Oh, the crafty hoard… (clean & organize the craft storage room with me!)

Hi friends! I had been feeing a bit uncreative and blah and quite frankly annoyed with the current state of my crafty storage area (AKA the old craft room) so I decided it was time to go through all the drawers of random supplies, reorganize and most importantly label everything. Join me on this journey, will you? You can put this video on while you are cleaning up your craft space too! It’s better to tackle tough chores with a friend don’t you think?

I finished this project last Sunday night and it had been such a relief each day to walk in there and find, or put away supplies. I don’t think it was bad before but it is so much better now! My storage is handmade or castoffs from other parts of the house (or side of the road LOL!) Most of the products I use for organizing are from department stores (back to school time is a great time to shop for selection and price) as well as the Dollar Tree. Below I will list some of my favorite things I’ve used.

• Iris carts are available in lots of different drawer sizes and combinations. I find the shallower drawers the most useful but I use some deep ones too. The casters can be removed for stacking too!
• 9-cube units (I use these for my craft island table legs, you can also find ones with larger openings that will hold scrapbook papers)
• I use hollow-core luan doors as tables, they were salvaged sliding closet doors.
• I also use wire cubes, they can be rearranged infinitely and stored in a small space when not in use. These come in different sizes so check before ordering if you need them to be wider. Mine are i4″x14″ panels I think.
• I also use a lot of recycled boxes and plastic square baskets from the dollar tree. Dollar tree storage is great and I recommend buying a bunch of the same color if you like it as they sell out fast. You can also order online and they will ship it to your local store for free if your store doesn’t have what you want. I just spotted these paper trays that are 12″x12.5″ that I think might be good for scrapbook paper.

I hope this inspires you to make the most out of the space you have and til next time happy crafting!

Affiliate links were used in this blog post.

Building the new filming room…

Hi friends! I thought I’d share a video going through the process of setting up my new filming room. It’s still a work in progress. I filmed a cardmaking tutorial in there yesterday (it will be up on YouTube today and on the blog tomorrow) and I thought I had my sound worked out but I can still hear a bit of echo. I have hung quilts up on the wall and even suspended a fleece blanket in front of me to deaden sounds but it’s not there yet. Also I was sewing this weekend on the large folding table and my machine bounced too much on this table so I need to come up with something else there. I saw a compact sewing cabinet called a Sewnatra but it is too rich for my blood but I think I will look at thrift stores to see if I can find something similar that I can put my modern machine in. Plus for that kind of money I’d want real wood and not pressboard. I’ll think of something.

I hope you are having a great week and til next time happy crafting!

How I store stamps (It might work for you!)

Hi friends! I have been asked a lot lately what is is the binders behind me so today I will show you!

I had a few questions about my stamp storage on YouTube when I first posted this video Saturday. I will answer them here:

Q: How do you store your Pegstamps?

A: They are in a sturdy shallow wooden crate under my large worktable. I have them standing on their rubber end so I can see all of the indexes at a glance. I do not keep them in the original clear boxes because they take up too much space that way and I like to use them all together. I will show how I store them the next time I make a video with them:) I didn’t mean to leave them out, I just don’t keep them over here because the box is heavy and bulky and I would trip over it LOL!

Q: Since you have been using clear stamps since they first came out have you noticed any of them going bad, melting or getting gummy?

A: I have had some cheap silicone stamps fuse to the backer sheets but only if I had never removed them to use them. That is a good reason to pull them off the sheet and stamp with them at least once. I also have purchased stamps that were fused to the sheet and I had to cut the sheet apart and use them with tape on a block. Don’t try to force a stamp off the sheet or you might tear it. I am not sure if that was a manufacturer defect or simply what happens if you wait to long to remove the stamp from the sheet. High quality photo polymer stamps do stain with ink and can turn yellow with exposure to light. I think it is sun exposure that eventually breaks them down but since my stamps are in binders (as opposed to open bins which is a popular way to store stamps now) they don’t get exposure from my studio lights and I have no windows in my craft space so no sunlight gets in. I am happy to report all of my stamps are still working as god as new (even the 20 year old PSX ones!)

Q: Have you ever unmounted any of your wood stamps?

A: No, I prefer wood mounted stamps. I rarely get wood mounted now due to space reasons and I don’t want to let go of any I have so new can come in. I have actually mounted favorite sentiments on Jenga blocks because they were more convenient that way.

How do you store your stamps? Have you had any negative issues with stamps going bad? Let me know in the comments below! Happy crafting!

