Craft Room Conquest!

I know, I know, this post is a day late, but yesterday turned out to be one of those days that got completely away from me. Not because we were super busy; just the opposite. We really didn’t do much at all, which was a nice change from the frenetic working weekends Bob and I have had all summer. And as I was laying there drifting to sleep, I realized I forgot to make this post.

But before I continue, I must give a HUGE Thank You and Shout Out to Catherine for motivating me to get this done! {HUGS}

So here is my organized craft room! No more ironing board, and the contents of those boxes have either been filed or, most likely, thrown in the trash.

I did a little reorganization of the tall shelf unit, moving my 12x12 papers to the other hutch. Right now, those green & black boxes hold my SU and non-SU ink pads, but Bob is making me a storage unit that will sit on the desk just under the window.

Now I can get to the drawers that hold my crochet supplies (which reminds me that I need to get to work on some long-overdue projects for some special card-making sisters!

Plus I can keep my IKEA tray with my current project pieces off the craft desk. Keeping everything on this tray makes it easy to move if I or someone else needs to use the entire desk.

Wow, a nice, clean work desk and even the computer corner has been tidied up. It hasn't looked like this in a long, long time! Even Bob was impressed.

This is first of my two most favorite things - I organized my cardstock drawer! The top drawer hold SU’s four color families, and the bottom drawer holds SU neutrals and non-SU cardstock.

Can you see the little box in the front? I ordered these great frosted plastic boxes from Oriental Trading and they are perfect for holding scrap cardstock pieces in the front of each color family. I also use them to hold my Nesties and up to 12 Cuttlebug embossing folders.

This is the second of my two most favorite things – these great little 2-drawer storage units on clearance at Mike’s, which I topped with a piece of leftover MDF. They hold double-sided adhesives, packs of brads, pearls, and assorted bling, and assorted tiny paper flowers, plus the top keeps other frequently used items at my fingertips but off my work surface. I’m going back today for 3 more!

My Copics are in the floral box, and all my punches are in the spinny thing under the desk. Bob has promised that we will put up the Bygel rails on the naked side wall this week to hold the punches, and I’m thinking of storing my Copics in the bins that work with the Bygel rails. IKEA, here I come!

Under my desk in the 3-drawer unit, I keep my Crop-a-Dile and sheets of pop-dots in the top drawer, my embossing powders and heat tool in the middle drawer, and the dies, embossing folders, and plates for my Cuttlebug in the bottom drawer. Those clear 12x12 cases hold alterables and non-card projects, and the top bin holds all the fabulous card kits I received from my swap!

Finally, my magazine storage area is much more organized and will soon be full of color. I’m decorating the fronts with floral and striped DP in my fav combo of pinks, greens, and white (you saw them on the IKEA tray) and I’ll add scalloped tags with the contents to the front of each. I'll post a pic of that when I get it done later this week.

WHEW! I must tell you that I actually took a vacation day on Friday to get this done! I just needed an entire day of uninterrupted work to sort through everything and organize it in a way that worked better for me. Before, every time I walked into that room, it was so depressing and shouted about the total lack of attention I’ve been able to give to my house over these last few months. Now that the room has been purged of useless stuff and reorganized in a more useable way, I am completely renewed and can already feel the creative juices flowing again!

I can’t wait to start working on Catherine’s somethin’ somethin’ for her space, and what’s really cool is that I’ll get to give it to her in person on Saturday when we meet up for a day of talking, eating, and shopping, of course! Thanks again, hun, for motivating me to stop complaining about my room and instead, taking control of it!

I’m always looking for creative ideas that you’ve found to help you organize your space, so please share your favorite suggestions in your comments! Thanks for stopping by and hope you have a great day!

Happy Creating!
Susan

Craft Room Catastrophe!

So, Catherine and I were chit-chatting on the phone the other night (can a 2-1/2 hour conversation be considered a chat?), and one topic we comiserated about was our unorganized craft spaces. And the other day I was lamenting in the Sisterhood that I suspect my mojo is lost somewhere beneath all the clutter, because it's been MIA for a while.


The next thing I know, Catherine challenges me to a craft room organization smackdown! To decline would hide my clutter secret from the world but could send my mojo farther into the dark abyss of self-doubt. To accept could bring me great shame but give my mojo hope and bring it back to the light of creativity. I must save my mojo . . . Catherine, I accept your challenge! Let the shame begin!

Warning: The pictures you are about to see may cause you to gasp in horror!


Clutter, clutter, EVERYWHERE . . . and an ironing board to boot!



I'm really not sure what's in all the boxes and bags to the left of my stamp storage hutch. And you can't help but notice the still-naked walls. DH has yet to put up my shelves and Bygel rails, so my punches are thrown into a plastic box on the tall narrow shelf unit.

OMGosh, this picture really makes me cringe!!

My dear friend Beth got me that cool spinny organization unit under my desk, and usually my adhesives, sponges, and various other things are neatly tucked into those compartments. But now it's just all wonkly and stuff is mish-mashed together in the bins. Or not.

Wait a minute -- these aren't mine.

Nor are these . . .

OR THESE!

What's that Lila? You say they belong to The Girl? Hmm, Stephanie has some explaining to do.

I'm not sure what's going on over here. I really wanted to organize all my card magazines, catalogs, and other resources. Oh, they're in those files; I just don't know what is where. And all this white is B-O-R-I-N-G! I *must* do something with those magazine holders.

And it seems that a clean surface just attracts stuff. Can someone please tell me where this Christmas ornament and green pail came from?

