Paper Ornaments / Gift Tags

I made 30 of these in a couple of hours and love how they turned out!

I just love those ones that look like Christmas lights!

I used my Silhouette and this pattern from Better Homes and Gardens. Their ornaments are way more embelleshed than mine. I just like to make things as simple and easy as possible.

source: better homes and gardens

I used a sheet of red paper, a sheet of green, a sheet of red with raised bumps (bazzill basics), a sheet of green with raised bumps, and a 1/2 sheet of yellow with raised bumps. My Silhouette had problems cutting all the way through the thick paper, but that was probably compounded by the fact that I lost my cap for thicker media and had not gotten a new blade yet. I had to do a LOT of hand cutting which made this project take MUCH longer than I wanted.
I wish I had had the time to make those 2 on the upper right look better. I had to cut out the centers to use on the ornaments on the bottom row. Ideally they would have a yellow or opposite color circle layered on top of the scalloped circle shape.

If you'd like the files with the simplified shapes all laid out to use on your Silhouette, let me know and I'll send them over to you! Much easier than separating all of the little shapes and duplicating and arranging everything.

My Crafting Space

Phew! It's been awhile! I've been enjoying a nice break after all of the Halloween madness. It has been SO nice to have time for other things again!

I thought I would show you some pictures of where I do my creating because I love it so much.

When we bought our house 1.5 years ago the basement was not finished. I was glad that I was able to create a space that I could tailor fit to make my ideal space. A couple of things on my list for a crafting space after learning from my last one is that I wanted a hard surface floor to make cleaning up easier (and vacuum free) and to make it easier to move my rolling chair. I also wanted a closet with a lot of shelves for storage.

We did a laminate floor, which we found just enough boxes for our space at our local furniture/flooring store in their clearance area. The full 81 sq. feet we did cost less than one box of the laminate originally did and was  some crazy price like $25 for all of it. We had just enough!

In our last house my craft room took up an entire bedroom. It was nice to be able to close the door on it, but also unfortunate that we wouldn't be able to use that room as a bedroom should we have needed to in the future. Since the space was enclosed it was also hard to spread out large amounts of fabric for cutting. I often found myself out in the hallway to cut things. Making a space for the craft area that is not enclosed has allowed me to spread out when I need to, which has been great.

With my space being open I was worried about my 2 year old getting into stuff (she loves playing with the buttons on my sewing machine) and was formulating how I was going to make an 10' barricade to keep her out. Luckily, she's been great about keeping out of things so far. I usually try to put my sewing machine and serger away in their cubbies so they aren't a temptation for little fingers and always make sure all of my pins and scissors are away in their drawers.
On the wall to the right is my (cluttered) cutting table. Having a separate cutting space has been great! I got this table from my grandparents and it couldn't be more perfect.

Across from my desk space is the closet. I decided on long shelves that are about 18" apart. In hindsight I wish I could raise the lowest one up just a little as the travel case for my serger just barely doesn't fit. My dad (the contractor) likes to remind me that if I would have done them closer I could have had one more shelf. Oh well. Perhaps I'll throw another shelf in between 2 of the shelves one day and have 2 shorter shelves. I have since added large canvas baskets to the shelves which have been great to organize things. I have a basket for current projects, one for interfacing and wonder under, one for thread and ribbons/trim, and a bunch of empty ones I still need to organize. I like that they provide a corral for things so that my shelves don't look like they are a jumbled mess.

And this is where I praise Ikea. I have a 2x4 Expedit next to a 4x4 Expedit and then the attached desk. I have white rolling chairs on both sides of the desk. I love that these chairs adjust in height. I can set up my little kids across from me with a craft/coloring that they can do while I work and we get to interact. It's very fun for both of us.
I got the attached desk for $10 off of craigslist. It was black, but I just primed and painted it aqua. I didn't sand it at all (it has a laminate finish), which has caused some of the paint to easily scratch off (grr to moving!), so if you're going to paint laminate furniture, sand it first!

The baskets on the shelves are also from Ikea. They come in a set of 4 sizes for $10. As for what I put in them, it's mostly fabric. I take the time to measure my scrap pieces of fabric (the larger ones that is) and roll them up and label them, much like you'd see in a fabric store. I then stick them in a basket all together. I also have all of my hot glue/glue stuff in one of them and a couple are devoted to projects in progress (I have way too many of those!).
Beneath the baskets on the left I have my fabric folded and organized by color.

I keep all of my scissors, seam rippers, fabric markers, etc. in the drawers above my sewing machine so that they are easy to get to as I'm working. The drawers aren't ideal and I'd like to build some myself that fit better. Ikea does sell a drawer unit for the Expedit, but I didn't want to pay $35 for them and I also want 3 shorter drawers as most of the stuff I put in the drawers are not very tall.

Above my serger are a couple of pots that I have my serger tools, paper scissors, paint brushes, and pens in.

The pink boxes on the left are also from Ikea and are great for sticking a LOT of stuff in. They take up the whole interior of the cube, so they really maximize your space.

The yellow flower pictures above the Expedit are from Ikea. I got them when they were closing them out at least 2 if not 3 years ago. The metal tins that the flower arrangements are in are from Ikea as well. They may not have those anymore either. They were actually made to be wall hanging planters I think. I just liked the shape of them.
My floral arrangements I made myself with floral stems from Joann's. I loved the pairing of the hot pink with the yellow and the splash of aqua from the desk. It makes the room look so bright and cheery, which is great for my basement!

I have yet to add my built in ironing board. It will probably just be attached to the wall by the end of the bookcase, so it will stick out instead of being recessed into the studs like they ideally would be. At least with it folding up it will be out of the way.
Wall unit ironing boards are GREAT for craft rooms. I got mine off of craigslist for $30. In our last house I would have to take the ironing board out into the family room to do most of my ironing since there just wasn't enough working space with it in the bedroom and especially not to have it out all of the time. The folding boards make it so you can keep your ironing board in your craft room, but it isn't always out taking up space. I also love that it can pivot and you don't have legs to worry about having a space for.

So there you have it! I'm working on some adorable paper ornaments right now that I'll be posting in the next week or so!