Crafty Space: Andrea from A.Steed's.Life

Hi! I'm Andrea Steed, from over at "A.Steed's.Life" where I spend most of my time running after my two preschool-aged kids and trying to fit in as many crafty projects as I can into my daily routine. My interests (and supplies) are focused around scrapbooking, paper crafts, photography and painted home decor signs. I've turned my passions into cash by providing crafter-for-hire services and making personalized hand-painted wood signs. Then I don't feel guilty about getting crafty - it's my job!

Now that you know who I am and what I do...let's take a look at where I work. My favorite room of the house - my office. It's located in the center of our home, where a formal dining room ought to be, connected to both the living room and the kitchen.

I use a combination of store-bought and custom-built furniture and storage options, all within a tight budget (and purchased over time).

On the left, is an Expedit shelving system from IKEA with fabric drawers purchased at Target, photo boxes, baskets, and black plastic magazine holders for storage.

This shelf houses a variety of tools and supplies, including paint, ribbon, mini-albums, idea books, my camera equipment, fabric and more.

On the right wall is a custom-built desk that my husband and I made years ago from melamine boards bought at our local hardware store. It only cost us about $250 and was built exactly to my specifications. It has served me VERY well.

The top left corner of the desk houses my alphabet sticker binders (organized in page protectors), my lazy susan pen organizer, and several sets of plastic drawers that were also purchased at Target.

My best tip: I put white cardboard in the front of each clear drawer to hide the messes inside.

Below that is my workspace and three sets of hardware drawers that I use to organize my chipboard alphabets (by letter) and various embellishments like wire, beads, buttons, brads, eyelets, etc.

Just above my computer at my desk sits my most-useful tool - a Silhouette SD- a lettering dream. I just move those mini albums off the shelf and scoot the machine over when I'm using it, and then tuck it off to the side when I'm not.

My workspace is pretty small, but it does the job. I have two large quilter's cutting mats set out to keep my desk protected from paint, glue, knives etc. Next to my monitor sits a large-format scanner, which is currently being used as a shelf for my "to-do" lists! It does work and is a wonderful scanner that I used to use ALL the time, but it only works on my old laptop, so it only gets used occasionally (but takes up a lot of real-estate!)

The back wall of my office has an add-on to my desk (unattached) to create an L-shape for extra workspace and storage. Underneath that section of the desk sit my 12 x 12 paper bins. I bought these metal bins & rollers from IKEA years ago and installed a hanging file system to store all my 12 x 12 papers. I organize them by color, and each color gets four folders:

• solid scraps
• patterned scraps
• solid full sheets
• patterned full sheets

I also organize my stickers and die cuts in a similar system, within a large basket under my work-space. Those are divided by color or theme in labeled file folders. This system of organizing has served me well for years now (after trying several different methods).

The "extra touches" of decor in my office change all the time, but I love my "When I Grow Up I Want to be an Artist" canvas the most! It reminds me that I get to do what I love everyday!

Thanks for taking a look around, and come visit me at my blog anytime!