Sparkle Tart by Kate Palmer

Kate Crane's Craft Desk

Welcome to my very 1st Guest Desk post.

I love looking at the places art is created, some spaces are organised, some messy, others completely colour coordinated and a few totally minimalist!  I'll bet you all enjoy having a look inside people's craft spaces as well, which is why I have asked a few of my very favourite artists to share their work spaces with us!   I have a 'thing' for seeing the space which leads to such beautiful art.

So without further rambling I have to say a BIG thank you to the incredibly talented Kate Crane for being my very first Guest Desk.  Kate is an amazing artist working and teaching in the UK, she designs for Craft Stamper magazine and Stampotique Originals, has been published extensively and teaches at Art From the Heart.

I have admired Kate's work since I saw my first issue of Craft Stamper magazine, and it was this talented artist who convinced me that Dylusions were a Must-Have item (I get the feeling they might be one of her favourite products).  Kate's style is bright, grungy, quirky and heaps of fun - her art makes me smile! 

She has 2 DVD's currently available about Art Journaling available through Traplet publications - though the techniques could be used on almost anything (I own and can highly recommend both).  I also heard a rumour that there may be more on the horizon and though not yet confirmed, my fingers are crossed.  I love the fact the Kate has a style all of her own and that she mixes fine art mediums with stamps and craft supplies to create her amazing art work.

 

Kate says 'The top 10 things that I like to have nearby when I am creating are:

1. A water pot, baby wipes and kitchen roll. Even a messy worker has to clean up at some point!
2. My favourite Dylusions (Ranger) ink sprays in a basket so I can just reach for them because I use these all the time.
3. A collection of Ranger Archival inkpads in various colours.
4. An assortment of pots containing my paintbrushes, and various pens for art journaling.
5. A basket containing various acrylic paints ... the now sadly discontinued Dylusions, and lots of Golden Fluids. I also have many Ranger dabbers in a shelf unit on the wall.
6. Stencils! Can't get enough stencils!
7. Various mediums including gesso, matte medium, fluid matte medium.
8. A small craft tote bag containing my scissors, various tapes, pencils etc, you know, the not-very-interesting-but-essential stuff!
9. Distress ink pads - I love these for colouring images as well as creating backgrounds.
10. My trusty, paint spattered, glue damaged sewing machine!'

Kate was kind enough to share a little info about her work space as well as some photos, so read on...

Last year I moved into the box room of our house and claimed it as my own!  It's tiny, but it's all mine and I love it. I feel privileged to have a room all to myself and feel thankful that I don't have to clean my mess up all the time; I can leave things out and come back to them at any time.  Moving into this small room forced me to have a major clear out of all my arty crafty stuff and anything that I hadn't used in the previous year I got rid of.  Actually it felt good!

I work on a large, cheap dining table from IKEA. It's big enough for all my clutter and it was cheap enough for me not to worry about covering it with paint.

Underneath there is room for me to store some of my bulky items such as my sewing machine, and my Big Shot. On the top of the desk I like to keep my most often used items within my reach and keep all my favourite pens in old or chipped mugs so it has a kind of eclectic look!

Along one wall is an IKEA expedit unit which houses all of my other craft stuff - some of it is in baskets but a lot of it is open shelving. I'm a very impatient crafter - if I can't lay my hands on it straight away without rummaging through drawers then I lose interest! I like the fact that I can sit at my work desk and just turn around on my stool and reach for whatever I want without actually getting up! The shelves may look a bit disorganised but I know where everything is!

You can see more of Kate's art on her totally amazing blog The Kathryn Wheel.  I'd just like to say a BIG THANK YOU to Kate who took time out of her schedule even though she was flying overseas this week to go to Ranger U in NYC.  Sending big sparkly hugs of gratitude your way and I have loved the peek into your craft space!

