Craft Room Tour with Courtney Lee

Hello!!! This is Courtney Lee from Court's Crafts here with a tour of my craft room! 

My craft room is the sun room that was added onto our master bedroom. It is bright and overlooks the garden with five sets of double french doors. However, the owners before didn't build a deck and so the doors just open to a drop off of 6 feet or so... ha! As we haven't been able to build a deck this turned into my craft room and the girls craft/homeschool room.

 Here is what you see when you look into it. Storage has been tricky as I don't want to block all the wonderful light into it but I need a lot of storage! There isn't a lot of wall space. Has anyone else had this battle? 

My desk. It is really deep. The paper on the left is all my 12x12 doodlebug solid cardstock. On the right you can barely see my Silhouette Cameo 2. 

I keep my doodle-pops right in front of me on this clip it up. They are my biggest inspiration for cards so they are front right on my desk. 

I store my embossing folders on this blue bin on my desk as well. I started out crafting by embossing something for the first time with a Cuttlebug. I exclaimed, "I was born to emboss!" and I just loved it. I liked to remind myself of my roots... and come to think of it, I need to add some more embossing to my cards!

 Also in the hutch on my desk are my go-to adhesives. I keep them in a Teresa Collins Xyron box that had a mix of adhesives in it. I just cut off the top and I use that. It's a sweet light pink. The pencil holder that has my name on it as made my Cynthea (owner of Doodlebug Designs) and were given to each of us at our design team retreat we had one year! It was SOOOOOOOO much fun and I like having this reminder of such a wonderful time in front of me. I also keep black and brown ink as well as foam tape of course. 

 This is my newest acquisition. I got it at Costco for $27.99 (I think). I put the collections that I am working actively with in here so I can bounce back and forth and I can also put any unfinished projects in there as I go along. 

Here is how I display it in each drawer so that I can see the maximum of each collection. It makes me happy just looking at it!

This is looking length wise down. The beams also made finding furniture tricky. On the far end you see my sewing machine, thread on spool holder (a Christmas gift from my husband that is easily one of my favorites!!!) and if you look over the door, those are my Cricut cartridges! I had my husband build that shelf and I love it!!! It was made from leftover wood we had in the garage.

I also added these ribbon spool holders. They are basic boards with chair railing attached to the front (thank you Pinterest!) That way there is a lip to hold the spools back but the ribbon can still unspool over the front. 

On the side of one of these stackers is where I stuck a nail in to hold my mats for the Silhouette Cameo 2 and my Cricut Explore Air. The desks below are for my daughters and my buttons and Cuttlebug are on top.

This is my most favorite furniture. It is Martha Stewart and took about 6 hours for my husband and I to put it together (and we are IKEA EXPERTS). It. took. forever. But it was so worth it. See pictures below. That Martha, she knows what she's doin'. 

Here is where I cut with my Cricut Explore Air and my 9 inch Xyron Creative Station. 

My neutral ribbons are in this thing from Clip it Up and any remnants are clipped onto the rod at the bottom. 

At the doodlebug retreat we made that sweet "Thankful" album. It was my first mini album ever and I am still in love with it even though I didn't design it! LOL! 

Daily Doodles, Twine, Create-a-Card, and 6x6 Doodlebug pads are held here. As you can see this is super deep as it can hold two sets of 12 x 12 paper.

Okay, I have a little bit of Xyron, but I just wanted to show you how much this thing olds. Amazing.

This is my top drawer. Lots of ink stacked 2 high and specialty media, stencils, Silhouette blades, etc. etc. 

Ahhhh. The piéce de résistance: my husband put this up a few years ago and it looks small on here, but it is not. It's huge. It holds all things doodlebug and a few things non-doodlebug. Chunky twine, all the washi tape, icons, fancy frills, shaped sprinkles, cute clips, etc. etc. etc. All can be seen here and can inspire me. You know that phrase, "you have to see it to use it"? yep. that. 

