Paper Storage, Flowers, Tools and more

Ok--I think my second love (or obsession) after stamps is paper. I love patterns and mixing them on my pages. And I think I love collecting them even more...my goal this year is to use up a good amount of my papers and really crank out more layouts. I'm hoping now that my space is completed that I will have more time to actually work on layouts instead of doing all this organizing! :)


We'll start off with my pattern paper. It's located in this cabinet behind the 2nd set of doors down.

My pattern paper is sorted by color for the most part. I use the Cropper Hopper vertical files and love being able to flip through the papers and patterns. I have a file for each color (Red/Pink, Orange/Yellow, Green/Blue/Purple, Brown/Black/Neutrals) and within each color section, I have grouped the various patterns in order (such as polka dots, stripes, plaids/diamonds, florals, etc). There are also files that have multi colored categories such as jewel tones, pastel, and brights. Basically I file patterns in these categories if there is more than one dominant color.

I also have files for certain themes (Vintage, ledgers & numbers, alphabets, words, girl and boy, holidays and a few other specific themes such as calendar, cooking, music, travel, etc). Then I have some files that have my favorite manufacturers together (Basic Grey, Cosmo Cricket, etc). For my stacks, I have them labeled with a sharpie marker on the spines and they are on the far right end. I know what patterns are in these stacks and can easily access them. When the stacks get used more, I break them up and file the patterns into the appropriate places. My pattern paper scraps are stored in 12x12 sterilite drawers under my desk (also sorted by color).Just under my pattern paper in the IKEA cabinet in the open shelf are my stamps. The doors underneath that shelf also hold some other important goodies. :)

This is a wooden box I purchased at Goodwill. I'm not sure what it was used for originally, but it has dowels dividing the sections (similar to a coke crate but much bigger). I had these black buckets I purchased from Target and repurposed them for my scrapbook room. These hold my flowers by color. I have separated the flower types and grouped them into baggies, then labeled them with their manufacturer's name. This is where I store my larger flowers and the buckets are easy to pull out of the box and then pull over to my workspace.My smaller flowers (mostly Prima ones) are separated by color also, but I used small plastic jars from Making Memories and an old rack that I have used many times for many different things over the years. They hold the flower bottles easily and I'm able to quickly get the color I need. This rack hangs on the wall next to the laundry doors right beside the stamp and pattern paper cabinet. The other paper cabinet is to the left of my stamp area.

On the very top, I have my crochet threads stored in a basket. The top closed door section holds an assortment of items (see labeled photo, below).

The next set of doors down is where my cardstock is stored, again by color. I also have several files for glittered/shimmery cardstock and specialty cardstock, such as vellum, glossy, metallic, embossed etc. This is the open section under my cardstock storage. My cardstock scraps are stored here, along with some other items.Just below that open area is a narrow drawer where I store most of my tools.This is the next drawer down, where I keep my liquid glues and some other tools I use when I teach classes. The very bottom drawer in this cabinet is a set of hanging files where I keep my kids' school papers and other scrapbook items I want to use in their albums for the year.Right across from this cabinet is a bookshelf that was made by my dad many years ago. This has been repurposed throughout the house many times, but I love using it in my scrap room and somehow it always finds it's way back home to my room. :) Right next to it is a cabinet with a set of 4 drawers that my dad made when I was little to hold baby clothes for my dolls and I keep office supplies in those drawers. I store many different things on this bookshelf. On top of the bookshelf itself, I keep my Cricut Expression and my Cuttlebug. On the first shelf, I keep my rolodexes with layout sketches and card sketches. These are divided by number of photos on the layout and are very easy to use in layout kits. I pull the card out as I need it and place it in a ziplock bag with my photos and any papers I think I may use on that layout. On the 2nd shelf, I store my 6x6 pattern paper pads in a basket along with my adhesives and photos I currently am working with in another basket. The bottom shelf holds vinyl for my cricut and a tote I use for embellishments, etc when I'm teaching classes or going to a crop.

This sums up my paper storage along with the other things I store in those same shelving units. My next post on Monday will cover my die-cut storage.

Stamping Station

This is my favorite part of my new room.... a dedicated stamping space! :)
From the overview post, my stamping station is in the center of the wall that is against the garage. I have a center counter space with the Ikea cabinets on each side. Above my counter, I hung some Elfa shelving.

At the top of the elfa shelves are some sterilite white plastic drawers. Most of these are empty right now, but a few of them do have some stamping items in them. I store my embossing powders, flock and heat tool in one drawer.

Another couple of drawers hold my mini wooden alphabet stamp sets:

These green cases fit 4 to a drawer and they are actually ammunition cases from the hunting section. It's much easier to grab the little stamps when they are separated out in these cases. I also keep track of the alphabets by coloring the tops of the wood with a permanent marker. This makes it easy to see which alphabet goes where when I'm using the letters.Here's the details from these ammunition boxes. These fit 3 of the little wooden $1 sets from Michaels by Studio G.

