Scrap tote

 These are very old and terrible photos but I'm going to post them anyway. This is a tote I made for myself back when the Cropper Hopper totes came out and it seemed like everyone had one but they were $$$. I would see the ads in the magazines and people would post about them. So I came up with one using a cardboard box as a sturdy insert and some fabric. There's one more outside pocket on the back side not pictured. I had way less supplies back then!

I still have the scissors and the tote. LOL A new box inside and I store page kits I've made  in ziploc bags in the tote.

 

 

Side note: This was my daughter's room and I painted the striped walls by hand. Painted a border and used foam stamps and craft paint.
 

 

 

Birthday card holder

 I used some double sided paper which I folded up 4 inches and then folded in half. 

Punch holes on the open side for looseleaf rings. I chose to just use paper clips to add the project life cards for writing down names and birthdays, I didn't want to make them permanent in case I later needed to change them or something. (Though I wrote in pencil.)

Super easy and simple - you don't even need to glue! The rings will keep the cards in the side that's open.

handmade mini mini planner

I'm not much of a planner person. It always sounds like a good idea but the planning part is not my forte. LOL  However, with planners being the big craze and seeing the fun decorating people are doing I gave in. But instead of spending the money that 1. I wasn't sure would work out and 2. wasn't really a size I wanted, I decided to make my own from scratch with things I already had on hand - except the binder ring part. I picked up the Tim Holtz large binder rings at JoAnn's on sale. (because of course it was already on sale when I had a better coupon!) I also made my own planner stickers that would work for me and what I'd like to accomplish besides cleaning. ;)

Deep in the depths of my craft crap I found a little stash of chipboard which I don't even remember where from but they were all the same. I glued together 3 sheets to make thicker, sturdier pieces for my binder. I cut them to accommodate my inserts which are 1/4 of a standard sheet of paper plus the rings. (which is why I call it a mini mini planner. :) )  I used 12 x 12 fabric paper - which wasn't quite wide enough so I had to piece it which is why I have the ribbon  on the cover to hide the seam. I would've preferred a darker blue but I was working with what I had available. I also wanted it wide and grosgrain. The nice thing about the fabric is because it's paper-backed it kept the glue from having bleed-through.

I cannot make anything it seems without some mistake or mishap. So of course I was almost done and poked a hole through the paper in the crease. Still working on how to cover that up and it's driving me crazy. The inside paper is from Recollections Fall in the Park paper pad and was a perfect match to the fabric! I got the printable on the cover page from https://littlehouseonthecircle.wordpress.com/

printable from https://littlehouseonthecircle.wordpress.com/

I was going to start in 2017 but decided to go ahead and start with December this year. Kind of a bit of practice first, too. So this monthly overview doesn't have the sticker going over the month like the rest do. The Mary Engelbreit images that are facing each monthly page is recycled from an old 365 desk calendar.

Some of the other monthly pages. I haven't actually glued down the March image yet. I'll be looking for paper to go behind it. On the back side is a list for birthdays and I haven't decide yet what to put on the facing page. Maybe some quote images. I haven't filled in birthdays or holidays yet on all the monthly pages.

An example of a weekly spread. Starting in 2017 the first weekly page of the month has a word/phrase sticker as you can see above. I cut myself a page marker from gridded quilting template material. It's marked off at 1/4" so it has another useful purpose, too, as a ruler. Here I used some of the planner stickers I made and couple other stickers for fun. While I don't plan on doing 'no white space' I will work my way up to adding more bits and pieces as I get used to doing the planner thing.

I also have year-at-glance pages but split them up into 6 months so the next 6 is in front of July.

The menu/grocery planner is also from https://littlehouseonthecircle.wordpress.com/  but I couldn't find a simple card list like I wanted so made my own with some lined paper I cut down to size and then just drew a couple columns on it and marked them with tiny punched banners. (I also have some regular lined paper cut and some graph paper cut to size in my planner.)

https://littlehouseonthecircle.wordpress.com/

So that is it so far to really show. I will be making inserts to keep track of books I've read, too. I already have picked out 2 ME quote images and need to choose one. Or maybe use both and just make it a divider page with one on each side. :)

Just add washi....

