Friday, September 24, 2010

My Scrap Room

Today I am going to take you on a little tour of my scrap room. My room is not fancy - in fact, it's part of the laundry room. There isn't any pretty lighting, custom cabinets or beautifully painted drywall. It is however, my favorite room in the house! What it lacks in aesthetics, it makes up for in functionality. I am constantly rearranging, reorganizing and expanding it's size. My mom jokes that eventually I will take over the entire basement.
My room has lots of shelving that I have acquired from family or friends. This shelf at the start of the room holds all my punches, dies, vinyl rolls and other misc. items. I use baskets to hold everything.
Keep your eye out for store fixtures that are being discarded. This display was for greeting cards, it now holds all my dies and embossing folders.

As we move back into the room we get to my bulletin board, paint display and sewing machine. Having it ready and threaded means I will use it!


Paper - I love it, I hoard it and I love to see it. One can never have enough. :)

Now we come to corner of the room that is jammed with everything. I like to keep as much out in open view so that I remember to use it.
I keep my new "favorite things" in open Romanoff bins so that I can grab when ready.


I do keep buttons, charms and little stuff in plastic bins to keep them organized. I can grab the bin off the shelf whenever I need it.



I use an old cassette tape holder for my ink pads.

I saved this cabinet from going to Goodwill! It now holds books, mini albums and other altered items.

Stamps are tucked back into the corner...probably why they don't get used near enough.

I take most of my ribbons off of the cards and iron them - I hate the little kinks in them. (OCD!) After ironing, I put the end of the ribbon onto an extra large safety pin according to color. Each color has it's own pin and each pin hangs onto a hook. When I need a red ribbon, I simply grab the pin off of the hook, find what type I need and then trim a piece off of the bottom. It works really, really well. Got this idea from my friend Jen Gibel.



Remember when I said to watch for discarded retail displays? I got this tiered shelf from Holcombs for $5 when they closed last year. It is perfect for displaying stickers and embellishments.

Magazine Rack garbage picked from GNC.

Yes. I own two Clip it Ups. But it's only because my pal Shelly is in love with her new baby and thought downsizing her scrap room was a good idea. Booooooo.

I love my desk because it was my grandmother's desk. She worked at the Auto Club for many, many years. When she retired, they gave it to her. When she passed away last year, I was lucky enough to get it.



I have lots of different ways of storing items, mainly ones that were free or given to me.

The left side of my room is my technology area (and the washer/dryer). I have a large format scanner, PC, Cricut and a Wishblade. The only thing missing is a large format printer. (on my Christmas list last year, I am buying it for myself this year!) Having my computer and tools right in my scrap area has greatly increased my use of the digital cutters. I still do most of my graphic design work upstairs and use this older PC mainly for cutting and scanning.

Another treasure from my Grandmother. This Underwood is from about 1920 and still works. The best part about this rare find? It was used for legal documents and can accept 12x12 paper!

Thanks for stopping by my space today. I hope this helps everyone to see that a scrap room is what you make of it! Someday I hope to have a "finished" room but in the mean time - this one will do just fine.


16 comments:

Trish said...

There are no words that can describe how jealous I am of your ORGANIZED and FUNCTIONAL scrap space. I'm green with envy. GREEN...

pickmepam said...

holy cow! that's a lot of stuff! if you weren't organized, can you just imagine saying, " i know it's here somewhere!" i'm jealous of the organization.

BabyBokChoy said...

What room? Looks like a STORE to me!!! LAINA!!!!!!!!!!! you are so organized!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! come help me!!!!

Anonymous said...

this is heaven. i love it. i didn't not miss the painted walls or custom cabinets at all. love how you are thrifty and accept hand me downs. wish i could visit.

lynda in calif

Ryzmomplus2 said...

love your room and how organized you are!

Aubree said...

Wow Laina, this is amazing!!!

Anonymous said...

Girlfriend, come iron my ribbons please...hehehehe. seriously, love all the lovely vintage goodies from your grandmother & that tiered shelf. Great space!

Cindy said...

Thank you so much for posting this! We just moved and I lost my dedicated scrap room which had been a bedroom. I was moaning about the fact that all my "toys" were going into the basement. Well, I'm not moaning any more! I LOVE YOUR SPACE (sorry for shouting!) Really - it's so fabulous and so accessible. Thanks for a million and one great ideas. I can't wait to get started!

Debbi Tehrani said...

Wow! What an awesome space! And so much STUFF!!! Really cool organizational ideas! TFS!

TracyJ said...

Great tour! I love your kind of room the best...it's like mine, full of re-used stuff. I love that tiered thing to hold your stickers.

Nancy Damiano said...

I love that you are using your grandmother's old desk. And your space is HUGE. Lucky girl!

Anonymous said...

L, I love your scrappin space! You have so much room and it always comfie and inspiring! --evilwoman

Tracy said...

I love your room. Mine used to be in the laundry room as well. Now I have my own tiny room, beside the laundry room :)

Anonymous said...

Omg I love your room it is so awesome. I like how it is very visual and you are not digging for much if anything very nice.

Shelly Brewer said...

dude...you just booed me on here!! You forgot to show your organization of colors of pens on your little sheet. That's how I knew I was dealing with a crazy person. Seriously people...Laina is the most organized person I've ever met.

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