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!

inside my craft room: part one

the boy and i moved into our apartment in august and i've been pretty happy in my crafty room. until recently though, i had not been spending a ton of time in there since scraptasia closed and i wasn't designing classes and samples all the time. but with my newly (semi-) launched a muse studio venture (more on that soon!) and my new staff reporter status over at craft critique (yay!) i've found myself spending more and more time in my craft room and "that's," as martha would say, "a good thing!" as i've been spending more and more time in there i've also just about finished all the little touches and organization, and i've been wanting to share for a while. i was originally going to shoot a little video because i couldn't get pictures that were very helpful, but when sarah and simone visited at the beginning of the month simone luckily had a wide angle lens and shot these great pictures for me. thanks simone!

this is the view when you walk in the door. those little doilies on the side of my shelf are hambly and they always make me smile when i walk in the room. i'm lucky enough to have the corner room and therefore two nice windows for a whole bunch of natural light. oh! also, that couch there is actually a futon for guests, and that galleria quilt from garnet hill was actually my color inspiration for the whole room (and is currently on clearance.) you can't quite see, but the two walls with windows on them are a hot stone warm grey and the other two are the robin's egg-ish blue-teal.

i really, really lucked out this past christmas and my mom got me that wall mounted flat screen and the boy got me a new ipod dock and a tiny little dvd player, so my crafty time entertainment is totally covered. my "L" shaped desk is 2 unfinished ikea table tops that i painted just the edges of, and i love wheeling around in my fancy (not really, it's cheapie ikea) chair to get to my different table top tools!

those little cubby shelves (ikea) work perfectly for so many things and the fabric bins are all from target (including those 2 liberty of london ones.) the gallery lights mounted on the top of my cubby shelf are great for nighttime crafting! (do you like my cuttlebug doorstop? haha. i swear i use it for it's intended application as well!)

we all know that i'm a total organization junkie, and this rail system (ikea) and all that table top space really helps me out with that. those paper sphere lanterns are from ikea and those metal birdcages are from the good ol' dollar section at michael's, the stone grey/brown & white worked perfectly for the room, and for the third birdcage i just spray painted one that was originally orange!

i'm going to share a little more about all my little storage & organization set-ups and tricks on wednesday!

nerd alert!

so you all know i'm a bit of an organization nerd, but i think i've reached a new level. i've been going a little crazy trying to find the perfect storage method for all my "dew drop" sized ink pads. i originally had them in flat plastic containers organized by ink types, but i was running out of room and finding it annoying to get them out from under each other and all that business. plus, they took up too much space on the table. so, i've been looking for a container with a handle that could easily sit on the table, without taking up too much space, and display them in such a way that i can actually see all the colors i have. 

so, during a trip to target to stalk the orla kiely goodies i found these guys. they actually come in sets of 4, but are totally stackable. this set up is 3 sets (the bottom layer of each set is a divided compartment that i put aside and made into a separate stack for all my staz on ink pads). this holds all 80ish of the versamagic, brilliance & memento dew drop sized ink pads, and the bottom layer houses my basic black full sized ink pads. it's footprint is about 6 inches square and the handle is clutch for traveling purposes. plus, each set of containers was $4.99, i think? so, to sum it up, i'm totally in love! i am a happy inky girl!

p.s. if you are looking for another adorable storage method, the orla kiely cd holder boxes totally work perfectly to store your card packs in! i'm not saying, i'm just saying!

anyway, i just got done making a bunch of mix cd's for a friend so i'll start sharing those and their track lists tomorrow. promise!

done and done.

my new bedroom is finally finished. there are a couple of things that are slightly off, but they will be fixed over time. it has a bit of a foresty vibe without me really realizing it until i was almost done, which i like. it just kind of came together that way.

the print wall is going to be added to and rearranged on a pretty constant basis, i'm sure. and i love the way the color coded bookshelves look. i think my absolute favorite part is the jewelery trees though, thank you ikea. the curtains and tree branch tie-backs from urban were another necessary bit that i really love, especially from outside at night.

