In My Studio - Tools

Hello CTK friends!  This month a few members of the Creative Team are sharing  photo's and details of how they store their various tools!

Cece here showing you the tools I use. Here’s the mug where I store my scissors, punchers, markers, pens, pencils, dirty brushes, water brush pens. Then this mug goes on my craft cart so it’s easily accessible.

There are so many things in the craft world that I wish I had but it’s hard to get a hold of some things while living in a foreign country so I’m leaning how to just use what I have in my stash and I’m still able to get by pretty well. 🤗

Tool storage, right now, for me is in brown cardboard boxes! Not because I’m trying to make things hard to find but because my family is moving!  So instead I’m showing you my top twelve tools & supplies! 

1. Teeny tiny watercolor brush 
2. Faber Castel Big Brush Pens 
3. Acrylic block & acrylic stamps 
4. Tim Holtz mini stapler 
5. Washi tape 
6. Jumbo bow clip
7. Paint
8. Date stamper 
9. Die Cuts 
10. Mini Pom Pom maker
11. Tabs
12. Tape runner 

Whenever I travel this is what gets packed! I can’t wait to hear what some of your favorite tools are and how you neatly or not so neatly store them!! 

Ashley aka @magmagandme 

Honestly, most of my tools are spread out around my room. I organize more by type or what they’re used for. But I like to keep my most used tools within arms reach so when I recently built my giant pegboard system, I added some cute areas to hold some tools. My favorite holders are these macrame hanging mason jars.

I taught myself macrame for the sole purpose of making these. Ha! They hold scissors, pens and paintbrushes. Another container I have is this wire basket from Walmart. It holds punches and staplers and fits perfectly on my pegboard shelves.

I store most of my tools as scissors, rulers, different pen's, staplers and so on in my tool-bag (makes it easy just to pick with you if you are of for a scrap-crop).

My tape's, date stamps and regular black ink pads I store in a little separate basket.

Also I've a big basket-tower on my desk for miscellaneous bits and pieces.

Hi there! We live in an apartment which means that i have to share my time and space with my family.   Well, that also means many of my tools are stashed in drawers and in designated spaces for my supplies.

Our large display bookcase in the living room has a few empty shelves, and it is where i store most of my mixed media stuff. I love decorative/funky jars that can housemy brushes, knifes, etc, and since you can see through the glass these also serve as decor pieces.  The lower drawers of this book case house my machines, this way they are out of the way and the view of the public.

A few months ago we bought an industrial type bookcase for the dining room so that i can house some of my scrapbook supplies (yes, we are surrounded by my stash!), since it is open, I try at best to keep everything organized (this is a craftermath!).  I love having my most used tools just a stretch away from the dining room table since i do most of my work and videos from there!

Most of my tools sit on or right near my main desk.  I picked up this "kids craft bucket" spinning from an online shop in Australia and it's perfect for holding almost everything! The individual buckets are super handy in that I can just it pick up and carry it to wherever I need it to be at the time.  I can fit so much "stuff" in this too, I love it.

The only other tools I use often are my typewriter (which sits on the desk, right in the middle so I can use it all the time!), my cameo (which I've parked underneath my desk on a small rolling table) and my sewing machine (which sits just to the left of my main desk)!

How do you store your tools? We would love to see/hear (just share a post on the Facebook Fanpage!).

Is there anything you would like to see from our "In My Studio" posts? Please leave a comment below and we'll be sure to include it in the future!

In My Studio - Desk space

Hello CTK friends!  This month the Pocket Life Team are sharing some photo's and details about the most important area when we create - our desk space! :)

My office area is definitely my happy place, and while it is rarely as clean as it is in these photos, I do try to stay as organized as possible so I can find everything I need when I'm working on projects.  The desk on the right is one that I've had for around 6 years and while it did a great job serving as my only crafting work surface for many years I did find myself shuffling everything around a lot, which was a bit frustrating at times. Earlier this year I took the plunge and got myself a second desk from Ikea, which is a bit larger than the first.  My favorite thing about this desk is that it can be adjusted in height.  While I prefer to craft while sitting, sometimes its easier to film videos while standing.  Now I can do both!

On my desk I like to keep some containers with my essential tools like scissors, tiny attacher, paper trimmer, adhesive, rulers, stamping blocks, pens and pencils, etc.  Keeping these things within reach is super helpful when I'm working on a project.  I also like to keep a small basket with kits that I'm currently working with on my desk so I use these products first.  I try to use up as much product as I can from these kits before moving the leftovers over to my stash.

I also have a little extension to my desk in this rolling cart that I picked up from Michaels.  This cart holds most of my embellishments, and I love that I can roll it from one desk to the other when I need to.  On top of this cart I keep other essentials that I'm constantly grabbing for, like my inks and project life cards.

I'm one of those people whose desk needs to be clean at all time, otherwise I can't seem to function! I have a lot of little cups, bowls and dishes so I can tidy everything away after I finish working on each project (although there is always an empty coffee cup or two lying around! I've got my computer, printer and Silhouette Cameo all set up and ready to go whenever the mood strikes me. The shelves above my desk store all my most used alphas and embellishments, my DIY camera set up for process videos, as well as all my notebooks, planners and finished Traveler's Notebooks!

