Die Organisation & Craft Room Progress

I'm so chuffed with my latest crafting endeavour that I can hardly contain myself, I guess that I really do need to get out more 😂😂😂 For such a long time I've suffered from the misplaced die problem, you know the one, the I need "THAT" exact nesting die that just happens to be missing from the set in the box (and which box did I put it in anyway?) and no matter how hard you look, your favourite sentiment die or shape has disappeared? So, so many times this has happened to me, but not any longer, this week I finally got organised and its made a huge difference to my crafting endeavours already.

I have a system in my room, well its a work in progress but as each stage of organisation occurs, crafting in my small space gets easier. My stamp and die combos are stored in plastic storage boxes which are labelled with the names if the companies in the box, and until now storage of my nesting dies was a little pot luck and I found that most used dies often went missing as they got covered over with other stuff. Or they would wind up sandwiched between cardstock and packages in a box that they aren't supposed to be in. Hunting for the die I need turned in to an epic adventure and often I'd give up and put the project to one side, or end up using another die that wasn't the right shape/size.

My brainwave isn't original, I've seen lots of similar ideas on Pinterest, but for once I did more than just think an idea would be useful and actually but it in to effect, because it would be practical, but also because it made me think of an additional use for the new Sizzix Tim Holtz Impresslits dies 😉 So I ordered a roll of 3M Self Adhesive Flexible Magnetic Sheet for just over £11. The sheet I got has a pulling force of 40g/cm2 is 300mm wide and 1 metre in length and is 0.85mm thick.

I cut the sheet in half to make 2 x 50cm pieces, and cleaned the door with some cleaning alcohol before adhering the sheet pieces to the door. It went on really easily, if you don't press too hard initially you can quickly peel the sheet off again to reposition it if it all goes wring, once you're happy with the position use a cloth (I used an old tshirt) and smooth it down pressing hard to help adhere the sheet to the wood of the door.

As I said above, it occured to me that the new 3D Impresslits I got recently would make a nice frame for the die holder, it looked a little raw prior to this and I wanted it to look a little more decorative. I cut enough strips of gold metallic card to make enough pieces to go around the whole of the magnetic sheet area and cut 4 of the smaller dies from the 3D Impresslit 'Burst' dies following Tim's instructions (mist with water and pass through the machine 3 times) and the pack instruction sandwich guide for my Big Shot.

Once I had all my pieces ready I then added a gave them a little distress treatment to tone down the colour a little, it was too shiny gold before. I added a small amount of 'Patina' Alcohol Ink and pounced on some 'Gunmetal' Mixative Alcohol Ink to all of the pieces.

When the ink was dried I added a little Cosmic Shimmer 'Chocolate Bronze' Gilding Polish and buffed it off the strips and the bursts and left them to dry. The final step was to squeeze some 'Ruby Slippers' Nuvo Glitter Drops to the centre of the bursts and allow it to dry and set throughly. The magnetic sheet takes a good quality glue really well, I used some Cosmic Shimmer Acrylic Glue to fix the distressed strips in place along the edge of the mat, starting centre bottom and working my way around, once all the strips were in place, I adhered the bursts to the four corners.

When it was all finished and I'd waited for the glue to dry I began adding my nesting dies to the newly created storage area, whilst I was doing that and rummaging in boxes I found a pack of Xcut A5 Adhesive Backed Magnetic Shims that I'd bought from The Range a couple of years ago. The original plan was to use them in some folders for die storage, but the logistics of how many I'd need etc put me off. When the A5 shims surfaced initially I was going to attach them to the door, but I realised that when I want to add more layers of the 3M stuff in the future, the the smaller shims would be in the way.


I couldn't decided where to put them initially, but then I got a secondary brainwave! At the side of the door I have a bookshelf that I keep a lot of my crafting stuff on, its almost 8 inches wide and the A5 sheets would be perfect, its a dead space as the door opens on to it, but its perfect for storing dies. I have some space to add a few more shims in the future and I have some free space on the large sheet for adding more dies. The pull for the shims isn't as strong as the 3M sheet, but its sufficient to hold the dies you can see in the photo.

Prior to adding the sheet to the door I had a couple of hooks on the door that I hung an assortment of clutter and an apron from, the clutter forced the door to not open properly and it would often swing back trapping my arm, since moving the clutter that doesn't happen and that means no more doors closing on me and bruising my arm 😁

The additional bonus which hadn't occured to me prior to doing this but has turned out to be so useful is the fact that I can take the stamp I want to cut or mat and see what size and shape it would look good on, before I even stamp the image. The whole project was rather quick to put together, the longest part was the die cutting and distressing the pieces to make the frame. Having the right size die to hand is briliant and as soon as I've finished using a die, I put it back on the sheet so its there ready to use again, which means no more lost dies 🙌

There's been some more changes to my craft space and its tidier with more room to craft, before now my alcohol markers, Zig pens and an assortment of other items were in front of my Distress ink/oxide racks making getting the lower colours of Distress ink out a royal pain.

It was cluttered and cramped, so this week I set too re-organising things, I packed away some books I don't access very much and changed where I stored some items and generally made things easier to access. There's still some work to do, but already its less cluttered and everything is so much easier to use. If I want to colour with my markers they can be brought down on to the desk to be used and put back when finished.

I sorted through all the boxes of card stock and papers I'd printed off to make cards (I had 6 scattered around the room!!!) I try to save every scrap, so when I cut something out I stick the left over card stock/paper on a pile, piles build and end up in a box, they were all higgledy piggledy so they needed sorting. The irony is I save the offcuts but I don't use them because I can't remember which box the relevant bits are in!!! Now I have a coloured cardstock box, a printed papers box and I've put all the white card (watercolour, Neenah etc) in a poly bag, same for all the mirror card and black cardstock and put the bags in a magazine rack!

I still need to add colour swatch labels to my Oxide inks and I have some none nesting dies that need to go into the folders I got a while ago so I can find them when needed, but already my room is so much tidier and a more efficient space to craft, most of what I need is around me to easily access, and if I thin out some of the stuff I'm not using then there will be even more space.

This week I've also been stocking up on Distress Re-Inkers Black Soot in regular distress and oxide for making galaxy backgrounds. I've picked up some more alcohol inks, blending solution and acrylic paint for splattering on galaxy backgrounds and I'm gearing up for making Halloween and Christmas cards and gifts as well. This afternoon I've been playing with little monsters and action wobblers, just some card blanks to make and I can layer it all up. I have to admit though that I am now looking for more ways to add impresslits to the room decor, yes I'm still patting myself on the back lol!