Tag Archives: supplies

Organizing Your Arts and Crafts Space

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Before we get started using the supplies we have on hand to create fabulous and fun things, I thought it might be a good idea to talk about organization in our creative spaces.

Craft Corner

Photo credit: chrissy.farnan @ flickr.com

Whether you only have a corner of a room, a closet, or a whole room, you will get the most from your creative time if you have some organization.  Some of us are not that organized by nature.  Plus, throw in the fact that many creative people are very visual and like to be able to see what they have available to work with, and you have the potential for a real mess!

Don’t dispare!  If you don’t have any idea about where to begin, we’ll offer some help!  One of the biggest things to know, is that you should NOT run out and buy a bunch more stuff to put your supplies in  — unless you truly have to have some help in sorting through it all.  If I’m on a big sorting mission, I find that cardboard file boxes from the office supply store are great. You have to fold them into its box shape, but they have holes for handles, and tops if you want to fold those up as well!  That way, you already have some boxes if you decide you need to take some of your stuff to donate!

 

  • Use what you have first: baskets, shoe boxes, larger boxes, plastic kitchen boxes, etc.
  • One of the best ways to organize is to put like items with more of their own kind so they aren’t lonely.  That way, all your ribbon is together, buttons, brads, paper, stamps, dies, punches…. you get the idea.
  • Once you find out how much you have of anything, you can deal with deciding where and what it will live in. Remember, it’s okay to actually purge!  If you have a giant bag of yarn and you haven’t used it in the past ten years, you probably don’t need a whole bag of yarn!  Keep a couple of skeins on hand and donate to the thrift store or a friend who will use it!
  • As you decide how to containerize your items, still use what you have for now!  Don’t invest a lot of money until you really settle on your space and layout.  Think about whether you like to be able to see your supplies or have them hidden away.  That will help you determine what kind of storage you should be considering.  Also, think about using vertical space, going up can creative a ton of extra storage!

Here is a nifty video from Lain Ehmann showing us around her craftroom, you’ll see how she has grouped her items together for convenience.

Lain has hosted True Scrap which is a virtual online getaway for scrappers/crafters and has had some wonderful classes.  Now you can get the classes by Aby Garvey for just $9.99 each!  What a great gift for yourself or someone else who may be considering getting their arts and crafts area organized for the new year!  Click on the links below for details!

Classes by Aby Garvey, just $9.99!

Scrapbook Organization Your Way, (scroll down to her name)

Solutions for Small Scrapbook Spaces

Audience Participation Time

  • What is your favorite tip or item that that has worked well for organizing your arts/crafts supplies?
  • What do you most struggle with?

Would You Like to do More with your Supplies?

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Ideas for Craft Supplies

Image courtesy Flickr/chrissy.farnan

Have you accumulated more arts and crafts supplies for your favorite hobby than you know what to do with?  Would you like to find some ways to use them?

Whether you like to scrapbook, stamp, make cards, art journal, create mixed media, or any number of other hobbies, you probably have a stash of items that you are not really using on a regular basis.  This picture depicts a very tidy space, but many of us don’t have things this organized (and you know who you are)!  The fact remains, if you’re not using your stash of goodies, they are just taking up valuable real estate in your space!  If you are like most hobby enthusiasts, there is no telling how much money you have invested in these items.

This isn’t about making you feel guilty for not utilizing all that great stuff.  Instead, it’s about creating a plan to use it up!  We often get in a rut and use the same products over and over, and the rest just begin to collect dust.  In part, Artful Adventures is about helping you find new ways to use stuff you already have on hand!  We are going to dig in and find what you have, and help you find some ways to use it up!

As we get ready to do that, I would urge you to get started by finding out what you have.  Put like with like so that you begin to see what you really have.  Once you begin to do that, you’ll know what you have and it will be so much easier to move forward.  That way, as we talk about ways to use different products, you’ll know if you have it on hand, or if it looks like something that could work with others things you have, you won’t end up having duplicates.

I’ll confess right now that my arts and crafts items have finally made their way into a single area, and it so much more efficient!  However, I had been carrying items all over the house and using them when the mood hit me.  I am afraid that method has cost me several black markers I was using on some lettering projects.  Ouch.  I still hope they turn up before I need them and end up replacing any or all of them!

Not only are we going to talk about ways to use products, but we’ll talk about using them to cross from one thing to another: (come on say it with me) whether you want to use it in scrapbooking, stamping, card making, mixed media or art journaling!

What kinds of products do you have that you just aren’t using these days?  Leave a comment and let’s see what we can do!

 

On Your Mark, Get Set, Scrap!

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This the last segment in our discussion on making it easier to get more scrapbooking done!

Step 9:  Don’t let supplies get in your way! 

It doesn’t really take a lot of supplies, even though you can easily get carried away and overspend.  On the other hand, if you’ve collected a lot of supplies, don’t let the volume of what you have on hand confuse your choices. Grab a few embellishments and be done.   Just do it!

A simple list of items to start with or keep handy in your grab-‘n-scrap kit:

  • Paper
  • Scissors
  • Adhesive
  • Photo safe fine-tip marker
  • Photo trimmer

As you move forward, you may decide the things you enjoy most to add as embellishments.  Maybe you love ribbons, brads, buttons, flowers, etc.  You’ll better have an idea of the things that go in your grab-‘n-scrap kit!  Remember, it’s YOUR kit, and YOU get to decide what YOU like!

If you are a digital scrapper, perhaps selecting your pictures and sticking with a single digital kit may be the easiest way to go.  That way you aren’t overwhelmed by the sheer volume of digital elements.

Happy Scrapping!