Hello SCT friends! In our first Creative Spaces We Love post, we featured our own design team member Becki Adams and her beautiful dream space. Today, we are excited to welcome a special guest to the blog to share her uber-organized and bright room, Carissa Wiley! We think you will just love her space set up for cardmaking! Let’s take a look!

Hi! I’m Carissa Wiley! I’m a lover of all things crafty, but my real passion is cardmaking! I love stamping, die cutting, inking, and creating beautiful projects to share with others.  There is nothing like giving the gift of a beautiful, handmade card.  I share my crafty haps over at SprinkledWithGlitter.com, along with video tutorials walking you through the process over on YouTube. You may see the camera mounted to the ceiling in some of the shots of my craft room.  It’s perfectly positioned so that I can turn on the camera and start filming at any time.

I love my craft room! I worked with a cabinet maker to create a space that works for me, and in the end, I think that’s the most important part of any space. Fun and function are key in this bright space and I hope you’ll see that come through as you take a look around.

It’s important to me that I keep things that I use often close at hand and ready to go! So many of the decisions I make about where I store or place things directly relate to how often I use them.

The room is not huge (it’s about 10 x 12), and I like it that way. It forces me to be selective about what I bring in, and creative with storage and organization and it keeps it from becoming overwhelming. I have used the height of the room to my advantage, with hutches on top of a wrap-around counter that allow for plenty of stamp and die storage.  

Before my room was remodeled to its current state, I used the Ikea Gnedby units (DVD storage towers) to house my stamps and dies in stamp pockets and clear containers. I liked them so much, I decided to model my hutches closest to my workspace after these units, which keep my stamps and dies close at hand and easy to reach.

For larger stamps and dies, I chose large drawers. I can store my stamps and dies in the same stamp storage pockets and arrange them using drawer dividers and divider tabs. I love that I can easily flip through my collection to find what I’m looking for. I keep my stamps organized by manufacturer and dies (generally) by category.

My table was designed with friends in mind. While I rarely have friends over to craft, it makes a great place to spread out large projects, wrap a gift, or make a big ol’ mess!  Two sides feature a bank of drawers and an opening on the end with a single tool drawer to an additional friend.

I like to keep all of my most used tools, adhesives, and supplies close at hand. So the drawers nearest me feature all of the things I need and use frequently.

The top drawer features my most used tools, including scissors, a tape runner, a craft knife, a bone folder, and more.  Here’s a little peek inside of that drawer.

Also close at hand are some acrylic blocks and most used black ink pads, a drawer with my favorite adhesives, some of my most used embossing powders, and cleaning supplies.  

To my right, I have a drawer full of pre-made card bases and card fronts.  I love having a drawer full of standard sizes ready for me to ink, stamp and die cut. I keep them organized by size. Along with the cardstock card bases and card fronts, I also keep some pre-made foam adhesive panels (it’s a little DIY I have shared over on YouTube) and my die cutting plates. This keeps them near the die cut machines that I use most, which live on the counter just above this drawer. I’ll have more detailed images of the contents of these drawers over on my blog.

Also close at hand is a drawer full of Copic markers.  Is there anything better than opening a drawer and seeing this rainbow of markers at your fingertips?

Around the room, you’ll find drawers with embellishments, coloring mediums, and other fabulous supplies and tools for creating.  To keep this post from getting too long, I’ll share more images over on my blog.  So if you’re looking for more detail, be sure to visit me there!

Along with another drawer unit across from my workstation, I also have a bookcase (Billy Bookcase from Ikea) that houses colored card stock in clear magazine holders.  I love to see the colors in front of me, arranged in rainbow order. I find it so inspiring! This bookcase also houses boxes of additional supplies, glue guns, and felt.

One of my favorite pieces in the room is the drawer unit across from my workstation.  This was designed to look like a free-standing unit, but here’s a secret: it’s actually built-in. Before the big remodel a few years ago, this area was full of drawer cubes from a big box store.  But I was craving sturdier drawers. So, I chose some adorable gold embellished legs for this unit and had a plug installed behind it so I would have power to one of the drawers.  The top four drawers of this unit are reserved as staging drawers.  I keep my current products for assignments in these drawers.  It’s very helpful to keep these things set aside, but not sitting out on the counter.

Ink storage is another very important component of my craft room. I am an avid stamper, and ink colors are SO. MUCH. FUN. To keep them organized, I used wall-mounted units. They are organized by company and arranged in rainbow order, of course!

Another important part of my craft room, and one that may sometimes be overlooked, is the personalization through decorative vignettes.  I love to use my craft supplies, projects, and other odds and ends to personalize and decorate my space.  Here is a look at some of my favorite areas.  Keep in mind, these areas could easily be nixed for more storage space, but I find these pretty little areas so inspiring.

I’m sharing a few more photos on my blog about my camera setup and lighting.  So if you’re looking for more information about that, be sure to click HERE.

I love my space, and I hope you’ve enjoyed this look around my favorite room in the house. I love that this room is bright and colorful and full of things that I love!  It is a reflection of my crafting style. In the end, it is perfectly suited for me and my needs. While I hope it’s been inspiring, I hope that you know that your room should, above all, work for YOU and be inspiring to YOU!

Find more of Carissa’s work and creative space here : Blog | Instagram | YouTube | Facebook