Tour of my creative space!

Since we have a few more days to go before we start showing our grand opening festivities I thought I'd share my creative space with you while you wait.

Here's an overall shot of my "craft room." This room is basically a hallway... it's very long and narrow with a window at the end - and that door you can see peeking out on the right is our little half bathroom. I share this space with Jeff and his musical stuff - guitars and amps - and our little computer desk in the corner -- so it's a little room that does a lot but I feel lucky to have such a nice space!

My craft table was a "donation" from Jeff's parents when we first moved into our house. I think they had it in their laundry room or something and weren't really using it so the offered it to me for a craft table - it's gotten a TON of use here. I use it almost every day!

I have my craft table pushed up against the wall and have some various shelves and things on it. The green box that holds all those ink pads was made by my dad - a christmas gift a few years ago - and the shelf with all the ribbons and various items was once a knick -knack shelf but works great for craft supplies! I have two lamps. The one on the right is an Ott lamp so it has really great light. I've had it for a couple years but I don't know how I lived without it before that... it's great for lighting. Then I have my big craft mat and the Big Shot (die cutter) down on one end. 

This little beauty was a find at our Hobby Lobby a couple of years ago. I'm a sucker for anything with a bunch of little drawers so I had to have it. I keep mostly re-inkers for ink pads and fun little paints and stickles and stuff like that in there. On top of it I have a basket that holds all my clear stamp blocks and a cigar box that I put little scraps in that I might want to grab while I'm creating. 

On top of my ink pad shelf is my newest obsession - a box of Copic Markers. I bought some of these a few years ago - but it was a variety pack with like 10 different colors in it and I tried them and didn't really get how they worked so they've been stashed away -- until just a few months ago. I was inspired to try to figure them out and realized you need colors that are shades of each other to blend. I bought a few more and I was hooked. My collection is slowly growing and I'm learning how to use them so much better this time! I'm in love! The box they're in is a "bento" box from Target. It's cool because it has dividers that you can flip in and out to create different sections. I just bought a couple more and want to put my colored pencils in them--- and more Copics, of course! 

To the left of my table I have a bunch of those cubes that you can stack to create different spaces. I think I bought these at Target a few years back. I love these drawers - they look nice and are great for storing stuff.  Next to that I have my 8.5x 11 paper arranged by color. I found this rack at some store going out of business so it was a  super good deal! plus it's perfect back in the corner where it doesn't get much light. On top of the shelves in those two big gray boxes are my big shot dies and my trimmers sit next to them so they're easy to grab. 

Here's what's in some of the drawers: In the section of small long drawers, I keep paper scraps - Brights, pastels, regals and neutrals - so when I need a scrap of paper, it's easy to find.

Two of the larger drawers hold punches. Yep - I have a lot of those!

And then there's my ribbon drawer! This took awhile to do but it saves SO much space! I pulled most of my ribbons off the spools and wound them around 3" x 3" cardboard cards and put them in this drawer, arranging by color. It's really full right now -- I need to stop hoarding and start using some ribbon!!

I'm not going to show you the rest of the drawer since they're pretty much a mess! But they hold embellishments and a wide array of stuff! 

At the end of the room next to the window and sort of behind the bathroom door way I have another paper rack (I like to keep these in corners because the paper doesn't get damaged by getting too much light.) This rack is sort of a mess but it holds most of my 12x12 paper. Then on the shelf next to it I have a hodge podge of supplies, more paper, more boxes of  big shot dies, etc. 

And just for fun - Here's a little shelf I have, filled with jars of buttons, flowers and ribbons - just because it looks cute!!

My room is definitely always a work in progress -- I'm constantly re-organizing and rearranging things to suit how I work best - and it always seems to be changing... but I love it!