Monday, August 13, 2012

My Craft Space, Part Two

Shall we continue the tour of my craft space?

Certainly. Here's the right side of the space.


The baker's rack, which has served me well for eight years, houses a bunch of stuff. Across the top are jars of ribbon. Decorative, aren't they? Especially since I hardly ever use ribbon anymore.


Below the ribbon shelf are the green bins that house my Papertrey sets. I'm going to re-do the old tabs because the pink really stands out unattractively now in the new storage, but one thing at a time. These bins already look a little different because I purged about seven or eight sets to sell. That leaves more room for new sets. Yay!


On the bottom of the rack are four three-drawer 12x12 storage units. These hold a variety of tools, templates, envelopes, office supplies, pens (scrapbooking, mostly), spool ribbon, fabric, and fabric accessories.



The big, black bookshelf is new to my crafting space. I got rid of a LOT of books to free this up for crafting. The white photo boxes ($2 each at Michael's on sale) now house most of my wood-mounted stamps and Hero Arts clear sets, all of which used to be kept in four large plastic drawer units. I didn't like the mismatched drawer units, plus the stamps were exposed to light through the plastic, which may or may not have been good for them. The boxes protect the stamps from sunlight and are clearly labeled. Since they aren't stacked more than two high, it's easy to pull out what I need without a struggle.



The two light-green photo boxes hold cards that I've made to use (one box for Christmas, the other for everything else in my stash), and the blue box holds cards people have sent to me that have been retired from the cork board.

The big green basket holds a variety of interesting things that may or may not one day be used on cards, such as an out-of-date road atlas, some muslin I painted with shimmering paints, and die cuts friends have sent. There's another big green basket on top of the bookshelf to hold larger projects (such as teacher gifts at Christmas) when needed. I like using baskets to store projects in progress. It's just so tidy.

The binders used to house my stamp inventory, but that has become laughably out-of-date. Not sure if I'll ever bring it up to speed, so those binders will likely be repurposed. Obviously, the bottom shelves house craft books, magazines, catalogs, and notebooks.

 

Beside the bookshelf is another cork board (a girl can't have too many of these). It contains a Chinese glue brush for bookbinding (decorative), a colander for cleaning clear stamps (which doesn't fit anywhere else), a big metal ruler for cutting large sheets of paper or mat board, and some lovely things friends have sent.

The strip of paper across the bottom right is from my youngest son when he was in preschool. His teacher asked what he knew about dragons. "The dragon eats the princess," he replied.




Finally, here are two more plastic drawer units. The one on the left holds Christmas stamps and large alphabet sets. The one on the right is completely empty and will likely move to storage soon. Because there is so much light in this area, I cut some card stock to slide in front of the stamps to protect them a bit.

The small green baskets hold a variety of smaller projects, as well as finished cards that need to be put away/mailed to OWH/sent to someone.



If we take a look at the whole space again, you can see how the dominant colors are white (curtains, furniture, photo boxes, plastic drawer units), black (bookshelf, chair, picture frames), and splashes of happy green. The simplicity of the color scheme keeps the general effect of the space unified and clean...at least when it's all tidy!



The advantage to having such organized storage is that I can find everything AND I can put it all away quickly and easily when needed. Typically, I make a big ol' mess when working, but before starting a new card or project, I clean everything up. Order keeps the cleaning quick and easy, leaving more time for playing!

And there you have it. My craft space. Hopefully, you've seen an idea or two that will help you with your own organizational conundrums.

24 comments:

  1. It is a lovely organised work room I am so envious!

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  2. Thanks. This was timely and interesting for me. I wondered how much storage you had. As I sort through what to keep and how to keep it, I will keep your ideas in mind. Love the color scheme!

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  3. Joan, keep in mind, this is only what I have OUT. There are lots more supplies in storage. As I go through all that in the next few weeks, I'll decide what to do with all of it. Most of it is scrapbooking and general craft related, not stamping. But I've got three boxes of purged stuff to sell on the blog in a month or two.

