It's the time where most of us are making our resolutions for the new year. Things we want to do, or things we want to change. Mine are always the same...I vow to become a better friend and promise to send cards to let my family and friends know that I'm thinking of them. Usually around the second week of January I'm already behind and if you're a friend of mine, you've probably never received a card! That's me...The Queen of Good Intentions. Of course, there's always the given resolutions of trying to lose weight (especially with Hawaii just around the corner!) and getting ourselves organized. The weight thing...ah...yeah...that's in the plan and come the second week of January I'll probably weigh three more pounds! But when it comes to organizing, I'm doing pretty good. Since I've already heard from some of you that you're planning to get your stampin' supplies in order this year, I thought I would go ahead and share my stampin' room with you. My wonderful husband Dennis kindly agreed to my using the bonus room for stampin' so I wouldn't have stampin' supplies everywhere in the house (I kind of still do, but don't tell him!). His main goal of actually being able to eat at the kitchen table has been achieved, so all's good!
Before you go any further, YES! I HAVE A LOT OF STAMPIN' STUFF! There's a reason I have so many ink pads, pens, markers, etc. I usually have about 30 to 70 attendees at my Stamp Camp each month. It gets crazy, so I make sure my customers only have to share tools with the people at their table, not the whole group. It makes the Camp projects go a lot faster and it's a lot less stressful for all. I can honestly say that as a Stampin' Up! demonstrator I have received the majority of these tools for free. I slowly built up my collection so I have at least 4 of everything, except stamp sets. I usually only have one of those in my supply cabinet.
Here's a picture of the stampin' room:
My favorite part of the room is the stampin' desk I designed. I didn't want to waste any possible storage room, so instead of using the regular pole legs that came with the table top we used two cabinets stacked on top of each other and a plain white desk top from IKEA to hook them together. I covered the desk tops with glass to keep clean up a breeze. Instead of pushing the two desks together to make one big desk we added several 4" sheet metal planter boxes down the center to hold all my tools. I LOVE THIS PART! I used to be a really messy stamper, but now when I use a tool I plop it right back in it's spot when I'm done...so easy! My old Girl Scout Leader would be so proud of me! Actually, having all of my stampin' supplies in one room and a designated spot for everything makes it really easy to keep things neat and tidy. I like to stand when I stamp and I'm tall, so we added legs to the bottom of the cabinets to make the desk the perfect height for me. I also like that there's two desks so I can have a friend or two, even three stamp with me.
You can see the T.V. area in the back. That's usually where Dennis sits while I stamp. That way, we feel like we're spending time together even if we're doing our own thing. So much better then him being upstairs while I stamp downstairs.
Here's some close up pictures of the tool bins:
I have cabinets on the wall to the right when you enter the room:
The white boxes hold my ribbons. I've tied a piece of each color or style of ribbon to the frame on the front of the box so I know what's where. The inside of the cabinets hold a treasure of stampin' supplies:
I store my wheels on pant hangers. The wheels fit perfectly, are easy to see, and easy to reach:
My brads are stored in the round containers they come in, only I have separated the brads so there's a container for each color. The cabinets came with a wine bottle holder that the containers fit in perfectly. They don't roll around at all. I store eyelets in small pill bottles that are placed inside an acrylic frame box. My jumbo cartridge inks are in a divided drawer and the regular ink cartridges are in a inexpense floss holder I found at Micheals. I cut out the ink colors from an old catalog and glued them to the top of the box so I know which color is where. I have four of these boxes; one for each color family. There's extra spaces for the neutral colors:
Here's my friend Bertha. Bertha is my special paper cutter that cuts through 50 sheets of cardstock in one slice. She's an expensive friend, but I couldn't do what I do without her! Behind Bertha you can see how I store my 8.5" x 11" cardstock, punches, Aqua Painters, pens, ink refill bottles, scissors, Snail Adhesive, etc. The holder for the ink bottles is an acrylic nail polish display I found online. I love being able to get to the color I need quickly without having to pull each bottle out of a box to see what color it is:
I use a divided tray with a glass lid to hold all of the Hodgepodge Hardware pieces I have:
We covered our air hockey table with white laminated boards that match the desk tops. These are light and easy to remove when we want to play. This area is a great place for me to lay out my projects as I'm working or for packing up the Kits of the Month.
