I have had lots of requests to post photos of my studio since I started my blog. This afternoon I was asked once again. So, tonight I took some photos of it and some of my favorite organizational ideas and my favorite tools and products to use. The photos are far from stellar, but I hope you will enjoy the tour of my favorite room in the house.
#1 - This is MY Studio as you enter through the double doors. It is the happiest place in the house and it seems that everyone eventually ends up hanging out in here.
Notice there are no curtains in here. It is the only room in the house without them. I have been looking for just the right ones and can't find them. I guess I will be sewing this spring!
#2 - I have my studio set up into 2 "zones" if you will. This side is the "play" side. Just about everything is within hands reach.
#3 - This is the "business" side. The computer is here and unfortunately I even have to pay bills in this zone. But mostly I use the computer for more creative reasons!
#3 - This is the "business" side. The computer is here and unfortunately I even have to pay bills in this zone. But mostly I use the computer for more creative reasons!
#4 - I added a long white shelf over top of the 2 towers in both zones. On the business side I have all kinds of special treasures from my Doodle and my brother. As well as my very first camera and favorite pictures of me playing in the fall leaves in Arkansas.
#5 - On the play side, I have some of my favorite childhood toys and my favorite books from when I was a little girl. Like I said, this is MY studio and it is filled with all manner or things that make ME happy!
#6 - did you notice that all of my little plastic drawers have white fronts? Well, I HATE clutter and the very nature of any art studio is to have lots of clutter. I have tried my very best to eleminate as much of that as I could. And even though everything was neatly packed away in these little drawers, the visual clutter from the clear drawers made me crazy! So I made white fronts for all of them and labeled each one so that I would know exactly what was in each one. It took about 8 hours to do them all, but it has been well worth my effort!
#7 - This is a bookshelf that is mostly devoted to photography. All of the binders you see there are full of old slides or 35mm negatives. That's ALOT of negatives and slides! All of the black boxes on the bottom 3 shelves are FULL of 4x6 printed pictures. Everyone and every holiday has it's own box (or 2). Of course Monkey has a nick-nack shelf in my studio as well. The skinny white drawers to the left are where I store my Sizzix dies and the machine sits right on top. It was sold in the bathroom dept for storage in tight spots in a bathroom. But with it's 2 different sized drawers it was perfect for my dies. My alphas fit perfectly in those shallow ones and the big dies in the deeper ones.
#8 - Another thin tower under my work surface in the play zone holds all of my (many) brads and eyelets as well as my big ol' hammer and crop-a-diles. They are right at hand when I need them and out of the way when I don't.
#9 - This bookshelf is on the business side, these are most of the books I have made and taught. I really enjoy this shelf, but I need to figure out what to do with the new ones I make? I might have to put some of them on ebay to sell to make room?
#10 - these are 12x12 drawers and this is how I store all of my scraps. Yeppers, that's ALOT of scraps! And yes they are all sorted and organized by color and or theme. No sense in saving scraps if you can't find the ones you need right?
#11 - More drawers - these hold all of my wood mounted stamps, paints and alterable office supplies (tags, clips, envelopes, etc). On top I am ashamed to say is a bit of clutter. But most of it is stuff for classes. It is not a big room, and sometimes there is no "good place" to store class supplies until they get used. But when the double doors are open (which they usually are) all of this is out of sight!
#12 - Just more drawers all with in reach while I am creating. I hate to have to get up and down.
#13 - Single paper storage is inside the bottom cabinets. This does not at all represent ALL of the paper I have! The paper I buy in bulk and the parent sheets are elsewhere. But again this is all handy while I am sitting in my chair creating.
#9 - This bookshelf is on the business side, these are most of the books I have made and taught. I really enjoy this shelf, but I need to figure out what to do with the new ones I make? I might have to put some of them on ebay to sell to make room?
#10 - these are 12x12 drawers and this is how I store all of my scraps. Yeppers, that's ALOT of scraps! And yes they are all sorted and organized by color and or theme. No sense in saving scraps if you can't find the ones you need right?
#11 - More drawers - these hold all of my wood mounted stamps, paints and alterable office supplies (tags, clips, envelopes, etc). On top I am ashamed to say is a bit of clutter. But most of it is stuff for classes. It is not a big room, and sometimes there is no "good place" to store class supplies until they get used. But when the double doors are open (which they usually are) all of this is out of sight!
#12 - Just more drawers all with in reach while I am creating. I hate to have to get up and down.
#13 - Single paper storage is inside the bottom cabinets. This does not at all represent ALL of the paper I have! The paper I buy in bulk and the parent sheets are elsewhere. But again this is all handy while I am sitting in my chair creating.
#14 - These are just a portion of the 12x12 traditional scrapbook albums I have. When I first started scrapping I bought whatever album I felt like. As I got more serious about it I bought 20 of these embossed leather albums that hold 50 12x12 pages each. Now everyone and every holiday plus vacations have their own album. And of course I made hanging tags for each one with the album name on it. Can you tell I LOVE labels????
