One Cute Nursery

The Joy of Designing for Baby and Beyond

Cricut Father’s Day Promo – Gift Card Included!

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Hi there!

You all know how passionate I am about crafting and yes, I do a lot of graphic design on the computer and it seems like the scissors and the glue gun are a part of my hand these days…{As a matter of fact, I cut and squeeze the glue gun so much that I think I am showing signs of carpal tunnel syndrome…Yikes!}. But, I would say 90% of my projects wouldn’t be complete without my Cricut Expression 2. 

Cricut Expression 2


The first Cricut I owned was a gift from my husband on my 29th birthday. 
{ Oh Gosh! it sounds like a long time ago….not really though 🙂 }. 
I started using it for making personal scrapbooks and for home decor projects. Little did I know that after having our first {and only} child I would be crafting his first birthday party decor and that those same decorations will bring me to this day…crafting party decorations for kids all over America. Last year I upgraded my Cricut to the Expression 2.
If you are still thinking about what to give Dad for Father’s Day, and he is a techie kind of person, here is a good idea:  how about a Cricut Expression Father’s Day Gift Pack?

Here’s what is included in this special offer:

  • Black Cricut Expression Machine
  •  $50 Cricut Craft Room gift card 
  • Bonus deep cut blade 
  • Tool kit 
  • 2 Cricut Color Ink pens 
  • Project starter materials including stencil, vinyl and iron-on 
  • Idea book to get Dad making projects of his own 
I am not sure if this black Cricut Expression®  is a limited edition or not but it sure looks nice and elegant for dad! 
Stencil, vinyl and iron-on included!

Love this sample project, perfect for a father-son day spent at home labeling all things possible! 😉

Find out more about this special offer and read about all the features of this black Cricut Expression  here.

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great weekend!

Craft Room Design – The Big Reveal

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The moment has finally arrived and I am so excited to share with you this big reveal! For years, and I really mean it when I say years, I have dreamed of a craft room/studio. And y’all have no idea how happy this makes me! 🙂 Yes, I am like a kid with a brand new toy. The difference is that I am not going to get tired of this one, ever!

If you read my post Craft Room Design, you’ve been waiting to read this post and see the newly remodeled room. Well, wait no more, it’s here!

For months I searched the words “craft room ideas” and an image of a white craft room -or ten rather- would pop up! It’s the cleanest, nicest look. Now, before I describe how I did it I have to say that I can’t give you an exact amount of money I put into for two reasons.

1. I have been buying items for the last year here and there (on sale or not) and 2. My husband put a lot of work and craftsmanship into this and his work is priceless 😉

Ok, on to the project breakdown.

This post contains affiliate links. For more info, please read my Affiliate Disclosure.

The Walls

The room had plain white walls. I wanted the room to look clean and airy but white walls are too blah!, so I picked this muted yellow color called Banana Cream Pie from Glidden in an eggshell finish. Easy to clean. Glidden paint is sold at Home Depot.

The Flooring

Bye bye, carpet!

Even though I love the feeling of carpet under my feet { I am a barefoot type of girl }, the room needed a flooring upgrade badly. The carpet was just too worn out from all the traffic all these years. We picked laminate flooring, besides economic, which is very low maintenance.

Oh! and I can move my chair around with ease!. I keep handy a handheld vacuum that my husband gave me {he can pull out anything from the garage like a magician from a hat} and I can’t live without it. I virtually have no mess at all now!. 

Storage Cubbies

I bought these at Michaels. I initially wanted to build a “wall unit” with these cubbies and just make a small counter against the wall flanked by a pair of cubbies on each end. Then, I realized that the depth of the counter (14.5″) would be too small for my projects and then I would be begging for more space again. 

So, here is where the project took a big turn.

I had bought 22 cubbies one day at Michaels when they had a big sale. All the scrapbook storage was 40% off, plus I had a 25% off total purchase coupon. So, it was a good deal. I knew this beforehand {it pays to run to the craft store three times a week} and I made a pre-design on a sheet of paper and went there the day of the sale with a plan! 😉 That was at least 7 months ago! 

I bought a mix of cubbies with shelves, drawers, shelves and drawers, magazine holders, etc. You can see some of the other cubby designs in this picture.

I had mentioned before how difficult it was to come up with a plan, being that I had only two walls to work with. But I am delighted with what my husband and I came up with! He’s a genius, if you ask me 🙂

{ Bonus picture! } When my son saw his father working with power tools, he went running to his room,  dug inside his toy box and found his screwdriver (bottom right), and brought it to his dad… Just too cute! 

Back to the description.

The Countertop

Because I wanted a big and – I mean BIG – surface to work on, my husband custom made the counter out of wood and high gloss white Formica.  It weighs around 300 pounds! Yep, it’s huge! It came home from his shop in three pieces and he put it down over the cubbies that I had strategically placed in the room. 

