Thursday, April 5, 2012

A visit to my friend's studio

Late last week I drove to a town about 50 miles from where I live and visited my friend Kathy, who you have seen on my blog. She's the one who likes to shop at the craft stores! You can tell she's a crafter when you walk into her home and her studio. I'm always blown away by her creative storage solutions, as well as all the art she has on her walls.


She also has louvered doors around two walls of the room. The storage inside those areas is vast. Much of her fabric, lace, and ribbons are kept in those cabinets, along with supplies and many tools.


And then there is the storage you can see. Of course, you might just be overwhelmed by the dress form she got as an early birthday gift.


Or you might be taken in by the book cover she is making (hanging on the side of her paper storage unit).


I was blown away by the ribbon holder she made. She admits she has to get on a step stool to return the ribbon to the holder. She found instructions for this on Pinterest, a place I have refused to visit because I've been told it's a real time killer.


Another project she saw on Pinterest was this faux chandelier. She makes things she has instructions for.


Much of the art she has on this wall, she has made or purchased.


Now her latest "thing" is bird cages. She can't get enough of them. I fear the ones in my back yard are not safe (grin).


A few fat quarters are mixed in with fancy fibers and yarn. I spied her gesso, which is the same as mine was before I got rid of that horrible bucket for more user friendly containers.


On this wall are gifts she has received from friends like Dana and me. And this is where she keeps her die cutting machine and her dies. Of course, she has dies housed in towers under her table and dies in the floral container, too.


Did I mention, she has also become obsessed with zebras after she saw the ones Dana collects? Well, this collection is less than a year old, and it is already starting to consume her craft room.


AHH! Another bird cage,


this time with a bird in it.


More black and white, this time on the knobs she now has


on her doors. I had now reached the end of my tour of the craft room. I somehow felt overwhelmed. After catching my breath for a few minutes, it was now time to play!


The first thing we did was make die cuts. Kathy wanted to set all the dies on the table and I had to slow her down because I didn't want to have to put everything away that we would really not use. However, in this shot, taken right before we broke for lunch, we have already cut and put many of the dies away. You can see some of my hand painted paper, as well as colored printer papers and card stock. All the paper on the table came from my house. Now why do I have so much paper when I don't scrap or make cards?


You can see there are still plenty of dies, plates, embossing plates, and those stackable metal dies I can't remember what they are called on the table. I just know they cut, emboss, and are very expensive!

After a lengthy lunch, we went back to cutting and embossing. It was fun, but I would only want to do it perhaps once a month or so. After we got all the dies returned to their proper places, we took out our Paintstiks and tried to use the embossing plates (the purple plates partly hidden in the photo above) like collographic plates. Of course, I brought my homemade collographic plates and used them on my fabric when I had trouble getting the Sizzex embossing plates to work with the Paintstiks. Since these have to be ironed, I'll show the finished Paintstik project next week.

By this time, it was nearly midnight and the lightening was lighting up the area I had to drive into. I later learned there was hard rain and golf ball sized hail with that lightening, too. I am just glad Bleubeard was safe, had been asleep, and was glad to see me when I got home. What better way to spend a day? Hope yours are all just as memorable.

14 thoughtful remarks:

Helen said...

What a fantastic studio! You could get lost in there for hours.... glad you got home to Bleubeard safely, I heard about the storms on our news. Have a good weekend - I am likely to be out of computer range!!

Unknown said...

WOW, what an incredible studio- that's what I want mine to look like- thanks for sharing!
Hugs,
Stephanie

Monica said...

it looks as if the studio has taken over the house. What a fun day.

Nancy said...

What a fun day you had! And it's a treat to take a peek into other people's studios. She's got lots, but it looks like she can find everything easily with her labels and organizers. Nice!

Jo Murray said...

Amazing!.... who does the dusting?.... but I digress. Looks like she is a super-crafty lady and you had an absolutely wonderful day. Loved to see all the pics.

Clare with paint in her hair said...

What a fabulous room! I could spend days rummaging through that lot, bet there are loads of hidden treasures!

Craftymoose Crafts said...

I also thought of dusting all those gorgeous creations and gifts. I think I would enjoy visiting your friend and browsing & playing with her toys!

SandeeNC said...

I love your friend, and wish I could come play with y'all. My post tomorrow will have a birdcage on it that I painted, stamped and distressed, what fun they are! And let's talk about Pinterest,....it's fabulous, and I am a pinner! You get so many fantastic ideas on there! I show my pins that I make something from on Sundays! Bluebeard wants to pin, he heard there was a big kitty section, hee hee waving hi from the stormy hills of North Carolina :)

Darla said...

Goodness, it looks like a craft store and to think she knows how to use all that stuff. Amazing.

Give Bluebeard an extra ear scratch for me, he was so patient :-)

Darla

~*~Patty S said...

Looks and sounds like a really wonderful time indeed!

always fun to see where others play...that is one great studio space...you had me with the doll head in the first shot!

oxo

Dandelion and Daisy said...

Sounds like a fun day except for the drive home part! What are you going to do with the embossed papers? I don't want an embossing machine but I am curious about their applications. I'm not very imaginative I guess, I can only see them used for card making....so enlighten me!

BJ said...

WOW Elizabeth, what a wonderful space for creativeness. Wish I had friends like that too.

Thanks for drawing my attention back to lesson 2, might have to print that piece off to remind me as we go along. Been struggling with my Art journal, so it will help all round. I think a lot my scrapbooking is more like collage really, can't really get the one photo loads of embellishments mode at all, usually loads of photos and a few embellishments fitted in where possible.

Thanks for noting my Easter page is a collage, must admit I just wasn't sure. Have a peaceful Easter - BJ

Kailash Chand said...

interesting post. Now you can use this exporters directory to promote crafts supplies import & export business.

voodoo vixen said...

Oh my, I would be there every weekend just to sit and stare at all the fabby stuff... and her dress form is fabulous!! You have bird cages in your back yard? Hmmm... I think you may need to nail them down!!