Craft Room 2.0 – First look!

I know, I know, I’ve been promising a peek of Craft Room 2.0 for some time, haven’t I? Guess that makes me a terrible tease. 😉

Anyway, here it is. 🙂 Yes, I could have cleaned off my work table, and I swear I built in so much storage I thought it would never get piled with stuff…but evidently that’s my “working style” and as ever and usual, it is inevitably covered in, well, everything. 😉

This is really the first view you get of the craft room when you walk in. My window doesn’t have much of a view, but it does still let some light in. In the corner and nearest the desk are my craft books and magazines, and from there the closest to the desk hold the highest priority items (pliers, towels, wipes, etc.) To the left of my desk, my sewing machine sits at the same height as the table so I never have to lug it off the floor anymore, and all the sewing supplies are just under it.

You can see my lovely reclaimed door here. The photo doesn’t show quite how rough it is – we removed some paint, but I wanted to keep the age / character of the door, along with the art-deco doorknobs I got at a garage sale. Behind the door, because we knew it would be a narrow space, are narrow shelves built for essentially anything that goes in a bottle, including paints, adhesives, etc. I LOVE how easy it is to see everything and easy to grab, although my daughter likewise loves how easy it is to access, and I discovered she’d taken to “reorganizing” my paints. 😉

Next to the narrow paint / adhesive shelf is a second hand bookcase ($20!). The bottom three shelves hold my larger bolts of fabric, which I wrapped around pieces of cardboard (with the help of my beloved and patient best friend!) so I could actually see my fabric. Above that I’ve used scrapbook boxes from Michael’s, but only two of them have scrapbook paper in them. Instead, I use the small square boxes from Dollar Tree to put my beads and other findings, and those fit perfectly, 48 to a box, plus make it easier to find what I’m looking for, and only take out what I need (without spilling lots of beads, which I’ve done one-too-many-times.) Above that are the fabric boxes (also from Dollar Tree) which I’ve glued file labels to also from Dollar Tree (cold glue-gun – the hot one kind of melts the label). These house my yarn and crochet hooks, plus it’s easy to take out just the bin with the color I need, rather than digging through a large yarn tote.

To the right in the photo is my mailbox unit, a bit de-masculinated after I painted the hulking brown thing a lighter color, and it likewise holds oodles of fabric (three large suitcases full, I kid you not!) The plan is to have one shelf next to that with two dollhouses, and perhaps a shelf above the mailbox unit. I think the poor blue unit also needs some art, so I may do some painted doodles on it at some point (when I have free time, ha!).

This is perhaps my favorite view in my craft room – those loaded by organized shelves, and my beloved watch-makers cabinet (at least, that’s what we call it – no actual evidence that’s what it was, although it was hand-made, and I got it for $40). The cabinet holds a lot, including things I need to grab like tape, cutting tools, staplers, etc. The right side is almost completely consumed by my polymer clay and associated tools, and I’ve got everything labeled with the pretty labels from Dollarama. Yes, I know, things aren’t completely tidy right now, but I have finally been down there using it a bit, so I think that’s to be forgiven. 😉

The other thing I’m really proud of when it comes to this room is that it’s quite budget friendly. The most expensive thing by far we purchased was the set of white Billy shelves from IKEA (two wide with the narrow one in between you can see to the right in the picture directly above this.) But, even those were on sale. The other shelves my husband custom built (because he’s awesome!!) and two more units are still to come to house my three large dollhouses.

The other rule I had about storage was that almost without exception, it needs to be a) well labeled (you might notice there are labels everywhere, and if you look really closely in the picture above, on the fourth shelf up on the left, you can see my green and blue label maker, my buddy.) 😉 And b) storage containers must be clear, so I can what the heck I’m looking for without having to dump it all out every time (that drives me nut!). Oh, and a third rule was that nothing was stacked more than two high. The easier it is to put it away or get it, the easier it is to access (and motivation to put it away properly right away.)

Hope you enjoyed your first peek. 🙂 I hope to be able to show you the other cabinets soon, and would like to post more specifically on storage options that worked for me. Otherwise, I’m pretty pleased with how things turned out.

What do you think? 🙂

Thanks for visiting! And remember: what happens in the craft room, stays in the craft room. Happy crafting!

Craft Room 2.0: The Horror Before the Beauty

For some reason, this didn’t post. 😦 

Anyway, two weeks ago I officially started the process of moving into Craft Room 2.0…and right now, it’s kind of scary. 😉 See, taping was finished last week, painting on the weekend, then flooring was finished this afternoon. Our “labor” for moving (ie: the 4yo, hubby, me, and my parents) was only available tonight, so all the heavy stuff had to go. And most of the heavy stuff happened to be filled with, well, lots of other stuff.

