Oh the anticipation ...

I'm sure nobody was able to sleep the last two nights, what with the suspense of my second Blog Post and all. Lol. :o~

So as promised I am going to show you my new "scraproom". Oh yeah, the quotes ... well you see when dh and I decided to move my scrap area from our master bedroom to the spare room, the caveat (his) was that it could not actually look like a scraproom. You know, with peg boards on the walls and plastic drawer units out in the open etc. He wanted it to still be very functional as a guest room. So with that in mind, I had particular challenges determining how to structure my scrap supply storage. The room has a closet with sliding doors; one side has dh's dress clothes (suits etc.) and the other side had some of my "hasn't fit since I was 25" clothes which I finally gave up to goodwill (along with any hope of ever being a size 8 again, but who was I kidding, that hope was lost at least a decade ago!). So I set out to organize my half closet as best I could.

Here are pictures of the result.


The plastic shelves I ... um ... "borrowed" from our son's closet. He really didn't need them anymore. No, really.












The 2-drawer boxes were purchased at Ikea. The top two hold my ribbon (and my ribbon is stored by colour in ziploc bags). The rest store chipboard, miscellaneous alphas, wire and wire tools, miscellaneous embellishments, blank cards and envelopes and tags (tags are stored either by manufacturer/line if applicable, or by colour if not, in ziplock bags).















The gray baskets were purchased at the Superstore. Two of them hold my small embellishments (brads, eyelets, buttons etc.) sorted by colour in little glass jars purchased at Ikea. A third one holds small embellies sorted by theme in the same kinds of jars. One holds my embroidery floss (left over from a previous crafting life, now put to good use on my scrap pages). Another one holds miscellaneous stuff.


The three-drawer black box was purchased at Chapters and holds all of my 8.5x11 cardstock. (And by the way if anyone knows a brick and mortar store in the Ottawa area that sells Bazzill in the 8.5x11 format, either as packs or singles, please let me know!).

My 12x12 cardstock and patterned paper is stored in Cropper Hopper storage thingies purchased at Michaels. These are expensive - definitely use a 40% off coupon if you're going to buy these. I think I need one more and the good news is, I have a 50% off coupon for this week!! The cardstock is sorted by colour and the patterned paper is sorted by manufacturer (BG, SEI, Chatterbox, Junkitz, etc.). I also have a "Miscellaneous Designer" category and a "Miscellaneous Non-Designer" category (for slab paper etc.).

I have four binders which house my sticker, die cut, flat embellishment, alpha sticker and rub-on word collection. I am hoping to reduce this to 2-3 binders soon, as I am using up a lot of my old stash to make cards for a United Way fundraiser (fodder for another post).


A feature I really like is how I am using binder rings attached to the clothes rod to keep some embellisments (either new purchases, stuff I want to use soon, or miscellaneous embellies from the same line which would normally get stored in about 7 different places) out in plain view.

See the multi-drawer thingy? My husband actually put this out at our last garage sale. Men. I rescued it, cleaned all the sawdust off it, and am using it to store my metal embellishments by type of metal (silver, pewter, brass, copper, gold). See how I've glue-dotted a sample embellishment on the front of the drawers? Clever, eh? I have also brought my fibre out of deep storage and am keeping it out in the open by hanging it on binder rings off the clothing rod (stored in craft ziplock bags).


The big green thing is my Navigator (for you non-scrappers out there, I don't mean I have an SUV in my closet. A Navigator is a suitcase for lugging all your
(s)crap stuff to a crop.) I don't go to crops much anymore so right now it's holding all my wool (also left over from a previous crafting life). On top of the big green thing I have a couple of rubbermaid bins; one holds items to alter and a few extra mini albums, the other holds miscellaneous tools I don't use often such as the dreaded shaped scissors, and my dry embossing stuff.

Now for my desk. The two top drawers hold all of my often-used tools and adhesives. Then I have a drawer for rub-ons, a drawer for blossoms (stored by colour in ziplock bags, on which I put a coloured tag in order to find the right one more easily), a drawer for ink, paint, rubber and foam stamps, and a drawer for large-size photos (such as school and hockey pictures) and other pictures waiting to be scrapped. Check out the big square clock on my desk ... altered item work in progress ... stay tuned!







To keep my desk uncluttered since it's a fairly small surface, dh gave up a table from his basement (yup, it's his basement) on which I keep my pencil/tool jar, my little drawer unit for pens and other oft-used tools, and my new 4x6 photo printer (fodder for another post). The gray accordion folder under the table holds all my scraps organized by colour (cardstock) and manufacturer (paper) and is can be put in the closet when I'm not using it. The box holding my magazines is from Winners.


Still missing from the room is my new bulletin board, which dh is staining to match the other wood in the room, and a collapsible coffee table which dh is building me for in front of the pull-out couch, so I can spread out my stuff EVEN MORE when I scrap. Whoops - actually, dh is installing the stuff right now! What a sweetheart! He wants to make sure I can show off the finished scrap room in this post but I'm way too lazy to go take more pictures and upload them (I've already been at this all morning - blogging: the ultimate time waster???) so this will be fodder for another post.


So there you have it - my new scraproom which isn't a scraproom. I think that for a scraproom that's not supposed to be one, it's pretty functional! That being said, I continue to be on the lookout for cool scrap supply organization ideas. Next to buying, and oh yeah scrapping, I think supply organizing is one of the funnest parts of this hobby!

So, if you're still with me at the end of this long post, thanks for visiting and for having the stamina to stay all the way to the end. I am **never** posting this many pictures in one post again ... omg, the work! (I know, I know, never say never!). Ciao!