I've loved crafting for a long time, probably most of my life, in that time I've tried a wealth of different crafts including: salt dough sculpture, jewellery making, dried flower arrangements, cardmaking, sewing, embroidery, cross stitch, crochet and willow weaving.
One of the things I love most about where I currently live is my workroom/craft room/studio/call it what you will.
I really like watching YouTube tours of craft rooms and looking at other blogs with photo tours, so I thought I'd share my own room.
I realise this is probably completely boring to a lot of people but I love it!
So here goes:
This is taken standing in the doorway of my room, looking towards my two desks. I have two desks for two reasons. One is that I like to have friends come and craft with me, I find it really stokes the crafty fire to see someone else create in ways I wouldn't have thought of. The second reason is that I can have two projects on the go at once, I can leave my sewing machine ready to go and work on something else on the other desk if I need a change.
I have a daylight bulb in the main ceiling light and I also have two lamps with daylight bulbs in, it makes such a huge difference to crafting at any time of day.
(And that's Kini demonstrating how photogenic she is.)
Taken from slightly further back, you see the Martin Luther King Jr poster which has the whole of the I Have A Dream speech written at the bottom. I bought it decades ago, as a teenager on holiday in France and it was one of my most beloved possessions.
At the end of the room is a small 6-drawered storage unit, with a much loved painting above it. It was painted by a lodger we had when I was a child and I always loved it.
Inside the room, not visible from the door, is more storage, everything is laid out so that I can spin round in my chair and access anything, hopefully keeping everything within arms reach.
Yet more shelves behind my desks!
The word for this room is shelves I think. These are to the left of the first table - which I got when I worked in a dental surgery, it has holes in it that were made by some sort of equipment and I think it was used for making dentures or something! Random, but it's just a really nice table, with mostly nice legs - one got destroyed by cats.
Anyway...The bottom shelf holds the cotton I use most often when sewing, and the bobbins It also holds my other sewing bits and bobs; pins, needles, my rotary cutter. The second shelf holds two bins, one for refuse, one for recycling. Next to those is a box with all my chamois cloths I keep for stamp cleaning, they're dried out so they don't stink up the box! On top of that is my collection of Nuvo drops and finally on that shelf a frame that is made into a pin-cushion.
The shelf above holds boxes of bias binding, in multiple colours, that I use when I'm making bunting and also ribbons that I use for the same purpose.
On the final shelf in this photo is a collection of spare adhesives, my birthday index box (where I have a list of upcoming birthdays, by month, I store cards for people in here so I know which I have still to make).
Above the previous shelves are two more, which store more excess adhesives and items I don't reach for very often, including dressmaking patterns and Christmas items.
On the first table I have a folded blanket, in the left of the photo - this is where Kini usually sleeps when I'm crafting in here. She likes a window view!
I have two lazy susans on the rest of the table, the bottom one is currently very tidy and almost empty! The top one sits atop a small antique lap tray, meant to be used for breakfasts in bed. I bought it at auction, at the time I had no idea why I even bid for it, but it works perfectly in here, adding to the desk space. The top lazy susan holds most of my tools, scissors, rulers, pallette knives etc. Also on the photo is my roll of post-it tape, my bluetooth speaker - you gotta have music, and an L-shaped lego build, which I can use for stamping wooden stamps, to ensure accurate stamping.
On top of/between the two desks I store my two paper trimmers - my Fiskars and my Tim Holtz, and don't ask me to choose a favourite, because it's impossible I tell you, impossible!
Next to them is a pot of tools, some scissors, pokey tools, craft knives, white gel pens, etc. There's also a bottle of alcohol for alchol ink techniques. The front two boxes hold adhesives, spray bottles, Distress Resist spray and full sticky post-it notes.
On the second desk I have another lap tray, but this time from IKEA. I love that there's room for storage underneath but I still have space above.
Under the lap tray are my ProMarkers, sorted into colour families. Also another two bins, one for rubbish and one for recycling. There's also a bowl with one of my stamp-cleaning chamois cloths. I usually work on my well-loved cutting mat, I have one on both desks.
A friend gave me these when the office she works in was throwing them out, quite honestly I wish I'd got more from her, it pains me that the rest went in the bin. I use them to store my cardstock, by colour, in rainbow order of course, then vellum and specialised cardstock: watercolour, Neenah Solar White, Bristol Smooth etc.
My printer and light box sit on top.
These shelves are on the wall above the second desk. 12x12 papers that I use for photo backgrounds hang underneath, baskets of cards I've finished, or half-finished sit on the bottom shelf, along with products I want to use or need putting away. The rest of the shelves contain things I don't use very often, along with items I use for bunting making - particularly Christmas bunting.