Okay, so I should be ecstatic. I’m finally almost there. And I am happy. Really. Except I’ll show you the pictures of what things look like right now, and it ain’t pretty. I’ll also mention after the craft room 1 is vacated, it has to be transformed into a fab bedroom for the 4yo…so that her room can become the new nursery. Said transformation brought about by yours truly. Yep, busy, busy. (And tired, tired!!) 😉

Anyway, below are the horror pictures of what the craft room looks like now, in transition. See, basically nothing is going where it went before…which is part of why it’s all over the floor. I’m missing half my storage still (and the other half isn’t assembled yet.) AND (yes, thank you for your patience listening to me freak out about the chaos) 😉 I don’t exactly know where everything will go yet. And that room keeps looking smaller and smaller the more stuff we keep bringing down!!

But, sometimes beauty takes a little while. And I still know that in the end, Craft room 2.0 is going to be awesome!!! 

Eventually. 😉

Happy crafting out there, and remember: what happens in the craft room, stays in the craft room. 😉

Holiday Mayhem: Aka: My craft room is exploding!

It’s only the second week of November, and my craft room looks like a disaster zone. Scratch that. It IS a disaster zone. Okay, I admit that it probably doesn’t look that much different than it has since, oh … July. But it drives me nuts not being able to find anything. Believe it or not, I like it organized!

I’ve resorted to “piling” things in different areas to denote what they are, and where they’re headed. The pile near the table on the left is Christmas stuff. The pile to the right is all materials to be recycled. And I’ve scraped off my work table enough to start yet another project.

Sigh. Still six months left to prep for Christmas, right?!? I wish I could delude myself into believing that (although it would make gift-giving a bit awkward … in May or June. 😉

How are you all doing out there? Is your craft room a disaster zone, or perfectly coiffed and organized?

Thanks for reading, and remember, what happens in the craft room, stays in the craft room. 🙂

Presents and Surprises

Okay, so I’ve been terrible these last few weeks about putting up a regular post. In my defense, I’ve fallen down the revision rabbit hole, and have been writing almost as fast as I can.

(I’ve also been playing with Etsy, but that’s a whole other post.)

Anyhoo, it was my birthday last week, and I did get some cool things I wanted to show you. So picture a big box that you get to open up. Neither of these surprises actually came in a box, but they should have, since anything that comes in a big box is always just more exciting to open.

Okay, so this first is my new drawer / tool set for Craft Room 2.0. Apparently it belonged to a clockmaker at one point, and we found it at a garage sale. After I admired it, my parents actually went back and got it. Evidently, it is very heavy. But, taking out all the drawers and carrying everything seperately, it all got down into the basement. It does mean I’ll have to reform  my plans a bit (losing a bit of a full-shelf I’d otherwise planned), BUT this thing will hold lots. And, total cool factor (to me anyway.)

The second is kind of like a birthday present I bought myself: my order from the Canadian site, Shades of Clay. They sell polymer clay and associated tools, gadgets, etc. So I finally ordered myself a set of the smallest Kemper cutters, since I’ve never even seen them anywhere. And the plan, once I finally get through the massive sewing pile on my table is that I get to go play with miniatures.

Hubby got me a color laser printer. I haven’t been able to print color in the past five years, and I’ve totally been making up for it by printing at least 30 odd pages in the past week or so. 😉 Will try to post pics of finished stuff soon.

Otherwise, apologies for the late and short post. But that probably won’t change until at least the end of July.

Any cool projects or presents you have to share?

Thanks for reading, and remember: what happens in the craft room, stays in the craft room. Have a good one. 🙂

Something Scary … The Craft Room Unmade

Okay, so this is WAY scarier (and messier) than the pic of my craft room. THIS is a pic of the room that will be my craft room.

Craft Room “Iron ore” Feb 5, 2014

Mu husband (who clearly doesn’t keep his woodworking room much cleaner than I do my craft room) says that looking at this is like: “looking at a pile of iron ore and trying to picture the car you want.”

Yeah, well, this sucker needs A LOT of smelting if it’s going to ever become anything like a craft room. It is smaller than the current craft room, but not by a whole bunch. And we do have a plan (which no, I haven’t actually taken a picture of … getting there). It makes me exceedingly nervous, as does the following pic.

