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?

Best Wishes (Wedding)

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I made this card for friends of ours who are getting married this weekend. The bride made her own wedding invitations, so I wanted to use some of those elements in the card I made.

I was inspired by the "L & R" theme on the wedding invitation and the colors (red, orange, and yellow). I used my cricut to cut out the circle tag as well as the "L & R." I used an orange eyelet to attach the tag to the card. I stamped the wedding cakes and used yellow ribbon to accent that section of the card.

The inside sentiment says "Best Wishes!"

The Sweet Smell of Success!

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I spent most of my free time this weekend brainstorming and then creating cards for Graduation. I work at a College and have quite a few seniors graduating this year.

For this card, I used my Cricut to cut out the rectangles and the purple circle. I used a stamp to stamp the pig in the bathtub, as well as the sentiment. I colored the pig stamp in with crayons and colored pens. Then I went back and used glitter glue on some of the bubbles, and covered all the bubbles with Paper Glaze.

I put eyelets on the rectangle, and then used embrodery floss as an embellishment. The sentiment inside the card says "The sweet smell of success!"