Charlie and Carol's Incredible Crafts: My Craft Room

I think I have a fantastic Craft room, however, it is a bit on the small side. When I am in there, and I am always in there, I feel more like I am nesting. I have floor to ceiling and wall to wall craft supplies and tools. I no longer have a window, because it is buried behind the sticker makers, paper cutters, a couple of binding machines, Dream Kuts, two laminators, Your Story, giant stapler, etc. etc. etc. I have expanded my "stuff" into the hallway and the overflow is now out in the Gazebo. But, But, But, I need it all. You got to have your things to do your job. Right? Right! I have moved some things out of here that I didn't want to move out of here, but Charlie asked me if I wanted to find my stuff under the house one of these days. So out it went. I am bringing it back an item at a time. Got to have my "stuff".

My first love in all of this is gathering all the tools and materials needed to do any given craft at any given time. So that leads to my first tips: How to Organize Your Craft Room. How do you organize a craft room? I think it is a never ending story. Every time I buy something (I love gadgets) I have to reorganize the room to accommodate. I like everything to be reachable or mobile. I like things visible. Don't get me wrong I have lots of drawers full of things, but I try to keep them marked. I reorganize too often, though, and I forget I've moved somethings that i wasn't using as often as I was. Okay here goes. Tips:

1. I love Stickles. I have tried storing in upright in drawers. Didn't work. I hung it upside down under a shelf on magnets. Didn't work. Magnets kept coming loose. I changed it to Velcro. Didn't work. Velcro came loose. So, I had two scissors storage turntables. Wasn't using them anymore because they took up too much room and I didn't use those scissors that often. I took them both apart and then put them back together stacked on top of each other. I took the base off of one and used a peg to put the two back together. It made three rows of holes, I inserted the Stickles upside down and have room for a bunch of them.

2. Stamp storage. I not only take all the stamps off of wooden blocks and put them in cd cases. I went to Thrift Stores and bought old cd turntables for $1. They hold 100 cds now filled with 100 stamp sets. I use the two I have for Stamping Up sets and Great Impressions stamp sets. The miscellaneous stamps I keep in drawers by category. The Great Impression sets are in order by date. The Stamping Up sets I added numbers and keep them in numerical order.

I also have miscellaneous stamps in drawers sorted by occasion and then numbered in each drawer.

I also have a dresser with Close To My Heart Stamp Sets and they are filed by A, b, C and D. and then by item number. I used to keep them in the organizers that they sell, but I had too many to make it practical. E size Close to My Heart sets are kept in notebooks in numerical orde

3)I either cut out or scan pictures of each stamp I have. I put the pictures in photo albums and list them both in alphabetical order and by numerical order.

I try to make each picture show the whole stamp set.

The catalog listings are done two ways: Alphabetical and numerical. Close to my heart stamp sets are done in a separate album because I have so many of those in their nice plastic envelope. They also have pictures and are in numerical and by groups of A, B, C, D, W, etc.

I also have a listing of the stamps in categories. Mothers Day, Babies, Fathers Day, Birthday, Easter, Etc. all divided up and the stamp number and where it is to find them when I need them.

The binders (albums) are kept close at hand for easy access.

4)I love my Cricut. I love everything about it. It sits on the counter below my laptop. I have it plugged in and ready to go all the time. I no longer keep the Cricut cartridges in the packaging they came in. I did for a long tme, not wanting to ruin the. The heck with that. Storage is not a premium around here, so, now I keep them in one plastic container, in alphabetical order.

I have 60 cartridges in one box, with room for 12 more. The box measures 8.5 x 11.

The overlays and book go in another box in alpha order. It takes two boxes for these.

The overlays and cartridges are easy to get to, easy to use , easy to put away and easy to store. All boxes bit in one cubical in my area along with the markers, tool kit, mat. paper cutter, quilt basting spray., redeem coupons, instruction books, etc. I have two jukeboxes: They are stored here too. Beside this cubicle I store the various size mats I have.

Speaking of mats: Think your mats are worn out, because nothing sticks to them anymore. Wash them in sudsy warn water and let air dry. Should be good as new. If not, spray them with quilt basting spray; works like a champ.

5)My other favorites are my other die cutting machines I have a Spellbinder and a Big Shot Pro. The BigShot Pro is on a cart beside my table and I can pull it over whenever I want to use it. the SpellBinder die cutter sits on top of it. I can reach both from my chair.

6)The dies are kept in a 6 foot x 8 inch wide CD storage rack. The shelves are adjustable, and I made them the exact side of the BIGZ dies.

7)I put my Close To My Heart marker and stamp pad organizer on a turntable.

The unit fits from side to side on one side of the turn table.

On the other side is another CD rack. I put foam core pieces in each slot to act as a shelf. I put my Stampin Up stamp pads on each shelf.

On top of it all I have the tray from CTMH and some desk organizers from the dollar store.Its always a jumble, but I keep clue sticks, take, hot glue sticks, erasers,etc. Everything close at hand.

8)My paper punches are one of my favorite things. Yes I know they are manual, but I love them just the same. I store them in three ways. In spice racks, in shoe boxes, and on clothes rods.

8a)clothes rods

8b)Spice racks are mounted on a shelf. When needed you can pull them down off the shelf for easy access. There is plenty of room behind the racks, even in the upright position, to sore more things. I have storage jars full of feathers, beads, large containers of embossing powder, flower petals, markers, etc.

(Down position)

(Up position)

8c)Small, seldom used punches are kept in drawers in a closet shoe organizer. I turned two organizers side ways, found some wooden boxes at JoAnns that fit each slot perfect. I added drawer pulls and label holders. Now I have 30 extra drawers for storage.