Did you have a kid table for big family dinners? We did. When I was little I loved it. When I was thinking I was big enough to be at the adult table I hated it!

Today I added a new kind of KID TABLE to our home. A permanent one. Not something that is pull out to hold the overflow at family dinners. A different kind.

A crafting kid table.

It is actually something that I have wanted for a very long time but space has never allowed for it. Now I have the space. (You can see my table directly behind Magnus.) This means I can leave my stuff where it is (Harper had a permanent spot directly across from me but it doesn't work with my new table shape) and not have to shuffle things when they wander in and want to be near me - crafting or reading or having large Star Wars battles with my buttons....

A few weeks ago my hubby switched out my crafting table for a new (to me) glass dining room table. I have loved this change. The table has little visual weight because it is clear and it leaves my crafting room feeling very open. Then there the dilemma of what to do with my old table (a dining room table also). It was decided it would go into storage in the basement until a need arose. It never made it 'cause I suddenly realized that if I took out the center piece I could make it into a small table - perfect for the kids.

Today I cleared some of the mess in my scrap space (hey I'm human!) and set up the table. It took Magnus about 1/2 a second to realize this meant he could come and craft when I was working. Out came the stamps, some printer paper and some ink and he was a happy little dude!

I have to admit it was tiny bit distracting but in the best possible way! I cannot resist watching him play and make noises and craft- all at at the same time. He totally knows how to do it all - how to ink his stamps, how to clean them with a scrubbing pad and how to get darker and lighter images. :)

And since he knows I go away to teach he then explained his techniques to me so then I could share this with my classes (his words!). He was very serious about the whole thing. He even volunteered his samples so I could show my classes.

According to Magnus - sometimes when you want a really, really good stamped image it is best to stand so you can really "push off" all the ink. LOL

Seriously. Could he be any cuter?

THIS is the reason I wanted a kid table in my crafting space. I am sure Harper will have some gems like these for me to love.

(I am now on the look out for fun containers and baskets to hold some of their supplies so they can really feel like it is their space.)

loved the show today! ACTUALLY spent about 3.4 seconds on the shopping floor...BAD idea!

Had a great day teaching - loved the students! Students totally make the show for me - I love enthusiastic scrapbookers!

I ACTUALLY took photos today - something I always mean to do but am usually too busy teaching to take many. This time I made sure to snap some but of course I am way too tired tonight to go about finding my cord to transfer the photos...:)

Tomorrow - repeat. :)

I had set up my crafting room shortly after moving last fall and it needed some tweeks now that I had been working in there for awhile. Certain things were too far, somethings were to close and cluttered...oh and the fact that I am disaster waiting to happen so my space always looks kinda like a tornado just went through it. :)

Yup! It needed some work!

So I thought and studied and thought some more to figure out some of the problem areas. One was that my page embellishments had outgrown the baskets that I normally kept them in. Add to this was the fact that my tools (punches, scissors, paints, embossing powders, etc) were not easily accessible so I wasn't using them as often as I wanted.

So I decided to clear off the shelves where I normally keep my embellishments to make way for all the tools (will show you this soon) and transferred my embellishments to a Clip It Up. I have to tell you I was shocked at how much it held.

I decided I would go with a Base Unit and an Upper Tier Add-on which I was hoping would hold my alphas sticker/rub-on and my flat embellishments.

Umm...it held a wee bitmore than that, lol.

I started by adding in all my alpha - basically short items on the top tier and long items on the bottom sorting everything by color.

Next came my basket of flat embellishments.

As you can see my Clip It Up was nowhere near full. I was pleasantly surprised because those baskets held A LOT of supplies. Out came my basket of chipboard shapes. I never, ever expected to be able to add this but guess what? It all fit! Oh and then there were these...

Should I admit that this is not even my full stack of Thickers? Umm...it is...not. Admitting you have a problem is the first step right? OK. Here it is. I am addicted to Thickers. And the addiction doesn't seem to be letting up (remember this recent purchase?)

OK. Back to the organization of my Thicker addiction...

I added everything to my Clip It Up and yowzer! I had cleared out 5 baskets by the end of it! (I used two extra packages of clips - on top of what came with the units.)THAT is a lot of organization for one item! Here is what it looks like now.

So pretty and tidy and so easy to maintain (s0mething even a chronic tornado like me can keep it tidy!)

It is pretty full BUT. every. embellishment. I. own. is. on. there! It has a handle at the top so you can move it around but since I crammed so much on there it was too heavy for me to lift so my darling hubby came to the rescue. (If you only had one tier it would easily be transportable 'cause you can purchase a cover to go over it.)

Each clip can hold more than one item. For each color I put alphas on one clip and embellishments on another. (Some colors ended up with lots of clips.)

For items that I wanted to break up (so I could put them with their coordinating color) I used small zipper lock baggies. (This is also a great way to save space if the original packaging is bulky.)

I love that I can hang all sorts of items together - I just put the smallest items towards the outside of the clips so that I can see them.

It is pretty easy to flip through things - you just sort of swing it out. When I am working I often pull off a clip of certain color letters or embellishments that I think will work and move it to my work area. It makes clean up pretty easy since all I need you need to do is clip everything back onto the clip and hang it back up. It has made a major difference for me and my lazy ways. I rarely seem to have this sort of stuff laying around, waiting to be cleaned up anymore (and I am pretty sure the honeymoon period is over for me and my Clip It Up).

So here it is - my Clip It Up in all it's glory. ;) Does it make you want to scrap? I know I do! Everything is right there at my fingertips. Want to come over and give it a spin??? LOL

(I now have a clear glass table for my work space - this is why it appears that my Clip It Up is floating, lol.)

And to do some enabling - if you are interested - TwoPeas is having a 25% off sale on Clip It Ups until the 24th. *insert evil laugh here*

(more ideas for Clip It Ups here)