Category Archives: organization

Jul9

Work in Progress

Posted on July 9, 2014 by Heather

Work in Progress

My craft room is no more:

It looks so small and sad now. It won’t take long to turn it into a lovely little jewel box of a bedroom though.

And my new craft room?

Barren and colorless and cluttered with my husband’s desk and ugly, needs painting file cabinet.

Which color do you like?

If you can’t read the writing on the wall (ha!) the colors are ocean liner, indian ocean, mint majesty, and spring stream. Sorry for the bad lighting, but that’s what the room looks like with no lights on during the day. I wanted to get a good impression of how each of the colors worked with the available light.

My inspiration this time around?

This lovely dining room from Design Crisis:

I love the combination of bold color with neutrals and wood tones. Since that’s mostly what I have to work with, this is a good starting point for me.

If you have your own craft space, what color is it? If you don’t, what color would you paint one if you did?

Anyone have any pictures they want to share? I’d love to see where you all create! Link them up in the comments below!

Jun23

A Crazy Idea

Posted on June 23, 2014 by Heather

A Crazy Idea

As part of a class I am currently taking, the instructor asked us what our workspaces look like now, and what we would like our workspaces to be. My initial thought was that I am very happy with my workspace, with the possible exception of wanting it to be neater (I’m so not good at the whole putting away thing) and bigger, so I could host crops or classes at home easily.

And then, while going over the rest of the class homework late at night, while everyone in the house slept, an idea came to me, like a bolt out of the blue. What if I switched my bedroom and craft room?

Yep. I went there.

The next day, I asked my husband what he thought of my hare-brained idea. His response? “Well we certainly don’t need a bedroom that big.

Cue a happy dance!

So now I’m waiting for the end of the school year and then I’ll be making a mess of my house again. I’ve measured the current craft room and bedroom furniture, to make sure everything will fit. I’ve made a floor plan for both rooms so I can experiment with furniture arrangement without the heavy lifting. I’m making a list of the things I’ll need to buy in order for the switch to work, and planning the work flow.

I’m sort of excited.

Now, my greatest question is what color should I paint the new craft room? I love the blue I have currently, but the light is different in the other room, so it may not work as well. And, well, this is me and my love of color, do I really want to paint the room the same color?

Anyone have any suggestions? I’m not even sure which color family I want to use. I just know I don’t want white. White is boring.

Needless to say, this whole rearranging of rooms will interfere with blogging, but I’ll try to keep you entertained over the summer.

And I’ll definitely share pictures. I’m not afraid of owning up to the mess!

Jun17

Bringing the old out of retirement

Posted on June 17, 2014 by Heather

Bringing the old out of retirement

I have a problem. I used to buy lots of things to use as embellishments, and then never actually used them.

Extra wide wired ribbon? Have that. Seasonal stack of themed stickers from DCWV? Yep. Two sets of those. Halloween themed stickers and papers. Sure, how could I resist? Snaps and brads and eyelets in every color of the rainbow? Yes please!

In short, I have a lot of things, cluttering up my storage and my craft room.

What should I do with it all?

To start with, let’s make it easier to get at some of these items. All those little pieces of bling and brads and eyelets? Let’s put them at our finger tips.

One of the ways I look for things is by type: I look for washi tape or brads or wordfetti stickers, rather than something green, or something holiday related. Having similar sorts of things easily accessible in one place makes it more likely I’ll use a variety of them on a page.

I started out trying to use more embellishments by having a selection in my tool caddy. It quickly became clear that wasn’t that helpful, since I ran out of space and a lot of what wanted to use just didn’t fit.

Another way to use up items is to add a selection to a homemade kit. That has helped get more embellishments out of my stash and onto pages, but there is still so much more!

And then, I won this at a scrapbook crop:

Now it sits on my work table, filled with embellishments at my finger tips.

