Phantom Limb

Craft Room and Office Makeover: The Office Before

Since we moved in this house last September, we have barely been able to unpack. Something about running a business from home with a one-year-old doesn't leave a ton of time for luxuries like decorating.

Moving in right at the busiest part of my year (the holiday crush as I like to call it), also meant I just needed a workable studio space as fast as possible. One of the first places to be unpacked, in fact, was my craft room, but since then it's become very obvious that the room I'm currently occupying is just not working.

I've got way, way too much stuff, to be quite frank, and working on projects, packing orders or taking product photos is an exercise in total inefficiency. A lot of it has to do with my tools -- my stack paper cutter takes up the entire usable worktable, so I'm often making on the floor, which is just not fun or functional. Throw in the fact that this room also acts as my writing studio, houses our family files, and works as gift wrapping station -- to name just a few other uses -- and the whole scheme we've got going is just not working. 

So, over the next few months, I will be moving my craft room into our finished basement, currently being under-utilized as a very nice storage closet. And my current craft room will become an office and playroom combo -- a place where I can write and blog during the day with plenty of space for our daughter Maggie to be entertained and occupied. I'm really excited to have the time to remake these spaces the right way. 

The Office Before

Here's the official "before" photos of my current craft room and soon to be emptied office/playroom space. Heaven help me for putting these photos on the Pin-able internet.  

 Yeah, it's just not working for me, is it?

Offices needs

The new office will need to include: 

• A comfortable, efficient area for writing and blogging.
• Organization for bill paying and other un-fun administration tasks.
• Room for extra office supplies, gifts and gift wrapping items. 
• My product photography setup. (I still plan to use the room's natural light in my product photos, so I'll need to house the setup in this room.)
• A play space for my 1-year-old daughter, Margaret (and everything else to be toddler-friendly).

Budget

My budget for the office is teeny, tiny, barely even worth mentioning, except I will. I'll be begging, borrowing and rehabbing what I've got to the tune $100. It will mostly be used for things like spray paint and fabric. Luckily, (?) our basement is full of stuff right now, so I've got a lot of options to bring into this room.

What's staying

Because of my limited budget, I will be keeping and rehabbing the following items:

• The large, dark wood desk: The desk is my husband's and I love it. It has tons of history -- it belonged to a minister and he wrote his Sunday sermons on it every week. It's a great writing desk and it will mostly stay as-is, though I'm hoping to upgrade the drawer pulls somehow. 
• The 2-drawer file cabinet: Functional but a super ugly beige color. Needs some major love.
• The white shelves: Just your basic white shelves, but they are in great shape. Time will tell if these need to be reworked to fit the new room. 
• The peach walls. We originally were going to paint Maggie's room peach, but ended up painting this room instead. I need a color scheme that tones down the peach but still feels fun and bright.

Next steps

The first step will be to set up a temporary work station in the basement while I work on cleaning out these rooms.This is going to be a slow-paced project and I'll still need to be working as it moves along. We'll also be planning a garage sale for the extra stuff that will need to go to turn these, ahem, disaster areas, into happy, uncluttered rooms. Just typing that all out feels like a lot of work. Whew. Guess I should get started!

The Craftsman Hand Printer

The Craftsman Hand Printer dates from the 1930s, but according to the dates stamped inside my box, this saw action in 1954. Inside is a set of letter and character stamps, printing block and an unrelated, but super cool vintage ruler. My set also included a red, graphic stamp pad, which has been sacrificed to my box of photo styling props. I am unsure if the bag of smaller letter stamps originated with this set as the other photos of the printer online do not include them. My larger letters are not complete, so using this set as stamps is always a fun challenge to put together actual words. 

Best of all, my set includes some sample printing by a Mr. Paul Flesner. Mr. Flesner must have been hoping to use the set to print his own business cards. It appears Mr. Flesner had a freight shipping company out of Valparaiso, Indiana in the 1950s. I am not sure if he really got to use the kit as he intended. Pages are still left on his sample pads -- perhaps he wasn't happy with the quality of this DIY printing set?

Postcards and Graph Paper Packaging

One of the best parts of gift giving is crafting the packaging. I love using vintage supplies to create a one-of-a-kind package. Here's a few quick ideas.

Materials: Vintage postcard of Como Park in St. Paul; neon green game piece letters; kraft paper box

Materials used: Vintage children's graph paper; manila shipping tag; vintage card

XYZ Mini Album: The Ebb and Flow

I've been working to organize my paper stash -- no small feat -- and the task has uncovered some old work. One of my recent finds was this mini album. Inside are some of my very favorite scraps from that time. 

