Showing posts with label Inspiration Station. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Inspiration Station. Show all posts

March 3, 2014

March Pinterest Inspiration Board....Going Green

It's time for my next monthly Pinterest inspiration board and for March it's all about Going Green.  You can find the new board here + all of my previous monthly boards for 2014 are available too.  Green is my favorite color and right about now when we have sub-zero temperatures and snow on the ground, it seems I dream of green.  It was certainly easy to browse through my other Pinterest boards to find inspiration with the color green.  I hope you'll give my Going Green Pinterest board a look and hopefully find some fun inspiration for the month.  

Here's a few sample photos from my Going Green Pinterest board.  These lovely crayons, paint chips and a scruffy paint brush all make me want to dive into my art supplies.  

Some day.  Ahhh, I will own an old green pickup truck.  

Jadeite colored vintage dishes and vases.  Be still my heart.  Maybe my Going Green board will prompt a color change with some of your home decor. 

Quotes and lettering.  White ink on a green background would go so well in my home.  

Vintage illustrations of botanicals, birds and butterflies.  Maybe I'll give watercoloring a stamped butterfly a try this month on some cards.  

So many beautiful shades of green.  There are so many fun pairings of greens with other colors in my Going Green Pinterest board photos.  The inspiration really gets to flowing when I visit this board.  

Thanks for joining me today and I hope that you're inspired to Go Green.  I'll be back this month with lots of green creations and some new green shop items.  Stay tuned...

September 18, 2012

Assembling a crafty Autumn basket........

Hi, I'm back today to share something very fun. Many of you that have followed my blog have found my Inspiration Station posts to be some of your favorites. In these posts I've shown you my own baskets brimming with my crafty favorites for that particular holiday or season. Today I'd like to share with you exactly how I go about shopping my own stash and assembling an Autumn crafty basket for this Fall and Halloween season. I recently offered many Autumn Basket goodies to my shop so I'll be using many of those items + some other stuff from my personal stash.

There are 3 basics steps I take when organizing an Inspiration Station of sorts:
1. Collect and gather...Use new collections and always shop your own stash. No need to get out every item you own. Keep it rather simple.
2. Organize.....Group like items together so they are easy to find. Digging through a cardboard box with piles of stuff layered in is not the idea here.
3. Display.....Find a basket or tray to display your items so they are within easy reach but also pleasing to the eye when sitting out for an extended period of time. Think of it like creating a fun display for a small boutique.

So first up I gathered Fall and Halloween items from my stash. Most of the items you see below are shop items that I offered up in the shop this last week. I like to select products that can be used for cards, gifts and scrapbooking.
I've got a variety of sacks in different colors and sizes. Perfect for holding cards and small gifts. The ribbon is from the Seam Binding Trio along with the Vintage Sequin Confetti Sacks and some black paperclips from the Striped Treat Sacks Kit.
Below I have Dripping Doilies some leaves and old book paper that are all found in the Autumn Kraft Packaging Kit. The items from this collection will be suitable for all Fall and even Thanksgiving projects.
I have twine in all colors so I just selected the ones suitable for my Fall projects. I could easily add in some yellow and brown to the mix too.
More little items from the Striped Treat Sacks Kit plus a nice pile of the Vintage Halloween Button Assortment.
Here I have some Vintage Rust Lace, a few of the Washi tapes from my Autumn Basket shop goodies plus a few more from my stash.
Okay, so next up I need to organize my stash of items. You'll notice that almost everything I have is out of it's packaging. I like to see product without all the wrapping as I think I'm more likely to use it and not be a Halloween hoarder. Here I have all my flat sacks and envelopes staked together.
Next I took the smaller flat items like the book pages, small sacks, doilies and leaves and clipped them together with small clothespins. This is extremely helpful in keeping items nice and tidy.
For ribbons, laces and twines I like to wrap them around cardboard or old fashioned clothespins and secure with long stick pins. Having a bunch of loose ends just makes a mess.
For small items, you know I love my old jello molds. They're perfect for dumping stuff in and it makes all the tiny items very visible. Again, if you see it you will be more likely to use it.
Washi tapes. Wonderful Washi tapes. You might have a bazillion in your collection but each project doesn't need to show it. Just grab a few that fit the theme and call it good. The bottom left were from my Autumn Basket shop update and the two top ones on the right are new from the October Afternoon Witch Hazel collection.
Next up it's time to create a fun display of my Autumn items. I like to use woven baskets or woven/metal trays that have low sides for my displays. A deep basket will prevent you from seeing all the goodies inside. Today I'm using a sturdy woven tray with handles that I got from Nell Hill in Atchison, Kansas. It's a great home goods shop that promotes these types of baskets for all kinds of uses. Having a few good staple baskets/trays like this can be so helpful in your household organizing. I have several and use them for crafty storage, displaying holiday items, holding silverware & napkins for a party, carrying snacks to the Lounge for a tv night. All kinds of uses. Get you some good baskets.
And then I just neatly tucked all my Autumn goodies inside. I start with the tallest items in the back and then just add items in ending with my small items in the front. It's very organized, I've got a nice sized but not overwhelming collection of items and they're displayed in a fun way. If this doesn't tempt me to create something fun for Fall, nothing will.
Okay maybe these new October Afternoon goodies will. :) So many companies are now offering a wide array of crafty goodies for one particular line. October Afternoon always, always does a fantastic job of this. Even before I became a Design Team member I always purchased lots of the pieces and parts of a line. It's just that good. You can see the line of Witch Hazel products over at 2peas right here.

