Getting Organized the Pretty Way

I've been meaning to get my crafting space more organized for a while now. After the work was done on our house I had just enough time to throw it all together and make it mildly functional. As I've had time I've been working on making it more organized. So, this week and last I sorted my stash and even my scraps and laid out my supplies in an organized fashion. I've seen pictures on lots of people's blogs of their crafting table and always admire how organized they are and how much inspirational material people keep up in their view. So, I decided to build an inspiration board that also organizes me. I've been meaning to create a wall organizer for a while after looking at the project in Lotta's book Simple Sewing. Then for Christmas I got Anna Maria Horner's (who just had her baby!) book Seams to Me. It was only in the last few months that I was able to really sit down and pour through it. She has a project for a fabric covered magnet board that I thought I could alter to use up some cork board that I have. In the end, I decided to create a cork board that incorporates a wall organizer. I love the way ideas germinate even when you don't know it's happening! So long story short...or longer, whatever. I adhered foam board to the size of cork I wanted as is picture below.


Then made a fabric sleeve with pockets at the bottom as in this shot, slid in the cork board and blind stiched the end. (Lesson for the future, leave the short side open for blind hand-stitches unless you really like hand-sewing, which I do not.)
This is how it looks completed. I don't have a picture of it hung up because my crafting space is in a dark basement. But, now, next to the boxes and grey walls is this great, bright organizer ready and waiting to inspire me.

Here it is hung up, on our oven. This is sure to cut down on the under-the-breath swearing in this household as I will be able to locate my exacto knife! I will say this was a fun project and is essential for a tinkerer like me. As I flit from one project area to another my list of 'must have' tools tends to shift, this way I can keep things right in front of me.

I'm thinking I need more of these, especially behind our kitchen office space for bills and cards and wedding save-the-dates. And, of course, kid art. Might as well use of the cork board. Both of the books, Lotta's and Anna Maria's are fantastic--elegant and whimsical projects.