and, as in any room, it's the small touches that really make it for me. the little owls katie made, little dishes and drawer pulls from anthropologie and little plush friends.

you can see the actual pictures in my bedroom re-do flickr set.

i'm really hoping that settling into my new digs will help center me in some way. i'm still having that constantly on the verge of a panic attack feeling still. there are just so many things that i need to be re-working and doing and enjoying and i can't seem to get to that level point of dealing with everyday life things, nevermind the extra. so, maybe this will work... a new sanctuary = a new center. here's to hope.

stream lining like woah!

this is all embellishments and stuff that is going to the big scrapbook garage sale at mlpa on april 19th, save some for a friend of a friend who is just starting to scrapbook. i also have a yaffa block almost completely full of paper. i know i'm getting ready a little early, but i so had to just get all of it out of my way, plus that's a lot of stuff to price, so i'd rather do it over time. i was having trouble sitting down and actually making things because i had too much stuff, now i am free to scrap, and scrap i will!

while cleaning everything out i found my container full of old "stock" from my etsy store so i made some easter cards with some leftover stuff and sent all that to work with my mum for her to let people have a go at. at this point i just want it gone so that i can start fresh. so, i'm working on some things, re-doing the little shop banner and such and having another go at it. i'm also in the midst of a bit of craft collective creation to apply for one of my favorite juried craft shows, the art star craft bazaar. the deadline for applications isn't until march, so we have some time to figure it all out. it's been a nice little kick in the bumm for me though. i'm working on some fun little stuff to start over with. i might put some of the stuff from the garage sale containers into kits and sell them on my etsy at some point over the next few days. the less there is to individually price the better, right?

i also have some stamps that i'm looking to say goodbye to. i love them, but as they have never been used, it might be time to let them go to a happier home where they will be stamped with! y'know, if you love something let it go, haha. if you are interested in any of them comment with your e-mail address and which ones you are interested in, and i will send you an e-mail with your total + reasonable shipping (something like 1 t0 3 dollars depending on how many you would like to buy. the prices are as follows (as pictured, in rows from top left corner, down and then over.)all stamps are clear acrylic except for the fontwerks set;

* fontwerks spheres - $10
* chandelier & chain - $4 SOLD
* food friends(smiling cupcake, apple, mushroom & ice cream cone from a zingboom kit) - $5 SOLD
* sea squared - $3
* stem/vine - $5 SOLD
* smiling robot - $4 SOLD
* damask - $4 SOLD
* cherries - $3
* bot! - $4
* deer - $4 SOLD
* swallow - $3 SOLD
* turning japanese - $3

make sure you check the comments to see what other people have spoken for already before you let me know what you would like to buy, and i'll be sure to get them out asap.

i just finished watching the darjeeling limited, (love me some jason schwartzman!) and all the scenes inside the train were so gorgeous that i have to scrap now! i mean seriously? all those cool rich brocades and the stewards uniforms matching the train, so awesome.

turning my day from argh! to yay!

i did not have a lovely morning. at all. but as to not nurture the parts of my life that make me want to off myself i am going to concentrate on the happy making things, in list form of course. because seriously, is there any better way?

* this quickie layout i did last night of nat and the rad pictures she always gets. using the shaped 6x12 was really fun because i just refused to worry about what is going on the protector behind it. flat out.

* pop off! the soup is totally a huge laugh out loud highlight of my week. i want to marry joel mchale and adopt his puppy.

* the fact that i was totally resigned to not going to cha and a certain evil genius in my life had me convinced and booked on a flight within an hour, out of nowhere. now i leave in just over 2 weeks. hehe. watch out o.c.!

* i found the perfect haircut online! it even looks like the girls hair is the same texture and volume as mine, so it should work. can't wait to get it hacked tommorow!

* i just called to double check what time i should be at scraptasia to teach my class monday and found out that my class is one seat short of full! i am so excited and totally nervous to be teaching at a new store!