May your day sparkle,

Organising your Craft Room

I have spent the last 30 days scouring the internet, searching for storage ideas and inspiration, making decisions, sourcing items and scavenging supplies (yep me scavenging!  Mrs I-Must-Have-It-Now) and I (and hopefully some of you) am now ready to put some of my plans into action.  As I found out relatively quickly this task was never going to be quick or painless.  Re-organising is messy, difficult, time consuming and often frustrating as you come across things that cannot be changed, companies who will not deliver to your area and items that are perfect - but no longer available!  You will experience all of this plus the desire to stop as it's overwhelming, messy and often not much fun.  That's OK - do what you can, no guilt when life gets in the way - no 'should have's' just do what you can.  For me this has been brewing for quite some time and it was time for a real overhaul - not just moving things about, but a really hard look at my set-up and myself.  It's been a bit slow so thanks to all who have stuck with me over the last month and especially to all those who have offered ideas, guidance and the odd laugh - it's wonderful to have people from all over our little planet pitching in to help, I hope I can return the favour some day!

So where are we with this cleaning up business?

This is the process I have followed up until now:

1. Have a really good look around at all of your 'dream rooms', what is it you like, the light, the space, the coordinating colours, the storage, the art - make a list, from these 'dream rooms' what could you actually have in YOUR space?
2. Look critically at your space and yourself - what adds to the creation of mess, why is it a mess?
3. Look at your current storage, where do you keep your supplies (I listed what I have in each unit).
4. You can now make a list of what you want to change, begin with any craft room dangers (power cords), heat tools etc and then identify your biggest problem areas - eg: can't reach ink pads, can't find coloured papers etc.  Yep write it down and make a list, sit at your desk and as you create scribble down anything you find annoying on a regular basis - this is where you need to start!  
5. From the list you made begin looking for ideas and alternatives that will really make a difference - ignore trendy, new and pretty (most of the time) look for practical ideas that will work for you.  Measure how much room you have, so you know things will fit, before buying them.  Sometimes you may find you already have what you need at home or you can re-purpose something, or even just move things to a more convenient position, other times you may be able to make the storage yourself and sometimes you just have to lay down the $$$ and buy something.
6. Consider where you currently have your supplies versus the best use of your space - do you really need 500+ stamps all close to hand all the time and all on your desk?  What really needs to be 'at hand' - what do you use most often?  Take a fresh look and re-assess what you store where.
7. Following on from #6 - how will you store the items - I looked at hutches.
8. Decide if you are a lazy or motivationally challenged crafter and if so, here are 10 tips for lazy crafters :O)
9. Begin considering some of the specifics (don't get too lost in this - you won't find an answer for every question all at once) and remember - DON'T run out and buy loads of new storage options right at the beginning - buy one thing and see how it works in your room. 
   My specific areas to consider were storage options for:
   
   • copic markers,
   • card stock,
   • ribbon,
   • paper scraps,
   • stationary,
   • ink pads,
   • templates & stencils,
   • punches,
   • paint dabbers,
   • stickles and embellishments,
   • metal dies and
   • flowers.
10. Do you make piles of stuff on your desk, shelves or floor?  If so why do you have a pile, have a look in a pile and jot down what's in there, you will be surprised to find that the secret to eliminating the pile is contained within - have a look and see what you need to make these messy piles a thing of the past.
11. Think about a colour scheme, do you have one already, do you want one - what do you already have you can use, alter or gain inspiration from?
12. Look at your walls - do you have empty, unused space you could be using to display items, look behind your door - what could you fit behind that typically unused space?
13. What can you do to make your space pretty?  There are loads of ways to achieve this, so look beyond the obvious painting (I'm not ruling that out of course) and buying all new and matching items - you can make it work without costing a small fortune.
14. Accept it will get messier before it gets more organised.
15. Begin with one thing at a time and finish that one thing before moving on to something else.

Things can only get better, I hope!

I stated at the beginning of this with a 'Craft Cleanse Mantra' and said that:

• I will only buy 4 craft items in April - if it's not on my 'Free Pass List' I will not buy it - ACHIEVED mostly
• I will use the stuff in my craft stash to create yummy projects - MASSIVE FAIL!
• I will look critically at what I own and what I actually need - Achieved and ongoing
  
• I will open ALL the little draws/boxes and piles and look at what lies inside - in progress
• I will de-clutter based on what I USE not what I might use - in progress
• I will use the time to organise ALL my millions of draws/piles and the items hiding within - in progress
• I will begin sorting things for sale and selling these or giving things away - Achieved and ongoing
• I will NOT be tempted by new colours, Ranger or Prima releases - ACHIEVED
• I will personalise my space as much as I can, make it my own and make it beautiful (within budget) - Achieved and ongoing
• I will not run out in the next few days and buy enough new things to last me through April! - ACHIEVED

I had a free pass list of 4 things I could buy - I was able to buy 3 things on my list, the Distress markers have only just become available to me this week (or next week perhaps), so they didn't make it - but I did buy a reem of cardstock - so there are my 4 things.  I was surprised I managed to stick to this - I think hubby still doesn't believe it - though I did buy some storage items.  For the most part I have stuck to my mantra, though I had not accounted for the fact that all of this sorting and organising is very time consuming, and while in progress not a lot of creating happens.  I know it will be worth it though and when I'm done it should really help for years to come.

