Spring cleaning a bit early - organizing my crafty desk

So, this week has been a great week of thinking about my blog and how I organize my crafty supplies. It's not quite spring in Lift Bridge land yet (in fact, it's snowing a lot today - great for skiing!), but for some reason, I feel like spring cleaning!

After living with my letter trays for a while, I decided that they really work for me. It feels natural to have everything in front of me, waiting to be used. You can see where I started in January.  So, I took the plunge and bought two more trays.

I made a whole bunch of my paper trays to fit into the landscape office trays, and decided to label them with some hardware from Stampin' Up!

As I used my crop-a-dile to punch the holes for the labels, my brain went "ding-ding-ding!" I realized that my crop-a-dile would fit on a letter tray if I made a slightly smaller paper tray to go on its side.  So, here I go - crop-a-dile in pink container on top with a slightly smaller paper tray on the right.  My paper piercing pad (also pink) fits just underneath, too.

A few of the trays are filled, but I'm still deciding what will go in them - so the labels will wait.  I know at least one part will have some of my labeling stamps, and one will have card blanks and finished cards waiting to be priced, sealed, and filed.

I also know I want a few trays to hold miscellaneous embellishments. I can then pull these out and start to play with what is here.  Keeping them closer to my work space will help me remember to use them, but having them in a tray will let me get them out of the way while I'm working on a project.

It feels really good to have an organized desk.  I can create better when everything has a place and I'm not overwhelmed by clutter. It also feels really good to use "special" supplies for me rather than waiting for the perfect project to use them.  The Lost and Found paper is so wonderfully vintage, and those metal pieces from Stampin' Up! are just perfect. I could have waited forever for the perfect project, but now I get to look at them every time I craft.

Over the next few weeks, I'm going to share some digital ideas for cataloging your physical supplies. I'm "going green" and will tell you why and how!

I also took some time this week to take a blogging class - and it helped me to crystallize what I want to write about.  I want to:

• inspire you to make beautiful books and cards from paper
• show you my creative process along with the tools I use
• give you great ways to use my books and cards as gifts for your friends

That covers a lot of ground - what are you specifically interested in hearing from me?  What posts are your favorite on my blog? I'd love to hear what you think in the comments!