My Little Stamping Corner...

Well, I have been wanting to do this for a while. I know many, many stampers have full rooms devoted to nothing but stamping. I, however, am not so lucky to have that kind of space. I know there are others in the same boat. So, I wanted to share what I do with such a small space, and how I make it work for me. This first picture is of my workspace. I have two tables that just do fit together in my 4x4 area. As you can see, I use the white top one for my workspace.

For you to really get an idea of how small this space is, here is a shot of the entire thing from my back bedroom wall. To the right of the pic you can see my armoire, and on the bottom right you can see a little piece of the footboard of my bed. The black on the bottom left corner is a 2 drawer filing cabinet, this is where I store my cardstock. I can barely move the folders it's so full. On top of that are 4 12x12 paper trays where I keep my business supplies. Luckily, I am a hobby demo and do not need very many supplies:) Behind the cabinet under the desk are more clear shoeboxes holding Mod Podge, Acrylic Paint, rubbing alcohol, my Bind It All, and bindings, trash can, and a rolling 7 shelf plastic cart that holds all my 12x12 and DSP. Another thing you cannot see in the pic is at the bottom of the file cabinet is our cats food bowl, water bowl, and toy box. On the same corner of the chest at the end of our bed is his covered litter box. So, not only does my wonderful hubby share his room with my hobby, but with our furry baby!

And this is an ink pad holder that I made myself. I found a lady on SCS who had a link to her blog where she had a pdf file of the pattern she created to make this holder. I really need something else at this point, and am looking, but I have using this for a while now. It's made out of hot glue, and foam board, was made for less than $5, and it's sturdy! I just cleaned the craft corner, and picked it up full of ink pads! Pain to make, but I have the ladies file if you want to make one. Let me know! It holds about 60 ink pads. I have one row for each color family (not nearly all of my pads are in here in this pic!), and the last row for neutrals, and In Colors (the current ones). I keep Spectrum Pads, all of my VersaMark Pads, my Encore Pads, my Stazon Pads, and retired In Color Pads in one of the clear drawers on my shelves.

And this is where I keep my punches. Again, they are not all here, some are being loaned out, some just weren't on there when I shot this pic a few minutes ago. I am still in the cleaning process. These are the cheap-o curtain rods, that's it. I am getting ready to redecorate our bedroom, so these will be replaced with several Ikea Bygel Rails complete with baskets and cups for even more storage. For now, these work!

Here is the last picture. It is of the shelving unit above my workspace. Hubby bought and hung this for me, when most men would have griped about the work, or the huge holes in the walls (these have to be hung with huge anchors to hold this kind of weight). He's pretty great, sometimes, lol!!! Anyway, as you can see my stamp sets are on the second shelf, I am down to a very reasonable number of sets, however SU is sending me about 5 more this order alone! I sell the ones I find myself not using on a very regular basis. There is no telling how many sets I have owned, but I can only keep so much in this space. The bottom shelf holds tons of plastic drawer units. I used a label maker to label each drawer so I am never searching for what I need. I keep ribbons, eyelets, brads, refills, pastels, watercolor supplies, stamp cleaner, etc, etc in this. The third shelf holds my card box, my alter box, my tools, (crimpers, brayers, glue guns, a few clear stamps and misc stamps all in one clear shoebox. The top shelf holds things I hardly ever use, basically dust collectors! So, this is it. My main reason for posting this is I am always seeing (and drooling over...lol!) stamp rooms on SCS, blogs, etc. I know there are many people like me who just don't have the extra room in their homes after two kids, pets, playroom, etc, etc. So, I hope to inspire with my storage and organization ideas, an idea that may spark in you to have a hobby in a small space...

Happy Stampin' Everyone!