Now onto the fun part, in May I will be showing you what I have done (or am in the process of doing) and I have some wonderful 'Guest Desks' lined up where you can get a peek at other people's desks and the 10 items they Must-Have close at hand at all times.  Last month was all the hard work, now we play :O)

May your day sparkle,

Day 30: Decorating and making it pretty

I thought I'd plan a little decorating today.  Now I cant really paint a feature wall, most of it would be covered by furniture, so when I saw these wall decals it was perfect (I bought a few different kinds - velvet and vinyl).  I bought a solid black orchid, a bird & tree and a velvet hanging vinyard bloom.  They are supposed to be really easy to apply to the wall and to customise the pattern so you can fit it to the space you have.  Now, while these may not be the height of fashion (or to some people's taste) and yes they are stickers, for those with few options, I think it's a nice cheap alternative that can make your space feel a bit more like 'You' - also excellent for those who may be renting and are looking for a pretty, but non-permanent solution.

I haven't personally dealt with any of these companies, so am not endorsing them in any way - but I found similar items at the following spots online:

• Amazon
• Wall Stickers Direct
• Wallsensation
• ebay
• All Posters

I'll show you what I do with these when they arrive.

May your day sparkle,

Day 29: Storing Paper Flowers & Leaves

Come on we all have them and usually not just one or two!  The question becomes how do we store all those  flowers and leaves?  Do you sort by colour, by brand, by size, by packaged or non packaged - the choices are limitless.  Here are a few of the interesting ideas for storage I have found:

 Queen Be1 has this neat little unit on Flickr - so it's not going to fit in my room, but gosh isn't it adorable!  If anyone would like a look at Carols's amazing Shabby Chic studio check out her blog here - it's totally gorgeous.

Paula has hers in this very stylish unit, they appear to be sorted by colour and flower type in these handy little buckets.

Lim from the Voices in My Head blog has these  amazing units - I LOVE how these look and if any one knows where I can get something similar in Australia please let me know as they would be perfect for my plastic storage drawers.

Over at Kotton's Corner Jenny uses these adorable little jars to store her roses and other flowers - Tamara I'm not storing flowers in mine but there is a plan!

 

Now these are just a few ideas, I hope to have another post in the next week or two with a couple more, in the interim,

May your day sparkle,

PS - why is this post a bit short? Because my computer died (I'm currently working from my iPad) and because I've been painting my craft desk for the last 3 days - 5 coats later and it's looking good - photos and post to follow when laminating is complete.

Day 28: Storing Metal Dies

Wow don't metal dies multiply when you're not looking!  I was suprised to find I owned 20 when I bought this cute little purple Spellbinder Wizard Die Carrying Case case!

Then I discovered it wouldn't fit the large Spellbinder labels dies I wanted to store in it - so I moved to these great magnetic binders.  I don't remember where I first saw them in use, but I know Jerri Kay also uses them - the only thing I know of so far that will store the Grand Nesabilities.

Then I filled all my binders and needed even more space!  So I had a look around and stumbled across these fabulous ideas for storing your metal dies:

Christina at Card Making Magic has the fabulous idea of mounting her dies on the wall - LOVE IT! 

Over at The Craft Bin dies are being stored inside the clear Tim Holtz pouches that come with the Tim Holtz Stamp Binder.

Sherry is storing hers on magnetic cardboard sheets in a draw - organised by shape - lovely and tidy!

Arlene (Butterflykisses) had a great idea over on YouTube - if you're interested you can see her Chipboard Storage Book with magnetic strips over on You Tube.