Please ignore the spider web of cables I have under my desk. That’s my next project. One thing at a time. Look at the ‘big picture’ here.

On the wall side, the counter is 30 inches deep by 11 feet long. When it turns, on the left of the top picture, it’s 36 inch by 7 feet long, and then, when it turns again it’s 15.5 inches deep by 4 feet long.

We brought the cubbies forward so the counter would overhang just 1 inch. Behind the cubbies -on the wall side- there’s an opening, which we thought it would be our son’s hideaway…but it turned out to be perfect: behind those cubbies, I have a built-in garbage chute.

That hole in between my desktop station and my Cricut is for the garbage! I came up with this idea when my son started dropping all his toys inside the holes that my old desk had. And then I started dropping my garbage there too. This one has an actual garbage pail underneath! LOVE IT!

Take a close look at my built-in garbage chute in my post: 5 Easy Craftroom Organization Tips (tip #4)

The Ikea Kallax

My wall unit plan {with the cubbies} changed when I spotted this Ikea Kallax Bookcase on Pinterest. 

To my despair, Ikea does not make the largest Kallax {6×6 cubbies} in high gloss white. So, we purchased two: a 4×4 cubbies Kallax and a 4×2 cubbies Kallax and we mounted {yes, we! I picked it up and gave my hubby a hand} one on top of the other.

My main idea was to have some storage for my son’s toys on the bottom shelves. His bins are the white ones and I make sure he knows it. No more touching mommy’s stuff!

Inside the fabric bins, I have all things possible. I have come to realize that – no matter how hard you try – crafting is always going to be a little messy.

If I stopped to put ‘neatly’ away from each scrap of paper or any material for that matter, I wouldn’t be able to finish projects on time. So, these bins are wonderful. If I have leftover paper, I just drop it in its bin, leftover tulle or ribbon, in another bin…and so on.

Scrapbook Supplies Storage

Each bin is full to the top with all these supplies {they’re still neatly organized inside…I still have the ‘brand new’ fever}

  • Paper Punches
  • Solid color paper scraps
  • Patterned paper scraps
  • Stationary (includes cards, envelopes, and return labels)
  • Stamps and ink
  • Fabric, tulle, and ribbon scraps
  • Cricut accessories like jukebox, blades, vinyl rolls, along with stencils and other miscellaneous tools I don’t use every day.
  • Glue products and tools like a screwdriver, X-Acto knife, pliers, wood sander, etc
  • Acrylic paint and brushes.

The Embellishment Center

Another item I bought at Michaels at 40% off, plus 25% total purchase coupon) was the embellishment center. 

At first, I thought I wasn’t going to have a wall where to hang it because it is big and because I have an open loft I didn’t want it to be seen from the formal living room downstairs. Turns out I found the perfect wall kind of behind the Kallax but still, perfectly accessible.

I still have the black file cabinet. It’s an eyesore in this bright and fresh room, but I can’t change the color of the printer so I figured I’d rather keep the whole thing like that, seamless. Until I come up with a new plan.

In the embellishment center I keep…well, embellishments.

I cut hundreds of tiny onesies at a time for my favor tags so I store them by color in different storage jars. I also use mason jars where I keep lollipop sticks for cupcake toppers, wood craft sticks, mini clothespins, and multicolor pompoms. 

I just bought a bunch of Martha Stewart embossing powder and I am looking forward to starting new projects 🙂 Now that I have a much more functional {and inspiring} room, I’m hoping I can work on new items and projects.

The Shelves

We bought 3 of the Ikea Lack shelves in high gloss white.  I could not be happier with this set-up! They are so sleek {and I don’t dig too much the minimalist decor}, but they look so good in the craft room!

I love how I can keep my Cricut cartridges handy and they still look cute and decor the room. To the right of them, I have 4, just 4 {out of my hundred and something collection of } cats’ figurines. These 4 are dear to my heart and each one represents a special moment in my life.

Oh! and I have an {empty} cat treats canister because I have my cat on a diet…poor thing. This is the shelf on the right side of the room.

On the left side of the room I decided to just place all my blue tin buckets {these I used on my son’s Caillou Birthday Party last summer} with all my pens, markers, felt tip pens, pencils, and scissors. Easy to reach for me while I am working, hard to reach for my toddler. I think they look cute! {they scream: ‘This is a craft room!’}.

The center shelf is still empty. I have a project under my sleeve…just haven’t got the time to do it. I will make sure to come back to this post and link-up the project. The calendars, dry erase board, and corkboards I bought at my local Walmart but there is a wide variety of these products on Amazon.

The following morning, after we put the shelves and boards on this wall, I woke up to this note from my husband:

“Good Luck in your new office. You deserve the best. I love you! Me.”

