My Craft Space Revealed!

First of all HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

I waited until this morning to take photos of my room using natural light and crazy as it is it's sunny here *falls on floor* it's hardly ever sunny here!!!

This will be a long post of photos and explanations. Please feel free to ask questions and I'd be happy to answer them. And just so you know this is 5+ years in the making. I didn't acquire this overnight. I used to be a SU! demo and used to invest all my savings back into my business. As you can imagine over time my one little square foot took over a room. Although I am no longer a SU! demo, I have reinvested the $ from selling my stuff back into maintream items. Now don't get me wrong, I still respect SU! 100%--they have great product--and I even order from them from time to time, I just ventured out of the box so to speak. In addition, because we move quite a bit I have to make sure that I don't have too much stuff *lol* --just don't let hubby see this post.

*MY CRAFT SPACE*

This is where the magic begins. In addition to what you see here, I often include a foldable table behind my chair so that I am surrounded by space. Although my desk takes up a corner in my room I seem to take it over in minutes and need more space. This desk also doubles as my online school teaching desk (of course my couch does that job too!) so I have a laptop that I can store away when I need to craft.



A close up of my desk! Clock has to be handy because I loose hours here...1 turns into 3! Not sure how that happens. Also, lots of pics of my kids and DH to keep me focused. I just love having my memo board close by. I hang printouts of challenges and layouts for quick reference.



I do have another corner in this room. It's my "classroom" space. A bunch of shelves with books, manipulatives, art supplies etc. The kids have a little table here too. My daughter has her own stamp supplies (all my PTI sets) and she stamps along with mum quite often. I also have my photo tent and lights set up permantently too (but of course I didn't take a photo of it).
My room is in the basement of my house. I don't have carpet so that if I drop glitter it just doesn't matter! *lol* I have a little floor carpet to add warmth to the room and a place for the kids to sit and play with toys--especially when they were younger. I have a mini portable fire place to keep me warm too.



*ORGANIZATION*

This is new to my desk this year. It was inspired by the ever incredible genious Michelle Wooderson. I have also seen Pine using a themed collection of goodies too. I am preparing Valentine's cards for my blog posts in the next few weeks. I can already see I have a few more things to add to this collection so far. I will begin putting my Easter supplies together in 2 weeks time.



My absolute GO TOOLS--my scor-pal and my paper trimmer. Even though I don't include it in my tool list I use these items EVERY day for EVERY project.

Also, you'll notice the bins under my desk. The top bin has patterned paper scraps. The remaining bins (which have yet to be labeled) are papers by company. It's a good way for me to keep track of what paper I am using especially for publication calls (because they require an accurate list of the supplies used). After 5 years of crafting, one tends to get a collection of things, especially paper. My bins are as follows:
1) PTI (*lOvE it--it's thick, works well with Copic markers, acts as a fabulous cardbase),
2) Core-dinations Cardstock (great texture, sands well, love that different colours when tearing, comes in LOTS of colours)
3) Prism (again--neat texture--different from co-ordinations, good to use for layering)



I just put up these mini shelves from Ikea (bought them while I was there this summer--took me this long to get them up--thank for DH who helped me!). The top shelf are my chalks. The second shelf has different inks. And below that you will see the Pet Shop my daughter insists I keep with me at all times as well as my message board.



I like to have my stamps handy. I keep all my PTI sets in the shelf on my desk. They are all labeled in alphabetical order for quick retrieval. You'll also notice the clip it up is also next to my desk and houses the majority of my CHF, Verve, Bellas, MFT, Crafty Secrets stamps. On my desk you'll also see some holders for my scissors, pens etc. A lot of the tools I use frequently.



I have had my clip it up for close to a year and a half and must say it is one of THE best investments I have. In fact, I may end up getting another one in the future.



All the baskets on my desk are home to all sorts of goodies. I keep my acrylic blocks handy for quick access. The smaller ones are burried under the big ones *lol* and let me tell you it does pay to have the right size block!