I've chosen to do something which combines all of these fabulous ideas, I've chosen to use Tim Holtz Stamp Binders, filled with the clear Storage Pockets.  I then purchased a roll of magnetic tape which I stuck to one side of each pocket, on this I store my dies.  I've attached labels to split the dies into sections, round, square, rectangular, floral etc - this makes it easier to find things.  Inside each pocket I've popped the die packaging so that I know which company they are from and which particular set.  It might not be as elegant as Arlene's idea, but it does have a zipper, so I can be sure nothing falls out :O)

 

May your day sparkle,

Day 27: Stickles and Embellishments Storage

WOW - these are the things that seem to be very easy to get into a mess.  When I look in my embellishment drawers all I see is confusion, there is stuff everywhere, this is what it currently looks like below. 

My charms and small metal embellishments are neatly organised in Craft Mates Lockables Organiser, I've mentioned these before and they are amazing - my favourite small embellishment storage!

BUT my larger items, chipboard die cuts, stickles, large metal embellishments, watch parts, crystals, Tim Holtz Ideology stuff - it's all over the place and it's a mess.

 I'm beginning to see the reason I can never find a chipboard die cut - I have 4 drawers which all look like this.

All my stickles are in this one drawer - all messed up and usually with a few random bottles of glitter as well.  Again I have to rummage about for the colour I want and since this is on the poorly lit side of my room I actually have to remove each bottle to read the colour on the label.

So again I've been hunting and have found there are so many better ways to store these little items, here are a few.  If I had loads of $ and space I would have Stamping with Noel's storage option handcrafted just for me - I love this, I love how it looks, how organised and neat it is - it really is beautiful.

Kendra over at Travelling at the speed of life has this amazing button storage, I can imagine so many other things in here - PS check out her fabulous and unique room!

If you like to be able to see things (or need to) like me, maybe a Clip it up is the answer, these come in loads of sizes now and they have even released a large model.  This is Cindy Tobey's - she also has some amazing ideas over on Creating Keepsakes.

Can you imagine this as a wall in your space - I sure can :O)  Now Joe has loads of goodies in here - I'm impressed by how perfectly neat it all is.  You can see Joe's jaw dropping studio here.

I also love the Stickles storage Margaret uses over at Whimsey Unlimited.

For a solution which takes up less space on the desk, check out this idea from Mishay36 over at Scrapbook.com - they are all stuck to a velcro strip on a desktop sign holder, upside down and ready to go.

or the fabulous Christie has hers attached to the base of a shelf with magnets - also a truly fabulous idea.  If I end up with any shelf space I might consider this as an option myself - so neat and easy!

So what will I try, I'm really liking the look of that Clip it up so I will measure a bookcase and see it it will fit, if not I will look at another plan.  I LOVE the magnetic stickles storage, if I have a shelf I think this might be an option.

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Perhaps if I can't use these ideas I might come up with an idea of my own - or you all might be able to point me in the right direction :O)

 

May your day sparkle,

Day 26: Creating a wall display

OK - so I can't be the only one who has things they want to display in their craft room, favourite cards, beautiful embellishments, special memento's - currently they are all sitting in front of things on my bookshelves - guess what you need to move to get to anything - not a great idea!  Problem - I can't put anything in reach of my 2 active cats - so I saw these and thought they would be perfect.

Set of 3 Floating Lacquered Cubes

S - W15 x D10 x H15cm

M - W20 x D10 x H20cm,

L - W25 x D10 x H25cm.

Hold 2kg.

 

Windows to new worlds...

Let your creativity free.

 

I've purchased 2 sets - so I have 6 cubes of various sizes in total, I'm going to use these to display cards, nick-nacks etc.

Do you have any wall space you could use like this?  Do you have things on display which are stopping you from being able to access your supplies easily?  Look around and view those walls in a new light - they are space just waiting to be used.

May your day sparkle,

Day 25: Craft Room Colour Scheme

Choosing the colour scheme for my craft room - this was the easiest thing I've had to do this month.  I have black storage drawer units, I have green drawer units, I have white walls and I have purple folders.  So my colour scheme is black, white and green with a tiny bit of purple as an accent.  This might explain why I liked this craft room so much, it's almost where I want to be... I also have kind of a thing for damask patterns.

I've been thinking about how I can use all of these colours and this is my Pinterest vision board - Cruise in Chartreuse, as lime green/chartreuse is the green I have - and honestly I kind of like how fresh it looks.  I've found putting all of the ideas, looks, things you like is really useful as you can see patterns - I see damask popping up constantly.  It also is great to look at to get a feel for what you want - I seem to be after light, fresh and airy.

