Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Featuring Kelly Purkey │ September release

It was the first day of Autumn last week, did you celebrate it? I sure did, even though it's still firmly in the 90's around here nothing will stop me from sipping the PSL's and buying all the pumpkin foods I can find. As soon as the temps drop, I'll be all set. Luckily the latest September releases from Kelly Purkey Shop are giving all the fall vibes.

The Gather the Goods mini kit designed by the lovely and talented Brandi Kincaid is a must for the true fall lovers out there. The stamps are so cute and so versatile too. I'm seriously loving the leaves, especially when stamped with some ombre inks.


I stamped some of my fall favorites using the new Miranda alpha, its designed to work with both the Walter alpha and the Dalton alpha stamp sets. I used the Dalton here for the outline. The vibrant colors one the cards are so divine. I adore that blue shade on the background of the fall leaves card. Perfection!


The main September kit is called Around Town and I was completely drawn to all of the amazing shades of blue in the kit. Not to mention the super cool locals stamps in the stamp set.


I also added in a few stamps from the Happy Things stamp set and the little phone stamp from the Singleton stamp set because they paired so well with the kit and my photos.


Love that Local stamp from the kit and the stacked words on the card that I fussy cut for my date card.


There are also a whole new batch of Clearly Kelly Products with Hero Arts. There are six new planner stamp sets, two new stamp and cut sets, and four new ink cubes.

For this planner spread I used a little bit of each of the new stamp sets; Arts & Crafts, Adventure, College Life, Doing my Best, Goal Plan, and the Garden Set. I especially loved the weather icons on this set. I also added in some banners from the Flags Stamp & Cut and one of the washi stamps from the Tape Stamp & Cut set. How cute is that die to cut little washi strips! Adorable!



Something you definitely don't want to miss out on are the four new stamp cube sets. I mixed them all up on this image below so you could see how amazing the new color range is. These stamp pads are amazing. They are juicy, they are pigmented and they make stamping effortless. Seriously love these new inks. The Make Note stamp is from the Gather the Goods stamp set.

There is a bundle available of all four sets or you can purchase each one individually; Palm Springs, Paris, Miami, and Charleston.


I hope you love this months release! Happy shopping!

See you soon,

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Monday, September 12, 2016

My space, its always evolving │ Revised


Its hard to believe that three years ago almost to the day I uploaded this post about my craft space. Its been one of the most popular posts on my blog and I see pins on Pinterest of it all the time which is kind of surreal. I really love to organize every aspect of my home so I'm so happy to know that my ideas have helped and provided a launching pad for other craft spaces out there.

Since my original post I hadn't changed much about the space so it was long over due for an update. Over the past few weeks I've gone thru every bit of my space, removed all of my supplies and purged a hefty portion of them. Once that was done, and boy was it quite liberating I got down to business reorganizing and making it better. This photo above is how its looking today. Clean, organized, refreshed and much less loaded down with product and I couldn't be happier with how things have evolved.

I shared in my original craft space post links to the blog posts I had done sharing how this space came to be. It didn't always look like this and this standing bookcase counter top was custom built to fit the space by my husband. If you are curious about what the space looked like before you can see the posts here, here and here.


Here is a view looking into the space. This space is open to our entry way below and the two large windows are in a turret above our main entry.


Its filled with lots of natural light which is a blessing and a curse. These windows face east so the afternoon sun is quite intense especially in the summer.


Now for the nitty gritty portion of the tour. My Raskog cart from IKEA sits right outside the space. It holds all of my solid cardstock and specialty papers on the top tier. The bottom two tiers hold my stamps. All of my stamps are in Avery Elle storage pockets and you can see more about my stamp storage in my original room tour right here. I haven't changed anything about my stamp storage since then because its totally working for me.

Removing the two bins that used to sit to the left of my paper trimmer has made all the difference, I have so much more work space now. On a side note these Tonic paper trimmers are my favorite and if you like things cut straight and square you would love them. They are the only trimmers I have found that actually cut straight and square.


Under the counter is where all the changes were made. Scroll down below for detailed descriptions for each item.



