Artistic Endeavors 101: #roundup

Thursday, January 1, 2015

Fun Studio Organization from Artistic Endeavors 101

January always makes me want to clean up and organize.

I am fortunate enough to have several creative spaces, but organization always seems to be a challenge.

Here are a couple of my favorite ways to organize.

I make my own polymer clay beads.

I love to organize them so I can clearly see what I have.

These are organized in a house shaped shadow box.

The little compartments are perfect for sorting what I have made.

I use this tie/belt rack that I got at the thrift store to hold chains and necklaces.

I used to use these printer's trays in my booth to hold necklaces, but people tangled things in them.

I decided to use them myself in the studio to organize my favorite bits and baubles.

I love that I can see what I have and easily choose components.

This fun industrial drawer unit came from Lucketts last spring.

It was my big splurge of the day.

I adore it.

Last summer I made this spinning studio organization.

All my favorite materials are readily available.

Tin cans got a new look with a coat of spray paint and some burlap.

Sugar shakers hold spools of baker's twine.

They do not get tangled and are easy to use.

All my favorite markers and pencils are finally all in one place.

This year I want to start an art journal.

This will keep all those materials at my fingertips.

The colors inspire me and make me smile.

I bought this little shelf from a closed store in town.

It only takes up a few inches of table space, yet it organizes many of my most used supplies.

My big paper punches rest on a tension rod I added.

My RIT dyes are close to the sink here and ready as soon as inspiration strikes.

Another tension rod holds spools of ribbon.

I love ribbon.

You can see how much I love ribbon.

This was my husbands brilliant idea.

We used long clear rods to hold 5 rows of ribbon.

My husband added wood strips to this storage shelf and screwed in cup hooks to hold the rods.

I also keep twine and cotton string and lace here.

This galvanized tiered rack was on clearance from Sam's last year.

I imagine it will end up holding many things, many places in my studio and home.

I try to use what I have.

What is your favorite studio storage piece?

Thanks for stopping by....

Linking up with these blogs.

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Favorite Projects from 2014

2014 was my very first year blogging.

It was fun, hard work and scary.

I have learned so much and I am looking forward to all I will learn this year.

I shared some special places and some of my favorite projects.

To remember the year, I wanted to review some of my favorites.

So here are 29 of my favorite posts from 2014.

This post was one of my very first sharing something creative with you.

It has some sweet wind chimes for the garden made from recycled goodies.

I had a summer workshop with my good friend and then shared what we did.

This post brings back memories of those days of fun for me and hopefully some inspiration for you.

Click here to see.

I love dress forms.

Just ask my family.

I made a bunch of them.

This gal got a new perch and a fancy raggedy skirt in this post.

This was one of my most popular posts of the year.

I can thank Hometalk for that.

You can see all of my projects over there if you look here.

The full blog post can be found here.

It is still one of my most used studio storage pieces.

This is one of those projects I always wanted to do and am thrilled that I did.

While it was not highly viewed, it is one of my most treasured projects.

Please take a look here.

This is another workshop/project that went viral thanks to Hometalk.

For a month, my daughter and I mosaic-ed anything we got our hands on.

Using unconventional materials was fun and caught on.

We had three posts to cover the whole process.

Starting.

Continuing.

Finishing and tips.

A trip to the thrift store provided the materials and inspiration for these Glass Garden Mushrooms.

You can make your own by following our tutorial.

This was our most popular post of the year.

This fun rug was made from recycled sheets that my daughter dyed herself.

While these are very costly to buy, she made hers for about $3.

For instructions to make your own, check here.

I shared one of my very favorite necklaces with you.

To see more, check here.

These just make me smile.

Crafted from left over scraps from my daughter's raggy rug, these bracelets are easy and make great gifts.

Tutorial here.

I already mentioned how much I love dress forms.

This summer I finally made my own from chicken wire.

They are perfect (to me anyway).

If you would like to try your hand at making one too, click here.

My daughter made her own magnetic memo board for her dorm room by painting this great antique ceiling tile.

To see the transformation, look here.

A rescued cart from my neighbor got a French makeover.

I use this all the time.

Tutorial.

I transformed a stack of clearance bangles with washi tape here.

These necklaces were made with shotgun shells and over-dyed silk strips.

I show you how to dye the strips here.

This burlap wreath found a great home on our porch this fall.

I love that it looked great from September until November.

See how we did it here.

This step-by-step tutorial for making this Spider Spells book shows how easy it is to create an aged spell book for Halloween.

Find it here.

This post has a whole bunch of wool projects ranging from felted wool bracelets you make from yarn to this sweet machine felted purse bag made from thrift store clothing.

Find these projects here.