I haven’t shared my craft space before now because it was basically, well, the dining room table. We don’t have space for me to have my own studio but I have claimed a corner of our office as my own. This view is taken from my living room couch so you can see the need to keep it somewhat pleasing to the eye.

I love this desk that I got at my favorite antique store. The drawer has an organizer it it for my scissors, marking chalk, pins, measuring tape, etc. I got the baskets separately and usually keep my current project in them for easy access. A bright, adjustable lamp provides good, direct lighting over my work. I like too that if we want it to look like a desk I can just stash my sewing machine away.

The rolling cart next to it is where I have organized my mailing envelopes, tags, and stock for etsy or swaps. I have a bamboo magazine holder for craft books and patterns, and matching photo boxes for ribbon and notions. Somehow I manage to fit it all in and store stuff that I only need occasionally in the attic.

I love these cute little jars I got for cheap at IKEA to display all my colorful buttons. Seeing the colors makes me happy and the jar help to organize by color which is helpful for matching and very time saving! And I love the shelf above with drawers where I can just reach up and get often used tools.

So here’s the Oprah-with-her-makeup-off reality of what it looks like mid-project. But now that I have had it organized I am eager to get it back into shape!

See you can pack alot into a corner and make it work! The irony, now that I am organized, is that we are moving to another house this month where I will actually have a whole room for my crafting! I have so many ideas and can’t wait to show you when it is done!

My poor, neglected craft corner. I haven’t sat down at it in over three weeks and I’m about to pitch a fit. The hubby and I have been working our fingers off trying to spruce up the outside of our house. So while I wanted to be doing stuff like this, I was transforming this:

to this:

While we love the way the house looks, it’s not completely done but done enough to where I can busy my hands crocheting instead of painting. But now I’ve got so many ideas – seriously, it feels like a storm is brewing over my head – of things I want to make, I don’t even know where to begin and just trying to decide takes most of my energy that I would need to do it. So, any of you crafters out there who feel like you’ve got too many ideas stuck in the noggin’ too, how do you organize them quickly and easily so you can begin to complete them?

Many of the organizational tools that I have keeping my craft space sane have been swiped from my husband’s woodshop. This first organizer is perfect for beads/headpins/clasps for jewelry beading. For only $10 from a home improvement store, it came full of bolts and screws, which my husband cleaned out, and left me plenty of space for my beads. It is great because each of the clear trays is divided for different size beads and comes out of the gray holder so I can pass them around the table and lay them out when friends are over making jewelry. As you can see at the top is a screw driver handle that comes out and the screw driver heads are in a pull out tray at the bottom. My favorite parts about this are that I can securely carry my beads wherever I go and it narrowly stores them on my shelf. I use it all the time!

Below are mini magnetic dishes, about 3″ across. My husband brought me home a box of 4 of these dishes from a tool store. They are wide which is great to toss my pins in as I sew without having to precisely stick them in a pin cushion. The black bottom is also magnetic so you can even hang it vertically from a metal cabinet. My favorite part about this is that since the bottom is magnetic if you drop pins on the floor you can just hold this wide magnet over it and gather them up. I hate picking up pins! (I hate nail maintenance more!)

I have toyed with the idea of making an animal or shaped stuffie to set the dish in for decoration, but haven’t yet. Any ideas?

P.S. Check out his shop while thinking about your craft organizational needs. I know my husband is proud when he sees me putting his ideas to good use.

For those of you who don’t know, I don’t have an actual craft studio. As much as that bums me from time to time, I do have a craft corner which works perfectly for our house and for my crafting needs. I just recently decided to redecorate the dining room (which is where my corner is located) and switched around some of the artwork on the walls. I am now left with a blank spot that is located just above my workspace.

How can I be inspired to create when there is nothing to look up and inspire me? I love this idea from the Purl Bee, but I’m just not a fan of embroidery hoops adorning my dining room walls. I thought about covering canvases of different shapes and sizes of my favorite textiles and then hanging them there. I dont really want shelves, nor do I want just one basic piece of artwork. So I am asking for suggestions. What do you have hanging above your work space that inspires you? What would you like to have there?