Friday, April 6, 2012

The craft room re-org: an update

I have been one busy bee organizing my craft room - FINALLY!

Using the tools I'm learning from Tiffany Spaulding of The Scrap Rack, I have made some serious progress.

First, let's discuss my paper addiction.  I knew I had a lot of paper, but I had no idea just how much paper I actually owned.  Ladies and Gentlemen, I present Exhibit A.  Dios mio that's a lot of paper!

And let me just say....this wasn't even a pic of ALL the paper sorted and organized.  This was maybe 3/4 of the way done.  As I've now moved on to sorting embellishments, I've continued to find more paper to organize.  Lesson learned here - no more new paper purchases (despite the cost and despite how cute it may be!).  I's like to use about 25% of my current paper supply before allowing myself to purchase any new paper.  The only exception is special projects from clients.

There is a real system in place - some of which is visually easy to understand (like the top row of paper - the rainbow section) - and I can't wait to go back and truly finish organizing each subsection.  In fact, I've already benefited from this process.  I know what I have a lot of, and I can easily find certain thematic paper for projects.  Knowing what you have makes you create effectively and efficiently.

I've now moved on to sorting my embellishments.  This process is going to take forever...but using the same process as I did with the paper, I'm slowly sorting my many piles of supplies.


As I sort through stuff, I've been emptying storage bins and purposely taking them out of the craft room.  My hope is that these storage units will not make it back into the craft room unless they are absolutely vital to this re-org process.  I want to de-clutter and eliminate items that will slow me down when creating.


Some altered journals for Card Cupids

This month's design team challenge for Card Cupids was to alter some journals.  Having never done this before, I was actually very nervous.  I decided to have a little fun with some extra supplies and generally just went for it. 

We had some adorable digital stamps from The Stamping Boutique which really let me get creative with the covers.  I've also doubled my copic marker arsenal, so blending and color combos have become so much easier.

I added a lot of texture to the covers, so these are not travel friendly journals - at least not the way I pack my carry-on!