High Fructose Craft

Organizing: My hutch

2011-09-01T15:12:00.000-07:00

I love my hutch, even if it is still brown :)

What I did not like about my hutch was the lack of functional organization it had. All of my cookbooks, kid's craft stuff, and other random books were thrown inside in a jumbled mess. I didn't get out the coloring and painting activities as much as I should have because it was just such a hassle! Something needed to change.

Here is my hutch before the change:

And here it is after!

There is still a spot for my cookbooks, but the rest of the shelves are devoted to the kids. Underneath I keep my re-usable shopping bags and there is a bin for my cloth napkins and a bin for paper lunch bags and paper plates.

The blue and green bins are from the dollar store. There is a bin for crayons, a bin for stickers and stamps, a bin for bubbles, a bin for paint, ect. Now it is much easier to grab what we need and even easier to clean it up! We have been coloring and painting a ton more since doing this.

I am still planning on painting my hutch. Maybe something like this:

Two closet offices in my bedroom

2011-08-28T20:36:00.000-07:00

We recently changed rooms in my house, forcing us to move our computers into our bedroom. I love my house, but it is seriously lacking in rooms and storage space. We got creative with our small-ish master bedroom: my husband built a closet for his computer and we turned the existing closet into an office for me. I couldn't stand the thought of having blah spaces for the computers in my bedroom, so here is what we did!

Here is the before of my closet space:

Ugly black dresser stuffed into the closet...yuck!

And here is the after!

We built a custom desk into the odd shaped space

I created my own stencil to decorate the walls in my office

The paint looks black, but I actually used silver stencil paste. I used stencil vellum and hand cut my stencil with an x-acto knife. A little time consuming, but worth it!

And I have a spot to hang my purses in this odd storage area that was pre-existing

Here is a picture of my hubby's closet space before:

Please forgive the ugly state of my bedroom from last year!

And here is a picture of Steve's office:

We built this into a pre-existing storage space located behind the wall that runs the length of the house.

Lots of work to be done still, but its a start! More pictures of my office decorated and organized to come soon!

Thanks for stopping by!

Linked:

Vintage lunch tray upcycle

2011-03-30T21:35:00.001-07:00

I recently saw this project using vintage dinner trays as a frame over at blue eyed freckle

Totally cute right?

I fell in love with the idea and I just happened to have a vintage lunch tray laying around the house. I used mini clothespins and pictures from my son's 1 month photo session.

So here is mine:

Now I need to find a place to hang it!

Linking to:

I won....

2011-03-24T10:20:00.000-07:00

two giveaways!

The first is a $35 gift card to CSN Stores from Lauren over at 31 DIY !

So much good stuff on the site...now to just figure out what I want.

These are super cute...I think I might need them for my son's room:)

The second giveaway is an amazing fabric bracelet from Anything*Virtuous!

Can't wait to wear it!

Check out their blogs...lots of good inspiration!

Thanks again ladies!

A temporary fix...

2011-03-19T14:12:00.001-07:00

I have been dying to re-do the hutch in my "dining room", but the lack of sunshine has made that impossible. My "dining room" consists of one corner of my kitchen...not a room at all, but it is what we have for now.

So while I wait for the sunshine, I covered the windows in a cute vintage fabric.

And of course it is messy inside, and organizing it is my next project!

I also painted my spoon and fork red!

Here they are before:

And here they are after:

My husband thinks they are silly, but my great grandmother had a set when I was younger and I have always wanted my own. They are one of my favorite things in my house!

Linking here and

A tree in my living room

2011-03-05T15:31:00.000-08:00

I have always wanted to paint a tree somewhere in my house. I am not brave enough to add color to all of my walls, so most of them stay bare. So when my husband came home with a broken projector from work, I knew my tree was not far off!

The projector got fixed, I found the tree I wanted to paint, and went for it!

I started by patching some holes in the wall and then cleaning it. I don't have any pictures of tracing it out, but this tutorial from Just a Girl explains the whole projector process.

So here is the finished product:

What do you think?