And if you're not into buying too much "themed" product or items that are too matchy/matchy, don't worry. Every collection from October Afternoon and most other companies too has a fantastic mix of specific themed items + items that can be used for everyday type projects. So for example with the OA Witch Hazel line, you will definitely notice the Halloween themed papers and doodads. But if you look closely at the back of many of the patterned papers, labels and embellishments you'll see that the designs are very generic in nature. Perfect if you like the mixy/matchy look like me.
When I get a new collection of goodies, I do tend to keep them in the packaging for a while. I said before that I like to take everything out of the packaging....but while it's all still new and shiny, I like to keep items together. Then after a while I rip it all apart and store it all together. But for now I'll keep the Witch Hazel packages in something like this old sewing machine drawer.
And I couldn't forget about the patterned papers. Usually I will mix and match papers from my stash and will not purchase special themed papers. Those specific papers tend to never get used because the patterns might be too big or I just buy too much. But again, that's what I love about OA papers. There's a little something for everyone and I know that some of these papers will be used for many projects that aren't Fall or Halloween themed.
And that concludes my post for today. I hope you are excited to get to your crafty space and whip up a little Autumn Basket of your own. Have fun!

December 2, 2010

12 Days of Christmas..Day 4

Edit #3: Sorry guys, but my vintage jello molds are not for sale. Remember that hoarding thing I have going on? I just love them too much to part with them.

Edit #2: Can I just add that I am totally envious of you that have all your shopping done!? I'm going to the city on Saturday with Eric before his company Christmas party. I am going to be organized with a list and conquer! Now don't even ask me about homemade Christmas cards.

Edit: Tracy Y wrote: At this season of thankfulness, I just wanted to tell you that I visit your blog every day, even though I don't post often, I am ALWAYS inspired by you and thankful for all you do!!! Blessings to you and your family!

I just want to thank you guys for nice comments like Tracy's. It takes an extreme amount of work do keep up with the blogging and to come up with fresh, new ideas. Your comments are SO appreciated and it's really what makes it all worth while. I read them all. I know it takes extra time to leave the comments so I thank you for taking those few extra minutes out of your day. I need to do the same when I visit blogs. :)
Welcome to Dat 4 of Melissa's and Mishie's 12 Days of Christmas countdown. Today's theme is Altered Baking Tins. While I'm focusing more on ways to use baking tins for storage, I'm sure Melissa will have a beautiful project that we will all want to recreate for ourselves.

Today I'm going to show you my holiday wrapping station using baking tins for some creative storage. (please excuse the less than perfect photos...there is no natural lighting in my basement so I had to use the flash).