This is the big ass shelf I found for $25, and which I love … but I’m really not in love with how over-flowing it is now. See, step 1 of “eventually getting a new craft room” is that I needed to give up the shelves that held my dollhouses and the shelves from the closet.

On the one hand, this is impressive: this new shelf is holding all of the contents of the closet plus whatever else didn’t have a home and was laying around on the floor. (Note to the left: evidence of the crapload of fabric I need to start quilting / making into something).

On the other hand, even though in some ways it’s easier to find some of the things I needed (like crochet cotton, bottom shelf, center clear tote), I find myself reluctant to get deep into a new project. Instead, I’m poking around at small projects, like finally completing bedding for dollhouse beds (none of them have proper bedding, and I’m trying to rectify – pics soon.) But a quilt? Actually sewing … eh, not feeling it.

How is it that a partially MORE organized craft room is making me lose my creative mojo?

Yeah, I know … probably just nuts. 😉

Have a great week, and happy crafting out there!

5 Craft Room Must-Haves

So today I’d really like to be posting pics of the door I bought for my new craft room, and maybe about plans and such, but seeing as that door has not yet arrived (ie: husband keeps delaying picking it up), I can’t do that.

BUT, I can share with you my top 5 go-to products in my craft room (and yes, there are more than five which I’ll share in future posts … or otherwise my craft room would be much smaller, don’t you think?)

1. Glue spreader – This is a new addition to my craft room, but is so much nicer than the random stick I used to grab. 😉 Plus, they weren’t expensive. I got mine at Lee Valley Tools … and then after saw them at the Dollar Tree. Sigh.
2. Giant Bulldog clips – I started out with one while hubby had the rest … and “somehow” they’ve all migrated to my craft room. 😉 Seriously, these are super handy for hanging things to dry from shelves, clamping bits together while gluing, or even holding books open to the page you’re working on.
3. Mini hand drill – I actually have two of these, but mainly use the smaller one seeing as the larger bit is now permanently jammed into the second drill. Oh well. When you just need a tiny hole or a pilot – especially when working on very tiny objects – this is much easier than using a power tool.
4. Tweezers – These tweezers are especially long, and I like their curved nose. Very handy for gluing, reaching into small areas, even holding down freshly painted objects to avoid paint all over your fingers (though that usually  happens anyway).
5. 3D Fabric Paint – My favorite go-to in the craft room. Yes, seriously. Besides the obvious possibilities of using them on fabric, they’re also great for creating dimensional decoration on mini furniture (imitates carving). They can be used as filler for small holes, mimic miniature embroidery or beading, or become icing and decoration on mini gingerbread houses. The more I use these little guys (cheap, too at about $1.99 each), the more uses I find for them.

Okay, so not nearly as interesting a post as work on my craftroom 2.0, but that’s coming soon. Also have the intention of creating a tutorial for beaded flowers soon.

Anyway, thanks for reading, and hope you have a great week. Happy crafting!

Hi, and welcome to the chaos … er, the craft room

Hi! This is my first post here, and after spending some time posting all the pics in the gallery, I’m finally adding, you know, other content. 😉

January 2014 … and destined to change

So, I’m Shelly, and I love crafting. But for some reason, I haven’t really thought to share that online before. What’s sparked this new blog post is because I love my craft room … and as we remodel our basement, I have to give up my craft room up on the second floor and move down to dungeon – er, the basement. And I’m trying to think of this as a great opportunity to create an even better craft room, but it’s been harder than I thought at just the prospect of losing this haven.

Hence the picture. And part of why I haven’t done much tidying. Notice the bags of fabric on the floor? Empty storage boxes under the table? See, I’ve known about the possibility of this move for some time, which is why I’m kind of letting this craft room fall apart – which will make the new one all that more fantastic, and therefore not suck to dismantle what has been a labour of love for the past 5 years, and something I dreamed about for years before. (Who hasn’t dreamed of a place where you get to make a mess and then close the door and let it stay that way ’til you get back?)

But as I’ve been looking up new plans, I also found some of my ideas were really different, so I’ll be sharing the progress of the new craft room as well as projects and ideas here, with you. ‘Cause there’s something else you need to know about me: I love crafting, but I’m also cheap, which means if there’s a cheaper way to do it, I’ll find it. And I plan on doing the same thing as I create a brand new better-than-ever-dreamed-of-craft room, and all projects shared here.

So, come along on my journey. Have some fun. Don’t burn your fingers on the glue gun (or if you do, don’t tell anyone or you’ll probably get one of those lectures about being more careful). And remember: what happens in the craft room, stays in the craft room. 😉

Thanks for reading, and have a great week.