Are you like me, always looking for new or better ways to store your craft supplies? Isn't it  interesting to peek into the studios of other creatives to see how they organise their supplies? It's fun to see how they decorate their space and see what storage systems work for them - after all, organising is a neverending task. Don't you love it when you glean a little storage or organisation tip that might help in your own crafting area? The BEST Craft Organizer system is excellent for storing beads Today, I invite you into my studio so you can learn some of the little tips that keep all my supplies organised. Cut Out + Keep take you on a virtual tour of my workspace whilst I talk about the trick that makes my studio look clutter free and how I store my supplies to keep them under control. I can tell you it doesn't always look so tidy but it does function well as both a studio and a classroom. I hope you'll find some helpful tips for keeping things in order in your ......

It's just over 3 years since I took up residence in my new studio. It seems as if it was only a few months ago.... how quickly time flies! The biggest evidence of how long it's been is the protective plastic cover on the workshop tables. They've been subjected to dozens of resin workshops, hundreds of papercraft and jewellery projects and a fair bit of gift wrapping in that time. They've taken abuse from heat guns, resin spills, attacks by scissors and pliers and just general day-to-day wear and tear. This is just a small section and although it isn't clear in the photo, all those pretty spots of colour are lumpy bumpy spots of resin..... it was becoming difficult to find a level area to work on. So today, it's out with the old and in with the new.  It's lovely to have a nice clean, level surface to work on again. But now it's time to set up for the next resin workshop so we can Christen it! FUN! 'Til next time..... If you can't get enough of ......

All crafters seem to struggle with storage and organisation, especially as our collection of crafting materials grows. No matter how well you organise, you inevitably have to revisit your storage solutions from time to time. Right now, I'm finding my wire drawer troublesome and it takes too long to find the colour/gauge of wire that I'm looking for underneath all those spools. This drawer needs taming! My wire is stored in a drawer in my BEST Craft Organizer and it's handy so I want to keep it there. I was so pleased when I realised that the insert which fits the deep drawers fits 4 spools of Artistic Wire in each cavity perfectly. This looks so pretty.... and definitely organised. But could organising be this easy? Unfortunately, no! The new larger, flatter shaped spools of Artistic Wire won't fit in the drawers unless they're stacked on top of one other. It's tidy, but you can't see the wire colour. These new spools really need to stand on their sides but......

Oh, my, what a mess! Today I decided to tackle my studio which is generally pretty tidy because I teach here regularly.  But in an effort to free up all the under utilised bench tops in my studio, I have had to empty out my cupboards and then discard, compact and rearrange everything in them. These bench tops have not seen daylight for over 2 years and are covered with piles and piles of papers and crafting stuff - it's time to clear them away! This is a major clean up and probably not the sort of job I should be tackling just weeks away from CHA, but once I started pulling things out of the cupboards, the cleaning and sorting took on a life of its own. But as for compacting everything to make some cupboard space, well, this photo is a part of the result. There's a standing joke about my cleaning up and sorting out efforts in my household. Everyone knows that things will get way worse before they begin to get better. What you're looking at in the picture above is not ......

Do crafters ever stop looking for the perfect storage solution? It seems to be an ongoing process, one that we are constantly fine tuning. I'm finding that what worked for me when I first set up my studio 18 months ago, is in need of a little updating right now. And that's what today's post is about.... I'm in the mood for a little bit of organising! One of the things that irks me most about my studio is my paper/cardstock storage system - in particular, my offcuts. They are encroaching on my floor space and the pile is threatening to topple over - it's not an attractive sight! Here's what I'm talking about - I have 2 of these tubs overflowing with cardstock scraps, as well as various other cartons and containers stacked in the corner taking up way too much space. It's time for an overhaul of this system! This is how I've been storing my offcuts - in ziplock bags, sorted by colour. Not a bad solution but it's become untidy as the collection of ......

I am such a lucky Mum.... look what my husband and children gave me for Mother's Day! Of course, it didn't come assembled like this..... but it did come with instructions! I love putting together flat pack furniture, especially when it goes together this easily. So this is how I spent my Mother's Day...... Step 1. Unpack all the bits and check that they're all there. Step 2. Insert the screws into the pre drilled holes....... and then tighten with a screw driver. Step 3. Assemble the frame. By this stage, I was having so much fun that I forgot to photograph this step, but it's very easy as there are only five pieces; top, bottom, 2 sides and the back. Tighten the locking nuts that slot into the screws previously inserted. If you've ever assembled Ikea furniture then you'll know the process. Although this piece is from the Mini Stackables range by Best Craft Organizer, it's a very similar construction. Step 4. Screw in the castors and the unit is complet......

