My Scrap Space

My Faith Legacy

This is where all the magic happens!

(And yes, that is the barbecue grill outside my window!)

Just wanted to share the space where I put together my scrapbooks and any other crafts. I am hoping this will inspire you a bit to make your own space.

I am lucky in that this particular room was on the back of our house. We called it the sun room because it was solid windows and very sunny. Well, as time goes by things tend to need repair and this room was literally falling off the back of our house. So, my husband got his brother to come help repair the room, except we decided to make it a room for my office and crafts. So they tore the room off completely and started again. We wanted to make the room a bit bigger so I got out my calculator and all my best organizational ideas and came up with this. Well, structurally speaking I had a certain amount of area to design in but it fit perfectly. You are only seeing half of the room. The other half is my office. We placed two interior doors on legs: one for my craft table and the other for my computer, printer and files. Behind the tables are two large bookcases that house my books, photo albums and tons of photo storage boxes that store my other crafts and sewing supplies. On the opposite wall is a large craft cabinet that I designed several years ago and my husband built and I stained. It now houses all of my office supplies since I have all of these cool organizational items. Don’t you just love that? I should have invested in plastic several years ago. They are all over my house and in our garage.

Just so you’ll know, here is a run down of the room to give you ideas.

The colorful file drawers are wonderful. They primarily hold all my stickers, tags, letters and phrases and other paper type embellishments. Yes, I have that many, believe it or not.

The plastic drawers under the table hold my rubber and acrylic stamps, stamp pads, embossing supplies, extra adhesives and decorative punches. I keep my large paper cutter on top of the drawers.

The big boxes under the table hold my card making supplies and other things. I really would like to get them out and on a shelf instead. But, that’s for another day! I also have other things stuffed under there right now to keep them out of the way. Some day I’ll figure out a better system for those.

The shelves over the desk (left side) hold all of my scrapbook papers and some albums I’m working on.

The shelves over the desk hold all my small embellishments, fibers, silk flowers, tags, large punches (ones that wouldn’t fit in the drawers), and other miscellaneous craft supplies.

The shelves over the desk (right side) hold my acrylic paints, glue gun, wire supplies, small paper cutter and my light box.

On the top of the desk, the small drawers hold my decorative scissors, hand punches, scissors and other cutters, pens and markers, adhesives, and brass stencils. These are things I use quite a bit so they are handy on top of the desk. There is also a box with paint brushes and my brayer.

On top of the table I placed my large cutting mat I bought several years ago that I use to cut out patterns when I sew. It works great. I can cut things, hammer things and it cleans up much easier than the wood top. It’s been glittered and glued on and also got a little warm from my embossing gun that got a little too close! By the way, if you haven’t already figured it out, a box of baby wipes is a great thing to have around when you are crafting. I use them to blot the ink off of my rubber stamps, easily wipe up excess glitter and glue and clean my hands when I get messy. Better than always having to make a trip to the sink. Incidentally, the baby wipes are the best thing I’ve found to get all that fine glitter off of the floor, and my hand, my clothes, etc.

One of the most important features of this room are the things you can’t see....the lighting. I had my husband install three separate lights on the ceiling...one of those is attached to the ceiling fan. I also have two other windows in this small room so I could have natural light as well as cross ventilation to get fresh air. And on my desk in a small Opti-light. I also have a big freestanding Opti-light that I pull up when I’m working on something tedious I need to see well.

Also one more important feature I recommend is NO CARPET! I learned many years ago that sewing pins and thread are hard to clean up. Scrapbooking and all that goes with it is just as bad. My motto these days: “Work smarter, not harder!”

I hope you have enjoyed my tour! Maybe you will be inspired to create your own space. If you don’t have a spare room you can use a closet to store your stuff. Just remember to get well organized so you have easy access to it. The easier it is to get to, the more time you’ll spend working on it.