Craft Room Update!

It's been a long time since I've updated you on the progress of cleaning up and organizing my craft room. Some HUGE changes have taken place!!!

If you have been following along for a while or scrolled through some old post you have probably noticed my desk has changed!

I loved using our old dining room table and the boxy hutch my husband build for me were great but wasn't totally working out.

 It happens!

I started addressing my needs, planning storage for the old hutch, thinking about painting the table to lighten things up and in the end my husband suggested starting fresh with a NEW craft table/hutch.

Such a great guy!

So in mid-May we headed over to IKEA to look at options and brought home the cutest desk ever. 

A few weeks later for my birthday my family surprised me with a hutch that I had been drooling over.

I'm not ready to share a full shot of my new desk/hutch since I'm finishing up a few custom storage pieces for it but here is a reminder of the before.

I promise I'm close to showing a full shot of what things look like now!

Before:

Tease of the after:

Remember this picture from Thursday? It shows a pretty good tease of what the hutch looks like. What makes me oh so happy is my new "command center" in the center of the hutch that holds my ink pads, markers, paper and so much more. I feel like a pilot with all of my gadgets up front and center. It's such a relaxing and inspiring way to create!

Ok, I promise more to come on that!

I'm finishing up some custom scrap paper drawers, embossing powder storage, big shot station (it's gonna be good! I just ordered the pulls for it today!!!!)

Once the pulls are here and I can finish up the scrap drawers I will share what I've done so far. The big shot station will take a little bit longer to get finished but it will also be worth the wait!

Happy Stamping!

Label Love

Hey Y'all!

I'm just stopping by for a quick shop update and some home organization things that I've been up to.

For many many weeks I've had a few labeling projects in the pantry and in my craft room that I knew needed attention.

Well, I finally go to them! 

I find sometimes the best way to get something crossed off the list when you feel like you are short on time is to just do it! If it is THAT important to you, then make the time. 

With that said, this was important to me. I was tired of sifting through unlabeled jars of this and that to find what I needed. What took a few hours to complete has saved me a lot of time otherwise.

First up the craft room!

(Because craft rooms are just fun and who doesn't love fun?)

 My sweet little dollar store aqua bucket got a label upgrade. When I first labeled my adhesive bucket I had used my label maker with some clear label tape. It wasn't bad but a chalkboard label is so much cuter!

This is my small decorative chalkboard label available in my shop!

 Next up I added 2" circle chalkboard labels that are a perfect fit on my blue mason jars! 

Chalkboard labels on these mason jars are perfect because they hold all of my little odds and ends. When I use up what is in the jar and want to put something new in it all I have to do is wipe it off and relabel! 

So much easier than making a new label (even on a label maker) every time!

Now onto the panty!

I also added the 2" circle label to this little mason jar.

I'm sort of on a cinnamon sugar kick in my coffee.

(And oops! I got my "o" and "a" switched in cinnamon! Forgive me? I'm human, too!)

This little jar sits by the coffee maker and just looks so darn cute!

 Now for those large mason jars that hold many bags and boxes worth of food items that always end up looking sloppy in the pantry. These are my 3" circle chalkboard labels that are a perfect fit on the wide mouth mason jar lid.

Have you tried the plastic lid for long term storage? I love them. I love not messing with a 2 part lid when I'm cooking. And just like the blue jars in my craft room these labels can be wiped off and quickly relabeled if the contents of the jar change. 

Sometimes I don't have pecans on hand but mixed nuts! We live on the wild side around here! Never know what you will find in our pantry! Ha!

 And last but not least (this isn't anything new) our canisters have a label. I've had these labels in the shop before and they are back again!

I'm using a new brand of vinyl now and LOVE the extra thick quality. 

Happy organizing! 

What have you labeled lately?

Craft Room Update: Almost finished!

 I'm so excited to finally feel like I'm at a point in this craft room project of mine to show you pictures!

It's come a very long way.

And it helped that today when I looked at my daily To-Do List, dusting the office was listed. 

So here she is all shinny and pretty. Cleaned up and picture perfect ready.

Now get ready for a TON of pictures :)

I turned our old dining room table into my desk. It is large and perfect for having multiply projects going on at once. My husband built me the hutch on top. We put a lot of thought into how I crafted and what my needs were. Here are some close ups:

 

 Since craft rooms need storage we made sure this hutch would provide that! 