Here's a neat idea I saw in one of my classes today. You've heard of "soap on a rope", well one of the ladies in my class came up with her own version: " tape on a chain ". She'd been having trouble keeping track of all her rolls of tape so she bundled them all together on a length of ball chain and now finds it really easy to locate her tape. I thought this was such a neat idea as you can open the connector and add another roll or remove a finished one and then close it back up to keep it all together. I love this idea - finally, a solution for my own desk where rolls of tape just seem to disappear under the mounds of paper and ephemera. Credit goes to Margaret Jobbings for sharing this great idea - thanks Margaret! P.S. I found these at my local newsagency - Rexel 10 pack of Neck Chains!...

Now that my Expedit bookcase is all assembled, it's time for the fun part! I bought some magazine holders for those magazines which just seem to multiply all by themselves. I'm not sure how I've come to have so many (this is only a small part of the collection) but I hate parting with them. I love sitting down with a cuppa, flicking through a magazine and enjoying the eye candy! But at some point, I will have to pare down that collection. For the time being though, they look tidy and they're more or less organised! I added a couple of Strikt magazine boxes for deep storage in a gorgeous burgundy colour. My studio currently has cornflower-blue walls so I'm not sure why I chose burgundy boxes but I do like the colour, just not with the blue walls. These boxes are really deep and house my collection of patterned serviettes. I've stacked them vertically inside the box so it's easy to slide the packets in or out, without having to rifle through the whole box. Th......

In earlier posts, I mentioned my efforts to become better organised and so I thought I'd show you another storage item in my studio. The Expedit bookcase comes in a range of sizes but I went for the 4 x 4 option, mainly because they were out of the 5 x 5 option when I was in store, and I was in desperate need of an organising solution for my cupboardless (is that a word?) studio. Anyway, it's worked out really well, especially as I'm vertically challenged and I wouldn't be able to reach the top row of shelves anyway! But I hit a snag when putting this piece of furniture together. The second last piece to be assembled needs to be hammered on dowels which sit at right angles to each other. It's not easy to hammer both down and sideways at the same time!! Anyway, as I wanted to protect the bookcase whilst I was hammering, I placed a cork mat over the surface and used a rubber mallet instead of the hammer. "How clever!" I thought to myself. But this is the res......

When I assembled the Effektiv height extension unit last week, I also bought some tempered glass shelves for the inside of the cabinet. The assistant at Ikea couldn't find the Effektiv ones catalogued on the computer system but thought that the Rationell ones would fit as they were the same measurement. Alas, they are not the same measurement and were too short for the cabinet and so I had been unable to make use of the new storage space. But yesterday, I returned to the store to exchange the Rationell shelf for the Effektiv one. This time the assistant located it in the computer system and arranged for someone to get it for me - how helpful! Once home again, it was a simple matter of placing the lugs into the predrilled holes and sitting the shelf on top. And then came the fun part - filling the shelves with my collection of paints and mediums. I love that the shelf is glass - it will make it so much easier to see things!...

In a household of 2 adults and 4 teenagers - (whoops, that's now 3 adults and 3 teenagers - my 21 year old would never forgive me for that!), storage really is a challenge and that's to be expected. But with no built in storage (other than a linen cupboard and kitchen cabinets) all storage has to be free standing. Yesterday, I posted an image of the Ikea Effectiv drawer units I have finally assembled... but on Wednesday I made a great discovery at Ikea - they make height extension units in this range. You can imagine my excitement when I saw these as my drawer units are no longer available. Yet here were these height extension units which will fit on top of my drawers. So yesterday morning, I took to assembling the first one. Easy, peasy..... Ikea furniture always fits together so well! But then I hit a hitch. The holes on the top of my discontinued drawer units don't align with the pre-drilled holes on the bottom of the height extension units. No worries - I'm handy wi......

What's the best thing to do when you have no idea where to begin? You just jump right in............. so here goes. I thought I'd begin by sharing what I've been doing this week. I'm waging an ongoing battle with the mess I've created in my studio and I'm trying to get it into an organised and workable space. So in recent months I've organised my woodmounted stamps and my ever increasing collection of scrapbooking papers into some wonderful drawers from the Effektiv range at Ikea. The shallow drawers are ideal for storing paper and stamps and also for stowing my jewellery making supplies. But don't rush out to buy these units as they are no longer available. I had this trio of drawers stowed away under a bed for a couple of years waiting for this day to come. But my battle with the mess continues so check back later this week for the next report on my progress........