A Space to Create

When I first started scrapbooking a year ago I did all my layouts on my bedroom floor and I could fit everything I owned in my Crop-In-Style XXL tote. I would take it all out, scrap a few layouts and put it all back. As I started to become more obsessed with this hobby, my collection of supplies started to grow. In November last year I set up my space on one side of my family room that is near my computer and wasn’t being used much. It’s been a year and I’m still thankful to have my own space! It’s great to have all my supplies out in front of me and I actually feel like it makes me more creative too.

Since I’m probably moving in the next six to eight months I haven’t spent much time decorating. My space is very drab actually, but it’s highly functional for me. The other side of the room is the TV area where Adam (my boyfriend) spends most of his time playing video games. Being in the same room allows us to enjoy our separate hobbies, but still be able to talk to each other. Don’t get me wrong though, I’m counting the days until I can have an entire room to myself. It will be dedicated to scrapbooking and painting (my other hobby) and I will go all out decorating it!

My area is made up of two large heavy-duty plastic tables that I purchased at Home Depot. They are set up in the shape of an L, which allows me to store lots of supplies on the desk and still have a large work area. On my desk you will find:

• Dahle 550 Rotary Trimmer
• Ott Light
• Many plastic drawers for storage
• A basket and mesh cup with the tools I use regularly
• Sewing machine
• Current photos, magazines and idea books

My other main storage area is a large cabinet with doors that has adjustable shelving. This is where I store the items that I don’t use on a regular basis, my completed albums and other miscellaneous things.

Cardstock and Patterned Paper:
My cardstock is stored in a plastic tote that has hanging file folders. It’s separated by color family. Since I only scrap in 8.5” x 11”, this has been working out great for me. I can fit tons of cardstock in there, but it’s still compact enough to sit on my desk. That’s a plus since cardstock is something I use on every layout. My scraps are stored in a plastic chest of drawers that has very wide, deep drawers.

To store patterned paper I use the popular wire cubes. They are a storage staple, in my opinion. I have two cubes with multiple shelves. One cube holds my personal stash which is sorted by color family. The other cube holds the papers I receive from design teams for various assignments and I have those separated by team. Everything is organized and looks neat. The scraps are stored the same way as my cardstock scraps.

Tools and Embellishments:
The basic tools that I use regularly are stored in a basket that sits on my desk. I love having them right within my reach. I have things such as my stapler, brayer, corner rounder and hole punches in there. I also have a mesh cup that holds my pens, scissors, hammer, eyelet tools, etc.

I have several plastic drawers on my desk that I use to store embellishments. I have four smaller ones that hold embellishments, including metal and adhesive. The embellishments are separated by color. Letter stickers are stored in the wide drawer above my cardstock scraps. I keep die cuts, tags, non-adhesive letters and miscellaneous stickers in another three-drawer container. Finally, in the last drawer, I keep foam stamps and rub-ons. I also have a few small, open containers to keep metal, chipboard and canvas letters, silk flowers and miscellaneous metal embellishments.

My fibers and ribbons are kept in glass jars. I have seen lots of scrappers do this and I just had to jump on the bandwagon! It has been the best system for me so far and it looks great! I only have a handful of punches and they are stored in my cabinet.

Stamps and Inks:
All of my stamps are mounted using the EZ Mount system. I keep them on the EZ Mount panels and store them in my cabinet. My inks are stored in a small plastic tote and I keep that on a shelf in my cabinet. Certain inks are always out on my desk though.

Magazines and Idea Books:
There are always current magazines and idea books on my desk. Certain books, such as “Quote Unquote 2”, stay there all the time since I reference them a lot. The others are in magazine holders and stored in my cabinet. I keep magazines for up to one year generally and then throw them out.

So there you have it, my scrap space. It’s nothing much and it’s not fancy, but it’s mine! It gives me a space to create and be free, which is what this hobby is really all about.