My Cricut Explore Air cutting station. It usually has two tiny human chairs in front of it so they can hit the buttons and pull it off the mat. Now my 15 month old wants in on the action too! 

Another view. :)

Last but not least is my sewing/embroidery machine. It's a work horse and I abuse it greatly. When I bought it I asked the owners, "How does it work on paper?" (With a horrified expression on their faces) they replied, "Paper?!?!?" Yes, paper. :) 

I hope you have enjoyed a tour of my crafty space. I feel like it's a little unorthodox but then all of our spaces are special to us. They are the places where we can let the day to day slip away and just create, enjoy, inspire, do something silly and those creations mean something to someone else - whether they are layouts and you are memory keeping or whether you are making cards and making someone's day in the mail. If you create in a designer done space, or on your kitchen table, it doesn't matter! Create on, my friends! Create on!!! 

Fairy Tales Cut Files: Unicorn Birthday Party Ideas with Courtney

 

There are some fabulous new FAIRY TALES Cut files
released today in the Silhouette Store and the Lori Whitlock SVG Shop! 
We've included links to both types of files below! Then keep scrolling to 

see the wonderful project by Courtney.

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	SVG Cut File Silhouette Cut File

Helloooooooooo!!! I am LOVING the new Fairy Tales cut files!!!! This is Courtney Lee from Court's Crafts here with a rainbow unicorn birthday party idea! I am here today to show you all the different ways you can use cut files: invites, stickers, coloring pages, cake toppers, party hat decorations, and iron on shirts - EVERYTHING you need to make your party a personalized incredible success! 

Are you ready!?!???? This is going to be the set up for my daughter's 5th birthday party! She was the one in the unboxing video! You don't need to wait until then though. Throw a rainbow unicorn tea party! 

First you need an invitation! I used the "dancing unicorn", "unicorn", "rainbow", "castle", and "birthday title" cut files for this invite! 

I utilized the print and cut feature on my Cricut Explore and printed and cut the whole white layer. I simply cut a rainbow striped background using the Fairy Tales collection and rounded the edges. Soooooo cute! 

Next up: I thought some coloring pages would be fun for the kiddos. I made these using the dancing unicorn cut file and the "write" feature where it uses a pen to draw! 

I made these in gold and a metallic purple. Sooooo pretty!

This girl needed a party hat and a shirt to match! I used printable iron on to print my image and then ironed it onto this darling shirt that she already had!

Here it is up close. I added the hearts and stars from the "heart and star" cut file! 

For her hat I added our dancing unicorn and castle. 

I cut this one twice: the front image and the mirror image. Then I put the long skewers in between (they are the long BBQ skewers) and you can use a hot glue gun or some very strong adhesive and it will make a cute cake topper! 

Darling.

Last of all, I used printable sticker paper to print and cut these at about 2 inches. They are really small and they still cut beautifully! I got 9 onto an 8.5 x 11 page.

I stuffed the party bags that doodlebug made to match the Fairy Tale line.

And then closed them with the sticker and some rainbow doodle twine. You can find all of these colors in the "brights assortment". 

Look. At. That. Unicorn.

I got most of my other supplies at Target. Add some doodlebug and presto! AMAZING personalized birthday party!!! 

I hope you enjoyed all the different ways you can use these cut files. Now check them out in the Silhouette store and at Lori Whitlock. If you have a Cameo then go to the Silhouette store. If you have another machine then head to the Lori Whitlock store. If you have ANY questions I am SO happy to help answer them! You can always shoot me an email at CourtsCraftsBlog@gmail.com.

Have a beautiful day!!!

