Scrap Central Clubhouse: The Nickel Tour

So several of you have been aware that we downsized -- sold the house, bought smaller house, living in apartment until said smaller house is done. That's instant chaos, with a small serving of emotion, and a side order of excitement. Looking long term at Scrap Central 2.0 has been the hardest part of it all...Oh, wait...being in the apartment in between with no cabinets is actually the hardest part....Oh, wait...trying to do anything in the apartment that will be part of the long term solution is the hardest part. Yes, that's it!

I have spent some considerable time on Pinterest in the last 60 days. So many ideas out there. I have been looking in particular for Scrap Central 2.0 inspiration, and have found some great ideas. One idea just blew me away and I shared this idea below for an addition to Scrap Central with some friends. {This new house will, after all, be the house that PEN-Terest built. :78: } This idea is found in this blog post.

So I had to go from this below, on move-in day, to an organized chaos, getting my space ready for the Hemnes dresser from Ikea to be added underneath my 4x4 Expedit from Ikea, as per the above inspiration. Now, my Scrap Central - Clubhouse space is actually in the "dining room" of the 1200 s.f. apartment. Dining rooms are overrated, yes? When we found this apartment, I knew immediately this space would "work" just fine for the 7 months we are here. Bonus, I can see the TV, and my husband, and almost all of the living space in the apartment, ;-) from my scrap chair. 

^Move In Day

11 boxes of albums to unpack and 10 boxes of scrap supplies

I felt like having more boxes of albums than supplies was a win.

^ Day 3 of living here...iMac still in the box...

Hubby and my son ran to Ikea on one of hubbies' days off - Thursday. {At my Ikea, the Hemnes dresser I have is $249.} And my beloved youngest darling son built this Hemnes dresser for me in just over 5 hours on Saturday before heading to Paris Monday...and I get to smile as I recall that each time I use it.  It was a fun day, just he and I home, and we watched Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace and about 1/3 of Sky Fall while he built it. He finished it before we finished the third movie. He worked on building it - so strong and so patient - and I sat here in my chair and actually scrapped on a layout as part of a Challenge...and it was bliss for me to be here scrapping, with him right there "next to me" building the dresser.

My boy, hard at work. I am so proud of him because he did this without any mistakes and was very patient and fastidious - and perfect! - with it!! Boy, was his dad happy when he came home from work and found out it was all done!

And so I took Monday night to Wednesday night to unpack the final four boxes of supplies and get them sorted out and figure out what went into the closet and what went into the dres. I am fairly excited about this space. I think it is a great working spaced and it will be just perfect over the next 6 1/2 months!

The view from the living room to Scrap Central.

The Hemnes+Expedit Duo in its glory

6 Stamp 'n Storage paper cubes in the center are the foundational grid, 

and hold all of my Bazzill card stock.

Cropper Hopper paper holders on the left and right handle my patterned paper.

Binders at top left and right hold stamps.

Binders on bottom right hold sticker sheets from collections.

Class binders and idea books and small alphas are also on the bottom row.

A broader angle - showing my Michael's project cart and how it all bumps up against a 2x4 Expedit.

The view from the side.

I grabbed a Kensington keyboard drawer for my iMac to extend my keyboard and trackpad out for better ergonomics.

A broader side angle, picking up the Alex drawer which now doubles as a trimmer home.

A feel for how Scrap Central plays into the living area of the apartment.

Yes - I will be able to "watch" football with the hubs while scrapping!

One more angle of my Scrap Central Clubhouse creating space.

I am really ready to craft here! The apartment is very nearly completely settled, save my winter clothes, but who needs winter clothes anyway! ;-) The "coat closet" is another key to my success here. I *wish* all of my scrap stuff would fit into this space shown above, but, alas, I have a *few* more things. 

The coat closet is large enough to actually hold two more Expedits - a 2x4 on the right side and a 2x2 on the left, that has just a few Iris cases stacked on top. I snapped some photos of the closet. Forgive the lowlight. The apartment seems to have bad lightbulbs everywhere and I need to work on that. I am going to just load the photos I shot of the closet and let you figure it out. ;-) It does need a little more organization, but it is all in there for now, and I know where what I need is when I need it. 

And if you can swing the Ikea Hemnes dresser go for it! Very durable and its solid wood. And it holds a ton! I went with the white stained one and it seems like a great pairing so far! Ith holds so much that I did snap some quick photos of the drawer contents! I think you just might be amazed at how much it holds. And the main thing is that an Iris case CAN fit inside it if you want. Key for me in the long term. Right now, though, Hemnes is mainly handling embellishments that formerly lived in my antique hardware cabinet, and some things that lived in my built-in cabinets (small paper pads and embossing and stamping stuff....)

These photos are left to right order, starting at the top row of 4 smaller drawers, and working down to the two deepest drawers on the bottom:

Solid Brads.

Buttons and extra adhesive.

Washi tape that lives on top of the buttons.

Kraft embellishments and my label maker.

{See the glimpse of the fun gray stripe pattern on the drawer bottoms?!}

Designer Brads and some errant Punches.

Inks and stamp supplies and pens.

Journaling cards, embossing supplies, chipboard, my Evolution.

6x6 and 8x8 pads and twine and some roller date stamps.

Various embellishments stored loosely in Ziploc bags.

These are those things you don't use often, but don't want to let go! 