* scrapbowl is getting closer and closer and i can't wait to hang with everyone; marykate, katie, nicole, natalie, vee, kristina, sara, aimee, colleen, shelly and lots of other fun ladies! so psyched!

* speaking of miss shellyb, i totally jacked this idea off her -> yeah to my thickers being in color order! i don't really know what i was thinking with them being organized by material and then font, i go searching for them by color anyway. now they look so pretty!

* i am also psyched/freaked by the fact that scrapbowl, and now cha a little bit before, are the perfect kick in the @$$ for me to drink the correct amount of water, eat healthy and join that gym so that i can live on the stairmaster when i'm not working! i know that once i start i'll stick to it and enjoy the working out, i just need ot start!

* and last but not least, i'm really excited about awesome opportuinites for awesome friends!

"guys, where are we?"

yeah, i've been more than a little m.i.a. as in absent and missing, not the tiny rapper who raps in crazy technicolor.

the "croppers care for kids with cancer" event went really well and i love that it was sucessful and now done with. i also told my boss i need sunday's off, starting this coming sunday. yay! i get to have a 5 day work week again! getting rid of that small 5 hour shift makes a huge diff for me; i can have a day to relax & a day to get things done rather than having to choose which i do, i can go out to crazy-stick-to-the-dance-floors-while-you're-rocking-out-to-jt-and-fugazi-dive-spots in philly on a saturday night and be able to join my friends for brunch sunday mornings and it's just a little less stress in my life. yay, yay, yay!

another big yay to nabbing a hair appointment with heidi at american mortals on friday evening! someone called literally 15 minutes before me to cancel so i totally lucked out on timing. so, i get to take the train into philly (i hate having to find parking in center city) and finally get my hairs snipped! i even found a couple of cute hairstyles online today. looking at hairstyles online has really made me want to dye my hair orange-y red too! i won't go that crazy yet though. but after i get the cut i was thinking about dying it dark brown again, so now i don't know what to do!

oooh! i was going to try to not get excited about this since it's just the very beginning of the process and there are about a hundred talented ladies up for the spots, but i can't help myself! i have made it to the second round of the fashionista search over at scrap in style! i'm trying to stay guarded, but making it even to this very prelminary part of it is exciting since there is a crazy sick amount of talent over there! eep! i'm excited to see how this goes!

oooh, and some of you will be very proud of me, and many of you will be shocked that i finally did it, but i have officially finished the second stage of the big scrap area clean out of o8! i have a huge plastic bin 3/4 of the way full of embellishments and a 7 1/2 inch high stack of paper, yes i measured, to sell at the next mlpa scrap garage sale! i made myself ruthlessly purge all the scrappy stuff that i have that i like or love, but will never really use. the next step is going through the stored bins and doing a last sweep of my stuff, then i get to my favorite part, the re-organizing! so far i've freed up a whole shelf worth of plastic drawers units and have gone from two yaffa blocks full of paper to 1/2 of one. yay!

on the netflix front; boo to "the nanny diaries" how could you fail me scar jo? and major ups to "bickford schmecklers cool ideas" loved it! totally quirky, but i love me some patrick fugit!

i am failing miserably at my mission to watch every episode of lost before the new season starts! i am only halfway through season one. i'm still trying though. i'm off to do that now actually. wish me luck!

elsie, elsie everywhere!

i have been a bad blogger, but i've been an all around bad internet-er these days. i've only just caught up on reading everyone's blogs and i just got around to my first scrapping since cha. craziness i know! i got all my love, elsie goodies from the 3 rad ladies who were my awesome hobby lobby shoppers and it was so fun to use some of it! i used, lola, riley and some roxie on these;







i really love how the one of elsie and i and the bad news one turned out, i'm not to sure about the other one, but i love the colors for sure.

