Craft Scratch Fever

Paper, paper, paper! I'm addicted to all the pretty patterns and colors. But I had a lot of it, everywhere! It was taking me over I had so much. So when it came to organizing paper, it was quite overwhelming to me. I decided to start with my 6x6 paper packs first.  Now during the first month one of the things I did was move most everything to one area. Paper, Dies, Stamps and so on.  This way I could see how much of everything I had to go through, donate or keep and finally get to the organizing. I'd emptied many boxes and this one I found held the packs very nicely. This box measures inside 12 3/4 wide, 8 5/8 deep and 6 1/2 inches tall. You can pick these up at Michael's, they always have a wide range of decorated boxes.                          This tiny box ended up holding 52 paper packs and as you can see I could probably squeeze a few...

I've tried so many different ways of storing Dies. This one has been working out wonderfully for me so I thought I would share how I made them. This was also part of the getting organized class I did through Scrapbook.com. This one gave me some trouble finding something that worked well. I tried magnet books, magnet boards, in a drawer..etc. This is what I have settled on and I love it!  The larger shape dies, circles, squares, ovals etc. are easy to hang. I didn't want to put a lot of nails or tacks in the walls so I decided to make two cork boards. These are made out of frames I had around that I hadn't used. I cut foam board for the backing, two sheets glued together for each frame using white glue.  I then glued the cork on top of each of the squared foam boards. From here I glued these to the back of the frame. I kept the frames unpainted and added some decorative chipboard to the corners. I needed a tack that could hold a lot of dies. I found these ...

The first few weeks of the organization course was deciding how you wanted your space, what you wanted to surround yourself with and do an inventory of what you have.  From the inventory printout of all items you then decide which areas were the problem areas and which areas needed a quick clean or reorganize. The printout helps go through this process fairly quickly.  The first area I started on was my drawers. These two Alex units I have had for several years and they worked great for me but they were getting a little stuffed and I needed to go through and get rid of what I wasn't using and organize what I did use.  This is a front pic of the Alex Drawer from Ikea after I was finished.  Below are some pics of each drawer. Ikea-Alex Drawers  I have two units and the left top has all my brads and tiny beads. The right are all my Cricut cartridges. I made dividers in the tray I have them in stored in alphabetical order so they are easy to find...

I've been away from my blog redoing my Craft Room. I had painted it quite some time ago to a smokey blue. My colors prior to that were Lime Green and any color Pink. So a big change. I decided to to an organizing class I had found on Scrapbook.com. Its a 26 week free course. After signing up they send you weekly emails on what to do each week with downloadable pages and instructions. I signed up last year in Jan. I attempted a go at it and we had, well life happen and so I waited until June to really get into it again and go full force. So all in all it took me about 8 months total to complete.  Today I absolutely love it! It is so easy to work in and I am able to get things done much faster. Cleaning and getting things back to there place is easy and quick. Finding things is a snap. I wish I would have done this years ago.  Here are the pics of the final outcome and over the next few months I will post all the weeks of my organizing journey and the pics to go with it. ...

I just finished creating all the labels to put on all my newly organized boxes. I used Hammer mill 80 pound white paper for the labels I cut out on the Big Shot. The inks work great on this paper, I use it a lot for stamping and doing cut outs that I will color on my own rather than using patterned paper. Memento Ink is pretty much all I use now. Its the best I have found with copics and stamping. Happy Crafting Everyone!!

I had my paints scattered in different places throughout my room and now I have them all out in the open and in one place making it easy to see and choose what I need. This is on the wall of my craft room as you are entering. And you guessed it, I got the shelves from Ikea. I do a lot of painting, anywhere from wood crafts to painting metal embellishments. Painting is one of the things I love to do most. These shelves are nice because they will also fit behind my door if I ever need to get more.  During this redo of my room I have realized I had such an overflow of product that I had become completely overwhelmed. My creativity came to a complete halt. I would walk into my space and not know where to start. I have been working on this redo since mid December and I am now creating spaces for my items that leave me a little room to grow and if I get to the point where something is full. I either use the items before purchasing more or I purge on something old. I am nearl...

As crafters, I'm sure you just like me have a lot of die cuts. They are so fun to use while doing layouts and cards, any craft project really. But storing these delicate items have been an issue for me. So I set out to find a better solution than what I had been using. I decided I loved the magnet style storage so I found some magnet sheets, 8 1/2 x 11. I thought I could make pages and put them into a binder. I took some chipboard that I had and cut it down to 9 x 11. I left a half inch on the side to punch holes in for the binder. I decorated the binder with some cardstock and I have my new die cut storage binder.      I have been using these for a few weeks now and am very happy with how little space it takes to store these and how easy it is to get to everything I need. I can lay the book out and grab whatever I need without having to search and dig anymore. This is a one inch binder and it holds 4 sheets of chipboard. I applied mag...

Don't you just love clear stamps?? While I have been redoing my craft room, I have found, I really, really love clear stamps. I found a little bit everywhere! Stamps I hadn't seen in a very long time. So I decided to find a solution for these.    Last week I showed you my wood stamp storage solution. This week I finished putting all my clear stamps into the Inque Boutique stamp keepers. I have found them in two sizes, 8 1/2 x 11 and 12x12. Since I am using the 12x12 I bought two 12x12 Project Life binders to put these in. You could use any binder or album but I do suggest using a D ring for these.7 stamp keeper storage packs can fit comfortably into the binder. I have 6 in one and 7 in the other.    I really have liked how all my stamps are in one area now, they are all in a small storage area, they aren't sitting on top of each other getting squished, I can view them all at once, they are safe from dust and...

I have been searching and searching for a solution for storing my wooden stamps.I think I have tried everything that I have found on wood stamp storage but nothing really worked for me. I saw these and thought I would give them a try and I think I am in love! These are letter trays. They have cork lined on each tray. The cork holds your stamps so when you pull the trays out to view your supply they stay put without sliding around. These are metal and just snap together. I would not want to put heavy items on top of the unit however the trays are very strong and sturdy so these will hold the weight of your stamps very well. These two units are holding 151 (sizes vary between small to large) wooden stamps and one shelf has 43 foam stamps, these are smaller though. So these are holding nearly 200 stamps.  The trays slide completely out. This is nice so that you may take your tray to your workstation. You can also pull them out to just about the end while you view...