Sharing Bits of My Craft Room - TKJ

Hello to all my blog friends and those of you visiting from The Kraft Journal!  I'm here today to share this week's Watch Us Wednesday feature with you all.  Our theme for this week is "Show Us Your Craft Room" and so, I'm giving you all a little peek into my crafty corner of the world.  My husband keeps promising me that some day we'll have a house with a bigger scrapbooking room for me.  We shall see!  One thing that you will see recurring over and over again in my scrap room (and all through my house) is the use of antiques for storage.  I have lots of "old things that hold things".  For instance, I love displaying things on my antique White sewing machine.  I keep extra baker's twine, spools and bobbins in the drawers, and I store lots of things on top as well.

I love all things vintage, and so I'm always looking for antique containers to keep my laces and trims tucked inside of.  Each and every little bobbit tucked neatly in its place.  I keep baker's twine tied around antique wooden bobbins and placed in spongeware crocks.

Lots of little things are kept inside antique cheese boxes, I even have a couple of really old wooden Cod Fish boxes (below) that I keep all my crocheted doilies and delicate embellishments inside.  I have lots of cheese boxes throughout my scrap room filled with things like sequins, small embellishments, glitters, journaling cards and more.  They don't make wooden boxes like they used to - all those lovely detailed dove-tail edges.

My button collection is extensive.  I have LOTS of white and cream buttons (probably 3-4 jars).  I keep all my buttons in old Mason canning jars, and they have the old lids with ivory inside.   I have a few jars that hold all those really special buttons - the vintage, rare and hard-to-find (or crazy expensive) ones.  I enjoy all kinds of different antiques.

Mason jars also work great for storing your ribbon.  You can do one jar for each color ribbon.  Lots of great storage ideas for old jars.  Or, am I justifying my obsession?

I don't think I will ever feel like I have enough buttons, trims, or (well, pretty much anything) all the little bits and bobbits I've collected along the way, but it sure is fun.  Each drawer is filled with all sorts of wonderful sewing and crafting items.

This picture (below) is a cheese box from when I was 2 years old.  I colored all over it.  I couldn't believe my mother would let me do such a thing!  She saved it for me all these years.  I guess she kept my crayons IN the cheese box when I was little.  I have about 100 journaling cards tucked in this cheese box.  Behind that is a vintage metal bread box or some type of kitchen storage box.  That holds all my seam binding (undyed) and all my glimmer mists for making scrunched seam binding.

I have all my wool felt stored in a big antique wooden crate.  I think it was some type of wooden crate from either an old office or some type of factory.  It's in rough shape, but it works just perfectly to display all my wool felt.

This next picture (below) shows you a really sweet way to display trims.  I love taking my really special ribbons, laces and trims (especially rare vintage or very expensive trims) and winding them around antique wooden spools to store and display them.  A small pin holds each length in place.  This systems makes it very easy to cut off just the right amount of trim needed for a project.

I also wanted to share this picture (below) with you.  I have a lot of vintage and antique cases (suitcases, travel cases, a vintage train box, etc.) that I use to store paper goods, cards, cardstock, crafting bags, flowers and more.  This picture shows a few of those cases.

One of the final things I will share is my infamous WALL OF SHAME!  I need a better way to store and display my ribbon.  But because I have a ribbon collection that BY FAR exceeds JoAnn, Michaels, and ten local scrapbook stores inventory put together, I don't have a whole lots of options.  For now, I am dealing with this wall of ribbon.  These ribbon boxes were sold MANY years ago at Target.  My "Wall of Ribbon" has grown to 16 boxes high, 4 boxes wide, each box has 6 holes where you will find 4-6 different lengths of ribbon, lace or seam binding coming out of each hole.  There are also ribbons stored in these boxes and elsewhere in my craft room.  I have TOO MUCH RIBBON, and yet never enough ribbon.  And by the way, NO!  I don't always have just the perfect ribbon for every project.  I still find myself dreaming up ribbons that I don't have.  But when I say "My Cup Runneth Over", I'm not kidding!  God is SO GOOD TO ME, and I consider myself SO blessed.

And that, my dear friends, is a peek into my scrap room.  I hope that you all enjoy arranging your crafting supplies in a way that helps YOU stay organized.  You're all invited to stop by The Kraft Outlet to do some fun shopping for new krafting supplies and goodies, and to stop by The Kraft Journal Challenge Blog to play along in this week's "Harvest Time" Challenge.  We look forward to having you visit, shop, and play along with us as often as possible.  And, have a blessed week!