FINALIST: CHOCOLATE,(Yay for Patty!!!woohoo!)....

[cedargirl]

New lego photo! scroll downthread...
HOPEFULLY ONE OF THE TITLE ITEMS INTERESTS YOU ENOUGH TO LOOK AT MY PLIGHT! Thank you for such a great contest ond opportunity!

Logistics:
my house...960sq ft {460 up/500 downstairs}
Family of 4 plus a rather large puppy
Children share the 1 bedroom, we get the "den" AKA stair landing ;)
My creative "space is in the laundry room (pssst! :rolleyes:closet under the stairs & bathroom)

This is where I stamp, scrap, sew, knit, iron, fluff & fold, lol. I took this photo standing on a stool crunched under the stairwell.

All though my dryer makes and excellent cutting station, changes are coming. We need to renovate this craft corner into more closet space. My family has this thing about wearing clothes, sheesh. And their winter gear, honestly, is that neccesary, sigh.

My creative LIFE will move back into totes and boxes under the stairs for me to drag out and bring up to the dining table. Not a big deal really, good exercise and my husband won't have to look at all my supplies as he dresses every morning.

There IS a lovely corner space upstairs that I CAN put the most beautiful craft organizer in the world!!!! It would solve my coming dilemma perfectly and be one of the biggest blessings. Creating gifts, cards, scrapbooking our lives... it's a huge part of who I am. I spend many nights in the fluff&scrap trying tutorials, making something for someone I love, enjoying my creative outlet. I know many of you know exactly what I mean. We are as Ali Edwards says, Life Artists.
I am just crossing my heart in excitement to maybe, have a chance to keep my creative space access open to me. Thanks for the chance!
-tania

[cedargirl]

I made a t-shirt to help my efforts today. I will wear it often so I can help my cause! I need some comments. I need some action. I need that Scrapbox

and the back of the shirt:


Thanks for looking! And yes, I did sew SU! ribbon on the sleeves!
-tania

[DSchmidt]

Tania,

I absolutely love the shirt! You can be my campaign manager any day. My vote is for you. What do you think ladies? She deserves to win this contest.

Danita

[dhaus]

Yours is the first one I read and I vote for you! I hope you win! Love your description and the shirt you put together already.

Good Luck!

[cedargirl]

Awe! Thank you ladies. You are very kind!

[dogstampede]

I love the shirt, very creative.

Good luck to you,

Lynn

[Shaz Aussie]

Great tee & best of luck to you Tania!

[cedargirl]

Thank-you for your well wishes! -tania

[cedargirl]

Cardstock, ink, adhesive scissors,
Celebrating what my day delivers.
Babies, birthdays, weddings, sorrows,
Or best wishes for dear ones tomorrows.
I create because it was how I was created.
It's how I show my affections, demonstrated.
Stamping to encourage, scrapping to mark,
events, love stories, or trips to the park.
We all get so busy, we all love how we can,
we all have different footprints left in the sand.
What we do with these moments,
bears fruit at our craft table.
Sharing inspiration with others,
so they too, are able.
Encourage someone in a simple good way,
Send paper love, stamp something today.

-t. n. smith

a poem that I wrote for the contest today. I was thinking about pleading in it but this is what actually was waiting to come out I guess.

[stamp bug]

Love, love, love the catchy title...you had me with the CHOCOLATE...well and probably the ink too....have to admit I hate coffee (the smell...ughhhh) and well shoes...to me they're just functional....

[cedargirl]

hahhahaaha, (you had me with chocolate) made me think of "you had me at hello".... let me alter the script for the end of the contest:

tania:You complete me.
WORKBOX:You had me at chocolate.
;)

[in2stamps]

Oh you have a wonderful table!!....:-( I soo wish I had one of those.

And your shelves look so nice and neat and what I wouldn't give to have something like that. I do love your shirt but I still think I need this Scrapbox more than you....have you seen my closet post I put up today.

Forums at Splitcoaststampers
I don't even have a chair! Actually couldn't fit one. But yes good luck to both of us....you are very creative!

[cedargirl]

Good luck to you too Denise! If it doesn't work out I recommend garage sales, someones trash can be our scrappin' treasure! Good stuff is out there to give new life to. And the day I find a WORKBOX at a yard sale will be an "O Happy Day!"! But who would ever part with one eh?