so, this month is the first month of the kit club i am doing at the store. each month is going to be, "pieces of..... something-or-other" since the store is called pieces of time. this month is "pieces of my summer" and it's pretty fun if i do say so myself. i also thought it would be cool to pick 5 products each month that coordinate with the kit, but aren't in it, that will be 20% off when you purchase the kit. almost like an add-on but set up more for a lss. we'll see how they sell. it was pretty fun to do, even though i had to pick everything from the store. it will be even more fun to do when the stuff i ordered at cha starts coming in.

speaking of kit clubs, tonight is the night! i'm not staying up for poppy ink since i can't ever afford their add-ons anyway, plus i think i might sell my august kit anyway. i can't wait for midnight for story of my life though! i have a lot of the paper in the main kit so i don't know if it's very smart for me to buy it, but i am totally in love with the heart fabric and plastic chain and charms so i'm REALLY hoping they will be in the add-on or the extras sections. i am soooooo getting whatever add-ons exist though and i can not wait for this stamp;



yeah, how rad is that!?!?!

i also started storing my kits in the closet on tiered pants hangers. so far it's working out pretty well. it would be even better if i could have them hanging flat against the wall, but we have giant bookcases and no wall space. bummer. already it's nice to not have them still in the boxes!

back in the jerz

i got back last night but i sooooooo needed some major lounging today! i spent some major time going through catalogs, free goodies and purchases from the show and windy city scrapbooking. i have no idea where it's all going my scrap area is crazy overfilled and i think it's time for a major clean out and some sort of new system for added storage. i also want to do a monster rak after i reorganize things.

here is the elsie picture i promised;



the ordering and new product and all was really awesome at cha, but a huge part of how awesome cha was has to be meeting and catching up with rad scrappers. sara berry, kristina contes, elsie flannigan, breanne, laura fiore, michelle ramirez, laura fiore, gigi kennedy, adrienne looman, big SIS and about a million otheres! so fun!

so, it's back to work tommorow and i have to pack some scrappy stuff! then i want to head to wal mart after to print some of the awesome pics from cha! can't wait to scrap them!

sooooooo tired!

i just literally worked hardcore for 12+ hours straight! heavy lifting, major planning, moving and reorganizing! we had gotten a ton of new stuff in at the store and so i waited until it piled up a bit so that i could do all the shifting at once, since i pretty much wanted to rearrange the whole store anyway. ugh! i added an aisle, moved the cropping area around, re-did the crop tool area and pretty much all of the embellishments too, put together out bling, brad and prima bar and generally made myself crazy!

well, at least i came home to a really cute birthday card from michelle, the metal wings and acrylic hearts i ordered from etsy and jess' circle journal with the insane amount of goodies she packed me! seriously! go check out her blog, there are pics of the goodies and it is insane! she sooooooooooo overdid it! i am so psyched! the silver hambly wing rub-ons are even in there! i ordered those from hambly a while ago and they were backordered, i was soooo sad, but scrap karma has brought them to my door by way of such a rad lady!

and, of course her circle journal is awesome too! i think i'm going to work on it at my crop with kristina tommorow. (you get to go to the crop if you were one of the first 25 people to sign-up for class, and my mum is awesome so i get to go!) so i'm off to bed because there is no way i'm packing for that crop tonight so i'll be doing it before work tommorow morning, where i will hopefully finish up the store without exhausting myself before the crop! then, the classes are back to back, with an hour break, saturday! so can not wait!

bam!

here's the first draft of the bam pop mini album class that i'm teaching!



so far just the page bases are down and some minor embellishing but once i get my photos in and layer some stuff i will post piccies of the actual pages.

alright, i'm off to house/dog sit for my aunt tonight and tommorow night. she even offered to pay me extra if i clean out her back porch and organize the house! i'm all about it. i would probably have been organizing even if she hadn't asked. hello my name is morgan and i'm a chronic organizer.

memorial day will be spent at work until 5 or so. we are on the memorial day parade route so we of course we are going to be open! hope everyone is having a great holiday weekend!

spring cleaning...

