Face Lift

I have few magazine holders that are separated into interests; such as scrap booking, jewelry, knitting, and so on. I needed another one because I needed to make one just for jewelry magazines. (got too many to share a holder with another interest) I hunted in Office Depot, Target, and Walmart but I wasn't able to find one in the same (or slightly close) color as the other ones. I found a clearance one at Office Depot and figured I could just give it a face lift... so to speak.

While wondering around in Michaels you should make it a point to check out the section they always have for $2 to $1 items. I found a package of scrap booking paper that I thought would work well for this project and they were for only a $1. (Score!) I already had the Mod Podge, so I picked up a spray bottle of clear coat protector. (which goes with Mod Podge)

I cut up a soda box container and used that to work on. The scrap booking paper was a little too big, so I choose to cut them up into randomly sized pieces. I thought this gave it a more vintage collage look. I pinked a solid color for the back of the mag holder. I brushed on MP first and then put the piece of paper down. I went over the paper again with more MP to better seal it down. I placed the pieces in random directions all over the mag holder. (just not inside) Once I felt the MP had dried I took it outside and sprayed it with clear coat sealer. I did that three times; letting it dry for a full day between sprays. (This allows for better coating)

It turned out just how I wanted and its still looking great.

Book lover short of space!

Ever since I joined Crafter's Choice I have WAY more books than I know what to do with. (which is never a good sign when living in someone elses house) I needed to find a better place for them. I orginally had them on my desk shelves, but I was worried that they wouldn't be able to take the weight. I have a small bookshelf that I put in my room when we moved my stuff into the house. The rest of my stuff is in the storage room in boxes and taking up a very LARGE section of the storage room. (I seriously LOVE my parents for letting me come home until things pick up for me)
Anyway this bookshelf has been over piled with books because I am a big book lover. Another carry over from my mother, who reads even more than me. I have like 30 books full of books and maybe 10 storage bins of big books. I took the books that I don't really want to have in the room, got another storage box for them, and moved them downstairs with the rest. I left 8 books that I want to read and have up here for right now. I also had a few tins on the shelves, so I left those too.

I have gotten most everything else organized. I have all my printed patterns and ideas in binders and labeled. All my magazines are filed and sorted as well. Those are on top of the bookshelf. Along with my flower petal ball I made.

I received a few more in the mail today, so this is what made me notice I need to get this under control space wise. I have a new order in, but that won't get here for a while, thankfully.

 I thought Simple Knitting had a lot of stitches, well these have WAY more. I keep finding new and interesting things, hence the rather large collection.

I wanted to file these by type of project, but turns out the shelving became an issue. The top shelf had to be dropped, so I dropped the second one too, but the second one wasn't able to drop as far. This meant I had to have one shelf of books on their side, which is fine, but it also meant I had to mix up those book subjects. Actually for the most part that worked out to be ok with me because the subjects were close to each other. I had to put my card making, scrapbooking, and thift craft books together and my sewing and cross stitch books. At least I was able to make two piles. Actually looks kind of cool that way.

I was even able (for now) to have my collection tins mixed in. They are serving as seperators up top. The Spool tin is new and it works perfectly. Found that this morning.

My jewerly books are on the left side of the top shelf. Then my quilting books in the middle, and finally my knitting books on the right of the top shelf. The very bottom shelf is my books I want to finish reading and my monopoly tin.
I think it worked out pretty well. I have all my information in one place now. YAY!