To celebrate being in my Studio for just over a year now I thought I would show you the before and after of my work space.
Can you believe this used to be how I worked. I live in a small 3 bedroom house and this insane mess was my Kitchen after about 3 or 4 years of crafting. My poor family didn't eat dinner at the table for over 2 years My hubby would come home from work and sit down at the little space at the table to have a cup of tea and relax after work. Dear lord how did we survive it all. To think I started this hobby with a few bits of paper, cards and some embellishments given to me by my friend Alma!!!! Before you look at the photos just try to imagine this as your home and you will understand what drove us to come up with an alternative area to craft in!
Now I have 10 x 20 foot studio that was built in my little back garden by my friend Colm and my husband Gary and finished off by my mom and sisters bringing in a crew of builders to finish it all off. Yes, my friends, hubby and family are pretty amazing people.
So this is how I Craft now :)
This is how the Studio looks when you walk in the door (after hours of cleaning and tidying of course as on a daily basis it is never this tidy and during demo time it is insane with bits of stock, paper and those annoying little white bits that come off 3D foam!)
I have taken some photos to show you around the room. What I didn't photograph are all the boxes underneath my counter space as there are so many its just scares me!!!!! These 20 million boxes hold my extra embellishments, toppers, glitter glues, cards I have make, extra tools, workshop kits, kids workshop boxes, Christmas extras ohhhhhhhh and the list goes on!!!!!
When you walk in on the left I have a spinning rack for holding pre-embossed and packaged card packs. In the shelving unit (It was given to my daughter for her room by my friend Sharon and then stolen in a high speed room raid by me :). It was bought in Ikea and then you can just buy the drawers as and when you need them. It stores all my cards, envelopes, large cardstock, smaller designer papers, folders of stamps and office paperwork.
Look to the right and I have most of my cardstock. 2 shelving units hold my 12 x 12 papers and card. The double unit beside it holds my A4 card in various colours. The white unit, has removable drawers that have toppers, cardstock stickers, punches, smaller die cuts for the Big Shot, Glues, tapes, extra scissors and tools for workshops. Beside this the black unit with the small drawers holds some of my ribbon in reels and loose ribbon and the rest of the drawers hold extra inks. Its not in the picture but beside this unit are about 6 chairs stacked up for when I have guests :)
Look to the left again and its the start of my work space. I love displaying my wooden stamps as when I get a creative slump I just sit back and look at them and eventually get inspired to make something. So it was really important to me that this little shelf was built all around the work space and I am so glad I got it as it just makes the room feel creative.
This is a better view of what I keep in this area. Mounted on the wall are magnetic tin holders. The long strip holding the tins comes from Ikea Kitchen section and the larger square magnetic tin holder is from Avoca Handweavers and was given to my as a Kris Kindle gift from my sisters partner Simon about 2 years ago (Simon you rock for giving me this - I love it). All these tins hold my fancy brads and eyelets (yep I have a lot of them!) Below these are my filing trays for recent paperwork, a little set of drawers that hold bits and pieces and the CD cases stacked up hold stamp sets. Beside the CD cases are my larger cutters for the Big Shot and a folder which holds Embossing folders.
Moving down the counter is the space where I lay out my demo kit products in groups, so I can see what I have to work on. In the corner I have my printer and laptop (I need noise to be able to work so I have movies playing all the time!)
What you are looking at now is where I do my main work I get great light from this window and I am surrounded by the things I like to play with.
These shelves on the left of the window mostly hold my inks. The smaller ones are in the large screw on lid Jars (Tesco's for €2.00). The bigger sized inks are in sweet boxes given to me by my local sweet shop and then there are random inks that have no set little home to sit in yet. The bottom three large jars hold greetings of all kinds and jars 2 and 3 hold flowers both purchased and hand made.
To the right of the window the top shelf has loads of little jars (Ikea) that hold my buttons and bows. The bottom shelf holds my re-inkers, smooch inks, smooch sprays, Dodlebug mini glitters, pearl drops, glitter glues, wet glues. Below these shelves I have my daylight light and turn table that holds tools and bits and pieces.
Next is the section that holds my most used punches, my boxes with card ideas to remember or use and another area to work on. Sometimes I will have embossing set up in one area and decoupage set up in another and then in my main area I work on what ever has caught my imagination at that moment!
All my pens get stored in this section either in the large sectioned holder or in the plastic boxes. I also store extra double sided table in a box here so its close at hand. My Big Shot lives in this part of the room as I can just slide over in my chair, cut something out and then slide back to my work area. I have to admit I do spend a lot of time whizzing around in my chair to pick up things around the room!! Lazy...........yep (giggle). At just the edge of this picture you can see I have some office drawers stacked up (bought in Lidl) and these hold my older demo stock (papers, brads, decoupage)
This is the view from my chair looking down the studio and onto the back of my house. Tucked behind the card spinner is my ribbon reel holder which was made for my by my friend Colm. and I adore it (you'll see a picture of it in the old photos shown earlier)
Well that's it. I have to admit that every time I walk in the door of the Studio I take a huge breath and just smile. It really is my place of peace but I have to admit as much as I adore it there is a better feeling and that is just walking into my kitchen and being able to breath, sit down and realx :)
