Craftermath! Tidying my craft space.

On Friday I moved my desk around- I craft in our dining room, but I was in the darkest corner, so my husband helped me to move the furniture round so I'm now sat by a window. Much better! Once you start moving things about though, it's difficult to stop, so I had a serious case of tidying up required. Look at the state of that desk. I'm a messy crafter, but I do try to tidy up from time to time!

Here's the finished desk- I'll never be a minimalist...

My bunting project- halfway though! I love the pull out section of my desk- it makes it an L shape and it's handy for drying space.

I have a swivelly penpot thingy which I love, it's handy for access. The little wooden boxes came from an old workplace, and I'm very attached to them. Amazing what you can't be without isn't it?

Spot the Disney mug too.

Thanks for looking!

It's tidy. Quick look now before it disappears!

I've tidied up the craft space. I know, I know, an abominable use of a Sunday morning, but it had to be done.........



OK, here's the views. First, the overall view, bit
dark this photo. This is in our dining rooms, in our extension, behind me as I took this photo is the dining table and an arch to the kitchen and the rest of the house.



From the left- with the door to the garden on my left, firstly I have the shelves which used to contain all of my stash, ha ha haaaa, that seems like a million years ago...... now it's got boxes with paints, inks, sprays, embellishments, fabric, flowers, chalks, pastels, films, clay, all sorts of things, third shelf down has files with stamped images, plus books to tear up, maps, and the latest Stampin' Up catalogues.

The red drawers are from Ikea and contain bits of stationery, adhesives, sponges, embossing powders, perfect pearls and odds and sods.

On top of the red drawers you have my ink pad drawers, with lots of lovely Distress, Impress, Stazon, Brilliance, Versafine, Stampin Up pads :)

On top of that is the scraps file, baby wipes and begind those, is a letter rack with bottles like Glossy Accents, stamp cleaner and the like. Squeezed down the side of the inks drawers is my trusty A4 Fiskars paper trimmer.

Now onto the desk! Facing the window, it looks onto the drive and the road, not the most scintillating, but it does let me be nosy, lol.

On the window sill, my orange rubbish bin, blue bin with bots to put away and beloved watercolour pencils pot.

On the desk itself- to the left some plant pots I've just emptied of pens, my fabulous pink ATG monster which it sooooooo useful. Box with new stamps to try out, pink box with bits and dabs to use on a journal page, lamp, heatgun (which I intend to hang from a hook as soon as I buy said hook! Picture I've made and want to sell.

The desk is an L shape, with the bit to my right that pulls out to make more work surface. That currently has this month's Craft Stamper, my calendar journal and my Works in Progress box, sitting on 3 A4 green cutting mats, a brown ranger mat and some A3 paper, which I use to line my workmat.

The lovely Mr put me the rail with the coloured pots onto my desk yesterday. Fab innit? Ikea again, it's got pens, glue, mini alphabet stamps which I use constantly, so they don't go back in the alphabet stamp drawers (yes there's more than one....), tapes, scissors and my favourite black inkpads. Plus under the desk is the usual boxes of things to be altered, a Cinch, a Melting Pot.......

Onto the right........ sitting on the edge of my desk, the smaller drawer tower holds ATC paraphenalia (backs and sleeves and such), mini ink pads and blending foams, gel and glaze pens, gems, acrylic blocks, stickles and at the bottom a drawer of found bits- interesting bits of metal usually, or odd earrings, broken jewellery, springs, things that might just come in useful on a project. On top is my address file, and a carousel for blending tool handles.

The taller tower goes to the floor and has a drawer for each colour of ribbon, plus one for buttons at the bottom and one for Flexmarkers at the top.

Then there's the pooter, with Miss Little Legs' GIANT keyboard (there's a normal one just underneath)


 Next shot- pooter and printer and drawers with the kids cards and paper.

Plus a glimpse of the new Ikea shelving. Loooooove it!


OK, top row L-R: Craft books, Journals, Colouring stuff- pencils & H20s in one of the picnic baskets, 12x12 paper pads and smaller paper pads, Himself's "locker".

Second row L-R: scrapbooks, son's homework cubbyhole, drawers with boring stationery in, white, cream and black card and acetate and a few more 12x12 pads, my blue "locker.

Third row L-R: empty shelf (wow!), red paper box with colour sorted card and paper in yellows through to blues, stationery drawers, another red box with papers and card from green through to metallics, son's black "locker".

Fourth row L-R: PC related stuff and scrapbook kits, another empty shelf!!!!, crafting tote, pretty boxes with bits in, Miss Little Legs' cubby hole, then her green "locker".

Bottom row L-R: boring paperwork files, ATC folders, Craft Stamper magazines, Promarkers case and cuttlebug, school file and more paperwork.

