Cartwheels In My Mind

Organization Tips & Tricks 04

 
 

My scraproom was built just a little less than a year ago when we refinished our basement.  I love having my own space, but am always looking for ways to organize all my supplies.  I love when I find ideas that are unique and fun...but still functional!

I found this 3 tiered stand at Hobby Lobby recently and use it to display all my small embellishements - jars  of brads and buttons, bowls with tags, patterned tape, and misc small embellishments, and .  I love having all this out on my counter and within reach instead of buried in a drawer....plus I love the color it adds!

These 4 little metal bins sit right in front of my main work area.  I found them in the dollar spot at Target (one of my favorite places to find containers for organizing!) several years ago.  I use 2 bins for new supplies - one for stamping related supplies and one for scrapping/art supplies, another bin is for cards I'm working on or have just finished, and the last one is for pictures I want to scrap soon. 

Many artists use vintage items for organization in their creative space. 

Cheryl has found some fun storage items for her buttons and punches:

 

Karen Russell uses hobnail glass to store stamps:

Stephanie Howell uses a muffin tin for small embellishments and vintage blue glassware to hold pens and scissors:

Jenny B. Harris used a tiered cupcake holder and mug trees for organization in her studio:

Layle Koncar uses a vintage suitcase to hold some of her supplies (and check out the awesome display made from a bed spring above her suitcase - LOVE!):

 

Nora - one of our own design team members - is a girl after my own heart....she organizes her ribbon, cardstock and stamp pads in RAINBOW order.  I ♥ rainbow order!!
  

Cindy - another Cartwheels design team member - recently purchased a new organizational item at IKEA - this set of drawers - and uses it to store punches, paints, and even her die cut materials.

 

For more fun ideas, you can check the categories (click on organization or art spaces to the right for other ideas that have been shared in Cartwheels articles!  I'd love to see any creative ideas you have for organizing your creative space.  Be sure to share them on our flickr site!!

HAPPY ORGANIZING!

Photo of the Day, September 29, 2010.

(c) Marcy Penner

Organizing little bits at pieces at arms reach.

Artists Studio, Davinie Fiero.

 

I have been following Davinie Fiero for several years and admire her scrapbook designs. Her pages are always refreshing and trendy. I love her drive in sharing techniques and ideas to fellow scrappers across the globe through her personal blog davinie.blogspot.com. She is very much an inspiration to me and to others around her.

Davinie has been creating for quite sometime and is well known throughout the scrapbook industry. You can find her work published in several scrapbook/craft magazines, such as, Scrapbook Trends and Scrapbook & Cards Today, to name a few. I'm so excited Davinie is sharing her craft room with us today. I couldn't wait to get a glimpse into her space & see how she keeps all the chaos organized where she creates some of the most amazing projects.

Read more about Davinie through our interview...

What is your scrapbook style?
I haven’t found the single word that describes my style.  What I would say is that it is clean, balanced homespun.  Balance and design is always something I think about when creating a layout, but I love texture as well, so I like to layer and must sew in some form on every project I make.  

How do you find inspiration?
I check out my favorite blogs on my google reader.  Some favorites include the Creature Comforts blog, wedding blogs like Style Me Pretty, and I love the Crafty Crow for inspiration on kids projects.  

Favorite product?
Crate Paper’s Restoration line is a huge favorite right now.  

Favorite storage solution?
Repurposed vintage items are my favorite thing.  My bind it all is in an old suitcase on top of my Expedit shelf, I have 5 locker baskets for stamps and alphas, a wooden coke crate holds mists and other bottles that need to stand up, and some old milk crates hold altered items and albums.  I also have several lunch boxes that hold things like ink and pens.  

Favorite tool(s)?
I wouldn’t be able to function without my sewing machine and my border punches, in particular, my Fiskars scallop sentiment punch.  I use both on just about every project I create.  

Are you a daytime or nighttime scrapper?
I work part-time in Health insurance from home, so when I’m not busy bustling kids around town, I should be working.  When I have time to craft, it is usually at night after the kids are in bed.

Davinie's designs for Studio Calico, Scrapbook and Cards Today, and Crate Paper. So be sure to check out more of her amazing work.

