Craft Room Organization

Craft Room
Originally uploaded by Cup O'Cake Designs

Ever since I moved into the new house, I've been trying to find a way to be more organized with my craft space than I ever have been before. See, the thing is, the house is bigger. My craft space is bigger. So there's an even greater potential for me to end up with more craft items than I could use in a year.

I don't know about you, but I have a horrible habit of buying things at craft stores on impulse, and then completely forgetting they're in my "stash." I am in the midst of a self imposed "paper ban" because of how much paper I have. (I do allow myself to purchase paper for specific projects- only things that require multiples of the same color/patterned paper: ie. invitations)

Clearly, I am an "out of sight, out of mind" kind of crafter.

My solution? To get organized, in a very visable way.

My craft room is far from complete, but I am really pleased with the progress I've made.

At the old apartment, I had a steel storage unit, consisting of eight drawers per side (two of those, per side), with an opening in the middle. The unit also had a top "shelf." I got it from Ikea, and it served me pretty well.

The new house, having a larger space for my crafts (which is a shared space for our office and music room), needed something more. I have a great work space (again, from Ikea) that's deep enough to be the home for my sewing machine, Cricut, and Cuttlebug- even when one is not in use.

My parents were visiting last weekend and wanted to go to Ikea (they were in search of a bed frame for their guest room). I was more than happy to accompany them. While wandering around the showroom, I came across the Bygel rail system. A-ha! Perfect.

I picked up one Bygel rail, two baskets, one package of s-hooks, one package of spice jars, and one bygel plastic cup. All for under $20. When I arrived home, eager to brag to my husband about my finds, he reminded me that we had an extra rail from the old apartment (we used to house kitchen items hanging from the rail).

On Saturday, I had my husband hang the rails above my craft desk. Then I went about the task of deciding what was important enough to warrant space on the rail.

Each spice jar holds a different type of embellishement (brads, eyelets, buttons, google eyes), the second basket holds ribbons (with seldom used christmas and animal print ribbons in another storage space), and the cup on the end holds pens, pencils, and glue. The top rail holds hole punches (shaped and regular), scissors, glitter, and beads from s-hooks.

The space is far from done, but it makes me excited about crafting. I already have plans on a few more things to pick up at Ikea, including more s-hooks. Eventually we hope to pain the room (a nice slate gray color, we're not too into the beige/yellow feel right now), and I plan to use orange as an accent color (for a trash can, clock, etc).

Who knew Ikea could revolutionize my craft space?

Enjoy (Birthday)

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I made this card for a friend's 30th birthday. I wanted something that went with the theme (well, my theme) for the night- my husband & I gave the birthday boy Guinness and home brewed beer as a gift and I'd made a delicious Guinness cake for the party. Thus, the beer on the card.

The Guinness itself was paper pieced. I cut out the beer and the foam first, and then used an Overhead (clear plastic sheets) to cut out the pint glass- and yes, I cut out two pieces (one for the back and one for the front) to make it more authentic.

After I put the pint together, I stamped the sentiment and went over it with a gel pen. I cut out the piece of paper to make it look like it was curved along the glass. Then I attached a ribbon to the sentiment using brads, and put the ribbon around the pint. The pint is raised off the paper using pop dots.

Finally, I stamped "30" in the upper left corner with Versamark and rounded my edges with a paper punch.

Too Cute

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Another Baby card for another couple who is expecting. This time I knew it was a boy, so I felt more comfortable opting for a blue palette.

Tigger is cut using my Cricut. The sentiment is stamped and then gone over with a sparkly gel pen. Finally I added brads to the top, to draw the eye to the sentiment.

Good Luck (Shamrocks)

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I made this card for a co-worker who recently graduated and has moved on to begin her new career.

There's no Cricut on this card- now there's a phrase I rarely use. I used a Sizzix die for the Shamrocks- and then hand cut the background shamrock shape (in ivory). Although you cannot see it in the photo, I used pop dots to make the middle shamrock stand out.

Good luck was stamped and then gone over in a sparkly gel pen. I added brads to draw the eye towards the sentiment.

Congrats (Birth of Baby)

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I got the idea for this card from the booklet in with my Doodlecharms cartridge.

The baby face and bag were all cut out using my Cricut.

I stamped "congrats" on the baby bag, and went over it using a gel pen.

A quick and easy card that still looks super cute.

You are the Apple of My Eye

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I made this card for my Grandmother for Mother's Day. Really, it could be used for any occasion- I simply put "Happy Mother's Day" on the inside.

I used the Cricut to cut out the apple and the tag for the front of the card. I covered the apple with three layers of UTEE to give it a shiny look and more dimension. I wrote "You are the apple of my eye" using pens, and used green for "apple" to make it stand out. Then I used a brad to hold the two pieces of the tag together.

Birthdays are like shoes...

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This was a pretty simple card to make. I used my Cricut for the Z and tag shapes. I hand wrote the "Happy Birthday" and attached the tag to the Z with a heart shaped mini brad. The strip of blue paper was cut with a simple paper trimmer and stamped with a shoe stamp from Michaels using white ink (which was pretty slow to dry).

The sentiment at the bottom is from a homemade rub-on embellishment. It says "Birthdays are like shoes..." The sentiment is completed inside with another homemade rub on that says, "You can never have too many!"

I think if I make a card like this again, I'll use a solid color for the letter, and have the background paper as the patterned paper.