I wanted it all in one place! 
So here it is:

This is the top of my desk on the left. This is where I keep my 6x6 pads and large designer paper pads, that I like to use the most often. I wrote the names with a black Sharpie on the edges, so I could see them more easily.

This is the middle of the desk. My main working area. As you can see, this is where I keep my glue, adhesives, sprays, Stickles, Liquid Pearl, brushes, scissors, All of my different black ink pads, etc.  
See my container full of Gelatos. It was the vase for some flowers that I received! 

And this is to the right on top of my desk. You can see my Copics are kept in a tableware basket!


My desk curves around and this is where I keep my Big Shot! 
I use it all the time, so I am glad I have a place to keep it out.
Behind it is a paper storage container from Michael's. As well as paper, I also keep my freezer paper,etc. On top you will see my tape, staplers, Xyron, etc.

As the desk curves you can see where my Cricket and sewing machine live.
I have a Silouette Portrait, but it lives in our office where our computer is.


I keep all of my punches in the left cabinet. The middle cabinets hold all of my dies. I have them in CD cases. The right cabinet has my embossing folders, embossing powders and miscellaneous stuff.

And then I have this big shelf unit behind my desk! This is where I keep my stamps, inks, embellishments and more paper!

I started by keeping my stamps in notebooks, but if you look closely, you will see I am trying to start the new storage method by Jennifer McGuire ( the green files).

 On top, is where I keep seasonal and not so often used supplies hidden the black boxes.

 My desk looks pretty clean right now. If only it would stay that way!

I picked up this storage unit from Michael's on sale!
I use the top 3 shelves for white, black and kraft paper!
The keyring hanging on it is my sponges for the Distress Inks. 
 This has been a great storage for my Mixed Media stuff!
And it is on wheels, so it moves around very easily!

That's it folks!
I love my craft area!

Thanks for stopping by!
Mackie




Muse

 I was inspired to play with this week's Muse Challenge
Just look at this beautiful muse!


Karen M.'s card reminded me of a stamp set that I have. 
So I pulled it out and this is what I came up with:

These beautiful blooms are from the Tropical Sensations designed by Mona Pendleton for MFT.
First,  I spritzed my watercolor paper with water and ran it through some Tumbled Glass Distress Ink.
After it was dry, I stamped the blooms with Versamark Ink and then heat embossed them white.
I stenciled some areas with a dark blue Gelato and a Checkerboard stencil (also by Mona Pendleton for MFT). I then covered it all with Modge Podge, so everything would not smear. I added some white Liquid Pearl to the black scalloped borders.
I am going to send this card to one of my friends who has helped me a lot during my recovery!

Hope you are enjoying your weekend!
Thanks for stopping by!
Mackie

***This card made Honorable Mention at MUSE!!!***

Friday, September 27, 2013

Seize the Sketch #4

I fell in love with the current sketch for 
Seize the Sketch #4 challenge. So I just had to try it!


Isn't this a cool sketch!!!!

Here is my card:


I had ordered some new fun stuff from Simon Says stamps right before my knee surgery. I couldn't wait to play with this new little feathers die. I ran the feathers thru some Distress Inks (Tattered Glass & Lemonade). Then I had to add some flair with my new Technique Tuesday stamps! And the sentiment and banner die are also new from Simon Says. I just love their stamps and dies!

Thanks for stopping by!
Mackie

Challenges: Seize the Sketch 
                    Seize the Birthday



Wednesday, September 25, 2013

BOO!!

Just a quick post for a little square card that I made yesterday!


Very CAS!!!!
I made a bunch of these to go with some Halloween candy that I will be giving to my coworkers.
I saw an earlier post of a card that Arielle did and I remembered I had the Postage spellbinder dies! So I pulled them out and made this cute card. I ran the orange panel thru a crimper to give it some dimension. The little ghost is a PTI die.

I am gonna link it up to a couple of challenges:






Thanks so much for stopping by!

And I am doing better and better! Yay!
Thanks to all of you that have sent me well wishes!
It has made my recovery so much easier!

Mackie 

Saturday, September 21, 2013

Friendship...

 I finally felt good enough to get into my craft room and play with my stuff!
My knee is still very stiff and sore. I am following all the rules and doing my physical therapy. So now I just need to learn patience!!!!!

I only had energy for something small, so I thought I would make a tag.
I loved the color challenge this week at


Gray ~ Green ~ Lavender



Unfortunately...my lavender looks more like Fushia!!!
It was so good playing with my Gelatos and stencils...getting my fingers all dirty!
And then all of a sudden...
I was exhausted!!!! I had to go take a nap!!!