#15 - this is ribbon and large punch storage. It is also where 8.5x11 paper and all my zipper baggies for classes are stored. Not as neat as I would like it, but it is all behind closed doors so I deal with it.
#16 - This is one of my fav organizational tools! A bunch of small zipper bags and a cheap metall shower curtain hook! I use this system for ribbon as well as chipboard letters. So everything on this ring is black ribbon. There is a red ribbon ring, a pink one, white one, you get the idea. For chipboard letters, I put all of the A's in one bag, all of the B's in another and so on. Makes it sup easy to find exactly what you are looking for!
#17 - remember when we were kids and your Dad would store all of his nuts and bolts in glass baby food jars in the storage room? Well, the new baby food jars are square, have nice lids and are plastic! And they fit perfectly in my little drawers!!!!! I LOVE these things!
These next few items are my FAVORITE MUST HAVES! 
PVA for all of my book covers!
Diamond Glaze for gluing all metals and small items!
UHU Glue sticks - the best glue stick for when you need one of those. I buy them by the case!
Forever Tape - For a SUPER STRONG hold on anything! Again, I buy it in bulk!
Favorite Tools -
*An oldie but a goody - My Sizzix Machine! I love it because it will cut through chipboard!
*The Bind-it-All. Need a book fast, don't feel like sewing - BINGO!
*My large surface light table - again, I could not do all of my fussy journaling without it!
*Another oldie, but goody - my Fiscars Rotary Cutter. I have several others but this will always be my favorite. It is a dear old friend. I've had it for 10 years now!
That's right, Black Mini Brads and distress inks!
#15 - this is ribbon and large punch storage. It is also where 8.5x11 paper and all my zipper baggies for classes are stored. Not as neat as I would like it, but it is all behind closed doors so I deal with it.
#16 - This is one of my fav organizational tools! A bunch of small zipper bags and a cheap metall shower curtain hook! I use this system for ribbon as well as chipboard letters. So everything on this ring is black ribbon. There is a red ribbon ring, a pink one, white one, you get the idea. For chipboard letters, I put all of the A's in one bag, all of the B's in another and so on. Makes it sup easy to find exactly what you are looking for!
#17 - remember when we were kids and your Dad would store all of his nuts and bolts in glass baby food jars in the storage room? Well, the new baby food jars are square, have nice lids and are plastic! And they fit perfectly in my little drawers!!!!! I LOVE these things!
These next few items are my FAVORITE MUST HAVES!
Favorite Adhesives -
PVA for all of my book covers!Diamond Glaze for gluing all metals and small items!
UHU Glue sticks - the best glue stick for when you need one of those. I buy them by the case!
Forever Tape - For a SUPER STRONG hold on anything! Again, I buy it in bulk!
Herma Dotto REMOVABLE - I could not do all of my fussy journaling without it!
Favorite Tools -
*An oldie but a goody - My Sizzix Machine! I love it because it will cut through chipboard!*The Bind-it-All. Need a book fast, don't feel like sewing - BINGO!
*My large surface light table - again, I could not do all of my fussy journaling without it!
*Another oldie, but goody - my Fiscars Rotary Cutter. I have several others but this will always be my favorite. It is a dear old friend. I've had it for 10 years now!
* My Duraheal Cutting Mat & Acyrlic Cutting Guide. I love this for cutting all of those oversized papers I use as well as for all of that book board.
* The Stanley Utility Knife. This is how I cut all that bookboard and paper on the mat.
*Fiscars Stamp Press - this is the best tool if you like to use acrylic stamps! It is perfection!
* Crop-a-dile. How did I live without this? Lizzy actually bought me the BIG one for Christmas this year.
*The Home Pro Tool - WOW! You will never set another eyelet with a setter and hammer again after using this thing!
* My Wooden Ruler that I got when I was in grade school. I LOVE this thing. It only has marks every quarter inch! You can't find those anymore!
* My Hammer that my Doodle bought me. I use it for lots of things - especially for flattening the backs of brads.
* My Wooden handled Awl - Love this thing - I got it at the swap mart in San Diego several years ago for $1 and it is the best one I have ever had!
* While we are talking about brads and my awl - I have to have my piece of Cork to use with both items. Unfortunately Monkey got a hold of it and it's in pieces now.
* My Bone Folder - couldn't live without this thing either.
* My Bone Folder - couldn't live without this thing either.
* Last but not least my Speedball Brayer!
Favorites For Every Project!
Favorites For Every Project!
That's right, Black Mini Brads and distress inks!I love almost all of the distress inks but my very favorites are the Vintage Photo and the Black Soot.
So this wraps up our tour - what do you think, was my studio what you expected?
Were you surprised at some of my favorites?
1 comment:
OMGoodness!! that is quite the studio!! LOVE it!!! You are one very lucky lady!!
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