My Desk Organisation for my Filofax / Planning Items

I thought it might be fun this week to spin the camera around and show you what my room looks like from the other side, the side that I see when I am filming and you don't! I thought I would show you some of my desk organisation but more specifically where I store my Filofaxing supplies.

I am really lucky that I have a good size desk that was here already when we moved in, I just 'Annaised' it, i.e. I painted it to make it look how I wanted it too. It is covered in paint and ink splotches from all of the painting and crafty pursuits I have indulged in but I love it, I like to feel free to create and not have to worry about protecting a surface or putting anything down and it all shows character. If you would like to see a full room tour you can here.

The light today is so bad, it is really grey so I have had to put my lights on but of course that creates pretty nasty shadows :(

At the back of my desk I have two cardboard boxes, one of which was an old Glossy Box, bottom, I like to recycle and reuse things wherever possible and this is just perfect in size and colour.

On the right hand side I have my most used items as I can reach these quite easily when I am sitting at my computer and that mainly consists of little notelets, mini note pads, sticky notes and sticky flags. I use these when I need to make a note of something, or in planning tasks, they come in handy in lots of different ways.

On the left hand side I like to keep all my inserts ready to use in my planner, to do list sheets & pads, extra paper and my dashboards and page markers. I like to keep my larger paper clips that I use for page markers on the outside of my box so that I can see them more readily and they make me smile as they are so cute! The ribbon paper clips that you can see in the bottom right are from XILE Creations.

I use the old dividers that I used to have in my filofax prior to owning a laminator in the box to act as a filing system, some I have re-named but on the whole I have kept them as they were when they were in the Filofax and they store the relevant inserts ready and waiting to go into my Filofax as and when I need to grab them. If you do print your own inserts I really reccommend printing extras and having them on stand by like this as it means you can grab and go without having to worry about printing all the time.

One of my storage must have items are plastic envelopes. I love them and use them all the time for many different things. I like them as they are clear so you can easily see what is inside but they keep everything all neat and together and don't get all dog earred. I like everything to be neat and orderly! Inside the plastic envelopes I keep my dashboards and page markers but I also have some that I have hole punched as I use them in my Filofax itself from time to time and I find them really very useful.

These are just my key items / storage so please do watch the video for more information and a closer look at these areas plus others.

I love looking at how other people store and organise their items in their house as well as on their desk because I am regularly changing how I work and what works for me and I take a lot of ideas and inspiration from other people. So I was browsing the net as I do frequently for some ideas on desk storage as I would like something that is a little larger and a bit more comprehensive when I came accross this:

Image Credit: http://craftroomsecrets.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/project-life-organization.html

I wanted to share it with you because I myself love it and I know if you are like me, you will love it too! I can really see it working on my desk and most importantly I love it because it is made from recycled packaging so not only is it good for the environment it is budget friendly too! I am on the look out for either a box that is this shape or a box that is the right size that I can cut the sides down now. Please do go and have a look at Craft Room Secrets Blog as this is where I found this image.

No piece of rubbish is safe now and I am looking at everything wondering if I can make it work as storage!

If you have a storage system that you would like to share with me I would love to see it, or maybe you would like to guest blog about it on here? Either way please do leave me a comment and let me know!

See you next week :D

How & Where I store my art supplies

The most frequently asked question that I receive is about what is in the unit that forms the backdrop to my videos. The second most asked questions is how and where I store my art supplies. The answer to these questions is actually the same so I thought it was about time I did a tour for you.

Now this is a long video, I just warn you now as not everyone likes long videos, it lasts about 40 minutes but then as you know I do talk alot. Alot!

The unit itself is the IKEA Expedit and all the boxes, drawers and cupboard doors are also from the same range. I love it and find it really versatile. I still have some "wiggle" room to so it is not too overloaded or cluttered. My only one very slight downside is the smaller white boxes, if you want the one on the bottom you have to take the one from the top out first. This isn't a major issue really just me being picky. Some of the items are small so I didn't want them in one of the massive boxes where it would become a great big rummagey mess. I wanted to be able to access stuff really easily. And I can. I am a big messy but then you are seeing the true me! I contemplated tidying it all up first but then I thought it wasn't very representative of how I actually do use the unit.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy the tour!

WOYWW - 24th April 2013

I haven't done a WOYWW for ages so I thought I would do one today. For a giggle as my desk is soooooo untidy and I mean super untidy. But that is the fun of it right? After all don't they say that the sign of a clean desk is a sick mind? Or something like that anyway. I like to think of it that it is because I have been creative. It is the sign that I have been busy doing something and well quite frankly that is OK with me!

So are you ready for the mess and chaos? There was no moving of anything this is exactly how it looks. Today. Right at this moment. A whole heap of messy stuff plus a canvas work in progress of a bunny! My signature lately is bunnies in this style. I just don't seem to be able to stop painting them. They pop up everywhere!

 

I told you it was super messy. It doesn't help that I have a small desk. Not for long though, whilst we still don't have a moving date, things are progressing along nicely and we will be moving house very soon I am sure. 

And if you would like to see how I create little bunnies like this, here is the vid I made for youtube last week as you may have missed it on my blog:

Happy Wednesday everyone and happy arting and crafting. I am off to see what everyone else is up to for WOYWW!

 

My Labyrinth inspired WOYWW

So what is on my desk today?

Well, this is a page in my art journal. I started creating it for myself as my own private piece but I may display the finished article in my book. Did I mention I have written a book? Well I have and I am just in the process of getting it proof read by the lovely Emma from Kombi Media and then I am going to start looking at publishing. As it is something a little different I thought it might be a good illustration for the book. We will see.

Anyways here it is, part finished obviously and still needs a lot of work.

