Craft room process (everlasting??)

As some of you may know, my craftroom has (and probably always will) gone through several changes - well... I think something would work and then I find something better :)

Like this first set up - this was created when we just moved to our current home 2½ years ago. Well.. I guess it served me well for the 12 months it stayed as such :)

I thought the IKEA Expedit shelving would be THE best solution, but quickly realized that the vertical supports were limiting the items I could store in the shelves, although they at the same time provided some support for scrapbook papers and books (I still have couple lower ones as my side tables). I also QUICKLY ran out of storage space for my clear mount stamps. So these are my solutions now for the stamps and for my ribbon and punches.

What is so great about this stamp storage, is that the cubes (from Solutions Store here in Ottawa) provide support for the stamps and I can store the stamps in "themes" and easily take one with me to a workshop or to the cottage :)

And the ribbon storage are IKEA picture rails and the old style punches are stored on IKEA kitchen railings. Works perfectly. The new style punches store nicely on the picturerails.

The hardest for me was to find perfect storage for my markers. I want to store them flat, so 1st I used poster tubes (which you can see behind the new system) and stored red markers in the red tube and so on. I was actually able to fit all 4 tubes in the Ikea Expedit small cube (as seen on the 1st picture on the shelf above the red drawers).

 

Then I bought a marker storage from a competing scrapbooking company - nice option, but the markers sat VERY deep in the container and I had hard time getting them out. Then I learned about this system (just 2 weeks ago). It is called "the ultimate pen storage" by Crafter's Companion (this set has 6 levels, each fitting 12 pens - you can get them individually or in larger sets - they mount either flash or little angled for easier access. They click together nicely, so they are very sturdy - and you can add to the side too!

 
 My 12"x12" papers I store in a Cropper Hopper file cart - best thing ever! (both this and the pen storage I got through Amazon.com.

I have 2 carts - one for my Stampin'Up! Designer Series Papers (current only!) and one for retired stuff plus non-SU! papers.






My 8½"x11" papers I store in a regular sized filing cabinet (2 drawers). I have the neutral colours and special colours on the lower drawer and the other colours on the upper - this, as well as the DSP storage cart, are located right behind my chair, so I only need to swing around and I have access to ALL my papers!

My embossing powders I like to store in larger containers - easier to just spoon over the card and shake extra back to the container!

 This is my storage for buttons and other trinkets. They are housed under the glass top (the table top is from IKEA). I got the white containers from Chapters and glued them together with Crystal Effects :-) each compartment fits 4 Stampin'Up! button/brad containers - perfect! and the small muffin pan houses other types of trinkets for my scrapbooking projects.




And then I have my "display wall". This is actually just a piece of MDF painted with nearly tempting turquoise coloured chalkboard paint and then I mounted 3 black IKEA picture rails. This goes with me to craft shows!


And then I have a place on one of the shelves for my business supplies like catalogues, class schedules and other advertisement pieces.




Hope you enjoyed the tour. I'll do an update (most likely at the beginning of next year) when I get the room organized (AGAIN!)