Craft Storage | Organization ideas by Nancy Rivers

Nancy rivers has shared her Creative Organisation Ideas on her blog. Its a very comprehensive post with loads of clever and easy ideas.

You can click here for the direct link or click on the photos.

Craft Storage Catalog | A crafty way to keep track of flower dies

As I have quite a few flowers dies, each different, I came up with a simple swatch book that allows me to find the right shape and the right combinations between flowers from different sets.

Click here for the tutorial.

The Odd Girl's craft room

Kristy the "Odd girl" is an illustrator who is not odd at all, back in July she revamped her studio cleverly using a closet storage system.





For a more detailed view of Kristy's room visit her blog post for more on Kristy, her site is at www.theoddgirl.com

LeAnn's crafty organizational ideas

There are plenty of studio and storage ideas here on the Crafty Storage blog, so I'm always excited when we have some different ideas to share. Today we have some cool ideas from LeAnn over at Silly LeAnn Designs.

Check out how LeAnn keeps track of her stamp sets:

(all photos courtesy of LeAnn at SillyLeAnn Designs)

Ever wonder if a certain stamp will fit a punch or die? LeAnn created another book to make it easy!

And check out how she keeps track of colour combinations!

Hop on over to LeAnn's blog and see even more ideas and photos: SillyLeAnn Designs. Be sure to tell her Crafty Storage sent you!

Posted by Jessica

Susan's custom crafting table

The table is at the heart of any craft room, and many of us have spent days, months, or even years searching for the perfect one. Susan over at Cards, Quilts, and Kittys took matters into her own hands - and came up with a custom table that suits her needs perfectly!

(all photos courtesy of Susan at Cards, Quilts and Kittys)

There are many more great elements to Susan's craft room. Here's a photo of the entire room:

One of my favourite pieces is the antique dental cabinet (on the far left) that houses her wood-mounted stamps. When she purchased it from an antiques market, it was LIME green!
Cruise on over to Susan' blog and see even more photos: Cards, Quilts and Kittys. Be sure to tell her Crafty Storage sent you!

Posted by Jessica

Becky's new studio

Anyone familiar with Becky Oehlers' crafting style knows it is clean, fresh, and visually stunning. So when Becky revealed her new studio, it was no surprise to see the bright white furniture, clean open space, and beautiful touches.

The view from the door glows with all the natural light reflecting off the crisp white ceiling. The room measures 12'x12'.

(all photos courtesy of Becky Oehler's at Hemisemidemiquaver Design Blog)

There's a sweet little dormer on each side, complete with table and chair. This one serves as Becky's sewing station. Each dormer adds about 3'x3' to the room.
At the far end, built-in storage houses buttons, ribbon, magazine holders, and boxes for storage. The embellishments are organized in rainbow order - a girl after my own heart!
Topping off the entire room is this sweet and sparkly chandelier, which pops against the lovely blue walls ("Vintage Map" from the Martha Stewart Collection.)
Take a tour of Becky's room and see more photos at Hemidemisemiquaver Design Blog. Be sure to tell her Crafty Storage sent you!

Posted by Jessica

LeeAnn's new studio space

LeeAnn over at Flowerbug's Inkspot has an amazing new crafty space, thanks to her DIY husband! Check out the area for her classes:

(all photos courtesy of LeeAnn at Flowerbug's Inkspot)

Don't you love that bright, cheery green and the crisp white cabinets? And notice the size? They combined two rooms into one, giving LeeAnn an amazing 30 x 15 feet. Dreamy!

Here's a close-up of her workspace. Look at all that storage!

LeeAnn also has several wonderful storage options for things like stamps:

Sizzix dies

Punches (featuring those handy Ikea Bygel rails!)

And my favourite, paper storage in a SHOE cabinet (Ikea's Stall). How utterly ingenious!

Head over to LeeAnn's blog for more details and many more photos. Make sure you tell her Crafty Storage sent you!

Posted by Jessica

Lisa's Storm New years Resolution

Over at the Fiskars blog you can read this post by Lisa on her New Year's resolution on being more organized.
She has great photos!

Its Baack!!!

The Organized and Inspired Scrapbooker (it has great ideas for other crafts too) is back in print and available in a paperback format trough Amazon.com this fabulous book went out of print about 3 years ago and has been selling for upwards of $40 on ebay! It is full of ideas and teaches you what style of storage works best for you trough diferent excersises.

A tour of Jennifer Ellefson's Creative Space

Jennifer Ellefson has posted a tour around her beautiful craft space


I love the all the white - isn't it peaceful, just perfect to be creative in.


Jenn's main desk area - and in her own words "I like having things within reach, so there are lots of neat little storage options. It all appears to go together, but in reality, it doesn't! ;) I just keep my eyes peeled for good storage pieces, preferably those that go vertical with a small footprint so as not to take up too much space on the surface. If it isn't the right color, I usually just paint it!"

And a second work surface holds her sewing machine, die cut machine and copics


And a closer pic of her copic storage



To see more photos of Jenn's craft space click here, or here for the main page of her blog.

Dawn's metal die storage

Metal dies are all the rage, and the storage of those dies is a hot topic here at Crafty Storage.

Dawn over at My Favorite Things has a great idea for DIY die storage. And it's eco-friendly too!

