Friday, February 3, 2012

In between projects, I get the itch to get more organized. I tend to be a VERY messy scrapbooker. Usually before a project is finished, my entire desk is covered - I mean covered - with stuff, and I have about a 5x5" square of space in which to work. It takes me awhile to get things back in order! I tend to be visual, so if there are things out on my desk I can see, they will be more likely to get used.
I don't have a big, fancy scrapbook room. While I love our house, we only have 3 small bedrooms. So, I decided awhile back to set up camp down in the basement. About a year ago, I posted about my scrap space. It still looks pretty much the same, with a few slight adjustments!
I've added a thread rack to hold the colorful threads...the little cup holds my needles.
Recently, I needed to figure out a new die organization system for my Papertrey Ink dies. I wasn't quite sure how to get them organized. I tried them in a binder with CD sleeves, but that didn't really work for me because when I flipped the pages of the binder, the dies would fall out. I decided to take the CD sleeves out of the binder and put them in a container.

Now I can flip through them easily. For now, I'm just using sticky notes to divide them into sections. I divided them into these categories so far:

People (like the Simply Jane dies)
Tabs, Notebooks, Envelopes
Frames, Tags, Shapes (circles, Ad Sense shapes, etc)
Animals
Baby, Kid (Little Princess die, Truckin' It, etc)
Spring, Flowers, Trees
Jars, Food, Fruit
Fall, Halloween
Letters, Numbers, Words
Christmas, Winter
Impression Plates

What I love about this system is that I can add more or change my categories when I need to. Love flipping through to see all of my dies! I still need to label the actual CD sleeves with the die set names. The larger dies like the borders, Favor It boxes, etc. are in a large plastic baggie in my Papertrey Ink box next to my desk.

I have all my punches and stamping inks on the pull-out keyboard drawer of my desk, easily accessible...

My Papertrey Ink stamps are on the bookshelf organized by title alphabetically in CD cases, along with my Cricut cartridges.
Trust me, it's not always this clean! Oh, I organized my blog recently also and added some links to the top to clean it up a bit. What do you think?

Thanks for stopping by today. This week will be an exciting one -- Papertrey Ink celebrates its 5th ANNIVERSARY! So stay tuned to lots of projects, blog posts, giveaways and such.

24 comments:

TheUnlostWanderer said...

I absolutely adore scrapbooking, so I really enjoyed reading through your post. All those stamp ink colors, eek! :D

Katy @ Live Laugh Love Craft said...

I love it! Thanks for sharing, Danielle!

Evgenia Petzer said...

oh i really love the idea for threads! stunning! if you think you are a messy one, you didn't see my space)))

Unknown said...

Thanks for sharing! Such a fabulous space! Major drool!

Maria Therese said...

Thank you for sharing!!

Anonymous said...

Looks awesome! So organized!

richardbreaks said...

This looks amazing, Danielle! Question, how do you get to the row of stamps in the BACK? I would have the all over the floor( broken cases, etc...), so I am curious how you do it....

Danielle Flanders said...

Richard,
I have a back on my shelf, so they don't fall off - is that what you mean? It kind of stinks, I wish my shelves were a little more shallow, so I could see all of them. I might have to get another storage system for those. :)
Danielle

Brandi said...

Very pretty and organized Danielle! I've been complaining about my tiny desk in my studio that houses my computer, two tablets, iPhone and a lamp. Gets crowded very quickly - wanting to get a little bit bigger one so I can leave my sewing machine out. I know I'd use it more if it were ready to go. Thanks for sharing your space and organization ideas.

~amy~ said...

sigh...I love seeing how everybody organizes their goodies...thanks sooo much for sharing...your space is wonderful!

Lisa Beeman said...

I'm going to use your idea for my Papertrey Dies, you're a genius! :) I love visiting your blog, always beautiful inspiration.

Kanani said...

LOVE the idea to use the pull out keyboard tray for ink storage!

*Beatriz Jennings* said...

love your space !!! wish mine could be that organized :)

Diana Waite said...

this space is AWESOME! the organizing but must be going around because I've been purging and organizing, and REMEMBERING what treasures I have! :) thanks for the inspiration!

TenSGal said...

Oh my goodness....I've been a fan of yours for a while now but now that you said you are a messy scrapbooker well, I just plain idolize you! LOL! I am so happy to know that you make a mess, too. Your projects are so beautiful I just knew you were one of THOSE kind who keep the work area neat as a pin! LOL!
I don't have as many PTI dies as you but I've been keeping mine in CD holders...works for those that are small enough but I'll probably outgrow that system one day! Love your blog!

Susan

Susan Clare said...

Looks awesome - I'm jealous!

Chrystina said...

I've got so much to say. I'm jealous of all of your ribbon, I like your plastic container full of dies, your inks look awesome stored like that - and I'm pretty jealous of all of those colors as well. I clicked on the link to go back to your last post about your craft space before I continued - it looked awesome then and now. I also like the links at the top - you have quite the repertoire, and it was nice to read the bio page. Although, I've got to ask, how do you have time to read all of those blogs? I'm currently trying to find time to do that and I haven't quite figured it out yet. Thanks for sharing!!

Marybeth said...

You did a wonderful job organizing! Glad to hear you work about like I do big mess then clean up!( of course your work turn out way better than mine) Beautiful TFS I have my inks in drawer like you do and love that I can see them all. love the inks too.

Linda said...

Beautifully organized. You have inspired me to get my stuff organized too..

Jennifer Evans said...

Man... I wanted to spend my Saturday being lazy. lol... instead I cleaned my studio. ;) Thank you... it looks a lot better, more organized. I am glad there is someone else out there that is visual. It takes longer to put the stuff away than it does to create the project. ;)

Amanda said...

oh, I am so excited! My desk is almost identical to yours and until last week my husband and I shared it. I never thought to use the keyboard drawer for ink and supplies. I love the idea of the ink so easily accessible. Thanks for the great ideas!

Chris said...

Love your design style. Thanks for sharing.

Jill Norwood said...

Thanks for sharing your organization for the dies! Love it! :)

Creative Photo Albums said...

I love how you organize your threads. And your room looks so organized. But I know how hard it is to keep them this clean and organized when we do designing. But cleaning in between projects is such a good idea.

Annabella MErlin