These large wooden stamps are all background stamps and are the only ones I haven't unmounted and stored with all my other stamps. I like how well they stamp when they are left on their original blocks. The clear acrylic holder is another freebie from my friend Barb. :) Works perfectly for stacking these items so they are easily visible and accessible. When it comes to the woodmount stamps, I use what I can see. I also have my 7 gyspies self-inking stamps here too.On my countertop, I have my inkpads stored in an antique coke crate from the area where my mom grew up. I actually have it screwed into the wall so it doesn't fall off, and the inkpads are stacked inside according to color/type of ink.Next to the coke crate, I have a shelf that I found at Goodwill. Not sure what it was originally used for, but it fits these little white containers perfectly (from Dollar Tree). I store reinkers and small inkpads in here along with my alcohol inks.These are in the base cabinet just below my counter surface. I like to keep everything I'd need handy so I don't have to search for anything when I'm stamping. One drawer stores my blocks and some often used tools.The other drawer stores my blending supplies and more reinkers, along with other misc stamping stuff. The red box in the back of this drawer is another ammo box with another wooden alphabet stamp set.The majority of my stamps are stored in the pink and black baskets just to the right of my counter in the open space in this cabinet:They are broken up into categories and I store them on transparencies inside of page protectors. For the details on how the stamps are stored, see this post. And to see how I unmount my stamps and use them on my acrylic blocks, see this post.

I am a rebel I guess and I LOVE my stamps when the sets are broken up...I'm able to see what I have in one glance and if I need to know what stamps came in what set, I have binders that have either scanned images of each stamp set or stamped images of each stamp set. All of these are sorted by manufacturer.

I made tabs with scrap cardstock and the McGill tab punch. These tabs have each manufacturer in alphabetical order and they are glued onto 8 1/2 x 11" cardstock and hole punched to create the divider pages.

The individual pages are made from regular printer paper which is hole punched, then I scan and cut out the images of the stamps and glue them under the correct manufacturer.These binders sit on the shelf right next to my stamp baskets, so it's really easy to keep track of what I have and where it is. I also mark where the stamps are located in their separate categories, so it's easy to find a single stamp. And on the back of my stamp transparencies, I have a stamped image with the manufacturer listed there, so it's an easy cross reference that way too.

I think that's about it for my stamps....

Next post will be my paper storage. :)

My New Scrap Room--Full Circle View

I've finally finished getting everything arranged just right. :) So I took some pictures today and wanted to post them to give a better overview of my room. The biggest change is that I added a large "u" shaped desk--thanks to my friend Barb! :) I didn't have all the legs, so I added some from IKEA and was able to get height adjustable ones, so if I ever change my mind on how high I want this workspace, I can easily change it. But for now, I love having a place to sit and work on my main parts of my layouts and to do my computer work. My daughter loves to work in here with me and she has her own chair and spot at my new desk. Basically, I kept my room in stations. I work better when I can do certain activities at one space, then move to the next one to add embelllishments, etc. I'll explain more about each station in later posts...don't want to make this one too long. :)

My room is a long laundry room that was originally part of the garage, and was walled in before we bought the house. It's very long and skinny, and has 5 doorways and a large window, so needless to say, it was a challenge figuring out the best storage solutions. I ended up using cabinets from Lowes (countertop height), cabinets from Ikea and some other mix-matched pieces I found or repurposed.

This is the view from the kitchen as you walk into my room:
The white doors you see in the picture above are the laundry doors and the door to the water heater closet.


When you enter my room from the kitchen, just to the left of the kitchen door is the door to the garage, and here is the view of my room from the garage:

You see a bookcase that my dad made and the door to the backyard. Walking towards the back door, on the left hand side you can see a set of counter height cabinets from Lowes that hold my embellishments. This counter area is just behind the bookcase you see directly from the garage. This counter area is also thewhere I keep my homemade clip it up and my large paper cutter. There is a wall cabinet above the counter with more embellishments.


If you are facing the backdoor and look to your right, you will see another furniture grouping. This tall black cabinet and the stack of white drawers is on the wall that backs up to the kitchen, just to the right of the back yard door:
Now if you turn back around towards the garage door, this is what you see:This view is standing in the back door and the kitchen door is on the left. The garage door has a barn star on it that I found at Hobby Lobby. If you walk back towards the garage door and around to the front of the bookcase, this is the view of my new desk area:
Walking straight towards the white laundry doors, this is the complete view you will see there of my desk:
If you walk into the center section of my desk area and turn back around to face the garage wall, you will see the last section of cabinets in my scrap room:

This is the right side (closest to the laundry doors):This is the left side, right next to the garage door (door is on the left of this cabinet):
So there you go...a full circle view of my new room! :) More details to come tomorrow...