How I store Jewelry Making Supplies

Hi friends! Over on my YouTube channel I have been posting a series of new ways I am storing my supplies. I have affordable solutions that have worked out well for me and they just might help you too. I will eventually post all of these to my blog but if you want to see the videos done so far check out my YouTube channel and if you want to see my most current craft room tour (filmed a year ago) you can find that by clicking this link.

Many of the storage I use was purchased years ago and is discontinued but you can find modern substitutes by searching what you need on Amazon, they are always coming up with something new to help us store our crap…er..I mean CRAFTS! LOL:) Til next time happy crafting!

Why didn’t I think of this before?

Hi friends! Today I want to share one of the ways I make use of bins in my studio. I am a big fan of the 9 cube bookcases you can get inexpensively at Target, Walmart or Home Depot for craft storage. I like the cloth bins for keeping some items out of sight, contained and organised but there is a couple of problems with these bins. For one they are open and can be a black hole and you can lose stuff if you aren’t careful. The other problem is the budget ones are really flimsy (and I tend to go for the cheap ones so I can have more money to spend of nice supplies and because my cat likes to use them as a scratching post LOL!) In today’s video I’ll share my trick for overcoming both of those storage problems! Unfortunately I can’t help with the cat scratching problems but she leaves my good furniture alone so I’ll pick my battles:)

So, did you already know this trick? I love finding tips to better use my space and have my supplies readily available. Please share any tips you have in the comments below and til next time happy crafting!

A Craft Room for Non-Fancy People (like me!)

Hi friends! Recently I asked if you would like a video on how to set up an art studio/craft-room in an unfinished basement or other unfinished area (we gotta use what we have right?) and the response was overwhelming. By the way you can see an indepth video tour with photos here. I filmed that a year ago and not much has changed but it is much cleaner than it is right now as I am in the middle of a big freelance project and din’t have time to make the room pretty. What you see today is typical LOL! Watch the video below if you have an unused/unfinished area of your home that you want to turn into a creative haven. It doesn’t have to be “magazine pretty” to be pretty FUNctional!

My art room isn’t fancy. It’s not even a room, it’s an unfinished corner of my basement. This video is not meant to impress anyone, I made it to inspire you to make a space for your art wherever you can. Most of the furnishings are reclaimed or picked up as needed. It’s a hodgepodge but it works well for me. I will try and find links to any of the things I mentioned below but most of the things I mentioned can be picked up inexpensively at the home improvement store like Lowes or a discount store like WalMart. Claim your space artists and crafters!

Resources *affiliate links used.

• Lighting: I use aluminum clamp lights with daylight balanced CFLs or LED lights. *these can also be found at a hardware/department store easily
• Heat: I have a 1500w Eden Pure Infrared space heater. It provides heat in a few minutes and, as you can hear in the video, gives off a fan sound. An oil-filled radiator is another (quiet) option but it takes longer to heat up an area so you might need to start it an hour before you begin working. I have an oil-filled radiator but it didn’t feel as warm to me as the Eden Pure. Amazon has lots of options with reviews.
• Storage: 9 cube units and Letter trays to store or collect project parts
• Moisture mitigation: I don’t know much about dehumidifyers but there are options with reviews here. We had an interior perimeter drain done by a company that was an installer/franchise of Basement Systems. I am not affiliated with this company and can’t vouch for all of their installers but it worked well for us. I’ll warn you it was expensive but it was worth it to be able to use our cellar. We have a one-story ranch so it basically doubled our space.
• I have not used this product myself but other crafters with basement craft rooms recommend Damp Rid. It’s pretty cheap so worth a try if you have musty air.
• Safety: Radon test *there is a mold detection test too if you are worried about that. Fire extinguisher *Tip: Unplug any space heater when you are done for the day and switch off all power strips, you save electricity and know all of your lights and appliances are off.

The reason I am sharing my studio is to let you know that YOU can do this! It might take working a little bit a day for a few months if your time or energy are limited but you can get it done. Don’t wait for circumstances to be ideal, use what you have so you can create today! Happy crafting!

Live Watercolor Lesson Today & Tips for Setting up a Small Art Space!

Edited to add the finished painting. Have an awesome weekend!

Hi friends!  I am so happy I have internet, I was expecting to lose power with the crazy blizzard we had yesterday so I even had a backup video to post if that was the case but that tutorial will wait til Sunday and today we will paint live on YouTube at 12:30pm Eastern Time. During the slow week between Christmas and New Year I set about arranging my winter art space in my office upstairs. Normally I prefer to work and film in my basement but it gets chilly in the winter and loud as you can hear when the furnace kicks on. So in the winter my art area downstairs is more of a storage room and I work in my office. Here is a look at my creative corner.