You've seen me use my favorite jello mold tins for years here on the blog. Oh how I love them. I thought you might like to see my ever growing stash. Every time I see these I just have to snatch them up. My mom picks them up for me too. I fully intend to share them in my Etsy shop but then I just hoard them for myself. They come in so handy, I never want to be short handed. Hoarding problem?
But they're so dang cute full of buttons.......
On to my gift wrap station. This is something I do every year in the basement. I have a nice big table that I clear off that transforms into a Santa's workshop of sorts. It all starts with the wrapping paper. Each year I buy wrapping paper on sale for the next Christmas to come. It's always fun to open my wrapping paper box to see what's in there. Looks like this year we'll be using red, kraft and cream. Love.
A couple big bags of shiny bows also make it into the sale stash. Here, I've got lots of gold bows with a few brown ones in the mix. I think the tags that I make this year will have the reds and a touch of brown thrown in......and then I'll use some brown twine to tie it all together.
To fancy up packages I have an old wooden berry basket filled with all kinds of little embellishments, tinsel ribbons, tags and more. The key to easy and stress free gift wrapping is to have a plan....have everything that you need in one spot. And then keep it organized.
I found this muffin tin one day and fell in love. The beautiful, worn blue and brown splatter ware enamel is so pretty. It's a little rusty to actually use for baking but it's perfect for storing crafty embellishments. And it fits perfectly in my berry basket as it can slide back and forth. This would make a wonderful centerpiece too, using the muffin spaces for little tea light candles.
On the opposite end of my berry basket is a waffle textured bread tin. I use this all the time to store Etsy kits, little projects I want to work on in front of the tv, etc. Baking tins are so utilitarian and are perfect for all kinds of storage. Here, I'm using this one to hold my vintage tape dispenser and stapler.....scissors and pens, etc.
And for added fun, why not spray paint old baking tins that are a little rusty and past their baking prime? I pick these up at Goodwill, yard sales, and thrift shops for usually less than a $1.00. I use this Chartreuse green color for most of my tins. Krylon spray paint is abundant in lots of colors at Walmart. Just spread out a large piece of paper and spray outside where the ventilation is good. Here I've used two sizes of bread tins and a fluted jello mold to hold tags and cards I've made, smaller bows and an empty one to hold tags that I intend to make soon for packages.

I love how these tossed away items take on a whole new look when spray painted. They all match and look great in a little grouping.

And here's a little glimpse of a smaller spray painted bread tin that I keep in this basket. This is my *junk drawer* of sorts. It houses all the supplies I use almost daily at my desk. And don't just leave it at spray painting the baking tins. I have spray painted lots of old wicker baskets and my whole office area is now coordinated. Love that.Now. All I have to do is go shopping for gifts and I'm ready for some wrapping! How are you coming along on your shopping? The girls just informed me while waiting for the bus that they're exchanging gifts with all their friends this year. Now we have even more shopping to do. Fun times! :)

I can't wait to see what Melissa's cooking up on her blog. I know it will be drool worthy. In the meantime, here's a wonderful recipe for you. Nothing like a good brownie...but even better with a gooey peanut buttery filling. Enjoy!


Big League Brownies
“An out-of-the-park flavor combination”

Brownie:
1 pkg brownie mix (for 9 x 13 size)
½ cup oil
¼ cup water
2 eggs

Filling:
¾ cup peanut butter
1/3 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup sugar
2 Tablespoons flour
2 eggs

Heat over to 350 degrees. Prepare brownie mix as directed on package, using oil, water and eggs. Set aside. In small bowl, combine peanut butter and butter; beat until smooth. Add sugar and flour; mix well. Add 2 eggs. Spread half of brownie mixture in greased 9 x 13 pan. Carefully spread peanut butter mixture evenly over chocolate mixture. Spread remaining chocolate mixture evenly over peanut butter mixture. Bake at 350 for 30-33 minutes. Cool. Enjoy!

