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.
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| 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. |
To the right of the double door closest (and just around the corner) is a bookshelf.
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| 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. |
To the right of this area is another single door where I've hung a cork board for displaying card samples.
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| Corner View of my display board, punch wall and desk area. |
Here is a close up of my punch wall.
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
Moving to the right you can see my Big Shot station.
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| 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
Anyway, moving on to the right you can see my classroom area.
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| 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 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
