My Space

Often times when I'm having crafter's block or when I'm simply not in a mood to be crafty, I would watch videos or search pictures of somebody else's craftroom.  I frequently get goose bumps upon seeing such beautiful and well-organized crafting space.  Organization is a must for someone who has an OCD like me.  I maybe be good at organizing things but I'd like to explore more.  I always like my supplies to have a special neat place.  Often times I like my stuff to be hidden away as I really don't like to see clutter.  It sure drive me nuts!  Heck, almost all craftrooms are messy and cluttered at some point of time.  From time to time, that's a reality check for me.
As I was saying, like any other crafter's who had kept away some supplies, they tend to forget about it.  I must admit, I do too, even though I know where to find my supplies 90% of the time.  Yeah, I sometimes forget too, hey, that's part of aging.  One thing you need to consider about organization, is planning.  Lots of planning.  If you are being careless, you will end up spending alot of money just by organizing your planet (that's how my GF Joan often referred her craftroom).  Guilty, again!  But now that we're back in the mainland, choices and options are just great and  awesome!  So without further ado, I would like to share with you a glimpse of my partially done creative space.  Oh, just to give you an update, our household stuff will be delivered by first week of March.  Yehey, I so terribly missed my stash...
Before we proceed, if anyone of you decided to redo your craft room, you really need to do alot of planning and check prices for comparison.  As for me, I am mostly after storage.  If I can have a storage that is wall to wall and ceiling to ceiling, I would love to have that.  But storage and organization requires alot of money.  This time I limited myself for $1000 budget and so far I'm still below that.  I considered investing money on Jetmax storage system which I can use coupons but decided not to.  I also considered kitchen cabinets from Home Depot, Lowes, Pattery Barn and Ikea.  But in the end, I decided to go for these cubies and wide depth bookcases from Ikea.  I think I made the right choice.  I think it all depend on what you want and what you need.
Okay, just got carried away a little bit there...  So, let's take a short tour now in my scrap/rubber room:

 I know, I know, I know.  You probably wondering why these bookcases, cubie and drawers were not the same colors considering they're all bought from the same store.  I'm guilty, my mistake.  Rather than drag it all the way back to Austin, which is about 45miles away from our house, I might as well use it.  I could paint it later if I want to but why, right!? Whether,  I want it or not, somehow, this room will end up having too many colors around.  Anyhow, it's not so bad, right!? Or am I convincing myself?

To note: It was not really hard to assemble these furniture.  What's hard was the fact that we have to carry each board upstairs.  And those boards were way too heavy.  DH and I spent a whole day recovering from aches and pains after a day of working on these furniture.  Not a joke promise!

I bought a bunch of these big cookie jars from Walmart.  What will I put in there?  That's gonna be a surprised!  

A 3-tier carousel for some goodies that had been kept for quite a long time in a tin can. It's time to put it out.

Now,  here's a glimpse of my room with goodies out of its boxes. I have thrown a whole bunch of packaging and boxes just by taking these toys out.  These are just some of my stash that we mailed from Korea and my 6-months acquisition. I know I'm bad and I honestly believe, I need rehabilitation.

I bought those tin buckets from Hobby Lobby at 50%.  It was a nice storage for all the stuff that's poisonous and dangerous to my kids.  Also a good way to store your die-cut machine accessories, sandwich and cutting mats.  One of the bucket has all my acrylic blocks, cleaners, black pigment/dye inkpads and probably anything you will need to stamp images.  I like the fact that you get one bucket and you have all the supplies you need.

 

Ella shakes hand with Mr. Froggy.  I always want to collect some frog collectibles even before then.  I'm not sure about you but way back home, I used to read Witch comic books.  Will, who is one of the characters has a collection of frogs in her room.  And they talk to her but I hope mine wouldn't start talking.  Okay, no more silliness.  I guess, I just missed my "prodigal sister" and somehow I am trying to reconnect myself with her.  We both like Will and the Witch comic books.  

As of now, I got two pets in the room:  Mr. Frogg (from the Princess and the Frog) and Missy Frogg. I got Mr. Frogg from a Disney outlet store while Missy Frogg was given to me by darling daughter Ella, during one of our trips to Walmart.

 

I found this pretty lamp a Hobby Lobby and paid half price for it.  It was really gorgeous and it's perfect for my craftroom.  For the meantime, it sits on top of the cubie since I still don't have yet a working table.

