I have spent the last week or so cleaning out and reorganizing my craft studio. It was lots of work but so glad its done. I finally have all my stuff in one area and my home office is back to being just a home office..
Full look at the craft studio. Its a lot of stuff packed into a small space. The room is 12 x 15. I have tried to utilize every space possible in the room to store all my crafting stuff. I do all different kinds of crafting so I many different areas to work in.
The Color Station. Here I keep my acrylic and oil paints, glimmer mists, ink pads, chalk paint,
alcohol inks, re-inkers, paint sprays, distress inks, and smooch inks.
Glitter and Washi tape. Both are home made holders.
Here is where I store tons of different crafting items. I have 5 dressers with draws filled of all kinds of crafting items like material, paper, office supplies, mugs and coffee as well as my gift bags.. (I make gift baskets from time to time) Embellishments, washi tape, glue etc..
My view of the pool from the craft studio.
I have my crafting buddy Mr. Cricut there to keep me company :)
In front of my color station, I have a rack of my embellishments. I have three of these racks around the room, one has my embellishments on it, one has clear stamps, and the last one, I keep all my custom made greeting cards on.
In the recollections drawers under the rack of embellishments, I keep my wooden stamps and more of my clear cling stamps and blocks. I also have some more ink pads in here.
Next to the color station is one of my paper storage areas. This is mostly 12 x 12 pads and loose papers. I also have a drawer with 12 x 12 sheets of vinyl and a paper scrap drawer.
Here I keep my essential oils, soap bases, candle making supplies, bath salts and sugar scrubs. I make my own perfume, bath salts/scrubs, shampoo and beauty products as well as soap and candles. I have most of my supplies for these in these two cabinets.
I also have my sewing machine sitting on the shelf covered in pink. The only craft machines I don’t have in my craft room are my Cricuts. My expression 2 is hooked to my computer in my bedroom. I am going to bring it into the craft studio but I need to find a place to put it and I seem to be out of space. My Cricut Explore is in my home office connected to my 27 inch I-Mac. That will stay there. I can design what I want on my laptop in the craft studio, then go to my desktop in the office and cut my designs there. If I had more room in my craft studio, I would have definitely set up a die cut area. But this will work for now.
I had new business cards made. One one side is my Legal services business and on the other side is my craft business. Easier than carrying around a bunch of different business cards.
Full look at the craft studio
My larger work station with my laptop and my much needed magnifying lamp.
Storage for all my misc items. Bookcase on the far wall stores my Xyron Sticker makers, Cuttlebug, Alcohol inks, blank cards, 8 x 11 card stock, more embellishments, die cuts, embossing folders, doubles of my cricut cartridges and wood projects I am working on.
Again another look my view from my desk. The view always seems to make me relax.
. I use this for a lot of my collage work. If the paper is real thin, it will wrinkle, but I kind of like that effect. I love this stuff!
at my local Wal-mart near the scrapbook supplies. I have also heard really good things about the UHU Stic Permanent Clear Application Glue Stick
on my list to try. Friends have told me once you use Uhu you won't use anything else!
. This is great for heavy paper or objects you glue onto your pages. It doesn't dry very fast, but it does the job!
with Higgins Waterproof Black India Ink
. It takes some practice to get the hang of writing and doodling this way, but it is much more economical than using pens all the time.
online however as I have a hard time finding it in stores.
:They write wonderfully well over acrylic paint, watercolor, anything really. As a bonus, they come in cool packaging too you can use for collage fodder!
I promised myself that I would treat myself to some new washi tape, because at the time I only owned 4 different rolls. I not only wanted more selection, but I wanted to extend my tape’s life; the more rolls you own, the less you use each one and thus make them all last longer! (be careful when applying this theory to shoes). The only issue now that I finally owned a dream selection of washi tape, was organizing it all. Sure you can buy tape organizers for upwards of $45 including shipping, or go to a kitchen store a get a paper towel holder (which wont have a cutting edge) for $20, but to be honest, I’d rather spend money on more tape than on an organizer. Then all of a sudden, it hit me, this problem was calling for a DIY solution. After searching the internet, I came across this tutorial from the blog which was pure genius and so I thought I’d share with you my adventure in making a DIY washi-tape organizer. (I have not made this yet but I thought I would share with you the instructions on how it is made.. It looks great) 
First you need an empty aluminum foil or cling wrap box. My cling wrap box was empty, but the roll inside was too thick for my tapes to fit. So I (not-so-neatly) wrapped the remaining tinfoil onto the cling wrap roll so as to steal the thin roll from the middle of the foil. You also need a cutting edge, and the one of the cling wrap box was in the wrong place, so I stole the cutting edge from the aluminum foil box too.
Begin by tracing the diameter of the roll in the center of both sides of the box. Cut this circular hole on both sides – this is what will hold the roll up off the bottom of the box and keep it steady when you get to pulling on the tapes. Also cut a rectangular hole in the top of the box to make a window so you can see your tapes.
Find a fancy paper you like and trace the dimensions of the box on the back. Then using a bone folder (or your fingers) fold across these lines. 
I chose to use double sided tape to adhere my paper to the box, but you can also use glue.
Make sure you also cut little flaps for the lid edges and the sides and adhere them with tape or glue as well.
Now that the box is covered, it’s time to add in plastic or acetate cover to protect the rectangular peep hole cut in the lid. I just used a strip cut from a clear plastic ziplock bag that was laying around. Adhere this on the inside of the lid with tape.
Now all that’s left to do is add the metal cutting strip to the outside of the box, just barely above the the edge of the box. adhere securely from both sides with tape. I fancied mine up with some purple washi tape along the cutting strip and on the corners of the box.
Add your gorgeous rolls of tape to the roll and then position the roll inside the box with both ends through the cut circular holes.
And then, just like that, VOILA!!! your very own DIY washi organizer that cost you nothing but a bit of time!
This thing looks awesome and it is just so much more compact and moveable than any of the other more expensive options. Plus if I ever own enough tape to warrant making another organizer, the two boxes can be stacked together! That couldn’t be done with a paper towel holder…
I hope you enjoyed yet another fun DIY organizing post!!! I saved money by just making an organizer, so I must admit I am tempted to treat myself to a few more rolls to fill the remaining spaces left in my washi tape box… but I think I’ll be a good girl… for now.