February 26, 2010

Spring/Easter Inspiration Station

Hi everyone. With March just around the corner, it's time to get a crackin' on some Spring and Easter projects. Who knows when this winter weather will gone but for me.....it's SPRING!! (please do not remind me that it's not actually Spring because I'm officially forecasting SPRING now no matter what the weather man or calendar says...so there. It's Spring).

What better way to break in Spring than with my Spring/ Easter Inspiration Station!! This year I've nestled all my goodies into a vintage, wooden basket tray. I've included both Easter decorations and paper crafting supplies. Inspired by Heather's new Egg Hunt collection of stamps, dies and patterned papers, this year it's all about the egg. And flowers. And pretty pastel colors. And glitter. Let the fun begin!
Fuzzy, little, yellow chicks are always adorable at Easter time. I love these vintage looking prints.
How about these beautiful, pastel, paper eggs? They usually hang on a fake tree but I like them nestled in this old bread pan too. Jordan made that Easter sign out of Popsicle sticks a few years ago.
Then there's Peter Cottontail and the little Mrs. They're delivering egg of all kinds. I prefer the Reese's kind. Just sayin'. I got these two vintage looking figurines at Nell Hill's.
I do not like green eggs and ham....but I sure like my green egg wreath! Sometimes I hang this, other times I use it as a centerpiece with a candle in the middle. Again, from Nell Hill's.
These delicate, vintage Easter postcards were given to me by my dad. They were in a stack full of letters from his grandmother, Cora. I will cherish them forever.
And now for the crafting goodies. Using a Papertrey color palette of Spring Moss, Sweet Blush, Lemon Tart and Lavender, I've created a beautiful array of pastel colors.
My Vintage Buttons are nestled into old jello tin molds and a glass jar from Anthropologie. I tied ribbon around an old set of measuring spoons to use as a button scoop. (Tin jello molds were collected from a variety of garage sales, flea markets, auctions,etc)
My pretty, assorted ribbons are all lined up. I use stick pins to keep the loose ends tucked in nice and tidy.
I've already got a head start on some Easter egg doodads. Stay tuned for a great idea using these egg embellishments very soon. And check out this post of my notepad I made using some of these doodads here..
And look at this. My crafting goodies are nestled into a removable wooden tray. So now when I want to use my goodies, I can just remove that part and take it to my work table. I could see that closer to Easter time, I might use the entire wooden basket as a centerpiece. I'll keep the goodies in my stamp room and fill the other side with decorated Easter eggs....or sugar cookies or Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs....oh my, I can't wait.
Well. Now that SPRING is here, whatcha gonna create? I can't wait to make more goodies.

Note: You can look through my Labels section at the left under Easter/Spring and Inspiration Station to see Spring and Easter from past blog posts. Enjoy!

January 31, 2010

Papertrey Favorites Scavenger Hunt

Let the Papertrey Anniversary celebrations begin! Today I have an adorable card to show you that I created using a Papertrey stamp set that Nichole and I designed together. It's near and dear to my heart and just makes me smile every time I use images from this set.
For my main image, I paper pieced the picnic basket with Pine's lovely Pretty Pastels patterned paper. I then stamped on the sweet strawberries image and colored it with my Copic Sketch markers. The letters were stamped onto PTI Stamper's Select White cardstock and then colored with Copics also. The rest of my card is also adorned with papers from the Pretty Pastels collection, Vintage Buttons and ribbon snippets from my Valentine Inspiration Station.
Below are my Copic colors that I used to color the strawberries
My inspiration: Using various colors of pinks and purples, I pulled Vintage Buttons, ribbons, embroidery floss, patterned papers and string from my collection. These colors are very soft and pretty...perfect for Valentine's Day, baby cards, girly cards or any projects that you want to have a soft feel.
You might have noticed that I haven't mentioned the actual NAME of my favorite Papertrey stamp set, which is the only set I used in my project today. Today's anniversary contest involves you seeking out the name of each design team members favorite set as part of a scavenger hunt. You may recognize the set instantly or it may need to do a bit of research in the Papertrey store HERE.

