HEY! Hi there!

Wow, I've really been neglecting the old blog haven't I? Sorry folks. It seems that when I havetime to make cards these days, I want to enjoy the process of making cards. I just don't have the enthusiasm for photographing and blogging TOO.

But, this past weekend I went on a wild tear and did some major reorganizing of my craft room, thanks to the inspiration from my friend Mary.

It started out looking like this. I made sure to

take photos when it was good and messy!!!

To the left here you can see a close up of my old

ribbon storage method. I loved this - 7 years ago. Now its just a mess and in all of the other before photos, you can see how the ribbon is always

hanging down onto other stuff, including my work table. Just not working for me.

Also on the left you can see my scrap storage, just literally bursting at the seams. Again I loved

this when I first made it, and now its just not working for me. The box is two of PTI's "From the Desk Of" templates without the center inserts.

Next up you can see my paper storage - left to right:

Black magazine holders hold idea folders, PTI paper stacks and watercolor papers. The two larger black magazine holders hold 12x12 paper. To the right, three clear magazine holders hold PTI cardstock. Not much about this has changed, but I did tidy it up :-) Just to the right of the

magazine files are my CD rack for PTI sets, and to the right of that is my inkpad storage, made out of balsa wood (which was cut with scissors and an xacto knife and glued with Aileene's craft glue) following, loosely, this pattern.

Here you can see just a small part of my wood mount stamp storage. This used to live on mywork table, but I was forever knocking them off the little stand (a spice rack stand from Target). So then I moved it over to the top of my Expedit shelf, which is my sewing station, and guess what happened every time I tried to sew something?

Sooooo... I made some changes. Want to see?!! :-)

I bought an old printers drawer from a flea market for $5. Yes, I said five bucks! G added some picture framing hardware and mounted this to the wall for me. Its just inside the door, on a blank space of wall that needed 'something', and it is both out of the way AND easily visible from my chair. It also holds a lot more wood-mount stamps - nearly all I own except for 3-4 Stampin Up sets that live in their storage boxes in a drawer. (I didn't want to split those setsup). You can see the slots are fairly small, so my background stamps just live on top. Also, see that art up there? I took Christy Tomlinson's She Art workshop, after seeing Nicole's GORGEOUS work, and this is the only one I actually finished! I don't love it, but its growing on me! Also, that green wall paint? Seven years ago it

was a bright pea/kiwi green, but I get so

much sun in this room, it faded to a more muted sagey kind of color - weird.

Below is my work table - the cleanest its EVER been since G built it for me when we moved in. The top is his work; the legs are sawhorse style from IKEA. Notice the cleaned up paper area?And, the ribbons, ink pad and PTI CD cases are all gone? More room for my laptop to live while I'm working, and much tidier. Yes, those are two Ott lights. I cant work at night without them,since the room has no overhead lights and the other lamps are terrible. Also see the big square on the table surface that is darker than everything else? That is where my big self-healing cutting mat lives. He was drip drying in the shower after a

good scrub down when I took this photo ;-)

OK, so now you see a great shot of the place where the ribbon dowel rods USED to live! SO much tidier! And I moved the CD rack of PTI stamps and the ink pad storage over onto this little (ugly!) green dresser that lives next to the old microwave cart that lives to the left of my table. See the basket in the top shelf of the white cabinet? All of my small jars of buttons live in there! And, that green box on the microwave cart shelf? I used that for all of my lesser usedribbon spools. (I put about 1/3 of my ribbon in here, another 1/3 went to the yard sale box, and the final 1/3 is coming up in a photo below!)

Alright last but not least! Back in college, I was a poor art major. I bought this plastic cart to keep all of my supplies in my dorm room. Its been with me ever since! It fits perfectly under my table. The top two drawers store pens, post its, small embellishments like brads, etc. Its especially handy for those kinds of pens that don't like to be stored vertically. But its the bottom two deeper drawers that are most amazing!

Every time I buy a PTI set, like many PTI fans, I save the clear acetate box that the sets come in. Some are about an inch thick, while others are about 1/2 inch. Well, I found a use for them! I took every one I had and cut off the top flaps. I think I had about 20 total. They stand up PERFECTLY in the larger bottom drawers of this little plastic cart. So I put 10 or so in each drawer. In the bottom drawer is all of my PTI and frequently used ribbon. I cut pieces of mat board down to 3" x 6" and wrapped each ribbon around a piece of mat board. I secured the end with a paper clip, but I'm going to try rubber bands if the clips leave a mark. I can fit 4 standing wrapped mat board pieces in one of the larger PTI boxes and 2 in the smaller PTI boxes. The photo doesn't do it justice, but I am pretty darn proud of myself and this idea!

So the ribbons are in the bottom drawer. In the 3rd drawer down, I made the same 'pockets' from PTI boxes, this time sorting my cardstock and patterned paper scraps! I have one for patterned paper, one for white/cream, one for black/brown, one for other neutrals (mostly kraft), one for pink/red orange, one for yellow/green, and one for blue/purple. Already I find myself reaching for scraps instead of cutting into another full sheet, because its so much easier to find what I need!

Behind the ribbon and scrap paper pockets you can see I stashed some embellishments and things that needed a home close to my table, but didn't need to live ON it :-)

So, if you're still here, thank you :-) I hope this little tour inspires someone. If you have questions or would like to see more detailed pictures, just let me know!