What I found was this post on organization of art and craft supplies.

http://pixiepaperarts.blogspot.com/2008/06/show-tell-sunday.html

Hope it helps you get some ideas.

Shasta McLaughlin
The Extravaganza Craft Productions
www.extravaganzacrafts.com

By Marilyn Bohn

I quilt, I am a quilter, I love quilting, and I love to quilt. Quilting has enriched my life in ways I never dreamed of. I have learned interesting facts about history because of quilts. I have made a ton of friends; and I have traveled because of quilting opportunities.

To make quilting fun and to be able to start and finish projects with the less amount of stress and to avoid hunting for tools a well-organized sewing room is a must. Here are tried and true ideas and tips on how to organize a sewing/quilting room, no matter the size. If you use the room for other purposes such as an office, craft room or even a bedroom organization can create more time for you to focus on sewing and quilting.

1. Have your sewing machine, ironing board, and cutting table arranged so they are easily accessible. Get a system going so you can take fewer steps between the iron and the sewing machine which will save time and you will be more efficient. Or if you don’t have room for all of these in the same room just think you are getting exercise going from room to room rather than saving time.

2. Use baskets or other gadgets fabric and quilting stores store sell to store your tools in. Place them next to where they get the most use. Be sure to put them back in the same container after using them as this will save a ton of time. If you store your tools in a room different from where you sew, containers make it very easy to transport the tools to where you need them and then they can go back to be stored with a minimum amount of effort or time.

a. For example, place the tools you use at the ironing board near the ironing board. This could include a pressing cloth, spray bottle, pin cushion a small pair of scissors and a measuring gauge. I purchased an ironing board cover with measurements printed on the cover.

b. Next to the sewing machine you’ll need a pin cushion, scissors, seam ripper, waste basket for threads, or you can tape a plastic or paper bag to your sewing table for the threads. Also keep extra thread and bobbins near the machine. A magnetic board to hold the project directions is very helpful. I love my Side Winder portable bobbin winder that I keep on my sewing table.

c. At the cutting table have available a rotary cutter, rulers, cutting mat, pencil, pen, a note pad and pin cushion. Cutting directions for your project can start out here when cutting and then can be moved to your sewing machine area when you start to sew. Either tape them on the wall or pin to a curtain or attach a small magnetic board on the wall to hold them.

3. Sort your fabrics by color and then organize within color group such as batiks, novelty, florals, flannels and homespun. Or organize by lights, medium, and darks within the same color. Clear plastic boxes/bins work well to hold and contain fabric. When replacing fabric put it back where it belongs, this saves time and frustration later. If you store your fabric on shelves you could label the shelf with the type of fabric that goes on which shelf.

4. Vinyl project bags with zippers are great to use for short term storage. The plastic bags with zippers that sheets and other bedding come in also work for storage and are a great way to recycle. They can hold a project, strips or a kit. They are easy to grab and go if you have a project you are taking to a class.

By organizing your sewing room or sewing space in a way that your supplies and tools are easy to find and are convenient for use you’ll have more fun and more time to sew rather than spending your time hunting for what you need. It takes time to get everything like you want it but it will be worth it.

Happy sewing/happy quilting.

Set a goal for your art or craft business, then set a reasonable amount of time to accomplish that goal in.  Working on it a little bit every day makes it nearly impossible not to accomplish it eventually.

Goals that you might need to work on to improve your handcrafted business:

1. Learn to know my customers and market better.
2. Improve the customer service my customer receives.
3. Sell more at shows-become a better salesman.
4. Follow up more with customers-collect contact information and follow up respectfully.
5. Improve marketing plan or pieces.
6. Build a website.
7. Promote my “handcrafted” website.
8. Automate more of the sales process.
9. Make my business paperwork including business cards, fliers, brochures, catalogs, invoices, etc. more consistent to build brand awareness.
10. Make sure all my business paperwork has correct information on it including business name, contact name, complete mailing address, phone, website, and email.
11. Improve my displays.
12. Find new places to sell my arts and crafts including gift shops, galleries, specialty shops, and handcrafters boutiques, etc.
13. Improve my online sales.
14. Improve my offline sales.
15. Improve my accounting techniques.
16. Improve profits-set correct prices or cut costs.
17. Organize my workshop, studio or store for a better customer experience and better efficiency.

Setting a goal for your art or craft business  is like climbing a pyramid you can’t do it in one giant step.  Instead break it down into smaller steps.  Promise yourself to at least try and do one  smaller step a day.  Don’t beat yourself up if you don’t, instead try to go on the next day and celebrate the days you accomplish more than one step.

