My New Craft Room - Revealed

Well Good Morning My Stamping Friends!! I'm having a great day here in Northern VA. The sun is shining, it should get all the way up to about 50 degrees today, I'm sitting in the sunshine that is streaming in my diningroom windows and we're expecting a snowstorm tonight. All of these are good things but I'm most happy that I'm finally able to share the details of my new Stampin' Up! craft room with you.

I wasn't quite sure what to call this 'redo' for a while. I've referred to it as my Stamp Room Renovation, my Redo, my 'takeover', my new-to-me stamp room and a few other things. To be honest, it wasn't really a renovation since we weren't knocking down walls. It wasn't a redo, since it wasn't my craft room to begin with, it wasn't a 'takeover' since it was more of a room swap but it is a new-to-me stamp room. I guess I've settled on calling it Rose-Ellen's Stamp Pad....at least thats the Facebook location name where you can 'check-in' when you come over to stamp with me.

So, to give you a little background, my new craft room started out as my kids playroom/TV room but we found that the kids weren't really playing with the toys down in that room. No one wanted to clean up the toys that had magically migrated to the floor from the toy bins, so no one could GET to the TV to watch it. So......we did a few room swaps. We originally had a piano in our living room which felt like it took over the whole room, but when we got the piano we didn't have a better place for it. I had a craft room on the same level so I gave up my craft room and we turned that into a music room/TV room with a toy closet. This gave us back our living room which we are now able to enjoy again (insert huge WAHOO! here!!!). However this meant I had no craft room anymore. I used to host my classes and clubs at the large table in our dining room which worked just fine but it wasn't a perfect solution for lots of reasons. Plus, I couldn't just leave my stampin' stuff on the table all the time. So we decided that I could takeover the kids old playroom for my stamping area and as a place for My Stamping Friends to sit and create when I have my classes and monthly club meetings. It took quite a while of working in the evenings and weekends, and planning where to put the shelves and what would go on them, to get this room just right but I believe I've done it.

I'll take you on a little tour of the room starting with what you'd see if you went down the stairs and made a left.



My counter height workstation that I use for my Stampin' Up! Simply Scored
tools, to include the diagonal plate and the new Borders Scoring Plate. I also
have some of my retired stamp sets on the shelves available for sale.

This is the counter height station that I'm using for my Simply Scored scoring tools. One has the Diagonal plate overlay and the other has the brand new Borders Scoring plate. I can leave them on the counter and when we aren't using them I can put them on the top shelf. I think I'll probably be using this counter more often for the drinks and snacks we always have when we're stamping.  Also on the top shelf I've got my light table and a few baskets to hold misc stamping goodies. The lower shelf in this photo has a basket of snails and snail refills (we seem to go through a lot of them around here) and a few display pieces that have either come from Stampin' Up! or are made with Stampin' Up! products. If you zoom in you might be able to see my UPS Delivery Guy Punch Art. He was made for me by one of my great friends, Joan H and I LOVE him AND her for making him for me. On the bookshelf below the counter I have some of my retired stamp sets. Having them here makes it easy for me to grab one if someone is looking for a retired set and it makes them easy to sell at my Open House. There is a double door storage closet to the right of the counter but that is my behind the scenes storage area. Sorry, no photos. Besides if I opened those doors I might not get them closed again!

To the right of the double door closest (and just around the corner) is a bookshelf.

My Ordering Station (which holds catalogs, order forms & pens),
some current wood mount stamp sets and several shoeboxes full
of swap cards and project samples. 

I realize you can't see the bottom shelf but that holds my Catalog and Idea Books and grid papers, so its nothing exciting. The shoe boxes are full of cards that I've made and cards that I've swapped, going back to my very first convention in Denver in the Summer of 2007 and the Bermuda Cruise Incentive trip in April of 2008. Its amazing to see how trends have changed so much. The shelf also holds some wood mount stamp sets and on top of the shelf is a tall DVD rack of some of my clear mount stamp sets. I also have a few Catalog and Idea Books, Mini Catalogs and Sale-A-Bration Brochures available for anyone to look at. I've added some order forms and pens just to make everything easy for my clients. As far as the dart board goes a) I can't find a better place in the house for it yet and b) its a stress reliever and mojo-finder when I need a break. Seriously though I'm keeping my eyes out for the perfect display surface for me to attach my vinyl 'Create' definition and hang in this spot. Meanwhile, I'll leave the dart board. 

To the right of this area is another single door where I've hung a cork board for displaying card samples.

Corner View of my display board, punch wall and desk area.

All the display cards are in plastic envelopes and hung with paperclips and push pins so the cards themselves don't get damaged. You can also see my punch wall in the photo. I hung all my current punches on BYGEL racks from IKEA. They are the perfect depth for holding the older style or the newer style of punches. You just have to unlock the new style of punches to hang them on the bar. Under the punches is a BYGEL basket (two actually that are stacked ontop of each other). I think its a spice basket but don't quote me on that one. I use these baskets for my handheld punches and the very tiny punches that won't fit on the rack (Itty Bitty Shapes Punch Pack). I'm just waiting to hang these baskets on the wall and get them off my desk surface. You can also see part of my desk in this photo but later in this blog post there is a photo with a better angle.

