Take a Peek at My Scrap Oasis

As most crafters know, your scrap space needs to inspire you AND most of all be user friendly.  After several incarnations of my space in various locations over the years, after trying many ways of organizing all the tools of my scrappy craft and after many purging and buying of organizers, I think I may have finally become comfortable with my latest Scrap Oasis. It is certainly not cutesy like I had in the past (mainly cause I share the space with DH and he doesn't 'do' cutesy) and I have recylced many items from other craft spaces or from around the house so it is a hodge podge but I love it and feel comfortable in there.
Take a peek and let me know what you think.

Here is my Scrap Oasis.  It is in the large bonus room I share with DH.  My part of the room is 10 1/2 ft X 11 ft.  The table is an old oak kitchen table which seats 4 to 5 scrapper friends comfortably.  The Burgundy and Gold curtains in the back ground hide a small storage area in this room for miscellaneous stuff...There is also a large 50" screen tv to the left in this picture for tv and movie watching.  The globe you see in the foreground is sitting on DH's desk where he does his hobby, Geneology Research.  We love spending time together in this room.

My Scrap Oasis is divided into stations.  These cabinets are my "CREATIVE INSPIRATION"station.  The cabinets on the bottom hold my craft magazines and books, my punches, my cuttlebug & folders, my xyron machines. On top I have a bunch of different project and storage holders.

Continuing around to the right of the previous cabinets, is my "CRICUT/RIBBON" station. On the shelf is the snapware container that holds all my cricut carts (I recently switched to this storage...just not enough room to display all my cart boxes) and so far I like it. And I LOVE hanging all my ribbon on the shelf underneath.  I will post more about my handmade ribbon system in another post. Above the shelf are three 12X12 clip boards were I post some of my LO's.

To the right of my cricut station is my "Get Messy" station.  I have all my inks, glimmer mist and paints  and acrylic stamps here.  My hubby made me a great extra large flat shelf area to give me plenty of room.  Ihave a large craft mat and my stamping pad there.  The blue cd holders have cd cases with all my acrylic stamps.  The light blue tin bucket holds my various acrylic blocks. And the little tin buckets on top of the cd holders have my copics, distress ink applicators, paint brushes, etc.  The big wooden tower was reclaimed from a neighbor's trash and I use it to hold all my paint daubers, glimmer mist, speciality paints, paper towels, stickles and cats eye ink containers. At the very top I have displayed the projects I made at CE last year.

Underneath the "Get Messy" Station is my "Paper & Kits" Station.  I have everything sorted into various baskets that hold 12X12 Generations plastic paper storage holders.  Some baskets are sorted by MFG, some by THEME, some by KIT CLUB and some by PROJECT KITS I made myself.  This makes it really easy for me to find things.  The Generations holders are slightly expandable which I love. I can add not only paper but also embellishments that I bought to use with that paper or for a particular project.

                                       

The shelves next to the "GET MESSY" Station is my "MISC STATION.  Starting from the top shelf...it holds large paper trimmers, MS Scoreboard,and some extra albums. The shelf below has containers of all my various bling, my thickers and rub ons. The next shelf holds containers with different kinds of journaling blocks and pieces of epherma like tickets, images, etc. I also have my heat gun and ribbon iron here.  After that are containers that hold large embellishments, small trim pieces, gaffer tape,doilies, etc.  You can see my cardstock on the next shelf.  I have it sorted by type and colors using cropper hopper paper holders turned on their side for easy access. There are also two containers of rolled ribbon and trims.  The final shelf has 12X12 boxes that contain holiday theme items...Valentine/Love, Easter, Halloween, Thanksgiving/Fall, Christmas, etc.  

                                           

Around to the right of the shelves is a walkway and then a 1/2 wall.  On this wall I have my "SMALL EMBELLISHMENT" station.  The shelves hold jars of buttons,brads, pins, snaps eyelets, clips, etc.  You name any small embellishment and I can find it in this section. Underneath the shelf I have bagged all my Prima Flowers and hung them on rings by type/colors on hooks I mounted on the wall.  It works great and makes it easy to find just the flower(s) I need to add that perfect touch to my projects.  This area is just right behind that chair I sit in while crafting so it is very handy.

And I am sure you spotted my IPOD player on the top shelf...I MUST have Scrappy Music to get in the creative mood :)

Well, I could go on and on and show you more hidden storage I have in there but will save that for another post.  Hope you enjoyed the little mini tour of where I spend my creative time.