Taylored Expressions Studio Challenge

It's time for the Baker's Dozen Studio Challenge.  This is a monthly opportunity for us to share what makes our stamping studios hum.  Each month we will have a fun, crafty question so we can share our favorites, some tips and tricks, stamping advice and more.

The question for September is:

Within Arm's Reach - What do you keep within arm's reach at your stamp table?  Show us what you have access to without leaving your seat.  What organization methods do you use?  Tell us which ones you love and which ones you'd like to change.

I think I need a moment of honesty here.  My desk in only this clean when I have to take pictures of it.  Don't get me wrong, I do clean up somewhat in between cards, but when I get behind and have to make lots of things in a short amount of time, you can't even see my desk, or even the floor for that matter.  And let's be real here.  I just moved one pile of crazy over to the other side of my desk while I took a photo of how neat and organized I am.  Haha!  BUT - what you see here is how I do keep myself organized.  The mess is in all the card stock I will put away "later".  Now that I got that off my chest, here is my post.

Welcome to my desk!  I always rearrange my work space, but this is what I've got going on right now and it seems to work for me.   I'll just work left to right on my desk.  First up is all of my inks and Copic markers.  I bought a couple of these Quickutz storage systems in black a few years ago and then when I went to order another one, they were discontinued!!  The shame!  I love these little cubes.  My markers are about to explode out of it, so I'll have to find something different for my inks soon.  I also have my border dies in a Mason jar, which I love!  It's so easy to find the border I'm looking for.  The rest of my dies are in various school boxes, and well, that system definitely needs a makeover.  I'm still looking for a good die storage system.  You can see my Copic color chart and Moka hair chart there as well.  I use those a lot!

Inside the drawers of the storage units I have my embellishments.  This one has my Kaisercraft rhinestones and pearls in it.  I hold them together with a metal ring clasp and then I can find the color I'm looking for really easily.

I have a hutch on top of my desk that holds lots of stuff.  The things I use most in here are the adhesives and stamp cleaners. 

I also keep more embellishments up here, like buttons, brads and my embossing powders.

In between the hutch doors, I have a shelf with my 6x6 papers and ribbon.

The paper is in the little box and the ribbon is in the jars.  I have most of it wound on doll head clothes pins, but some of the ribbon is in little baggies and spools.  I gotta get in there and organize it again.

To the right of my computer I keep my Spellbinders dies in Mini Binder Boxes and small paper trimmer.   I also have my iPod speaker and a little carousel with scissors, pens, and random tools. Don't mind the dust - haha!

Last, I have my die cut machine - a Vagabond, and my Janome Sew Mini.  These items are used on every single card I make. 

Please hop on over to see what the rest of the Baker's Dozen have at arms reach.  I can't wait to find new storage ideas myself!

• Cammie King
• Charmaine Ikach
• Jen Shults
• Jodi Collins
• Melody Rupple
• Regina Mangum
• Sankari Wegman
• Shannon White
• Shelly Mercado
• Stephanie Kraft
• Taylor VanBruggen
• Wanda Guess

Thanks so much for stopping by!

MFT Creative Chat - Creative Space

It's time for the MFT Creative Chat. The My Favorite Things Design Team Creative Chat is a monthly feature, where we are challenged to explore our creative spaces and share valuable organizational methods, tools, and shopping strategies with you. You'll be able to peek into our creative spaces, ask questions, and share your own ideas in the MFT forum.  This month, we were asked the following questions:  

Show us your desk.  How do you have things set up, and why?  

What are your "go-to" tools?  Tell us what you can't live without.

Visit Kim's Blog for a full list of designers that have taken up the challenge and get ready to delve into the minds of our creative team.

Welcome to my little crafting space!

My crafty part of the house is in our upstairs loft, right next to my daughter's room - you can see her ever-growing artwork mosaic on her doors.  We bought this hutch and office desk a few years ago when my papercrafting supplies were starting to take over and overflow everywhere when I just had a computer desk.  I LOVE this desk and it has so many drawers and compartments that I have lots of room for my supplies to grow into.  In the photo above, you can see the little shelf up in the hutch that hangs between the two doors and in the little nooks, I keep my acrylic blocks, and little odds and ends.  On top of the shelf is my ribbon and 6x6 papers.  All of the things I use most are right there within arms reach, so let me show you a few of my favorite "go-to" tools.

First up are my ink pads and Copic markers - if you visit my blog lots, you know almost every image is colored with Copics and stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black ink.  I picked up these little Quickutz storage boxes at Overstock.com a while ago and when I went to buy more, I found out they were discontinued!  NO!!

To the right of my computer are all my dies, stamp cleaning pads, design team stamps for the month, and then of course all my scissors!  I have separate scissors for ribbon, paper, foam tape, and everything else.  Keeping a separate pair of scissors for ribbon keeps the blades sharp and you won't get frayed edges.  Paper really will dull a scissor blade, so you don't want to mix the two.

In the pull-out drawer where a normal person would put their computer keyboard, I have my Scor-Pal, which is SO handy for making all sorts of different projects.  I have the self-healing pad in the tray where I do all my gluing and assembly.

Right above the drawer are a couple of things I use.  First is my Janome Sew Mini, which I'm using more and more.  I wasn't a sewer before, so I'm still learning how to keep those stitches straight and occasionally the tension gets all wonky and I get strange effects, but I'm learning.

Next to the sewing machine is my Big Shot, which I use for EVERY card.  It's perfect for all those Die-namics dies that I'm collecting and apparently this beast needs to be dusted.  LOL!

Last is my Carl Cutter, which is the best purchase I made for a cutter.  I LOVE it!  I used to mass produce cards and it cuts several sheets of cardstock at once.  Now I just use it for single cuts, but they are smooth and perfect. 

I hope you enjoyed my little tour and now I'm off to make a mess of things and create!

Thanks for stopping by!
Karen

my crafty space

Welcome to my crafting space! Let me show you around. I still need to hang curtains and pictures and make it more comfy-cozy, but we all have to start somewhere, right? Here is the general view - my craft room is actually our loft and it is nestled between all the kids' bedrooms.



This is my desk and I absolutely love this hutch. It stores so many things, and they are right at my fingertips. Up in the top right cabinet I keep my Taylored Expressions stamps, my Spellbinders dies, and all my craft magazines. In the other cabinet I have markers and other embellishments.



I like to keep items I use most often right on my desk so I can easily grab them and put them away. I bought 2 Magpie Black Nesting Storage Systems to store my Copic Markers, ink pads, rhinestones and some die cut templates. I've been looking everywhere for the little tins that go inside, but I'm thinking they've stopped manufacturing them - they are nowhere!! I still have compartments to fill too! My husband bought a wallet not too long ago, so I stole the box it came and now I use it to hold my Stickles, Liquid Pearls, and other items that tend to get lost in the shuffle.



I have a very tall bookshelf that has closed doors on the bottom where I store all sorts of odds and ends that I don't get out very often and on the shelves I have all my stamps, photo albums, and a box to hold all the cards I have for sale. Oh, my beautiful children are featured there as well!



Last, here is where I store all my card stock. I organize all the paper by color - each color has its own hanging file, and in that file is a manilla file folder where I keep the scrap pieces of that color. The folder is labeled with the color name and little card stock circle for easy reference. This has been the best way I've found to keep me organized - love it! My daughter knows the system too, so she's great at finding what she needs and putting the pieces back where she found them.



Thank you so much for stopping by today!
Karen