Back in my SU! days, my FIL built me this beauty. And since I traded in my SU! stamp pads I needed to find a way to showcase the colours of my stamp pads and keep them organized. Ranger provides a variety of inks and of course I have the dye inks, the distress inks and the pigment inks. Hey--they all serve a different purpose *blushes* My ink caddy is home to my dye inks. I love that it turns so easily.



All my cardstock is categorized by company and patterned paper by line/company. Some of these crop hopper containers have yet to be labeled. And for those of you who are horrified to see my scrapbooks on the bottom shelf, I will be moving them to higher ground some time today *grins*
You'll also notice some card holders from SU!--I store many of my cards in there, including cards I post online, cards that have been accepted for pub (and returned to me) and cards I create for others. Each box serves a purpose. I also have two boxes on the bottom shelf to store ribbon. Ummmm...I LOVE ribbon and while I am no Jody Morrow, I have enough to last me a lifetime. I purchased THIS awesome ribbon organizer from Taylored Expressions. Now all I have to do is find some extra time to sit and place the ribbon through the ribbon tags. That might require a night in front of the TV to help the time go by!



I store all my background stamps in this container for quick access.



The new LOVE of my craft room--my Making Memories embelishment center. Now I can store my paint dabbers, glitter, buttons, embossing powders, paint, embelishments, stickles, twinkling H20s and ribbon (my PTI ribbon). I have had my DREAM since my room was first unveiled and I look at it and dream up what comes next in my paper craft adventure--there is always something right because we DREAM and set goals. I'll talk about my new adventures in a future post.



As you can see I love containers and have even reused some of these MME glass containers to store other buttons.



I wanted to share a close up of the punches--which btw were mostly purchased through SU! but of course made by EK Success. You'll note that I hang them on the bars purchased from Ikea several years ago. They were the ones that came with the hanging containers (as you see below--it's a good place to store those hand punches, extra scissors etc).



I have several of these bins in my craft room and although they are not "pretty" they do a good job keeping my things organized. I have labeled them for quick access.



Gotta love the cuttlebug! I keep all my items close together and somewhat organized for convenience. You'll also notice the crop-a-dile and the fancy pink case!



I have a lot of these clear containers from Ikea (bought this summer). I store like items in each of them. The top one houses rhinestones etc as well as buttons, the bottom one houses Prima Flowers (you'll see more of those in a pic below)--hey a girl can't have enough of those BEAUTIFUL flowers--I am a self confessed addict! These boxes have yet to be labelled.



I have all sorts of Prima flowers and I have room to grow (those empty shelves look lonely right???)



I also have these little cloth boxes where I store my Wizard by Spellbinders (I use this tool a whole lot!), my alterable tins and other bits and pieces.




Chipboard, chipboard and more chipboard. Chipboard is fun but I find it difficult to store when publication comes to mind. When I use chipboard I want to know where I got it from. At this time I try and keep it by company but let me tell you it is hard!



I keep my Thickers (by American Crafts) together in this clear storage container from Ikea. It can be mounted to the wall but the reality we are moving soon so I didn't want to put too many holes in the wall *lol* I also have one for my rub ons too!



Mmmmmm Spellbinders. Gotta love that company and the genius behind this creation. I love all my embossing templates etc. they ROCK. My all time fav are nestabilities. Here are two ways I store them.



And here is how I keep the long nestabilities close by...you'll also note my Creative Memories oval cutters from LONG ago.



I have lots of magazine holders in my room (you'll notice a few here and there). I often keep some of my fav ones in this holder. I picked it up from Jysk a few years back. you'll also notice a magnetic board beside it where I store odds and ends and a scrapbook page that requires a little more attention--if I keep it up and walk past it a few times eventually the light bulb goes and I know how to finish it then I store it away. Can you tell I LOVE Paper Crafts magazine?? Also, you may notice wooden stamps in plastic containers. I have an assortment of stamps from A*Muse and CHF and I keep them together using the plastic boxes that the PTI stamps arrive in. It's a good way to recycle what I already have and a perfect way to store those stamps and see what is in each of the boxes.



Thanks for stopping by. Hope you liked my craft room tour. I can hardly wait to get it messy again :)

Alli