And some of these things are really old. Paper butterflies from the local stamp store before it closed. Eyelets from an eyelet setter kit back before the cropodile was introduced. Plastic slide frames that are probably older than my youngest, who’s nine. (Nine! How do these things happen?!)

So far, the ease of access has been helping me get these old items out of my stash. As I use things up, I plan on pulling in more old stash.

What are some things you have on hand that you could use to make older, forgotten product easier to access? Maybe an unused cupcake pan or small tool box would work for you. Don’t go out and buy anything. Look around for things you already have that you can re-purpose.

If all else fails, and I realize I am never going to use something I’ve had on hand for ages, there’s always the donation pile or the circular file. It’s hard, but sometimes you have to let things go.

Apr22

My Favorite Organizational Tools

Posted on April 22, 2014 by Heather

My Favorite Organizational Tools

Let’s talk stuff for a minute now–organizational stuff to be exact.

When it comes to organization, try to use things you already have before going out and buying more storage bins and baskets. Keep in mind also how you use things. Do you need things to be out in the open in order for you to use them, or will you remember you have something and prefer to have everything tucked away? These are very important things for you to think about before you go out and purchase anything, and before you start re-organizing your supplies.

That being said, these are some of the items that I use all the time, and you might like them as well.

In the closet:

The 12×12 paper is stored in cropper hopper vertical files with the fully open side facing out rather than upward. This makes it very easy to thumb thru and find a single sheet, rather than having to pull out various sections to find the paper you want to use. The 8.5×11 paper is in magazine holders that are laid on their side as well. Photo boxes are used as category drawers, and for a few still unsorted photos.

Next to the computer, the printer sits on a shelf made of plywood covered with handmade paper which is supported by seven wine holders. Seven of them fit perfectly across the width of two regular file cabinets. And being able to sort markers by color? Perfect!

Most of the rest of my supplies are stored in an Iris 6 drawer cart, an Iris scrapbooking cart, or an Iris cart with deep drawers, depending on the size of the object and how much of a particular type of item I have. Large bottles of paint and kid craft supplies go in the reclaimed and repainted locker, and most often used tools and supplies go in boxes and bins and baskets scrounged from the rest of the house.

And my go-to tools that I use on most every page? Stacked revolving bins on the corner of the desk keep them all corralled and handy.

Do you have any favorite organizational tools? Share them in the comments! If you’d like to see more organizational ideas on the blog you can find them here.

Jan28

Organizing Again

Posted on January 28, 2014 by Heather

Organizing Again

If there’s one thing that’s always true, it’s that I’m always looking for new and more efficient ways to organize my scrappy stuff. What I have works fairly well, but there’s always room for tweaking.

Let’s see what’s changed recently.

There are now two kitchen tables in my craft room. The one I had been using as my main workspace is now in the spot where my drafting table was, and the table that used to be in the dining room is now by the door. (A friend of mine gave me her antique, expandable, huge dining room table. I LOVE it! Thank you J!) This means I have even more level workspace, and more under table space for storage.

With the drafting table out of the room, I’ve got space for a couple more towers of drawers, which I am slowiy filling up with kits I’ve either purchased or created myself, or with supplies for classes I want to complete.

The marker storage is working great, and I now have my new Silhouette Portrait perched in front of them, where it’s easily accessible, able to be plugged into the computer, but not in the way of anything either.

I’ve got a new sorter, with my most commonly used alpha stickers in it, and my sewing machine and Cricut are easily accessible as well.

My son’s craft supplies are all right next to his workspace now, instead of on the opposite side of the room, which he appreciates. I’ve got to get him to do some pick up though, his desk is still a mess.

The stamping station is still working well, although sometimes I think I should combine stamps with embellishments. I’m still debating that, and trying to figure out how that would work.

The big news? I’ve added shelving to the second closet, so now, instead of one huge pile of stuff, I can get at everything without having to dig. I’ve shifted things around, so there’s a place for my business supplies, and all my fabric/sewing supplies are in one, still messy area.