Craft Space Tour

Hello Friends,

Today I would like to give you a tour of my newly organized craft space. I just completed it yesterday. I think I must have started it in January 2014. After spending hours and days just organizing all of my papers, I didn't do much else for a long time.

It sure feels good to have it all done, although I do have a pile of cast-offs to go through. Some I will toss, some I will donate, and some I will use in other areas of the house. Well, I'd better get on with it because there are lots of pics. I hope you have your cuppa. :-)

Hmmm... good looking man.

First up is my desk. Yes, I really did have a desktop under all of my crafty clutter. Sorry there are no before pics. You will just have to take my word for it that it was a total mess. This is my main work area and I work best with lots of elbow room. It feels wonderful to have all of that clear space.

Who is that dreamy guy?

Here is the long view of my desktop so you can see that I even have open space to the left where I can set extra tools and supplies for each project that I work on.

I have an L-shaped desk. This is the small part of the L, which is to my left when I am seated. The white basket holds my small paper scraps, organized in zipper bags by colour. The blue unit with two drawers holds my Tombow or other water-based markers. The little blue box holds bits and pieces that I plan to use soon: die cuts, printed sentiments, embossed pieces, etc. Below this (not shown) I have a shelf which contains a plastic file case with organized papers. Below that is a file drawer, holding more organized papers. (I told you I did a lot of paper organizing earlier in 2014.)

The rattan chest on my desk holds most of my envelopes, plastic zipper bags and gift card holders.

Directly behind my desk is a file cabinet. My Big Shot sits on top of that with a wall shelf beside it, which holds embossing folders and accessories. The black tin houses my water colours and Gelatos. The bowl on top of the tin has some clamps for holding art journal pages flat. There is a glass cutting mat and power bar here. The clear space will be perfect for hot gluing and heat embossing. The corner shelf holds my homemade Modge Podge, gel medium, gesso and texture pastes, plus a few other items.

Not much was changed here. The big jar holds fabric appliques, the small jar has wooden beads. The wicker baskets hold small tubes of paints (oil on the left and acrylic on the right). That is my heat gun hanging from the middle peg. The post card at the top left is of the 1920s harbour in Dunoon Scotland, which my cousin sent to me.

Here is my Big Shot accessories shelf I told you about. A curio cabinet (not shown) sits on the wall above it. It houses my glitters, flocking powders and embossing powders.

Some of you have seen my homemade wall board before. I changed a few things around on it since I posted it last. It now holds my tapes, adhesives and inking sponges. All of these used to take up valuable space on my desktop. Two things I love about this board:  1) It keeps all of my frequently used tools close at hand. (It is to the right of my desk chair)  2) I can easily move things around and stick them to the board with a hat pin.

This board was made with a portion of lattice, an old blanket, quilt batting, a sheet and a staple gun. My husband screwed in the cup hooks for holding the heavier items and screwed the board securely onto the wall. I tried using push pins to attach lighter items like stickers and rhinestones, but found that hat pins are much easier to use on this surface.

 This is the wall behind my desk and to the right of our shared office filing cabinet, which you saw earlier. The gift in brown paper wrapping will be going into the mail soon and that will be another free space area. The curio shelf on the wall holds brads, sequins and rhinestones in little plastic containers from the Dollar Store. The clear basket holds acrylic paint mediums and my large tubes of acrylic paints are in a small wooden crate behind it. The wooden organizer standing in the background holds all of my paint brushes, as well as drawing and painting tools. To the left are a few paints that would not fit any where else.

To the right is a wire rack that holds all of my inks and my SU stamp scrubber. The decorative box sitting on top of it contains my completed cards, separated by occasion. This helps me, not only to find the card I need quickly, but to see at a glance when I am getting low on a certain type of greeting card. In the front of this box I have file cards for each month listing the birthdays of family members and close friends. I usually pull out the file card for the next month and put it in a prominent place on my desk so I can see who needs to get a card in that month. Once I make the cards and address them, I put them back in the card file and make a computer reminder for when they need to be mailed out. I am not good at remembering things and trying to do so stresses me, so this system is wonderful for me.

This wall shelf is directly above the little curio shelf with my sequins and brads. On the left is a box containing my Copic markers. On top of that are two little albums. One holds my printed out sentiments while the other has printed out digital images. Next from the left is a beautiful tin which houses all of my Washi and other designer tapes. That cute little suitcase holds chipboard letters and shapes. The boxes on top of it hold buttons and stick pins. The Scottish canister is stuffed full of fabric flowers. The tiny box on the end has bead strands and trinkets. The little can on top of that is empty.

