Craft Room Maintenance

I spent last week trying to finish up a couple of classes that I have been taking and that involved creating projects to share in the class forums.

Creating projects meant pulling out lots of fabulous stamps, dies and ink colors.

I felt a high degree of frustration when I was using my Altenew inks because only about half of them had labels on them.

I just had not taken the time to put labels on my newest ink pads.

My Catherine Pooler inks were all labeled and most of my Distress Oxides as well.

Today, I just sucked it up and added labels to every unlabeled ink pad in my ink pad holders.

Now I can find exactly what I’m looking for!

Part of the problem was that I was pulling out a lot of blues and greens from different Altenew layering combinations.  By the end of my creative session, I had a pile of ink pads and I wasn’t sure which ink pads went together by the end.

I had to pull out my swatches and figure out what went with what.

This is not a good way to end a creative session!

You will notice that these are handmade labels.  I didn’t use a label maker for these.  The original ink pads are actually labeled with plain old lined paper.

I just found that so much quicker to do than creating the labels with a label maker.

Plus, you can see that I actually also have swiped the paper across the ink pad to show what color the ink is as well.

This is so functional for me.

Is it pretty?  No!!  But function is everything and I’m not a perfectionist.

I know you may be a perfectionist and you might not choose to do it like this.  But I needed it done and I needed it to be functional.

My Catherine Pooler inks were already labeled and there are only 54 of these colors and they come out in small collections.  It’s been easier to keep up with labeling them and swatching them.

Altenew has 114 ish colors and they tend to come out in larger collections.  I managed to have them all swatched, but not labeled.  Now they are all labeled.

I LOVE IT!

I also finished the last set of Distress Oxides that was released a while ago.  I swatched them when I got them, but never got to the labels.

I don’t have color swatches on these ink pads because I’m storing these with the re-inkers and the markers so I can see what color it is from the marker cap.  Or close enough.

I also started organizing the tools and things that I am moving to my little winter cottage craft room in less than two months. I am going to admit to feeling a sense of relief that I got some housekeeping chores done.

You know how it is when you have some work that is hanging over your head and  you finally get it done.  It’s a relief!

The ink pad storage that I use is from Stamp-N-Storage.

The one I’m using for the Distress Oxides is my old Stampin’ Up! pad storage that Stamp-N-Storage makes.  I really like having the reinkers and the markers stored with the ink pads.  It’s very convenient.

The Catherine Pooler and the Altenew ink pads are in 120 ink pad storage pieces.  I have some room to grow…which is good news.  Catherine Pooler is coming out with 4 new colors next week!!

You can check it out by clicking the picture below which is an affiliate link.  This allows me a small commission at no extra cost to you.

I love that my crafting tools have a place to go and that makes clean up easy after a busy day of crafting.  The ink pad storage is my favorite product from Stamp-N-Storage followed by the marker nooks.  I use those for everything, including storing my clear blocks, embossing powder and markers.  My craft room is a hodge podge of leftover furniture and hand-me-downs, but my Stamp-N-Storage pieces are the one thing besides my work table that I actually purchased specifically for my craft room.  I’m absolutely delighted with these pieces and I’m happy to have an organized corner to come to and create in after I get home from work each day.

Every now and then we just deserve to treat ourselves to something that makes our life easier!

Have a wonderful day!  I would love to hear what you have been working on organizing in your craft room lately!