I thought I’d share this, even though it is not the most beautiful space because it is very functional and a realistic option for many people. Let’s face it, few of us have a spare room we can devote to art. I took over a corner of my unfinished basement 10+ years ago and did the best with what I had. The black fabric hanging from the ceiling is to dampen echo while recording. I am thinking about ordering some acoustic foam panels but as you know I am a resourceful tight-wad LOL:) I found a calendar based on the book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and I hung that on my wall. It is one of my favorite productivity books. The small shelf in front of my desk holds my laptop. I try to keep my workspace as clear as possible.  I put my most often used tools on the shelf to my right. If you are a lefty you would probably want the shelf on your left. I took an old spice rack and put in my Prismacolor Pencils and Spectrum Aqua Watercolor pencils as well as a few odd-ball Albright Durer Watercolor pencils and Caran D’ache Supracolor pencils. They all work well together so why not?

Next to that is a bookshelf (BTW all of my studio furniture are cast-offs from other parts of the house emptied during my year-long declutter process) I have my Spectrum Noir alcohol markers and my Studio 71 brush markers and some odds and ends. Alcohol markers play well together too and since I have a lot of them due to reviews over the years I have enough for a full assortment upstairs and downstairs. My kids can help themselves to any of these supplies as well. I have a little bit of everything on this shelf, some watercolor crayons, my Rembrandt watercolor 48 set, a paper trimmer, a tray with mini ink pads and in the tip out bins I have acrylic paint pens, clear stamp blocks, watercolor crayons and a random junk bin. I have my favorite reference books and some art paper pads on the shelf below. Basically I want to have a versatile assortment of supplies to create with on hand so I don’t have to run downstairs all the time to get more supplies. I do keep on shelf empty (under the pencils) for bringing up supplies for particular projects and when I am done it goes back downstairs.

I raised up the height on my drafting table so I can stand or sit to work. I can’t sit too long or my back gets stiff and sore. That is a reminder that I need to move so I will go up and down the cellar stairs a few times to limber up and usually I think of something I need to fetch for a project or I have something to return. Since I work at home I might start a load of laundry, empty the dishwasher or do another chore that is active. I find these small brain breaks help keep me stay fresh and inspired. No two crafters had the same space available but I hope this inspires you to make a spot for art in your home. A card table with a rolling cart under it can house plenty of supplies so see what you can do with what you have. I have a door to my backyard right next to my desk which s great in the spring, summer and fall but this time of year it is drafty so I just sealed it with a weatherstripping kit it and what a difference it made to the warmth of the room. I recommend doing that if you have  a drafty area as it will save you money and will make working more comfy. Here is the view of my backyard. There is also a bird feeder I can watch from my desk:)

I hope you got some ideas there. Now on to today’s tutorial. We will be painting live from this reference photo. I was in the mood for something bright and summery:)

You can watch the live stream or reply in the player below but if you want to chat live be sure to watch on the YouTube watch page. Sarah is not feeling well today but my daughter Maizy will be filing in relaying questions to me.

Supplies (Use any kind you like, I’ll link what I am using below)

• Watercolors (Rembrandt)
• Paper (Arches 140# CP Watercolor Block)
• Watercolor Pencils

I hope you are having a great start to 2018! Good luck digging out if you were hit by the storm. I stepped onto my porch and snapped this pic. I am so glad I kept my porch decorations up, I think I will until the kissing balls start to turn brown, I am so pleased with how well they are lasting and how fresh they still look. See you shortly for the live show! Happy crafting!

 

And the purge continues…

Hi friends! I know I am in good company when it comes to an overflowing craft space. I know this because of the wonderful comments and stories you share with me each time I post a “Konmari craft room” video. Yesterday I decided to tackle one of my craft room overflow areas: The framing department. I was too overwhelmed by the contents of my craft room when I did my original Konmari craft room declutter to venture into much of the overflow. Also I was really stymied but my framing supplies. About 20 years ago my mom and I bought a ton of mat board from a frame shop that was going about of business. I had learned how to cut my own beveled mats to save money on framing my art for shows and then students asked me to frame their work too. Before long I had a nice custom picture framing side business. Occasionally I had to order in custom colors that I did not have but honestly I was really well stocked with mat board! This stash allowed me to make a nice living from home with low overhead. Everything was bought and paid for so it was all profit after just a couple of jobs. Over the years though I enjoyed framing less and less and I began to see new jobs as “chores” instead of blessings. It is a nice safety net though if times got tough I can always do framing.  I realized that it wasn’t the mat board I was attached to but the security that owning the framing supplies provided me and it occurred to me the reason I didn’t want to deal with that supply was because Even though I didn’t love framing I was not ready to let go of that potential. I was ready to clean out the area I had all of the boxes of mat board in though so I went through the large 32″x40″ sheets of mat board one by one to decide what I could reasonably use in my personal art and odd framing jobs I may with to take in the future. My Hubby actually would like to learn how to cut mats so he might take over that endevor for me! I limited myself to no more than 4 sheets of each color with the exception of white and black because those I have to order in frequently. I got rid of half! What I kept is stored by color families in their original shipping boxes (25 sheets fit in a box and it keeps them flat and clean) and they are under the purple cloth in the corner.

