It's time for the MFT Creative Chat. The My Favorite Things Design Team Creative Chat is a monthly feature, where we are challenged to explore our creative spaces and share valuable organizational methods, tools, and shopping strategies with you. You'll be able to peek into our creative spaces, ask questions, and share your own ideas in the MFT forum. This month, we were asked the following questions:
Show us your desk. How do you have things set up, and why?
What are your "go-to" tools? Tell us what you can't live without.
Visit
Kim's Blog for a full list of designers that have taken up the challenge and get ready to delve into the minds of our creative team.
I have a ton of pictures to share with you today! I hope you enjoy my small, yet very functional space! My main stamp area is currently a corner in my bedroom. The furniture is all from Ikea's EXPEDIT line.
My desk is either very clean and tidy or a complete mess! I am a very messy stamper and I don't clean up after each project. I do however clean up at the end of each day. I hate waking up to a messy desk and since my stamp area is now in my bedroom a messy desk would be the first thing I see in the morning!
My desk is always set up like this. The tools and adhesives that I use the most are always within reach. I like to have things laid out in from of me, I don't want to have to search for things.
My Copics take up one area of my desk. When I first started collecting Copics I purchased one of the Copic Wire Stands for my markers. I do like the wire stands but I don't know that I would go this route again. When I purchased my first stand, I had no idea that I would actually end up buying so many Copics or that I would need so many stands! I currently have four of the wire stands and I will be in need of a fifth one once I receive my package from Santa this year! LOL I don't like the thought of having five wire stands, I think it will look odd on my desk. Six wire stands would be okay, but I don't need that many slots! Yikes, I have issues! LOL
One of the things on my desk that I couldn't live without is a page protector that contains my Copics color chart on one side and my Copic hair guide on the other. I constantly use my color chart to choose the markers that coordinate with my patterned paper. I LOVE to color in the boxes as new markers arrive! LOL Again, I have issues!
On the other side of my Copic Color Chart is my Copic Hair Guide. This sheet was given to participants of the Copic Intermediate class. I photocopied the sheet onto some X-Press It card stock and then I played around with some of my favorite hair color combinations. This is a fabulous resource for me! It makes it so easy to choose different hair colors. I find that I switch up hair colors more often since I have the hair color chart. I am hoping to get another page done over the holidays with some other color combos that I have seen. I would highly recommend doing one of these for yourself.
The other side of my desk is full of all my stamping essentials. I always have my Memento Tuxedo Black and Rich Cocoa ink pads on my desk. I usually stamp with Memento ink when I am using Copics. I love the coverage I get with this ink.
Beside the inks, I have a clear container (yes, it is another chocolate container), that is filled with the adhesives and paper piercing tools that I use on a regular basis.
I have a couple of Stampin' Up! Mat packs along with a few circle paper piercing guides. I don't always use the circle guides, sometimes I find it quicker just to wing it! I use the needles for all the sewing on my cards. That's right, no sewing machine for this girl! It's all hand sewn! 
My essential adhesives include Scor Tape, Jody's Boosters and Red Line Tape, Stampin' Up! Glue Dots and Best Ever Glue. I have an entire shelf in my stamp closet dedicated to adhesives, but these are the essentials that I use every day.
I have a plastic container filled with stamp blocks that sits on my desk. I have a twelve blocks and yet I always seem to run out of blocks when I am having a stamp marathon. There are a few sizes that I don't have and would like to add one day, but for now, this will have to do!
This next box is perhaps the most exciting thing on my desk! This is where I store all my new, soon to be released stamp sets! Each month, when my Design Team package arrives I place the stamps in this box. I also store any stamps that I have yet to use from the previous release here. This box is just filled with fabulous stamps each month! I also keep my card stock ring in here for easy access.
I have a small polka dot pail on my desk that holds all my paper snips, knives, paper piercers, glue pens, gel pens, glitter pens and my bone folder. I have five small pairs of scissors in here and sadly there are days that I can't find a single pair in my mess! LOL I keep the larger scissors just for cutting ribbon, they tend to stay nice and sharp when they don't come in contact with adhesive.
Here are a couple more of my polka dot pails that house other tools including gel pens, stipple brushes, aqua painters, paint brushes, blending stumps, sanding tools and distressing tools. The small plastic tub contains sponges and sponge daubers. These items all sit on the shelves just beside my desk. I purchased the polka dot pails at Target a number of years ago.
This is probably my favorite tool in my craft area, my paper trimmer! I actually have three paper trimmers but this is the one I use for most things. It is a Rotatrim 12" Professional M12 Cutter. They aren't cheap, they run about $200.00 and up, but they are so worth the money! I have had mine for about five years and it cuts as fabulous today as the day I got it. It cuts perfectly straight and I never get a frayed edge. The only draw back for this machine is that it is hard to cut anything under 1 1/2 inches.
For all my smaller cutting I use this Fiskars paper cutter. I think this is the third or fourth one I have had over the years! I wouldn't use it for all my cutting needs, but it works well for the small things. I have two big complaints with this paper cutter, the blades get dull so quickly and the numbers and lines tend to rub off. Despite it's issues, it does what I need it to do. I keep this paper cutter leaned up against the left side of my desk.
I also keep my Scor Pal leaned up against my desk. I just recently purchased the new Scor Pal and I love the improvements they have made over the original. I use this tool on every single card I make!
I hope you enjoyed the tour. I've probably told you more than you ever wanted to know about my stamp desk! LOL Be sure to check out Kim's Blog to see all the designer's posts today. I for one can't wait to see how everyone sets up their desks!