Also, since 2009 I have been hosting a monthly scrapbook challenge on my blog called Project 12. In 2010 began collaborations with Scrapbook and Cards Today magazine and Becky Fleck to have monthly sketches designed for this challenge, and to have prizes awarded too. You can check out Project 12 here.

Now, let's check out some photos of Davinie's craft room, as she shares organizational ideas & tips in her own words.

When we first moved into our home, what is now my craft room was once a room built around an 800 gallon water tank used for solar heating.  This heating system was never efficient, and one of the first things we changed about our house as we began renovations (which may NEVER end…..).

Today it is my crafty place.  There is still a lot of work to be done and I change my mind quite frequently on what I want, but I wanted to share a few things about my space that I’m sure about.

The first is this built in.

My husband built me a countertop the length of this recessed area in my room.  I love it because I often want to create standing up, or sitting at my counter height stool.  I also have my computer and printer in this space.

On the wall behind this unit is my vintage inspired receipt holder, as well as two magnetic canvases that my husband made for me.  You can read about how to make one of those here: How to make a magnetic canvas

I tried a couple of things and wasn’t happy with the results before settling on painting them the same color as my walls. I just didn’t want them to stand out too much. I haven’t settled on a permanent solution for my most used supplies, which is one reason I still use a portable tote.  

Adhesive and extras are in the blue bucket, and my inks are in the vintage lunchbox at my desk.


To the left of my desk you can see a snippet of a stack of 12 iris container drawers which hold my monthly scrapbook kits.  This is the easiest way for me to keep track of the contents as I go back and use older kits until they are down to the bits. I keep no more than 12, though.  Each month the one with the least amount of product gets parted out to the rest of my stash to make room for the next kit.


Directly behind the counter built in is my sit down table that I purchased from Target.  I often float between working at both locations.  Sometimes, they are both covered with projects (as in, probably 10 minutes before these photos were taken…    ).

On the right shelf is an iris container with the most current scrapbook kit I have received.  Underneath, the locker baskets on both sides of the desk hold my many punches.  They are FULL.  Behind them, the other locker baskets hold other inks and supplies that I need within easy reach.
This desk faces the one window in this room.  The door to this room is to the left of this desk.


To the right of this desk is my 8x8 Expedit system that I picked up from Ikea.  I am in serious need of some purging here.  I have some plans, but they involve milk crates from John Derian for Target that have yet to reach me (I want five of them in the Moth pattern for the top shelf), and some major goodie boxes for the elementary school as I eliminate some of this clutter.


I have 5 vintage locker baskets on this shelf that I love.  In them I put thickers and sticker sheets.  One of them holds my Studio Calico stamps in Making Memories stamp folders.  

I always love taking a peek inside creative spaces.  I hope this gave you some good ideas or you at least feel some comfort in knowing there IS someone out there who has a messier space than you do. (wink, wink).

Davinie

Here is a recent favorite project Davinie created. Her style shines through so perfectly, such great design & adorable photo of her daughters personality. Lots of great details!

To read more about Davinie's daily happenings and for inspiration, check out her blog: davinie.blogspot.com

Thanks for sharing your craft room with us Davinie...it's been so cool to see where all the magic happens.

Cheers :)

Digikit "Maddie Embellishments" by Erica Hernandez

Update Your Room! The Playroom REVEAL!

Hello everyone!  So very excited to be here today sharing the final results of 'operation move playroom!'  If you are new to the site, on want a little refresher.. you can check out the article that started it all! 

Here is a quick before photo before we get on with the fun after shots!  This room was originally intended to be the 'man room' but we decided it would be much better served as a playroom for the kids!  Ohhh the lengths we will go to for our munchkins hey!?

 

After some paint.. and an exhausting move, everything is all settled, and the kids have been loving their new room so very much!!

Here are some after pics (YAY!!)..

 

Please excuse the horrible shadows all over everything from the lighting!  The playroom may be a nice big room with lots of room to play, but it is definitely lacking in the natural light department!  Oh well.. typical bungalow basement though I suppose. :)

I was going for a mix of new and old.. casual and funky... childish and grown up.  The room is very visible from our family room (in that photo above I am standing in the family room taking the picture through the open 'arch way') ..so it was pretty important that it all flowed together, but was still it's own room!

