monday made it....cute craft closet!

My first "Linky" of the summer!!

I'm linking up with Tara at Fourth Grade Frolics for a Monday Made It.

I know....it's Tuesday...but better late than never.  Also, unlike most projects on this linky, this isn't a classroom/teaching based project, but it's definitely one I'm proud of sharing!

After years of living with all of my crafty/DIY materials scattered about in about seventeen different places around my house (okay...maybe seven....but it felt like seventeen when I had to find something)....I finally have corralled them all together in one place.

My new.....Craft Closet!

Please note....all photos were taken on my phone in low lighting....so don't expect super high quality here.

First.....time to be real with you all.   Although I think of myself as an organized person, one who doesn't deal well with clutter, when I get busy (also known as "September through June")....I tend to pick one place to pile up the clutter when I just don't have time to deal with it.

Here's what the closet in my guest room looked like before this transformation....yikes.

BEFORE

Left Side....Top.

Left Side....Bottom.

Right Side....Top.

Right Side....Bottom.

I'm a tad embarrassed to show this, but I also love a good "Before and After" comparison.  

So, luckily my family was having a garage sale this summer and I ended up selling enough to make a good dent in all of that stuff hanging out (some of it literally) in the closet.  

I started out with SIX baskets of purses.....and now I'm down to just four.  For those who know me well, that wasn't easy.  I loooooooove purses!  The other basket was wallets, and I downsized those, too.

The bed in my guest bedroom first became a dumping ground for all of the clothes I was going to sell or donate.  Yes, there IS a bed under there somewhere!

Once all of my garage sale stuff was cleared out, it was time to collect all of my craft items in one place.   This made it much easier to see what type of storage I would need, and I could start grouping like items together.

 Sorry, guest room bed.....you'll see daylight soon.

This left me with a completely cleared out closet.....a blank slate for my organization-loving self to embrace.

Perfect time to clean the shelves, walls, and floors that had been covered up for a while.

My next stop was my favorite store....Target of course....to stock up on some items I needed for this project and a couple others I had in the works.

I wanted to do a little something extra....a little something cute....a little something different....to make this stand out from other closets I've recently organized.

Target came through again.

I was in the paint aisle (for another project I'll blog about soon) and saw that they have "wallpaper".  Not the typical wallpaper that people cringe about taking down because it's been literally glued to the wall. 

It's actually more like contact paper....just thicker and higher quality.

And of course, since it's Target....it's absolutely the cutest.

So I found a print I loved, in a color that coordinated well with my paint project, and I brought it home and used a good amount of patience, along with a little compromising with my semi-OCD self, to get this result:

You may already notice the "compromise" on the bottom, right-hand side.  There's a section that I couldn't get to match up with the rest.  Since I had decided to put the pieces on horizontally, I matched up the sections the best that I could, but since I had precut the three pieces I had to shift them down to match.

That left a little section at the end of each piece that was "missing" and had to be replaced with another piece that didn't match with the pattern.

My advice....don't precut all of your pieces.  Also....it probably would have been quicker and easier if there was someone else to help hold the paper while I smoothed it down.  Like I said.....LOTS of patience.

However, since I knew I had some items to put in front of the wall, I wasn't too worried about it.  Most of "that area" will be covered the whole time. :)

So I brought in the drawer cart and storage container I got from Target, along with a bookcase I transformed from a thrift-shop find.  The bookcase will get it's own post soon.  :)

And then I just started filling in the rest!  Lots of these were organization items I already had, so in the end this project didn't cost very much at all.

AFTER

Left Side....Top.  

Purses, wallets, and less than half of the clothes I had in here before!

Left Side...Bottom.

Scrapbook paper supply, craft books, baskets with random items, and a paper cutter.

Right Side....Top.

Gift wrap storage (the long gray thing), extra totes, and a shelf of crafting items.

Right Side....Bottom.

Extra frames, and lots of craft items now grouped and stored in containers!

Here's a closer look at some of the groupings....

I put this on Instagram a couple days ago....I found this adorable jar on clearance at Meijer, and knew exactly what I could use it for-- my washi tape collection/obsession!

The three little boxes (super cheap- from IKEA) hold smaller items, like this one that has mostly ribbons.

Underneath those, some extra small frames in a cute basket that my washi collection outgrew, and any extra fabric and my glue gun/sticks (underneath the fabric) are stored in this cute Thirty-One bag.

This larger storage box (from IKEA) holds all of my stamping and card making items. I had more than I remembered....mostly because they weren't all in the same place.  Now I know not to buy more!

Small scrapbook papers, stickers, and other embellishments filled one drawer.

Hole punchers, and other cutting tools (including my adorable mini-paper-cutter) filled another.

This storage box was the perfect size for my extra gift bags, and party plates, napkins, and straws.

I relocated this basket from my bedroom and it now holds all of my "adhesives"- glues, tapes, and sprays.

This box, which holds all of my extra greeting cards, got a little makeover with some extra wallpaper and....of course....washi tape!  :)

That pot and plant (fake) are both from IKEA.  It serves no purpose other than to be cute.

This tray.....which once held things in my bathroom....got cleaned up and is now holding some of my paint supplies.  The rest are in the bottom drawer in the cart, along with other larger items.

The little drawer set next to it just holds smaller items that would get lost in the other boxes/bins.

That's about it.  Except for some labels that I'll be making for those boxes/drawers.  Yep, even when I'm "done"....I just can't stop organizing!  

I can't tell you how exciting this project is for an organization freak like me.  Not only does it make it easier for me to find things when I need them, but now I won't buy things I don't need.  I'll be saving money and crafting more now that this is finally done!  :)

And now....guests can stay at my house again.

The bed is free!