[cedargirl]

We had waffles this morning. Can you tell what I was thinking about?



happy stamping! -tania

[stamp bug]

MMMM....looks like the beautiful doors of a wonderful Scrapbox I am going to win...

[cedargirl]

I like you Heidi. You're funny.

[cedargirl]

Good morning fellow contestents! Are you having fun with this contest or what! I sure am!
-tania

[cedargirl]

Checking in to see if I had any questions yet.
A little ditty bing style:

I'm dreaming of a black WORKBOX
Just like the one on the homepage
Where the doors swing open
to me I'm hopin'
to hold my creative life all neat

I'm dreaming of winning that WORKBOX
and stamping at it's desk so sweet
Where my ribbons in order
I'm a card stock horder
and my glues are in reach!

-tania

[cedargirl]

Not too much happening on this little thread of mine. Going to have to get creative and post some more pics of projects. What's next..... hmmmm... let's see......

[taragrin]

Please check out my story
Forums at Splitcoaststampers
Thanks
Tara
PS good luck to all who have entered.
(love your shirt!lol)

[Stampee]

Where would you put this WorkBox, there doesn't appear to be any room for it?

[mom2rnr]

very creative! Love the T-shirt!

[stamp bug]

coming back for some more chocolate....

[Dixiemill]

You had me at chocolate! heh.. very cool Tee! Love it.

[stamp bug]

Choc o late....must have choc o late....

[Evalou]

Well Cedargirl, I have been in the contest from "almost" day one but I gotta tell you, you have my vote. You have been so creative and as I said in my thread, anyone who can organize a tiny little laundryroom like you have done, deserves a better space.

I will get chewed out for saying this, but I think the winner needs to be someone who can successfully organize what they already have before they deserve something like the organizer.

Good luck to you and I wish you all the best.

Evalou

[cedargirl]

Taragrin, I went and read your story and wish you the very best. I hope you don't mind prayer sent up for you and your family's health and hapiness. I would never think that I was deserving of ANY prize, if you are wondering about that. I appreciate you reading my thread and leaving a comment. I am happy to hear that you use your creativity with your children too! That is time spent with them that is different from parental instructions, it bonds us. It's relational and all about communication with others. Happy stamping with your little ones!

Stampee, there is a corner upstairs beside our table against the stair rail that is hoping to be filled one day with a lovely organizer!

mom2rnr, thanks, I love this shirt. Will definatley have to do a layout about it!

Dixiemill & Stampbug: Too bad Wonka-vision (from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) wasn't real! Then I could make you gals some seriously yummy chocolate treats to reach in to the srceen and share!

Evalou, okay, so, I totally teared up. That was a really kind thing for you to say. I should hope that no one would give you any flack for encouraging another stamper. You are very lovely to compliment me and I thank you. I am SO blushing as I write this. My friend Lauren would laugh at me right now as she knows the real mess id piled in the sink right now! hee hee. Hope you have a great world card day tomorrow and good luck to you too!

well back to work on my current baby shower peppermint patty scallops!
-tania

[JenMarie]

LOVE your shirt! Hope you win!

[in2stamps]

Wow i looked at your picture again. It seems you have a pretty good space there already. You have your stamp pads in a nice rack. I made one that looks like that but it's not wood, well it is starting to crack on the side. It is 2 yrs old. You can see it in my picture.

I tried to hang my punches like that ...well the dowel must have been too thin and the closet anchors I tried to hang it on were too far apart. It just kind of bent.

I then tried to hang my ribbons like yours on that dowel..the all unrolled on me and I had quite a bit to re-roll.

Oh you have that new cutter from stampin up! I do too, mine is in the box in my rolling stamp bag.

Well I hope the warmth of the dryer keeps you cozy as winter comes while I go now to gather my things for filling the Scrapbox when I win. :-D

[Stampee]

I'm glad you have a space for it. Getting out the laundry room will be a real treat and such a joy!

[cedargirl]

in2stamps, thank you for having another look. It is a cozy space that I put things up for easy access to. When my DH has the time, he is converting this space into a walk in closet /laundryroom for the whole family's clothes because we are space challenged in the bedroom the children have. So I too may be returning to rubbermaids and a rolling bag if I don't win. I used to be a SU! Demo and a dear friend's father designed those inkpad holders and ribbon holder for us back then. I am blessed by them. I do hope you have better luck finding storage solutions that work for you! I currently have loose ribbon rolled up in Christmas chocolate tins & old SU! tins from ribbon swaps. I find they are really helpful. Best wishes for the contest Denise!

