Donna's Scrap Room

For those of you who may not know the background, my basement has always been a rental suite ever since my husband and I moved in here 11.5 years ago. Our most recent tenants were my parents and they moved out in December into my grandparents' house. My grandparents' moved into an apartment. We decided that the space would better serve us as my "Ultimate Scrap Room" than a rental unit and the renovations began.

The above photo is what you see as soon as you walk into my room. To the left you can see some of my old cameras that I have collected over the years. The second one from the top was my mom's first camera. I have a guest book out for my visitors to sign in when they come to visit and it is sitting on top of my grandma's old sewing machine. That was the machine I used to make my daughter's first Halloween costume with my grandma's help.

As soon as you come in the door and turn to the right, that is my photo archival area. Since I opened DAT'S Scrapbooking 6.5 years ago, most of my photos are in those totes or are still on cds because I haven't had time to get them into albums. In time, the photos will make it to the albums. For now, we have a great space to store them and to sit down and go through all the albums that are done. This used to be my parents' dining room.

When you walk a little bit forward, to the left you will find what used to be my parents' kitchen. This was newly renovated in 2008, due to our basement flooding. My Cuttlebug, Cricut Machine and Sewing Machine now sit out, ready to be used at a moments notice and the rest of this area is great storage and extra scrapbooking space for my daughter or my girlfriends. I even have a small bar fridge where my parents' dishwasher used to be.

We turned my parents' "lazy susan" in the corner cupboard into my Cricut Cartridge storage area.

One of the deep drawers in the kitchen area fits ten of the WAL-MART bead boxes that I use to store my Stamping Bella Bling, brads & other small embellishments.

This narrow cupboard used to hold my parents' baking sheets and now it holds 10 small clear storage containers that I bought from Canadian Tire.

Another angle shot of the kitchen area. My sewing machine is set up where my parents' stove used to be.

One more angle shot of the kitchen area.

This is a general storage cupboard that fit in perfectly where my parents' fridge used to be.

My parents' old pantry and microwave area works out to be the perfect stamp storage area for me. The green magazine holders each hold 9 of the Stampendous Thin Stamp Storage containers that is perfect for all my EZ Mounted Rubber Stamps. The next area presently holds 19 Close to My Heart Storage containers and there is still room for 8 more. The bottom area used to be 3 pull out drawers, but we had the carpenter make us another one and it holds all my Stampin' Up Stamp Storage containers perfectly.

Here is my parents' old livingroom. It is now my main scrapbooking area. The walls are painted '57 Chevy Blue because that is Trevor's favourite colour. The Green Apple accent colour is my favourite colour. It just so happens that our two favourite colours are the popular colours for all decor stuff right now.

This is to the right of the room when you first walk in. My scrap room is in the basement and it does get chilly down here in the winter, but this fireplace is amazing and throws great heat to keep me warm. You can also see that there is a pillow on the floor with some toys on it. That is Sparkle's dog bed. She has one in every room of the house.

My electric fireplace not only keeps me warm, but it stores my tv, dvd player and my music.

On the opposite end of my fireplace wall, I have a comfy chair to kick back in and relax. It also is a great place for my daughter to relax in and watch a movie while I scrapbook.

This is a medicine cabinet that I bought at WAL-MART for $40.00. As you can see I still have more space for the new Stampin' Up inks coming out in the summer. It also is sunken in on the top so that the 18 jars that I have can't slide off the top shelf.

Behind the door with all the punches on it was my parents' bedroom, but it is now our exercise room. Across from the wall of punches is the entrance to Amy's hang out room.

This is my just under 12 foot counter top area and storage area.

There is my island with more storage underneath it. That door with all the punches on it is the bathroom door.

Same space, different angle shot.

Again, same space but a different angle shot to show you all the storage I have under my island.

Well, hopefully I have given you an idea of how you can store some of your own scrapbooking supplies. I love my space. Dreams definitely do come true. I have pictured this space in my head for over 6 years and I finally have it. So, don't ever give up on your dreams.

Happy Scrappy Day!

June Card Workshop

Wednesday, June 09, 2010 - FULL
Time: 7:00 p.m. Cost: $7.00

For this workshop, I thought I would help my participants get a jump start on their Christmas cards.

We are using Bazzill's Salt (white) & Pepper (black) Dotted Swiss Textured cardstock, a scrap piece of grey cardstock, Doodlebug patterned paper, Stamping Bella 5mm Solid Cloud White Bonbons, EK Success Folk Heart Punches (small, medium & large), EK Success small rectangle punch, CTMH Card Chatter - Christmas Stamp Set and Stampin' Up's Snow Swirled Stamp Set.

To decorate the white tree on the front of the card, I used Polar White Flower Soft. The participants in the workshop will have 5 other choices as to how they would like to decorate their tree. This way they can pick which technique they would like to learn. Their choices will be: flower soft, liquid applique, glitter glue & beads, liquid pearl, glitter glue or flock.

May Card Workshop

Wednesday, May 19, 2010 - FULL
Time: 7:00 p.m. Cost: $7.00

For the May Card Workshop, we are doing a generic card using CC Designs Swiss Pixies Heidi Among the Flowers Stamp, CC Designs Sugarplums New Fence Stamp & CTMH Sentiment Stamp. For this sample, I used a sentiment stamp from CTMH's Friendship's Garden Stamp Set, but the participants in the workshop will be able to choose from a variety of small sentiment stamps from CTMH.

The card base is Nassau Blue Cardstock & the matting colour is Grassroots Cardstock from Core'dinations. The pink patterned paper is BoBunny's Sophie Silhouette two-sided paper. The flower patterned fabric and the orange striped fabric came from our local fabric store (Fabricland). The flower patterned fabric is what inspired the whole card. As soon as I saw the fabric, I knew I had to design a card with CC Design's Swiss Pixie Among the Flowers stamp.