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  4. I craft at my dining table ... I have workroom envy.

    I like your black and white colour scheme, with my favourite colour for the splashes.

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  5. Definately jealous!! Although I made a space in the loft, I keep bringing stuff down to the dining room.

    Wonderful craftroom!

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  6. Nice and tidy...just as I imagined! I love it!!!

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  7. I'm envious! So organized. And lots of bins and such is great. How do you organize your PTI sets? I have a drawer where I keep mine alphabetized.

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  8. Hi Susan! Great space! I was inspired by one of your previous posts to group my cardstock and embellishments by colour and my stamps by subject. It works really well for me (although others are horrified that I split up my stamp sets!!)TFS!

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  9. You have a wonderful room. My organizational skills are totally lacking...

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  10. Thanks for completing the tour of your wonderfully organized craft space. There are lots of great ideas to be garnered from your space, but I must say the green boxes and baskets had me humming a happy tune!

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  11. Susan, your space is just wonderful! Not only is it beautiful --- I love the lime accent pieces! --- but so practical. I'm so glad to see how you do things, and your reasons for doing them. I've picked up many hints from you today and yesterday, and I thank you so much! You've improved my craft life! Thanks for taking us through your special place.

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  12. You inspire me. Think cleaning up and organizing is my fall project!

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  13. Just WOW, Susan. Your last 3 blogs have been so inspiring and interesting. Thank you so much! There's going to be a run on those green baskets! Love green and white. Hugs to you.

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  14. Thanks so much for sharing! It makes me feel like I am on the right track... I just need to find my more ruthless streak with some things! Beautiful coordination just as I expected from you.

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  15. Can you come and do mine LOL! Great work - looks fabulous :)

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  16. Looks like a crafting wonderland to me! Jo x

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  17. Oh Susan, this looks awesome! I am still in the process and seems to be taking a lot longer than I though it would. Great organization and Really love the color scheme~Hugs Deanna

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  18. Could you explain the the colander for cleaning stamps, have not heard of that before. Love your space!

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  19. Tammy, the colander is for clear stamps that occasionally need to be washed in soapy water to restore their stickiness. So many of them are so small that using a colander keeps them from going down the drain. I prefer a dedicated craft colander to prevent food contamination by unsafe inks. I started in bookbinding, where the instructions all emphasize using dedicated supplies for mixing wheat paste...not the stuff you'll use in the kitchen.

    Hope that clarifies things!

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  20. Looks wonderful! One day I'll be this organised. I'm curious about how you use the colander to clean clear stamps?

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  21. This is so timely! Our SU distributor is organizing a "rummage sale" just for stamping stuff. I have already sorted through books, mags, and paper to get rid of. After seeing your stamp boxes, I now know I need to organize my stamps into smaller categories. For example, I have a box that says Nature, but it has birds, flowers, trees, etc. One big box with 5 categories doesn't work -- especially when I have 5 big boxes like that. Smaller is better! Thanks for sharing. The green pops are my very favorite.

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  22. Thanks for all the suggestions. I need to purge everything - stamps, paper, tools, etc. Over the past 20 years I ave gathered so much "stuff". I keep thinking I might need it sometime and can't seem to get it out of the room. I need a mantra to use. :<)

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  23. I have very few acrylic stamps--nearly everything is woodblock. I like to be able to see them, not have them stacked up in boxes. That's my storage challenge. I broke them out of sets and sorted by subject and how I use them. I keep most of them on wire shelves in a closet, so I can open the doors and see them all. The system works for me but it's not an efficient use of storage space because in order to SEE all the stamps, I can't have them stacked on top of each other and I need a lot of space between the shelves. This is very neat and attractive.

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  24. Many thanks for giving your readers a quick but fun tour in your craft room! Indeed, that bookshelf can help tidy up your area and at the same time maximise space in your work area!

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Thank you so much for taking time to comment!