Hopefully, I will be able to play again soon!
Thanks for stopping by!
Mackie


Sunday, September 15, 2013

Medical Update

Hello! 
Just wanted to leave a quick update!
I had my knee replacement surgery on Monday. The surgery went well.
My doctor told my DH that my knee was even worse that what it looked like on the x-rays! So when everything healed...my knee would feel so much better. YAY! Because now, it still hurts! Heehee!
Tuesday morning was the pits!! Lots of pain and nausea. And a lot of tears! Boohoo! A total pity party! But by the afternoon , I started to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  The physical therapist even had me up walking (with the aide of a walker). I got to come home from the hospital Thursday. Now...lots of physical therapy ahead of me. One of my dear friends and her husband came by to see me yesterday. He had this surgery 3 years ago. He was very encouraging!
I know it is gonna take some hard work and discipline, which doesn't come easily to me. So please pray for me to stay focused and 
git 'er done!!!!!

Hopefully I will be sitting at my craft room desk soon! I may not be posting, but I will definitely be visiting! Thank goodness for my IPad!

Thanks for stopping by!
Mackie

Saturday, September 7, 2013

Fear of Pain and the Unknown


As I mentioned in an earlier post....I am having knee replacement surgery on Monday. I am feeling a bit stressed! So I thought maybe a little painting and mixed media in my journal might calm my nerves a little bit. 

The girl is a stamp that I purchased from a local artist from 
NC called "Enchanted Designs" by Juen. Isn't she pretty? I paper pieced her dress, and added some ribbon and lace.  The white stenciling was done with Fiber Paste and the MFT Concentric Circles(Mona Pendleton Design).  The orange stenciling was also Fiber Paste, but had some orange acrylic paint mixed in. That stencil is another MFT MPD called Graduated Diamonds. I stamped the butterflies and then did a little yellow & orange color washing on their wings. To me, the butterflies mean hope and no more awful arthritis pain!!!

I was inspired by the colors for the current



I am hoping in 6-8 weeks after my surgery, I will be making another page in my journal that will be all sunshine and roses!!!!! 
WooHooo!!!!!!

I am gonna also link this up to the current Simon Says Stamps Monday challenge:
All Stars (what is your all star tool, ink , etc that you can't live without).

Mine is two...Archival Black Ink and Staz-On Black Ink!


Thanks so much for stopping by!
Mackie



***This page was Featured on A Mixed Media Color Challenge***





Friday, September 6, 2013

Spooktacular!

Hope everyone has great plans for this weekend!
I am getting ready for Knee Replacement surgery Monday!!!! Argh!!!!
So...I have been a busy girl trying to get my craft room,  uh, house in order. hee hee!
So all good thoughts and prayers will be greatly appreciated.

I have been making some really cute Halloween cards, (I just love Halloween!) and I wanted to share one that I made for the current



The spider and spider web are from the Stamps of Life. I masked half of the web stamp with a post-it note when I stamped it. The cute little bats are die cuts from Paper Smooches. I felt they all needed googly eyes, you know, to make them
SPOOKTACULAR!

Waaaaaa haaaaaaaa!

Here are some other Halloween cards that I have made. 

The stamps and dies above are Paper Smooches again. The little coffin I got from the Silhouette Store.

This is the stamp set that I used for the cards below:

The 2 cards below, who I TOTALLY cased from Ariel @ the Snappy Stamper, are from The Alley Way Stamps. They were just so adorable, I had to make some of them for my friends! Except, I did not have the sentiment for the next card. I had to print it from the computer. I need to get the stamp, because the font is so darn cute! 



(I had to add a little spider to this one because I had a little accident with ink on my finger!)


Well...thanks for stopping by! I may be able to post again, before my surgery.
If not, it may be a couple of weeks.
However I will definitely be visiting everyone!

Mackie





Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Ummmm...chocolate

Do you feel this way?



Just wanted to share a card I made for the current  Retrosketches  sketch challenge #79!


A VERY good friend who shares my love of stamping and card making just gave me this new stamp set! It is from Creative Memories. It is called "A Chocolate Affair", and it is so much fun!!!
I put Glossy Accents on the chocolate part of the strawberries.  In real life it looks like yummy, gooey chocolate, but I could not get it to photo that way. Sorry!

Well, thanks for stopping by and I hope you get some chocolate REAL soon!
(I keep a stash on my desk at all times! It is very good for the creative stamping)

Mackie