My Scrap Room

I always love to see where my fellow scrappers create their magic, so I thought other people might like to see where I scrap.

 Like most scrappers, I started scrapping on my dining room table with a little box of supplies. And like most scrappers, I quickly accumulated lots and lots of scrappy stuff and needed a bigger spot. I graduated to a desk, and then to  a room in the basement of my old home. You can see that room here and here if you'd like.

Finally, we bought a new home three years ago, and now, I'm in scrappy heaven because I have lots and lots of space. My room runs the length of our family room and sun room. It's not a pretty room, like the one in my old house, but it's spacious and functional and organized so that I can find what I need. I love seeing how people store all the various bits and pieces, so I'm including lots and lots of pictures for those who might want some storage ideas.

Here's a look from the entrance to the room. I insisted on hardwood floors so I could roll around from place to place, and my paper carts (which I'll talk about later) also roll. My room is in our basement, but we have lots of lighting. I also get a little light from the window, even though it's below ground. (I took these pictures at night, so the window well is dark.)

And here's a look from the other end of the room. You can see three doors. The door on the left is a walk-in closet that at the moment is full of boxes. The next door is a bathroom, which I love having, not only because it's convenient when nature calls, but also I can wash my stamps and paintbrushes without having to run upstairs. The door on the right takes you into the rest of our basement.

I have a serious addiction to paper. I'm talking serious. For most of my scrappy life, I had my paper organized by manufacturer. This summer, I organized a whole bunch of it by color, since I generally scrap by color because of CSI.

I store my paper in rolling legal-size hanging folder carts from The Container Store. I love that the paper sits upright and I can leaf through them to find what I'm looking for. These carts are unbelievable strong and roll smoothly from under the countertops.

I made labels on my computer by typing on cardstock, laminating them, and stapling them to the folder. I said I organized my paper by color. I left my BasicGrey collections intact (I have 2 carts of BasicGrey--I told you I have a paper addiciton), and I left multicolored papers organized by manufacturer.

Here's a shot of my papers organized by color:

Another great thing about these carts is they've got drawers underneath for additional storage. They're nice and strong and can hold things like punches, and they slide out smoothly.

I used to store my patterned paper scraps in  sheet protectors at the front of each folder, by manufacturer. This summer, I sorted my scraps by color and put them in drawers and now I use my scraps all the time. In fact, I've used only scraps on most of my layouts since I organized them this way! I can easily slide out a whole drawer and put it on my scrap table to pick out my colors.

My 6 x 6 and 8 x 8 paper pads are stored in shoeboxes and baskets.

My cardstock is stored in a mail organizer I bought at an office supply store. Since I scrap 8 x 8, I buy 8-1/2 x 11 sheets. I do have some 12 x 12 sheets from when I used to subscribe to kits, and those are stored in the paper carts.

And my cardstock scraps are stored in a rolling bin that sits under my scrap table, easy to grab.

Most of my embellishments are stored in these stackable drawer chests, also from The Container Store. When I first started buying these, they only came in brown, and I had bought a bunch. Later, they started making white. I inherited the white ones from my sister and my mom, both of whom gave up scrapping. I've had fleeting thoughts of painting the brown, but then I come to my senses and realize how much work that would be.

The drawers are labeled alphabetically so I can easily find what I want. I have a few empty drawers, so I have some room to grow. The drawers are a nice size. Not too big and not too small--I can easily pull a drawer out and go through its contents to find what I need.

The rest of my embellishments are stored in baskets, sorted by type (e.g., labels, word stickers, border stickers, rub-ons, etc.). I wish I had fancy matching baskets, but as my stash grew, I'd buy additional baskets, so they don't match.

I've got a gazillion buttons, and I found these cute little jars to store them by color. I covered the lids with color-coordinated polka dot paper. How does one accumulate so many buttons? Seirously. I think the red and green ones are multiplying. I love how things look organized ROYGBIV!

Speaking of ROYGBIV, I've got my ribbons stored that way in candy jars. Remember when ribbon was all the rage about ten years ago? I went crazy buying ribbon. Someone seriously needs to make ribbon the next trend. But I do like the way they look on top of my drawer chests. That British love print is a present from Tracee Provis when she visited me last summer. One of these days I'm going to get it nailed to the wall.

I used to store itty-bitty brads and similar embellishments in stackable bead containers that screwed together, but after several spills, I came to my senses and found these nifty storage cases that are non-spillable. They come in a binder-sort of set-up.

