My Feng Was SO Not Shui... Until Now!

My yin couldn't even stand to look at my yang and it had been that way for over a year in my craft room.  Sure, I'd craft in here, but I never really felt it was cozy or "me."  Then, one fine day, Regina from The Cutting Cafe, assigned this set to use for an upcoming project and OMG...happy dance, my entire craft room came together. Crazy how one piece can bring harmony and I'm so happy it did! First I'll share this awesome holder and then I'll share my happy crafty place.

File Folder Box Holder

I love the rustic country, antique, metal, crackled look, so that's exactly what I set out to make with this cut file.  It started with a roll of metal tape.  After the outside pieces were cut on my silhouette cameo with standard white cardstock, I covered them with tape.  The inside pieces of this holder were simply embossed, painted, distressed and sanded. I wanted to achieve three distinct looks in one.  

Here's a close-up so you can see the faux metal on the outside. I achieved this by painting gray paint directly over the metal tape. Secondly, I randomly blotched with rust, cream and black paints until the patina I liked was achieved. A little sanding with a nail file was done too. 

The third look is the rustic country, so I used sheet music to fit that bill!

An old wire was twisted and attached to make the perfect hanger for all three holders.

This file even come with labels. I kept my titles fairly general...

And here it is with the tab dividers as well.

I had so much fun with this file and thanks to this piece, I now have a wonderful craft room that fits my style just perfectly.

And now, welcome to my craftroom aka tiniest bedroom, where things now make sense and the muse is happy!

I should explain first, I'm a hoarder collector of things hand-me-down, thrift stored, abandoned on the side of the road, and cheap.  Now, that's all good and well, but the problem was trying to get it all to mesh and feel like a craft space that worked in the tiniest bedroom of the house and feel cozy. And by cozy, I don't mean cramped...

So here's what I did.  If it was ugly but functional, it got painted.  If it had cutesy on it, it got sanded off, if it was just a cool piece, it found a purpose.

The ladder was a yard sale find for cheap and I painted it black (it was hunter green before). The tins sitting on it were from the Dollar Store and were silver with flowers etched in. I took a hand sander to them and sanded off the painted flowers and then painted them white and made my own stencils to label them. They say "This & That" "Wingdings" "Good Stuff" and "What Nots" now. The night stand that is under the ladder was from eons ago and that was also green (what's with the green?) and as you can see, I've painted it black and added new hardware.  The piece holding various rolls of paper and wrapping is our old mailbox.  The antique cabinet is the very special hand-me-down from my mom.

Now looking to the left a little more, here's my desk.

Sitting on the top shelf of my desk, next to my basket of materials holder, is that precious and inspiring folder holder from The Cutting Cafe. 

YEAH, feng shui at last!!

The desk against the wall I found at the Salvation Army (Which I just typed incorrectly as Salivation; even though I did salivate when I saw they only wanted $10 for it.)  I

I LOOOVE the big huge corner desks that you see in ads, but I couldn't justify spending all that money if I already had a desk and a table, SO, I somehow managed to corner it fairly well and now I have double the work space. 

And turning to the left side of the room.  

The black armoire (which used to be...can you guess the color? Yep, green) and the cream cubicle piece that I found on the street one trash day.  The container holding my ink pads is an old cassette holder and then just some fun stuff that the kids made me and things that make me happy to decorate with.

The closet

Plastic shoe organizer on the inside of the right door is a great way to hold your cards when you need a place to store them.

And that's that... my hodgepodge studio.  

I've just loved having you in my craft room for a visit. I hope you've enjoyed yourself.

All DT projects are posted at The Cutting Cafe Blog on the 7th and 21st of each month. We'd love for you to visit and be sure to leave a comment for Regina. She selects one lucky person to receive 3 FREE files of their choice!

Hugs and Happy Organizing,

Lisa x