Stamp storage (mini binders)

Hello blog friends!  This week was...shall we say..hectic at work, so instead of a fun project to share I thought I'd pop in an organization post, just so you don't think I've forgotten you.  I hope to get up to the craft room to spend a bit more time creating this weekend if it rains, but if it's nice I'll be outside enjoying the last weekend of summer.

This is a storage idea that I've been trying for almost a year now, and I really like it so I thought I'd share.  I don't have a ton of clear stamps- I mean, I have a lot, don't get me wrong, but not as many as I could have, so this storage seems to be just right for my medium sized stamp collection.   I also have a regular sized binder that I keep an inventory of all of my stamps by theme (I just stamped them onto paper that I labelled with themes like "Christmas, birthday, misc") so if I'm looking for something specific I know where to find it.

I went to Office Max and bought some of the 2 inch 8.5x5.5 binders and the page protectors that go in them.  I also already had one of the 1 inch ones, but it doesn't quite match.  It bothers my compulsive tendencies, but not enough to do anything about it.  

First I pulled stamps by the two companies that I have the most stamps from and gave each of them their own binder.  The third binder is stamps that I think of by manufacturer, but only have a few sets of each.  I made one binder for miscellaneous stamps that I use mainly for cardmaking, and one for miscellaneous stamps that I mainly use for scrapbooking.  The 1 inch binder I use for my alphabet stamps.

They're all labelled with stickers from Simple Stories.

Stamp binders, sitting on my shelf

A peek into my Jaded Blossom stamp binder

Die cut station

I'm back with an update on my craft room organization!  I've been having some trouble adjusting to my schedule with my new job, and it's been making it difficult for me to create anything.  I'm hoping that once the weekend's here the inspiration will strike.  Anyway, until then, here's what's new in my room. ;)

The number one thing that I wanted to change about my new craft room from the set up at my old house was that I wanted a die cut station.  I knew that I would use my Cricut and my Cameo both more often if they were out, plugged in, and set up rather than having to get them out, make room on the table, and set them up every time I needed them.  I spent the whole summer that we were in the apartment scouring Pinterest getting ideas.  I found ideas using tables, using desks, using old dressers.  All I knew was that I wanted it to be long enough to fit both machines and the laptop in the middle, and that it needed to be deep enough that I could cut without the cutting mats hitting the wall.

             
If you check out the pictures I previously posted, you'll see that I was using a long folding table with piles of things underneath.  That was only temporary, as the table had to be taken out and dragged downstairs every time we had a family gathering at our house.  Plus, it looked janky to have piles of things under a table.

So, my super awesome husband took me to Home Depot, and a few short hours later....Voila!

They're two kitchen cabinets that he hooked together...somehow.  I think it involved a power drill. I may have fallen asleep on the floor snuggling with Sophie.  He put on a white countertop and some nickel hardware I picked out.  We haven't put the white toe-kick on yet, or the white covers for the ends of the counter.  That's a project we're saving for some weekend when we are too busy to tackle any bigger house projects.  But it's functional, and it's organized, and it's just the right height that I don't have to bend over to use my cutting machines, so I'm happy!

Die storage

Hi friends!  I've got a pretty busy week this week, so since I won't have a ton of time for creating, I thought it would be a fun time to share some organization from my new craft room!

Today’s storage idea is one that I brewed on for quite awhile.  I generally use electronic die cutters for most of my crafts.  But there were some things that I just really wanted manual dies for, and I already had a Cuttlebug, so I just went and bought a set of the long plates and I use them for my dies.  But, how to store all these random dies?  There was such a variety  of sizes, that I couldn’t find a good way to keep them.   
 
I spent a lot of time on Pinterest looking through different ideas.  In the end, I bought a cheap 12x16 frame from Michaels and used a 50% off coupon- so it came out to $5.  On Amazon, they sell rolls of magnet in various sizes- I bought a 12x24 sheet.  I had to smash it under a heavy box for a few days, but it unrolled pretty well.  Then I adhered the magnet to the cardboard backer from the frame.  I had to cut off the excess magnet, which I’m sure I’ll end up using for some crafty thing down the road.  

I took the glass out of the frame, and just put the cardboard backing with the magnet back in.  That’s it!  Now my dies stick to the magnet, and since I don’t plan on getting too many more manual dies this is a great storage solution for me.  If you have a ton of dies this wouldn’t be as good of a solution.  For example, some day I would love to buy more Lawn Fawn stamps, and many of them have matching dies now.  If I did that, I think I would keep those dies on magnet sheets in with my stamps or something, because there would be too many for my board.  But for now, even my stamp-coordinating dies are on the board (I have a set of Paper Smooches dies that go with my clipboard stamps) because of the low quantity.

A peek into my craft room

Now that I've got my craft room up and functional, I thought I'd give you all a peek into my creative space.  There are still a few things that need to get done, which I'll explain as I go along, but it's working for me for the time being, and that's all that matters.  I really like organizing (I'm a bit compulsive like that) so I think I'll probably go into more detail on some things in later posts.

The first picture was taken from the hallway.  Two main things are left to be done in this picture- I still haven't touched the windows/window treatments (yeah, that rolling blind left behind by the old owner definitely fell on my head on Thursday night) and the table that is currently functioning as my cutting station along the back wall will be replaced by white cabinets.  That's why there's just stuff piled up under the table- those are the things that I had planned to put in the cabinet. 

The second picture was taken from the door of the laundry room, which is right off of the craft room.  The closet doors are closed because I only have shelves in one half.  We're still looking for white shelves that are the right size for the other half, so it's just full of stacked up boxes.  

And, the last picture is from the current closet area, where you can see the door to the laundry room. Sophie's bed is over there under a window.  She's pretty much claimed the craft room as her own.  Any time I can't find her, I just go look there and she's snoozing away.

