December 31, 2008 at 11:07 pm (Scrapping)
Ok..we are just HOURS away from 2009. What happened to 2008?? I cannot say…I must have slept through it all. OK..so no I didn’t sleep the entire year. Geezz..sounds good though right now. How in the world did I let 365 days go by so fast?!?! I noticed I’ve not done a great job keeping my ‘craft’ blog going either. Well, I was a busy woman. Didn’t spend much time crafting things in 2008. I can only hope for next year!?!?
I did end the year with a bang…I was actually scrapbooking a page for my son’s band photos and suddenly, as I glued it down, I had a vision…of what I was to do with all that memorabilia from my hubby’s tour in Iraq…in 05-06…yes..a WHILE back. The idea fell on me like a ton of bricks…so I threw everything else aside and dug out the box of “Iraq stuff to scrap”. Then, I reached for the wooden box…it had been sitting on a shelf waiting for me to give it a purpose besides collecting dust. What you see below…is the results of mod podge, photos, military patches (actually worn in Iraq), dog tags and plexi glass…all neatly packaged in a memory box…now I will continue to tweak it..but, it’s basically DONE!!! Thanks mom for taking photos too!! I never get photos of ME actually doing the work.
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May 18, 2008 at 10:54 pm (Scrapping)
Tags: craft room, craft space, crafts, hobby, hobby room, scrapbooking
Well..it was right at a year when we finished up the cabinets in the craftroom. It was exciting…by Mother’s Day I was to have my room DONE!! I could finally begin to take things out of boxes and containers and give it a permanent home. I could do the “organizing shuffle”… ya know..? Where you organize it…then shuffle it around again…organize it again…etc etc…? Takes a while to organize and shuffle to find exactly where it fits in the work flow of the room. We ended up with 14′ (yes FEET) of cabinets with a 44″ workspace. The custom island is a work in progress…it will be freestanding in the center of the room and measures about 33″ x 48″. We plan to have custom bookshelves on each end. I’ll be able to use that space to finally build that wooden dollhouse that has suffered about 13 years of moving from room to room or house to house…my daughter will have a blast helping me work on it and since we FINALLY have a “HOBBY LOBBY”…I might actually get it completed.
As summer is quickly approaching…school will be out in about 8 days…I’m anxious to enjoy the fruits of our labor…THANK YOU DH!!!! Enjoy the photos….
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January 13, 2008 at 7:20 pm (Scrapping)
Tags: cricut, scrapbooking, sizzix, xyron
OK…March 29th will mark a YEAR in our new home… wow, where has the year gone? I ask that because I still haven’t finished my Craft Haven…but I know it will get done…I have made progress. My previous post (around July 07) showed you the one side of the room we installed cabinets in… (photos were deleted from that post). Anyway…I have since added a LOT more. Mostly shuffled stuff around, trying to find what works for me. I have two 6′ folding tables that I cannot bear to part with, so one is serving as my island work space and the other is serving as paper storage/workspace until we can afford to do Phase II of the room. You’ll see in the photos I have below. You’ll also see, I’ve introduced some upper shelves. I went with wire shelves because I felt it wouldn’t make the room feel so cluttered. We were going to do cabinets and shelves in a configuration that would allow me to put things up but I felt that wire shelves were cheaper and I like the ability to move them if I don’t like it. I doubt these will be moved, as there are (3) eight foot long wire shelves. They hold all of my Xyron tools, my sizzlit die cases, my glue guns, Cricut cartridges, ribbon boxes, albums and so much more. Things I am sure will stay where they are. The drawers, all 21 of them, are FULL to the top of embellishments and tools.
My favorite feature in the room, besides all the cool stuff, is my magazine area. I cannot believe that $10 Goodwill find turned out so good…. I painted them white and anchored them to the wall. They are actually about 6′ tall metal magazine racks found in offices…well, now in my craft haven!!!
Well, enjoy the photos..and if I have any readers…love to hear what you think:
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January 12, 2008 at 1:31 pm (Scrapping)
Hello readers….
