Tuesday Tutorial with Emma

Hi everyone!  Emma here with this weeks tutorial post!

This week I'm doing to do something a little different than usual "tutorial" post - I thought it might be fun to show you a few of my storage ideas that I use in my craft room.  When we renovated back in 2015 I was lucky enough to get (err, claim) a room just for my craftiness.  It's not changed a great deal since I've been there but I have been adding a few personal touches and fine tuning how I store my "stash" so I actually use it.  The one thing I've discovered about my scrappy style is that if I don't see what I have, I won't use it.  I need things in front of me all the time so I use them.

First up, here's a look at my desk.  Nothing too special about it, just a plain white desk.  I use tiered baskets/trays to store other small containers that are full of die-cuts, clips/pegs, ribbons, etc.   Most of the bowls/stands I use actually come from the kitchen department :)

On the left side of my desk is this wire basket (from the kitchen department; meant for fruit...ha!).  The top has a few stamp pads (OK, this would be my entire collection, ha!) plus a bowl full of paper clips.  On the bottom I've got a ceramic dish full of die-cuts and a clear jar with ribbons.  I have a thing for buying "pretty things" for wrapping presents- when I get little bits of ribbon I like to wrap them around a wooden dolly peg so they don't get tangled (plus they're super cheap!).

On the right hand side of my desk is this little spinning tray.  The bottom is a plastic turning tray and on that I've put a cake stand and filled it with more smaller bowls.  I use this to store more die-cuts and tags on the top and pegs/random "stuff" sits along the bottom.  I love this little thing because it spins around making it super easy to see everything.

In the middle of my desk are more tiny bowls (condiment bowls from..you guessed it...the kitchen department!) with those little pretty things I can add to any layout/mini/planner page.  And just to the right of that are my tools/pens/pencils.  Again, everything is out in the open so I can see it!

 

Just to the right of where I sit is the window ledge and I use it as a storage/display area as well; I use the glass apocrathy jars to store alpha's, die-cut words - not only do they look pretty but it means I can see them as well!  The wire basket stores small alpha's, enamel dots, stickers, etc.  Guess what area that came from ? ;)

Another storage method I've found handy is for my stamps!  I had been leaving them sitting in a tray on my desk but because I'm actually using them more (well I'm trying!) I thought it would be easier to pop them inside a 6x8 album and I could just flick through that to see what I have.  So far this storage method is really working for me!  

The CTK backing paper is a little too tall for the 3x4 pockets but I just trim it to fit and pop them inside (I like how they look and I keep track of which stamp came from what kit on the back ;) ).  For the most part the stamps always stay inside the pockets (just don't flip too fast or they might slide out the top!) and I keep the album stored on the desk behind me so it's easy to just grab and flip through the pages to find the stamp I want.

My storage system for my CTK kits is similar to how I store everything else - I use a circle tray and more bowls!  I try to keep each kits embellishments in it's own bowl (for atleast a week, ha!) before I end up mixing it all together.  Here's a look at how that works (below are photo's from July & June, August kits are not quite with me yet, sorry!):

I find putting all the kits in one tray super handy!  It's easy to pick up and carry from desk to desk when I'm using/not-using it.  I tend to just put the papers underneath the tray (although once they are cut down to my 6x8 size I usually pop them in the tray too!).  And here's how it plays out on my desk when I'm using it - I know it looks a little crazy but everything has it's own little bowl and it's all super easy to pop back into the tray once I'm done for the day.

And here's a look at my room layout just incase you were curious :)  I've got 3 desks - LHS has computer/silhouette (and where Zack sits when he's in my room), centre is my main work space and the RHS has my sewing machine/more work space (mostly where I do "messy" things because the white top has already been stained hehe).

And that's it!  I hope you find some of this helpful (even the tiniest bit!) for how to store your precious scrapbooking goodies in your own space.  If you have any questions at all, just leave them below and I'd be happy to answer!! :)

Thanks, Em xo