Baker’s Dozen Studio Challenge – September

Baker's Dozen Studio Challenge

It’s time for the Baker’s Dozen Studio Challenge – September. This is a monthly opportunity for us to share what makes our stamping studios hum. Each month we will have a fun, crafty question so we can share our favorites, some tips and tricks, stamping advice and more.

Baker’s Dozen Studio Challenge for September:

Within Arm’s Reach – What do you keep within arm’s reach at your stamp table?  Show us what you have access to without leaving your seat. What organization methods do you use? Tell us which ones you love and which ones you’d like to change.

Well this is pretty easy questions for me because my entire stash of stuff is within arms reach. I have a desk with a hutch as my stamp table and all of my stuff has to stay pretty well confined to that area and it also needs to be able to be put away neatly as it’s right in the middle of our family room (you can see this room right when you walk into our house). So here’s the desk:

Stamping Desk

For the most part I really like my desk. I do wish that our computer wasn’t front and center in the middle of it but it’s not too difficult to work around it. Almost all of my crafting stuff is confined to this space. I have a few more binders of stamps stashed in our file cabinet but not too many. I also really like that this desk keeps me from getting crazy with the amount of stuff that I have. I get easily overwhelmed by stuff and get creative paralysis from having too many options, this desk definitely cuts down on that.

So what’s in all those baskets and drawers?

Lets start on the top left and work counter clockwise.

In the top most basket I have metal embellishments and rhinestones. I use these the least of anything in my desk so I didn’t even take a picture of it. Underneath that I have embossing folders and lesser used Spellbinder’s dies. Again no picture because these aren’t the ones I keep handy all the time.

Next up is most of my Taylored Expressions Stamps. I keep them in the mini binder boxes and petite storage boxes from Taylor’s store. I just finished re-arranging them by season so they don’t have labels right now. You can all so see a stray paper punch and watercolor paper tablet on top… I didn’t clean up before taking these pictures, this is how it looks right this very moment.

Taylored Expressions Stamps

Below my TE stamps is our printer and my binder of Taylored Dies. I keep these organized using page protectors filled with magnetic sheets.

Taylored Die Storage

Just below this in the top left drawer is my junk drawer, it used to be organized but you can tell that I use the stuff in here a lot based on the way it looks right now. I keep pens, liquid glue, post it’s, bone folders, etc in here. Underneath all of this is a drawer organizer… that you can’t see, lol.

Junk Drawer

Below this is another drawer that has gone a little junky too. It holds MS paper punches, my roll of twine thread and a few misc things that don’t belong there, lol.

paper punch drawer

Below this is my 8.5 x 11 cardstock file. I use the built in file drawer to store this. They are organized by color with a few other things like envelopes and reference sheets thrown in. I bought legal file folders because when I moved into this desk I had a bunch of 12 x 12 paper that I cut down to fit into these files.

Moving on to the lower right drawer we’ll find my Janome Sew Mini (it fits perfectly into this file drawer… LOVE that), foam tape rolls, Stickles, etc.

sewingdrawer

Above this is my second most used drawer… the Spellbinders/Big Shot drawer. I also keep my paper cutter in here as well.

spellbinders

here’s a shot of the big shot underneath:

bigshot

(This drawer holds a LOT!) In that blue basket I keep my cutting plates for my big shot, all my Taylored Impression Plates and my go to embossing folders.

Above this on the desk level I keep my 6×6 paper pads. I’ve pretty much gone away from using 12×12 paper and use the 6×6 pads only now. My organization technique is based on Jodi’s brilliant storage technique.

paperpads

Above this is my ink basket, again a very well used basket and so all organization has flown out the window. You can see all my Tim Holtz inks, baby wipes, stamping blocks, etc.

inkbasket

Above the ink is a basket of flowers that I don’t really use all that often and the two baskets above that are misc. stamps from misc. companies. And last but not least we have the middle:

topcabinet

This is a bit of a catch all for things that don’t have other assignments but I do reach for this stuff a lot. I keep my Key Ingredients Kits in here (the ones that I haven’t used up) and my Glossy Accents and ribbon. This is also my interim storage for finished cards. 🙂

Stamping Desk

So that brings us full circle. 🙂 There’s a lot more in this desk that it looks like from the outside and all of it is pretty much within arms reach so I LOVE it!

Um, Where are the coloring materials?

Some of you might be wondering where my Copics, Distress Markers and Prismacolors are. Good point! I rarely color at my desk. I usually color in my classroom after school when I am waiting for my children’s school to be out, at the kitchen counter when I’m cooking dinner or in the recliner while watching TV so my coloring supplies don’t reside in or on the desk, as a matter of fact they don’t really have a home because they are always out being used, lol.

What is the rest of the Baker’s Dozen up to?

Want to see how the rest of the Baker’s Dozen sets up their space? Well hop around and see!

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