Last storage post...for now

Here is how I store some of my goodies.

First, my Twinkling H2Os. I have a LOT of these and don't use most of them. I may get rid of them someday but for now they fit nicely into these containers. I got these at Joann's. I keep them in two stacks because one tall stack is too tall to fit where I have them.


This is where I keep my stickles, liquid pearls and glitter. First of all, I have an L shaped desk. The part where I sit and work is lower and the other part which is to my left is taller. There is a space right next to me where I keep a few things. On the wall of that space, I hung these little drawer organizer basket things to hold my stickles and liquid pearls (on top) and glitter (middle and bottom).


This is my ribbon box which is also kept in that space where my glitter and stuff is. I also have my sewing machine in behind there (it's so small I can lift it out easily when I want to use it) and to the left are the containers where I keep my twinkling H2Os and my zig pens (which I never use but my kids do, so I kept them). This is but a small portion of my ribbon. I have a lot of SU ribbon which, as you might know, is on huge rolls and too long to put on this type of storage. That iris cart to the right is underneath the corner of the desk and it holds stuff I rarely use plus my wood mounted Christmas stamps. The blue thing is my trash can. As you can see I stuff envelopes, plastic bags (those giant ones that paper comes in) and cardboard in next to the trash can.


This is the side of a metal cabinet that I use to store fabric. It's right up against the end of my desk. I put these magnetic hooks on it and have a few goodies hanging from them. Stuff that should go somewhere else but I haven't decided where yet. Also my long rectangle nestabilities are here because they don't fit in the drawer where I keep the rest of them. This, to me, is an eyesore so I would like to do something different with these. But they are handy here.


This is a shelf that is at the end of my sewing desk. It is right near my big shot so I keep my big shot stuff in it. This pic shows the baskets plus my cute HK clipboard which, by the way, is hanging from a cute HK hook that Siobhan sent me.


And the baskets showing my stuff. Yes almost every one of those is a Hello Kitty die. I have about 4 or 5 regular dies which don't fit in here so they're in an iris cart drawer. The other basket has a little tupperware keeper which holds my sizzlit dies and embosslits and behind it are my extra cutting pads and the various shims and other cutting pads that I have.



I keep my cuttlebug folders in these two tins. Also there are buckets from the Target dollar spot where I keep some pens, sharpies, and other little stuff. Below that you can see the top part of my pegboard which holds a couple of tins plus my crop a dile and you can't see them but my brayers (three of them-I'm sick I tell ya) are hanging there as well. To the left you can see my Hello Kitty pez dispenser and eraser.


This is actually a makeup case. I keep some small post it notepads plus some of those little spiral bound $1 walmart scrapbooks in it. I mostly keep it there because it's cute.


My SU inkpads. There is an area on top for refills and I put hooks in each side to hang things. The only real useful things hanging are my SU cardstock rings and my USB drive. I took those markers from my kids-they were leaving them all over the place. They're scented. (the markers)


And last of all my Making Memories wall storage thing. I keep my MM paint, some prima flowers, my background stamp wood mounts, small pieces of ribbon, some spools of ribbon I don't really use (my kids use them), embossing paste, big containers of UTEE, my bazzill swatches, some tins to alter and a few other goodies. Just whatever fit I guess.

Cupcake Pincushion (tutorial)

This is the first time I've tried to do a tutorial so I apologize if it's too long, too short, too detailed, too vague, etc. Let me know if it's any of the above so I can try to improve the next time.

So anyway I wanted a cupcake pincushion but I couldn't find a free pattern. I have so many magazines and patterns so I vowed to quit buying more (for now) but none of them had a cupcake and that's what I wanted. So I decided to wing it and make one. Here is the finished pincushion:


It does look more like a cupcake and less like a ball in real life. But if I did it again I'd make the sides more up-and-down rather than slanted like a regular cupcake liner. But when I showed it to my kids, they immediately recognized it as a fake cupcake.

OK let's get started. First I took a plain cupcake liner and cut it into pieces. I traced it onto some paper to make a pattern-I did not flatten the side of the liner because it would have been too big. After I traced it I used my handy dandy 1/4" seam allowance adder thing to add seam allowances.