Looking back through older journals, you can see how my stash has changed over time. Here's when I used wallpaper, here's when I included maps. Here's a pattern that I hope to come across again. Here's something I will never see again. 

Part of my making process is to let things go. To let paper ebb and flow in and out of my life and trust that it will be there when I'm looking. My materials are transient. It's an act of faith, really. 

St. Paul Craftstravaganza Sneak Peak

The 2013 St. Paul Craftstravaganza is this Saturday, May 11, at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds. Phantom Limb will be selling handmade books and paper cut cards and art in booth #6, directly in front of the west entrance of the Progress Center. 

Here's a sneak peek at some of the work I'll have on hand. 

"Meet me at the lake" Paper Cut Art

"You're the Minneapple of my Eye" Paper Cut Art

Neon Library Card Notebooks

Upcycled Journals

More about Craftstravaganza on their site. I hope to see you there!

Grand Opening Celebration: Win a $25 Etsy Gift Card

I'm super excited to announce the Grand Opening of Phantom Limb's new shop!

When I started selling online in 2005, I couldn't imagine the growth my little biz would see. Over the past few years, it's become very apparent that my own shop was badly needed to handle the many ways I get orders, including custom and wholesale sales. In early 2012, I gave birth to our daughter and, like a lot of things, the plan for this site was temporarily put on hold.

So after literally ruminating on this site for two years, I couldn't be more excited to officially open this week! While my Etsy shop will remain live, the Phantom Limb shop will be my main shop -- first to get new products and the only place to get occasional discounts.

On my blog, I'll be posting about adventures in making books and cut paper goods. I'll also be talking to fellow artists and posting some of the my favorite finds. Because my updates will be infrequent for now, the best way to stay-up-to date with the blog is to follow in an RSS reader. Here's the rss feed and Bloglovin' if you are game. 

I hope you enjoy checking out the new site! 

Win a $25 Etsy GIft Card

To thank the many customers that have helped make this new shop a necessity, I'm giving away a $25 Etsy Gift Card. You can spend it in any Etsy shop that accepts the Etsy gift cards -- that's millions of options! (Including the Phantom Limb Etsy shop). Or give the card to mom for Mother's Day. She'd love that! 

Enter to win in the Rafflecopter form below. The contest officially opens May 1 and closes on May 15, 2013. You can earn extra entries each day by Tweeting about the giveaway. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And hey, don't forget to check out the new shop. You can enjoy free shipping through May 15, too. Use code "NEWSITE" at checkout. (U.S. orders only.)

Phantom Limb in Uppercase Magazine

I'm thrilled to have my Hello Envelope and Card Set in the latest issue of Uppercase Magazine. The issue is dedicated to stationery and is packed full of inspiration and business advice. Uppercase is one of the best design magazines out right now and having my work inside was on my business bucket list. Thank you to Discover Paper for making this happen!

Vintage Spell and Play Workbook

This vintage workbook was a recent thrift shop find. The font and colors inside are just perfect. 

Of course, it was just begging to be turned into books. 

Inside an Artist Journal

My artist journals are made from a variety of new and vintage dead stock paper. Inside each book, you'll find pages from vintage books, ledgers, graph notebooks, school dittos, stationery, office supplies, coloring books -- and tons of other pretty paper. Every page is a different pattern, and they all coordinate together into a one of a kind notebook.

Often customers will tell me that they don't want to write in my journals because they see them as "too special." I always tell them that I've been making these journals for almost a decade now and they are really designed to be used. "I'll make more!" is often what I'll say. But really, the paper inside is getting another chance to be used before it is recycled -- and that's a pretty nice feeling, too. 

You can use them as journals -- filled with your thoughts, photos and artwork. I've had customers use them as guest books, memory books and dream journals. Or you can use them as everyday journals -- I put my grocery lists and to-dos in these journals and it's makes these mundane tasks way more fun.

Here's a peek inside a typical Phantom Limb journal. 

Hello, there.

After many years on Etsy, I'm finally making the jump to a site of my own. My Etsy shop will remain open, but this new site will hopefully be the forever home of Phantom Limb. 

On this blog, I'll be posting the stuff that inspires me and tons of paper love. You'll also get a peek at the Phantom Limb studio and how I work. 

I'm so excited to finally have a full web presence. Welcome!