With a supportive husband and an inspiring room I think I can conquer the world!

My mission with this post is to inspire you as a crafter to follow your heart and your dreams. With imagination and will power, you can achieve great results 🙂

If you have any questions about any other products you see on these pictures, feel free to ask questions in the comments!

Craft Room Design

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I have been planning to redesign my office/studio for the last year or so. In a year, I have seen so many pictures of craft room decorating ideas, furniture and storage products, that I am a little overwhelmed by it. I have seen thousands of products and storage systems and I have not one, but two Pinterest boards with lots of “pinspiration” {is that a word?, it is now! } and they have been of great help. The time has come and we are { that’s hubby and me } going to tackle this mess during the next two week s and hopefully {fingers crossed} it will be done very, very soon.

This room started as a regular home-office, with a computer hutch, a desk and a bookcase. We bought this set 6 years ago, and it looked something like this…

If I would’ve known then that I was going to end up finding my bliss paper-crafting, sanding wood and painting, I would’ve chosen something more laid back and more appropriate. But, since my husband and I love DIY-ing, it’s actually nice to have the opportunity to step into a new project. 

Our home office is located on the second floor, in a room that I would call it a hybrid between a den and a loft… Some people call it a den, some call it the loft. The bottom line here is:  there’s no doorway, it’s all open. If you have a mess {like I do 90% of the time}, everyone will see it and you can’t say:  ‘I will just shut the door’. No.
To my advantage, this room is located at the end of the hallway and no one has to go past it to go to another room. If you go in that direction, you’re going to the office.
I have been dreading the fact that, in order to be able to share “the big reveal’ with you, I have to share the “the big mess” first. But it’s ok, I will get over it. You will too, I promise.
Here is a picture of the room as you walk in.
To the left is the railing, open to the 12 ft high ceiling living room. Beautiful, yes. Scary when you have a toddler at home. I have to keep my Making Memories Desktop Carousel on top of the hutch {upper left corner} to keep all the tools away from my toddler’s little fingers.
To the right, there’s a sliding door that leads to a small deck, and this is the best part of having the office located in this loft. This is my view every morning when I ‘come to work’.
And this is the view every afternoon…
Even though this is extremely nice, I only have two walls – one across from the other – to work with and that interferes with my craft room layout ideas. It would have been easier to design the layout in a room with two walls converging in a 90-degree angle.
This is the other wall, across the hutch. Yikes! This is the part I dread the most about sharing…
We bought this armoire five years ago, we scored it at a Rooms To Go Outlet. It was a floor sample, so we paid half the price {$480.00 if I remember correctly}. At the time I was only scrapbooking, and my collection of embellishments, stickers, glitter, embossing powder, and tools was growing rapidly.
Those little drawers were perfect to stash them away while the bigger drawers held loose cardstock and paper pads. Behind the doors there are two shelves, it was the perfect storage for magazines, books, and albums. The 4 bottom drawers stored my son’s toys for the last 2 years…and that’s why they are all crooked and falling off. They don’t close properly anymore. My son has been pulling those drawers daily for the last 14 months.
To the left is my massive laser printer sitting on a black filing cabinet (that came from our old business office). My husband built a custom wood top for the cabinet, that’s how big the printer is. I don’t like this set-up at all, I am thinking I want to spray paint the cabinet white to match all the new furnishings.
To the right, there’s a storage ottoman I found at Home Goods. It was one of those impulsive purchases. I love it but it’s big and I am having a hard time finding a place for it {can you tell?}. That frame that you see to the right, is my BS diploma. It looks misplaced, I know. I had to move it over when I started stashing things on top of the armoire. As I said, this is a project in the making for the last year. I am delighted that it’s actually happening this weekend!
Here is the desk. My one and only working surface area.
Not having enough surface to work on, triggered the idea of re-designing the studio. When my Etsy sales spiked last year around this time, I had to work on 5 or 6 parties at a time and this desk looked like a bomb went off.
I bought several Iris Project Cases and stored each party project separately. It works like a charm, but I still need the surface to spread my tools. See that canvas, and the wooden words ‘Dream’ and ‘Imagine’ on the desk? It’s a project I am working on to decorate the studio. I am excited!
This office may look empty now but it is only because I have moved out 90% of my tools and supplies to another room so we can start moving furniture out. Before these pictures were taken, this room was ‘chaos’. I could not share the chaos.
We will be working on the big project this current week and hopefully, we will have everything done by the weekend. So, stay tuned and come back to check my “Craft Room Design – The Big Reveal “ post.
Just one hint: I am painting the room “Banana Cream Pie” by Glidden (found at Home Depot) and all the furniture is white. Yay! for a fresh and airy craft room!
Thanks for looking!