Scrappy Room in Progress

Can you believe it... I've posted 4 days in a row... Don't get used to it... lol. No really I want to get back to posting at least 3 days a week instead of just my 2x a month that I have been doing lately.

My new scrap room is coming along nicely & is about 80% organize.  I guess I could call it "a studio" but for some reason that implies someone is an artist & I just feel like a crafter who dabbles in art.  It's a joy to create in.  Keeping it cleaned up after each layout is super easy (even when I drag out a bunch of stuff to audition it) since everything has it's place.

I thought I would share some photos of the progress I've made.   I hesitated posting photos before I've got it spotless like most rooms I've seen but since I'm taking so long & have gotten the requests I'm sharing how far I've gotten.   I'm still changing things around as I use them - but that's what organizing is about finding what works for you & what you'll keep up with. 

A lot of my storage is repurposed from the thrift store.  Hobby Lobby also has amazing metal storage that is very inexpensive when on sale.  I also like the boxes from Ikea - they hold a lot & give an organized look to shelves while still providing easy access to my supplies.  As long as I look in them often I can keep in mind what I have.  I am very visual & like to see my goodies so I try to display & store them in view if possible or I forget about them. 

I have very long windows with deep window sills.  Perfect for storing bottles & smaller jars.  My buttons are sorted by color.  (I need to get some more of the small jelly jar size so that all are uniform)

With windows on 2 sides & a built in unit on the 3rd it only leaves me half of a wall (since the 4th has double french doors into the family room) for my hanging storage (which in my last room was how I stored the majority of my items).

Hanging painted shelf (bought at Goodwill store) holds buckets with ATC & Tags from swaps and the pegs hold my aprons (both vintage & usable) along with my garden hat.  The wire basket contains chipboard mini albums.  I don't have a lot but the wood mounted Unity Stamps hang perfectly using binder rings on an old CD rack that has wine logo.  The small metal storage holds my dozen Stampin' Up sets & foam stamps.  The basket on top holds several sets of acrylic stamps that didn't fit on the Clip it Up.

You can see how wide the window sills are in this photo (though I didn't clean up before photo lol)

These are yard sale Pottery Barn shelves on opposite side of the french doors.  They hold my ribbon sorted by color in canning jars & my flowers.

Metal hanging pegs hold:  bucket of decorative edge scissors, 7 Gypsies word stickers (one of the few stickers I still love);  old Panasonic radio from the 70's lol, and yet another gardening hat.

Under those shelves is an inexpensive shelf unit from Staples.  It houses the rest of my flowers, magazines, unmounted Unity Stamp sets in a basket, boxes containing Thickers, and vintage box a "pea" made me during a swap.

I was fortunate enough to have a wall of built in storage.  It includes 4 sets of drawers (3 shallow & 1 file) and 4 sets of shelves 3 high in addition to the workspace.

The metal breadbox is great for storing just about anything.  My Glimmer Mist is in view & easy reach.  The Ikea boxes store a variety of things:  pins, bling, embellishments, chipboard, Thickers, etc.  All labeled & easy to go thru & then put away.

The large boxes on the workspace are where I store my scraps.  Top holds patterned paper & bottom holds cardstock.  This works better for me than having it sorted out since I was bad about filing them & this way I have "happy accidents" with color combos that I wouldn't have used had they not been next to eachother in the box.  I use a lot of the crochet string & keep them in this pedistool wire basket.  My small ink pads are kept together using this multi-tiered silver flea market find.  The center of the storage unit is a desk area perfect for the sewing machine.

Here is another section of shelves that house my lace in jars & ribbon on spools stored on a decorative colorful cake plate bought a Hobby Lobby on clearance for $2.18!

On that same shelf... Markers are hard to store since they should be kept horizontal.  This wire holder drives me crazy since the pens can fall everywhere when the cats bump them - need something new. Name sign was made by http://emiscrapbooking.blogspot.com/ for each of us attending the yearly breast cancer crop.   Heidi Swapp photo corners are stored in a little metal bin from Target $ spot.

Here's my new Clip it Up (yes I finally have a real one & have retired the fake paper towel version).  This is perfect to store all the unmounted Unity Stamps I get with my kit of the month subscription.  They are sorted by type.  I've also stored my acrylic stamps on this unit.  Much better than my CD cases (that were falling apart) in the desk drawers.

The base unit & 2nd tier are on my desk along with a bin for small letter storage (love these & stock up on them in case they are discontinued), 2 bins for small journaling spots (bigger ones are in a basket on floor next to desk), Making Memories tool spinner that I bought with a Michael's gift certificate my best friend Lori gave me for my b'day last year, behind it (you can barely see it) is a spinning plastic container unit (matches my desk cubes) that I got on clearance at Michael's last month that holds my most used brads, eyelets, clips and other small metal items (I  use them lots more now that they are within reach), and you can also see the the swing arm Clip it Up hanging between the windows (the one I won on their blog in Feb).

I know it looks cluttered but this leaves a lot of space for me to work on 2 Basic Grey magnetic mats to the left.  My desk is made up of 3 sets 2 high of storage cubes from Michaels & a door blank for the desk top.

close up of the swing out Clip it Up that holds sets of acrylic stamps.

Ok so now you have an idea whatmy room looks like.  In case you were wondering the color is Olympic Quaking Grass C68-3.  With all the light pouring in from windows & sky lights I needed a color that wouldn't just wash out.  It's a very pretty green.  The trim is Swiss Coffee (my favorite white for trim).

I have to say how pleased I was with all the Olympic paint we bought to paint the entire house.  Since they've gone "green" and all the paint is NO VOC and there was no just painted smell.  It covered very well even over the horrible red that was in the foyer & the neon yellow in the living & dining rooms.

Have a blessed Sunday.