Workspace Wednesday | Juli Maniago

Hi everyone! I’m so excited to share my space with you all today. As much as I wish I did, I don’t have a room dedicated to crafting. I’ve just recently graduated from college and moved back into my parents house, so between dorms and my bedroom at home, I’ve always had to maximize small spaces.

This is my space. It’s located in a corner of my room, right up against my windows so I get as much light as possible. I wish it looked more artsy and creative, but it doubles as a study area so I try to keep it pretty clean and distraction free. My desk is a black Expedit from Ikea and I love how much desk space it gives me. I keep all my albums and unfinished projects in the first two cubbies. Thankfully, there aren’t too many (yet). The next cubby to the left has two CD boxes from Ikea with some supplies (all my alphas, word stickers, and labels in one and 6x6 paper pads and scraps in the other) and the one to the right has white card stock and my 12x12 papers. I also keep my paper trimmer in there for easy access. The cubbies beneath my desk just have backup supplies and textbooks – the boring stuff. I also have a plastic drawer set that I probably got from Target. It has my office supplies – more boring stuff. Occasionally, I pull it out from under my desk and keep my laptop on it so I can maximize my desk space while I also binge watching Parks and Rec.

Here’s my desk. I love it, I love it, I love it. I’ve got tons of space to work on projects while also being able to keep stuff on my desk in my view. I’m the kind of person who needs to see things to remember to use them. If it’s tucked away, it’s better off just not existing. I’ve had that metal bar with the plastic cups on my wall forever, but I’ve never really used it properly. I got it from Ikea (sensing a pattern here?). Most recently, I’ve been using it to hang sunglasses, but since I moved my desk to the window side of my room, it’s gone back to being what it’s supposed to be. I keep various writing utensils in that first cup and my small washi tape collection in the other. Usually, I like to be able to see everything I have, but since I don’t have an overwhelming amount of washi, this cup will do just fine. I love that this desk gives me enough space to keep my typewriter accessible because that thing is heavy and if I had it tucked away, I probably wouldn’t use it very much.

I got these two plastic bins from the Target Dollar Spot. I believe they were 2 for $3. That’s my stamp storage, if you can call it that. I keep all my stamps in one and all my past-kit embellishments (that are still in packages) in the other. I keep them on my desk so that I can easily flip through them to find that one last piece of finish off a layout.

And this is my pride and joy – the obligatory Raskog cart shot. I love this thing more than words can describe. It’s everything I’ve ever needed in a piece of office furniture. It saves space, it keeps everything visible, and it’s my favorite kind of blue. Score.

The majority of my scrap stuff is in this thing. The top bin has an Antonius insert with all my cards. The leftmost section has all my 3x4 cards. I organize them by manufacturer and my SC cards are organized by kit. I used some card stock cut at 3.5x4 and typed the kit name/manufacturer with my typewriter. You can also handwrite it, which is what I do when I’m feeling extra lazy. My 4x6 cards are organized the same way, except all my SC cards are one section. My current kits live in the front middle section and I just swap them out when the next kit comes. I don’t usually try to kill my kits – mixing and matching is one of my favorite parts of the process. My roller stamps, inks, and tools like my tiny attacher also hang out on this top level giving me easy access to my most used supplies.

The middle level has embellishment organization that I’ll go over in a bit. Finally, the bottom level has my acrylic paints, watercolor paints, adhesive, and an overwhelming amount of memorabilia that I should probably go through at some point (oops).

The middle level of my Raskog is home to all my loose embellishments and alphabets. The glass jars in the right hand corner are from the kitchen organization section of Ikea. I keep packets of wood veneer in there. The rest of the plastic organizers are from the Target Dollar Spot. I was finding that I wasn’t using many of my loose alphas because I didn’t want to have to dump packaging and then put them back inside when I was done. I love these organizers because I can easily rummage through it and find what I need. Clean up is also a breeze.

So there you have it! That’s my space. It’s not always that neat and tidy and sometimes it looks like a hurricane just tore through it, but I love it all the same. Thanks for reading! Happy Wednesday!