5 Days to An Organized Crafty Stash–Craft Room Tour!

Well Hello!!

It’s me again!  And just to warn you, this will be a heavy photo blog post!!  I’ll try to keep the chitter chatter to a minimum.  So you made it to Day 5 of the My Favorite Things 5 Days to An Organized Crafty Stash series.  Good for you!!  I hope you’ve been inspired to get your craft supplies organized and under control after seeing all of the different ideas shown by the My Favorite Things Team!  Today, we’re sharing Craft Room Tour photos!!  Are you ready?!!  Okay then – let’s go!

So this is my craft room.  It’s my happy place.  The center of the room features a Pottery Barn Craft Table that I scored for a fraction of the cost at a local consignment store.  I about wet my pants when I saw it as it had been on my wish list for quite a while.  Those cute chairs?  My amazing bestie found those for me at an estate sale (for $5 each!) and painted them and recovered the seat cushions.  Are they not so awesome?!!  She’s the best, I tell ya!  I picked up the green and aqua totes in each of the cubbies at Lowe’s and they contain lots of different stuff – embossing powders, glitter, enamel dots, baker’s twine, extra adhesive, clear acrylic blocks, organizational supplies, and washi tape, among other things.  Each cubbie contains a different supply, and there are cubbies on both sides of the desk.  The wrap around desk on the left side of the room is a conglomeration of Ikea furniture.  The drawers and cupboards are full to the brim with crafty goodies – colored pencils, ribbon, punches, and planner supplies, just to name a few.

Here’s a closer look at the wrap around desk.  You can also see that I have a Raskog cart full of my 6 x 6 paper pads, sprays, adhesive and ink pads that I use every day.  My printer is there for easy access and my television keeps me company while I’m crafting.

I shared this photo yesterday showing the right side of the room.  My Expedit shelf contains all of my card stock as well as my non-MFT stamps and some dies (stored in the large double Fridge Binz).  My laser printer is just beyond the bookshelf and to the left of that is my photo station.

I think I shared this photo yesterday, too.  Just another view of the Expedit shelf and another Raskog cart that contains all of my water coloring supplies.

This is a view into the closet of my craft room.  Straight ahead is my die cutting station.  The top left drawer contains all of my extra plates and platforms.  The third drawer down is my scrap bin (a big fat mess!), and the drawer next to that is where I store all of my cards – those are a mess, too!  I really need to get a handle on those, too – some day.  The rest of the drawers are full of miscellaneous stuff that I hardly ever pay attention to.  Must be time to do a purge again.

This is the left side of the closet, which contains all of my ink pads sorted by brand in Snapware containers.  The bottom shelf holds the Art Bin containers the house my non-MFT dies – sorted by manufacturer, and then alphabetically.  The top shelf contains more miscellaneous stuff – yes, it’s definitely time for a purge.

This is the right side of the closet – you can see that my reinkers are stored to the left, followed by my distress ink and supplies, my Copic Markers (stored in an awesome acrylic tote that I got at the Container Store), and my stencil and embossing paste supplies.

That’s it!!  It’s my happy place, to say the very least.  I love spending time in here, and especially love when friends come by to craft with me!  I’ve had a ton of laughs in that room – and I feel very blessed to have a space all to myself.  The room doubles as a guest bedroom for one of our grandkids when they’re in town.  But other than that, the room is all mine!  LOL

I hope you’ve enjoyed the view into my happy place.  Please click on through to the My Favorite Things Blog to be linked up to the other girls’ craft spaces, as I’m sure you’re going to be amazed.  Those girls are way more organized than I am, that’s for sure!!  Thanks so much for stopping by!  I’ll be back in just a bit to share a project for Avery Elle!

5 Days to An Organized Crafty Stash–Card Stock Storage!

I’m back with Day 4 of the My Favorite Things 5 Days to An Organized Crafty Stash!!  Today we’re looking at ideas for storing card stock!!