Craft Room Tour w/ Doodlebug Storage Ideas by Mendi Yoshikawa

Hello Doodlebugs!  It's Mendi here today with a small peek into my crafty "woman cave" with a few of my favorite ways to stay organized.  Just to keep things real, I must confess that I didn't have time to clean my space for today's post so I've stolen these first few photos from one of my better days a couple years ago when I had completely reorganized.  While I do like a well organized space, my room hasn't looked this clean since then.  ;)

Snapshot #1: This first shot shows a little counter to the left of my entrance with a craft sink which just happens to be my favorite addition to my space.  It's been wonderful for cleaning up paint and ink projects.  My family likes to joke that all I need is a micro/fridge with a cot and I just might never leave.  ;) Snapshot #2: The next photo shows my custom made movable island that has (4) 12x12 hanging file drawers on one side and shallow 12" shelves on the backside.  The cabinets to the right, along the wall make up my die-cutting station.  I love that I'm able to store all my dies in the cabinets there within arm's reach. Snapshot #3: The next photo moves to the right of my die-cutting station and is the place where I spend the majority of my day.  It was important to me that my counters be 24" deep to give me extra storage space along the wall and still have room to work at my computer and assemble my cards & scrapbook pages when the keyboard is pushed out of the way.  Shapshot #4: Moving along to the right again I have another seating area to keep my sewing machine out.  For those who know me, I love to sew on my paper craft projects so after years of balancing it on my washing machine and standing up to sew, it was really important to me to have a dedicated space for my machine.  I also store all my inks and stamping supplies in the cabinets in that corner.

The last storage spot in my space that I don't have a good picture for is two side-by-side closets to the right of my room entrance.  My closet doors swing open so I have added the Elfa Pantry Door Organizers from The Container Store to the insides where they can be hidden away. I'm seriously in love!  They can be customized in a dozen different ways--I was able to fit 8 hanging wire baskets on mine in three different size).  They're perfect for fitting extra embellishments and maximizing tight spaces that would otherwise be wasted.

I like to use Doodlebug's Button Keeper jars to hold many of my small basic Doodlbug embellishments.  I sort them by color family and am really happy with how much space they save.  It's truly amazing how much extra room the packages were taking up and how much easier it is to dump them out in my hand and just pick the colors I'm looking for.  They also are a great fit with my Elfa medium basket.

I use some larger plastic jars to hold my Doodle twine (the Droppar jars from IKEA would also work nicely).  They are a great size for so many things (including sorting washi tape by color) and I am able to perfectly fit four of them in one of my large Elfa utility baskets.

Next up, I have some storage solutions using some of my favorite Interdesign / Linus clear acylic storage bins.  Most of these have been designed with the kitchen and refrigerator in my mind, but they are wonderful at organizing so much more.  I can't go to Ross, Marshalls or TJMaxx anymore without scouting to see if they got some new ones in stock.  I love to use THIS large 8" x 4" x 14.5" bin to hold my Doodlebug 6x6 Paper Pads.  I counted and I'm able to fit in 55 pads in one tidy space!   To keep my loose scraps together with their coordinating pads I use THESE clear party favor bags which I trim down to 6" long and tuck under the front cover of each pad.  For my 6x12 Alphabet and Icon Cardstock Stickers, I use THIS 4" x 4" x 14.5" Freezer Bin.  It's a great length and they are easy to sort by color and theme.  Once again, I love that I am able to fit so much in a tight space and still quickly find exactly what I'm after.

Up next is a tip for storing Doodle pops.  Hello my name is Mendi and I have a Doodle pop addiction.  Linus Drawer organizers are so perfect for this task.  For my little dividers, I cut up some plastic file folders and rounded the corners with my corner chomper and then labeled them with my Brother label maker (which was completely inspired by how Jennifer McGuire stores her clear stamps).  ;) To keep my Doodlebug sprinkles, jewels and pearls tidy I love THIS divided organizer.  It's just the right size for these and would work well for a variety of small embellishment packages.

Thank you for joining me today.  I feel extremely blessed to have this special space after more than a decade of working from our dining room table (and storing my items in every room, but the bathroom).  With that in mind, I'm a firm believer in using whatever space you have to the fullest so I hope some of these organizational ideas will work for you whether you have a dedicated room or work from your kitchen.  ;)