Michelle's Craft Room

We go behind the scenes at The Card Grotto to tour Michelle's motivating craft room.

"I love that my space is bright, tidy and organised. It keeps me motivated."

Tell us about your space?

I live just on the outskirts of London, England. My craft room, which also doubles up as my study/office, is located in a spare bedroom of my house. This is the room I spend most of my time in. If I am not creating with stamps and dies, I will be surfing the net for inspiration or doing work for my Master’s Degree. I do everything in my room. I make cards; I photograph them and upload them to my blog all from my desks. I also film my You Tube videos here as well.

What have you done to make your space cosy, beautiful or inspiring?
My room is not beautiful in the conventional sense, however for me beauty comes in so many forms. I love the beauty of being organised and this inspires me every day. I love seeing products in colour order too!

How do you keep organized?

My room is a fairly small room so I have to think about how I use it and what works for me with my creative process; what items do I need to get to within arm’s reach or what supplies I can have further away from me. I know that there are certain items that I like to keep on display so that I use them more often but I also do not like to keep too much on display as I feel that for me, it looks less tidy. As I use the room as a study as well, I need to keep it tidy so that I am inspired to work and study as well as craft.

Any tips & tricks for organising supplies?

I make sure that everything has its own place. If it doesn’t then the space will become messy. I like to label my supplies; although I know where all my supplies are, I think it adds to the neatness and feeling of being organised. I also like to try and tidy up after I create, or better still tidy up as I am going along. I like to look to the kitchen department for organising supplies. Kitchen drawer organisers are great for your craft supplies.

Which are your favourite possessions and are there any of your own creations on display?

In terms of my craft supplies, my favourite possession would be my Copic Markers. They have been one of my biggest investments in terms of cost but have been so worth it. I love using them and also I love the way they look on my desk too. I don’t have any of my creations in my room after making them but if I have received a card from fellow card makers, these are always displayed in my craft room for a few months before being put away for safe keeping.

How do you organise your inspiration and ideas?

I use Pinterest a lot for keeping track of card design ideas, colour combinations, sketch ideas etc. but I also have a notebook that I keep on my desk with ideas in too. When I have an idea I try my best to implement it into a card as soon as possible so I remember it!

Where do you look for inspiration?

As well as Pinterest, there are so many amazing designers out there. I love browsing blogs and websites to gain inspiration. It may just be a colour combination that I like or a design element that strikes me.

If you had three wishes, what would you do to make it the dream space?

1. For it to be bigger – I am sure most people say that but I would just like a bit more work/desk space and also more room to organise to my heart’s content!

2. To have a dedicated space for photographing my cards

3. To have a dedicated space for using my die cutting machine