So I'm going to combine black and white damask, with the lime green, and add a few random touches of purple and this will be the colour scheme for my room.  What am I going to alter to fit in with this new look:

• Walls - nope already white
• Table - currently brown, I am recovering this with whitish laminex and painting the remaining sections with white enamel paint - I may get fancy with the drawer section
• Storage folders - I already have some while folders, so I will decorate some fancy spines to add to these, in my chosen colours and spruce them up a little, and go from there.
• I have some purple embellishment folders - I will make new labels for these in my chosen colour scheme so they fit in a little better
• Art in room - a bit random, my Nefertiti painting will move to a new home and be replaced with something I have decorated in my new colour scheme
• Bookcases - 1 is already black, I don't know I can do a whole lot to the other 3??? 
• Storage units - currently many green/black/cream units - all a bit mismatched - will move and reorganise these to try and make better use of space - perhaps I can throw away a few when I'm finished - it will be the odd colours that don't fit in!
• I've also bought some black damask flocked paper - I'm planning on using this as an accent - not sure where, but it is gorgeous - so I'll use it somewhere.

Questions to ask Yourself?

1. What can you do in your room to 'bring it all together'? 
2. Are there colours in your area right now that you can use?
3. Is there something you can't change - but could alter other things to match this?
4. What are some cheap simple options for altering items, so it looks unified without costing a kidney?
5. Are you attracted to any particular patterns?
6. Do you have 1 thing (furniture or art) that you really love, could you use this as the basis for your colour scheme?

May your day sparkle,

Day 24: Cleaning up - no really!

While some may doubt you - so far this is what cleaning up looks like..

Desk has some new components (copic holder) but is covered with items being sorted in preparation for culling, moving and sorting.  I know eeeek!

Spare room has bed covered in stuff being sorted into piles for sale (no I am not able to take over this room as a craft room, my family like to sleep here).

Cupboard has bags and boxes of items to be culled either for sale, re-distribution or donation - yes that's actually a box and a bag of stamps to go - wow I have some stuff.

I have thrown out stuff as I go that really is rubbish, so far about 4 bags - good grief I like making piles of scrap paper!   I have decided on a few storage ideas and have a few decisions yet to make, I've ordered a couple of items and am waiting for these to arrive and find a home before looking at anything else. 

This is THE DANGER ZONE - where you have created new bags, piles etc but have not yet made any improvements - it's very easy to get distracted and stop here!  DON'T STOP - if you do, you just end up with many more piles of stuff, your desk may remain clean for a while, it may look tidier, but so far you have not made a dent on re-organising.  In doing the same thing you've always done, you will get the same results you've always gotten!  We can do this.

May your day sparkle,

Thanks Jessica

Our Editor's Pick! Come visit our shopping blog! Pocket Change

Aww -  what a lovely compliment to receive an email from Jennifer, an editor at Crafter's Corner, to say she has chosen my blog for an 'Editor's Pick'.    Jennifer mentioned 'I just stumbled upon your blog and you have a really amazing craft site. I particularly enjoyed a recent post that you had where you talked about organizing all of your crafts. The saying, Don't put it down, put it away, I feel like I should live by that.  I'll maybe even tell it to my kids someday!'

Thanks so much Jennifer - what a lovely thing to say.

Day 23: Storing Adirondack Paint Dabbers

Paint dabbers - I have almost all of these little beauties produced by Ranger and they are making the drawer which I have them stored in rather heavy and difficult to open.  I have them all upside down in an effort to make them easier to use (and for some reason I thought it would help to keep them from drying out).  I am also now collecting the Jenni Bowlin colours - so the drawer won't be getting any lighter any time soon.  I don't know if I will move these, but there's nothing wrong with having a look.  So these are some of the fabulous ideas I've found from around the web, though in all honestly there weren't squillions of ideas out there for these, perhaps you all just have a drawer that looks like this as well....

Kate's Ranger Paint Dabber Storage

 Kris the Collage Contessa has her dabbers in this fabby little rack - I like this a lot, though again back to the bench space issue.

A somewhat smaller storage option from Cropper Hopper.