  1. I decided to move all of my embellishments into these drawer units separated into categories that make sense to how I work. The drawers came from Target and they are from the Sterilite brand. You can see detailed images of them below.
  2. In this bin I have all of my product from Color Cast Designs. I'm on the Creative Team for this brand so it makes sense to keep all of my items together. I have some sets in original packaging and some leftovers have been combined into zip lock bags.
  3. These Kuggis bins from IKEA (not currently shown online but they were well stocked in my store) are a new purchase and I kind of wish I had used them across the top shelf instead of the drawers. They stack and are so sleek in design that I really love the clean lines they provide. In these bins I have larger flat stickers that come in kits, planner supplies like dashboards and monthly tab stickers, my enamel dots, and miscellaneous tags.
  4. These three bins that came from the Target dollar spot hold all of my Kelly Purkey stamps and products. I'm on the Creative Team for this brand as well and again it makes sense for me to keep all of my supplies together.
  5. This wire bin, also from the Target dollar spot holds my 6x6 paper pads
  6. These Tjena boxes from IKEA hold all of my pocket page cards. I have modified the inside sections to hold my cards in color categories, you can see that image below. The bottom box holds cards that I didn't want to keep categorized by color and some really old Studio Calico kit cards from 2013, 2014 that I need to purge.
  7. These vertical bins hold a lot of various things like large size stickers, watercolor paper, specialty media for my Silhouette Cameo and page protectors in various sizes.
  8. This Samla bin from IKEA holds mini album supplies like inserts and attacher stickers as well as any brand new products that are still in original packaging. My intent is to not let this bin get too full, I want to use the new stuff that I buy.
  9. These two wire bins hold all of my Thickers and large sized alpha stickers. They are sorted by color.
  10. This bin holds all of my twine and embroidery floss and supplies for hand stitching.
  11. These bins hold all of my washi tapes, sorted by color.
  12. My Silhouette Cameo, this sits on a shelf that pulls out when I need to use it. You can see a better picture of it pulled out below.
  13. These various sectioned containers hold sequins, my flair collection and small veneer pieces. Inside the red bin are small size alpha stickers sorted by color.
  14. This is a small collection of mini albums that are either in process or about to be in process some are small sized binders and one is a Heidi Swapp planner. I also have some scrapbooking magazines that I like to keep and a reference binder of ideas and computer how to's for Photoshop Elements.
  15. This bin holds all of my Silhouette Cameo supplies, like sketch pens, extra blades and some stamp material.
  16. This bin holds all of my small tools like punches, my heat gun, planner hole punches and stuff like that. Standing next to it is my Cuttlebug and the plates for it.
  17. My supply of photo paper and other plain printing paper.

Here is the image of my small drawers. I have my supplies categorized by vellum pieces, puffy stickers, gold bits, clips, large acrylic words, die cuts, word strips, veneer, plastic or rubber pieces, patches, chipboard and post its.


Here is a look at how I have separated out my pocket page cards. I decided to organize them all by color back in March and it was the best decision I have made. Its so much easier to find what I want since I tend to always work based on color. The back two sections hold 6x4 cards and the front sections are all 3x4 cards. My sorting categories are; red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, neutral, white, black and white, multi, fill in, specialty, metallic, calendar and seasonal.


Here is the image of my Silhouette Cameo pulled out and ready to cut. There is enough space behind the cameo for the mat to move around as it needs to while cutting. Its always connected to my computer which sits just to the right.


Here is a look at my table top. The blue bins on the table top are from Land of Nod, not sure if they are still available. The small white drawer organizer was from the Target dollar spot and it holds my adhesives, tiny attacher and rotary cutter. The round spinning holder came from Home Goods and it holds clips and my skinny washi tape collection. The tall 4 tier revolving tray is from Harbor Freight and it holds all of my roller stamps, small prima ink pads, mists, adhesives, stamp blocks and small items that I use all the time. I have a post here on my blog about the piece and the painting process if you are curious.


Right as you enter my space are these shelves, they hold a lot of different supplies that I don't need to get to all the time. The bottom shelf also holds all of my ink pads.


My computer sits on the table top and to the right side is a large counter work space. Under the counter are all of my in process 12x12 albums, my current 2016 album. I also have a bin of monthly kits that I haven't used yet or that haven't broken apart yet.


Here is a look at my inspiration wall. Its changed a bit since my original post, I switched out some of the art.


Phew, you made it to the end. Its a lot to absorb for sure. If you have any questions about anything please don't hesitate to leave me a comment below.

Now that its all clean and tidy its time to get busy making and boy do I have a good sized to-do list!

See you soon,

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