Craft room

[pamcook]

Man alive - do I feel better about the number of dies I own!


Debi - the hook system is a brilliant idea. Let us know is your use them more often now.
Monica - my storage system is similar to yours. It works really well for me but I still don’t use them much.

[Keitha]

Now we're talkin' - and I have questions. Monica, is your die-cutting station the same place you work on layouts, or do you have a dedicated place for die-cutting? Great idea to use photo boxes; while fridge bins look nice they're darned expensive, at least here they are. Are those the only Sizzix Bigz dies you have that we see in the photo on the table, or do you have more elsewhere?

I'm still waffling on how/where to keep all my dies. The lines are blurred between stamps and dies now that there are coordinating sets; I don't want them in separate places. We won't even talk about coordinating stencils. Do I fully integrate those sets with all my UM stamps, as well as dies that have no stamps? It makes most sense to me to sort it all by category first, but if I integrate all of them that's 3 Ikea cubbies' worth - more if I factor in the Big Sizzix dies, which would be awkward in the same containers. They would be right behind me/easy to access; I don't have table space for them, nor would I want them out like that. And of course with every thing I change, I have to find a different solution for what's been displaced.

Mercy Tiara uses a Raskog cart for her die-cutting station; she even assembled the cart with the top tray upside-down to provide a flat surface for her die-cutter. Personally, I don't want to put anything on the lowest shelf that I need to access often; I've heard others say they find accessing some things on that shelf awkward. So I don't think that's a solution that would work for me - although I do like the appeal of having the die-cutter on a sturdy, portable surface. Tim also alluded to a Vagabond replacement coming out later this year; I really hope it's the long-awaited Switch or an updated version of that, which will need a permanent home so it can be plugged in all the time. So, the Raskog will hold something else - I'm still open to ideas.

[Monica]

I'm hoping mine will work well for me. I buy what I love then never use them because I'm too lazy to dig through a drawer to find the ones I want. We'll see how happy I am with it in a month. I just need to stop buying new ones!!!

Keitha, in answer to your questions:

I have an old angled computer desk that I use for crafting, which also has my laptop. This is my old dining room table repurposed for crafting. I also use it for cutting fabric, which is why there's a craft mat underneath.

Those Bigz dies are the ones that don't fit in the drawers the rest are in... I don't have so much of an issue with those, aside from having too many to fit the drawers, as they fit perfectly in the drawers with the labels facing up. I'm actually thinking of taking out the trays with the movers & shapers dies to leave on the table, and put those Bigz dies in that drawer.

I tend to keep coordinating dies with their respective stamp sets. I'd never remember what went with what otherwise, and it's easier for me to grab one package that has everything in it. Those are primarily clear stamp sets, so I keep them in original packaging and just put the dies on the back side in the same packaging. There are some exceptions to that. All of my Julie Nutting stamps and dies are in two binders, the Tim Holtz sets I bought at Michaels that were die and stamps sets are in another binder in magnetic/stamp storage pages, and the Heartfelt Creations stamp sets and dies are kind of a hot mess I need to decide how to store yet.

[jmp1022]

That scrap room is really taking shape.
I have a wall of iris carts that need to be organized.
I finally moved my older computer with 2 hard drives to the basement so I can set it up for the grands or if I'm hiding out!

I hope to get the craft room done this fall, I don't seem to have any time till then.

[jfugina]

Die storage is something I've never been able to manage. Back before I had a Cricut, I bought up every single alpha font I could get my hands on. That means I have the two original thick sets of alphas, and like maybe 8 of the sizzlets/thin variety. And those had a long flip top case that they fit in. And then I have another of those sizzlets cases full of just the random sizzlet dies I collected. But then there are those long border strip ones. All of that stuff is super awkward to store, so I just have them all stacked in a cabinet with my originals and bigz. The only organization is by the size of the die itself. All of the same sized stuff is stacked together.

I have a few of those unmounted metal only dies, and they're just thrown in the cabinet with the rest.

I'm sure there's got to be a better way. And I should start by getting rid of those sizzlet alpha sets. They're a pain, and on balance those sizzlets thin dies never did a good job on anything but basic untextured cardstock. I'll always keep those two originals alpha sets around, because they cut through anything - foam, felt, chipboard... nothing but the originals/bigs style dies do that cleanly.

