Sunday, September 27, 2009

My wild hair is.... OVER!

Ok, I got a lot of funny flack for showing pics of my stamp room this week. BUT, guess what? I found some deals and figured out some storage solutions that I am soooo jazzed about! I thought I would share because who knows -- maybe it would be useful for other stampers in blog land! :-)

My first find is what I consider a BIG FIND! I was flipping through one of my craft magazines -- Crafts 'N Things I think-- and I saw an ad for a company called Unikeep. They advertised some fun little two and three ring binders that were perfect for craft storage. They were trying to showcase this for photo storage but I thought -- OH MY GOSH-- I have been really looking for a system for my cling stamps. So, I logged onto their website and found THESE! And, they were on sale! Only $1.07 per binder! They measure roughly 5 by 9". I thought it was a perfect size! After shipping (super duper fast shipping I might add) I got 20 cases for less than $30!

I bought the white folders but they come in clear and black too. It has a clear wrap overlay so that you can customize your binders -- I decided to make mine for my Impression Obsession stamps and organize them according to categories. See?

This is what they look like open. It's basically a two ring binder that is about 1-1/4" thick. Here's an inside look...

As luck would have it I had some large EZ Mount sheets that you can stick cling stamps to. I wasn't aware of this but you can't or shouldn't stick cling stamps to acetate for storage. It creates a reaction that will ruin your cling. Anywho - I cut some of my larger sheets to fit inside. Then, the fun began as I started to put my stamps inside. Look how many stamps you can fit in these babies! I have the sheets full on both the front and back of my EZ Mount storage sheets. Each binder can fit between 30 - 50 cling stamps.

As I was trying to figure out where to put my new binders, I realized, they fit perfectly into one side of my craft desk. WOW! Can you see me jumping up and down??? Sorry, I am easily excitable! That bottom clear box is a container I put all my acryllic blocks in.

The next big find was these photo storage boxes - just $2 a piece at Hobby Lobby this week! This was my storage solution for my Flourishes clear sets!
I have been buying some of Flourishes Clear Storage Boxes a bit at a time to put all of my clear sets in. You can see those boxes HERE. They fit two 4 by 6 sets in each one! I organized the sets according to category and when all was said and done I was able to fit more than 70... yes MORE than 70 sets into five photo boxes -- with plenty of room to spare! Each box will fit up to 30 clear sets if you use the clear boxes. If you keep your clear sets in a plastic sleeve - you could probably fit upwards of 100 in each photo box.
I had some old baskets from my son's room that he wasn't using and put all my BasicGrey pads in one....
And ribbon spools in the other!

The loose ribbon went into some fun jars. I grouped the ribbon according to color and I used some baby clothes pins to secure the ends. The jars were on sale at Hobby Lobby for $2 each.

And... here's a peek at my stamp closet so you can see how it all fits together!

I use small hooks I got at Lowe's for my Nesties and an old cafe curtain rod for my larger punches...

Here's a shot of the room from one side....

And a wider shot of my closet. The plastic rolling storage carts house my papers. I have solids and dp organized now by color. Easy breezy to find what you need! The smaller storage drawers are for emellies.
Here's the room from one side so you can see the closet and how big of a part this is to my room.

The fun thing? Close the door and... bam... out of sight!
I know some of you have seen my room before but, with these new storage systems, I had to share. I had been struggling for a long time to find something that would make it easy. And, I am thinking this is going to be easy!
Hope you all are having a fabulous weekend! Take care and I'll see you back here soon! :-)

25 comments:

Robbie said...

WOW!! Julie, this looks fabulous! I bet you can't wait to get inky now. It's like going to the dentist. Once your teeth are clean before you get out of the office good you're trying to decide what you can eat! Love, love, love your storage ideas!!!

Anonymous said...

Well, I for one am soooo relieved!! I mean, the before pictures were embedded in my brain and I was just so overwhelmed with your stamping room. I mean.......my room has never ever looked like that!! hehehehehehhawhawhaw yea right!!! Love the organization Julie, if your like me, you almost hate to go in and do anything for fear of making another mess!

Robin Kirkpatrick said...

What a great space and great tips! My stamp room is an unfinished room in our basement, so I am jealous of such a pretty and finished room! I'm a very practical girl, so mine works just fine for me, bu a part of me would love something as pretty as this!

Now when I look at your cards, I will have a good idea of how it all came to be! Thanks for this little peek into your world!

Anonymous said...

AWESOME!!

SueB said...

I've always thought your crafting room was one of the nicest I'd ever seen ... but wondered where you put all the stash. This is t'riffic - thanx for sharing the update w us AND the bargains!

The Rubber Maid said...

And just how long will it stay in that state of clean & organized???
Couldn't resist as you & I both know it doesn't take long and we're in a mess again. Love all the new ideas for storage and so wish I had a close by Hobby Lobby. MOM

Betty Wright said...

That is CLEAN!!!! Wow!!! Wonderfully done, Julie!!! Thanks for the organizational tips, too!!! Just beautiful!!! TSMFS!!!

Deebi27 said...