A friend made this picture, it's needle-felted, she had a wonderful exhibition and I snuck in and bought it, I knew she intended to give it to me, but I wanted to buy it. The only problem is - I hung it too damn high on the wall - that's a job for 2019, move it down!
It hangs to the right of the shelves above the desk and I like to sit back and look at it any time I can.
The
large desktop sits on two Alex drawers from IKEA. I've seen these
featured in so many different craftrooms and I know why, they're just a
great size and you can fit so much in.
You might have gathered by now
that I like antique things and auctions, but try as I might, I just
couldn't find anything that fit the bill the way these drawers did. The
only drawback (ha!) is that they don't pull out all the way, but that's a
minor incovenience.
The
top drawer holds my most-used inks as well as the washi tapes I use to
mark storage pockets, triangular bead trays and spares. You can't
see it in the photo, but there are actually four more trays within the
drawer. It's easy to lift out the front trays to access the ones further
back, but I mainly store things I don't need frequent access to back
there.
Drawer
2. This drawer holds my Lawn Fawn inks, there are couple in this photo
without labels - they're the newest release and I haven't got round to
their labels yet, but they're stored in alphabetical order and I have
added them to my swatch sheet so it's easy to grab them if I want them.
At
the back of the drawer are pigment inks, and my Delicata inks. These
are inks I don't reach for regularly so are a little more out of reach.
Drawer
3. This holds my blending tools - the foams are stored separately,
alcohol inks with their foams and blending solution, enamel dots &
adhesive gems are in here too. At the back are my embossing pastes. My
stencil brushes are in here, as is my pot of Distress Glaze and shimmer sprays.
Drawer
4. This is the embossing drawer.The left hand side holds all the
individual pots of embossing powders, with a tray of stamping blocks on
top of it, the right hand side has larger containers of the embossing
powders I use most - white, clear and liquid platinum. Also in this
drawer is a container of Melt-It powder and several other containers -
and I forget what's in them!
Drawer
5. The bottom drawer holds three baskets, I can't access the third one
without removing one of the front ones - and it currently sits empty.
It's nice to have room to grow or to move things around. The other two
baskets hold pre-cut fun foam - to give even dimension when cardmaking
and my collections of foils.
Now to the right hand set of drawers.
Drawer
1. Actually, before we get to the drawer, on top of the desk is a black
glass mat. I don't have one of the Tim Holtz glass mats, but this
one works in a similar way, great for ink blending or protecting the
surface when I'm doing watercolours. Next to it is a diary. To be honest
I use the diary on my phone more than anything but I do like to see
things written down and I have twice the chance of remembering what I'm
supposed to be doing.
In the drawer itself, the front is filled with
cardstock scraps. I keep them here so that I can use them for small
die-cuts, or for stamping sentiments on. It helps to keep them separate
so I can just reach for a small piece instead of cutting up a big piece.
Extra,
unused diecuts are stored in here too - as are offcuts of fun foam.
There are more trays further back, but they are currently mostly empty -
for now!
Drawer
2. This is my collection of Waffle Flower inks, my small collection of
Memento Inks, some full-size Altenew inks and an Archival ink. My
Altenew ink cubes are stored with my Distress Inks as they fit perfectly
into the tins.
My spare black inks are here too - and more empty trays!
Drawer
3. This is the colouring drawer. The reindeer tin is full of Brusho
pots, my collection of gelatos are in here, as are my Altenew
watercolours, the green case holds most of my pencil crayons. There's
Odourless Mineral Spirits in a little Kilner jar, there's also masking
fluid. My Gansai Tambi Starry Night watercolours are also here, liquid watercolours too, along
with a pencil case filled with Sharpies.
Drawer
4. Home to my beloved Zig markers. Also home to my freezer paper, some
kitchen roll (for clean-up and wiping off waterbrushes), some parchment
paper (for use with foiling and a laminator) and some Press n Seal that I
got for Christmas - it's impossible to find in the UK so I was
delighted to open it on Christmas morning!
The
yellow squares off to the right, against the wall, that look like
puzzle pieces are what I use for blocking finished crochet projects.
Drawer
5. In all honesty, whilst it doesn't look it, this drawer is empty, it
has three baskets in it, the same as the bottom drawer the other side.
The back basket is actually empty and the front two have things in that
really just need properly putting away.
You might have spotted stickers on each of the drawer fronts. These have two purposes. They really do!
First they're cute and they please my eye.
Second
if I'm crafting with a friend and they ask where something is I can say
"It's in the Unicorn drawer" or "It's in the Cat drawer" and so on.
Underneath my desk are again, two bins, one rubbish and one recycling. Do I have too many bins? My shredder is there too and in the silver trolley is extra cardstock and other cardstock offcuts.
This little shelf holds my spare card blanks. It also holds pre-cut glitter cardstock that I use for making cardstock bunting.
