My Scraproom

Finally, photos of my scraproom -

If you stand in the door to the spare room, this is what you see on the opposite wall.  The green fabric drawers contain either embellishments, stamps, or flowers.  You'll get a peek into one of them later on.  I modified Stacy Julian's organizing by color idea to fit me, and when I did it, I found it SO much easier to create a page.  I tend to choose the photos first, the background paper next, then the embellishments, and then I create a title and journal.  So being able to decide what paper I want by color, to match or contrast or enhance the photo, and then do the same with embellishments - that works for me!

To the right, against the front wall of the room/house, I have a Clip It Up, 2 tiers high, with 1/2 of my alphabets on it.  This was a HUGE breakthrough for me!  Seeing them in front of me makes it easy for me to use them.  I would love to have a room decorated perfectly with closed storage, but I'd never accomplish anything.  I've learned I'm a visual learner as well as a visual doer!  Below the spinning rack is a Polaroid printer I got 6 years ago for $5.  You heard right - $5.  No offense, Polaroid, but it's worth $5.  The colors don't print true and you can't adjust them, so I'm thinking I'll give it away on Craigslist or something later on - I wouldn't even be able to take money for it - I'd feel I was robbing the customer!  That brown horizontal box has photos in it, and the dark basket on top is "stuff" that needs to find a home.  The white wire cubes have, in order from left to right, top to bottom:  stamps, my art journaling supplies (paint, gesso, paper, brushes), that wicker basket will go in one of the bottom cubes (it contains paper I can use as background, books I don't mind tearing up), and that blue folder has assorted photos in it.

This is my tiny desk.  I was happy to get it (it's the first piece of furniture J ever built and he used it for a kitchen table/desk when he bought his first house after his divorce), but now it's simply too small.  I can't even keep my tool spinner on it - that has to stay on top of those wire racks!  In the back is another wooden rack with my Distress Inks in alphabetical order.  That works better for me - I know their names so it's easier to grab Barn Door from the B than go looking for red paints and inks...  Those two piles of "stuff" need to be put away.  That black unit all the way to the right is a rolling rack that I gotfor $25 (originally $89.95 at AC Moore).  It came with a fabric cover.  The next photo shows what's on it...

I took the cover off - there's plenty of room here I'm not using yet.  The hanging files have gallon freezer bags with scraps sorted by color.  The basket on the top shelf on the right contains photo CDs.  I'm a bit worried that they'll become obsolete so when I retire in a few years, that will be my 1st project - be sure the files are on my external hard drive.  If they're not, copy and organize them.  THEN I won't worry that the CDs will go the way of cassettes and 8-tracks...  Plus, there are probably photos on them that I haven't scrapped yet!!!  The shelves on the right side of the unit are empty, except for one project I'm working on, a painted Christmas canvas project from Donna Downey.  The two drawers have my journal, my P-touch, a small photo trimmer...

This is my favorite part of the room.  That wooden unit is a Murphy Bed that J built so that I could use the room but if we have guests, there's a full bed that can be pulled down.  On either side are floor to ceiling shelves that I use for storage.  I was worried about the sun fading my paper so I went to Walmart, spent $4 on a flat sheet (BH&G brand), cut it in half and trimmed it.  I sewed the pocket rod, but used iron-on hemming tape to finish the long edges and the bottom.  Easy!  (Thanks, G, for the idea of using a sheet!)  My ribbons are all sorted by color:  red/pink/white/black, yellow/orange/brown, green, blue/purple.  The shelf at the top is miscellaneous "stuff" right now - a white shelf that needs to be hung up, an altered paint can I'll get rid of soon, and two boxes of fibers I have to sort into my color bins.

This is the bookshelf on the left side of the bed.  Top shelf:  extra empty photo albums.  Next shelf:  a basket of projects to do when I'm bored (HA!), an empty cookie tin that I thought I could use for storage of something, and a couple of albums I put together with pages I got in a scrapping swap, two sorted by 2 pages/month, and one sorted by a theme/holiday for each month.  Next shelf:  plastic drawers with borders in the top one, punched out faces of family and friends from pictures that weren't so great, but their expressions were, and then an empty drawer (except for a few cut-out words from paper or magazined.  Next shelf:  paper storage using Cropper Hoppers, and this shelf includes an envelope of transparencies.  Next shelf:  the green and white bin contains 6"x6" and 8"x8' paper, and there's a stack of notebooks to the right.  Bottom shelf:  the orange and white bin contains alterable "stuff", and to the left of it are some chipboard albums, magazines I'm saving to scrap, and a pink box of letters from my best friend from college.  Okay, some people save love letters...  LOL!