I'm really enjoying this thread. I've always got my eyes out for something I can do better in my room.

[Keitha]

Julie, I agree the biggest problem is trying to organize like items that are different sizes/shapes. You mentioned alphas; I hadn't even thought of the dozen or so sets of old QuicKutz alpha dies I have. At least they're neatly stores in binders, but I should probably do a purge to keep the basic/useful sets and let the rest go. Perhaps with a motorized machine - come on, Sizzix - I'd use them more.
Monica, I know I want a second desk in here; just need to decide what size/configuration I want. I may need to purge my WM stamps and unmount anything I'm keeping before I arrive at a final solution for my stamp storage. Perhaps the decision to unmount everything I'm going to keep will make me purge them more ruthlessly, LOL.
I've been watching quite a few craft/scrap room organization tours recently. The trick is not to get caught up in the pretty decor or all the stuff they've got, but focus on the systems/solutions they're using that will work for me. I keep a notebook beside me to jot down ideas so I don't forget.

[Monica]

I unmounted everything several years back, and the space I gained was amazing. I do seriously need to go through and purge some of what I know I won't use, as even in binders it's still valuable space, and to index the entire mess.

I still have my one lavender zippered binder of Quikutz dies and the gizmo for it. I get it out maybe once a year for some specific die, but that's about it. I should try those dies in the Sidekick!

Julie, alpha die sets you don't want, and others you decide to purge, might be something an elementary school would take. I'm waiting for our schools to be more in-person to contact them about my Cricut and all its cartridges. It's an original, but last time I used it the thing worked just fine.

[Keitha]

Monica, I have one original QK binder, a zippered Filofax I repurposed - remember when we carried those everywhere? - and a chipboard binder all with QK dies in them. I ditched the old QK tool years ago though; they work in the Cuttlebug just fine, which says to me they'll work in any manual machine that takes thinlits, etc.
A stamp index isn't something I'll ever create in this lifetime. As long as they're sorted into categories and easy to flip through, I'm good. But don't you dare take away my swatch book

[pamcook]

Speaking of swatches... those of you who swatch your inks, do you swatch on different papers or plain white?

I dream of having a dedicated scrap space bigger than my closet desk. I feel like I would want a U-shaped desk. Scrap/stamp in the center, sewing on one side, die-cutting on the other. I’m sure the reality would be a constant state of change. Oh, to have the space...

[nchoney]

My brainstorm tonight was to pull some empty post bound scrapbooks off a shelf. After taking a hard look at them, I decided to keep 4 of the 15 or so that were up there. That too shelf is perfect for my iris totes that have the 4x6 photo boxes in them. They're up high but it makes more sense to have them up there. They were on the too shelf of some metal shelves in the room. That became the perfect spot for my empty 3-ring binder scrapbooks. Yay!! They're all in their new home. I'll be happy to use them. And I'll be happy to donate those post bound albums. Whoohoooo. Took about an hour and I got 3 big storage totes emptied!!

[Keitha]

Debi, I'm doing whatever the online equivalent is of not listening to you talk about getting rid of postbound albums; they're still my preference, and it's getting harder and harder to find ones I like.
Pam, I use a variety of papers in my swatch book. For most things - drops, markers, pencil crayons, Distress crayons, etc. I swatch on cheap white cardstock; regular paper just doesn't hold up to a lot of handling. Ink pads are stamped on white cardstock as well. For sprays/wet media, I again use cardstock, but have gotten in the habit of punching out sprayed swatches and adhering those to the page; especially for Ranger products where they keep adding to the lines, then I can move my swatches from the old printed chart to the new one. Plus my sprayed samples are neat; for example all my shimmer sprays are punched butterflies.
I wanted my embossing powders in colour order, which means being able to move them around. So I use baseball card page protectors for those, and created individual swatch cards where I include the brand and colour name, as well as an embossed image. When we did the embossing powder swap a few months ago it was easy for me to integrate those new powders into my system.
Pigment powders are swatched onto watercolour paper, as that's mostly what I use them on. Those samples are adhered to white cardstock in rainbow order. My Color Burst and Brusho powders are on the same page, but I'll need to do another page for the Nuvo Shimmer Powders, which I'll do the same way. For alcohol inks and Vintaj Patinas, both meant for non-porous surfaces, I laminated paper and put my swatches on that.
All my gessos, pastes, gels and other mediums are again on individual cards with brand and colour info included. The pastes are swatched through a stencil, and where the medium is white I swiped some Distress Stain over part of it so I could see if it absorbed or resisted the colour. I also did a second swatch with the colour applied to the cardstock first, so I could see how the medium looked when applied on top. Can you tell I was having fun playing that day? Collage mediums and gels were swatched by adhering a piece of printed tissue paper to the page; that way I can see what kind of finish they have, i.e. satin, matte, etc.
I haven't gotten into swatching onto other surfaces like manila tags, kraft or black, etc. as I don't use those other surfaces frequently enough to warrant it. If I ever swatch my Perfect Pearls I'll probably do the Interference colours on both white and black, as they look so different.