As you can see, my Desk isn't very big. I love it when it's cleaned. I can't work if there's a lot of extra stuff on the table. All tools and embellishments are stored in the drawers of the table.

My family recently moved and this new space has been so fun to arrange! I make sure my desk has lots of available space to begin projects and so I can get messy and spread out when needed. 

Something that's super helpful in all of my desk spaces has been having my favorite supplies and embellishments out so I can see them. If things are tucked away, I just won't use them. I use a large muffin tin for small paper embellishments and it's so handy to be able to dig through to find what I need. 

I also recently began keeping a dish of my most used stamps on my desktop because I was constantly reaching for the same 4x6 stamp over and over but only using that one. I'm not sure if I will like the messiness of this forever but it sure is fun for now. 

Thanks for hanging out in my new space. I hope to create inspiring projects here!

Welcome to my desk space!  We recently moved so I am still organizing all my fun goodies, but I am already in love with the bright space.  I love the light grey walls and the bright light that comes through my window.  Having a clean, organized space helps me create stress free.  I love the huge vintage bankers desk with lots of drawers, pockets and storage compartments.  I like that everything is close at hand so I can create without even getting up.  I even have a Diet Coke close at hand, (a crafty must have)!

What does your desk space look like? We would love to see/hear (just share a post on the Facebook Fanpage!).

Is there anything you would like to see from our "In My Studio" posts? Please leave a comment below and we'll be sure to include it in the future!

In My Studio - Album Storage

Hi CTK friends!  This month the Scrapbook Team are sharing some ideas on how they store one of our most important items - all our albums :)

Hi sweet friends!

I keep my albums along with some other scrappy stuff as cardstock and other goodies in my IKEA Kallax shelf unit which is placed in front of my desk. Since I haven't got enough albums for ALLLLL of my layouts I also store some of my pages with page protectors in boxes that fits in my Kallax shelf.

I actually store all my albums in an old kitchen hutch that we painted white.  My little 6x8 albums are the perfect size for the shelves.  The hutch is just tucked behind the door as you enter my room (also holds my mini-albums and alpha baskets).

All my layouts are filed away in albums by year (of photo) and I've just typed up some very plain looking labels for the spines.  I'd say that 90% of my layouts are about my son or niece so I just mix them together (rather than split them up per person) and I've stuck with black cloth albums for consistency.  While I wait for more albums to arrive (they are so hard to get over here!) I just pop them into the plastic sleeves and sit them in a clear tray in my shelving unit.  So they are still easy to flip through if anyone wants to look at what I've created! :)

I love the IKEA Kallax cubes for most scrapbooking storage. I have some knock-off Target brand cubes too, which is where I store the albums I have. I’m going to let you in on a little secret though...the majority of the scrapbook layouts don’t hold residence in my albums. See that stack of Citrus Twist Kits boxes next to my albums? Yep, that’s where most of my layouts live. Maybe one day I’ll buy more albums and be able to empty those boxes. But for now, that’s where they’ll stay. 

I am keeping my larger albums, mostly 12x12 or 6x8 in an Ikea  shelf.

My smaller, handmade minis are put away in Boxes, which fit in the Ikea shelves perfectly. I can grab them out whenever I feel like looking at them.

Since I’ve started making Traveler’s Notebooks this year, I bought some covers to fit them in and they look so pretty on the shelf.

Hi there!  Living in an apartment and having to share my workspace with the family means that everything has to have a place at all times.   We opted to transform our sofa table (Kallax Unit from Ikea) to storage/display furniture, so I use empty cabinet space to store my most recent filled scrapbook albums, layouts (in their plastic sleeves) and TN inserts.  Once the album gets filled, it moves to the bookcase in the office/den space of our apartment, so that anyone can access them at all times.

Hello lovelies, Neftali with you, and welcome back to another happy section of my crafty space! Today I am sharing how I store my albums. And well, I can’t say that I’ve got it all completely figured out for all of my albums, but here is what I’ve got so far. At the moment I keep all of my 6x8 mini albums, planners, notebooks, Travelers Notebooks, and Mini Albums in this 3x3 cubbie shelf unit. On top of it sits our television, since my scrappy space is shared in our tiny living room space. I like to keep my albums separated by size for the most part, but I also store them by type: TN’s together, Mini Albums together (in a wire basket), 6x8’s together, as well as planners and notebooks together. It’s pretty simple! 

But where are my 12x12 albums?? You might be asking yourself that question and, well, I have a simple answer. I don’t have any 12x12 albums! As crazy as that might sound, I have opted to keep my 12x12 and 8 1/2 x 11 layouts in plastic Iris containers until we move to a bigger home where I can buy a beautiful display storage system for those larger books. So, yes, I do have a nice growing stack of filled up iris boxes under my desk, but I’m happy with that at the moment. As far as album storage goes, this is how I opt to store mine considering the space limitations in my home. I hope you find some of these ideas useful for your small spaces. Thanks for visiting today!