Welcome to my craft room – well, my craft corner actually!  We use our smallest bedroom as a study and my husband has his computer desk in one corner, and I have my craft space in the other.  Based on a pine kitchen table, my stash seems to have grown upwards rather than outwards, and I use a variety of storage solutions to try to stay organised.

I’ve got a few sets of cardboard drawers from WHSmith, they do sets of 2 square drawers and A4 ones in blocks of 3. I store my stamps in the square ones by theme, e.g., flowers; oriental; cute, etc., so that I can quickly go through my options when I want to make a particular style of card.  The wider ones are full of ink pads, embossing powders, chalks, and paints.  I also use a cheap wooden CD rack to store Sizzix dies and See-D’s stamps. The shelves above hold a selection of boxes which contain ribbons, silk and paper flowers, and other embellishments.

The set of large plastic drawers under the desk was from a DIY shop and I use the bottom one for envelopes and card blanks; the middle one for punches; and the top one for adhesives, including glitter glue.  The wooden organiser box on the floor holds my stamping mat and loads of scrap paper for when things are likely to get messy – which is quite often!  One day when I get time I am going to decorate it.

The 2 sets of small plastic drawers in the middle are filled with small embellishments like brads and eyelets; diecut shapes; buttons and beads; and my wire and wire tools.

I got the open-fronted file boxes from an office supplies store and they are perfect for paper.  I use separate compartments for plain card; vellum’s; glossy card; mulberry paper; etc.  Also, whenever I find a suitably sized box, I turn it into a ‘drawer’.  I also keep my paper trimmers in there so they are nice and handy.

The free-standing wire tower is meant as a bathroom storage unit but it’s fantastic for tubs of pens and pencils, and my baby wipes and stamp cleaning stuff.  I can move it next to me when I’m working, and put it back out of the way when I’m done.

On the floor by my work table is a small plastic crate full of plastic pockets and I pop all the scraps from each finished project into them.  They’re sorted by colour and when I start a new project I go to the relevant pocket first to see if I have a suitable scrap to use before I cut up a new piece of card.

My top tips for organising your craft space would be:
•    Keep the things you use all the time within arms length so you can easily reach them when you’re working.
•    If you have a lot of punches in a drawer or box, punch all the designs from a long strip of card and pin it on your notice-board – you can see at a glance what you’ve got without rummaging.
•    Think of storage uses for empty household packaging before you throw it away – for example, the square plastic boxes from a certain brand of chocolates that you might spoil yourself with, are the perfect size for Sizzlits dies!
•    Remove things from bulky packaging –it’s tempting to keep everything in the original packet or box, but this can take up much more space, and slow you down when you’re in a hurry and want to just grab something.
•    Have a memory-jogger session every so often –rummage through all your drawers and boxes to remind yourself what you’ve got stashed away.  It’s easy to forget things you bought on the spur of the moment and rediscovering them is almost as much fun as buying them in the first place.

Finally, I definitely suggest that you send pictures of your own craft space to Papercraft Junkies – it was just the incentive I needed to tidy up – my table hasn’t looked this neat in ages!

Littleted62 (Nicki Moss)

If you would like your craft space featured on PCJ then drop us line on submissions@papercraftjunkies.com

It’s great for me to have my own space to make cards, scrap, use my sewing machine or make jewellery. Everything is within arms reach, be it on a shelf, in a drawer or directly in front of me.  Being a person who firmly believes there should be a place for everything, and everything should have a place, I am a devout organiser.  On a day when I want to leave a bit of a mess with the items I am using for a particular project, all I have to do is close the door until tomorrow. I love being surrounded by things I love, which is why I also have a corner dedicated to pretty things which can also serve as inspiration.

Creating a room like this could work out quite costly especially when space and storage are key.

This is why I love IKEA as many of the items in this room were bought from there, including the work benches. The wooden drawers which I decorated in-line with my craft space are great for clear stamps and stamp pads.

The metal drawers are ideal for embellishments, adhesives, blooms and all those other little crafting knick-knacks.

Probably the best storage items are the ones hanging under the shelves where I keep my pens, alcohol inks as well as other small items as well as the jars full of buttons which are actually from the kitchen section at IKEA.

One of my best storage purchases is my ‘Clip-it-up’. It wasn’t cheap, but I can see a lot of my stash easily with a turn of the carousel. Another place I found useful for storage was ‘Au Naturale’.  I have a couple of storage boxes where the lid has a handle and I keep all small off-cuts from decorated papers used and the other has small offcuts of plain white or cream card - ideal to dip into when you need that little something to add to a project. As all crafters know, you never throw anything away, no matter now small, which is why we get into this situation in the first place (but it’s worth it!!).