She used a cardstock, leftover acetate sheets, and her sewing machine to create these simple and yet very practical die storage pockets!

(photo courtesy of Dawn at My Favorite Things)

Each die slips easily into the pocket, but is easy to see (thanks to the acetate). And if you read Dawn's blog, you'll know that a plain plastic basket won't do to store all the pockets - Dawn loves vintage, and has an amazing eye for style and colour (note how the colours of the cardstock coordinate with her blog!) - so she stores them in a vintage loaf pan. Cute and simple!

(photo courtesy of Dawn at My Favorite Things)

It's obvious how well this solution works with solid, larger dies, but it can be easily adapted to work with smaller dies (use a smaller piece of acetate) long, skinny dies (sew the pocket down the middle to hold two on one card), and even multiple stacked dies like Nestabilities (cut a thin magnetic sheet to hold the dies together and then slide it into the pocket.)

Check out Dawn's blog for more details on how she created the pockets. Love this idea? Let us know if you try it out, or if you have your own way to store metal dies (or other crafting tools.) We'd love to hear from you!

Posted by Jessica

Marie's Embossing Folder Storage

Storage - it's one of the biggest issues I have with papercrafting and all it's tools!

The other day I wanted my Swiss Dots Cuttlebug embossing folder and it took me 20 minutes to find it!

So I found a little mini milk crate (used for CD storage) and labelled my folders with a Sharpie marker.

I then alphabetized them by Designer.

Check this out:

Yes I know the folder names appear upside down - or so it would seem - but when I'm using them in a class or for a demo they are right side up. 

Besides I can read them easily if I position myself over the crate while I flip through them!

This works for me - maybe it will work for you too!

Posted by Marie

Nestabilities Die Storage Solution

I often look at things with an eye for using them for other things than what they were originally created for.

Nothing too out-of-box - in most cases it's how it can be used to help me organize my ever-growing supplies for papercrafting!

For example I keep my ribbon in planter boxes! 

When it came time to re-organize my Nestability dies I had a solution I liked I just needed it to be BIGGER!

I ended up buying a LARGE 320 CD Storage Binder and I'm so pleased with it!

Click HERE to go to my blog and see the photos.

To see other ideas for storing your Nestabilities dies click HERE.

posted by Marie

Klo's Studio

Klo has been lucky enough to have a few different studio spaces but her most latest redesign is my favourite.

The black and red color scheme is so chic!

But the most interesting piece in the room - in my opinion - is the screen door she's mounted on one wall!

We'll have to keep checking her blog to see what she's going to do with that.

Click HERE to see more of Klo's space.

posted by Marie

Suzanne's Stamping room

Love it! I will let Suzanne explain it.


All my cabinets except those on the right wall are built on casters and actually roll into different configurations so that I can change the floor plan when I have friends over for classes.  The walls are a pale yellow and the floor is a dark black hardwood.  All trim and cabinets are white. The tile on the cabinet tops are 16 inch floor tile and are not fastened down so that I can change the configuration of the cabinets as I like.  The words on the walls are vision, art, dream, and imagination. I hope you enjoy looking at my space - I have enjoyed showing it off.
Suzanne


Looking in from the door:

My main work area:

That tall stack you see in the first photo:

On the walls to the right of the door:

Further down the wall to the right of the door:

Closeup of the Caboodle wall to the right of the door:

More detail about the Caboodle wall items and a different viewpoint:

To the left of the door, behind my chair:

Close up view of the left wall:

Closer view of the window wall with some labels:

Even more detail of window wall:

Craft Cubby

Check out this cute storage solution for keeping your "at hand" supplies handy and out of the way while at classes or crops! 

 

It folds flat for easy portability when not in use!

You can find the tutorial for this and other nifty ideas for sale at Card a la Carte.

 

For those of you who do not sew, don't have a sewing machine or want to purchase a ready made Cubby I've got some for sale at my blog HERE with more on my sewing table! 

 

Custom color orders accepted!

 

Marie

a few small changes can make a HUGE difference...

Over the last 18 months or so, we have gone through our tiny condo and put in some storage shelving in each of the closets.  It's helped SO MUCH!  Although the pictures below are not specific to my crafting space, you still get the idea.  It might cost a little up-front (please keep in mind that we didn't use anything fancy...just a few options from our local Home Depot), but extra space is totally worth it!  :)

Click here for more details!

If you've got some before and after pictures of your closet re-organization, please leave a link in your comment.  I would love to see what you've done.

-Anne

How to store and organize your Digital stuff

I have started collecting digital images and papers. I don't have a lot but I thought I would set up a system to help me keep track of it.

Please check out my BLOG for how I organize my Digital Stuff!

Posted by Marie

Spices & Buttons?

What does this (see pictures below) have to do with Crafty Storage?

A few months ago I decided that it was time to get my spices off the counter. Living in a condo, we have limited space in our small kitchen. So, I made some tins to hang on the fridge. That left me with an empty spice rack. It's no longer taking up space on our kitchen counter, instead, it's in our spare room (my make-shift craft room).

The spice rack is happy to hold colorful embellishments now!

Do you have any "unusual" crafty storage advice? I would love to hear from others! :)

- anne...just because