KISS (Keep It Simple Saturdays) with Michelle ~ My SIMPLE Craft Nook Tour

Hello Everyone!

Well we've had a blast of cold weather lately here in Eastern Ontario and it came as such a shock. So when deciding on what to post for this week's blog, I recalled one of my many conversations with my friend Nini (Owner of PDSS) and asked her if it would be cool if I showed my craft space? Nini agreed as this would be a first for this blog. One of the things I enjoy to see are craft rooms/spaces out there, either on video or blog. I guess it is for my never-ending quest to be uber-organized or when I get frustrated because I can't 'find' something; whatever comes first *laughing*. Nevertheless, I hope my tour will find some simple ways for you to organize your stash. Are you ready... Okay let's go!

1. This is the view looking into my space. I have a modest nook in the basement which is raised from its foundation. This enables me to enjoy lots of natural night, see the waterfront (yes I live along the lakefront, I am a lucky gal) plus take a peek seeing my boys outside whenever they give me a chance to craft in peace. Most of my containers were purchased from Wal-Mart over time and they are all from the Sterlite brand. My aim is always to make my space as inexpensive as possible because I don't know if I'll keep the same configuration of drawers the same. These drawer units are stackable and interchangeable which works perfectly for me. Plus I wanted a clean look to my space, it gives me a sense of calm when I enter.

2. Starting from the right side of my nook, there are these 4 stacked large drawer units that mainly house all my stamps (wood mounted, acrylic or cling mounted rubber). Each drawer is separated from one another into categories such as alphas, images, sentiments, occasions, elements and so forth. Here is a peek into one of those drawers:

3. As you can see I house all my wood mounted stamps into these plastic containers from Scrap-Organizer. These containers are just slightly larger than the 8-1/2 x 11 size of cardstock and they are deep enough to hold my wood mounted stamps in place. There are certain instances I would separate a certain style of stamp from the others within a separate container and for me those are my Birthday and Thank-You stamps.

4. The top drawer of this unit (located closest to my main crafting desk) houses my blocks, brayer and stamp-a-ma-jig (aka my most used stamping tools):

5. Next to these sets of drawers are 2 large towers of 12 x12 drawer units which are bought as 1 unit of 3 drawers. I store all my ink pads and markers in ROY G. BIV order starting with White in the top units, then Black and Grey together which leads into the Reds, Oranges, Yellows, etc... The left units stores my ink pads. The right units stores my markers and other ink pads like Staz-on:

On top of those units house my Scor-Pal, my scrap folder for cardstock and 3 individual containers ~ all my Christmas supplies, finished cards and layout pages in progress.

6. Now we are along the window wall of my craft nook. Starting from the right corner, I have a set of 3 JetMax cubes. These are the 1 drawer units with the lil' cubbies inside the drawer. My specific use for this type of drawer are for my punches:

These JetMax cubes are stacked and on top houses all my current 12 x 12 stash of cardstock and patterned papers inside those Cropper Hopper containers. The expandable folder beside my cardstock houses my speciality 12 x 12 cardstock like glitter, bling or other textured styles like dots (again in ROY G BIV order).

How I store my patterned paper is fashioned after how my brain looks for paper. I go with either a theme or look I want to achieve like soft and pretty or masculine even playful and young. Hence that is the way all my patterned papers are stored in those like categories. If I have paper pads I store them as a whole within the category that suits that paper's theme. This has worked like a charm for me.

I also store themed like papers/embellies together like Baby, Halloween, Travel within the mini Cropper Hopper containers.

7. The unit next to my paper and punches are for my ribbons. Again stored in ROY G BIV order(can you see a pattern here?) for easy retrieval :

8. The unit beside my main craft table houses my embellishments in the first 4 drawers then in the deeper drawer units store my misc. tools such as other adhesives and tools not used on a regular basis:

9. Now the work-horse of my craft nook... My crafting table. It is old dining room table that has been re-purposed into my space. Along the back of table houses my fishing tackle box with all my smaller embellies:

Below my crafting table are my idea books, magazines and catalogues plus a rolling carte that houses my 8-1/2 x 11 sheets of cardstock. Top crate holds my usual cardstock (in order of ROY G BIV) and the bottom crate houses my speciality cardstock and papers:

10. Next to my tackle box is another 3 drawer unit which houses my most used tools separated in this order - cutting, adhesive, larger units of adhesive regularly used like my ATG gun. I keep my piercing pad, stamp cleaner pads and my Big Bite out beside this unit:

11. In this tool box, I store my smaller regularly used tools like rulers, paper piercer, pencils, and such here. My baby wipes for easy clean up are close at hand which sits on top of a box that is empty:

12. The back unit is an old microwave stand which again got re-purposed for my craft nook. On top sits my embossing tools, misc stuff, acrylic stand for taking photos and my inspiration box to create projects with my Slice machine. In the middle unit of the stand holds more misc stuff not frequently used. The bottom unit (which you can't see in the photo) stores all my chipboard - bought and recycled plus my vinyl sheets:

13. Last but not least, my long white table has been dubbed as the cutting station. What you see in the open and above these drawer units are pieces of memorabilia I need to scrap with, my trash can (how exciting I know, ha.) and huge pile of leather and suede sheets to use with my Big Shot. You can see my Big Shot and Slice on top. The drawers on the left hold all my tools and supplies for those machines like dies, design cards, tag maker and frames. Actually the 1st drawer houses my Slice supplies. The bottom two drawers holds all my Sizzix tools and it is filling up fast:

The unit on the right holds all my not so frequently used crafting related tools and supplies such as paints, re-inkers, thread, coloring pencils and chalks, etc:

Well that it. That's my craft nook tour. Thanks for coming along for the ride! If there are any questions, please let me know. I would love to see your craft space. Post photos as a blog post in the PDSS Community Site or start a discussion in our SCRAP ROOMS AND ORGANIZING TIPS section and share your area of creativity.

Have a great week crafting!

KISSes and Hugs ~Michelle