The top is extra deep to accommodate bulky items as well as little stuff and lots of bins and baskets to keep things sorted. I'm not huge into scrapbooking but do have a bin that holds album related stuff (page protectors, pictures to scrap, etc) The red binder (will) have all of my stamp sets stamped in it for easy reference. It's a work in progress as I have a lot of stamps!

And as for those pull out drawers? That's how I keep my paper scraps sorted by color family and Designer Series Paper. It's a great way to use your scraps to their fullest and not waste paper by throwing them out (and saves money, too).

 Now onto the middle section of my hutch. I am a lazy crafter and want as much of my stuff within reach as possible. So up front and center: Paper! The top shelf holds my 12"x12"' designer series paper, below that my 8-1/2"x11" card stock (sorted by color family) and below that my markers (again sorted by color family). hmmm....looks like I need to buy more markers :)

My power strip has it's own special nook so I don't have to crawl around on the floor when I want to emboss! It just needs to be screwed into place. As you can see my adhesive didn't hold. ha!

And a side note on the power strip: I had a pretty one from the container store but (luckily) before ever using it we got a notice in the mail about a recall on it and had to return it to the store. So I'm on the look out for a new pretty one!

 

 Now onto the far left side of my hutch: The top shelf has my scoring board, paper trimmer, cutting mat and embossing gun. The middle shelf has glitter, my crafting tool kit (behind the stuff you see in the front), a basket for buttons and embellishments, a freshly spray painted stapler (so fun!) and a little dollar store bucket that holds glue dots, dimensionals and a tape runner. And at table level is a very large burlap box from Ikea that holds my dies and embossing folders.

 Want to see close ups of the top of my hutch? 

Here ya go!

My ink pad caddy, swim locker basket full of mason jars for more the little stuff...

 ...a wooden berry basket that holds chalk and an eraser (this is were I work when I'm working on product for my shop so chalk up front and center is ideal!), paint brushes, task lamp (lighting is horrible in this room!) and my Big Shot.

 To the far left side of the desk is my punch rack and ribbon storage. I love having these items so close at hand when I'm creating! Inside the closet (you can see the door in part of the picture) holds my stamps and etsy product. I forgot to take a picture so that will come another day!

This is my little sewing desk! It is small but works for my sewing needs.

 My own custom chalkboard!

(I don't list this particular one with "create" in my shop but contact me about a custom order if you'd like one!)

 This is such a happy little corner in my craft room!

Don't buntings make everything happier? Like a party is always going on? 

I think so!

I hung a dowel rod from bracket to bracket for fun washi tape storage. Now when I need a little tape I can just tear it off. If I need a lot and want to take the whole roll down, it's easy enough to do that too.

(looks like I need more washi tape!)

 I found this absolutely adorable bird's nest wire bowl at Hobby Lobby. It is perfect thread storage for my sewing needs.

I love the shelves above my sewing desk. The white baskets hold sewing projects and other projects in the works.

 I love jars and baskets to separate and organized things in.

 My vintage sewing patterns!

I have another post (from a while ago) about my twine storage but thought I'd share pictures again.

 

Months and months and months later I still love it!

And finally my craft cabinet for more supply storage!

 The very top holds a basket of some of my shipping supplies. When I fill orders I can grab my basket and when needed, roll of brown packing paper, (under the guest bed not shown....yet!) and get right to work.

 The top shelf in the cabinet (from Ikea, by the way) holds some albums that I'm working on, Stampin' Up! catalogs and books and the second shelf has baskets (from left to right) holding greeting cards, knitting needle cases and small jars for the tiny stuff. :)

 The third shelf down is packed full of boxes to further sort supplies!

They store anything from (more) glitter, chalk, wire/metal, rope, craft paint, etc.

And the very bottom shelf stores yarn and knitting books/patterns. I threw one tiny little basket in there for now but need something much bigger.

Thanks to my chore planner telling me I needed to dust the office today, I was left with a very clean craft space. To reward myself, I made this cute card to send to some friends of the family to thank them for some yummy figs fresh from their tree!

Thanks for checking out my craft room!

I'll keep ya posted on further progress, sometime show off my stamp storage, shop product storage and guest bed (it needs a mattress right now he he).

BYE!