So what's everyone up to in their craft rooms/spaces at the moment???

[elainevking]

How strange! It's the right way up for me? Sorry for the confusion..I wish I did have more space on the ceiling for storage for you.
Cris..I love storing things by colour..it makes it so much easier to find what I need when I need it. I have a 'random' colours spot to that I can grab and go for crops etc. I want to do more colour sorting, but for now it is mostly buttons and flowers that are sorted and all the rest of embellies are sorted into type. Ie: washi tape, bakers twine, lace etc. I do have popper wallets though colour coded for all my scraps..I have all my card scraps in popper wallets colour coded (that I keep with my whole sheets) so if I need a small bit for matting..it's easy to find. Then I have popper wallets of scraps of patterned paper too. If I need a little bit I just pull out the wallet and select a piece that goes with what I'm working on. It was a fag to sort them all out..but worth every minute. I use so many more of my scraps that way. Again I have a random colour selection to take to crops with me too.

[Cris]

Thanks Elaine.
My things are sorted mostly by type (except card scraps which are by colour)
I wonder whether I'd use more if I sorted by colour?

[kimmie_35]

Also wondering if I'd use more if scraps were sorted by colour... I have to be 'in the mood' for the scraps!

[scrapmate uk]

I have my scraps (paper & card) in large (@A3) zipped plastic folders,roughly sorted by colour - brown, purple, green, red etc. Since I did this I find I use them much more as its easy to pull out the blue folder and have a look through for something suitable. Quite often I find something in a shade that I wouldn't have thought of using but it works. I sometimes find I can use a plain bit of card and a scrap of patterned paper when I was originally only looking for one piece. Also I have kept it fairly general so for example I have some orange bits in the brown folder and some in the yellow depending on the shades and the rest of the colours on the patterned paper.
I read an article by Noelle Hyman who said she kept things by type eg brads, ribbons etc but when she finds she doesn't use them so often she sorts them by colour so all the pink brads and ribbon would be together. That way she sees the unused items when she grabs embellishments for a certain colour scheme and is more likely to use them. It kind of makes sense.

[beanpole]

Great storage/ craft rooms! Am afraid mine is nowhere near as tidy tho I have had a cull and put a load of 'bits' on ebay that had been lurking for years unused. AND i sorted thru my 12 x 12 papers, chucked a few I never liked (part of a set) and resorted into plains, patterns and single-sided. I have now gone thru loads of bits (papers, photos, family stuff) and divided them up ready for the albums they're destined for - which is when I actually got round to (almost) finishing our Ruby Wedding album. Success! Now, I just have to somehow tidy/sort all the fabric scraps in the other cupboard - unfortunately having scrapping AND patchwork/quilting as twin passions means rather a lot of stuff... great, isn't it!

[FoilPlay]

Have enjoyed nosing at your lovely craft rooms - some beautiful and practical storage ideas!

I'm in the middle of a major sort out of mine at the moment, which has been ongoing for a few weeks - a bit of a never ending task, although I have made quite a bit of progress. I had a lot of stuff in a big Expedit, but the space wasn't used efficiently. Lots of pretty boxes - but not really all that practical in terms of seeing and using things. I watched a lot of Tiffany Spaulding (Scraprack lady) videos, and am organising now mostly on the basis of her system, but without the Scraprack. Three main categories - Alphabets / Journalling, A - Z categories and colour rainbow. She also has a 4th, calendar category, but I can't see the point of that, I've incorporated things like Christmas and Easter into the A-Z section.

So far, I've done all my dies, 12 x 12 papers and pads and pocket scrapbooking cards. I'm in the process of doing embellishments atm, and splitting apart all my brad, eyelets, flowers etc collections to store them together by colour (unless there's an A-Z theme that's more appropriate). I'm hoping that it will make it easier to actually see and use them - it certainly looks prettier anyway

I've also started putting together a catalogue of my craft supplies in Evernote, software that I've only recently come across. It can incorporate pictures and other information, like the PDF files for Cricut Cartridges or Project Life collections. You can give each item lots of tags so if you're looking for a specific theme or colour, it will bring up all the relevant items in the database.

Here's a few before pictures:







Progress made with the 12 x 12 papers:

[Cris]

Great storage FoilPlay
I started listening to cover to cover (one of Shimelle's classes) yesterday to try and sort my albums a bit more. They are mostly chronological although I don't scrap chronologically and then I have a school album for each DS, a scouting album for each DS and a Christmas album

[alison 2]

I love shimelle's classes, they just make sense to me.
I'm hoping DH and DS will bring down some ikea shelving into my craft room today so I can get on with my sorting.
I have a giant pile of lo's that need homing too

[Cris]

I've paid for quite a few Alison but haven't done them all.
There's a few on sale this weekend

[alison 2]

I noticed that, I need to check what classe I actually have ! I loved the hitchhikers guide , and I think I have cover to cover too. Finally got the JYC last year, still to complete that project

My shelves are down an half filled. I sorted through a pile of stuff, and cleared some of it out (not stash of course!) as its so horrible out today my only option is to enter the craft room again and have some fun

[Cris]

I fancy the Hitch Hikers guide class too Alison
I'm wondering whether to get Glitter Girl's Guide to scrapbooking which was another 2 Peas Class
Enjoy your day

[elainevking]

I thought I'd resurrect this and show you my newly organised mists and amounts. I used cross stitch plastic grids and cut it into strips and made a grid then squidged it in my IKEA Alex drawers. It works a treat and stops them all falling over when I open the drawer.

[Cris]

That looks good Elaine. Having all the same type of things in one place and easily accessible is definitely the way to go