I think I am going to add some black detail and maybe a little bird on one of the branches. Not sure just yet! Oh and the hole under the tree is my dog's cubby in the wall...he needed a spot to hide away from my son!

Linking to:

Upcycled soap bottle tutorial

2009-11-07T17:00:00.000-08:00

Here it is...my very first tuuorial! I wasn't planning on making one so soon, but inspiration hit me and I ran with it!

This is a super simple project that anyone can do and results in a great way to fill the water on you iron. I saw a tip in a Handyman magazine that said to re-use old dish soap bottles to fill your iron. I loved the idea but hated the idea of looking at the original label. So I decorated the bottle a little with some paper scraps and Mod Podge!

Here is the super-easy tutorial!

Supplies needed:

Empty dish soap bottle
Water
Mod Podge
Paintbruch to apply glue
Scrapbooking paper scraps
Towel

Step 1:

Aquire your empty soap bottle and thouroughly clean all soap out

Step 2:

Peel off all labels. Don't worry about getting all of the icky sticky stuff off; your decoration will cover it.

Step 3:

Choose your paper scraps, label or whatever you want to decorate your bottle. I chose a vintage bias tape wrapper.

Step 4:

Layer your label on top of coordinating scrapbooking paper to give it more dimension...and it looks cute too!

Step 5:

Apply Mod Podge to your bottle where you would like you decoration to go. Lay the paper down and coat the whole thing in Mod Podge, smoothing it as you go.
Let this dry and apply an additional layer of Mod Podge.

Step 6:

With a clean towel and some water, rub away any excess glue dried on your bottle

Step 6: Fill with clean water and you are done!

And a blurry action shot! Makes filling your iron easy!

So there it it! Sorry about the blurry phots; my camera and I

Recently

2009-10-27T06:11:00.000-07:00

Wow, I cannot believe it has been two months since my last blog! Where does the time go? Winter is fast approaching and I am working hard on Christmas projects. There are so many things on my to-make list and I hope I can get them all done!

Here are some things I found recently, some things I have been drooling over and some things I have been thinking about:

I took a trip to California to visit my family in September and found this great vintage fabic at a thrift store. Its so kitsch and so much fun!

It might just be some of my favorite fabric I have ever come across. I found quite a bit, which is good. Ever find only a little bit of great fabric and never want to use it?

I also found these in a thrift store in town. Believe it or not I have been searching for a set like this for a couple of years now.

My great-grandmother had a set similar to it and I remember playing with them when I was a little girl. I haven't decided if I am going to paint/re-finish them yet. What do you think about them in black?

I have been drooling over quilting in general and wishing I had the time to devote to learning how. I plan on taking some classes after Christmas.

Audrie over at Blue is Bleu is a great inspiration to me. Her quilts are so creative and whimsical. I just love her style!

I have been thinking a lot about blogging some tutorials and recipes of things that I have made. I have yet to do it, but I am at least thinking in that direction.

I am also planning on blogging on a more consistent basis. I found these awesome printable Blog Topic Lists through One Pretty Thing. Here is the link to the free download at Vale Design.

Hopefully these will help me get back on track!

Totally thrifty finds!

2009-08-28T06:50:00.000-07:00

Stopped by the thrift store this week and found some goodies!

Pretty vintage fabric that makes me smile

Cute little birdies that are just for fun

Cool vintage glitter bottles

And some new ribbon!

Lots to do this week! Madison and I are headed to California to visit family in about two weeks, and I have lots to sew. Crib bedding to finish, Christmas gifts to make and then packing!

As promised...

2009-08-12T19:58:00.001-07:00

My newly re-organized craft space!

I love to organize almost as much as I love sewing and crafting. It is so calming to me when everything is in its place. I had a blast working on this...even though there were a few mini meltdowns when things didn't work. But I pushed through and got to a point where I was satisfied.

I printed these super cute embroidery thread cards from Craft Chi and taped them to pieces of Manila folder. I thought it was a great idea, especially for my small amount of floss.

I used my Great-grandmother's sewing box to store my small collection of embroidery floss.

