My Studio

My studio is on the lower level of our house, the garden level, not quite basement, not quite above ground. I have two lovely windows, which provide amazing light, especially during our Alaskan summers with 24 hours of light. My space is filled with second-hand furniture and storage solutions. I love vintage stuff.

This space started life as the third bedroom. The studio transformation began when I got rid of mirrored closet doors. I constructed shelves to convert the closet into a beautiful built-in storage space. Surplus military dressers purchased somewhere in the vicinity of third, fourth, or maybe fifth hand was my next project. Black, ugly, and “well used,” they were a time-consuming project that included repair, sanding, and painting. The end result created some lovely hidden storage for my creative space.

Most of my stamps are in sleeves and sorted into bins on a shelf, but there are still a few wood-mounted ones that adorn a shelf. I've spent a lot of time unmounting my wood stamps. I'm not quite finished, but I'm getting there. Wood mounted stamps are lovely, that is until you move multiple times. After move number two I started having second thoughts about their weight and the amount of space they take up. I'll be honest, I use them more now that they are unmounted than I did when they were on their woodblocks.

My shelves are filled with art supplies and binders of ideas, including six boxes of photographs, hoping for a home in the empty scrapbooks sitting on one of the shelves. Some day...

There are a couple of clothesline-style displays in my studio, created from trim board, framing hardware, and some clips. These are screwed right to the wall, no fancy hanging hardware to fight with. I use one for a card display where I hang every handmade card I receive. The other is a work-in-progress spot where I hang my hex chart for Copics alcohol markers, invoices for custom orders, my color wheel, and the like.

I have a heavy, vintage beast of a desk for my computer. It was quite a challenge getting it down into my studio, but it was worth it and I LOVE IT! My art desk is an old door conversion. We added some amazing hairpin legs to make it counter height. Did I mention it's nearly 7-foot long?

There are a number of rolling carts with art and card-making supplies stashed in them. I have an island of sorts, created using two beautiful microwave carts, that house my die-cutting machines and my scan and cut. To complete the space are some storage solutions that take things vertical and onto the wall. I opted for metal pegboards with baskets and hangers for storage of paint, ink pads, and my metal cutting dies. I finally have a big studio space that I dreamed about. I built this space one project at a time, as money would allow, to create my creative happy place. I'm blessed to have this much space to create beautiful cards.