The Story of our Life: Usen what your momma gave ya (yes, scrapbook storage!)

I have forever been a fan of the idea of using what you have for storage, and making use of old things. In fact, in many cases, I love old stuff way more than new. I used the idea of using old when reorganizing my scrap space.

Welcome to my space! Ah! I wish! This amazing scrapbook room belongs to Sara. My room is much smaller…as in, no larger than 8’ x 8’. Yep its small, and I am really liking it that way. You see, I am a hoarder (ok, not like ‘hoarder’ on the tv series), but I. love. pretties. Pretty paper, pretty ribbon, pretty anything. But with a small room, I have to get rid of stuff or I would never be able to create.

Anyway, back to my room.

Here are the basics: it is about 8’x8’. Its right off my laundry room, and also have an exterior door that goes to a patio. There are no windows…and very limited natural light if I have the door shut. Also, I am cheap. Really, I am. I hate paying full price when I don't have to. Almost all of the furniture and organization in my room was either found at a garage sale, bought on clearance, or given to me by family. I have used small, white circle office tags (hung on with twine) to label most baskets, tins, and boxes so others can find things in my space. As I describe my room, I will try to tell you where I found the organizational pieces that I use.

This is an overview of it, from standing in the doorway (that goes to the laundry room). The floors are stained concrete - this is perfect. I don't worry about making a mess or spilling anything. Just mop it and go! My countertops are from Lowes, in the clearance section. Alex made the whole countertop (the laminate and legs) for $60.00. Can't beat that. The wall shelves are from Hobby Lobby (bought at half price), and my chair is an old chair I recovered to match my room. My walls are painted with paint that was on clearance at Lowes as well (2 gallons @ $5 each).

This is the left side of my room. In this photo, I am standing in the exterior doorway (to help you picture where I am!).

This is the top of my bookshelf. I got the bookshelf from Walmart, and it was cheap-o, but it works great! On the top of the bookcase, I store scrapbook supplies in old, vintage suitcases and traincases. I found the large suitcase at an antique store here in Amarillo called Alley Katz. In fact, all three cases came from there, and I spent a total of $15 for all three. The wire locker basket is from there as well, and it was $7, and was already spray painted. I bought three of these baskets over the course of a couple months and love them!

The top, smaller traincase stores my Distress Inks. Works perfectly! I don’t use these inks near as much as I would like, so I love that they are out of the way but ready for me when I need them!

The metal yellow breadbox is where I store alphabets. I store them by manufacturer and this system works great for me (though I am playing with the idea of organizing them by color). Again, these are out of the way until I need them ---- and usually I just use the alphabets that come in my studio calico kits. Should the need arise though, I am ready with a whole bread box full of alphabet stickers! LOL

The large faux black alligator suitcase is where my pattern paper scraps are thrown in. No, I don’t organize them in any particular way --- I would rather dig through the scraps and see what catches my eye. This method probably isn’t for everyone, but it works for me!

I also store my acrylic stamps, clear mounts, and ink removing stuff in this basket on the top shelf. My stamps are stored into those plastic thingys from Making Memories.

The top shelf on my bookcase is for ribbon storage and candy! I store my ribbon by color families, and my candy by type. The ribbon jars are from Hobby Lobby for a couple bucks each, and the tall candy jars are from a garage sale for a quarter a piece. Score!The second shelf holds all my lovies….a Minnie Mouse from Walt Disney World, a trip of ladybugs my dad made me, a weenie dog from my sister Laurie, and a floral frog that I use to hold a photo of John and Marcy. This shelf changes all the time, and I rotate things that I am currently loving.

The third shelf holds my vintage metal containers. The bottom is another old breadbox that I love. I love it even more that I got it for $5 at antique store down on 6th Street here in Amarillo. I hold my embellishments (the kind that are in flat packaging) in it, and use old cardboard cut into dividers to divide it all by brands. The smaller metal box ….yeah, don’t know what that was originally, but it was a score as well for $3 at the same store. I use this box to store all my glues. The little book on top is a Goodwill find, and I tear pages out it when I need some old paper for projects.

The bottom shelves of my bookcase house my sewing machine, magazine, and buckets for punches and bulky chipboard alphabets.

Moving on, now, to my desk.

This is the left side of my desk. My desk is in a ‘L’ shape. I have used storage up the wall, as well as below my desk. The quote on the wall is from Die Cuts With A View, and the artwork is Kelly Rae Roberts.

This old tool box is something I set on the corner of my desk, and keep bills in. I also keep any coupons, stamps, envelopes – really anything to pay bills with- in it.

Got this gem off ebay for a mere $5 and I think its worth every penny!

Beside the toolbox, I have an old wooden ruler that I use for a photo holder of the hubs and I.