... i love it! i go on a crazy cleaning spree in all aspects of my life. did the house yesterday, re-did all my etsy listings with fresh green grass as a backgroud and nice natural sunshine as lighting and am working on finishing up all the stuff that has deadlines sometime soon.

here is my entry for the first designer challenge that penny posted on story of my life, we had to use the first soml kit, a picture of ourselves in our younger days and work scallops somewhere in to the lo.



i kinda totally love it. it's a pic that hints to the quasi-comic book nerd that i am today. love it!

also i have to make some new things to put up on my etsy so that i can use my entire etsy site as my application for the art star craft bazaar rather than just a few pictures. if i get accepted i'm going to sell my notecards and i want to make like a billion 3 x 3 accordian envelope albums in different hip themes and advertise them as photobooth picture albums since photostrip pictures cut apart would fit perfect in them.

then, i'm going to finish my design team entry for story of my life, make a binder system to store all my acrylic stamps and do some laundry. i'll post pictures later if i finish the dt lo. : )

rak envelope please...

... the winner is nicole (nikkig)! i will mail out the following box of spring/summer goodies to her sometime after the holiday weekend.



as you can probably tell from my gallery photos, i have indeed decided to do some 8.5 x 11 lo's. here is my plan; my bigtime. "this is my life" memory albums are going to stay 12 x 12 but be transferred in to black linen we r memory keepers binder albums. i am also going to scrap 8.5 x 11 for single photos, about me kind of stuff, challenges and other random memories and those are going to go into either an american crafts chipboard binder album that i will decorate or a ki memories felt binder album, whichever i can get my hands on first.

thank you so much to everyone who responded to the survey. the insight really helped.

and it was a super awes(ome) mail day here in jerz. i got my first ever story of my life kit! the kit is beautiful and edgy and fun all at the same time. the stamps are amazingly fun. i'm not going to admit it, but i may have kissed them when i took them out of the box. i also got a little extra surprise from sara because i was her first ever order! it may be cheesey, but it really means a lot for me to have been able to support her in that way. she seems like a super sweet lady and the business is amazing right from the get-go, so she totally deserves it! so, guess what i'll be working on tommorow at work? haha.

i'm also thinking about going on the hunt for a really cute deck of cards and joining the "weekly deck of me" challenge (it's over in my "challenge me" section.) i'd have to make 13 cards to catch up, but it looks like a lot of fun so i think it will be worth it. anyone out there doing this?

p.s. here is my first ever scrapjacked entry,



i'm not super duper in love with it, but i'm just glad i finally got around to participating in the super awesome challenges that the ladies over there post. and, with story of my life as a sponsor how could i resist?

12 x 12 or 8.5 x 11? post bound or binder? help = rak!

i'm all kinds of confused!!!

i've always scrapped 12 x 12 in a post bound album, but i scrap out of order and my albums are chronological so i have to take the album apart every time i want to put them in the album. it is one of my least favorite things to do, so right now there are like 20 lo's sitting in a big pile, which just isn't good for them.

so, i was thinking about getting some of the we r memory keepers binder albums, but i didn't know if those are the best thing going right now or not.

also, i see all these awesome lo's in 8.5 x 11 and up until know i've always been a 12 x 12 snob. so i'm thinking about keeping my general, "my life and events" album 12 x 12, and then getting an 8.5 x 11 album of single page lo's for like scrapping fun, random challenges and quick scrapping of random pictures not really tied to anything else.

ugh! i'm so confused! and totally willing to reward you all for your help! so, here's a survey. fill it out by thursday morning and i will put everybodys' name in a drawing for a package of goodies to be sent to you!

1. are you a 12 x 12 or 8.5 x 11 scrapster?

2. do you use binder albums?

3. what do you think the best brand of binder albums is?

4. how do you organize your lo's?

5. do you have more than 1 set of albums for different parts of your life?

6. double page lo's or singles?

7. any other scrapsters insight?

*bonus* off topic, but what song are you listening to non-stop right now?