Where the magic happens

It's been about three months now since I claimed the nursery for my scrap space and it's finally starting to look pretty organized. That's a major accomplishment for me -- no other room in my house looks organized -- but it just proves that there ARE organization and storage tools out there that will help even a hopelessly disorganized person like me. In other words: you TOO can have a room that looks like this:

If you're wondering about the stripes, it's a long story. The short version is: the crazy pregnant me forced my poor husband to help me paint the nursery this way, and it took us forever -- ultimately using a tiny paint brush to straighten out the lines. So the stripes are staying. Forever. And I love them...really, I do.

Another holdover from the nursery: this changing-table-turned-fabulous-scraproom-piece. The deep drawers are great for hiding stuff in -- oops, I mean storing larger tools and binders. I also have one full drawer devoted to layouts I haven't gotten around to filing. Yes, friends, there are THAT MANY layouts I haven't bothered to put in a binder. I really am disorganized (please don't tell anyone).

It's also nice having a devoted space for die-cutting. Before, I had to drag out the machine each time I needed a letter or shape (and I was usually too lazy to go to all that effort). It's a nice change to have all the tools at the ready whenever I need them.

The white shelving on top of the cabinet is the Making Memories Embellishment Center, and it's been a pretty fun organizational tool. Avery has enjoyed helping me put everything in "rainbow order," which she is amazingly good at. In fact, each time she comes into my room, she "corrects" things that I've put away in the wrong spot. It's handy to have a detail-oriented child.


On the other wall sits the Expedit shelving from Ikea. I still cannot believe how much this thing holds (and it's not even the big one!). Albums, alterables, chipboard, patterned paper, idea books, page kits, scraps, miscellaneous "to be filed" stuff -- it's pretty amazing. All of my altered projects are displayed along the top, and my Clip-it-Up mini is on the left corner for eye-level embellishment shopping.

I have my patterned paper organized by manufacturer using the Cropper Hopper vertical storage. I had to trim about 1/2 inch off the top of each file so it would fit in the Expedit cubby, but now it's perfect!

I printed clear labels and trimmed them before applying to each file -- subtle, but effective labeling.
I love this cubby because (a) I'm addicted to ribbon, and (b) it's so colorful. Plus, the Mason Jars remind me of my grandmother who used to can tomatoes every summer. I can't fully explain it, but this whole display makes me happy and teary every time I see it. So what if I have to dig for the ribbon I want...I'm never getting rid of these jars.

These storage cubes from Michael's hold cardstock, punches, stamps, adhesives, inks and other cutting tools. They were fairly easy to assemble, but some of the drawers don't line up that great and they make an awful screeching noise when I open and close them. If I could find a piece of furniture with shallow drawers and 12x12 horizontal shelves, I'd replace these cubes.

Here's the other Clip-It-Up...base plus top tier. It holds alpha stickers, rubons, small acrylic stamps, bling and larger embellishments. It sits on the edge of my desk at arm's reach because I use this stuff a lot. The Clip-It-Up makes it easy to flip through everything and see what I have.

The trestle desk is from Target (ordered it online), and I think it's the perfect desk for scrapbooking. It has a HUGE surface, so there's room for the Clip-It-Up and the Making Memories Desktop Carousel (which holds my most-used tools). And the open shelves underneath are perfect for stashing my paper trimmer and layouts in progress.

I hope you enjoyed my tour! Thanks for stopping by!