At the end of the room is this sweet little six-drawered unit. It's cute but it's a nightmare getting those drawers back in when you pull them out!
On top of the unit is another four-drawered unit, this has glitter, gilding flakes, components for shaker cards and other interactive cards.
There's also some sellotape, brushes for perfect pearls, pipettes for liquid watercolours amongst other things.
In the drawers are microfibre cloths, spare envelopes, coffee filters for embossing powders and more odds & ends.
There are hooks on the side of the unit, on the right hang my bunting templates and my bunting embroidery floss.
On the left hang my swatch sheets.
So,
these are my swatch sheets. Every one of my inks is swatched out, as
are Nuvo drops, embossing powders (which I swatched on both black and
white cardstock as they can look very different), watercolours, alcohol
inks, shimmer sprays (which I swatched onto black, white and kraft
cardstock). I also have a swatch of each of my black inks, and within
each swatch square I noted the purpose of each ink, which work with
watercolour, which with alcohol markers, which stamp on acetate etc.
Whilst I generally know all of that, it's nice to have a handy reminder
when I'm having a brain fart, and it's useful to friends who come and
craft with me.
Behind the desk is this teak room divider that I got for a steal at an antiques centre. The blokes stood around and told me it wouldn't fit in my car. I was adamant that it would, they stood around sucking their teeth and finally agreed to try. It fit like a dream and they stood around looking like their world had been turned upside down. Absolutely a personal highlight in my life.
Anyway, smugness aside, all my wrapping paper sits on the top of the unit. The white squares next to that are from a dolls house shop that closed down, so they're adorably decorated inside, but they also make excellent storage spaces.
The shelf below holds a box of Christmas patterned papers, some specialty handmade papers and the filing trays hold folders which store things like acetate. Two of the folders have storage pockets for my stamps and dies so they're ready to be put away when I get new ones.
My laminator is stored inside the sliding doors along with my flower presses.
This is my collection of stamps and dies. They are separated into different categories so that I have an idea of where to look for specific products I want to use. I also use either white or kraft cardstock inside each pocket. White cardstock denotes that it is solely stamps inside, kraft denotes that it's dies or stamps and dies. Additionally, you may be able to see that there are strips of washi tape on the top right of some of the pockets, each of those also indicates what's inside. I have a key to what the tapes mean on the IKEA lap tray.
Essentially I mark which are solely sentiments, which are Christmas, which are nesting dies, which are background dies and which are alphabetical/numerical stamps. It helps to know at a glance that I'm looking in the right place.
Yes, I'm anal about being organised.
Inside the base of the teak unit are my Gansai Tambi watercolours and 12x12 papers and cardstock. One folder contains stencils and also blending foams stored in coin pockets labelled with each ink. Other folders contain stickers and sentiments, another folder contains the beginning of an index of my stamp collection.
On the other side of the unit is a concertina file which holds cellophane envelopes for cards that I make, there's also a box with extra foam tape and spray bottles.
Hanging on the side of the teak unit are labels I attach to bunting I make.
My washi tape hangs on the side, on a big loop of thick wire which makes it easy to see and access.
Next to the teak unit is a little white shelving unit. Starting at the top is a small two drawered unit that holds some of my ribbon, wound onto cardstock, on top of that are my embossing folders, with my embossing mat. Next to that is a box with some of my Christmas stamps & dies and next to that is my MISTI stamping tool and my Tim Holtz stamping platform.
On the shelf below is my Big Shot and on the same shelf is my alphabet punch board from We R Memory Keepers - which I use primarily for bunting.
The bottom shelf holds all my patterned papers.
My splatter cubby sits between the teak unit and the white shelves. All hail the splatter cubby that saves the room from splatter covering every surface!
Above the shelves on the floor is a white board and above that is another set of shelves, it holds embroidery floss, items for bunting, sequins and allsorts of odds and ends.
The last set of shelving in the room is more behind the first table than the desk, on top are two boxes which hold pre-scored card blanks in a variety of sizes, ready to go when I'm crafting. Below that are my Distress Inks and Distress Oxides. The tins hold all the mini cubes of Distress Inks and all the Distress Oxides are stored next to them, finally my small collection of full size pads of Distress Inks.
The next shelf holds a concertina file of coloured card scraps, a box of perfect pearls and a box of twine.
The bottom shelf is things that have been abandoned to be honest! Including two trays which are used for heating a fondue set!
Finally, the last set of shelves are over the door of the room. They hold my stock of embroidery hoops, my extra stock of bias binding and all sorts of odds and ends in chocolate tins.
Phew, that's a long post.
At this point I should admit that the whole of my fabric stock is in another room, along with my huge stock of felt that I use for bunting.
