inside my craft room: part two

welcome back! i hope you liked the peek into my craft room itself, but now onto organization! i know that most crafters are always looking for the best way to organize or reorganize their stuff, so i thought i'd share what's been working for me lately. my way is nothing close to the end all be all, but maybe it will inspire you!

this is a trick that's been around forever and something that a scraptasia customer told me about. it's just a simple over the door shoe organizer (although it was not so simple finding a clear one!) these aren't all my punches, but they're my basics (marvy plain circles and ovals and scalloped circles, ovals, squares and rectangles) i use them on so many of my cards!

since so many of my cards use these punches i wanted them close at hand. cheiron carries around a ring of these punch samples with her so that she knows what she has and what size punch will be perfect for each stamp or project.

then i took it another step and also saved and labeled the pieces i punched the shape samples from so that i can just hold them over a stamped image to figure out exactly what size punch i'll need!

i scored this stamp cabinet when we cut down on the amount of sample stamps we had at the store. i organized all my woodmounted stamps in the cabinet by season, occasion or theme and labeled each drawer.

here is what one of the drawers looks like just partially open! there is room for a ton of stamps in here. these cabinets are quite and investment, but i really love the look and how easily they store so many stamps.

i use 6x6" cropper hoppers to store my clear stamp sets that are 4x6"ish and of course have them organized with labeled dividers.

5x7" protect n store containers are the perfect way to organize all my smaller clear sets, individual clear stamps and completely unmounted rubber stamps by theme (yes, those categories are pretty ridiculous.)

for my cling mounted rubber stamps i use the thin stuftainers from stampendous and trim down and punch a hole in the stamps packaging so that i can attach them to the top of the stuftainer using a binder ring and easily leaf through to see the stamped images going the correct way.

this cute little panda container is from target and 2 rows of 6x6" paper pads fit perfectly!

for my pre-made card bases i use wood media crates from michael's! they are super easy to grab with a coupon and then just attach a fun piece of patterned paper to the visible bits to snazz it up a bit.

for my glitter, flocking and embossing supplies i use the two different depths of rectangular snapware.

both variations of the doodlebug glitter kits and the flocking kit all fit in just one shallow layer!

and you can also store 2 rows of stickles in each of the shallow layers and you are still able to see the colors from the side of the snapware. (i'm also working on color swatches of these to hang next to my desk!)

my buttons and brads are stored by color in those little supply organizers that you can easily find in the bead or sewing section of most craft stores.

my twinkling h2o's are stored in these cool nesting wooden trays from a shop called stamp hideaway that makes them themselves and ships! i love having them all in one place, and in rainbow order of course!

my ribbon bin is a little shameful as far as "organization" goes, but i don't mind sifting through for that perfect piece. i don't think there's really an end-all-be-all answer to ribbon organization quite yet.

for my paper i use 12x12" cropper hopper paper files. i gave them a general label on the front and then they are divided and labeled by company or holiday. i've gone through a ton of ways to divide my paper;bagged by project (back when i began), by color (in an idealist faze) and now this. i think this is the way i'll be sticking with.

cheiron also turned me onto these little copic shelves from studio 3 and i was really impressed when they came in the mail. they are so nicely constructed, and i love how the "shelves are mounted just slightly lower in the back so you're not accidently knocking markers out.

i think that the square snapware is the best way to store the dew drop sized ink pads.

and when you mount a little stack of scrap chipboard in the center and place your dew drops around it you can easily see all your ink colors while the container is still closed!

i use an old repurposed cd case to store my nestabilites. i bought a box of adhesive backed business card sized magnets and attached them to squares of paper labeled with each die sets name and then they slide perfectly into the cd sleeves!

ronda inspired me with her cutlery ink samples, but i tweaked them just a little bit and stamped an outline stamp with a more solid stamp inside so i could get the best representation of each color of ink that i have. these hang on the rail right next to my spot for easy reference.

last, but not least, i use the good ol' cropper hopper wheeled tower (i think from costco) for projects that are in progress, or at least pulled together already.

like i said, there's always some new organization idea out there, if you have one you think i'd be into, let me know! i'm clearly a sucker for organization!