I'm so excited to be able to be a part of Where Bloggers Create 2012, the 4th annual blog party created and hosted by Karen Valentine at My desert cottage.  Well it's over 2 months since I began my Craft Room Cleanse, in that time  I've tackled projects and techniques I'd never tried before.  I've sanded, painted, decoupaged, organised, thrown out and sold a HUGE amount of stuff and I adore my new space.  I did end up spending money on some items, but gosh was I lucky with my purchases.  I'm still in the same space (no choice there) and I have just the one room for both craft and computing, BUT I now have a room that is nice to be in, useful and easy to keep tidy.  I've found a place for almost everything (just a few little things left to do) and I can find my supplies and put them back with ease.  A huge difference from a few short months ago.  I won't put links to everyone participating in Where Bloggers Create 2012 (as there are quite a few) but the people before and after my blog are...

Spiritdog Studios

Here's a little reminder of where I began, my 'room' is 2 walls/nooks between a major walkway in our house - it's a space that leads from the lounge/dining room into our main bedroom - so gets heavy use.  It also means I can't build anything 'out' into the middle of the room as it would be in the way.  I have 2 active cats and a hubby with minimalist tastes to acommodate - so it couldn't be too highly decorated, no interesting dangling bits and not too girly.

The work space/crafting space

I think we can all safely agree it was a bit of a mess and honestly this wasn't even as bad as it got!  It was dark, cluttered, disorganised and now that I look back not very easy to work in - everything was under something else, in a draw (under something else), in a box etc. 

So today I am revealing my new room and over the next few weeks I'll show you in depth what changes I've made and how I've dealt with some of my storage and organisation issues.  I thought about showing you  everything in today, but you all have so many more amazing blogs to look at it might be a bit much - so today is the overview and room reveal :O)

So without further rambling - this is my new craft space.....

I can believe how much brighter the room looks!

 I had my downlights changed to energy saving LED's and had one extra installed near the doors.

That blank wall space will be filled with art soon.

I built my own faux hutch and re laminated my desk.  I also evicted the computer and craft spinner off the desk so I now have more room.

So neat and organised - is this mine?

I got rid of all my 'odd' folders, and reorganised my bookcases so everything is more ordered and uniform.

I have special behind-the-door racks mounted on the wall to hold all my gorgeous sparkly sprays.  These also double as a shelf to store all my flat flowers and smaller chipboard embellishments - many thanks to the lovely Tamara who gave me these great little jars.


More storage on the opposite wall, plus a few cubes to display a few treasures.  I imagine what's in the cubes will change with my moods.

I completely re-thought what I 'needed' on my craft desk and then set about creating places for the stuff I did actually need close to hand.  I craft, blog and work here, so there is a little bit of everything.

This is perhaps the prettiest area - I love sitting here, all my favourite supplies close to hand, a little art, some of my treasures - so serene.

This is purely a necessity nook, in there are my favourite ink pads, stencils, scissors, glue, journals, tags and 6x6 paper pads, all the things I reach for most often.

Across the room (I can almost roll over there on my chair) is my newly tidied wall of craft supplies.  There are stamps, flowers, paints, embellishments, chipboard etc all neatly stored and sorted and able to be found at a moments notice.  All in all I'm a pretty happy little camper!

Thanks so much for dropping in for a visit, I hope you've enjoyed this look at my cat and husband friendly, minimalist, damask themed craft room :O)  I sure have loved sharing my space with you for Where Bloggers Create 2012 - I'm now off to check out some of the other blogs on the list.