Hi, my name is Karolyn and I’m a card stock addict.  One of my biggest crafty fears is that I’ll run out of my favorite card stock colors!  So I hoard it – in ridiculous amounts!!  But I can guarantee that I won’t run out!!  LOL  It’s kind of crazy, really . . . I have enough card stock for three third world countries.  I store it on its side in magazine files, and the filled files are stored in my Expedit shelf – 8 of the 12 cubbies contain cardstock.  (Yikes!)  I leave my MFT Card Stock in the plastic bags that they come in, and I keep the colors in rainbow order.  It just makes me happy.

Look at that pretty rainbow!!  If that doesn’t cheer you up, then I don’t know what will!!  I feel like I have a pretty good grip on my card stock stash in terms of organization.  But, in the interest of keeping things real, I’m not 100% “together” in all areas of my craft room.  Behold the area of my crafty life that still needs a lot of work.

Yes, friends . . . this is my scrap bin.  It’s embarassing, but I like to keep it real here on my blog.  So now you all know – I’m far from perfect!!  LOL  If I were to actually deal with this mess, it would probably take me days and days to sort it all out!  And then what would I do with it?!!  I have no idea!!  I’m embarassed to admit that this drawer is so full right now, I can barely close it.  It’s close to the stage where I’m tempted to just dump it all in the trash and start over!!  Is that bad?!!

Here’s a pic of the scrap bin inside my craft room closet.  You can see that the size of the scrap drawer is pretty big in comparison to the other drawers.  Yes, friends – it’s ridiculous.  And I’m aware that it’s ridiculous and shameful.  But I can say that going through this organizational exercise has inspired me to deal with this mess and figure something out that will be much more practical and not so wasteful going forward.  If you have any ideas on how I can accomplish this, please let me know!!

Okay, so now it’d make me so incredibly happy if you’d click on through to the My Favorite Things Design Blog to be linked to some additional ideas from my teammates for storing card stock.  No doubt they’ll inspire you to tackle your crafty stash in ways you never thought of!

That’s it for me today, friends!!  I’m off to get a pedicure and have lunch with my sister.  I hope you have a great day today!  Please come back tomorrow for the final installment of the 5 Days to an Organized Crafty Stash!!  It’s a super fun finale that you don’t want to miss!!!!

5 Days to An Organized Crafty Stash–Die Storage!!

Hello again!

It’s Day 3 of the My Favorite Things 5 Days to An Organized Crafty Stash promotion!  Today we’re featuring die storage.  Again, I don’t have a lot to offer in terms of new ideas.  I store most of my dies in these smaller clear pockets.  I shared this photo yesterday as an example of how I store any coordinating dies with the stamp sets.

I also store any other small die sets in these same pockets.  For the larger die sets, such as the Blueprints or the larger STAX die sets, I store them in the large stamp pockets on the magnet sheets that they arrive with.  In both cases, I label the pockets using my Brother Label Maker.  And I stabilize the pockets with white card stock.

I sort the dies by subject (alphabets, images, borders, mats and STAX, etc.) and then sort them alphabetically within each category.

I use the same DVD Dividers that I referenced yesterday to sort the dies by subject.  And all of my MFT Stamps and Dies are stored together in a large Fridge Binz.  I got all of these storage ideas from Jennifer McGuire – she is my organizational hero!!

Please click on through to the My Favorite Things Design Blog for more die storage ideas from my teammates.  I know those ladies will have some awesome ideas to share with you!

That’s it for me today – I’m headed to lunch with my bestie and then back to work to get some deadlines caught up!  Thanks so much for stopping by – it’s so special to me that you spend part of your day here with me.  Have a great day!

5 Days to An Organized Crafty Stash–Stamp Storage!

Hello!!

I’m back again today with another installment of the My Favorite Things 5 Days to An Organized Crafty Stash!!  Today features ideas for storing your stamps!!  I don’t think I have anything new to offer in the stamp storage arena.  I pretty much do the exact same thing that Jennifer McGuire does with her stamps.  Here are a few photos of how I store my My Favorite Things Stamps.