Then I made a top circle using my curvy cutter. I kinda guessed and cut it at 4-1/4". It turned out that it fit perfectly but if it hadn't I would have gathered it a little to fit.


I pinned all 3 pieces to the fabrics I wanted to use and cut them out.



Now the sewing begins. Sew everything with right sides together and with a 1/4" seam allowance. Pin and sew the ends of the strip, leaving an opening to turn and stuff it later. I forgot so I had to pick out the stitches.


Then make little cuts all the way around the bottom edge, like so:

This makes it easier to fit it to the round bottom.

Use pins to divide the bottom circle and the cupcake side into quarters. Match up the pins and pin and sew the bottom.




This is how it looks after the bottom is sewn to the side:


Again, use pins to divide the top circle and the side into quarters. Match up the pins and pin and sew the top.



Turn the cupcake right side out.

Then I cut a circle the same size as the bottom from cardboard to keep the cupcake flat and sturdy on the bottom. Insert this into the opening (you may have to roll it a little) and work it down to the bottom.


Stuff the cupcake firmly. While stuffing, keep maneuvering the cardboard circle back to the bottom because it'll try to move around in there. After it's firmly stuffed, hand stitch the opening shut.


Then I took some pink rick rack and hand stitched it around to hide the seam. Turn the ends of the rick rack under and put that side to the back because it's not super pretty. Or maybe put something over it. I'll just choose to not look at that spot.


For the flower I made a small yoyo using my clover yo yo maker. For the leaf I took a Stampin' Up felt flower and cut it apart. I sewed the leaf to the bottom of the flower and a pink button to the middle of the yoyo.


Then just sew the flower to the top of the cupcake. I chose to put it in the center but it would be cute offset to one side too. Or covering those unpretty rick rack ends.


And there it is, complete with pins.

More storage

Here are a few more pics of my storage. Tomorrow I'm going to post a tutorial to make a cupcake pincushion-my first tutorial. Hope I don't mess it up! So anyway on to the storage photos:

This is my Pampered Chef tool turnabout. I covered it with batting and fabric and some ribbon. I keep rulers and other tall things in the center section, handheld punches in the middle row and miscellaneous tools in the outer section. In front of it is a glass prima bottle that I keep my mono multi glue in. It keeps it upside down and ready to use but it catches any glue that dribbles out. Those square things underneath are a couple of plastic tray things I got in a mystery box. At first I thought "what are these lame things?" but it turns out I use them a lot. I use them for holding small items while I'm working on something and also when I'm working on something that requires a paintbrush I put a folded up paper towel in them to blot it on. They are really handy and if I ever broke or lost them I wouldn't even know where to look to find more.


This is a metal silverware bucket I found at Target. It's pink on the inside but you can't see that. The sticker was made with sizzlits dies and vinyl. It was a pain in the butt to make. But it's cute. I keep my prismacolor pencils, blending stumps, hot knife, some of my paintbrushes and my corner chomper in it. Plus a few other miscellaneous things.


This is my copic storage. I've weeded out about a third of my markers to see if I can live without them. If I can, they are outta here. To the left, on the desktop, is a stack of tins from the Target dollar spot-I use the top one to hold glues and the ones underneath for various projects like holding cards in progress, supplies while I'm using them, etc. Next to that is a little metal drawer thing. I keep a few stamps (neglected ones that I need to try to use more often) in the drawers and notepads on the middle shelf and inkpads (ones I'm using and don't want to put away right away but need them off my table) on top. On top of the copic shelves I keep some of my 6 x 6 paper packs (I keep the extras in a drawer), a tin with my smaller acrylic blocks, my mini xyron and a pouch that holds my SU markers. It was a gift (one of many) from my friend Siobhan. In the extra cubbies I keep my longer acrylic blocks, spica pens, kai scissors, stamp-a-ma-jig and some other miscellaneous stuff.


This is a magnet board I have above my desk. I keep these bulldog clips on it to hold stuff plus some mm baskets and other magnetized things. On the notepad on the far left, I've written down all of my goodies that I sometimes neglect to use. When I make a card I look at the list to decide what to use-some of it is stuff I always forget I have so it helps me to use that stuff. The container of stamps is a small SU stamp case which holds the stamps I use on the backs of cards. I glued a couple of magnets on the back of it to hold it up there. The magnet is from Siobhan. The white cards behind the pink stickers (in the bulldog clip) are half sheets of cardstock on which I punched out my punch shapes and then laminated them. I have bought more punches since I made that so it's pretty outdated. The marks on the board are where the paint is coming off. I didn't let the paint cure before putting the magnets on it. Oops.


