Before and After

Hi Friends! I mentioned awhile back that I had organized my craft room (again!), and now I've finally gotten my pictures edited enough to post. I'll go ahead and get the embarrassing photos out of the way...the BEFORE shots.


I had so much stuff on my table, it was nearly impossible to work at it anymore!

The area just inside the door had become my catch-all. The baskets were full of fabric, patterns, cards, and anything else that would fit that I didn't feel like putting away. Those shipping boxes were scrap I was saving for the cardboard.

This stand is so pretty, but with a zillion receipts in that bottom basket, it was an eyesore. And, I still needed to pack up all my yarn, including all this pretty sock yarn.

Lots of yarn still inside the upper cabinets, and those white plastic drawers taking up all that counter space hold 12x12 paper and scraps. The blue baskets hold 6x6 paper pads. Way back in the corner you can see some of my knitting needles.

As you can see, I wasn't very good at putting things away when I was done. It just kept piling up with every card I made.

This is where I do all my die cutting, paper scoring, and where I store my scissors, use my computer, and play my cd's. A lot going on. All those boxes in the corner are empty--I'm just saving them in case I ever think of something to do with them!

My sewing area isn't too bad. Those clear boxes on the slat wall are mostly Flourishes stamps. I haven't gotten around to organizing all my stamps yet. The jumble of wires to the left of the sewing machine is the compressor for my Copic airbrush, and the lazy susan to the right of the sewing machine has Sparkly Fluff on top and sewing thread on the bottom. Not a very logical arrangement, in my mind.

The giant blue binder holds all my dies. The smaller binders against the wall are stamps. The pile of plastic to the right of the die binder are plastic envelopes I intended to use to store stamps, but never got around to actually doing it.







Whew, thank goodness that's over. I don't know how I stood working in all that mess. So, while my craft room is a continual work in progress, here's what it's like now. The AFTER photos! (Warning: this is very photo heavy!)

I turned my table so that any mess work-in-progress is not instantly visible from the door. I also removed the tall revolving stand. It was nice, but I couldn't stand how it overpowered the table. All my yarn is now bagged and on top of the wall cabinets instead of taking up room inside them

This is my view now when I'm working at my table--clean and neat.









This rolling cart used to sit in a corner half empty. Now it holds the things that used to be on that bulky revolving tray on top of the desk.











I keep my most used inks on the top of the cart, along with white and clear embossing powder.





Stickles and embossing powder are in one drawer, and Flower Soft and Sparkly Fluff are in another.
All that cardboard I had piled up...I cut it into manageable sized pieces and store it in one of the other drawers.

There are four very deep, large drawers right behind the table. They were so junky, I didn't even bother taking before photos of them, but lookie here:


The top drawer holds almost all my ribbon now, organized mostly by color. Before, it was all over the place.









The second drawer has the rest of my ribbon, my reinkers, extra glue, baggies, and other random things I need from time to time.

The third drawer has always held my punches, but I had pretty much just dumped them in there. Now I have boxes to separate them into categories--circle punches, ovals, McGill flower punches, Martha Stewart, hole punches, Corner Chomper and paper crimper, and my EK Success punches are all lined up so I can see every one of them!

The fourth drawer holds miscellaneous extra items and beading supplies.

Beside those drawers are two sets of cabinets. The one on the left used to hold solid color cs, felt, and foam sheets. Now it holds two of those 3-drawer units with 12x12 paper in them (I left the third unit on the counter for scraps), and I also have my white cs in this cabinet. I am storing my 6x6 pads on the bottom shelf, along with my solid color cs. The right-hand cabinet, which is directly underneath my Sizzix, has a basket with all my embossing folders in it, my old paper cutters, a box of clear bags for storing my finished cards, and the bottom shelf is full of the extra things I had left over after getting organized.

Above those cabinets is where I cut, score, and use my Sizzix. Notice that all that yarn is gone from the upper cabinets! :)

I found this awesome cabinet at Northern Tool. It's by Stack-On. Perfect for storing eyelets, brads, and other tiny embellies. There are 60 drawers, but I also ordered dividers for the drawers, so there are 120 compartments in all!!!

This pretty metal cabinet came from Hobby Lobby. I have my rhinestones, pearls, chipboard die cuts, and twine stored here.

The sheep picture is from my knitting days. I took it at a sheep shearing in 2008.

I love Mason jars! They are inexpensive and good for so many things. It's great that I can use my buttons as part of the decor in my craft room now. I bought white plastic lids rather than use metal lids, and eventually, I plan to store the jars on their sides in some kind of caddy system similar to a wine rack.

The jars are great for storing flowers, too! Same plan for storing them on their sides someday.

I've got all my electric tools stored above my Sizzix and air compressor. The plastic storage unit is from The Container Store. I think it is supposed to be a shoe storage unit.

After over a year of having to wrap gifts among all my card paraphernalia, I finally have my wrapping station back again. Since all my card ribbon is in a drawer, I was able to put my gift wrap ribbon back on the pole! I love the pull out tray under the wrapping paper. It's big enough to wrap some pretty large gifts on.

And, just under the wrapping station I store scissors, tags, extra tape, and extra wrapping ribbon, but I had one drawer that was empty, so I used it to store all my Sizzix dies! 

This is just to the left of the wrapping station. It is the corner where I used to keep the cd player and lots of junk. Now I store my air compressor there and have room to use my computer. 

    

To the right of the wrapping station are my stamp binders, alcohol inks, and Copic refills.

The upper cabinets hold my Distress Ink blending block set, bow maker, and tape in one cube, and a box that holds my newest stamp sets (I still need to get my stamps organized, but that will be at a later date) and my Taylored Expressions Key Ingredients kits in another cube. 

These are my finished cards, sorted by occasion.

My sewing area can actually be used to sew now! 

Tomorrow, I'll show you my latest sewing project: a chair backback! 

Nice and neat!

It was amazing to see that I could store all that fabric in this little bitty basket once I got it all folded up. The patterns are for American Girl and Barbie doll clothes.

All this stuff is for sewing, which I don't do very often anymore, except for on my cards.

When my DD saw how great the craft room looked, she even cleaned her stamp area up, too! She took that revolving tiered tray for her ink and glitter glue, and loves it. 

And, finally, I don't normally put pictures of my DD on my blog, but this picture is almost six years old, so I think it's okay. ;) It's one of my favorite pictures of her, and it's probably exactly what I looked like when I was  finally finished cleaning up my craft room! :D

Don't you know I was happy!!!

Thanks for stopping by and for sticking with me till the end! Have a crafty day!

~Hugs,

 

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