I like to keep my design team products close at hand and all together so that I don’t have to look too far when I’m creating a design.  I keep all of my MFT stamps and dies in the double Fridge Binz (similar to the ones Jennifer McGuire uses).  I store my MFT background stamps and stencils in a Fridge Bin that’s a bit wider because it suits the 6 x 6 background stamps and stencils better.  You can see that I use the DVD dividers to keep stamp sections separated.  Here’s another close up of what I’m talking about.

I store my 4 x 6 stamp sets in clear pockets similar to THESE. I use a trimmed piece of white cardstock to stabilize the pocket, and store any coordinating dies in the same pocket as the stamps.  I label all stamp pockets with my Brother Label Maker.  I store my larger MFT stamp sets in 6 x 9 ziploc bags that I purchased on Amazon.  Again, I stabilize the pocket with trimmed white cardstock, and I trim off the top zipper with scissors for easier in and out access.

Here’s an example of what my stamps look like after I’ve worked my organizational magic.  And here’s what the back of the package looks like – with the coordinating dies stored in the back.

And here’s a quick photo of my Brother Label Maker, the Stamp Pockets and Die Pockets that I use, as well as a stack of the DVD Dividers.

So, there you have it!!  Pretty simple and straight forward!!  Certainly nothing earth shattering, but doing this makes my life so incredibly stress free as it relates to my crafty stash!  I hope you’ll click on through to the My Favorite Things Design Blog to be linked to some additional stamp storage ideas from my MFT teammates!!

Thanks for stopping by today!  I hope you’ll come back tomorrow for more storage ideas!!  Fun stuff, I tell ya!!

5 Days to An Organized Crafty Stash–Ink Storage!!

Hola friends!!!

I have a bit of a different post to share with you all today!  My Favorite Things is doing a super fun promotion this week featuring craft stash storage and organization ideas to help all of us get our stuff under control.  I don’t know about you all, but I can’t create when my stuff isn’t organized.  My mojo gets sucked right outta me if I have stamps and dies that need to be organized.  So I think this week’s promotion is going to help all of us!!  Today’s feature is focusing on ink Storage.

Okay, so you all know that we are snowbirds, right?!!  We travel back and forth between Washington and Arizona twice a year.  And that means that my crafty supplies need to be somewhat portable.  In many cases, I have duplicate supplies in both locations.  But my My Favorite Things inks are something that I don’t have duplicates of – yet.  And let me just say that I am an ink “whore”!  I love ink!!  And I especially love the MFT inks!!  I have all of the Hybrid inks, and most of the Premium Dye Inks, and a few of the Pigment inks.  The above picture shows how I store my inks.  I store them in storage containers similar to THIS because I can stack them on top of each other, and they have a handle for portability.  You can see that I label them with my Brother Label Maker to remind myself what goes and what stays.  It’s a science, people.  I keep all of my inks in the closet in my craft room.

I also have a color chart for each type of ink that I store inside each box.  Each color is stamped onto the chart.  I try to keep the stacks of inks sorted by color variety (reds, oranges, yellows, etc.) but they don’t always stay that way for very long.  I try, but when I’m in the middle of creating, I’m not always the best at keeping things organized.  But everything has a place, so it all eventually goes back into its place!

I also have the reinkers for all of my inks.  I keep them sorted by ink type – dye and hybrid in one, pigment in another.  The containers are just clear boxes that I picked up at Michael’s.  You can see that I transport these back and forth, so again portability is paramount.

These ideas work for me and my situation.  Portability is generally what drives my storage choices.  I’m blessed to have two really great spaces to create in, and keeping both of them organized just makes me happy.  I hope you’ll click on through to the My Favorite Things Design Blog to be linked up to some other really awesome ink storage ideas from my sweet teammates!!  No doubt you’ll be inspired to get yourself organized for  the new year!!  And because the peeps at MFT are so incredibly generous, I suspect there will be some type of give away over there – it’s worth clicking through for that, right?!!

Thanks for stopping by today!  I’ll be back soon to share another crafty post with you!  Until then, thanks so much for stopping by – I sure do appreciate it!!