 

The pallet beds were inspired by Ashly Ann (so fabulous.. love her blog!), and you can read more about the original process for the previous playroom here. :)  I used the same bedding that was on them previously, and most of the same pillows.. with a few new ones thrown in the mix!

Oh.. and if you want to see pictures of the playroom as it was before we decided to move it, you can pop on over to my personal blog and read/see more. :)

 

I just picked up that fun 'dream' hook at Winners yesterday.. perfect for my daughter's favoute dress up clothes!  Hats are vintage, the yellow banner I received in a goodie box from Cheryl herself and the boy/girl prints are from my Etsy shop.. which unfortunately is still on summer vacation! hee heee!

I think that is my favourite little corner of the new room! :)

 

I brought the chair back from my mom's house on a recent trip this summer.. still want to re-cover it in a fun/funky fabric.. just haven't found it yet!

One of our challenges was the space above where the desk is.  It had a built in bar fridge in the little side wall there (aka big fridge size hole in the wall) ..and roughed in lighting that was going to be above the bar (it was going to be the 'man room' after all! lol).  So, what we ended up doing, was hanging a metal sheet (that we painted with chalk board paint) with heavy duty industrial strength glue.. and I must say, it covered that fridge space perfectly!  And since the metal is thick and heavy.. no need to worry about a big dent getting pushed in where the space was.. honestly, even I forget that there used to be a built in fridge there!  The lighting ended up being perfect for above the desk.. like it was totally planned that way all along! ;)

I love the challenge of working with what you got!

 

 

A lot of the 5x7 'prints' around the room are made with the fabulous Eye Candy Overlays from Vol 25!  I just made a 5x7 canvas in Photoshop, filled with a solid colour, and then applied the shape tool (word art as seen above on the left).. and printed out... voila!  THAT is how versatile those overlay sets can be!  Love them so much!

 

More examples of easy art above (squirrel I made myself and may pop up in my Etsy shop sometime soon!).. flag banner and turquoise on white word art is Eye Candy Overlays, deer is from a 2 Peas digital kit (free kit even!), car on the left is a stock photo I purchased ages ago for graphics on my personal blog.. and car interior photo I found on the internet (vintage magazine ad scan).. super fun and easy!

More of the same idea in this photo here..

 

Butterfly is from a KI Memories digital scrapbooking kit.  Yellow word art on the left is again, Eye Candy Overlays!

 

Above view is looking back out into the family room.  Framed car is from a vintage magazine ad, and I made the turquoise bird decals myself!  I had some vinyl here that is to be used with the Quickutz Silhouette machine.. but instead of using the machine, I just traced the birds on and cut it out with scissors!  Super easy!!  

 

Another shot of the paper flower mobile that I wrote about previously. :)

Well, there you have it!  I hope you find this inspiring.. after looking at these pictures, I know that the paint, along with the calming colours of the retro glam look going on here would have made the world of difference in the smaller room that we used as the playroom before!  Paint can make such a huge difference, don't you think!? 

Oh, and if you are wondering where all the toys are hidden away.. behind the curtain!  We decided to put a curtain on the closet instead of doors.. saving pinched fingers and this way the toys are super easy to get at!

 

Big toys like Little People and Littlest Pet Shop.. and Barbie carriages... sure are a challenge when it comes to storage!  Yes, closets can be a very good friend! hee!

For the most part, everything in here was reused from around the house.. or handmade/vintage.  The only things we purchased new were the supplies like paint/sheet metal/two lights above the desk.. and for decorative stuff, a few $7 throw pillows, the sun burst mirror, and the 'dream' hook.. so in the end, it definitely came in pretty close to budget!  Which was around $300 including all of the supplies!  Not too bad for a room transformation!  Thanks for reading along my friends!

 

Photo of the Day, September 11, 2010.

(c) Marcy Penner

There's something about little treasures in clear jars that just makes me happy.

Photo of the Day, September 9, 2010.

(c) Jennifer Johner

Inspiration Board

Random inspiration that I have collected and pinned to this bulletin board.. images, colours, photos, fabric.. all of it inspires me in some way! The butterflies are black acrylic and are adhesive backed, one of my favourite finds ever! The chalk board underneath is part of the 'kids corner' in my craft space.. we all love it!