I did this a while ago but kept forgetting to add it to the blog.

Since most of this little storage unit is hidden, I didn't feel the need to concern myself with the rest of it. The top can be seen but it doesn't really bother me. And I can't see it when sitting. The unit is not seen from the sides as it's located between 2 small cabinets on my desk with no space on either side.

I used washi over all the wide areas on the front.  I didn't have to spend the money on or mess with paint. And it can easily be removed or changed.

Spinning ribbon rack storage

A couple of quick pictures on what else you can use the Cropper Hopper spinning ribbon rack for - besides ribbon!
If you use binder clips you can hang little baggies of things like eyelets or buttons. You can also make little boxes and use binder clips to hang them from the rods. (note: the mini ones won't fit the rods but the small binder clips do) The top two tiers will hold 3 x 5 inch boxes. These are 3/4 in on the sides but may accommodate up to 2 inches I think.The bottom is lower and only fits 1 1/2 inch tall boxes (you can see a clear one in the second picture below.)

You could also hang toilet paper rolls from the rods and use them to hold pens and markers. I don't use mine this way but I thought I'd take a picture to show. That tube holds 7 Marvy Le Plume markers.

Toadstool Twine Holders

I recently came across a picture of some cute little toadstools with twine wrapped around the stem. Apparently the blogger actually bought them on Etsy. They appear to be made from little wood spools and a wooden half ball. I thought these are so cute and I had been thinking of changing up my twine storage. But of course, I always see what I can do with what I have on hand. And it's things like this as to why I save a lot of 'crap'. LOL  Click photos to enlarge.

Here's what I started with. Mini dowels - I have no idea how I ended up with these but I've had a little package of them for quite awhile. Mini Christmas ornaments. These harken all the way back to when I was 14 years old and bought a mini tree and ornaments for my family. I stopped using them for any decorating years ago but held onto them. They're styrofoam so all I had to do was pull the silky thread covering off and cut the in half. I cut the mini dowels in half and inserted the cut end into the flat side of the styrofoam.  I poked the hole first with the dowel, took it back and put some hot glue in the hole before reinserting the dowel. There was a hole on the top of the ball so I filled it in with some hot glue.

 

Then I painted the underside and stems a cream color and the tops different colors for my twine. I didn't worry about an exact match though some are pretty close. Wrapped the twine around the stem leaving a bit of space at the bottom.

Then I found this old piece of wood in the shed. I cut it to length and drilled holes for my stems. The spacing was measured first and since I was covering it, it didn't matter about any pencil lines or marks and I didn't concern myself with sanding it.

 

 I covered it with pretty paper, trimmed the side out with wide ribbon that wrapped under the bottom edge, and glued a piece of watercolor paper over the bottom. (I didn't have a large enough piece of chipboard.)

Voila! A cute little twin holder and some repurposed memorabilia!

DIY easel (presentation) binder

I recently dowloaded a sketch book from Scrapbook Generation and the printout is in landscape form. Someone showed me a presentation binder online which would make it easy to look at my sketches without having to remove them from the binder (or have to turn the binder). So I thought, I bet I can make one myself! And this is what I came up with.

And voila! Here it is! Super simple, you can use a binder you already have. And if you need to move onto a bigger binder or a new one because it's falling apart, you can simply move your 'easel' part to a new one!

All you need is a couple of binder clips and a small piece of ribbon or yarn. Tie it to the binder clips and clip the edges of your binder like this. You simply flip the top of your binder back so it's 'inside out' before you clip both sides.

Or you can dress it up a little bit with some buttons or something.

And then when you need to close the binder, just unclip the back one and clip it onto the cover.

