Retirement Sale--ETC!

This year I decided to  change things up a bit as I start to gather and organize the stuff for my annual retirement sale. I am going to be adding all sorts of other items from my craft room this year. I am losing some of my storage because we are starting to renovate the other side of the apartment for over night rentals. I have got stuff that must go! Organizing and storage stuff. Craft supplies and tools. Random stuff, too. 

Be watching for more details as it gets closer to the date: 

Saturday, June 21 from 8-10am

I will have copies of the new catalog to give away for FREE to anyone that RSVP's to the event. Anyone else attending this event can still get one for FREE, but will have to wait until my next order arrives. 

I will also have refreshments and a FREE project to create. 

FREE SHIPPING!!!!

Get FREE shipping on everything (excluding expedited orders) April 21-25! The lists of retiring products will be available on April 21, so you can take advantage of free shipping by ordering all your favorites right away!

Order directly from my website or send me an email

http://www.stampinup.net/esuite/home/palousepapercrafter/

dbagott@gmail.com

fresh, fun colors and a bit of a throwback

So I am a little late to the party so to speak--using my Sale-A-Bration DSP to make some more cards.

I can't believe today is the last day of SAB for 2014 and that I have been a SU demo for over 14 years!!!  Thinking back to my first Open House during my first SAB back in 2001--things have sure changed a lot. 

The card on the right was my invitation I sent to about 40-50 people. I had one ink pad--I can't remember the name of it. Some sort of archival permanent ink--it was awesome, very juicy and had the same foam that SU now uses for their classic pads. I sold my "Stella Stamper" set a long time ago, but then a couple years ago got one given to me by Melanie Weller. I haven't used it, but I do like to look at it every once in a while. She was the epitome of a stamper back in the day--giggle :-) 

a little bling

I made these little paper purses last weekend. I saw a sample on Pinterest, but the directions weren't all that great. I need to work on this idea a bit more, but considering a class soon. Anyone interested?

Projects from PDL

I had forgotten about these cards I made while at PDL. I found them when I was cleaning/organizing last weekend. I love how using embossing folders and washi tape adds another texture without breaking the bank. I have already taken some of these cards over to Becky Pfaff at Meet Shop Too over in downtown Garfield. Emily wanted one of her yummy lunch sandwiches today for school.

a bit more about my epiphany...

Here are a couple more pics of my newly arranged space that show a bit more detail. The stamps are stored on the open shelves in the hutch with ribbon in one of the drawers. My favorite piece--the dentist cabinet in the middle with the glass door--almost didn't make the cut. I was considering selling it to buy something different, so glad I made it work. It is such a one of a kind piece with so much character. 

The other thing I am enjoying is that my workspace is facing the windows. For a basement, this room has pretty good light during the day. When we first moved in to this house I had 12 can lights installed on dimmers, so now the light at night is good too.

This is a close up of my "technology" area. When I scrapbook, I use my printer and Cricut a LOT! I have been enjoying this more and more lately, so I wanted to make sure I was set up like I am at PDL with everything close at hand and hooked up/ready to go.

epiphany while at PDL

ok so while I was at the Palouse Divide Lode a few weeks ago, I had an epiphany. That is I had a moment of ..."duh, why didn't I think of that before!"  I love to go to PDL for the company, the location and the creativity. I am always amazed at how much I can get done in a few days. My list of things to do is always longer than what I accomplish, but I am ok with that. This last time we had quite a bit fewer attendees, so we had more space per person. There were a few of us that even had two long tables to work at, so I set mine up in an "L" shape. The thing about working at PDL is that you have all your stuff near at hand, because normally there is no room to spread out. At home, in my craft room, I am lucky to have a large space in which to spread out. The thing I realized is that I spend a LOT of time getting up and down to grab new items or put stuff away. So I took last weekend and condensed my work area:

I am always inspired to take a "before" pic, so when I started it looked like this:

this is what it looked like after working/organizing/tossing for about 6 hours:

I had the basic layout where I wanted it, but I had a lot of cleaning still to do

I got this area done the first day. I wanted an area good for taking pictures of projects. There is natural light from the window, plus the lamp. I am planning to get an Ott light soon and also plan to make a photo box out of white poster board or fabric. I got this tip from Becky Roberts--the queen of a great blog pic!!

Not much changed in the front of the room except to straighten my scrapbook and picture storage area. 

I moved the couch so that it would face the tv and give me more room behind it.

The extra room was used to hook up my laptop, printer and Cricut in a permanent area. 

Today is my first day actually working in my craft room since I did this change. I am liking it so far. I have realized that I need a swivel chair to make my work space even more functional. My ink, cardstock, punches, tools, cutters and adhesive are all close at hand. My stamps and ribbon are a bit out of reach, but ya gotta get up and stretch sometimes, right?!