This was suggested on the Ranger blog - they do know we would need 10 of these to fit all the Adirondack and Jenni Bowlin colours right :O)

OK so Micki is waaay handier than me with tools, can you believe she built this herself - two thumbs up for Micki from Artful Expressions.

Grace from Create with Ease has suggested Magnets or velcro to hold them onto the bottom of shelving in your craft room - I don't think I will have anything like this to use that idea - but you never know :O)

Anyone out there got any better Dabber storage ideas? 

May your day sparkle,

Day 22: Storing Paper Punches

Now this should be easy for me as I have hardly any punches compared to some others I've seen - wow some people love punches!  Me I have a very weak wrist, the kind where too much use causes it to kind of go numb and I have trouble holding things - very annoying - so I much prefer my Vagabond, but even I have around 20 punches of varying styles and sizes (of course very few are the same size, shape or type).

Currently they live in 4 drawers, determined by their size - I often need to open all 4 to find the one I am looking for - so not very efficient, not labelled and I've been known to put it back in a different drawer.  Perhaps some of these storage ideas might be a better option:

This first one - the Kanga Pouch reminds me of an over the door shoe holder, but it's for supplies, a very clever space saving idea.

I so want a Home Depot in Australia as then I could get one of these Martha Stewart punch/stamp storage units - so nice and also looks rather useful, love the different sized shelves.

I like this small desk unit from Staples in the USA mentioned on Stamp That!  It has a small footprint, rotating/revolving and just big enough to fit a few essentials.

There's a bigger version of this in Sharon's Scrappy Space - I believe this unit comes from StampinThings

I really like Nicole's Idea for storing border punches (mentioned on Creating Keepsakes Blog), but I just don't have that many - that's not to say my collection may not grow while I'm not looking.

I love this shoe rack for storing punches - great right!  This one is in the craft space of Monica from My Many Passions Blog

 Judy Jackson uses curtain rods mounted on dry wall/ plaster board to store her punches.

Or for this slightly larger version, check out Barb's Craft Cave.

I have so few I think they will continue to live in drawers for the moment, but I do intend to organise them better.

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May your day sparkle,

Day 21: Storing Plastic Templates and Stencils

Templates, stencils and masks, 6x6, 12x12, long, skinny, square, round, decorative, plastic, metal, cardboard - there are so many to choose from where do we all begin?  Ideally I'd love 'one unit to hold them all!!!'  (a little Lord of the Rings humour there - yes I'm a nerd), but I'm having trouble finding 'sexy' stencil solutions - or many ideas at all.  So here are some I found, followed by some of my own.

The most common stencil storage solution seems to be THE BOX or THE DRAWER.  It tends to look a bit like this...

I saw this photo holder/album idea over at Silverwolf Cards.

Nadine from Dreamweavers Quilts punches a hole and stores hers on rings - this keeps them all neatly together. Quilters have been using these for ages so there are loads of great ideas on quilting sites for template storage.

Paula from Bats in the Attic goes one step further and hangs the rings in this neat little rack

I'm toying with the idea of storing my 12 x 12 templates in one of the Legacy page in progress folders - I don't use the 12 x 12's as much so they are OK to be less easily accessible.

I saw this great idea on YouTube from PaperTemptress and it's so nice and neat, only trouble for me is I want to access mine at a moment's notice so an album like this one won't do for my little stencils.

 I think a Cropper Hopper Sticker Stadium (or something like it) may also be a useful alternative

At the moment I'm using a letter organiser, which I rather like (not perfect, but not bad). There are simple ones like this:

or slightly fancier - I like the way this one looks alot!

Mine looks like this I bought it at Howards Storage world and it holds everything except my 12 x 12 stencils:

May your day sparkle,

Day 20: Ink Pad Storage

I can't be the only person out there with almost 100 ink pads to organise - yes I know that's a lot of ink pads, I also KNOW I am not alone (go on count yours, they add up faster than you expect!).  It is now the time to figure out how I'm going to store these little guys as presently they are all over the place, draws, shelves, stacked etc.  So I've done a little browsing and here are some of my favourite ideas for ink pad storage from the web (keeping in mind they most pigment based inks can be stored facing up and most dye based ink pads are better stored facing down - Distress Ink pads being the exception - Tim says for them they are OK to store facing up):

Currently I have most of my ink pads stacked in drawers all over the joint, and my most used pads in one of these neat little Table Top stamp pad organisers, it comfortably fits 8 pads, 11 if you don't mind things being a bit fiddly.