This is underneath the left side of my desk. Alex has added wire shelving (probably for somewhere, like a garage). It works great for me because I have been able to add small baskets to store less used items. On the top shelf is a canvas basket (from Walmart)…in it is paint. The metal bucket is from Target from the Dollar section. It is empty right now,but I plan on using it for putting small scraps in while I scrap. The second shelf is another canvas basket (from Target) that holds my Cricut cartridges, and the bottom holds my paper trimmer.

The second wire shelf unit holds my cuttlebug dies and machine on the top shelf, and on the bottom is an old milk crate (free, from Alex’s dad) and a couple of packages of chipboard sheets and sheets of felt.

This is a close up of my paper storage. I stored them by brand, and then use whole sheets of chipboard to divide the sections. The star is used to keep my paper from bending…I found it at Hobby Lobby, and then spray painted it to match my room.

This is the corner of my desk. My Ipod lives here, as well as a milk glass bowl that I store glues I use a lot. Along the wall, I have black shelves that I have placed old blue jars on. I. LOVE. these. I store buttons, sorted by color family. The big jar holds my thread. The black board is a magnetic board that I put little notes on. I made the magnets by glueing Jenno Bowlin buttons, random chipboard, and other little things to small round magnets. Works perfectly!

Here is the right side of my desk. I have a small antique muffin tin that holds loose needles, brads, and anything that I might be using on a page. I have added another black shelf to hold my family pictures, and them added curtain rods to hold all of my smaller punches.

Alex made me this inspiration board out of chicken wire and some trim. This is probably the best inspiration board that I have ever had. I can use clothes pins to hold things on, and could even just tuck in small pieces of paper without needing thumb tacks. You can see my door to the outside patio in this photo. Made the valence myself :).

I have another 2 wire racks underneath the right side of my desk for storage. On one I have plastic cases storing my cardstock (colors in one, neutrals in another), and then I have embellishments for each season in their own case. I don’t use a ton of ‘themed’ embellishments, so this works for me. On the other wire shelving, I have layouts that are finished resting on the top shelf, photo storage on the second shelf, and my big cricut on the bottom shelf, safely stored out of the way.

This is the back corner (the back door is on one side, with a door going into my laundry room on the other side). I didn’t get a better, closer photo, but there is a metal bucket on the wall that I use to hold all my ‘fancy’ ribbons that I don’t want all in a knot. I just drape the ends over the side, ready to be pulled out and used.

On the floor, I keep a metal basket that I found at a huge flea market with my sister Laurie. I keep six months worth of Studio Calico kits in it, until I have used up most of their contents. Then I break the kit up, and store the paper with my papers, embellies with embellies…you get the picture.

My dad made me this stamp shelf with scrap lumber and left over paint. I love this shelf…it have moved from house to house with me – always making the ‘cut’ when I reorganize.

This cabinet was a garage sale find, and it only cost me $5 bucks.Best investment I ever made. In each of these drawers, I store themed embellishments (boy,bling, vacation, that sort). I also have drawers for tools, flowers,…and a bunch of stuff but it is all stored by categories. On the top of my cabinet, I have a collection of white milk glass that I have found over the years.

I store my mists (I don’t have that many), twine, pins…really just small things that I like to use on my layouts. Having them all out helps me find them easy, and they are easy to put away. I love that the items I store give my room some added color as well.

AND FINALLY, we are back to where we started. This wall connects to the bookcase. I have added a curtain rod from Wally World to showcase finished layouts. I just clip them up, and can remove them without damaging the paper. The quote is a favorite from Once Upon A Design. It was super inexpensive. The turqouise shelf is one I found at a craft fair for $20. The top holds a silver tray that I put ‘lost’ things of the boys I find (i.e., marbles, legos, you name it!) and the manequin is a garage sale find as well.

The second shelf is holding small packages of bulky chipboard, and the third shelf holds jars from Hobby Lobby that store chipboard pieces and chipboard Alphabets that arn’t in sets any longer. The bottom shelf holds a wire basket from an antique store (it isn’t an antique, though) and it hold my unused mini albums. I just throw them in there where I get a new one, and can pull them out to create with effortlessly.

Well, that is it. Tour complete. As I have said before, this is a small space but I have really tried to maximize the storage space, while keeping a vintage feel. I've used what I had, or could find cheap to make this space mine.

xxoo,

4 Comments

Great room! Guess what? My room is a blue very close to yours on an accent wall, and the rest of the room is a color that looks like a cup of hot cocoa. I am still working on organization, so not ready for pics yet. So, obviously I think your room looks great! What color is your cieling? I haven't decided yet....

Posted by: Shelly Birkwood | August 06, 2010 at 03:25 PM