There goes sweet smiling Missy Frogg...

Guys, meet the nice ole' Mr Frogg.  Behind him was a bunch of unused EZ mount panels, which I used to mount my unmounted stamps.  Still got plenty of packs for future use.  I got these at half price, so I splurged a bit. By now, you guys know that, I don't know exactly know the definition of  "a bit".

 

I always envy a friend of mine Joan, how she organizes her pens and markers.  I want my pens to be out in the open, so I know what I have.  Not my coloring markers though.  It has a special place of its own.  I was referring to scrapbooking, embossing and stamping pens. Going back to what I was talking, these cubie pen holders were already discontinued.  I was so happy when a store rep at Office Max offered to help me find these pen holders from their other branches.   It took almost two months but then they called when it all arrived in their store.  What makes it more of a good deal was I got it at bargain price plus it was a buy 1 take 1 deal.  Bravo to some store reps who would really go out of their way to help customers.

These wire racks are part of the Bygel rod collection from Ikea.  Still couldn't figure out where will I mount the rods, so these racks still sit in one of my shelves.  Oh BTW, these are glimmer mist from TAC.  Looking forward to play with them and looking forward to selling my Shimmer paints.

 

These Jetmax paper organize cubie were bought from Big Lots 6 months ago.  We bought those in prep for the supposedly job offer in Germany that we turned down.  The houses there barely have storage cabinets.  Well, I it was a good investment.  Now its out in the box and in use.

Still debating if I will paint these or not.  But since they were tucked away in the closet cabinet, I think I would keep it the way it is now.

This is one of my best buy from Ikea.  Originally, I was planning to use this for my 8 1/2 X 11 cardstock and the other one for my scraps, but opted not to.  Guess what's inside...

These are the jacks in the box:  my ever-growing punches!!!

 

There goes my EK punches collection...

then, my easy to store MS punches collection... 

another drawer full of MS punches...

 

another drawer for the craft and corner MS punches

another drawer for this and that punches...

 

a drawer with foam stamps, ATC, and watercolor papers.

a drawer with shimmerz, pearl-ex, assorted mediums, glitters and flower soft in it.

 

a drawer with embossing powders and inkpads...

This little tower of joy is really awesome.  It maybe not be big enough but it was indeed a good storage system.  I am thinking of buying two more.

Ever wonder how to store your Justrite stamps.  Couple months ago, I went crazy buying them.  It was a bit of a disappointment combined with  frustration as to how its going to be stored.  I wish the company would make provisions on how these stamps were packed.  I would honestly spend money on the stamps than buying storage for it.  I tried couple things yet it didn't work all that great.  Recently, I came across someone who had shown how she stores her Justrite stamps.  She had a built-in dividers in all of her drawers.
Then, I remember, during one of our weekend trips to Ikea, I found this plastic drawer organizer.  When I grabbed it, I honestly don't know where to use it.  But look how perfect they are for those Justrite stamps.  Just be very careful in where you store them, so you won't lose anything.

 

There goes the well-organized unmounted stamps.  No more CD cases that also eats up space.  Mine were now all mounted in an EZ mount panels and store in a plastic binders.  How neat could that be!  Labeling will have to wait till we can get back all our stuff from storage.

A bunch of rubberstamps I picked here and there...  Most of these are Cornish Heritage Farm backgrounder and a collection of Thomas Kinkade stamps.  I was in heaven when I found a store that sells these goodies for almost give away price.

Now these 3-tier carousel has my stickles, dimentional pearl paints and smooch paints.  

 

I got these unfinished CD racks for almost next to nothing at IKEA.  Still debating if I would let it sit in a table or mount it on the wall.  One thing is sure though, I will definitely paint this black.  BTW, these CD racks houses my Spellbinder dies that was stored in CD jewel cases.

I might as well use the rods on the walking closet, right!?  With the right size binder rings, it was yet another possibilities.  Those blue pouches was acquired from Target for a buck a piece.  It was a perfect storage for my Cricut solution cartridges.

My unopened metal rulers, masks, stencils and templates were hanging in this rod too using big binder rings.

And just below those pouches and templates, are two boxes.  One is for papers that needs to be shredded and the other one is for giveaways, gifts or possibly a future money generating sale.

That's it for the meantime,  I will post yet another updates once I'm all done with this room.

Hope you had fun looking at My Space...
Have a great weekend everyone!