Work on one of your business goals at a time until you get really good at doing it consistently.  When you are really good at reaching your current goal add another goal without dropping the first one.

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Plastic Storage Drawers

On my wire cubes I have these little plastic drawers with the Boy Scout emblem on them.  I am not sure where I got them but I have all kinds of things in them.  I would take some better pictures of them except something happened and my phone camera isn’t synchronizing correctly with my computer.  Hope to get that fixed soon.

They contain roller stamps and ink for them.  They also contain pop dots a.k.a. thick foam tape for scrapbooking and rubber stampers.  They have boxes of paper clips I used to make angels, baskets of shells, juice can lids and scratched CDs saved for various kids art projects, corner rounders, stickers for kids projects, and so much more.  I also have several of these little plastic drawers in a cupboard full of rubber stamps.

Plastic Storage Drawers

I love these little drawers on my wire cubes because two of them side by side perfectly fit the width of the cubes.  You can also do as I’ve done here and use the plastic drawers as a shelf.  Another option would be to stack 3 plastic drawers  on one side of the cube and use the wire cube pieces to divide the rest of the cube vertically.

Have a nice day,

Shasta

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Standard wire cubes divided vertically.

We were talking about how the wire cubes are nice if the things you need to put in them are 13 x 13 but most of us need some different configurations for our storage.  I used plastic zip ties to add shelves to my wire cubes.  While I was looking around the internet today I noticed that some sets of cubes come with clips to add shelves.

I divided my cubes into fourths, third, and even eighths by attaching a shelf to the grid on all 3 sides of it using the plastic zip ties.  I also added little plastic drawers.  The plastic drawers fit perfectly and add a lot of versatility to the shelves.  Unfortunately I can’t remember where I got them.

Wire cubes divided every inch for 12 x 12 paper storage.

Plastic Storage Drawers

Have a nice day,

Shasta

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My adjustable shelves are really deep (18 inches) and my craft supplies are much smaller.  Even 12 x 12 paper doesn’t use the space well.  One thing really made the shelves much more versatile for me – Wire Cubes!

We found wire cubes at Target.  They are the organize-it brand and they measure 14 in. square.  These were more expensive than the ones I bought  before, but that was a long time ago.

Wire grid for Wire Cube Storage

Certain colors were on sale and I recommend getting more than you think you will need.  The reason is because they are very versatile and you can change the configurations that you use (I’ll explain my configurations in a post tomorrow).  They just look much nicer if you have all the same color (see example below) this is where having an extra set comes in handy.

Empty Wire Storage Cube

When you think of wire cube storage you think of big wire boxes, right?

Well that isn’t very versatile which is why I use plastic zip ties, also known as plastic cable ties to make them into several more useful configurations.

Plastic Zip Ties

Plastic zip ties can be purchased at any home improvement store and possibly in the automotive/tool section of places like Walmart. They come in several sizes and colors although for this project I recommend the almost clear color and the smallest size. They are easy to use and inexpensive.

Tomorrow I will post pictures of the different configurations I have created using my wire storage cubes.

Have a nice day,

Shasta

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My Adjustable Shelves for Craft Storage

So we’ve been talking about art & craft supply storage and I’ve been sharing with you some pictures of my storage.

I felt this was best done through a series of posts including pictures so I could talk a little bit about each item including where we got it, it’s approximate costs, and various things it could be used for.

This is part two of the series My Art and Craft Supply Storage.  The first post was about the adjustable shelves I got at Linen’s n Things going out of business sale.  They are an 8 ft. wide section and used to stand about 12 ft. tall.  We cut our’s down to fit our 8ft. ceilings.  Today I think I’ll talk about what makes the shelves adjustable.

Well what makes the shelves adjustable is the track that the shelves fit into.

Adjustable shelf track

You can see the track at right.  I saw tracking like this at the home improvement stores in my area.  It could easily be added to a wall in an office, study, garage, workshop or studio.

I have just one word of caution.  Be aware of how much weight you want to put on them and be sure to locate the studs and screw your track into them.

Our whole unit was very unsteady despite our efforts to reinforce it until we screwed it into the studs in the wall behind it.

Shasta

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For the first time I’m equipped to take pictures and upload them to my blog.  So I wanted to share with you what some of my art and craft supply storage looks like.  In hopes that it will give you some ideas.

These shelves are the adjustable shelves we picked up at Linens and Things in our area when they went out of business.  I really like them and wish I had gotten more.  They were selling them cheap on the very last day, so keep your eyes out for Going Out of Business Sales.

My Adjustable Shelves for Craft Storage

The shelves have really made a difference in what I call my scrapbooking room.

See more of my craft storage solutions as I get pictures posted.

Shasta

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