[pamcook]

Way to go Debi! Yes I agree, your photos on the top shelf makes very good sense.

Keitha - very, very impressive! I hadn't thought much about the paper for swatching until I watched Tim's video about the Kitsch Flamingo color. The color was dramatically different on different types of papers. Dramatically different. If I ever get around to being serious about swatching, I hope I remember this. He said to be sure to swatch on the type of paper you typically use. That makes sense except I typically don't use the same paper - at all - for anything. So right now, swatching is just something that interests me - but not enough to do anything about it.

[Keitha]

I was interested for awhile before I set up my swatch book. The first decision was what format to use; I went with disc rings so I could easily add/remove pages and move them about (I avoid binders). Crediting Diana Trout with that idea, although many others have adopted it since. When I realized that every time I wanted to stamp something I pulled out various shades of ink in the colour I was considering and tested them before deciding, every time, I realized the time I spent swatching them all was time well invested. And for large collections of ink, I can see at a glance what colours I've got, i.e. Distress and Oxide inks.
I agree with Tim, if you use a specific type of paper for something that's what you should swatch on. Like you I mix it up, and white provides the most accurate colour sample. Ironically my interest in setting up a swatch book was for my watercolour paints which I still haven't done except for a set of handmade paints I have; those swatches will be on watercolour paper. But as my palettes all have swatch cards in them to identify the paints, I already have a painted record of sorts.

[jfugina]

Monica - great idea about donating those font sets to schools (once they're more accessible, of course). We also have a teacher supply outlet store in a nearby mall. I've never been there, but my understanding is that it's like a goodwill for anything that a teacher may use in a classroom. None of the sizzlet fonts I have are the same as anything I have available with the Cricut, but the fact that I haven't touched them in probably 10 years should be enough proof that they need to go.

You also mentioned the cricut cartridges. I passed down my original machine years ago when I got my newer one (which is now considered old, I'm sure). I still have all of the carts, keyboard covers, and books. I've debated whether to hold on to them or not. I've linked them all to my online account and haven't actually put a cartridge in a machine since the gypsy days. But that makes the cartridges pretty much useless to anyone else unless they wanted to use the cart, keypad, and book to figure out what to cut. I should probably call the teacher supply outlet and just ask if they'd be interested before I take any of it out there.

I have been reading about people unmounting their stamps for YEARS. The amount of space to be gained makes it SOOOO tempting, but it seems like so very much work to get down to bare rubber. Maybe someday. I've also had a lot of trouble historically getting a clean image from a UM when it's super large, but noticed that the foam on the WM ones seems to make a huge difference in that regard. and that's why I've never unmounted anything. But I know it would be a massive space saver if I did.

[Monica]

Admittedly, I haven't been on the Cricut site in a long time, but I did just go check to see if my cartridges were still linked and neither my machine nor any of my cartridges are linked to my account anymore. I think they simply did away with that system of keeping track entirely when it all went to digital a few years back. And for me, mine is the original that didn't even connect to the computer for use, so whoever got it would be reliant on the book and small screen anyway.

As far as unmounting goes, I do still have a few large images I've kept WM precisely because I'm afraid they won't stamp as well UM, but I've had good luck with Tim Holtz's stamp platform. A lot of people prefer the MISTI as well. Lately I've been using the dense foam stamping surface (I can't remember who makes it but it's a dark fuschia-ish color) and have gotten perfect images from that.