Punch Storage

This week at The Little Blue House Elaine's post concentrates on storing tools, dies, punches and Cricut cartridges.  I thought I would share my two storage systems for my punches.  This over-the-door shoe rack is perfect for most of my larger punches.  It's clear so I can easily see and find what I have and it also uses otherwise wasted space!

My smaller punches are stored in this shallow Elfa drawer in my desk.  It is easily accessible and perfect for the punches I reach for constantly.

Be sure to check out the  Little Blue House blog for more ideas!  And Rhonda at www.noidlehandshere.blogspot.com has many additional storage options.

So have you been following along with us in our attempts to get it together? How is it going?  We'd love to hear from you.  Only one more week to go...

Organization - "Lotions and Potions"

Lotions and potions - you know, all those liquid products we have for making art - how do you store them?  This week the organizational post at The Little Blue House addresses this very issue.  

These are some of my solutions for keeping order with all these items.  I have several "Crop 'n Style" (Michael's version) wooden cubbies with various size drawers.  One has a large drawer with partitions (see below) and I keep my paint dabbers, Glossy Accents and Diamond Glaze, gel mediums, and "specialty" paints in this drawer.

Another cubbie has four narrower drawers and one of these is just perfect for my reinkers.

I love being able to recycle packaging and these baby wipe tubs are perfect for storing Stickles - 28 fit perfectly and they stay upright if you fill it.  When the bottles get low, I store them upside down so they are ready to use.

Years ago I purchased this handmade and painted little cabinet and it sat empty, just looking cute, until one day I decided it was just right for all those craft paints!

Here's a peek inside so you can see how many can fit in there.  There's still room for another layer on each shelf!

These are just a few ideas of how to store lotions and potions.  Check out fellow Little Blue House gal, Rhonda's blog HERE to see more ideas.  And don't forget to visit the LBH blog also - comment and you might just win a prize!

Paper Organization

We are on our fourth week of our organizing series at The Little Blue House and focusing on paper - solid cardstock, printed papers and scraps!  Check out the two posts  on our blog HERE (scroll down to Thursday and Monday's posts) to learn more about getting your paper under control.  I can't add much to those discussions, but I wanted to share my successful and very efficient system for my cardstock scraps.

I use a hanging file system in a file drawer that is just to the left of my work chair so it is easily accessible. I found file folders in most of the usual colors and use them for corralling the scraps.

Let me explain my scraps.  Whenever I have used a portion of a whole piece of paper, I cut the remainder this way.  First, I try to get a 5.5 x 8.5 piece out of it (good for card bases); then I try for approximately 4.25 x 5.5 (card fronts); if I still have room, I try to cut one or more 2.5 x 3.5 pieces (ATCs).  After that, if there is still a scrap that is useable for punches or maybe a long border I will save it; otherwise the remainder is thrown away.

The card bases, card fronts and ATCs are stored separate from the scraps.  The scraps go in the file drawer in the appropriate color section.  When working on a project, I have trained myself to go first to this scrap drawer. If I can't find the right color or size needed, then (and only then) will I cut into a new piece.  This works really well for me and I do use my scraps!

Fiber Storage

Last week The Little Blue House focused on ribbon storage.  Since I had already organized all my ribbons, I decided to focus on my fibers which were out of hand.  Remember this mess?

This is what it looks like now.  I used the same box which is actually a paper mache trunk I received in a swap years ago.  It's slightly larger than the photo boxes I store my ribbon in.  I cut chipboard pieces 4" x 7" and wrapped the fibers around, staying in color families.  For the fibers I had a lot of, I wound several yards on the card and then placed the extras in a ziploc baggie.  This can be put away until I need more!  It's so satisfying to look into the box and see such order - and it's pretty too!

Several years ago I had bought this little ring bound "book" with small plastic baggies for fiber and thread storage.  (I can't remember what it was called or who made it.)  You can see that I've really outgrown it! In fact, I had to replace the rings with these much larger ones.  I think now that the "book"covers are superfluous and I'll just remove them.  Since these were all organized, I didn't redo them but they can hang near my fiber box so all will be together.  It's a great system, especially if you only have a small amount of fibers.