Day 2 of the January Challenge

Hello!

We're back this morning with the MORE organization tips and storage ideas!!

Today I'm sharing my "Craftopia", which my husband put together almost entirely from reused items!

The Craftopia sits in the playroom - I tried working exclusively in my office, but with a little guy, this wasn't possible.  I constantly had a visitor who was getting into my stuff or begging me to go watch him play... so, I moved a folding table into the playroom was kept running into a mess, moving items from my office to the playroom...

My husband found 2 discarded wall mounting shelving units in a trash bin one day there were in perfectly good condition, just a little scratched and missing doors - they looked a little like this.

We didn't know what we were going to do with them, just that they were too good to pass up.  We were playing with them one night, trying to decide where to put them in the house when my husband put them back to back and the Craftopia was born!  He sanded them both down, filled in the holes where the hardware used to be and painted them white.  We tried to antique them, but they ended up just looking dirty so we left them white.  We put rolling casters on the bottom and a plywood sheet on the top for the table.  To make it look a little nicer we put a thin strip of molding around the table top.  I added a LARGE cutting mat (since I use it to papercraft and sew) to the table top which covers the majority of it.

On one side I house all of my commonly used papercrafting supplies in misc baskets and containers.  I also have a bakers rack that stands behind the table that has more baskets for storage.  The other side holds my sewing notions and fabric.  It's a great way to reuse something and have a space of my own in Adam's playroom. 

And last, I wanted to share an organization tip that I've used for a long time!  It helps me create cards in the blink of an eye!

Whenever I've put together a page layout or a mini-album or even a card, I put all of the scraps together in a a large Ziploc bag and set it aside.  When I need to make a quick card I grab a Ziploc bag full of scraps that I already know go together and throw a card together!  Most of the scraps are different sized so I don't even have to do that much cutting!

That's it for the January Challenge this month!  Remember, you can participate by emailing a picture and an explanation of your favorite or best storage/organization tip or technique!  Email me at ayokleyjessup@gmail.com with "January Challenge" in the subject!

And don't forget about the Design Team Sponsored Crop on January 21st!  Come down to Page's, eat yummy food and get to know the team!  Call the store to reserve your spot today!

Andi