OK…some call me “weird” or as my DH says, “I have major OCD”.. but I like to know what scrapbooking dies I have before I buy duplicates (although I do have a few). In order to do this; I can either study them daily until I commit them to memory (which fails me when I need it) or I can use my computer skills and create me a handy-dandy-list [a list not possible without my mom's savy shopping -- thx mom!!] !!! YES…I am somewhat OCD…it happened around the age of 30ish. I have a nifty database from which I generate text files to store on my iPod and PDF files to share here with you (my readers–if there are any)…
Anyway….in case there’s something you just NEED cut or perhaps you have some dies to sell and you’d like to contribute to my collection !! Take a moment and look at this file –> CRAFTY-CASS-DIE-COLLECTION
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June 3, 2007 at 6:17 pm (Scrapping)
Hi readers….
Well, we’ve managed to finally get MOST of the craft/hobby room contents OUT of the garage. We spent today, June 3rd, doing JUST that task. Took a lot of trips up and down the stairs…but…the ’stuff’ is in the room and ready to be worked in. Now that it’s ALL in the room..I HAVE A LOT OF STUFF!!! YIKES!!! How am I ever going to fit it all into this room??
I hate cardboard boxes…so you can bet that these will all be emptied soon. We are still in the design phase of the second phase of the room…so it has yet to get off the drawing board. Once it does… I’m sure the stuff will find a home.
Enjoy the photos…if you have questions… just ask!!
JAN 2008 —- SEE MY JAN POST FOR PICS
-CraftyCass
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May 22, 2007 at 11:15 pm (Family)
Well, hello all. Who is “ALL” anyway? I am not sure I have any readers. Oh well, one day…someone will come.
Ok..
I have a new “TOY”… woo! hoo!! DH bought me a *VERY NICE* Mother’s Day gift [means his Father's Day gift better be good now] 
… I got a Nikon D40 SLR camera!!! YES!!! He even sprung for a second lens.. a 55-200mm for those sports shots when I’m confined to the bleachers. I got it the Monday after Mother’s Day (only because I wouldn’t let him go get it on Mother’s Day). He brought it to me while we were at baseball practice. As soon as I got it out of the box I started taking pictures. I couldn’t wait to get to the action shots! He bought the 200mm lens after testing it that day. We realized that I wouldn’t be able to get much closer than I had been with my Sony Mavica CD250….a nice backup now!
My photos are posted on another blog for my family and friends. For now, most of my photos will be action shots of kids in soccer and/or baseball. Not many real creative things to shoot at the ball fields.
Well…it’s after midnight…time to quit blogging….
TTYL
Cass
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May 16, 2007 at 8:58 pm (Scrapping)
Here we are just over a month in the new home and the scrap space is finally taking shape. We have half of the room done. We are working on the design for the remaining half of the room. We have a basic design for it; but since it will become the “sit down and work” area; I want to insure we get it done right.
The room is about 13.5″L x 12″W. The left side of the room is dedicated to die cutting. The cabinets along the length of the room cover about 10′2″. On each side of the window, the work surface is 55″. Beneath the window will be a bench seat with storage below, then 55″ of counter.
The counters are all about 36″ tall [a.k.a. kitchen cabinet height]. The series of base cabinets are made up of 4 drawer sections and 1 door with drawer section. To be more precise…from the inside corner of the room, there are two units with 4 drawers each. Then a unit with a narrow door for a trash can and a drawer above. Then two more units with 4 drawers each. Then in the outside corner, there’s a lazy susan followed by another 4 drawer unit.
Here, my husband is working on the counter top in corner.
JAN 2008 —- SEE MY JAN 13th POST FOR PICS
As I said, this section of the room is the DIE CUT center, made up of a Cricut, Xyron Personal Cutter, Sizzix Original die machine, Sizzix die towers (12 total – thanks to my mom for stocking those towers!!!), Cuttlebug, SideKick, (2) QuiKutz cutters, Zaz and a ZipEMate. The drawers hide the respective cutter tools and accessories as well as a few embelishements (which will probably be moved).
Once I publish this blog, I will work on hanging up the ribbon rack, get my papers organized and OUT of cardboard boxes! Hoping that when it’s all together, the closet will house my totes (I have plenty of them!!) as well as a few extra crafty items that I don’t use regularly.
Until more is done…… happy crafting!!