Since I work in a basement I am aware of moisture so previously I had the boxes of mat boards standing in plastic under the bed boxes with the lids removes and I put a sheet of plexiglass between the boxes and the wall and it kept the mat boards perfect. The corner of my craft room I moved them too had a random mish-mash of junk from old frames to old portfolios of art and plywood panels I planned to paint. I had a heavy-duty wire riser (I think it was a  paneling sample display for a hardware store) and it was perfect for holding my boxes of mat boards up off the floor. I did put the risers in a plastic tub as an extra precaution against moisture too. You might remember for my first konmari post that I had a set of shelves in this area but I moved them because they were the reason of the junk corner because I could not reach anything with the shelves there. I took my yarn totes from another corner and swapped them out with the shelves and put my dress form on top and had a bit of fun making a knitting display lest I forget there are 2 honkin’ big totes of yarn there. I don’t often need yarn but I can take down the dress form and display in about 30 seconds if I need too. Also the yarn totes are light enough to pull out of there if I need to get to the mats. This set up is fine since these items are not accessed often. Here is the corner with my shelf where my yarn totes were. I had a couple of kitchen size trash bins holding wrapping paper and strecher bars behind the totes that I had not yet been through (whoops! Missed that on the first round 🙂 LOL) so I put the wrapping paper with my other wrapping supplies and nested the bins together and left the stretcher bar bin as is, you can see the bins next to my white shelf. Ordinarily there is a toaster oven for clay on the bottom shelf but it was in use when I took the photo.

Well that was quite the long intro to today’s video huh? The reason I shared that declutter was because so many people commented on my Konmari One Month Later one of my konmari follow up videos that they had “past business supplies” that they did not want but could not part with and I realized that I had some too. I love how we are learning and growing together!

Video!

If you are agonizing over getting rid of something and the 2 question method didn’t work:  try asking yourself why over and over until you come to an answer.

Why am I keeping this? Will i REALLY need it some day? Am I keeping it because I regret buying it but feel ashamed to get rid of it? Was it a mistake purchase to begin with? Am I keeping this to remind myself I made a mistake and this is my punishment? Am I afraid to get rid of this because it is closing the door on the potential of who I once wanted to become? Keep asking yourself why you are holding on to this thing until you get to the bottom of its hold on you. You might be keeping it for a valid reason or because you are comforted knowing that you have it. But if you are keeping it out of shame and regret you can let it go to make room for more positive energy and be wiser in your next purchase. Face it, we all make mistakes but we don’t have to keep paying for the same one over and over again by holding on to possessions that don’t serve us.

Same goes for buying. Why do I want this so badly? Do I want it just because it is new and shiny? Will it fill a need I have that nothing I own does? And so on…dig deep!
I listened to the audio book “The Life Changing Magic of Tiding Up” by Marie Kondo and it changed the way I look at my possessions and helped me clean out the excess. I have more time to spend on things I enjoy because I spend less time managing my stuff and less time cleaning.You can find the book or audiobook here. I also enjoyed her book Spark Joy, it is a more in depth book on the Konmari method.

You can watch the rest of the videos in the Konmari craft room series here, I hope it helps you like it has me. Do you have stubborn posessions you can’t decide on or things you are only keeping “Just in case” let me know in the comments below. Til next time happy crafting!

Craft Table Clean Up and Makeover!

Hi friends! I have been feeling like I was loosing my crafty mojo lately. I’d walk down to my craft area and nothing was inspiring me. At first I thought it was the weather (it’s hard to be inside when it is hot and sunny since we only have 2 months of hot and sunny in Maine and I hate to waste it) but even on rainy days my craft room was bringing me down. I needed to clean and brighten things up and I had a full roll of white shelf liner at my disposal!

I had always intended on painting my table top (which is an old hollow-core door) white but it had never sat vacant long enough to do that so I decided today I would take everything off the tables and cover them with shelf liner and re-evaluate all the stuff on my table while I was at it. You can watch the process in the video below. If I can do it so can you!

Video!

All you need for today’s project is a bit of ambition and some shelf liner from our sponsor Papermart!

Many times all we need is a bit of inspiration to improve our mood and surroundings! I hope I inspired you tonight! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!