Here is a close up of my punch wall.

My Punch Wall - This holds my current punches. Its so
 wonderful to have them available to look at and use
since they are right at my fingertips.

Here is a much better angle of my desk area.

My desk area - holds all my Stampin' Up! ink pads, current clear mount
stamp sets, accessories such as dazzling details, ribbons and buttons are
all within reach and all my current designer series paper is on the top shelf.

I find that when I'm crafting I tend to use the card stock, a tool or accessory and put it on the right side of my desk so I decided to sit more towards the left side of the desk and give myself plenty of room on the right. Starting on the top shelf I have order paperwork and 12x12 Designer Series Paper and then three three-drawer units that hold my sponges, glues, stamp-a-ma-jig, sticky strip, glue dots, refill cutter blades, embossing powders, etc. and on the end of that shelf are my Big Shot Die Boxes. They are fantastic boxes but I have a functional area for my dies right now so I don't plan on breaking them out of their boxes just yet. The next shelf down has some more clear mount stamp sets. One section is full of stamps from the current mini catalog (so I always know whats current from the mini vs. the main catalog and idea book) and then one of our new designer printed 8x8 albums and some of my Stampin' Success magazines. The next shelf down holds my ribbon keepers and a few little baskets of misc goodies and a basket of all the open snails I use in my classes. You can see how I store my inks. Having this holder attached to the wall makes it easier for me to get ink pads from the bottom slots (cause my desk is hardly ever this tidy!). Above the ink holder I have a few baskets full of pearls, rhinestones, dimensionals, etc. On the desk surface I have my markers in the corner, then a basket of my clear blocks, and a basket of mini catalog accessories, then a few small holders for dazzling details, crystal effects, pens, scissors, bone folders, etc.

Moving to the right you can see my Big Shot station.

Here is a view of my Big Shot workstation. my framelits and embossing
folders are on the desktop and all my dies fill several drawers.
Now someone can emboss while another person diecuts.

This is a desk height workstation where stampers can walk up and cut some cardstock on one Big Shot while another stamper is embossing with one of our embossing folders or using framelits or something else on another. No more waiting for the Big Shot! On top of the workstation, along the wall, are baskets with all my framelits, embossing folders and sizzlits. The drawers are nicely organized, with all my Big Shot dies on the left most stack of drawers, retired Designer Series Paper in the center drawers and some extra paper cutters and other misc items in the right hand drawers. You probably can't see it too well, but standing up inbetween the drawer stacks, is my large cutter. I LOVE my cutter and when I pull that out I can cut all the cardstock for my Stamp-A-Stacks or my Cropping events, in no time! In this photo you can also see the black file cabinet full of card stock, that doesn't fit under my desk. I'm still on the search for the perfect lateral filing cabinet that would fit all my card stock as well as fit under my desk. For right now, the file cabinet works and a side benefit is that it hides all the junk I tossed, stuff I threw important items I have carefully placed under my desk. I think I'm going to get some fabric and make a curtin for under the desk.

Anyway, moving on to the right you can see my classroom area.



A view of my classrrom area. I leave it set up for 8 guests all the time but
by moving the tables and chairs I can fit up to 16 stampers.
Find my class schedule on my website and come stamp with me!

 

I have it set up all the time for 8 stampers, but can configure the tables and chairs so many ways so I can fit up to 16 stampers in here. I love that I can leave the tables set up like this all the time with grid paper and a snail at each table and it actually STAYS that way until people come over again (unlike my dining room table where my family sorta expects to eat a few meals a day). Another reason I like having the tables that are movable is that I can take them down and fit a whole mess of girls for a sleepover just in the right spot to watch a movie and hang out.

I have my Stampin' Up! banner on the wall and at the end of each table I plan to have a cork board to display more sample cards. Those will probably be filled up and hung up after the Baltimore Regional in mid-April. In the right of this photo you can see another bookshelf with retired wood mount stamps (these are unmounted so I think I'm going to start giving them away as blog candy so keep your eyes peeled on my blog). There is also a DVD rack full of retired clear mount stamps. I sorta figured that having them in two different spots would make it easier for shoppers to check them out during my Open House. Aw, who am I kidding, I couldn't fit them all on one bookshelf!

From this direction if you turned right you would see my husbands desk in a corner niche and then a wall which will have a TV, just as soon as I find one that is just the right size and can hang on the wall. Once that is done I'll take a photo of that area and show you that as well.

I guess this room isn't really done, but with so many ideas rolling around in my head, it might never be done and I'm dying to share the fruits of my labor with all of you. I love it and if sharing this set up can help one person with setting up their own craft space then I'll be a happy girl.

So, I hope you've enjoyed the photo tour. If you're local and want to come over for a class you can check out my calendar. I host Monthly Clubs, and Stampin' 101 classes for beginners , Kids Classes, Stamp-a-Stacks, business meetings for my Stampin' Up! team and more. I even have monthly 'Make Up' dates where you can come over and catch up on any class you missed during the month. I hope I have something for everyone but if there is something you'd like to see on my schedule, just let me know and we can work something out.

I hope you have a wonderful day!
Rose-Ellen