CraftyCass
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May 16, 2007 at 8:58 pm (Scrapping)
Hello fellow scrappers….. as a scrapper…. what “tool” is your “best friend”???
Give up?
YOUR CAMERA!!!!
Without that one item, you have nothing to scrap. It all starts with the camera. Well, I’ve had 3 digital cameras in the past 7 years. I still have each of them… a Nikkon CoolPix 2500 (very cool camera!) … a Sony Mavica CD250 ….and now… my NEWEST BEST FRIEND… a Nikkon D40 with an 18-55mm lens (standard lens) and a 55-200mm lens (WONDERFUL for sports shots!). It was a Mother’s Day gift and my DH was so wonderful to get it. I got to use it today to get photos of my DD playing soccer. I got some GREAT shots of her and I cannot wait to get them developed and into scrap books.
I’ll work on posting photos soon.
Now, for a moment of scrapbooking news.
I’ve been testing the Design Runner Accessory Kit. So far, I’m impressed. I find it cumbersome to get out and use. Of course, at work, I don’t have things at my fingertips like I would at home, so I am sure it won’t be a big deal once I get into my own projects at home.
I’m hoping to post some examples of the tests soon.
ATTENTION CRICUT OWNERS….I’m working on building a Cricut SWARM…that’s a bunch of Cricut owners that gather much like scrappers do to crop…..but since so many folks call their Cricuts “bugs” the gathering is a SWARM. If any of my readers might be interested in joining my SWARM; let me know.
I’m also working on the final details of a “CraftyCass Craft Club”….where monthly kits will be available as well as crops for local members. A lot of details has been ironed out; I am merely waiting on my craft room to be completed.
Thanks for your time….and I’d love to hear from you!!
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April 5, 2007 at 8:19 pm (Family)
It’s only been 6 months…since the last move I made. That move was a strategic move….downsized from a home with a little over 2K sq ft to a townhome of about 1300 sq ft. The home was to have been ours…if we had gotten the owner to make a good deal. It was old, but the yard was HUGE; the kids could walk to/from school; we had nice neighbors and it was close to everything! The townhome was in a totally different city and environment. So many folks around, there was no sense of privacy or security. Never knew who the neighbors would be. Not to mention the noise of the local factories…three that I recall!
That was home for 6 months….up until March 27th….we signed the papers on our FIRST home!! We moved in and slept in it on March 29th!!! It’s new construction…built in 2005/2006 but never lived in. VERY nice! Elegant and roomy! I cannot forget the lack of NOISE. Well, with the exception of kids…but that’s not a bad noise. We live in a cul-de-sac (i.e. court) and apparently the neighbors home is THE place for kids to gather. At 8am on weekends; we hear the faint thumping of the basketball. It’s not very loud and at first it might sound like a knock upstairs. All in all, we have a very nice home and moving in has not bee toooooo awful. I just don’t deal well with chaos….it’s gotta be my old age. I cannot wait to use the garage for what it’s built for… MY VEHICLE!!! Right now, there’s piles of boxes from the rooms of furniture we had to assemble, piles of stuff to be placed in the house, piles of things we are parting with and of course…that “hummm? what do I do with that?” pile(s). I have been fortunate to have a few days off work; working things in slowly…ensuring it’s where I want it or where it “should” be. We are due to get the dining room furniture out of storage on Friday. Our brand new sectional is due on Saturday…while I’m at work!! Thankfully, the hubby has been available when I’m not for deliveries. Not that I’m keeping score…but I’ve been the major one here when things are delivered.
Well….I’ve finished my break. Time to get things moving from the garage to their respective rooms. Oh… the woes of moving!!!!
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April 4, 2007 at 5:48 am (Family, Scrapping)
Well, it’s almost our 13th wedding anniversary and since I’ve been scrapping for about…oh…say the last 10 years….I’m very excited to announce… our family FINALLY has a *HOBBY* room. I refer to it as my *NEW* Scrap Room; as do the kids at times. But officially, it will be a HOBBY room…so the kids can go in there and do things they like to do too. We also have the computer in there and if things go well, it will be designed as a great place to just hang out even if there are no hobbies being done in there.
I must go…I hope to begin blogging here more often…if I have any viewers… :/
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