Crafting At The Cabin

 I love reading other peoples Blogs about their crafting rooms and gathering ideas from them.  I also Love reading threads on certain sites and giggle where people are complaining about how tiny their space is where they craft.  Ever notice no one complains that their space is too big? HAHAHAHA.  Alot of those threads also have travel ideas for those who are going on a mini trip and will be staying in a hotel and they advise what they think would be helpful for you to bring with.  It would be a real good idea if I would absorb these ideas into my thick brain but..........as much as I have "AH Ha" moments when reading, none of those "Ah Ha" moments stick in my head when it comes time to open the cabin for the season.  My little 900 square foot place is way up in Northern Wisconsin right on Lake Michigan.  The view from the tiny porch is beautiful but the space up there is horrible for storing anything non essential.  It is strickly 3 seasons so there is no central heat or air.  Humidity is high being on the lake.   This is my craft space (all of it...no secret area left, right, back or front)

That little storage cube on the chair in front (black and white) has to hold all my craft supplies and the plastic bin right there in front my paper to help keep the humidity off of it.  I use to have a small Sizzix sidekick which broke.  There is no internet so no computers or printers.  Punchs sometimes rust up there and I was replacing them with the dies but silly me I was buying sizzlets at the time (until my machine broke) and now those don't go in the new machines since everything uses thinlets instead.  So I try and deal with what I have.  I go back and forth from my main home to this one so often that it is really a pain to pack up everytime all my supplies but trying to buy only what I need for the cabin gives me many duplicates at home.  But tools aren't the only issue at beach houses so are other supplies like glues, tapes, etc.  So I use non conventional items.  Ok glues are a problem.  They get super icky sticky when its hot and humid in July and thick in the much cooler temps of October I just have to deal with that.  But inks....absolutely nothing wants to dry to the touch.  It could take days no matter what ink you try so I now resort to Hair spray.  Give a spritz and no more smearing.  Do I need a little shimmer?  I use shimmery eyeshadow.  Its in solid form so it doesn't clump and it's easy to use with a spritz of hair spray.  Nail Polish.....game changer up there.  I needed a little glittery shine to some poinsettia's I had made and all I could find that would resemble Stickles was a bottle of my granddaughters nail polish she had forgot to pack up when she left.

It not only gave it shine and a little glitter, it also hardened the flowers which I thought was an added bonus.  One thing I did notice was that a Dollar Tree Brand of red glitter nail polish did not produce a hard flower but instead a plastic feeling type of one.  So not all polishes are the same.

When I made the School Pic card in the previous post these flowers looked great on it.  For those who wanted measurements for that card they are as followed:

For the base 8.25 x 5.25 doublesided cardstock

scored at 2.75 and 5.5 then turn and score at 1.5 (this will be for the pocket) I used only tiny brads to close the pocket at the sides.  You can see them in the photo.

I had also cut a piece of solid carstock 2 x 8.25 and scored at 2.75 and 5.5 as an added inside border to the pocket

for tags cut (3) pieces solid card stock 2.25 x 4   (3)  printed card stock 2 x 3.74 

The little poinsettia's in the upper corners are popped up a tad and that holds the tags on the end in place.  As for the center tag it didn't seem to need anything to hold it in place but I wanted to add something to the top so I doubled up making the holly and slid it between the center section of the card.  

As a Disclaimer ....for posting purposes I did not want to use my grandkids photos so I recycled political postcards I kept tossing in the trash instead.  I have no idea who these people are lol.  When crafting at the cabin you tend to use alot and I mean ALOT of non-traditional items to complete your projects.

Til next time.............................................................