Lexi here today, taking over the blog with a little post of scrap supply containment. Confession: I am a messy scrapper. Messy. But I do love me a good container so I thought I would share a few photos of how I *try* and reign in that messy tendency.
When you walk in my scrap space you'll see this desk my husband built, similar to the popular standing desk Pottery Barn has (but way cheaper). The little cubbies at the end house old swim locker baskets. (I should stop here and say I love old, vintagey things so that word will probably appear more than once.) Love the industrial vibe the baskets bring. Each is a little house for a certain kind of scrap supply: older stamps, smaller scrap pads, older product. The other side has the baskets, too. I should reorganize these. This desk is primarily for computer stuff, cameo cutting. I don't really scrap on it, but it stays messy none the less.
My scrap room is in the basement with one tiny window, which doesn't let in nearly as much light as I would like. I used the best photos possible, which still aren't great, but I hope you get the idea and come away inspired. You'll probably come away glad you don't have to scrap by me and my messy self ;)
At one end of the room is what I like to call "big green". I love this thing. It is an old mailer sorter with over 200 slots. You can see I try to bunch all the punches together, ribbon & trim, and buttons together. Other slots are filled with product still in the package, grouped together by manufacturer or product type.
I have a piece of peg board that has become a great spot to hang my stickers on. I'm one of those people who would love a clean look to her space (hahahaha), I really would, but if I don't see it or have it readily available I'm much less likely to use it. I organize my October Afternoon word, label, mini market and sticky key stickers onto their own rings and hang them. Easy to grab and use and also convenient for throwing in my bag and taking to crops. Below this I have my paper organized by manufacturer.
My favorite shelf in the room is my sprinkler one. I saw these grouped like this in the October Afternoon booth a few CHA shows ago and wanted to do the same. Again, out in open so I can see all the colors makes me more likely to use them. They are grouped by color, or at least were. I see a few that have moved on me.
Ah, the washi tape. SO happy OA is making washi now! I have a semi-rainbow order going on here. I've tried putting washi in pretty containers or grouped in a drawer and it never works for me because, again, I forget what I have and which colors, so up they go displayed.
My most recent organizing addition is this super fun, super hard to find cart from Ikea. We live 8 hours form the nearest Ikea, but a sweet on-line scrapper knew I was searching for one and helped me out. Love on-line scrappy friends. I have the cart right next to my desk and filled it with smaller aqua bins from the $2.50 section of Target. I love to stamp , but realized I didn't do it very much. The main reason was that while my stamps were out they weren't handy and my ink was hidden.
Top section has newest and most favorite stamps. All October Afternoon stamps are in one bin. (How cute is that background stamp from Cakewalk?!)
Second section has bigger inks and blocks in one bin and smaller inks in a flea market find. Now all I have to do is grab a stamp, grab an ink pad and I'm ready to go. No excuses. I also need to add a container of baby wipes to that cart so I can clean up right then.
Last section has newer product/embellishments, because let's face...we all like to use the newer stuff before the older stuff right?
I have named this the "OA spot". This rolling cart from Ikea is where all my October Afternoon goodies go. Most often I am creating for an assignment and the majority of my project needs to be OA product. All I have to do is pick a drawer :) The top drawers are full of embellishments from all the lines. I like to mix old lines with new. One drawer is the newest collection or two that I am playing with most of the time. The bottom drawer is scraps so when I need a smaller piece of paper or to punch something I reach for that one.
On top of that cart is a little collection of containers. The basket is handmade from Mexico. It houses the newest OA miscellany so I can dump them in and grab to scrap. The soda container also has latest release OA embellies. The vintage colander was a thrift store find and has mostly die cuts and paper bits. The cup is an old TWA one that has newer small goodies. Can you tell I love a good stop at the thrift?
Beside the white cart is a small vintage hairpin table that holds my sewing machine and a few more containers. I may need to go to containers anonymous after this post. Vintage cake pan has more die cuts, journaling cards, another TWA cup of small trinkets and the Ball jar has paint brushes. My paints are below the table in an old coke cart.
Finally, this is where I actually scrap. Not true. Most of the time I scrap on the floor. The concrete floor. (werido.) But when it is clean enough I scrap here. I got this old table at an auction. Paper pieces fall threw the cracks in the boards, but I love it because I don't have to worry about messing it up. It has one drawer where I put my adhesives and extra staples. On top of the table is a milk glass container for my most used pens, pencils, scissors, adhesive and stapler. And then there is a pile of junk on the side. Trying to keep it real, people. This is as good as it gets :)
And lest you think, "Wow. That Lexi has really got it together!" Notice there are no pictures of the floor..? There is a reason for that. Let me reassure you....99.999% of the time looks like this
and more like this
and I'm kinda okay with that ;)
Happy Friday everyone! Enjoy your weekend!