This is my ATG gun and the stand. I bought the stand from molly-moo at SCS. Also there is a cup of pens, pencils, tweezers, a craft knife, and some other junk that I like to keep handy. Toward the left there you can see this foam thing that came in a pack of brads that I use to stick pins into. Before I started using this I lost pretty much every pin that I put on my desk.


My big shot-just because it's so cute. In a future post I'll show how I store my dies and plates.

Some of my storage

I took a bunch of small pics of my storage today. I did not take pics of my room overall because it's still a mess in places where I'm still doing some organizing. So I took a LOT of pics since they were all of specific areas. I'm going to post a few each day or else it would be way too long for one post.

The first one is my Stampin' Up cardstock. I have 3 desktop hanging file boxes which I tied together with some wide ribbon. I put hanging files in them and then regular folders in the hanging files with my SU cardstock sorted by color. At the front are also some other brands of white cardstock. In the very back I had some extra room so I have my PTI colored cardstock, extra shimmery white cardstock, and some textured cardstock I got somewhere. I *think* it's from Hero Arts.


This one is my Bazzill cardstock. This is one drawer of a 2-drawer filing cabinet. The other drawer is also completely full. This top drawer is all Bazzill-the bottom drawer has Bazzill plus Lasting Impressions patterned paper. I have a serious problem with paper.


This is a smaller tabletop file holder where I keep charts (color charts, ribbon charts, etc) as well as printouts for different projects and also some sketches.


This is my newest way of storing my nestabilities (other than the long rectangles which I will show in another post). I've tried several others so I hope I like this method. It's one of my jetmax cube drawers-I made a divider thing out of mat board so that they would stand upright and then each set of nestabilities is on a piece of mat board with magnets on it. I made labels for each one so I could quickly find the ones I want.


This is my Cricut Expression. I keep it on this wooden printer stand I got from Lakeside Collection. I keep papers (like ones I've used for testing or sizing) and small mats (for my personal Cricut) in the open sections. In one drawer I keep my extra blades, cricut markers, etc. In the other is all of my manuals for my various craft toys. My 12 x 12 mats are stored underneath. This cute cover was given to me by Kim O. I'm going to make a different one someday but for now this one works perfectly to keep the dust out of it.


This isn't exactly storage. Well, not for craft supplies anyway. This is my Hello Kitty collection (most of it). The big one is from Build a Bear Workshop and the two small ones are from Inside Scoop. The clock is from Target and the little ones are all past McDonald's Happy Meal toys. It's all sitting on a metal cabinet that is filled with fabric. And yes I hate the wallpaper in this room but for now it's staying. I don't even want to think about moving all of my stuff out to paint.


Last of all (for tonight). This shelf is actually a basket that I screwed to the wall. It used to hold my Hello Kitty clock-radio but I got the Target wall clock instead and will give the clock-radio to my daughter, who will at least be able to get more use out of the radio and alarm clock part of it (both of which I never used). So I put these two plush kitties in there. I got them both from Target. To the right is a bag from the Target dollar spot. I have one hanging on either end of my curtain rod and I keep empty Nestability packages and other things like that in them. Stuff I don't need out but I want to save for shims or using on projects.


Stay tuned-I'll post more in the next few days.

One last Christmas card

This is a card that my 10 year old son made. I gave him my reindeer cutouts from the cards I made and also cut out a sleigh-I think from Joys of the Season. I let him loose in my room and this is what he made. The white stuff is cornstarch-I gave him that to brush on where he overdid the glue. He thought it looked like snow so he was happy with having to use it. He made one for each of us and wrote our name on top with a sakura souffle pen. The cardstocks are lasting impressions and SU (for the sleigh). The color is a bit off here-the top part is actually more green and not so yellow. I forgot to do a custom white balance before I took the picture. This one was his dad's card. For some reason he put our actual names on instead of mom and dad.