Share Your Space-Aliza Deutsch

February 17, 2016 by alizadeutsch 4 Comments

Hello, and welcome to my little world, my petite scrap space. It feels a little funny sharing my space. Even though I share many stories and photos from my life, I feel like now I am inviting you inside my home. And, I can’t help but notice all its little imperfections in front of the company.

So, here are a few disclaimers. I live in a two bedroom apartment that is large by New York City standards, and small by, well, everywhere else in America. So, no brightly lit craft room for me. I have a nook carved out of our generously sized entrance way, with a desk, drawers, some shelving, and a couple of lamps so I can see.

Okay, here goes.

Now, here is what I love about my modest little space.

1. It’s mine.  In my early crafting years, I had two little kids, and a stack of containers filled with crafting supplies, that steadily kept growing. I would carry everything out to the kitchen table, and then pack everything up when I was done. One day, probably around 2007 or so, I said, “It sure would be nice to be able to leave out an unfinished project.” And my husband said, “I bet if we move things around, we could fit a desk somewhere.” Finding ways to arrange and rearrange things to create more space is actually something I am rather good at. And, so, this little space was born. At the time, I loved it because it meant Dave respected my devotion to this hobby. And I loved it because as a young mother of two, it was the only space that was my own.
2.  It’s efficient. With a small space, I have to be smart about how things are organized, and I need to thoughtful about what I have. There is no room for hoarding here. I am pretty sure that if I had a larger space, I would have a larger supply of things that I don’t use all that often.

So, here is a little detailed tour of what I do have, and how it is all arranged.

Papers from my current Clique Kits live on a bookcase that is opposite my desk. As you can see, that is also where we have a bicycle and a phone. (With wires!) Anyway, the most recent papers stay in the white box in which they were delivered. 

Once a new Clique Kit arrives (Oh, happy day!), the remaining papers of the previous kit go into the plastic Iris box below it, or in my other stash of patterned paper next to my desk. That is also where I keep cardstock, loads of page protectors, boxes of ribbon, lots of rulers, and my beloved paper trimmer. That paper bag hanging on my desk is for trash.

 

Let’s move onto my desk now. The most important part, is the left hand side. In a letter organizer and some little containers, I keep my most recent Clique Kit alphas and embellishments, photos, and lots of scrap paper for jotting down ideas, to do lists, and drafts of  journaling. I usually have a month or two of kits in this space, before things get moved to my stash. As with my patterned papers, after things are moved from here, I no longer worry about keeping kits together. While they are on my desk, those are the things I will work with the most.

 

I love working with one kit at a time.  The products are the latest and the greatest. They all coordinate with each other. But I also love looking through my entire collection, and discovering things both new and old that work well together.

And so, here is a look at some of my shelves and inside some of my drawers, where my stash resides.

On the shelves above my desk are 3 containers. One for my go to tools, one for alphas (and the occasional playbill) , and one for other packaged embellishments-usually stickers. Recent layouts are displayed above, until they make their way into an album. 

Other embellishments like ephemera, enamel dots, flairs, brads, sequins, wood veneers, washi, and more live in in the drawers below or next to my desk.

There are more drawers, with more odds and ends-stamps, hole punchers, ink pads. But these are the items that I use the most. When my little containers get too full, or when things are just getting out of hand, I go through my supplies and do some purging.

One other note: I also use my computer, printer, and Silhouette on a regular basis. And those live on another desk in my bedroom.

Also, my desktop  is almost never as clear as it is in these photos.