People always asked me what the orange dots are on the stamp sets. Those are retired sets that I need to sell someday. I just can't bear to part with them. I haven't marked the sets for the newest stamps to retire, or there would be a lot more dots on display.
I hope you enjoyed the tour of my stampin' room and that you have been inspired by something you've seen here. All of the cabinets were purchased at IKEA and the containers are from The Container Store...two of my favorite places to go.
If you're ever in the neighborhood, feel free to stop by and play. The stampin' room's always open!
Wow what an awesome room. Where did you find the planter boxes for your tools? That would definately make things easier to find. So many great ideas. I need to find and IKEA store. There isn't one in my town. Thanks so much for sharing. Great to have an organized room!
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Thanks Karen! The planter boxes are from IKEA. They're in the gardening section. Their online service is good if you can't find a store near you. Shipping costs can be a killer though.
Posted by: Karen | January 05, 2009 at 06:57 AM
I just love it Jeanne!
Posted by: Dianna | January 05, 2009 at 01:27 PM
Sure looks great, Jeanne! Just before New Year's we tore everything out of the craft/storage room my hubby and I share and have spent hours re-organizing everything. I'm down to one big box of 'stuff' that needs to find a home somewhere! Yay! I'm so excited that I might actually be done this weekend so I can do something fun on my now clean desk! Cheryl
Posted by: Cheryl Wilcox | January 05, 2009 at 06:57 PM
LOVE the room... (of course!!) It really is a great place to stamp and scrap!!
:o) Erin
Posted by: Erin | January 05, 2009 at 10:09 PM
What a great space and so organized! Thanks for sharing. I have lots of new ideas now to use in my space.
Posted by: Jill H. | January 06, 2009 at 07:07 AM
GOSH girl!!! You are the most organized person I know, maybe a tie with Lauri - I have no idea what you're working on. Your room looks GREAT!!
Posted by: kelly | January 06, 2009 at 03:46 PM
Wow, your stamp room is amazing! Your organization is very inspiring. I thought I was organized but I'm not even close to your level of organization. Impressive!!!
Posted by: Michelle | January 08, 2009 at 09:29 AM
Where did you purchase Bertha? I think I'm ready to invest in a heavy duty paper cutter.
Posted by: Karen Scott | January 09, 2009 at 09:58 AM
What an inspiration. I love it! I am such a container nerd. I don't know how you ever leave your stamp room. :)
Posted by: Monica Klos - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator | January 09, 2009 at 10:54 AM
Hi Jeanne! Thats awesome! Perfectly organized! When can we schedule you to come 'fix' my space...LOL j/k
I heard about your room from the NoSoCo group, unfortunatley I never made it over there with everyone!
Do you know the rooms measurements?
Thanks for sharing!
Tandra
Posted by: Tandra Boyer | January 09, 2009 at 11:36 PM
Hi Jeanne,
My name is Eileen and I live in Western Maryland (that little teenie part above WV) I just wanted to say that I've been on a quest to find some way to orgaize my craft room. (I'm talking years here) I've been to tons of sites and haven't found anything close to what you've done. Brilliant!!! I love all your ideas and I'm going to adopt quite a few of them. I too love Ikea. The closest one is in Pittsburgh (2 hours away) but I'll make the trek if I can get myself organized. Thanks so much!!! You are an inspiration to all us disorganized crafters out there. :D Keep up the great work and if you come up with any more organizing ideas, please share them with the organized wannabes out in cyberspace :D Thanks!Eileen
Posted by: Eileen Patterson | November 01, 2009 at 01:18 PM