StampinMojo

Organizing your punches, dies and embossing folders

Today I continue on my journey to show you how I organize my crafting tools, accessories, paper and ink.  In the last two weeks,  we have conquered the organization of paper, ink and ribbon.  So today we will look at storing punches, dies, framelits and embossing folders.

I know that if I can't see the items they won't get used and who wants to keep digging to find what you need.  Target has cute and rather inexpensive baskets that I have purchased to organize my punches and dies.  I keep my punches, embellishments such as candy dots, and envelopes on a closet shelf in my craft room in the small sized baskets.

Since my craft table is black I have tried to stick with black or very dark brown (think Early Espresso) for my baskets and organizing containers.  Remember the decorator boxes on the walls from last week's post?, they are black too.  Here is a close up of the baskets:

Do you see how I put the Itty Bitty shapes punches in a Half sized Wood Mount Case?  Then they don't fall down between the larger punches never to be seen again!

 

I need another of the Target baskets so they all coordinate but this works for now.  It is another basket with a liner.  It holds all my Texture Embossing folders along with my envelope liner framelits (I use those with every card so why put them away), and the two thinlit dies (circle and scallop).  It is easy to thumb through to the folders I want.  Right next to this are two medium sized Target baskets perfect for holding my dies. 

These sit right behind my BigShot on the desk in my craft room.  Super handy and again easy to see!

I have all the framelis organized in a small binder also on this table top.  I shared how I store those months ago, check it out again here.

I hope these ideas are helping you organize and get the most out of all your craft supplies.  

Tomorrow will be a BIG celebration at the Pals Paper Arts Challenge.  It will be Challenge #200 and we have something special planned.  Don't miss it!!!  I hope to see you back tomorrow.

Michelle

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This is week two of my four-part series on organizing your craft supplies.  Last week we looked at the storage of paper and paper scraps.  You can check it out here if you missed it.

This week I want to share with you how I organize my Ribbon, Stampin Markers, and Ink pads.  I had a Stampin' Up! Color Caddy that I invested in right after becoming a demonstrator.  I loved it however as I bought more ink pads and ink refills I wanted another solution.  

I found this Stamp pad, ink refill and marker caddy from Stamp N Storage.  It comes unfinished so you can paint it any color you want.  Right now I left it naked.  It sits on two inexpensive microwave carts from Target.  You can see my Stampin' Scrub in front of the ink storage.  It is the perfect spot for it.  There is shelving underneath that olds other tools. 

 You can see in this next photo how I have my Paper Piercing sheets hanging from 3M hooks and I my sentiment stamp sets fit neatly in these decorator squares (they come in a set of three) from Bed, Bath & Beyond.  The Ribbon caddy holds my Craft Scissors and my Snips on either side of the ribbon.  I love having everything within reach and fairly visible to me.  I am standing in front of my craft table to take the photo.  Have I ever mentioned I stand to craft?  I stand at a large craft table that is 40" high and I LOVE IT!!!  

Last year I participated in a Ribbon Share with another demonstrator.  As a result I obtained a length of ribbon not on a spool so here is my solution for stray ribbon and baker's twine:

This is a super inexpensive solution - a small dowel rod and 3M hooks again!  The rings with the clips are from the Bed, Bath, & Beyond drapery area.  I believe there are about a dozen per pack. I love this because I can easily see what I have and when I close the closet door no one even knows it is there!

 I hope I gave you some inexpensive ideas for organizing your craft space.  Don't forget to come back tomorrow for another Pals Paper Arts Color Challenge.

Michelle

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With the onset of Spring many of us start to Spring Clean and organize our lives for the upcoming summer.  So for the month of April, each Wednesday I will show you how I keep my craft space organized.  

For those of us who love paper there comes a time when you need to get all that paper organized.  I want to share with you my solution for card stock and the scraps that inevitably result.

First a confession - I am compulsive about keeping my colors in groupings.  I have done this with my closet since I was a teen (whites to black basically following the color spectrum of the rainbow) and now I do it with my Stampin' Up! card stock.

 

This is one side of the cabinet drawer, the other side holds the green, blue and purple color families. Then within each of the hanging folders I have a sleeve for the scraps.  The sleeves are side load clear plastic sheet protectors (generic Office Depot brand).  While I have considered putting them in a three hole binder it is much easier to keep them with the full 8 1/2 x 11 sheets as seen here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So when I am working on a project I simply grab the sleeve and take it to my crafting table. 

This has worked so well for me.  As you can see I even add scraps of my Deisgner Series Paper Stacks of the same color. 

You know I love to craft,  I also enjoy organizing my craft supplies so that I can see what I have and use it!  And Stampin' Up! makes it so easy to craft by coordinating accessories, ink and paper with the same color families. 

I would love to hear how you organize your crafting supplies?

Michelle

 

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Organizing Framelits and Thinlits

If you are like me your life is full - work, family activities, household management, and more.  With all these responsibilites to juggle it is even more important for me to carve time out to create.  A key element to making all this possible is being organized.  And I love to organize!  

Over the last year I have managed to accumulate ALL the Stampin' Up! Framelits and new Thinlits.  I had purchased magnetic sheets at a local big box craft store and placed them in CD cases.  However when I opened the case often the framelits would pop off the magnetic sheet and I was spending time putting in order to get what I wanted rather than creating.  Until yesterday...

 

I had a small three ring binder (5 1/2" x 8 1/2") and purchased sheet protectors to go in it.  Then I took retired DSP and cut sheets to fit the sleeves, adhered the magnetic sheets I had used in the CD cases to the DSP and arranged the Framelits on the magnetic sheets.  I even recycled the labels I had made for the CD cases and placed at the top of the DSP.  

There were a couple of Framelit sets (Window Framelits and the Floral Framelits) that did not fit into the CD cases as they were too wide.  As a result there were tucked away and never used.  Well they fit perfectly in the sheet protectors as shown below.  Woo Hoo!

 

I am thrilled with the result.  Now I can flip through the binder to find the perfect Framelit shape for my card.

The new Circle and Label Thinlit frames don't fit in the sleeves yet I placed all the small accessory pieces in my binder.  This will surely remind me of the coordinating Thinlit frame.

 

I hope this post inspires you to get organized and find more time to create. I would love to know, what allows you to juggle it all? 

Cheers,

Michelle