The clear buttons are from CTMH and the two ribbons are from Stampin' Up. The embroidery floss and thread are from my stash. The shaped cardstock on the inside of the card is one of Bazzill's mini shaped papers. I used Tim Holtz Distressing tool to rough up the edges of my paper.

The Copic Markers that I used to colour my images are: Hair - Y11, Y13 & Y15; Clothing & Hair Accessories - B04, B00 & YG03; Wings - B0000; Skin Colour - R00 & R0000; Grass & Leaves - YG03 & YG01; Flowers & Butterflies - RV04, RV14, RV25, YR02 & YR65; Fence - Y13.

National Scrapbooking Day Workshop

Friday, April 30, 2010
Time: 7:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m. Cost: $50.00

Here is the Mini Chipboard Album that I designed to run as a workshop to celebrate National Scrapbooking Day. National Scrapbooking Day is actually Saturday, May 1, 2010, but Trevor is working. With the store celebrations that day, running the store and a workshop would be a little hectic. So, I figured that we would get a head start at celebrating the "holiday" and run the workshop the night before.

We will be using one of BoBunny's new mini chipboard albums, We R Memory Keepers Vintage Blue paper line, Stamping Bella Bling, Stamps from CTMH, Stampin' Up, Stamping Bella, We R Memory Keepers and various other companies, Bazzill Stitching templates, punches from Stampin' Up, EK Success and Marvy, Spellbinder Nestabilities, Stampin' Up ribbon and Creative Memories Circle Cutters.

I love quotes and I surround myself with inspirational sayings, quotes and words that make me feel good, inspired and just happy. I love photographs and I fill my home with photos that put a smile on my face or bring back a special memory for me.

I wanted to design a workshop that wasn't specific to a holiday, but that still had some sort of a theme and this is what I came up with. I made this mini album filled with some of my favourite generic quotes and I will be filling my album with some of my most favourite photos from over the years. You can do the same or you can make it an album all about a certain family member or a friend, a weekend get away, a pet or dare I say....all about yourself.

This is the first workshop fully designed in my new scrap room.

Photos Needed:
Front Cover - None
Page 1 - One 3 x 4 vertical photo
Page 2 - One photo that a 2.25 x 3 vertical oval can be cut out
Page 3 - One 2 x 3 vertical photo & one 2 x 2 square photo
Page 4 - One 2 x 3 horizontal photo & one 2 x 2 square photo
Page 5 - One 2 x 3 vertical photo
Page 6 - One 2.75 x 3.75 horizontal photo
Page 7 - One photo that an approximate 3 inch circle can be cut out & one photo that a 2.5 inch circle can be cut out
Page 8 - Three 2 x 2 square photos
Page 9 - Two 2 x 3 vertical photos
Page 10 - One 2.75 x 2.75 square photo
Back Cover - None

Happy Scrappy Day!

June Calendar Page

Friday, May 14, 2010 - FULL
Time: 7:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m. Cost: $20.00

For the June Calendar Page, I did have Father's Day in mind, but I also think it would be a great page for just about anything....children playing in the sprinkler, last day of school photos, camping, fishing or just a hodge podge of your favourite photos.

The paper that we will be using for this page is BoBunny's Two-Sided Paradise Sunset, Surf & Pier. We will also be using BoBunny's Paradise Buttons & Bling, Queen & Company photo anchors, Doodlebug brads & a generic embroidery floss from my stash...which is probably from WAL-MART or Fabricland. I used the Accent Essential Cricut Cartridge to cut the large circles on the page.

Photos Sizes: one vertical 2.75 x 3.75 photo, one vertical 4 x 6 photo, one horizonatl 3.5 x 5 photo & one horizontal 2 x 3 photo.

May Calendar Workshop

Friday, May 14, 2010 - FULL
Time: 7:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m. Cost: $20.00

The May Calendar Page was made with Mother's Day in mind, but can be used for any special person in your life.

We are using the following papers from the We R Memory Keepers Vintage Blue line: Plum Sewn Cardstock, May Flowers, Simply Wonderful, Blueberry Hill, Rainbow Connection, Sugar Plum & Blue Bird.

We are also using the We R Memory Keepers Robin & Leaves clear stamps from their Vintage Blue line and for the journal box, we will be using the Spellbinders Nestabilities Small Labels die cut.

Photo Sizes: One Vertical 5 x 7 photo and One Vertical 3.5 x 5 photo.

Happy Easter!

The verdict isn't back yet, but I think I am crazy.

Here is my simple, nice Easter Card that I made this year to mail out to my friends and family. I got to play with my Cuttlebug for the first time with not only a texture template, but one of my new Nestabilities as well. I coloured with my copic markers, I used 2 of my Stampin' Up punches that I had only used once before. I even used my new stamps that I had ordered from CC Designs. I kept it flat so that I didn't have to put extra postage on it when mailing it, but I forgot how many I had to make.

After cutting out 95 bunnies, 95 benches & 190 Easter eggs and gluing all the layers and small pieces, I began to wonder if I was a little off my rocker!

But, I still love this card and now that they are all done, I love them even more.

I have had a couple of rough years with a lot going on. So, I haven't been doing any scrapbooking except for my workshops. I have even stop making cards for people this year because I just don't have the time to do it.

So, I did have a lot of fun playing with all my new tools & stamps. I even got to use up the 25 sheets of Doodlebug Easter paper that came damaged 2 years ago and damaged cardstock that I have had for a while. It's great when you can use up scraps!

I wish you all an Easter Weekend filled with memories to last a lifetime.