Each of the design team members have been assigned a number in accordance with their scavenger hunt order. You'll notice according to the graphic at the top of this post I am stop number 9. Create your numbered list and head over to Nichole's blog to enter to win ALL ELEVEN of the team's favorite stamp sets! Be sure not to delay, because the contest ends on February 2nd at 7am EST. The winners will be announced by noon the same day on the February Release Winners page. Have fun and good luck!

Designer Favorites Scavenger Hunt (see Nichole's blog for links and more fun information)
1. Erin Lincoln
2. Maile Belles
3. Betsy Veldman
4. Dawn McVey
5. Debbie Olson
6. Heather Nichols
7. Lisa Johnson
8. Melissa Phillips
9. Michelle Wooderson
10. Niki Estes
11. Kim Hughes

January 11, 2010

2010 Valentine Inspiration Station

Edit: The acrylic unit that my rolls of ribbon are in was given to me by a friend who made jewelry. Sorry I don't have a source.

Hello friends. Here's what you've been waiting for...my Valentine Inspiration Station. Each holiday season, I try to have a color theme or special little items I want to use on my projects. This year, my Valentine Inspiration Station was inspired by the card below that you've seen in a previous blog post. The pinky purple tone of the button used on the doo dad sparked it all. I decided to add some purple ribbon to my card then the purple stamped hearts at the bottom. I liked the addition of purple so much that I pulled out a few items to use for my inspiration station. This year, I nestled all my goodies into an old baking sheet pan that I found at a junk shop. I put felt glides on the bottom so it can slide around on my wood table without scratching it up. All of my embellishments are nestled inside and I can easily see them and access them due to the narrow depth of the baking pan. Kinda reminds of when you go to the dentist or doctor for a procedure.....all of the tools are lined up in a little pan. Maybe I should sterilize all my little jars. :)
All of my embellishments are in light tones of pinks and purples. Nothing to dark, I plan to use a lot of tea dye inks to create a vintage look on my Valentine cards and treats this year. I love these little sticky rhinestones. They add such a nice finishing touch to projects.
Pretty pastel ribbons, trims, velvets and ric rac from my vast stash. I like to keep loose ribbon wrapped on clothes pins and secured with a stick pin. You can find these old style clothespins at The Dollar Tree...last time I looked. Notice the beat up heart tin that my ribbons are in. It was a gem of a find at the junk shop.
Old fashioned Valentines always had glitter on them. I love glitter. You love glitter. We all love glitter. It always reminds me of a story of my mom. Years ago she worked at a Hallmark factory. She recalls her favorite job was to add glitter to Valentines and then stick on a fuzzy feather. Who knew??! My glitters are from Martha Stewart, available at Michael's or Walmart, etc. I dug out a few bottles of Stickles too.
I also found some Stampin' Up! eyelets in Valentine colors. Do we use eyelets anymore? Ohhh, the beautiful buttons. I like to dress mine up with Papertrey's Rustic Twine or good old fashioned embroidery thread.
And look at this adorable little salt shaker? My friend Pine (Heather Nichols) turned me onto these. They're perfect for storing a small collection of trinkets. When out junking, look for unique salt and pepper shakers that are clear and have unique shapes or lids.
Of course I'll be using other coordinating projects in pinks and purples too. Instead of getting out too much stuff though, I left a lot of items in their regular storage spots. Like my Copics, gotta love the Copics. These are stored in a Pottery Barn Kids lazy spinner organizer.
My Papertrey ribbons will get a work out too. There are so many colors and varieties to choose from.
My favorite Valentine paper this year is from Papertrey. This collection called Simple Valentine was designed by Pine. She's getting very good at designing these patterned papers!
I'm also big into punches lately. They make quick and easy work of fun shapes, like these hearts. All of these punches are available at Papertrey Ink.
There ya go, folks. I hope you enjoy having a glimpse into my crafty world. I also hope you are inspired to create your own Valentine Inspiration Station this year. It's a great way to dig into your supplies and find goodies you probably forgot you had. Have fun and if you create your own Inspiration Station, please leave a link in the comments section. I'd love to see what you've done.
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