File Sorter gets a Makeover

I'm linking up with Funky Junk's Saturday Night Special with this easy little project.
If you haven't been over there yet this weekend, you'll wanna go see all of the creative endeavors everyone has undertaken to provide you with some incredible inspiration.
The raw talent in blogland blows me away every week!
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You know the kind. Those thick smoky black plastic file sorters. Ugh.

I literally started to toss this in the trash, but then I remembered two things that a crafter should never forget:

1. I have Mod Podge

2. I have scrapbook paper

I thought I'd whip out the supplies and see if I could give this drab file sorter a new outfit. I'm sure glad I did.

I didn't take pictures of the process, but it's easy peasy.

I put mod podge on the short part in the front, and the front of the first large sorter. You won't see the rest, so they don't matter.

I then put the scrapbook paper on it and smoothed it out. Then I trimmed around the edges with a sharp blade.

I let it dry, and then stamped the words and hot glued the buttons on. (Remove the shanks before you do that so they'll lay flat.)

Here's how it looks now.

And I really do use it.

Here it is on my desk.

Another Easy Peasy project!

I think I'll try the same thing on my thick smoky black plastic wall pockets next.

Guest Posting at Funky Junk Today - Let's Make a Pillow!

H there everybody. I'm venturing away from my blog today to do a guest post over at Funky Junk Interiors.

I've only been around the blogging world for about 6 months now, so I'm still learning. Upon discovering blogs, Donna was one of the first I came across. I googled something about junk, and her blog popped up.

I made the connection with her after stalking her silently for a while, and she's been a tremendous help to me ever since. There doesn't seem to be anything she can't answer.

I love her style! She's eclectic for sure, but she has a serious rustic industrial thing going on over there that I find myself in awe of. Reading her blog, you'll see her obsession with 'all that's metal', and you'll learn how to look at a pile of rust scraps like it's a pot of gold.

She's a true DIY gal by anyone's definition.

(Can't you tell she's a fun gal?)

You'll find a wealth of helpful information on her blog. She teaches you how to turn serious trash into creative treasures. She's the host of the incredibly popular link party Saturday Night Special. I think people challenge themselves to come up with the best thing they can each week just so they can join. I've never seen such great projects in all of blogland as I have in that party. You really must check it out.

She has started her own WorkShop Series where she'll teach you anything you want to know -except for plumbing! But she'll give it her best try.

Head on over there and check out my post on how to make this:

Be sure and leave a little note and let her know I sent you.

She's announcing a great special I'm running on my aprons from Wednesday thru Saturday.

Don't miss out!

My Workroom Reveal

I've been working away trying to get this room set up, and

Funky Junk's Workshop Before & After Party

gave me the kick I needed to get my sewing room out of the boxes and onto the shelves.

Let me preface this post by saying that if you are expecting to see lots of cutesy colorful ideas in my workroom, well, I'm gonna have to let you down. My workroom is set up for everyday heavy duty use, and streamlined, white, and organized is what works best for me. It distracts me to have a lot of color around me in my sewing room. I only want to see the colors of what I'm working on at the moment.

I don't have to look for anything because I know right where it is!

I got lucky enough to have a clean slate to start with.

I've always had my workroom and office separate in the past, but decided to try to combine them this time so I'm not going back and forth. I've sacrificed a lot of my decor to do it, but that's ok. It works for me.

Here we go:

I'm just going to move along the wall and show you each section.

    This is a big room, so there are A LOT ofpictures to follow.

Those shelves in the corner hold most of my drapery making supplies.

To the right in the window area is where I'm in the process of creating an office space.

This is the actual sewing area. The bulletin boards on the wall stay up to date with "Need to do Now" info.

It's hard to get a picture of the full room at once, so this is full of pictures. I hope you don't mind.

(You will never see this area this clean ever again, trust me.)

Here's my view from the sewing machines every day.

The 6' x 10' table gives me lots of room to work. (and that table is not swaying in the middle. not sure why it looks that way in the pic)

The bulletin boards are now full. I put my current fabric swatch kits on these for my apron business as well as

the patterns I'm working on at the moment.
The pink bins hold the fabrics for projects I'm working on at the moment.
The white bins hold fabrics, patterns, and some craft supplies.
I label each bins and drawer so I don't have to search through them.

The message board holds snipets, pictures, and quotes that have some meaning to me. It's the only personal thing I have in the workroom.

On the sides, you'll see I've used curtain rods and clips to hang a lot of things I use daily.

I even separate my pattern pieces into plastic sleeves and ang them on a rod. It puts them right and my fingertips and keeps them organized.

You could also use rods to hang your fringe and trim.

As you can see, I don't have my tables painted yet. I'll get around to it one of these days.Not on my list of priorities until summer.

I rotate out the machines I need. I only have room for 3 tables, but I use 6 machines on a regular basis. This set up makes it easier to do that.

This area is usually covered up with projects, and looks more like the next picture most of the time.

This is where my drapery making supplies are kept.

I label the bins so I don't have to pull them off the shelf and look through them.

That little rolling cart is what I keep my threads in. When I'm sewing, I just roll it over to my machines.

Each shelf has it's own category. I'm a stickler about organization in my workroom.

This is my small tools area. I only keep what I use in the workroom for small building and craft projects.

(My real tool area is in the garage - which I have yet to finish.)

I separate my screw and nails into clear jars. This way I can see right away what size I need.

I'm attempting to set up my office area here. I didn't quite make it before reveal day, but I'll get there eventually.

Again, all bins area labeled. I keep project and design ideas in these bins, as well as all my paint chips.

Now, moving out into the loft is where I keep my craft station. You'll definitely find a lot of color here that you won't see inside the workroom.

Here's where I keep ribbons, buttons, stencils, paints, etc.

I keep current projects on the table.

And then there's the fabric room. Geez, I don't think I'll ever finish that poor room.

I try, really I do, but other things always seem to take precedence.

See what I mean -UGH - what a mess.

Well, that's it for now. Obviously there are still a lot of things unfinished.

I still need to finish unpacking the boxes, and I definitely need to put a window treatment up on that window.

And then there's my tool area in the garage...........one day soon, I promise.

Hope you've enjoyed my tour. Head back over to Donna's and see what everyone else has done.