My craft space {bella blvd}

Yesterday on the Bella Blvd blog I shared some details and photos about my craft space. It's always nice to go around the room and really look at the space you create in. I recently did a big purge, but even when I was getting ready to take these pictures, I saw more opportunities to de-clutter and organize.

My studio is the third biggest of four bedrooms in our home. It is upstairs, the windows look out onto the front yard and it gets great light in the mornings. I had been in the smallest bedroom, but quickly outgrew that space a couple of years ago. I now have the space for two tables, two chairs and a bigger closet.

The items I use most are kept on the desk first, then the two-tier wire basket on the shelving unit or in the little basket by the printer. I shuffle things around often so that what I am using most is always at my fingertips and I don’t need to sift through drawers or bins.

Here on my desk I only keep a few mists and inks and supplies that I’m in the mood to use now, or are color-coordinated with projects I am currently working on. Then, with the change of seasons or holidays, they will swap out with others.

Since this was for Bella Blvd, I wanted to showcase how I store those items. One of the things I'm happy I did was put any of the items from Bella Blvd that have a hole on a binder ring. It makes it so easy to pop them in and out of the drawer as a group. Then I just flip through to the color I want. I did that with all flowers and feathers for the brand.

As a card maker, I often get asked about how I store all of my cards. This teeny tiny basket is it! It keeps them neat and ready to go for when I need them. When the basket gets too full, I go on a binge and send out a bunch of smiles to my friends and family, or I take them to work and hold a discounted trunk show and my co-workers buy them for half the cost I would normally sell them at.

Everyone has the stash of markers. These are the most-used colors and styles in kept in reach.

My closet is premium space. Some of you may remember a past post where I talked about hanging my layouts on hooks before I put them in albums. Here are a couple off to the side of my camera bag.

Lastly, here are two Pier One frames that I hang favorite cards and layouts on before they move to the hooks or basket. I like to be able to look at many of the pieces I make for a little while before I sort and hide them away in the closet.

So there you have it! If you've seen my craft room tour before, there might be some updates. I get restless and organize a lot —I'm not a fan of clutter.

Hope your weekend was great, and thanks for stopping here today.

Scrap space {cocoa daisy}

Yesterday I shared my scrap space on the Cocoa Daisy blog. There are a lot of storage pictures and ways I utilize the space that I have for crafting.

If you missed it, swing on by the Cocoa Daisy blog today to see what I shared.

New craft room for 2012

I am so excited to share a big project that was in the making for many months. By "in the making," I mean I had the best of intentions to get this done sooner. 

Above is the room that I used to use for my scrappy space. It was the smallest of the bedrooms in the house. The other spare room (below) was our guest room. All it had in it was a spare bed and a closet full of stuff we stored away. 

It was begging for me to take it over. And now the room I used to be in (the green one), is going to have all of our exercise equipment in it and be a storage room for the husband.

My favorite part of this room (other than the size and the bigger closet) is the way I painted it when we moved it. I had used left over paint from other rooms and done a two-tone, mix-and-match. Now I actually get to enjoy it! It had been one of my favorites when I painted years ago.

Like I said before, the closet space doubled from the other room, and I am loving all of the extra shelves and spaces I have.

I have also been meaning to show this technique on my blog for awhile now. I have 15 albums full of scrapbook pages. They take up the entire top shelf on the left side of the closet. Once stacking those was too difficult in the old room, I started hanging my page protectors on 'S' hooks in the closet.

I have found that not only is it a space saver, but the pages don't flatten and smoosh like the ones in the books have.

And there you have it—my new craft room. As you can tell, I'm quite excited about it. Now I can start to add some personal touches and hang some new artwork. I love a blank canvas! 

Thanks for stopping to see the new room!