These wooden thread bobbins belonged to my Great-Grandmother. I inherited her collection of sewing supplies and fabrics. I love the mixture of colors in this!

I needed a spot to keep my ribbons, so I made this! I have seen many tutorials on ribbon storage so I modified this Ribbon box. I used a box that had Christmas cards in it and was very sturdy.

I decoupaged the top only because the bottom was a cool blue. I used knitting needle to hold the ribbon for lack of a better solution. I am going to get a wooden dowel eventually...but I kinda like the effect of the needle.

My sewing cabinet that I found on craigslist! I love it because it folds up, allowing me to sill move around the room.

I love the pegboard storage inside the cabinet because its perfect for my scissors and rulers.

I put and old CD tower in the cabinet and I am going to sew fabric boxes for each cubby

The ceiling was so bare! So I hung up some fabric that inspires me. The good thing about doing this...I can change the fabric whenever I feel like it!

There is still a lot I want to do to this area. I love my solid wooden chest of drawers, but I need more jars for the top of it. I also want to decoupage the mail holder and maybe paint the chest of drawers? What do you think?

My fabric stash in a semi-organized state. Eventually I would like to have it in bins or Fabric Organizers

And them some simple decorations. I haven't knit in ages, but I love my needle collection!

I saw this embroidery hoop display tutorial over at So Lovely Creations, and I just had to give it a try. I love it and now I want more!

So that's my work in progress. All in all I only spent about $10 doing this! I bought a couple shelves and embroidery hoops. There is so much more I would like to do!

Enter this giveaway for a blog design!

2009-08-11T19:14:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, just wanted to write a quick blog telling you about a giveaway that I am entering. It is to win an amazingly cute blog design by The Design Girl ! I have, as you know, been trying to work on my blog. I would love to win such a cute layout!

Go here and enter the giveaway!

Etsy It Up

Also, I will be posting new pics of projects soon. I am in the process of re-organizing my craft/sewing area and I will share when I am done.

Learnin' some new skills

2009-08-05T12:08:00.000-07:00

Well, its been a busy week around here. I have been sewing as much as possible, but that is proving more and more difficult with Madison getting more active. He likes to move, sing and watch his Your baby can read videos. I do get lucky sometimes and he will take a nice long nap and then its sewing time!

I have been working on the blog and teaching myself how to edit and customize it. So you should be seeing more changes as I learn more html editing skills. There is so much information available on the subject, and trying to sort through it all makes my head spin.

This week in my sewing, I concentrated on diaper clutches and learning to applique better. The clutches came out good after some tweaking of the pattern. The appliques were fun to experiment with and I am working on sketching out some more this week. I need to work on sketching patterns and ideas, as well as, planning my theme/direction. The only problem is that I have very rudimentary skills in drawing. Just one more thing to work on and teach myself to get better at!

Here are a few of the things I have been working on. Apart from learning new sewing and computer skills, I am also determined to learn how to photgraph my creations. With a little help and advice from my sister over at Robin's Eye Photography, I have been honing my skills.

Here are some of the things I made this week:

Setting out on my voyage

2009-07-29T16:10:00.000-07:00

So this is my very first post on my very first craft blog. I am feeling pretty intimidated. I have spent many months ogling great craft blogs on a variety of subjects by very talented people. I have learned much from their tutorials and have envied their lifestyle as crafters. I recently gave birth to my son Madison, and have since then become a stay at home mom. What better time to become one of the crafters I have so long wanted to become.

The past week has been very busy. I have decided to try my hand at the local holiday craft show in November. This is a chance for me to get seen and to launch my name into the market of indie crafts. I have been making countless prototypes of items I want to sell and re-working patterns with my own personal touch. For this show I am concentrating mainly on crafts for babies and kids.

This year I am determined to do the things I set out to do. To finish the projects I start and to follow through with selling my creations. Easier said than done. Between the baby, housework and errands, the time to craft can be hard to find. But I am going to do it...to be a professional crafter.

Madison's nap spot in mommy's craft room