Spellbinders simple storage

Here is how I store my Spellbinders dies. I don't have a huge collection and I don't have any grand or border dies so this works quite well. I keep them inside the instructional folder using a small magnetic sheet I've adhered to the inside.

 

 I've trimmed my folders down just a little bit to fit my drawer. Most of them fit fully inside the folder, which protects them front and back and keeps the instructions handy, but there's one or two that stick out just a very little bit from the top. (I keep blank cards and other supplies in this drawer also.)
I don't have enough clearance for dividers but I do sort them into shape groups - rectangles, circles, ovals, tags.

Simple 6 x 6 paper storage

I made this little box for my 6 x 6 papers using some leftover foam core I had laying around.. I simply measured and cut my pieces and glued them together with a hot glue gun. Then I reinforced all the outside edges with masking tape. Covered with paper and added a picture from an old, small calendar to the front. I also made dividers by cutting the backing from paper stacks/pads down to size. The tabs are made from 2" strips, folded in half, then cut to 1 1/2 inches wide. Punch corners with corner rounder.
The box is a bit wider than intended because I ended up gluing the sides to the sides of the bottom piece instead of on top of it. I have plenty of room in it so I stuck an additional piece of foam core inside to partition it (though it's not glued) and my embossing folder samples I keep on a ring is behind the paper.

storage for paper strips

I needed something to hold and organize my paper strips in. I cut my background papers for layouts to 11 3/4 x 11 3/4. Old scrapbook papers weren't always true 12 x 12 so this made my pages uniform in size and it was also easier to slip them into page protectors that had a tighter fit. I save the strips that are left over and they certainly add up!
I first spotted a knitting needle storage case similar to this but at the time I didn't check the inside dimension because I wasn't getting it right then. I thought I had seen it at Michaels, too, but maybe I was mistaken. They didn't have any when I was there anyway so I looked in the paintbrush section to see if they might have anything to offer and I found this case by Artbin. It's for holding pencils and is divided into 3 long compartments. It has a piece of foam stuck at the end of each one to protect pencil tips. If you remove it, it's just long enough to hold 12 inches of paper strips or borders. I will be picking up a second one to sort my strips better. I saved the little foam pieces (just stuck them to the inside top) in case some day down the road I might want them back for some other use. Sorry, no before picture. LOL
Retail at Michaels is $6.49. I'll be waiting for another 50% off coupon to come around.

