Where Bloggers Create 2015

I am going to start out by saying, I could do with a serious purge of stuff. That said, I have so much because I've flitted from scrapbooking to 3D creations (birdhouses) to fabric creations to painting on canvas to art journaling.

It shows.

On the other hand, I've gone from working part-time to not working to working full-time, so I know there are projects I really want to get to. (Like the Madonna art display quilt from a swap I was in several years ago.)

I've taken a break from this blog party for the last couple of years, but if you want to see how my creative space has changed and developed (just in case you haven't seen enough creative spaces for one day!), you can see:

• in 2009 in its barest of bones (I didn't participate in the blog party, but wanted to show in 2010 how my room, which is a small third bedroom, had looked before.)
• in 2010 which is like a complete reveal with an additional post on my homemade hanky curtains
• in 2011 after an overhaul of the closet (the doors fell off)
• and in 2012, where I decided to show some "for real" pictures. I'll be doing so again today because I had no real chance to tidy up

Let's take a tour!

Above: paintings were done as part of several Suzi Blu classes. The ribbon holder makes a great canvas display. (It still has ribbon spools in it.)

Above: The white Shabby Chic bookcase is filled to the brim. Top shelf: pretties (china cup, piano player rolls, old photos, baby booties, etc). Second shelf: another canvas from a Suzi Blu class; hankies and buttons and other doo-dads are stored here, plus another pretty collaged canvas to hide some of the clutter. Third Shelf: Scrapbooks mostly. Bottom shelf: paper. This is all the commercial paper I have (this doesn't include the vintage stuff). As you can see I am really good about putting away. Not.

 Above: The closet space: You can still see hints of the papered wall before I put in another set of shelves (they're for shoes, technically) to hold: (top shelf) bookmaking supplies, art journals, sparkling H2O paints, stencils and my mother-in-law's hair in braids from when she was a girl. Yeah, you read that right. Don't know why I claimed them, but a use will come to me. I hope. The rest holds my childhood diaries, vintage photo albums and various Golden mediums. The visible glass top there is supposed to be pretty. But it needs a clean up. The chest of drawers contain old tablecloths (see the green tank? One of my unfinished projects is to cover it with doilies and make a lace top), fabric for a quilting project and so on.

Above: The very top of the closet. It has a box of my Psanky supplies (that I haven't touched in an age despite my best intentions), trophy parts that I rescued from a church cleanout, other containers, a styrofoam bust and a picnic basket that is actually for picnics.

Above: one of my art works in progress. I have fallen for writing icons. I do them in acrylic which is a modern take on the encaustics or egg tempera techniques.

Above: one of my newer purchases, one of those IKEA rolling carts. And in teal which is my new favorite color. It's pulled right by my table for easy reach of paints, washi tape and journaling bitses.

A view from above: my most commonly used supplies (not including washi tape which didn't fit): Golden fluid acrylics and a couple of tubes of heavy-body acrylics, a few Dylusion spray inks, prismacolor pencils, inktense pencils, there's an empty tin where my NeoColor II watercolor crayons go because I just got back from a trip and haven't put them back yet, inks, pens, watercolor pencils.

 Above: I have a lot of paper napkins for collaging. Send help.

Above: the jewelry cabinet stores markers, paperclips, doo-dads, and so on. As I was having a look I found an unopened package of white gel pens! Truly a treasure chest. And that's a vintage typewriter in its black case.

Above: I have a pink chest of drawers which holds photos, glue dots and other adhesives, ink pads, glitter, and some fabric. On top of that is the small metal card cabinet which holds fabric flowers, ribbon and lace, the blue suitcase holds vintagey papers and some fake flowers and as you can see there is more lace.

Above: small travel and art journals, tools, gold leaf, cards and envelopes, a future projects box and a current projects box that have been ignored for so long ... stamps, jewelry making supplies.

Above: Pretty pearls!

Above: and here is where those pretty pearls live. An IKEA cabinet. I have tried to keep the top as a pretty display area of pretty things (like glitter in glass salt and pepper shakers) but I see I didn't put away a purple bucket of that floral foam stuff. Ooh. That might work well on my latest art journal page....

Above: It contains large stencils, an insane number of Stampinton publications, the sewing basket I've had since I was a little girl (with some unfinished projects dating from the same, music, collaging supplies, books to alter, and so on and so forth.

Above: I made one of the shutters into a display board. (The other side also has something but its primary duty is to hold up the drop cloth so I don't make a mess using the big easel.)

OK, folks now it's time to Get Real. Below is a portion of the floor and is pretty true of the rest of the floor, alas. The beige book propped up in the middle is my latest art journal and it is huge! The biggest I've worked in. Off to the left of that is the box that holds my Life Book 2015 pages. (You can still sign up for this year long class -- the videos and pdfs are all downloadable!) There's also some music to be put away, a bag full of invitations that I plan to pull apart for the paper and some more stuff that just needs to be put away. You know how it goes.

Below is my "for real" art table. It has two in progress Life Book journal pages on it (from two different classes.) On the left is my traveling art journal kit, opened but not yet unpacked. New is an Ott-Lite because I found that the light in this room wasn't bright enough for the fine detail of icon painting. There's more paint, liquid watercolors, inks and glimmer mists at the back. Brushes, palette knives, etc, are in a rotating bucket on the right. And so on. I've lost my small pink scissors and honestly, it's no surprise.

So there we have it! This is where this particular blogger creates!

I am looking forward to seeing your spaces. Thanks for taking the time to have a look.