My Cricut Closet Craft Room Transformation! (Part 1)

Hello crafters! I am so very excited today to be sharing with you. When I started this blog I was in a small room… lets face it… a closet. Hence… the name. And trust me, I couldn't  have been more excited about that closet. It was MY space. And in a home that (at the time) had seven children and two adults anyone having their own space was rare. But over time the space became very cramped. And then the heating/cooling didn't quite work. So sometimes it was just too hot or too cold to work in there. So I spent less and less time in there. But… now things are different.

So here's a little throwback to those days.

 Yep…that was it. I wish I  had some pics of what it turned into next. I can't seem to find any.
But so many things have changed since then. And my crafting, as well as my life, has taken new directions. I won't bore you with the details of how life has changed but I will say that there are now three children and one adult living in this house. And just his past summer my oldest son graduated and moved out. So… his room was up for grabs. My two youngest boys had shared a room for a long time and when given the options… they chose to stay together. (very strange. I'm still not sure how that worked out). So there has been a big shuffling of rooms. My daughter was no longer sharing the largest room in the house with her step sisters and there was my oldest sons room up for grabs.

Ooohhhhhh….. now I remember how we got to the point! This four bedroom house has only ONE bathroom. It's insane, I know! There is a house that we visited that is the exact same house. In their house, there is a bathroom where My Cricut Closet was. I told the boys they had a choice… they could move into their sisters old room (the largest room in the house, and it's upstairs) or they could each have their own room. There was only one catch… if they moved into their sisters old room we would make my craft room into a second bath. They jumped at the idea. So in the end they traded rooms with their sister and my oldest sons room would get made into my craft room. The original intention was also to leave a bed in their so my son could have a place to sleep when he visits. However… I don't see that happening. LOL!

I had several different ideas in my head as we attempted the move. First… we got everything out and put into the  new room. I just stacked as much stuff as I could in the corner. I have lots of plastics totes, drawers and bins. LOL

Deciding how to set it up was going to be hard for me. I had been so used to a very small space that I had too much room to work with. LOL… have you ever heard a crafter say that? I doubt it. Trust me… I don't have too much room. I could use a lot more. 

So I focused on where to put my desk. I picked up the nice huge corner desk/table from BigLots. It had a chip somewhere (I can't honestly tell you where) and it was the last one. It is massively heave and I got it for $17 and change. Crazy huh! It works perfectly for my Cricuts. It's very deep. So I as you can see I can put my Cricut in the corner and while you may think that's wasted space behind it, there's just enough room for the 12x12 mat to do it's thing. When I use my 12x24 mat I just pull it out. Makes it so much easier. 

I also have about 11 of those storage cubes from Hobby Lobby. I had bought them while they were on sale 50% off. The first six I actually got even cheaper because I had a 25% off your entire purchase including sale items. Then I added the others as I could. I'd still like to have lots more. But I'm thinking I will be making those. (More on that later!)

Originally I thought about making a sort of "wall" out of them and this is where I put them. But I quickly changed my mind.

I have the basic layout done right now. Now I have to get everything organized and in it's place. Remember how I said that my crafting has taken a new direction? I still do, and always will LOVE my Cricut machines. I couldn't imagine not having them. But I've also added a a new sort of "crafting". I have also been doing woodworking for the last year or two. It's amazing! I love it. And I also love how I can incorporate my love of my Cricut with my crafting. I used my Cricut to make these signs. I blogged about it a while back. 

I used vinyl on all of these. Some I put the vinyl directly to the wood and others I used the negative as a stencil and painted them. I really love mixing my woodworking with my Cricuts. 

And those are some of the frames I made. The first ones I ever made. I kinda like them just sitting there like that with no glass or anything.

                   

So this is Part 1 in this series. As I spend my time in here organizing my plan is to make this room very user friendly so I can find what I need and when I need it and to make it easy to have guests over to play in my room with me. :)

Here's a small sneak peak of what it looks like so far. This is just a glimpse. More of a tease. LOL

It's not exactly the greatest picture. But I took it last night with my phone. Gotta get my good Canon serviced and a new charger for it. But for now…. here is my workspace. You'll notice I have a favorite color. Can you guess what it is? LOL. 

This is also a good example of what I mean when I love how my two crafts, woodworking and paper crafting, are coming together nicely. The shelf you see in the background with the glitter glues and ink on it is a shelf I made specifically for those. I'm  not sure that's where it will stay but its there for now. Also in front of it you see a shiny pink stand. Made this stand as well for my iPhone to sit on. I also plan on making one for my iPad. 

I've got so many ideas rattling around in my head. So many things that I'd like to make. Both on my Cricut and in my wood show for storage. I can't wait to share them with you as I go along. 

Please post any comments, suggestions or ideas. I'd love to hear from you. 

And yes… this means I will be able to make Cricut Craft Room videos VERY soon! 

I have also joined Bloglovin. I'm still very new to it so bare with me. 

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