So there you have my catastrophic cluttered craft room. How did my room get this way and what happened to my vision of decorating in soft shabby chic style? Garage construction happened, that's what. *sigh*

Catherine and I have until next Sunday to get things back in order and post our pics on our blogs. So, what do we get for all this public humiliation and effort? Hopefully, well-organized craft spaces, my craft mojo rejuvenated (hers is just fine), and an altered organization somethin' from each other. Stay tuned!

Happy Creating!

Susan

A Lemming and A Naked Craft Room

I know, you're asking, "A lemming, as in the furry creature that blindly follows the lemming in front of him regardless of the consequences??" Not quite, but I am a Blog-lemming, which can lead me to dangerous places, like online stores with things that get added to my totally out of control wish list... ANYWAY, something happened in blogland, because some Sisterhood blogs that I thought I was following, I wasn't, and I just realized that this morning, and *sheesh* have I been missing out on a lot of posts!! So, sorry Michelle and Karen and Gael that I have been missing so much on your blogs! Hopefully, that will all be fixed in a jiffy!!

Below are a few pics of my totally undecorated and naked craft space (more on how I'm going to resolve that in a minute). To make a long story short, my DH walked into his Nascar room/our computer room one day and said, "Do you want me to make this into a craft room for you?" After I regained consciousness then took his temperature and validated his identity, we packed up all the Nascar stuff and got to work. I was considering built-in shelves and cabinets, but I want to be able to convert this back to a small bedroom if the need arises. The pics are small so this post won't be a mile long, but just click on 'em for a closer view. :-)

These are pics of that hutch thingy that my hubby brought home one day...way bigger than I imagined and not too bad after a couple coats of paint!! Behind the doors are all my big platters and bakeware and such that I don't use every day (because I have NO space in my small, old kitchen that I hope we resolve soon). Oh, and that is Lila, The Girl Cat, lounging in the picture. When I am in this room, she is almost always in here with me.

The lower shelves of the top section hold my stamp sets plus my ironing supplies, which will be hidden soon behind a curtain that I'll hang from that tension rod. The top shelf has lights, so I'm going to wind my ribbon around old-fashioned clothespins and store them in clear jars for a pop of color (got this idea somewhere on SCS). My paper lanterns will soon be lit, and you can see the pretty, frosted heart box that my Secret Sister Tanja sent me! I can't wait to alter it and have the perfect paper in mind! I also like showing off cards that I receive from my SCS Sisters!

Next to this is a narrow closet shelf I found at Lowes which fits perfectly between the hutch and my work desk. The shelves are adjustable so I can switch them up to suit my needs. The top half (in pic above) holds a box of embellies, my 6x6 and 12x12 DP, and some jars of buttons and such. The bottom half holds my punches and Cuttlebug, and I keep the embossing folders and Nesties in the green box and my envelopes and mailing supplies on the bottom. I keep all my cardstock in the filing cabinet under the desk in hanging folders--SU papers in the top (sorted by color family of course) and all other cardstock in the bottom. I need to get that thing painted white!!

Next is a pic of the U-shaped work desk that we made from MDF to fit the space (geez, look at the window glare; gotta get that blind up!). I'm really lucky to have a DH who is so handy!! He is going to build a shelf on the windowsill so The Furry Children can watch the birdies while I'm crafting. The things we do for them!! Overall, it's working out well for now and there's plenty of room for DH or DD to be at the computer when I'm working in my own little corner, in my own little chair.

I do my crafting on the left. I keep my embossing supplies, Prismacolors, Crop-a-Dile, acrylic stamp blocks, and other miscellaneous supplies in the drawers, and I store my paper trimmers on top of that, which keeps them handy but off the desktop. See that cute little altered tin with the Riley? That's from my Secret Sister Tanja as well!!

The computer corner is on the right and needs some major reconfiguring, maybe with some shelves and a paper lantern for more light (and hopefully with a new computer with a flat panel later this year!)

Lastly, to the right of the computer corner is where I keep all my craft magazines and catalogs. The top is part of the Closits system I ordered online from Walmart, and I'm going to spruce up the magazine holders with DP or fabric, or add fabric to the back behind the shelves.

The bottom is a dresser with 6 large and 3 small drawers that my dad made when my sisters were little before I was even a twinkle in his eyes LOL!! Over the years, it's been painted white, light blue, yellow, pink, mint, peach, blueberry, now back to white! I keep my ribbons as well as my yarn and crochet supplies in the drawers on the right, and computer paper, envelopes, and other desk supplies in the drawers on the left.

As far as taking care of the nakedness of the room, I've finally decided I'm going to decorate with a sophisticated cottage shabby chic feel, only without all the niknaks, because I despise dusting. I really like the warm, cozy feel this look has and I love how you can mix-and-match all kinds of patterns, like in THIS PICTURE at sewgraceful.net. The walls are a soft almond color, so any cottage shabby chic colors will work well. Now if I could only get rid of the carpet.

And you know what? I think I'm going to let DH know that he is going to buy me an early birthday present of this Making Memories embellishment center that I visit regularly every time I'm at Michael's. LOL I could really use it on the wall above my craft corner to hold my punches and glitters and jars of colorful embellies. And I think I'll buy the little spinny carousel thingy as a "to me, from me, love me" present for Valentine's Day!

I have some much-neglected housework to tend to this afternoon, then I will be back in my naked craft room working on some cards. Hope you're having fun making something today too!

Happy Creating!

Susan