Baker's Dozen Studio Challenge: September

Hi Everyone!

It's time for the Baker's Dozen Studio Challenge.  This is a monthly opportunity for us to share what makes our stamping studios hum.  Each month we will have a fun, crafty question so we can share our favorites, some tips and tricks, stamping advice and more.

The question for September is:
Within Arm's Reach - What do you keep within arm's reach at your stamp table?  Show us what you have access to without leaving your seat.  What organization methods do you use?  Tell us which ones you love and which ones you'd like to change.

Well, let me just start out by saying - that I am NOT a very clean stamper - I usually don't get to clean my stamp area until I reach the point that I can't find anything - I once lost a 12x12 ScorPal in there for months! LOL! So I thought I would show you a before I cleaned picture (WARNING: messy craft room ahead!!) This is crazy - but I stamp in that little clean corner of a desk - HA! and when there is no more desk to stamp on (even a 2x2 square will do - then I know its time to clean up a little!!!

BEFORE:

 So I took the Studio Challenge as a challenge to clean up and organize and PURGE my craft corner and I have to say that even though it took the whole weekend - it was really fun to (and a bit scary) to see all the things I haven't seen for sooo long! Here is a picture of the AFTER shot - a clean craft area - YAY! :) I got a new table cloth - and labeled things and moved things around - made it so much more fun to scrap and craft! And hopefully my tornado style of crafting will be a bit less tornado-y :)

AFTER:

Here is a picture of my desk and all the things I keep in arms reach - on the far right are my 12x12 papers and then I have my Big Shot and Spellbinders on the desk next to the big desk (I keep my Spellbinder dies in CD cases that I can flip through to find the one that I am looking for - ontop of which I have embellishments, brads, etc. Underneath I store stamps organized by their different companies. There also is a little room heater for when it gets cold in the winter :) I covered the front of the containers with little strips of paper (I love green, so I picked different shades of green) so that it looks a bit cleaner and you don't see all the stuff inside the containers:

This is a closer picture of the desk - my craft corner is located in our bedroom (My husband totally rocks for being sooo awesome about my late night crafting :) I try to stack things up and down to maximize a small space - all the furniture in here were different pieces that I found at garage sales. The one thing that I would love to change - is to have a room of my own - it would be so nice to have a space that I close the door! But the challenging part is to keep it clean - and since I cleaned my desk area, I have made 5 cards - and my new challenge to myself is to clean up after each card - that might be the only way to keep my tornado stamping style in check! :)

 

Here is a closer pic of my desk - I try to keep everything at arm's reach - these are the products that I would say that I use the most: I keep a little CD case with Spellbinders that I use the most, ontop of the copics (which are so little compared to how much I wish I had - which is all of them!) I store my dies and also on the side are dies that I keep from different companies, in front of my desk are twine and embossing folders and on the extreme right my liquid pearls and my Memento inks (yay!) and to the left, I store my bling in the Key Ingredients Kit containers from TE:

 Here are some smaller pics of the ways that I have found to organize my craft area: I keep my bling organized by color in the KI kits that Taylor sends out each month - its a nice way to find bling that coordinates with your card easily.

 

Since I don't have that many copics I keep them organized in these plastic containers that I labeled with different heart colors.

Underneath my desk I tried to maximize space by adding some containers to hold tools (like corner chompers, cropadiles,etc., adhesives, cardstock sorted by color that I use alot. I keep my punches on the table adjacent to me sorted by their manufacturer:

The first drawer to my right, I keep stickles, more liquid pearls, glitter, stamping blocks etc.

On the side of my craft area, I keep my 8.5x11 cardstock organized in file folders and next to them little cubbies that hold my 6x6 paper pack organized by companies. Our local scrapbook store was closing down (:( such a sad day) and she also sold many of the furniture items in the store - I was able to snag these cute cubbies along with  another one that has pull out drawers - I am not sure where she got them from. I would love to label all the file folders and drawers one day!

Thanks for peeking into my craftroom - I had fun organizing everything and I can't wait to see everyone's craft areas on the hop today! Join me and see the fun:

• Charmaine Ikach
• Cammie King (Guest Designer)
• Jen Shults
• Jodi Collins
• Karen Giron
• Melody Rupple
• Regina Mangum
• Sankari Wegman
• Shannon White
• Shelly Mercado
• Stephanie Kraft
• Taylor VanBruggen
• Wanda Guess

 Thanks for stopping by today!
Hugs
Sankari :)