 This is the set of shelves to the left of the bed.  Top shelf:  all but empty, with just an expanding folder with a few photos in it that have to be moved into photo storage. Next shelf:  my idea binder (a project I did online with Wendy Smedley, I believe), card storage for my homemade cards and for store-bought cards.  There's also a photo album of pictures of this house being built that has to be completed and moved out to the sitting room with the other scrapbooks.   Next shelf:  Cropper Hoppers with 8.5"x11" Stampin' Up paper, and horizontal files with my patterned paper in ROYGBIV order.  Next shelf:  the remaining ROYGBIV patterned paper shelves and some page protectors.

I had to take a separate photo of the last two shelves because of the rolling cart, which admittedly, I could have simply rolled away...  Next shelf:  storage bags and a file of magazine clippings for decorating my house.  Bottom shelf:  Sizzix Big Shot, Sizzix alphabets, and assorted other miscellaneous "stuff" to be sorted through and put away someday...

This rolling cart has a project in each plastic box.  From the top down:  a book I'm making for my stepdaughter about her boyfriend/fiance/soon-to-be-someday husband, a vacation album, a home album, and three Christmas boxes (yes, I love Christmas, so what?!?!).  My Cricut lives on top, with the various Cricut doo-dads on the shelf immediately to the right of the machine, just below the ribbons you'll see in the next photo.

Those ribbon storage boxes came from Walmart, and they work but I wish they were closer to my other ribbons.  Oh, well...  Those plastic drawers contain my Bazzil paper, some 1/2 sheets of mulberry paper, and some pads of Bazzill.  There's a jar of binder rings I use for mini-books, a plastic box of mini-books that will move to the sitting room soon, alcohol inks and blender solution, adhesive-backed ribbons, and a whole punch on top of the plastic drawers.  The Stampin' Up craft inks will go somewhere else when I figure out where I'm going to store my Stampin' Up ink pads...

Each of the green drawers contain, for the most part, embellishments sorted by color.  There's a little mini white plastic basket in each to corral the small "stuff", quart ziploc bags for some of the embellishments I picked up at the EK Success warehouse sales they used to have here in NJ, borders, adhesive- backed/themed felt ribbon borders, etc.  For instance, if it's green and it isn't an alpha set, paper, ink or paint, it pretty much gets tossed into this drawer.  Each drawer has a ribbon tied on the handle to indicate what color "stuff" is in it:  green, blue, pink/red, yellow/orange, gold/silver/bronze metallic, purple, black, white, multicolored (where I couldn't decide what the predominant color was).  There are a couple of drawers that aren't color specific:  one of adhesives and tape refills, one of Christmas embellishments, one of my flowers, and one of stamps.

When you look at the white cubbies/ green drawers in the first photo, you'll notice several cubbies without any drawers.  They contain, in no particular order:

• paper tagger
• Crop-o-dile
• a fabric tote with journaling spots
• a wooden bowl with scrap-decorated tags I've either gotten in a tag swap or created myself
• embossing supplies
• markers in a mini 3-drawer unit, paints, and pastels
• stamps in two or three cubbies (some Stampin' Up and other vendors, too)
• boxes with buttons (sorted by color) and other mini embellishments (similar to fishing tackle boxes)
• chipboard shapes
• two metal bins with my punches tossed in them (I don't have a lot of punches)
• blank card/envelopes
• quote books/title books

There's one empty wall on your left when you walk into the room (opposite my desk).  I have a poster to be hung up there, and there's a card table there now with a few boxes on it - boxes of some supplies that need to be stored away, and two boxes of supplies I'm looking to get rid of/donate.  There's also a clothing closet with cardboard, albums, storage containers and TONS'o'photos that I've started sorting according to Stacy Julian's Library of Memories program...

Hope you liked the mini tour - thought I'd do a video, too, but I want to practice that a bit before I actually post it here for you all to see!!!