The Reveal!

 Warning!  This is a long post.  You  may be rewarded if you read it though...

Good Morning!  Yesterday was packed full of family time.  We went to see Clash of the Titans. This was a scary movie for my daughter...we had to leave.  My son was fine with it.  Just putting that out there for those of you who have children. My daughter is a VERY sensitive girl.  She has the kindest heart, but she loves fantasy so we thought she would be ok.   I think what made it so scary was the preview for the new Freddie Kruger movie.  NOT a great preview for that movie IMO.  So she and I went off and got her a new shirt while my hubby and son stayed and watched the movie.  Anyways, it was late by the time we got home and after having a giant piece of chocolate cake I didn't have much energy for doing anything but chilling on the couch:)

Today I finally have my pictures of my craft room.  Now, the picture quality isn't the greatest and my room isn't the cleanest.  I decided that I was going to show what my room really looks like on most days.  It shows my personality.  I like to TRY and be organized, but really work best in a somewhat cluttered area.  I am typically working on 3 different ideas at once.  I am a true combination of my mother ( neat freak) and father (pack rat.)  I want to be clean and organized, but then the wild beast of creativity roars it's mighty head and it looks like the Tasmanian Devil was crafting in my area.

This is where it all started.  The organization idea that is.  My husband built some shelves for our holiday bins and suggested making it a wall of pegboard for  me on the other side.

This is where I store my ribbon that is on spools.  Each peg houses about the same color.  On the left is my collection of mostly patterned paper.  The drawers house my PP scraps.  To the left of that is a giant Rubber Maid closet that holds my colored scraps, items to be altered, paints, beads and any other crafting stuff I don't know what else to do with...lol.

This was  a free cabinet that my hubby got when his work remodeled.  It is all open and holds various scrapbooking supplies, magazines, finished cards and my yarn and fabric.  I hope to make a big curtain that can slide across to hide the mess when I'm not using it.  Add one more thing to my "to do" list:)

As you move to the right of that area, we decided to add another wall of pegboard.  All of the silver hardware comes from the kitchen section of Ikea.  Those are towel bars and they were only about $2 each.  They hold my punches perfectly.  They also hold the wire baskets and spice jars that house my buttons and other small items.  I like to have everything in view.  Otherwise, I forget it's there.  I also used the little doohickies that are for pegboards to hold some of my other punches.  These are not as solid of a foundation. I decided to get a clear basket from Ikea (that you see below my embossing gun) and will add my border punches to that as I get more.

I have the same shelving unit that I have had for about 8 years now.  They are stack-able, cubby type shelves that I got at Walmart.  I have not seen them since, but they have been THE best crafting organization for me.   I can put shoe boxes and baskets to keep everything right at my finger tips.On the left is my embossing station.  I use heavy duty aluminum over cardboard as my base.  This is also where my hot glue gun stays.  Both the embossing gun and glue gun hang from the pegboard.  This helps me to remember to unplug them each time I use them.  

This is what my cubbies look like.  I have 2 of them sitting right next to each other and then 2 plain shelving units on each end.  This sits on the wall right behind my desk area.

This is typically what my desk area looks like.  Messy, huh?  I like to have everything right at my fingertips. My "desk" is two work tables pushed together so I have lots of room to spread out.  On the right, under the table, is a filing cabinet that holds all my colored card stock.  I have my copics in a Pampered Chef tool thingy.  ( I don't cook remember?)  I have lots of  Lazy Susan type things to hold my adhesive, scissors, acrylic blocks.  Down under where you see my mini cutter, I have a large 3 drawer Sterlite bin.  That holds some of my acrylic stamps, as well as, scrapbook embellishments and my CM cutting system.  My mini cutter goes in there too.  I do have to say that my mini cutter is by Creative Memories.  I have had that thing for about 14 YEARS and am just now thinking I need to replace it with a new one.  Pretty amazing, huh?

ARE YOU STILL WITH ME???  WELL, BLESS YOUR HEART:)

This is the other half of my pegboard.  More Ikea kitchen baskets and stuff, but I also have several things from Goodwill.  TOP LEFT...holds my PTI CD cases.  That's how they store their stamps.  I have all my ink pads in an SU system and then some that I don't use as much in a wire basket from Home Depot.  On the bottom I have some Ikea File Holders.  That's were I keep my white papers and some scraps. Oh Yeah, and my Sugar Babies that got me through "no chocolate" Lent.  The wire mesh basket is from Goodwill and it keeps bigger scraps.  I have my cuttlebug EF is a wire hanging basket.  At this time I keep my spellbinder dies in that plastic file that is hanging just above my cuttlebug.  I got some magnetic sheets and cut them to fit.  They just slip in and out and I can flip through to see what I want to use.  I may switch to putting them into a photo sleeve instead and then lining them up in one of those baskets.

Here's  better view of my cuttlebug area.  I keep my sizzix dies in that plastic basket below on the left.

Here is my photo area and my cheap photo box.  Task light is also from Ikea.  I apologize for the poor photo. In the basement with fluorescent lighting.....what can you do?   Also, I guess one of the little doodads that holds my shelf fell out.  Noticed that my stuff was a bit crooked in the pic...hee hee.  Gotta find that.

This is my kids' messy craft area.  I am starting to drift over there with my sewing machine.  It's a "shared area.  They like having all there own stuff and so do I!  My son does come sit next to me now though.  We do things together and that is so much more fun.

I do want to share one more photo and new thing that I recently started to use.  It's something that I read about on Jodi Morrow's blog.  It's how she cleans her stamps and I LOVE it!  I just sold all my SU scrubbing pads.  If you read the post on THE ABSORBER from Jodi you will understand why this is sooo great to use.  The Absorber is a shammy type thing found in the automotive section of  Target, Walmart...etc.  (It is NOT the same as a ShamWow.  Just read the post to understand.)

This thing cleans my stamps like you wouldn't believe WITHOUT leaving that black residue that you typically  have to stamp off before you can use your stamp again.  Do you know what I mean?  The only downside I have found is that sometimes you have to take it and physically wipe into the crevices to get all the ink.  The other things is that it will look like this after you use it....

Now, personally, I don't care because I'd rather that be on my stamp CLEANER than on my STAMP.  Some freaky people neat freaks may be grossed out by that.  The same people who acrylic seal their wood blocks perhaps????  Not making fun, just sayin'....lol    

My solution....put it in a travel size baby wipe container, close your eyes as you wipe your stamp, then close the lid REALLY FAST so you don't have to see the mess!

You should keep it in an airtight container anyways or else it dries out.  No biggie if it does....just add water/ stamp cleaner again and GO!

Just so you know....I have this much left.

If you have read this far, THANK YOU!  As a reward, just leave me a comment about my area...good or bad and I will randomly pick one winner to send a section of my new stamp cleaning tool!  How does that sound???

Gotta go check on my little girl.  She wasn't feeling well last night.  I think it was nerves from the movie.  Oh my sweet, nervous Nellie.  Someday an ulcer she will have~~~