I love the film Labyrinth. Always have and always will. Anyway I was feeling in a strange mood and the songs kept popping into my head which resulted in me pinning labyrinth pics on pinterest. My painting above is based on this photo of Sarah:

I shall probably put some song lyrics around it or quotes from the film. I am not sure yet but I am just loving the process anyway.

Depending on how it goes I may or may not share the finished piece : )


For those of you that don't know what WOYWW is, basically you take a picture of what is on your desk, no matter what that might be, good, bad, finished or messy. You take a picture of it, post it on your blog and then link up with everyone else taking part here: http://stamping-ground.blogspot.co.uk/p/what-is-woyww.html

WOYWW - A mess and my new journal!

Another Wednesday and so another What's on your workspace Wednesday. I love taking part in these but more over I love having a good nose on what everyone else is up to over here.

So what is on my desk today?

A whole heap of a mess that is what! My Mother in Law came round the other evening with a carrier bag full of cards left over from Christmas and thought that I might be able to use them in a crafty project. She was certainly right. What you can see on the desk at the front there is my new art journal I have made using greetings cards. At the bottom of this post is the You Tube video for Jennibellie as this was made using her tutorial.

Also on my desk I have my PVA glue which I have used to stick it all together with. Next to that is my printer / scanner which I was using earlier to scan some of my artwork. Behind that is my pink and brown sewing box. To the right is my kindle with a couple of pretty papers on top. To the right again is my vase of red roses that my gorgeous hubby bought me for valentines day. Then more papers, and my filofax, scissors, pen and some keys. A whole jumble of a mess but I don't think you are having fun unless you create a mess!

So some more close up photos for you...

Firstly of the flowers as the are lovely. Excuse the brightness of the photos, the sun is streaming in and I have to have the curtains closed a bit else I can't see!

 

I have bound my own journals / books a while ago before I came accross Jennibellie and her tutorials. I had watched her greeting card tutorial and thought I must save some cards for this (saves them going to recycling) and then they turned up which is rather timely as I have nearly finished my current book!

And now close ups of the journal itself...

In her tutorial, Jennibellie paints her cards to remove the designs and writing. I decided to cover mine in leftover scraps of scrapbooking paper and book paper as I will use this as an art journal it will provide either a nice colour or textural element to the base layer or I might even gesso over the page as I go. Not sure yet.

 

And that's it. It looks complicated but is relatively easy and certainly something that I will do in the future!

If you would like to make your own greetings card journal, check out Jennibellie's video below.

WOYWW inspired by Little Raven Ink - Earth Nymph!

Another "what's on your workspace Wednesday"! Yay!

So what is on my workspace today? Well here you go:

Basically today I am scanning my artwork that is in my journal. My journal is falling apart and paint and "stuff" is going through the spine onto the previous works and I just want to scan them all so that I have a record of them so that if the book does get totally destroyed I have a copy of everything. I know a lot of people don't do that, they just don't worry about the messes. I don't normally but there are some artworks in there that mean a lot to mean and are precious and well quite frankly I just don't want to loose them. So it makes sense to me even though it might not to other people.

So in the book there, the first one you see was last nights creation and I will show you a bigger version at the end. Yesterday I was playing on the internet and I came accross this video on youtube. Please watch it, it  is definitely worth it!

I love Courtney's work, I have seen it somewhere before and fell in love with her little nook dwellers as she calls them. They really call out to me and I love them so much. I don't like to copy other artists work for stuff that I share publicly as I don't think it is fair at all. However, Courtney made this video and as a result I have now joined Art Geeks and WOW! the group is full of lovely inspiring people which I am just loving trawling though. I have been looking for a community to become part of and well this is it for me. Fabulous!

Anyhow I digress. So after watching this vid and already loving her work I decided to have a little go for myself. I love the deer antlers so I knew I wanted to incorporate them into the doodle. So off I went and this is the result:

I have to say I actually really love her and she warms my heart. She actually evolved into some sort of Fawn or Earth Nymph in the end because I just couldn't work out what I wanted to do past her head and her. But you know I love that I was struggling because I really like how she turned out.

She was created with a Pilot Permaball, Cheap-o kids colouring pencils for the face, pro markers for the hair which I then drizzled alcohol inks over so it ran down the page, gold stamp pad and sequin waste for the dots at the top, white POSCA poster paint pen and black archival ink and stamps. It took me minutes really and she makes me happy!

So as I say I don't like to really copy other people's work but on this occasion I am glad I did. I think it is OK when it is just for personal use in your own journal. I had created something very simplistic before I saw her video too so I might share those with you one day!

Anyway, thank you Courtney for inspiring me with your fantastic artwork. Love ya!!

On a side note, it is only a week and a half until my birthday (32 years young!) and I have been dropping hints to hubbyliscious about Prisma colour pencils and oil pastels. I know I am being cheeky, really cheeky as he is already taking me on holiday for my birthday but hey, a girl can ask can't she....

Practice makes a whole lot better! WOYWW

Do you remember on this post I said that I was going to start practicing drawing faces. Well I have been. Lots and lots actually and I am really impressed with the way they are coming along.

I have found it really hard to draw black and white faces or faces just using a pen or pencil, yet when it comes to painting I am loving it. I find painting faces much easier because I can play with shading and tones. I just don't seem to be able to do this with just plain old drawing.

Anyway I thought I would just show you how my practise is coming along...

So this is what is on my work desk today for WOYWW. Both are in my sketchbook which I have been using for practise and experimentation. I don't mind how they look but I think it is important to look back on them and see your progress.

So what else is on my desk. Well my laptop that the sketch book is lying on, my kindle, my phone, my cartoon of Ribena. Love Ribena! My brushes, a water pot and my Reeves water soluble wax pastels which is what these two ladies were created using.

And it appears there has been an error with my scheduling as you have two blog posts today. Oh well never mind!