To move or not to move has been our question for a long time now.  Boy, I could really use a separate room for all things eWillow.com related.  We are minus one bird now that Adrienne is off to college; however, I just can’t bring myself to turn her nest into a craft room.  Where will she chill when she comes home?

I love where I work now because even though it is out-of-the-way, it is still part of where my family chills.  I’m in a different room, but we have an open floor plan as far as the living and family rooms go, so we always feel like we are together.  (I have this weird hang-up about being in a different room when my husband and kids are home with me.  I like it when we are all together.  It is some type of innate motherly feeling or something.  Some people tell me I’m weird.  Oh, well!)

I digress…

Back to the reason why we are here.  My work room is very CLUTTERED.  That is just how I roll when I’m making stuff.  The clutter has caused me such anxiety that I am ashamed to have company!  Funny thing is, you really don’t see the clutter unless you are standing in a certain place in our house.  A few years ago, I tried to hide the clutter by doing this:

It worked really well for awhile.  However, this photo was taken back at the beginning of 2008, which was nearly a year before the idea for eWillow.com was even conceived.  Oh, how the clutter has grown since then!

A few weeks ago, we made our first-ever trip to IKEA.  I was totally inspired when I saw a set of curtains.  My mind immediately conjured up the idea to hang curtains from the ceiling and make my office a separate room that can be hidden when needed, but open when I’m working.  And that is how we saved $750,000 on a new house by spending $100 at IKEA and Home Depot.

Let’s take a look:

Our first challenge was making the curtains long enough.  We have ten-foot ceilings, and I wanted the curtains to dust the floor, but I didn’t want them to hang directly from the high ceiling.  Solution:  long planter hooks from Home Depot.  (I think they are 15″ long.)  By laying the curtain rod onto the planter hooks, the curtains now almost touch the floor and they hang far enough down from the ceiling that I don’t feel claustrophobic.  These picture makes me smile because this is the first big project that my husband was able to tackle after his cancer/chemo complications.

You can make this decorative tin/scrapbook with just about any type of mini tin box.  (Think empty Altoids tin, or check the dollar spot at Target.  Target always has little tin boxes that are filled with games or candy.)

1)  To cover the box, all you need to do is trace the box onto cardstock, cut out, and adhere to the tin.  Use Mod Podge or Sticky Strip (found HERE.)  Sticky Strip is great for these types of projects because it is a narrow, thick, double-sided adhesive.

2)  Add lots of cute embellishments to the lid.

3)  For the scrapbook, cut six or eight pieces of cardstock (depending on the thickness of the tin box you use.)

4)  Punch a hole in the upper right corner and attach with a jump-ring or ribbon.

5)  Decorate the pages with tiny embellishments. 

A great project for a Spring Break day!!!!!

Here’s a photo of the Sticky Strip.  Order some now…you will use it all the time!

I’m so tired of making the typical 5-1/2″ x 4-1/4″ card!  So here is my shot at a flip-up card:

The card is a 5″ scallop circle card.  It opens up and hooks behind the “friend to friend” sentiment to become a stand-up card. 

The best part…

is that I used the new Simply Scored Diagonal scoring plate to make a custom envelope. Fun, fun, fun!

Aren’t they beautiful?  Every year, Stampin’ Up! comes out with five new colors that are only available for a limited time.  I am totally in love with this year’s combinations.  Here’s a look at the old stand-by Early Espresso combined with three of the new colors:  Lucky Limeade, Calypso Coral,  and Wisteria Wonder.  I’m in love, love, love!

Remember this post, where I showed you how to make paper rosettes?  I mentioned that after you die-cut the scallop circles, you would have little parts of the smaller scallop circle left over. 

I can’t bring myself to get rid of even the smallest of scraps, so here is what I did with mine.  I just placed them randomly around the card.  I overlapped some, too.  Kind of gives the card an Asian look, no?