Thanks for hanging with me this long! It has been a busy time to be sure getting all of this settled in. But, hopefully scrapbooking interrupted time is done and I can be cranking out the layouts here in Scrap Central Clubhouse soon!

Live from Scrap Central

The thing about a scrap room is that it grows as organically…and exponentially…as the very brads, bling and Basic Grey that you hoard…er...collect.

When I started scrapping in 1994, I stored my scrapping supplies in the under the staircase coat closet that I commandeered. I repurposed that puppy from holding coats to holding card stock. Who needs coats in Houston anyway? A trip to The Container Store and I was outfitted with a shelving system that fit neatly where the jean jackets were no longer welcome. When I wanted to scrap, I pulled my supplies out of the closet and worked on the breakfast room table. So tidy and organized was I.

In 1997 we moved to San Antonio and space had to be reevaluated. Given the age of my boys then, I needed to be near them to scrap during the moments they played together. I carved off a section of the playroom and that beloved staircase shelving unit got a promotion to the wall in the alcove of the playroom. A desk underneath it and I was good to go. I reveled in the ability to leave things out and come and work as I could with my pretties.

By the time we moved to McAllen in 2000, I was a bona fide scrapper with a growing collection. I went from occupying maybe 20% of a smallish room to occupying almost half of a two car garage that had been converted to a guest suite by the previous owners. I was in tall cotton with all that real estate! And I was loving the trend of upgrading my square footage with each move.

When we moved to Dallas in 2005, I was naive enough to think I could go back to about the same amount of space I had in San Antonio. I took half of an extra room upstairs. And hated it. Not enough sunlight, wrong part of the house, quarters too cramped, and my counter height work space was just not comfortable to sit at and scrap. I wasn't scrapping…and I knew it had to do with the space.

In 2006, I had the idea to move my stuff downstairs and split the home office space with my scrap space. Well, 7 years later and I am happy to report that I have gone from the 50/50 split to about a 90/10 split. I now have only two drawers that contain household files. And I have decadently spread my scrap stash all over the rest of the space.

But, the best part of my current Scrap Central is it's location in the house. See, it really is central. It's between the front door and the door to the garage, in the room that was to be the formal living room that we converted to a study when we built. I can swivel in my chair and see the entry way, the dining room, the family room, the kitchen and the breakfast room. 

And I can - thankfully - hear my family moving about in all of those rooms. And they can hear me. I love being in "my room", yet hearing them through the house. And often is the time when they will come in here and plop down on one of the chairs and hang out with me. Seriously love that. I nabbed those chairs from Calico Corner and they are one of my favorite elements of my room. 

Here's a little tour of my room in its current state.

We had the cabinets built-in before we moved in. I designed them and they are built to my specs. They hold so many things and keep the lines clean in the room, which is important to me. Love how the computer area is slightly lower in height than the working counter areas. Sweet hubby was kind enough to install a key board tray under the computer table, so my keyboard is ergonomic and also invisible.

The red walls are one of my favorite aspects of the room. Really love the pop of my favorite color. My chair is a Herman Miller Aeron. I have trouble sitting for long periods and this chair is amazing...a real key to allow me to sit for long stretches to scrap.

The desk is a bread and butter desk from the 1800's. It comes apart and could travel in a covered wagon. It has two drawers in it that run the width of the desk. Perfect spot to stash adhesive refills and small brads. And that chandelier has been in all of my houses. I take it every time we move. It's one of my very favorite things.

The little tiny table beside my desk holds my trimmer. It's perfect for turning to cut and simultaneously keeps it from occupying my coveted desk top space. My lamp is an Ott lite and really is key to this working girl being able to scrap at night. 

My Demdaco Angels are gifts from my boys over the years. I love their messages that speak to my heart. I grabbed the slipper chairs at Calico Corner. The wire basket in the left of the photo holds stamps - mostly phrase stamps and Studio AE stamps. Grabbed that basket on one of our trips to the semi-annual Round Top antique fair.

Please don't hate. :-) We found this antique hardware cabinet at Round Top for $400. The cabinet is very deep, allowing you to stash so much in each drawer. It holds almost all of my smaller embellishments. The vintage typewriter on top is just eye candy. I don't have the patience to type with it. It's too hard to use, in my opinion.

What Scrap Central is complete without an Ikea Expedit? I debated getting a 16 cubby unit…but went with the 8 cubby unit so I could keep my cross wall in my room. 5 of the cubbies hold patterned paper, sorted by manufacturer. 2 cubbies hold my beloved Bazzill, the only card stock I use. The last cubby holds some binders that contain memorabilia to use, 12 x 12 sticker sheets and some of my favorite sketches from Scrapbook Generation.

Oh - and see my new typewriter? It's an electric Brother GX6750 that I got at Amazon. I met a scrapper, Darby, at a crop in Missouri that had one. I fell in immediate love over it and came home and promptly ordered one. I don't love it sitting out, but I go with making stuff easy to access and use, knowing if it isn't easy to access, it won't get used. It's very easy to type on and I have to make myself not use it on every layout.

And here you can see my beloved cross wall. I have been collecting these crosses for a long time and they each tell a story.

Finally, here is a shot of the top of my desk. Love, love sitting here and scrapping. 

It's taken me awhile to get to this spot, but the journey has been so worth it. And I am happy to be blogging to you, live from my Scrap Central.