On top- library drawers (love them), my librarian knitted by my lovely Nan, boxes of padded envelopes and tissue paper.There are a few little bits on display on the shelves too- things I've made or been given :)

Whew, congratulations if you made it this far. I think I may have been a liiiiiitle bit too detailed in my explanations, but then when I'm noseying at people's craft spaces, I like to know what things are. Our "lockers" are because I was fed up of school and work bags dumped everywhere. You'd be amazed at how much you can fit into one of those little cupboards.I still have empty shelves and drawers to fill, but I'm not stressing over sorting it, because stash expands quickly, so I'm sure it'll all be filled soon!

Ooh, and I nearly forgot my stamp storage- on the wall directly opposite the computer, built by himself- clever old thing he is.

Lots of A4 boxes labelled with categories, in alphabetical order, or as close as I can get it. It's the librarian training....... so first 3 are alphabets (told you, more than one), then animals, backgrounds......highlights include a fish and reptiles box, 3 Stampotiques and one that says weird.

On the top are recipe books, a Stampin Up alphabet that just won't fit without a major move round that I'm not up to yet, an altered house and the white sweetie jar.

Right, I'm going to go. All this tidy space is making me itch to inky it all up! If you visit, leave me a comment and let me know what you think. Better still, show me your workroom and I'll visit. Yay!

WOYWW- What's on your workdesk Wednesday- AGAIN!!!!!

Wednesday again!!!! Who stole the last 7 days??? Come on, own up!!!! Well, here's what's on my desk this morning- prepare yourself, it's not pretty!!!!

There are some cards I've finished and should put away before they get ruined. Bottom left is some square of wood my husband has cut for me to mount a stamp or two on, and on the right is the tub I've found to house the ink blending tools he made last week. There's also a tissue box I'm planning to alter.

In all honesty I haven't spent much time at my desk this week. I'm not feeling 100%, so I've retreated to the safe world of Promarkers and stamped images, and I've been colouring on a little table in front of the TV. I've just not felt up to anything more adventurous or taxing, and it's always helpful to have a stock of images to make cards with. So here's my temporary workdesk.

Lots of pots and tins of Promarkers (do you think I have too many???) I plan on having them all in Lyle's treacle and golden syrup pots, but we're not eating it quickly enough, so I've had to improvise with plastic tubs in the meantime. I will be able to break the colour families down more specifically, so it'll be easier to grab the pot and find the pen I need. I've got some nice images to colour.. Love the frog especially- that's one of Kay's stamps, and I must stamp him up a few more times when I visit her next! It's lovely having friends with stamp collections, it's like a huge extension of my stamps!!!!

I also thought I'd show off my finished stamp storage- apologies if I've already bored you with it, but I'm totally in love with it........

Isn't it gorgeous. Lots of room to buy more stamps, and I've managed to fit in my punches and brayers as well. The boxes all pull out and are A4 sized, so there's a LOT of stamps in there........ I'd love to have them on shelves on display, but I think I'd need all the walls in the house!!

Righto, if you fancy a nose at some more desks, head over to Julia's blog for a lovely long list of wonderful crafty desks. Bliss!

WOYWW

Last week I forgot completely about What's on your workdesk Wednesday until it was far too late in the day to do anything about it. Today, however, I managed to snatch a couple of photos on my phone as I was hustling the kids out of the door at 7.30 this morning. Here's my desk....

Front and centre you can see my monthly art journal, which I try to sit down to every day or at least every couple of days. A few trusty tools of the trade are there too- tiger striped scissors, white gel pen, the white sugar bowl I use as a water pot for painting.... Also there's one of my button jars and my ice cream tub full of stamps to put away, or use.

Right in the centre top of the picture is my little ATCs folder with ATCs to swap or to back up and send off to other ATCers. It's leaning on my new ink pad shelf, a verrrrry useful addition to my desk. It was a broken bookshelf, scrounged from work, and with a bit of glue and TLC I now have a moveable ink pad shelf. 

Thought I'd give you another view this week, so here's the inspiration and reminders string that's hung on the wall above my desk.

It has various favourite and recent ATC acquisitions, my "you've won" letter from Craft Stamper, some tags, a lovely bee card I had for my birthday and couldn't bear to part with, a card from my daughter (with the puppies on) and a money off voucher for a craft shop! There's also a postcard of the delectable David Tennant as Hamlet for me to sigh over occasionally, and a lovely little saying someone sent me that tells me I'm good enough just as I am. I'm tempted to put a noticeboard up there, but a little higher up I have a lovely metal advertisement which I'm loathe to move. Does anyone else have an inspiration display space?

Take a look at some more work desks via Julia's blog.

A bit of a find!

Oops, forgot to show off my new bargain. Well, not so much a bargain as a complete freebie!!!

This is my new ink stand/holder/carrying thingie (haven't got a snappy name for it yet!!!) It's an acrylic bookshelf that was being thrown out at work, so I nabbed it (with the boss's permission of course). It's perfect to sit my ink pads on, and because it has a handle each side, it's really easy to move them about if I need more desk space, or when I need to move them over to the table for crafty sessions with my mates Kay and Michelle. It needed a little bit of TLC, but some glue on the join and a clean  have saved it from being skipped. Recycling rules!