Thursday, July 28, 2016

Guest Post Creating the Ultimately Organized Craft Room

I'm so excited to have Kaitlin Krull as a guest blogger today!  She is sharing some really great tips to help organize your craft room.  I recently went from an entire room down to a closet and table after my last baby so I'm really excited to use these ideas for my own supplies.  


All crafters know that finding space to store all your supplies and equipment can be tricky. Organization is essential for both successful crafting and maintaining a clean home. At Home Improvement Leads, we love a well organized room and think there are plenty of ways you can create a neat and tidy craft room of your own. Here are a few of our top tips to help you get started.

A place for everything
The first thing you should do when setting up your craft room is decide how you want your room to be set up. Designate a place for all your equipment and supplies, then label everything accordingly and make sure everything is where it’s supposed to be. This first step may feel tedious, but we promise that it will be worth it in the long run and give you more time for creating.



Plenty of workspace
While storage is essential for an organized craft room, workspace is just as important. Make sure your craft room has plenty of room for all of the various tasks you need to complete. A kitchen island or large butcher’s block works well as a multipurpose unit in larger craft rooms, while a long wall desk or craft table offers just as much workspace while keeping the center of your room free. Whichever option you choose, keep in mind that you need to fit in all your equipment, too!



Color coordination
If your craft involves scrapbooking, sewing, or knitting, color coordination is essential to a well organized craft room. This applies to everything: buttons, paper, stickers, ribbon, thread—you name it, you can (and should) color coordinate it. In addition to saving you time whenever you need to find a particularly hued item, it makes your supplies pop and gives you a satisfied feeling every time you open a drawer.



Professional paper organization
Scrapbookers, card makers, and anyone whose craft involves paper and/or tissue should take a page (pardon the pun) from professional stationery stores and invest in quality paper storage. While you can store paper and card any way you like, we recommend vertically stacked clear paper trays for color coordinated sheets of paper and shelves filled with magazine holders for extra reams of paper and crafting magazines. Complete this step and your craft room will feel like a professional at-home business in no time.




Small supply storage
A well organized craft room will require storage of all sizes and small storage is especially important. Buy or repurpose glass or plastic jars and tubs of varying sizes to store buttons, glitter, sequins, string, and anything else you can think of. Clear storage containers are particularly useful here because you can easily see and access each container without having to search through drawers and bins full of random supplies. Plus, glass storage jars are super trendy at the moment and will give your craft room a styled finish if you keep your storage containers on display.

Creative storage solutions
As far as other storage is concerned, there are plenty of ways to tidy away your craft supplies at the end of the day. Our favorite storage solutions involve creative thinking and utilizing the space you have in the best ways possible. Wall-mounted shelves and over-the-door storage compartments keep craft supplies of all shapes and sizes off the floor and also free up your workspaces. Corkboards, whiteboards, and magnetic noticeboards are also particularly useful for showcasing your favorite designs, inspirations, and to-do lists. If all else fails and you find yourself stuck for storage, a handful of wicker and rattan baskets will easily hold wrapping paper rolls, skeins of yarn, and just about anything else you have lying around.



Friday, July 1, 2016

Motherhood print and July visiting teaching handout

Can you believe its already July?!?  Here's this month's Visiting Teaching message (you can find the entire message here.)  It was so good I had a really hard time narrowing down and picking quotes so I included a lot of text. Hope you don't mind.
I loved this quote so much I decided to make an 8x10 print for my home.  You can also shrink it in a word document to give to your sisters as well.
To use right click and save to your computer.  You can then print them off at your favorite place (top one is size as a 4x6).  Another option is to copy and past in a word document.  You can then re-size to fit your needs.  I like to fit 4 to one page and print on cardstock.