Happy National Scrapbook Day!!! I hope you have something fun planned for the day. There are soooo many NSD sales, blog hops, crops, virtual crops, etc.; there is no excuse for not finding something to do today! Two quick shopping opportunities you may want to check out:
1. Provo Craft is sell a limited number of Cricut Expression 2 Anniversary Edition machines on their website for $349.
2. Cricut Machines.com is offering a FREE Yourstory bundle with the purchase of a cartridge (from a specific list of cartridges). Just use the coupon code "mothers" when you check out. The cartridges (at least all of those on which I clicked) were all priced at $39.95. So it is about $50 (with shipping) for a cartridge and a Yourstory bundle!
Now on to today's topic - Organization! Two and a half weeks ago I decided that my scraproom needed reorganized, rearranged, and purged. It took me almost a week, but I completely re-did my scraproom.
Monday - I pack up EVERYTHING and moved it out. I took the Store-In-Style cube desk apart, as well as my Store-In-Style towers. I then moved all of the furniture around until I had moved every item in the room to a new location.
Tuesday - I went through every drawer, shelf, cubby, etc. and cleared out and reorganized all of my items. I also began moving everything back into the room and storing everything in a more organised manor.
Wednesday - I sorted cardstock and paper. And sorted, and sorted, and sorted..... I disposed of very little paper, but I did find a better way to organize and store the printed cardstock/papers.
Thursday - I finished putting everything away. My husband liked this as boxes of scrap-stuff filled the hallway and parts of our bedroom. I added four new cubes to the room and a new 12x12 rack to hold all of my solid colored cardstock.
Friday - I completed all of the finishing touches.
Let's tour: When you enter through the door directly in front of you is the Cricut desk. This is a Store-In-Style desk and I love that it holds both of my current Cricut die cut machines, with room to add the new Expression 2 when it arrives! The desk is wonderful in that it has four deep, spacious drawers that hold lots of useful items. The top drawer houses my Cricut Imagine cartridges. The second drawer is filled with paper punches. The third drawer down is stuffed with various colors of Cricut Vinyl. And the bottom drawer.... Okay, I honestly do not remember right now! Also the other side in split cube on the slide out shelf are all of my cartridges. I have about 100 cartridges sorted alphabetically in snapware. In the bottom half of the split cube you will find my Yourstory and Jukebox.
Above - This cute triple tray sits atop the desk - in the spot my new E2 will call home in the near future!!
Below - A peek into my cartridge sorting method.
One of the newest residents of my scraproom is this wonderful paper sorter. Towering to 54" tall, the rack holds all of my solid color cardstock, sorted by color.
Right Turn - Once you reach the paper tower you must turn right and continue around the room. You will immediately encounter the wall of cubes! The bottom six cubes are more of my Store-In-Style cubes. As you can see they are larger than those by other manufacturers. To top four cubes on the left are from Target. The remaining smaller cube is made by Jettmax. I truly prefer my Store-In-Style cubes, but I will be the first to admit that they are more expensive, heavier, and larger.
There are a lot of products stored in these cubes:
Drawers - Gypsy drawer, knitting drawer, general craft item drawer, and "leftover" 12x12 printed paper/cardstock.
Bottom Middle Cubes - magazines and thin books, pages to be booked for my daughter and for the family books.
Bottom Right Cubes - Pages and paper for Carter and Gabi, Aaron and Crissie's pages to be booked and Ian's pages to be booked.
Upper Right Cubes - Imagine cutting mats and solid white smooth cardstock, Yudu Card Shop and Card Shop screens.
Upper Middle Cubes - Lots of card making supplies: cards, envelops, etc. Embossing tools - powders and embossing gun.
Upper Left Cubes - Cardstock stacks and all of my Cricut Cartridge overlays and books. The books and overlays are in large snapware and are sorted alphabetically. The cutting mats which are currently being used are sorted atop the snapware.
Top - On top of the cubes are three items - Caroline the dress form, who holds some of my embellies. A ribbon box with a ribbon sorter bag. And a spinning embellie holder.
Continuing to the Right - The first part of my L shaped main desk and the two hutch storage units. The butterfly bucket under the desk contains printed cartstock/paper sorted by brand/line. As you can see, this is where most of my flowers are stored, along with a few stamps and some of ribbon.
Right Turn - As you turn to the right you will see the other side of the L shaped desk, which is also my main work area. On top of the L shaped desk is the drawer desk top piece by The Original Scrapbox. I love this organizer! It is great for holder very commonly used items.
Copics and Ink pads are stored above the desk and are sorted by color. The desk is topped with Cricut Created works of art and Mr. Cricut!
Next to the main work area desk is a tower of Kaiser Craft cubes. I love these cubes. The cubs hold my most used cardstock/paper. The top to cubes are sorted by theme or brand. There are Valentine, Easter, Halloween, Fall, and two Birthday themed shelves. Others are sorted by brand. The bottom two cubes are all Christmas paper sorted by brand. I find this method works really well for me.
Right Turn - Just before you exit back out the door you will encounter this tall thin shelf unit. It contains my Grand Caliber, Spellbinder dies, and Cuttlebug embossing folders. Above that is what I call "Stamp Land". I have my stamps sorted by brand and/or size.
Top - Atop the shelf unit is a snap together small cube set that hold all of my brad, eyelets, and buttons sorted by color. The little drawers were easy to label and are perfect for these little embellishments.
I know this has been a VERY long post - my fingers are tired of typing! I hope my room might inspire you to better organize and sort your tools and supplies. I have found that I am back to my old habit of completely cleaning up after each project - the only way to keep my room super clean. Also, I find I am more creative in a clean room. Maybe it is just that I do not have the mess to distract me!!
HAPPY NATIONAL SCRAPBOOKING DAY!!
