Getting Organized - Trimmers and more

Happy Monday!  I hope that those of you who have a holiday from work today for Martin Luther King Day are enjoying your long weekend.  I decided to share something about how I organize my craft space each Monday.  People always are interested to see how others put their work areas together (I love looking at other craft rooms!).  Maybe some of the things I do will work for you or give you an idea to make your space function better so you can spend more time being creative.

My very handy husband built this wonderful crafting island for me a couple of years ago.  It was quite a project and there are several posts showing the steps along the way.  You can click HERE to go to the posts labeled P - Craft Island, just scroll to the bottom and work your way up to see it come together in the proper sequence.  It has been filled up to overflowing - this photo was taken before the top was added and I started "moving in" to the cubbyholes.  There are lots more details in the old posts but it is basically three Expedit bookcases from Ikea - two 2 x 4 and one 2 x 2 - arranged on a wheeled platform with a large top made from plywood (not in this photo).  If you go back to the other posts you can see how it came together.

I do most of my crafting at this island - I usually stand when I work - and I take most of the photos for the blog here too (I'll show you what I use for that another day).  I need to keep some basic tools very handy but out of my way.  I had this office file holder around the house (you can buy similar ones at an office supply store) and one day I realized that it would be a great help to keep my trimmers, tape guns, cutting mats and scoring board handy and easy to reach. (I realized when uploading these photos that it is a little dusty - the flash shows off some dust I didn't see!).

The file sorter has a heavy weighted base so it is very stable.  It is about 12 inches wide and fits in one of the sections of the Expedit bookcase (from Ikea) with a little room to spare on each side.

I keep most of my small trimmers, two tape guns (with different adhesive), some extra self healing cutting mats (for using with an Exacto knife or the Creative Memories Custom Cutting System) and my Martha Stewart Score Board neatly stored and ready to grab in this section.

Here I have pulled the file holder out a little so you can see things a bit better.  I don't use the Martha Stewart board as often as my Scor-Pal - the Scor-Pal stays in one corner on top of the island almost all of the time.  Each of these four 12 inch trimmers has one thing that they do best - my dream is to find one that can do it all!  The small Creative Memories Personal Trimmer (with the star) is great for trimming down photos or mats for cards. 

Here you can see some of the surrounding cubes in the island base.  I am reorganizing some of them but will share more photos of all of the things this island holds in future posts.  There are some drawer units available for the Expedit and I have four sets of two drawers that help keep some smaller things handy (regular tape runners, glue dots, Scor-Tape, and some hand held tools like my Crop-A-Dile).

It may seem like a lot of space is used for just these tools but I find it very helpful to have them so close.  I can grab the tool I need without even looking since they are always in the same order.  As I look at these photos, I am realizing that I just might be able to put a shallow container below the file holder - I think there would still be room to easily grab the tools...(I will have to take another look at this tomorrow!).

Update on Creative Memories SALE

I had planned to take Sunday "off" but there were issues with the Creative Memories website and I posted late on Sunday to let you know that they have extended the sale prices until tonight (Monday the 16th) at 8 p.m. Central Time.  There were a lot of problems with the servers and they had IT people working as quickly as they could to try to sort things out.  So this is the absolute last chance to take advantage of the 25% off nearly everything sale.  The exclusive CM Cricut cartridges are $41.25 at the sale price (instead of $55) - the best price ever for these cartridges.

There is more information about the cartridges in my first post about the sale, just click HERE to see that post.

If you were trying to order and couldn't get through, please click HERE to go to my Creative Memories personal website where you can place an order and have it shipped directly to your address.  All of the cartridges are located on THIS PAGE of my personal website.  The January sale on albums will continue until January 26th but the sale price will go back to 20% off instead of 25%.  Some Picfolio Albums (the non-expandable type) will remain at 40% off until the 26th.

Thanks to everyone who has placed an order on my site.  I appreciate your support and will be happy to help you with any questions or problems.

I have some of the prettiest pink and red goodies sitting on my table - part of the project for tomorrow's post...

If you are an email subscriber, there may be two posts in this email since I posted late in the day on Sunday - just keep scrolling down to see everything - thanks!


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