Organising craft supplies & A CONTEST

I received a question from a reader, one which I received many times before when I ran the virtual organising competition.

If you're interested, I have an Excel spreadsheet (you'll love this, Suzanne) with content topics for blogs, articles and my weekly tips newsletter. One column has the topic, the next has date published, the next has blog/ article/ weekly tips.

All the questions from the virtual organising competition went on the spreadsheet and I've been slowly blogging my way through the questions. If a question is suitable for my weekly tips, then I will write about it there and not blog it.

Anyway, I said all that to say.... a couple of people asked about organising craft supplies so when this question was emailed to me, it moved it up the list. I can now mark the email as done and cross something off the blog to-do list :)

Do you have any tips on organizing my craft stuff? I'll go thru your archives to check. I mostly have quilting, scrapping, and stamping collections...............

First, a disclaimer - I'm not a crafter so forgive me if my ideas seem silly ;)

Use bookshelves to organise rolls of material.

I have blogged before about how I organise all my beads so I will start by saying that if you craft with small items like beads, etc, use ice-cube trays to organise them.

Ziploc bags are great for organising medium-sized items and these buddy drawer systems (you might call it something else, depending on where you live) are great for organising scrapbook paper & supplies, quilting squares, stamping stuff, etc.

They are stackable so you can make them as high as you want.

The key is to (1) get the appropriate size (these come much smaller too) - I like this size because this one is for organising my paper and (2) label each drawer.

Plastic drawer system

aerial view - my in-tray usually sits on the top

Calling all crafters
How would you answer her organising question?

1. Blog your answer with pictures from your crafting area. Please link back here so your readers can see the other solutions too.
2. Come back here and link up your post.
3. The contest will stay open for one week until 14 December 2007, 6pm South African time.
4. The winner gets a R100 gift voucher to my store (divide by 7 to get US$). Every other participant gets a 20% off gift voucher.
   

WFMW - Organising your craft supplies

Now that I'm making these beaded bookmarks all the time, I needed to have a cheap solution that took up very little space and kept things organised.

I took a box and used 2 ice-cube trays from a set of 3, and used the partitions to keep all the beads and my other bits and pieces separate. The box is quite deep so I can easily put another layer or two of trays on top of a piece of project board as I get more and more beads (although I am not keen on just buying and buying).

BTW, if you look on the left of the box, you'll see the gorgeous purple ones that I (almost) don't want to sell. I am crazy!

For the moment, this really works for me. I can see at a glance when I'm running low and I can see which I need to make more of :)

I actually need to declutter as well (don't laugh) because I bought some big bags of assorted beads and I can see I'm not really into some of them so will donate to my friend's daughter.

How do you organise your crafty stuff?

It's contest time!!!!

Woohoo - it's contest time over at the Clutter Control Freak blog.

There are 4 super prizes for the winners. The theme is some unlikely uses for everyday common items.


I'm not sure if they're allowing us bloggers to enter but I have stacks and stacks of ideas ;) (sorry, couldn't resist)

And while you're there, go read my previous posts - for a quick link, click the button on the sidebar ---->>

Creative? Me?

Imagine my shock and horror when I saw that Annie awarded the Creative Blogger Award to me. Then I read what she wrote and it really is very sweet of her.

Marcia has lots of blogs and even a professional website full of creative ways to organize your life. She always has pictures of food she has made or organizing tips. She is very creative!

Thank you, Annie.

I browsed my Google Reader and thought that this is the ideal opportunity to introduce you to some really creative gals I stalk :) I have a thing about gorgeous photography and though I almost never comment (some of that is due to Typepad), I am always lurking. In fact, I'll let you in on a secret: I read my creative folder first every day because I love the yumminess of colour and art.

So I bestow this award on these 5 bloggers:

1. Chronicles of me - Boho is a photographer and jewellery designer.
2. Superhero Journal - Andrea makes the yummiest necklaces and is a photographer too. I wrote about how I love one of her posts the other day.
3. The simple life - I've been reading Mindi's blog since before I even started blogging. She is a super-talented photographer and has the most GORGEOUS kids.
4. Elizabeth Harris - I don't quite know how I stumbled upon her blog. Also a very-talented photographer. She took some baby pictures on her blog recently which are just GORGEOUS.
5. Jennifer Deaton - I "met" Jennifer through Menu Plan Monday and went to visit her creative blog. I drooool at the cards and other gorgeous things she makes. Jennifer has a post which I've bookmarked because the baby gift she made is so beautiful. And she was so encouraging when I was trying to do something similar (in my non-artistic) way.

Go ahead and visit them - it is well worth your while :)

Have a great weekend everyone.