My Craft Space

Hey, everyone!

You know how some people share their craft space with you and your jaw hits the floor and you aren't sure if you are in a brand new store or actually in someone's home? Well, that won't happen to you when you see these photos. LOL But, I am very excited about having my own place to play, again!

I used to have my own "scrapbook room" where my husband, mom and sister helped me paint, decorate, organize and make it my own. I loved it...lovely light yellow walls with a pretty border of sunflowers, picket fences and bird houses. But God blessed our family with another baby and he needed a room so the "scrapbook room" became the baby's room. Where do I put all this stuff? Good question...so I put a little bit in the living room, a lot in the kitchen, some in our room and some still in the baby's room! Definitely hindered my progress having it all spread out. So I decided to take advantage of some empty space in the basement.

I cleaned really well, dusted and swept and with my brother and my husband's help, moved some furniture down and with the help of my future sister-in-law started taking a lot of my stuff downstairs in hopes of organizing it and making it my own.

I thought I would share a few pictures with you. I have a long way to go and my husband is going to build me nice things downstairs with better lighting and even give me some heat!! Woohoo! That will be nice! I am excited because there is an area for my kids to play right beside me with their own toys and games and I can play with mine! LOL

Paul and I bought this big cabinet a few years ago at Wal-Mart. It was the actual display and on clearance and kinda not in the best condition so we got it a little cheaper... and this has really been a big help for me to get organized. It was in our kitchen and I took it over after the baby came, so my brother and husband hauled it downstairs and I was quick to start filling it up again!
This is the left cabinet door. The top shelf has a lot of my idea books, catalogs and things. It isn't everything but a great start to organizing those ideas! The second shelf is empty scrapbook albums that I need to get busy filling up! You have any of those kinds of projects? Yeah... And the bottom shelf is empty...FOR NOW! LOL
This is the right side of the cabinet. Those baskets on the top shelf have my images from sweet stampers who were kind enough to send them to me...various ones, some are Bellas, some are Bella Fellas, some are ones I haven't seen before, and then I also have some Sarah Kay images I got from a coloring page website which I love! Those are fun to color! There are also tags up there. This second shelf has my basket of ribbon sitting there. I have more, but not much. I love ribbon but why is it I never seem to have the right color when I want to use it on a card? Hmmm... The bottom shelf has a binder with some templates and instructions inside.
These shelves are great! The top shelf has some recycled jelly jars that I am using to hold some purple flowers I like using with my cards. The two-tiered plastic lazy susan is something I bought at Wal-Mart and it holds my glitter on the top rack which is in recycled candy containers and the lower part holds my buttons in baby food jars that I haven't finished embellishing yet. Each jar holds a different color of buttons. The next shelf down holds my adhesive. That is a lot of glue, huh? I have packing tape for when I send out my boxes...the post office workers know me well. I have lots and lots of Stickles and glitter glue. Then I have a basket of glue dots, pop dots, my Xyron machine, Wonder tape, floral tape, glue sticks, Duck adhesive....etc.This is the lower shelf that is just above the two drawers. I have my punches here. I have a lot of handheld punches in the little basket and my scissors, deco and straight edge go here, too. I store my brads, snaps, eyelets, and miscellaneous things in the tool box. My husband took me in the fishing aisle one day at Wal-Mart and told me I needed that for storage. He was right! I love that unit! It has a large opening in the front with 4 plastic containers that have tons of small compartments to hold everything in place. I also color-coordinated those items. The top has a lot of storage for various tools I use like a mini stapler, small hole punch, tape measure, gum eraser, sand paper, and just a lot of neat stuff!
These are the drawers. The bottom has various size albums in it. These are empty...some of them are from inventory I had when I was with a scrapbooking company a few years ago. The top drawer is for any donations I receive...especially for the American Cancer Society Relay For Life. I hope this drawer will stay empty after Saturday. I am taking my donations to the Holiday Village and any of these items that get purchased....100% of the proceeds will go the Lawrence County Relay For Life for 2009.

Here is more ribbon. This is secured with a large safety pin and then placed on a jump ring. I found a big old rusty nail hanging from one of the beams so I just decided it might work there. It kind of gets in the way sometimes but I can see what I have pretty easily. I saw this idea online somewhere but I have no idea where.
I store my paper in these containers. They are also color-coordinated and each color has it's own drawer for both the solid color as well as any patterned paper that would fall into that color category. I have used many different methods to store my paper and this is the one I always go back to so I have decided to leave it as is!
Do you see what I see? One of my most favorite tools...the Scor-Pal. I use it so much! This is my tool table! It's a LARGE table top (not sure what it is, came with the house) but I love it. My sister gave me the wooden paper towel holder at the top right in the picture but haven't decided what to do with it. I tried using it for ribbon but that didn't work out too well. I have a cutting board on the lower right hand side of the picture and below the table is a large shelf that is full of things for me to alter!

Here are more tools. I now can add the Cricut to this and my Bind-It-All machine. I love that machine!!! This large paper trimmer is a favorite of mine, too. I love using my Sizzix machine for alphabets mostly.

This isn't everything, of course, and I have lots and lots of stuff down there I haven't take photos of. I would rather take photos when the room is all fixed up, painted and looking good, but who knows when that will be, right? LOL However, I love it and I think it's a good START on organizing my items. I will share more photos later as I get more put away into their new homes. I hope you have enjoyed taking a peek into my craft space, even though it isn't quite done yet.

I'd love suggestions if you have any for me! Leave me a comment or e-mail me! Don't forget to stop by my booth Saturday at the Holiday Village and say hello. A few have already requested their coupons to redeem at my booth for a free gift. Do you want one? Let me know!

Hugs,