My True Colors

Ever since I can remember, I have been enamored with rainbows of colors. I love to look at them and squint my eyes so all the colors run together. I always have, and I know I always will. Anyone who walks into my studio can see my love of color immediately. Everything in my room is arranged that way, from my ribbons and embellishments, to my paints and flowers. It makes me happy just looking at it.

One thing that is crazy about my scrap space is that I have to have everything within an arm’s reach. Is that lazy or what? When I sit down to get creative, I can’t be interrupted. This means no phone, no IM, no potty breaks, no snack breaks and certainly no getting up to walk across the room for a supply. I am an easily distracted person and if I start doing too many things at once, I’ll totally lose myself in another task. Having everything at my fingertips assures that I’ll be able to accomplish something.

How I organize my space:

Ribbons: I put my ribbons in tall, slender IKEA jars above my hutch. Each ribbon is sorted by color and then placed in color order.

Flowers: My flowers go in short squatty IKEA jars in front of the ribbons. These are also separated by color.

Buttons: When I saw the small IKEA jars that I assume were meant to store spices, I just couldn’t resist them. Each button is sorted by color and put into color order. (Are you catching on to how I organize yet?)

Large Embellishments: Each drawer houses a different color. This way, when I’m in need of a certain color, I can simply pick through this small drawer. This really helps me to use all my supplies.

Adhesives: All my adhesives go in one cubby hole on my hutch. This is the closest thing to me when I scrap, because it’s the one thing that I use on every project. (Not arranged in color order, can you believe it?)

Small Embellishments: My brads, clips and safety pins are organized in color order in an 18-compartment container. It’s very small, but it does the job separating these little doodads!

Idea Books: My favorite idea books are stored in a cubby hole in my hutch for quick reference. If I’m feeling out of mojo, I simply pick up one of these books and I’m instantly ready to scrap again!

Alpha Embellishments: Each of my alphabet embellishments (whether plastic or metal) are separated by letter inside a tackle box drawer. This is great for easy access to the letters that you want.

Pictures: My pictures are stored in metal photo storage boxes and placed just to the left of my computer. This way, I’m always ready to go if I have to find something in a hurry.

Paints: My paints are also stored in my hutch. I started out having these in color order, but it was too hard to keep it up, so I gave in.

Tools: All my tools are inside a tin lunch pail. My most used supplies are my journaling pens, my scissors and my awl.

Magazines: Although I subscribe to all of them, I keep my Creating Keepsakes and Scrapbooks, Etc. issues on my desk for quick reference.

Scraps: My scrap pieces of paper are organized in a plastic accordion file. Cardstock goes in the back and patterned paper in the front. As you may have guessed, it’s organized in color order.

I have three pieces of furniture in my room that are used specifically to organize some of my supplies: my craft cabinet, my silver drawer unit and my wire cubes from Target.

My craft cabinet houses the scrapbooks that I’m currently working on, all sheets of stickers that are in a 12”x12” format, any 8.5”x11” papers, extra adhesives, my rub-on binder, my sticker binder, etc. It’s my catch-all. If I have something that won’t really fit anywhere else, you can bet it’s in my craft cabinet. Since it sits right next to my desk, I always put something inspiring on the front. Right now, there’s an article taped to it that was in the paper a while back. It is all about Heidi Swapp and how she got where she is. I use it for inspiration!

My silver six-drawer unit is one of the best purchases I ever made. It’s heavy duty, so I can fill it to the brim without worrying that the drawers will give out or that it will tip over. My top drawer is for my rub-on alphabets that don’t fit into the binder. The next drawer houses my epoxy stickers and long embellishments. In drawer number 3, you will find all paper elements like tags, mini file folders, etc. Drawer 4 holds my paper alphabets, which includes chipboard (which is slowly, but surely taking over my life). In drawer number 5, my rubber stamps and inkpads can be found. The bottom drawer is full of all my miscellaneous tools like punches, embossing gun, sandpaper and tapes. I don’t know what I ever did without this unit to hold all my goodies. Thank you, IKEA!

My wire cubes from Target are the quick and economical way for me to store my cardstock and patterned paper all in one place. I have attached the wire slats to fit the amount of paper or cardstock I have in that particular color. (Yes, we’re back to that color order thing.) The cardstock sits on top and the patterned paper can be found on the bottom. As you can see, I have a real weakness for paper. I just can’t seem to stop buying it.

So, that’s my room, I hope you’ve enjoyed your little tour through it. I spend at least a couple hours in here every day and I just love it! This is really the place where I can show my true colors.

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