I really like the clean and simple wall storage idea shown by Carrie over at The Artistic Avenger blog.  I might need a wall of these though to store all my ink pads, Carrie mentions that it was from Ikea.

This is a side view from Kulat4 on Splitcoast Stampers she also lists more information - apparently it was sold as a DVD storage unit at Ikea.  I really like this idea - not sure if I can use it in my space though.

If you are a bit handier than me you could try your hand at this - thanks to Message In A Fold for the awesome idea and brilliant video.

Sue from Stampin Things sent me a sweet email and link to her HUGE array of storage options (no I'm not affiliated) I thought these looked really interesting, sadly being in Australia the cost of postage is more than the units - but if you're in the USA they are worth a look.

Sherri has one of these (I'm a little jealous!) and they are available for purchase in the USA - WOW compact and stylish!

I really like the look of the table top ink pad unit from Patty at Patty's Stampin' Spot blog.  For those in the USA I found this for sale at Stamper Storage and for those in Australia there is a lovely man with a store 'Colcraft' on Facebook who will make these to order.  I like this idea a lot - just not sure how I could incorporate it into my 'zone' definitely on my 'to consider' list.

I loved Laura's idea over ot Following the Paper Trail - it would just need to be twice the size :O)  Yes she made it!

Lisa from Peanuts & Peppers Papercrafting is using the Stampin' Up Ink Caddy. It holds not only 48 reinkers, but 48 stamp pads as well - looks interesting, except I don't have the room for a rotating caddy on my desk - I've proved this with my Copic Marker tower.

Then I saw this and it's so tidy looking the unit is from Organize More in the USA - I don't think I have the bench space to store it though - but hmm.  Again if you are in Australia you can have something similar made from Colcraft.

For the ultra economy option (or a temporary option) you can try using cat food boxes like Helen (from Visual Diary of a Virgin Blogger) has done here.

While on the topic of inks I loved this idea from Kottens for a colour swatch book - I need one of these as I often forget what it looks like stamped vs sponged.

But what can I incorporate into my space?  The way things are currently set up - none of these would work - so this may require some re-working of my craft space, lucky that's what I'm doing right now. 

What I have decided so far:

1. I do not need every ink pad on my desk - just those most used, so my Distress Ink pads, my Versamark/Versafine, Memento, Archival and Black Brilliance - still that's quite a few!
2. For those stored in drawers, single layer preferred (if possible) so all can be seen without 'digging' - something I can admit I rather dislike.  I will re-purpose some of the drawers I already have for these - and they are being banished to the bookshelves - not every ink pad needs to be right on my desk - some I only use for specific techniques.
3. My desk is too deep to have ink pad unit along back wall (pads would not be able to be reached while sitting down) and I'd have to bend and reach over a rather wide desk each time - just not going to happen.
4. I can have some sort of ink pad storage either to my right against the wall, or in front of the drawers (or whatever ends up being there) on my desk - not sure if that would work? Either way will need to be short and skinny and not take up too much room.

I need to make a few other changes before committing to an ink pad storage method - don't want to buy something that turns out to be useless.  So stay tuned, I'll come back to this...

May your day sparkle,

Day 19: There's No Way in just 30 Days!

LOL - it seems I was underestimating how long this may take - I didn't give enough thought to the fact that I first have to find the right storage solutions, then track them down, buy or make the solutions, then put them in place and then transfer my stuff into them!  30 days will not be long enough so I am extnding my Craft Room Clean Up/Cleanse until the end of May - giving me (and YOU) 60 days - plus one extra. 

So here is what will happen:

1. I will officially extend the sign up's for the Craft Room Cleanse until end of May 2012
2. Gift will be drawn at the end of May - I may even have 2 prizes for people who sign up to follow the Cleanse, since it's now running over 2 months
3. I will continue to post each day in April with ideas, notes and info re storage options
4. I will post a bit less often in May and make it more about what I am personally doing in my space
5. In May I will also be showing you some amazing spaces in a 'Guest Desk' series of posts, I've got some fabulous people who have agreed to be a part of this.
6. I will post some pics of MY room and the updated items I am installing, plus things I have created to go in there

So stick with me - we are in for one fun ride, wheeeeeeeeeeeee

May your day sparkle,