Stampee, :-D thankyou, it will be a joy not to work beneath the toilet piping!

[cedargirl]

Happy World Card Making Day All! I have been having so much fun doing the challenges! They are fantastic motivation to get those designs out of your head and on to paper. I hope everyone is giving it a go! It's a great day to celebrate your art. Get on out here and start stamping!

[taragrin]

I love Kevin too!! (my husbands name as well!) Thank you for your post, as well as the post on my page. You are very kind : )

[cedargirl]

So I was playing lego with my children and a new wave of inspiration hit me!

[cedargirl]

Good afternoon everyone. Are we all recovered from WCMD fun? I know I put in a long day on Saturday and LOVED it. Going to have to use the challenge gallery more often as it really helps get the ideas flowing eh? Hope you had as good of a time stamping this weekend as I did. Back to the drawing board for this contest challenge.....

[DSchmidt]

Tania, I love the lego Scrapbox! You are so creative and I think that you should win this contest so you can create even more wonderful projects. I cannot wait to see what else you come up with.

Good Luck. I hope you win.

Danita

[MariLynn]

I like your lego scrapox. Good luck!

[stamp bug]

If you don't win...you are going to a lot more legos so you can build one actual size...that is just too cool...

[thumbunny]

Tania, so tell us:

- How often would you anticipate needing to close it all up so it would be tucked away and out of sight?
- What would your approach be for keeping the work area uncluttered so you'd continuously have open crafting/work space?
- What else would you do to the area you'd place it in to augment it (since our craft supplies exceed our capacity to store them, WorkBox or not! - LOL!)?
- Based on the photos of it, what if your favorite nook or cranny in it?

[cedargirl]

YAY! Questions!

- How often would you anticipate needing to close it all up so it would be tucked away and out of sight?My WORKBOX would be closed if I wasn't stamping at it because it will be in our main living space. We have our kitchen, livingroom, diningroom (which doubles as our home school classroom) in our upstairs. My WORKBOX would be beside the diningroom table. It would be opened during some school times as we use my craft supplies for their projects. It would be open at night when I am burning the midnight ink! It would be looking SO good when closed for mealtimes & company, and looking even sweeter when open to create!!! My husband would BE THRILLED to have my supplies enclosed out of site. But honestly, who's significant other wouldn't It would definately be opened up daily.

- What would your approach be for keeping the work area uncluttered so you'd continuously have open crafting/work space?My appraoch would be the one I have to live by now:It has to be put away or WE WILL TRIP OVER IT! Everything has to have a home in our little house in order for our lives to function. That's why we are going to renovate my current laundryroom corner into our main clothing closet, we need to. So my supplies need a new space or its back to rubbermaids for me! I keep my current supplies cleaned up so I can craft anytime. It's important to have a creative outlet.

- What else would you do to the area you'd place it in to augment it (since our craft supplies exceed our capacity to store them, WorkBox or not! - LOL!)? My beautiful helpful WORKBOX would be best friends with our secretary style computer desk. It has a hutch abouve it that holds our bills etc, and some of our school things. The secretary front drops open for our laptop. It was a great find in the AS IS room at IKEA a few years back. My husband loves it because you can close it up! I can just picture them now sitting side by side, allowing me hours of crafting fun beside each other!!! I am pretty sure the two pieces would fall in love with each other. And on a side note, I'm not affaid to say that I had to look up the word 'augment' to make sure I knew what you were asking, lol.

- Based on the photos of it, what if your favorite nook or cranny in it? I LOVE the fact that the table folds out and in!!! I really think that that inner pannel that folds out last (the one with all the clear pockets on it) is my favorite feature though. How handy IS THAT for putting your favorite-reach-for-it-everytime tools OR color sorting your ribbons and buttons together!!!!!! Oh my gosh, heaven. All though I can't forget to mention the detail of the label slots in all the containers....hmmm...do I take photos of the contents of each compartment to slide into those perfect pockets OR do I stamp little cards to make a set of custom labels!? Sigh. Pick a favorite nook or cranny, HA! I aspire to spend some quality time getting to know all those nooks and crannies! I am all about the crannies.

Thanks so much for reading my thread! And thank you for asking me a few questions. I appreciate your time and attention. I am really enjoying this contest experience. It's amazing to read some of the stories and even the changes that are taking place for people because of thier sharing their craft space lives with others.
-sincerely, tania