I found the perfect cabinet to fit my Thickers at Pier One Imports. The baskets on top hold other letter stickers, organized by color.

Here's a peek inside one of the drawers so you can see how perfectly they fit:

I store my stamps in a few different ways. I've got my wood-mounted stamps on a CD shelf that my former brother-in-law made for me.

Some are stored in CD cases in this pretty CD storage piece I inherited from my sister:

I put a bunch of my acrylic stamps in binders. I'd like to put them all in binders, but the three binders that I've filled took quite a bit of time. A summer project, I suppose.

The rest of my stamps are stored in these pretty letter sorters I got from Home Goods.

I store my roller stamps in a plastic container, and I wanted to share a tip. Save the cardboard packaging and put a number on the handle and on the package so that you can easily find the stamp you want. The images are much easier to read on the packaging.

My mixed media stuff is stored in a couple of places too. I've got inks and texture paste and stencils and stamp ink on these cute little Ikea carts everyone's been buying for their craft rooms.

My acrylic paints are stored in spice racks on the wall that fits just perfectly in a corner of my room.

My embossing ink and glitter and flocking powder a few other mixed media stuff is in this cabinet that used to be in my kitchen at my old house. I used spice shelf steps to hold them so the ones in the back can be seen. On the top shelf are a bunch of rub-on letters. on the bottom shelves are the gazillion packs of Heidi Swapp letters I bought when they were all the rage--this was before Thickers had come out.

Here's a little tip that lots you probably do, but if you don't, it's really helpful. I created samples of stamp colors, embossing colors, stickles, liquid pearls, and circle punch sizes on cardstock, and keep them close by for when I need to choose colors. I made them a while ago and need to update them, but I still find myself using them lots.

Speaking of mists and such, I've got a spot on my counter that houses a box I got at Costco where I put stuff in there to spray. I added a large piece of cardboard for added protection against stray spray.

One of the great things about my room is that I can spread out different work spaces. Here's what I call my "power tools" station. Here I keep my sewing machine, Cuttlebug, embossing tool and my chargers for my camera and iPad. Tracee taught me that an iPad is an essential scrapping tool. I take pictures of my layout when it's all planned out before I stick things down. That way, when I take everything off the page to do a background, I know where everything goes. Tracee and I send each other our layouts to get feedback and advice.

Then there's my work table. My table is 10 feet long, so I can scrap with other people if I like. I read my bible in the morning, so it sits on the other side of the table. The blue cup is to hold small bits of trash. I scrap 8 x 8 on a BasicGrey magnetic mat.

I've got a couple of those spinning holders that enable me to keep tools close by. This one holds pens and rulers and liquid glues. That white cabinet you can see in the background has boxes of photographs.

This one has paint brushes, cutting tools, filing tools and such.

And I've got a lazy Susan with a tiered piece I got at Home Goods that holds adhesives.

In the background you can see another couple of things I inherited from my sister. Stackable drawers that are pretty big. Most of the drawers are empty, so I've got some room to spread out stuff, should I decide to reorganize some things. I've got my 2Crafty chipboard for DT work in one of those drawers. Those white binders hold the stamps I referred to above and the purple binders are the ones with the bitty brads and eyelets.

The other thing in the background is a magazine rack that my sister gave me. I've got magazines that I'm in (or that CSI is in). I have the others I've been published in stored somewhere, but when I find them they'll be added.

My last work station is my computer desk. It's nice and long and holds my monitors, printer, Silhouette Cameo speakers and a fan. I've got two large monitors. When my husband brought me that second monitor, I thought he was crazy, but I can tell you it's one of the best things I ever did because I can easily multi-task, and it really helps me with CSI tasks. And the best part of this set up is that I can scrap via Skype with my BFF Tracee, who lives way across the ocean! We scrap together every weekend and most days when I'm on break from school.

I'm planning to get a wall quote for the wall above my scrap desk.

I'll show you one more part of my room which is super-embarrassing, but it's a reality. I have a gazillion layouts that I never put in albums. When we moved, they were in boxes. My husband took them out and put them on the shelf and there they've sat since we moved in.

This shelf and the two cabinets were hand-me-downs from my sister. I've got scrapbook-related books at the bottom. The drawers are empty right now. 

Whew! That's a lot of pictures. If you've stayed with me this long, thank you for taking this tour of my scrap room. Feel free to send me a message with any questions you have. And if you're ever in my neck of the woods, give me a ring--I've got plenty of space for some scrappy friends to play!