Organization For Your Creative Space: Taming Your Tools!

Hi everyone!  Happy Friday!

I am SO excited for another installment of Organization For Your Creative Space!  Your collection of tools may not be the most glamorous accessories in your craft space but we all know how invaluable they are to our productivity and enjoyment. Our team is back for this month’s Organization Challenge to share their solutions for making their tool collection accessible without cluttering their workspace.

Here is a view of my desk, right where I stamp.  Just about every thing I need while stamping is right here within arms reach!

First up are my stamp blocks, which I store in a basket  I have a variety of sizes and shapes, and these are the ones I use most often.   I have a Fiskars Stamp Press, which is great for longer stamps, along with a 2.5 Round Stamp Block, 3.5 Round Stamp Block, 4.25 Round Stamp Block, 4.5 Stamp Block and 2.5 X 8 Stamp Block.  I also have a foam mat stored behind my blocks, and I often use this to stamp on so that I get a great impression.  Notice that folded blue cloth next to my blocks?  That little miracle is a piece of The Absorber.  The great Jody Morrow originally determined that this auto cloth is IDEAL for cleaning off stamps, and man, she is a GENIUS.  MANY, many stampers now use this to clean their stamps, and it works FABULOUSLY.  It is quite large, and can be cut down.  I “think” that I cut mine down to 8 different pieces.  When it gets a bit too dirty, I simply toss it and grab another piece.

Next up is where most of my tools are stored!  This is the Card Supplies and More Caddy from Organize More and I LOVE it!  It has six even size compartments, and they really can fit a multitude of items!  Starting in the back left, I have a section for scissors, a hole puncher (I print out all the MFT Sketches and Blueprints Sketches and keep them in a binder), my Steel Snips, and a screwdriver (which, somehow, I always need for something!).  The second compartment houses my Stamp Cleaner, Ultra Clean, and the Novus Plastic Cleaner for my MISTI (see it back there?  LOVE IT!).  The back right compartment houses glue pens, Wink of Stella Markers, paper piercers, my Quickstik, aquapainters, pens and pencils.

The front left compartment holds my hot glue gun. I use the Fine Tip Surebonder and I use it on every single card that has an embellishment like a button, bow, etc.  The next two compartments house pre-cut A2 size pieces of card stock.  The middle holds Smooth White Card Stock, which I use for EVERY single mat on my cards, and the right front compartment has X-Press It Blending Card. 

Two tools that I CANNOT live without, are my Scor-Pal and Scor-Mat, and the MISTI.  I use my Scor-Pal with Scor-Mat as my main stamping surface.  I do use the Scor-Pal to score all of my card bases, but I do go over it with a Teflon Bone Folder for a clean, crisp fold.  The MISTI.  Oh how I LOVE the MISTI.  It has truly changed how I look at so many of my stamps, and it makes using Background Stamps an absolute BREEZE.  If you don’t have one, RUN.  You need it (smile).

Lastly, is my drawer of adhesives!   This drawer is directly to the right of my stamping space, and it pretty much just stays open while I am stamping.  You can see I have quite a collection of Jody Boosters.  I use these exclusively on every card I make.  They come in different sizes, and once they are on, they are ON.  You never have to worry about your card falling apart!  My favorite liquid adhesive is Tombow Multi, and this is what I use to attach all of my layers.  I also keep my adhesive erasers in this drawer, sometimes the Tombow can get where you do not want it to go!  I also keep 3M tape handy for holding down stencils, and for masking off parts of stamps when selective stamping.  I also keep other adhesives handy, such as 1/8 Scor-Tape, 1/4 Scor Tape, 3-D Foam Creative Sheets and 4X6 Adhesive Sheets.

Thanks SO much for stopping by!  Please head on over to the MFT Blog for a listing of all the designers participating in this installment of Organization For Your Creative Space!