Craft Area Beginnings

I've had in mind to build myself a craft area in our bedroom.  My own personal crafty get-away with just a push of the door (mmm...such precious thoughts). This process will require me to take out one of our windows and do a lot of woodworking, with the help of Ana at Knock-Off Wood.  However, as some of you may know, I'm pretty anal picky about my projects and how they turn out.  So, before I start building the corner desk unit for this project, I decided that a 3-D model of the finished project would be nice to have (to scale, of course).  If you've never played around with Google SketchUp, you're missing out.  I had a blast with it.  You can sketch up any 3-D image you want - yeah!

This is what I came up with.  If you click here, it'll take you to the warehouse where Google keeps their 3-D images that have been uploaded by users.  Then, if you type in "craft area" in the search box, you'll see my model pop up.  I'm in love with the program.  Now I can see what our room is going to look like when I'm all finished.  Of course I'll have to add some custom built nightstands and a king captains bed that Ana so graciously shows people how to build on her site.

Do you see that middle portion of the unit that sticks out?  I'm going to put my embroidery machine there.  Finally, I'll have a permanent location for it.  I feel all warm inside just thinking about it :).

File Folder Journal

I found myself in need of another journal I could carry around with me at all times.  My purse is relatively roomy, so I decided to make another 5 1/2" x 8" - this time with a cover made from a pretty file folder I had.  I found that I have to carry a journal with me at all times because my girls are always doing/saying funny or outrageous things that I will undoubtedly forget by the next week.  So, having a place to jot down those things, along with my own mind's musings, has been absolutely invaluable.

Journal with file folder cover.

Last time I made one of these journals I used some pretty cardstock for the cover.  This time, I had this really pretty file folder that added a little more heftiness to it.  I also decided to add a brad and some elastic so it would stay closed in my purse.  I'm very excited and just love how the colors turned out.  Can't wait to start writing in it.

I will be adding a tutorial on how I made this in a future post.  Need to get some more pictures of the process :)