Some people on the Studio Calico forums were comparing their “small” craft spaces (here) the other day… looking at the pictures I realized that most people are spoiled rotten! hahaha!! their small rooms were very generous and crammed with all kinds of craft supplies (so much so that they made my minimalist skin crawl) …so I decided to photograph my crafting space, which is the Japanese low dining table where we eat our meals and the storage ottoman next to it.
I’m well situated with the dog on the sofa behind me (or on the “throne” of cushions on the loveseat in front of me on my left) and the TV in front of me, because I like to listen and half-watch TV (often the Discovery channel, as seen here) while I work.
I can leave the ottoman open and reach in to get anything I need, or I can move supplies up onto the table. There are a few supplies that I have stored in the dining room sideboard – mostly things I use in my day-to-day life, but less often as craft supplies, plus a few things that are too big to store in the ottoman. Luckily we have a small house so nothing is ever far away, and I need to stretch my legs every now and then anyway. I have a kneeling bench that keeps my legs from falling sleep too quickly but I try to get up and change positions a few times every hour.
I took this picture today as I finished up this week’s Project Life spread. So this is real life. I usually put things back in the ottoman as I finish using them so it doesn’t get too messy.
My Studio Calico scrapbooking kit (the only kit that was available to buy this month if you weren’t a subscriber) finally arrived the other day. I decided to get the scrapbook kit and one of the add-on collections as a way to get some cool patterned papers and embellishments. I don’t have space to store 12″ wide papers though, and I have no intention of using them for large layouts, so I cut them all down to 4×6″ and 3×4″ yesterday.
Aren’t they cool?! Each paper is double sided, so I have them scattered to show both sides. Some of the patterns are directional, so I cut them to get horizontal and vertical version (which yielded one less 4×6″ card per sheet but left me a strip 2″ wide that I can use as an embellishment). I’ve left most of the papers at 4×6″ for now – I can cut them in half as I need them.
This is what I made today. I used a few of the papers from the kit and the top left card is also something that came with the kit – the back of some kind of packing card. The reddish letters are from the kit too (Sn@p stickers by Simple Stories). Most of this week was dominated by 3 week old Felix, who is the cutest little guy. I met him twice this week, so I included 5 photos of him. (One of the photos is hidden under the card of his mother holding him. I made another flip up card with a washi tape hinge.) The picture on the bottom left is backed with the snake card from last week – luckily the colors toned in really nicely with the pages so I didn’t have to add a background paper when the photo came out a bit small.
I have been using my Project Life pictures to practice for my Jessica Sprague photo editing lessons. All of the Felix pictures were adjusted for white balance and exposure in Adobe Camera Raw. I worked with the pink and yellow photo of MJ’s party too, but not much could be done to adjust for that bright yellow table cloth!
Please don’t tell on me for snagging an image of Downton (not Downtown, stupid autocorrect!) Abbey from the web. I had to include something after last night’s season finale. I almost got up and snapped a picture of the TV during the happy moments at the end. But I didn’t want to get distracted. And then came the shocking ending that left me reeling! ugh! What a cruel way to end the season! And apparently this was the episode shown on Christmas Night in the UK. I don’t know if I could forgive the show for that… I understand that actors want to move on, but I really wished they had ended on a happier note.
I am experimenting with adding more embellishment on my pictures, but I’m not sure that I’m very good at it. I don’t have a lot of embellishments to add anyway and I don’t want the pages to get too thick, but I’m also wondering if I am more of a “clean and simple” person. I’ll keep experimenting – using simple photos when I have less time and playing with papers when I have more time and energy.
Thanks for visiting!
Jo:)
adventures in the here now 