Stamp storage how-to

I had a blog reader ask what adhesive laminate I used for my clear stamp storage. I used C-line 3 mil cleer-adheer adhesive laminate but I don't know if they make the 3 mil anymore so you could try 2 mil or another brand to get the 3 mil. You don't want anything too flimsy for this method because the stamp sheets will be standing to flip through like files. She had a couple of other questions so I thought the best thing would be to do a sort of tutorial with pics to show how I made my sheets. Sorry, I don't do videos. LOL I kind of explained it the clear stamp storage post but this would probably be more helpful. I prefer to split up my stamps and arrange by themes, rather than keep stamps together because they came that way. I also like to put my word/phrase ones on one sheet and the images on another, though occasionally sometimes words and images end up together to fill a sheet. Of course, you can arrange however you like. :) It's a good idea to read through at least the first few steps before you start. You will need to cut an index card or piece of cardstock the size you want your finished sheet to be. It's your size template. Keep in mind, your laminate will need to be bigger than the finished sheet size. I had made my stamp sheets to fit a certain small container when I had a lot less stamps. So my stamp sheets are only 4 x 5 1/8 inches. With this small size, it worked out that I could cut my laminate sheets into quarters as the laminate was 9 x 12 and a quarter sheet was still half an inch or so around larger than my finished sheet. This is important that you have your laminate sheets cut at least half an inch larger all the way around than your index card/finished size will be. If you're not so good at eyeballing, you may want to allow yourself even an extra inch on each side. Still with me now? First, remove your stamps from the backing. This serves 2 purposes: 1. it's easier to cut around your image and 2. when you need to peel the stamps off later, it will be easier especially if they are new. They tend to be difficult to peel off the backing they came on. Then cut closely around each image on the backing. (I had the camera in my other hand til I wised up for later pics where I needed 2 hands. LOL) After you cut around your images, put them back on your stamps. For one, it makes it easier because the stamps will keep the images from sliding around on your index card template. And two, the images will be raised so you won't end up sticking your laminate to the index card. Now arrange your stamps image-side-up on the index card template until you are happy with it. Try to leave a little space between them if you can and definitely at least a quarter inch in from the edge of your template. Your two laminate sides will need to stick to each other. Here are my stamps all arranged ready to be laminated. Now, remove the backing from your laminate you've cut to size and try to keep your fingers on the edges and carefully apply your laminate to the top of the stamps, sticky side down of course. Bend the laminate so it will touch the middle first and then work it down from the inside out. Here is my laminate applied to the top. Notice how the laminate is larger than the index card. With caution, flip over your laminate with the stamps stuck to it. Don't worry about the index card now. It won't matter again until later when you cut your sheet. I just left it in the pics. Carefully pull off your stamps. You may need to get tweezers unless you have a long fingernail to hold the image backing to the laminate while you peel off the stamps because if the stamps are holding to the image backing well, you'll end up pulling the image up. Once you've removed all the stamps, carefully apply another sheet of laminate on top like you did the first time. Don't rush yourself because now the two sticky sides are coming together. Once applied, rub the laminate all over well. You can even run a fingernail or stylus around each of the image pieces. Put your laminated images back on top of the index card template. You're going to want to stick some tape on the back of the index card for this so you can stick it to your laminate sheet. Center your cluster of images from the edges like they were when you arranged them on the index card the first time. Now you can trim your sheets to the right size. Line up the edge of your index card that doesn't have the tape with the cutting groove (or edge of your trimmer if you have a guillotine style). Trim and repeat on the opposite side. Remove the tape and put it on the trimmed sides to hold your template to your laminate sheet and cut the other 2 sides. Now you can stick your stamps onto the back sides of your new laminate stamp sheets. Take a piece of your laminate backing and trim to the finished size. You can do that just by measuring, you don't need your template. And voila! Here is the finished stamp sheet. The laminate backing keeps the stamps from sticking to the next sheet of stamps behind it.

Embellishment shelf

Ok, it's not done yet but I couldn't wait to show it. LOL The glue is drying and tomorrow I'll add a little more glue around where the shelves meet the side and I'll need to glue on the back. The wood is too thin to use nails. I got a piece of balsa wood at Michaels with a coupon (made it under $2) and I cut the shelves from that. (THAT was a royal pain!) The sides I cut from a piece of wood I already had (actually, it's subflooring that they put down before laying vinyl flooring LOL). I planned out the shelf to actual size on a piece of 12 x 12 paper to fit my containers. It's approximately 12 x 11 inches. All the tic tac containers hold eyelets (and yes, they really had tic tacs in them - I would buy the holiday 5 packs with a coupon at JoAnn's LOL). The little plastic jars hold a variety of other little things. They were shampoo and whatnot jars from a hotel. They smell nice. LOL I may paint the shelf white but I might leave it as is for now.

The Cuttlebox decorated

Ok, I know this isn't going to blow your socks off. LOL I'm sure people look for a lot more embellishing, but I really like the papers I used (K & Co Que Sera Sera designer pad) so I didn't want to cover it up with other stuff. I can just enjoy it a it is, it's got happy colors, and I can always add stuff later if I'm so inspired to. I haven't done the inside yet - hence no pics there. LOL I think I'll be covering the storage part in a solid color since it won't be as visible anyway even when open and use my leftover scraps inside the cover. I know it would be prettier if I used the patterned paper on the whole inside, but I can't bear to cut up more of it just for that. LOL I used 3 of the patterns for it. The front and back use one pattern, the sides use a second, and the top is a third pattern. *Click the pics to view them at 600 pixels*