On the right you can see the wire rack that holds my inks. The drawers (top to bottom) hold: stickers, stencils, ribbon, other trims and fabric is in the bottom drawer (not shown)

On the left is the wooden unit my paints are sitting on.
The top shelf: The clear case in front holds all of my Sharpie pens and markers. Behind that, in a pink plastic scrapbook case, are bottles of craft acrylic paints. Specialty papers, including handmade papers that I love to use for decoupage, are in two cases above the paints.

Second Shelf: 12x12 cardstock and patterned papers; other paper pads; my Cricut paper trimmer.

Third Shelf: Pink Scrapbook case full of cut pieces of cardstock; my Martha Stewart Score Board

The bottom space of my wooden unit is now home to frames and canvases (left); large bubble envelopes organized in a wooden crate; a fabric bag that contains newspapers, a plastic drop cloth, wax paper and other things to make painting clean up easy.

Another shot of my long wall space. This is where most of my storage needs are met. The tall plastic unit is actually two units stacked. In these I store tools, stamps, punches, scissors and extra adhesives.

Above the tall plastic unit I have a wall-mounted glass curio cabinet. I keep my collection of pins in here, which I sometimes use in my art. Two pretty glass bowls hold coloured pens and gel pens. The round metal tin holds a few trinkets while the other tin is empty. It has an embossed cross on the lid and is also very pretty.

This side table could use an update, but it is sturdy and houses a lot of supplies.

I got a set of plastic bins at Costco for a great price, which I utilized here. The four bins, starting from the bottom, contain: photos and memorabilia; kids crafts supplies; canvases, mats and frames; and the top bin (barely showing) holds painting accessories like my brush bucket, palettes and painting apron.

My little sewing machine, which I picked up at a yard sale and have not yet used, is relegated to under the table. The pink photo box on the middle shelf is full of plastic organizers holding craft trinkets.

Here is the top of the sturdy side table. As mentioned above, the plastic bin contains painting accessories. The blue photo box houses dry media such as chalk & oil pastels. The rose coloured photo box has some extra canvases standing upright in it. On top of that are a few things I have to return to my church so I wanted them in plain sight. (That forgetting thing again)

On the right are two photo boxes which contain my Christmas stamps (bottom box) and Christmas papers & embellishments (top box). The Christmas tin contains completed Christmas cards. The wooden boxes on top are for making into gifts. There are actually four round boxes and two heart boxes, of graduating sizes.

In the center are my two art bags. One I use for the writers group I attend and the other I use for art, usually at church. It is handy to have the box of dry media close at hand because I can't use wet media when I am out, lest I have a spill.

Above that sturdy little table is a wall shelf that I keep clear as a place to photograph my projects. The mixed media canvas is one I did recently and have not gifted yet.

This wire wall unit is a yard sale find. In fact most of my storage solutions have come from yard sales, thrift shops, were free or from great sales. I would much rather spend my money on quality art supplies than on expensive storage solutions. Anyway, this is just another place to display some art that inspires me.

Above said sturdy table and photographing shelf, is another wall shelf. I really should paint the others to match this one. I love this green and I think it would make things look so much prettier if they were more uniform. Perhaps that will get done by 2016. ;-)

There are a few empty containers on this shelf. There seems to be a theme developing through this organization: MAKE SPACE. I think it is a life theme for me this year. Hmmm......

The tins on the left are empty. The pink flowered box contains dimensional stickers, some of which were getting ruined by being jammed into an over-stuffed drawer. The small box on top holds labels. The pretty box in the center and the baskets (3) on top are all empty. I will probably use them to sort things or for paper scraps when I am working on projects. On the right are a few notebooks and a couple of other books I had no place for.

And now we are back to my desk, which faces a lovely window out of which my lovely cats doing most of their favourite occupation - bird watching. Did I mention there is a maple right in front of that window? Hence, the bird watching. When crafting, especially with wet medium, my little darlings love to dash across the front of my desk, leaping over (and sometimes onto) my artwork. So I created a wall of sorts out of magazine holders, to hopefully impede their progress. Do you think it will work? Yeah.... right.

The holder on the left (the tall one) contains art journals in progress, a plastic folder of paintings and art instruction books. Next is a holder for my completed art journals. The third one holds magazines and craft books. On the right are print-outs of my novels in progress, as well as outlines and story inspiration pictures.

Another pic of my pretty kitties. Mineau is hiding the butterfly memo holder which has my January birthdays file card in plain view. Well, usually in plain view. It is somewhat visible in the photo above.

Some pictures and artwork for inspiration and to make my space feel more personal. The calendar (still on December 2014) was a gift from dear friends last year, featuring their six beautiful children. I am expecting the 2015 edition in the mail any day now.

Last is my favourite eye candy, my wonderful husband of 27 years, Terry. Sorry girls. He's mine.

Thanks for taking the time for this very long visit to my blog. I am wishing you all the best blessings for 2015 and beyond.

Hugs & smiles,
Teresa