Good golly what a great place to do your magic in. I go to Hobby Lobby all the time and look & think...now you gave me some great ideas! I'm saving this blog to remind me of what I might be able to do in the month ahead. Thanks!

denise g. said...

Wanna come and fix my mess now???
Your space is SO pretty ~ what does the sign on the window ledge say? Those box things you put the IO stuff in are neat-o. Thanks so much for sharing and at least making me think about improvements.

lisa808 said...

Wow, what a difference!!! That is a dream room now.

Joan Fricker said...

Wow Julie, you have one busy gal.
And, it all looks so wonderful and everything has it's place.

We sure work better when things are organized, don't we?

Thanks for sharing with us!

Joan

Kay said...

Jeepers! Color me impressed! I'm an organization queen, but our hobby easily gets the best of us doesn't it! I really LOVE what you've done with your room, SO inspirational! I'm SCARED thinking what will come out of it now ... LOL! Have a great week!

Anonymous said...

Julie, YOur room looks great! Do you have any tips for storing the border punches? Mine are overrunning my space.

Darlene said...

OH MY STARS ... what a transformation!!! This looks AWESOME Julie!!! Some really great buys you got there! I LOVE having my craftroom organized ... although I have to have mine "out in my face" or it won't get used ... hence all the pegboards in my space! AWESOME job my friend ... I am TOTALLY impressed!!!!

Stacy Morgan said...

Whohoo... Oh this looks awesome Julie.... I love the new storage for your stamps and the bins look great. Just perfect now... :0) All that hard work paid off didn't it. hee hee

Anonymous said...

Julie your organization is something to be coppied..so I went to the link and I'm going to order several of those units for my stamps..the clear or cling ones.

I love the idea of storing them by subject..I can never find a special stamp as I'm disorganized. Now I have a goal to copy.
Your craft room is to die for..

I'm still in my dinning room but I have many plastic storage file units on wheels.. My dinning room doesn't even look like a place to eat anymore..ha ha ha ha. But I love my supplies and tools and got to keep them handy where I can see them and be happy.

thanks for the inspiration....
pat

Sandy Knecht said...

That was fabulous. Thanks for sharing. I'm jealous! Nice work.

Diane said...

A stamper's heaven room!!! It's awesome Julie!!!

Betty said...

Wow your room is so.....NEAT! LOL
I struggled with UM stamps too and finally found my solution, my DH and I built a stamp credenza, 52 2 X 2 foot pull out trays in a rolling unit that has a 2X5 foot work top. I love the color of your room and track lighting. I might be copying the lights. I'd love to paint my white walls but hate the thought of taking down and moving all my junk...errr stuff. Thanks for sharing your room. Now please share it messy so I don't feel so bad!

Leslie Miller said...

Your room is fabulous, Julie! I LOVE your storage solutions. You must be in Heaven...I mean, compared to "before"...gosh, my room NEVER looks like that. Uh, oh! I think my nose just grew 12 inches -- ouch! Seriously, I loved seeing these photos. So nice to see where you work. Sorta makes you want to stamp, doesn't it?

Kimberly Crawford said...

Gorgeous room! Thanks for sharing!! I would love to re-do my disaster area, so this is great inspiration!! Thanks!!!

Jenny Gropp said...

Come do my room. It looks FANTASTIC!

Unknown said...

I love how clean and organized your stamp room is. It looks awesome. I was so excited to see your from Billings! I'm from up by Jordan, MT (Brusett, actually, but nobody's heard of that, lol). You have a neat blog!

Merilee Lane, Where Life is But a Dream said...

Julie, thanks for sharing your great stamp room!

When we bought our new house it featured a formal dining room behind french doors. Since we only use our eat-in kitchen, I claimed that lovely room for my art studio! It is perfectly situated in the front of the house where the sun streams in all day and I've got an entire wall of windows to watch the birds while I work.

For storage I went to Walmart and Target and purchased several Closetmaid organizer cubes and shelving units, put them all together myself (they were sooo easy to assemble), figured out the perfect configuration, and then had my husband screw them all together.

My husband cut my desktop surface from MDF in a "u" shape and attached it to the organizers from the underside. I also purchased a clear glass cutting board and my husband routered out a whole in my desktop so now I've got a light table, too!! I popped a cheap uplight underneath my desk and it works like a charm!!

I've got storage for everything--my cardmaking supplies, sewing, painting, and any other art pursuits that I take up in the future!!

Thanks again for sharing your great ideas!

Merilee

Naomi said...

Ok, I know this is an old post but, I just had to tell you what a FABULOUS craft room you have! I bought a big 4'x6' steel frame shelf from Costco for $50 and put it in my craft room closet...I use baskets on it for storage of pretty much all of my cardmaking supplies...have the black Cropper Hopper Easy Access paper holders which I like because they stand firmly on their own (unlike the clear ones) and they hold about 600 12x12 sheets! I bought DVD storage boxes from Ikea 2/$7 for my SU! clear-mount stamps (which come in DVD cases)...they look nice and come in different colours and sizes...perhaps they'd also fit the clear Flourishes stamp cases? Anyway, sorry for the UBER-LONG comment...thanks for the storage tips!

Hugs,
Naomi