Elizabeth's Craft Room Tour

Hello Everyone

I have had a couple of requests to give an updated tour of Elizabeth's Craft Room. There is nothing I like better than having a nosy at other peoples' craft rooms and  I have been inspired by many beautiful stamping spaces. My room is always evolving so here is my latest set up - picture heavy - you have been warned! :)

First this wreath hangs on my door - welcome one and all to Elizabeth's Craft Room!

My room is dual purpose - I have a full time job which I do at home, so my craft room has to work for that function. It is also the darkest room in the house so I have used white extensively and my craft desk is right under the window to make the best of the available light. (BTW, you can click on any of these pictures to make them bigger and have a closer look). I am a standing stamper - so I chose a desk from Ikea with adjustable legs which I have fully extended so I don't crook my back bending over!

I have things that I use all the time around my desk. My paper trimmer and Stampin' Scrub cleaner live on either side of the desk with my working area on grid paper in between. Along the back I have my Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Hodgepodge Hardware, Pastels and Pricking mats in the right holder, my daubers, two holders containing Stampin' Mist and Stazon cleaner, liquid adhesives, aqua painter and pencils. The mini green craft caddy contains my Stamp a Ma Jig, Craft Scissors and Paper Snips, bone folder, pricking tool, and water mister. Finally a box of tissues and hanging my heat gun.

On the window sill the paper file contains plastic folders of A4 Whisper White & Very Vanilla cardstock, plus small folders of scraps in those colours. The big peg holds pictures of inspiring projects and there is also Glossy White cardstock and laminating pouches. The right of the two 3-tier Ikea bathroom stands hold pots of Stampin' Up! brads, buttons, eyelets and so on. The left one holds sticky tape, all my mini punches, and dry adhesive in the bottom tray. Finally, you can see my ink pad holders.

Now a couple of close ups. First my dauber storage - I have showed this before, but as an admittedly OCD control freak, I love my daubers - all labelled with the ink names. I made the storage out of boxes the my eyeglasses came in.

I made my ink pad storage units with fibre board a few years ago. It was a bit of a faff, but stores the ink pads and their matching markers perfectly. Markers and ink pads should both be stored flat!

Moving around the room to the left, you can see my Big Shot. I store this out where I can reach for it any time. It is sitting on a folding table my lovely sister gave me. It is so useful - I use it at my classes. She also gave my the cute heart storage on the wall, which I often use to store swaps that I want to CASE. The cupboard behind holds my 'real' work files, home paper work and completed scrapbooks.

Next is my work desk - 9-5 this is where I sit and tap that computer. I like the display shelf above - another Ikea purchase. During weekends and evenings, I push the keyboard back and my craft area spreads onto this desk. My black diary is decorated with Stampin' Up! rub ons.

Moving around again, I have a bookshelf on the left of my desk. Here I do my Stampin' Up! computer and paperwork on my laptop. I display recent and upcoming class and workshop projects. I also have my music and speaking books here.  To the left are my stamp drawers with my printer on top. There is a display board for my scrapback pages and Ikea rail storage for my old-style SU! punches.

Here is a picture showing the stamp drawers. They are also from Ikea and called Alex. They do different sizes and the shallow drawers are perfect if you store your stamps flat. The sets are organised roughly in line with the sections in the Stampin' Up! catalogue, with labels on the top of the drawer handles so they can be seen easily from above. As you can see - I am mostly a wood mount girl! :)

You might notice I am SUO, (that is Stampin' Up! only). I primarily keep only goodies available in the current Stampin' Up! catalogue. This does keep things simple as I don't have to stop and think when making projects for classes and workshops - if it is in the room, I can use it! :)

Next around is the door, then a triple wardrobe - another Ikea purchase. The narrow one is fitted with shelves and is great for all sorts of paper and other storage. In case you want to know, I did a picture showing what I store on each shelf.

I have recently changed the way I store my A4 cardstock. I used to be on colour family shelves with the folders laying flat. I got some Ikea Billy book ends that fit perfectly on the shelves to divide the families - now I can stand the folders vertically, which is a lot easier to see and use.

The double cupboard comes next and stands to the right of my craft desk. It means I can easily reach everything from where I stand to create.

Right at the top I have bulk cardstock and chipboard. There are also large white boxes across the top of all the cupboards that hold all my event and display materials.

Here are a close up of the other shelves...

The second shelf is where I store class aand workshop planning samples and projects under development. The small scrapbook contains my technique samples - we do a different one at each class.

The grey boxes contain my upcoming class and workshop projects - all cut and prepared.

The black box stores my Big Shot dies and folders... I will give you a peek inside....

Inside the Big Shot box...

By storing upright you can see the labels and easily select what you need. It is a nice strong box as the dies are quite heavy. I can easily lift the whole box out when I am using my Big Shot or packing for an event. 

The next shelf is the one I reach to most often. The files on the left are my scraps - sorted by colour family and stored in plastic file folders. I always get these out before going for a new piece of cardstock from the narrow cupboard. If I can punch it or stamp on it, it gets saved! Next are my new-style Stampin' Up! punches - which fit well into the Really Useful boxes. Behind the punches is a box holding my glittering and embossing stuff e.g. heat pad / tidy tray. The caddy on the right holds my bulky tools

The next is a shallow divided drawer. These contain at the front my class daubers, behind are embossing powders and glitters with spoons to sprinkle. :)

Below that I have a deep drawer for bulky tools, envelopes and cello bags. It also holds wipes, clear blocks in a bucket and my precious labelling machine - you can see I like to label can't you?

The next drawer contains retired stamps that I still use for my own projects. Honestly, they don't get used much, but there are a few there that I will keep forever! :) This drawer also holds my re-inkers and my only non-SU! punch - a Mickey Mouse one! :) The jars at the back contain buttons and things like book rings.

The bottom two shelves contain my class adhesives and a few supplies like trimmer blades and so on. Below are my class bags and a big box containing envelopes and SU! carrier bags.

On the door of this cupboard, I store all my ribbon. I used to have my ribbon on rails, but because I need to take whole reels out for classes, this basket system works much better for me now. The baskets are another Ikea purchase and I linked three together using hooks. My ribbon scissors, punch templates, pearls and rhinestones live on hooks here too.

So there you go, you have come all the way around and back to my desk. Can you see my giant pink rubbish bin? I do create a lot of recycling fodder!

And in case you think it always looks this tidy - this is what the desk looked like after I finished planning a class project yesterday....

I hope you enjoyed your visit to Elizabeth's Craft Room. I don't think my stamping space will ever be 'finished' - it will continue to evolve - but I am pretty happy with how it works for me right now.

I want to see your craft space now - so do let me know if you have a craft room post!