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?

Happy Birthday (7)

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I made this card for my cousin who just turned 7. I wanted to highlight her age and use a theme that fit with the wrapping paper her gift was wrapped in.

All of the shapes were cut out with the Cricut. I used the wrapping paper to cut out the 7, and coordinating colors for the other dots on the card. I traced the cat's accents with gel pens and used google eyes to make the card a little more playful.

Welcome Little One

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This is a card I made for some friends who recently had their second child. I know people don't typically throw a big shower for second (or third) babies, but I thought it was a day worth celebrating.

I wanted to go with a nice girlie color scheme, but not too girlie. I'm not sure I achieved that exactly, but I loved the polka dots. I used my Cricut to cut out the bear. I used a gel pen to go over the mouth and make it stand out, and then added some fun google eyes.

The sentiment was stamped and then hand cut to resemble a flag. I went over the sentiment with a gel pen, to darken it.

I also did a simple weave in the upper left corner, in a small square, to give the card added dimension.

Christmas Card Sets

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Woo, Christmas cards! I'm sure you're all feeling very inspired now that it's February and I'm posting these.

As I said before, life kind of got in the way this holiday season. So, I only made a handful of cards (the rest were, gasp, store bought this year) for close family and friends. In order to make it even easier on myself, I did varations on a theme.

I used my Cricut to cut out all of the shapes that you see on the cards. I had just gotten a new Christmas cartridge (Joys of the Season) and couldn't wait to use it. I used some gel pens (with glitter in them) and pop dots to make certain elements of the cards stand out. I also used stamps for most of the sentiments. Rudolph (top right in the top photo) has googly eyes. Half of the cards got a rounded corner punch, while the other half did not.

As an added bonus, I stamped the envelopes with cute holiday images. Next year, I hope to return to form and do all my cards by hand again. I just missed that experience this year.