So there it is!  Even though there are many things I want to work on in there, it's still a space that I'm really happy in.  Also, it smells better than any room in the house because I always keep an air freshener with some sort of fall type of scent plugged in. 

My craft room is painted!

Hello again from my new craft room! After a week of painting, touching up, and more painting, I thought I would share a quick pic of my room at the end of phase one. I love the color! It came out just how I wanted it.

Phase two, which won't happen for a couple of weeks, will be having the carpets cleaned and putting in shelving in the closet.

Phase three will be moving in and putting in the cupboards. After that we'll have to focus on other rooms for awhile.

At some point, my husband is going to put in hardwood floors for me, and I want to do something I saw on Pinterest to dress up the windows. Also, you can't tell from this picture, but there's a door from the upstairs bathroom into the craft room that we will be ripping out and closing up. Plenty of changes in the future!

Next week my husband goes back to work, so I should be better able to plan my days to include a little more crafting and a little less home renovations. ;)

My new craft room (the "Before" picture)

Hello everyone! I'm coming to you today amid our house painting extravaganza week. Sadly, not a lot of crafting is likely to get done this week. But I guess painting is creative in a way, right?

I thought I would just pop in and show you a picture of my new craft room the day we took possession of the house. This was taken standing in the laundry room doorway. Yeah, you read that right. The only entrance to the laundry room is through the craft room. I don't mind though, because that means I can decorate the laundry room to coordinate with my craft room, and when I get a sewing machine I can put it in the laundry room but still have it handy for crafting!

So here's my before shot. Right now, the room is pink.  It has pink blinds and scuff marks all over in the closet, and it kinda smells.  But I have big plans for it.

Sorry for the cruddy picture.  It was taken with my cell phone in very low light.

Onward and upward!

My temporary crafting space

Tara at Craftin Desert Divas is having a "Show your Craft Space" linky party.  We all know how crafters love to be inspired by each other's spaces, so I thought this was a genius idea!  Even though I'm in my temporary craft space and have to share it with our "home office" as well, I thought I'd show you all where I'll be creating for the summer.  Once we're moved into our future home, I will probably do a series on the craft room since I'll have it all to myself (and since one of our criteria in houses is a big crafting space, I know I'll have some fun organizing it).

This is the view of the room from the doorway.  I've left out the office furniture on the other side of the room.  You'll see I have a glass top table- I love it because when it gets adhesive all over it I can just Windex it clean- which was actually my dining room table when I was living the single life.  The other two chairs are hidden away in a closet because of my lack of space.  :)

This is the main wall of my crafting space.  I have a 9 cube organizer with Martha Stewart bins from Home Depot.  They store punches, adhesive, tools, stamps, embossing folders, twine- just about everything!  On top of the 9 drawer organizer is my baby wipes container for cleaning stamps and a coaster- I need my Coke Zero when I craft, but I can't risk it getting on whatever I'm creating!! Hanging above it is where I keep my ribbon in jars from the Dollar Tree.  Next to that are some old sterilite drawer units that I use for more storage and then next to that is a shelf where I keep my Cricuts.  The bottom shelf holds some binders and my 12x12 paper storage.  On top of the shelving unit are two ribbon carousels that I use to store my Washi tape in.  I also have a cork board and the dry erase board that I made here.

This is the back corner.  For now, that brown shelf is just storing things but it's usually used for Cricut cartridges, like here.  Because I knew I was going to be tight on space, I put the Cricut boxes in our storage unit for now and am just keeping the cartridges, handbooks, and overlays in some small bins.  I have a memo board where I keep some odds and ends, a spinning organizer I got from Michaels, a spice rack with brads and buttons, and an old microwave stand that's also a carryover from my single days.  There's my Cameo in a place of honor, and in the cupboard I keep my paper stacks.  Next to that is a brand new rolling organizer that I just bought, and I LOVE it.  I keep projects that are long term- like my "favorite things" Smash book- in those drawers so I can just pull them out when I want to work on them.

Last but not least, is Sophie's corner of the craft room.  I bought this bed so that she would have a comfy place to sleep while I craft, and it took her awhile to get used to it but now it's her favorite bed in the house (she has three).  The blanket was a Christmas present from her aunt (my sister). 

"did you seriously wake me up from my nap just to flash that bright light in my eyes, mom?"

So there you have it.  My apartment craft room.  Compact, but functional.  :)

A tale of crafting

Once upon a time, there was a sweet, young crafter with slightly obsessive-compulsive tendencies.   She was so excited when a "sequel" to her favorite Cricut cartridge, Create a Critter was released.  It was with great joy that she anticipated all of the cards she would be able to make with two cartridges full of critters!  When it arrived in her mailbox, her heart leapt with joy!

She pulled it out of it's clamshell, tried it out on her Cricut and lo, it cut so well!  Then she turned to place it upon her Cricut cartridge shelf.  But alas!  The makers of Cricut had changed the design on the box since the last time a cartridge was released that she wanted.  When placed upon her shelf beside the original Create a Critter, the box looked quite out of place.  This made her slightly obsessive-compulsive tendencies quite uneasy.

The young crafter decided that she did not like seeing one green box amongst a sea of blue.  She moved the box for Create a Critter 2 to the end of her "shapes" cartridges shelves.  But alas again!  Now the cartridge was not beside it's predecessor, and her slightly obsessive-compulsive tendencies again were ill at ease.

The young crafter sighed mightily and decided to think about which battle she would rather fight.  She knows no good answer, besides creating her own blue cover on the computer and slipping it over the green one, which is not entirely out of the realm of possibility.

And thus ends our tale of woe.