It’s the start of a new year, and I find myself looking to reorganize EVERYTHING. The art studio is no different, and today I want to share with you some great organizing tips for your studio or craft room.
How do I organize my art studio?
The best way to organize your art studio is to lay out all the tools you use currently and begin to assess your storage needs. I personally change materials frequently, but am currently working the most with watercolors, gouache, acrylics, colored pencils, and neocolors.
What should be included in an art studio?
I love to make colorful watercolor swatches of all my paints and write the names on the back. I’ve been keeping them in this amazing drawer system that I’ve used for tons of different things in the two months I’ve had it. The size of these drawers are perfect for pencils, markers, washi tape, watercolor tubes, glues, and more. I love that they can stack securely to hold lots of supplies, and that I can easily rearrange them depending on my needs. They also work beautifully for pantry or make up storage. I even put all my wrapping supplies into it over the holidays to keep my tape, scissors, tags, pens and twine organized.
It really depends on your space, but I have another post coming with different art studio set ups I’ve had in the past – everything from inside a closet to a completely custom studio space that we are wrapping up building right now. I’ve been slow and intentional with my decisions which has been a really good thing in the long run. But honestly, it doesn’t take much to have a workspace. A desk with a few drawers, and a comfy chair is what most artists I know use the most.
How do I organize my creative space?
If you have the space for it, I like to create areas for my different needs. I do a lot of work in surface design, painting, crafting, and sewing so I took all those things into account. When I was working from closet office #2 space was very tight and it was a temporary set up so I boxed up everything except for my painting and surface design tools and books, and put it into storage.
This is the filming space we created along the back wall of my painting room.
That way, I had space for the things I knew I would be using the most. I knew I’d need lots of small drawers so I had a desk custom built with shallow wide drawers, but I love having the option to move my supplies around on my desktop as well with the little drawers mentioned above.
One of the things I love most about this drawer style is that they pull all the way out from their frames so I can take them from place to place depending on where I’m working.
The size of these drawers is perfect to store acrylics, gouache, pencils, watercolors, crayons, neocolors, crayola supertips (if you’ve been around here long you know those are my favorite kid markers), glues, etc.
Another bonus is the little lip on top of the drawers to keep things from sliding off the top. The lip also helps the drawers stack securely so they aren’t sliding around when you’re opening them.
What is the best color for an art studio?
There are a lot of different options, but for my studio I chose Pure White by Sherwin Williams. I had the chance to check it out at my friend Lizzyography’s photography studio and fell in love with it. It’s the perfect white for me, not yellow, not pink, not blue. Just white. You can see it well here in my post on Camera mounts, and my ceiling is painted the same white as my walls. Several years ago we discovered Sherwin Williams Emerald paint and I’ve never looked back. It washes off well, and touches up without the dreaded sheen changes that you find with other paints. A++ from me. The coverage is superb as well.
How do I organize my art?
I like to use these archival boxes from Blick to keep my favorite original paintings safe. They are museum quality, with metal corners on the sides (no adhesives), and a convenient drop front on the long end to carefully sort through work.
I also have several plastic snap top folders from the dollar store that I keep each project and reference in while I’m working on projects. This keeps everything together and fairly safe from splatters and spills. I like that they are clear and I can see what’s in them easily. Obviously they aren’t the best quality, but you can’t beat the price of 4 for a dollar.
Want to see more progress shots of the studio in action? Be sure to follow along on Instagram and Facebook, and Pinterest!
Designing a workable and attractive Art Studio has been at the top of my list this past year, and I’m happy to say we’re finally nearing the home stretch. Organization and functionality is at the top of my list. In my work as a professional designer, I use a lot of different supplies, and keeping them close at hand makes my work flow faster and more reliable. And also more profitable. I was raised by a professional organizer who always taught me that losing time looking for things comes at a cost.
Cricut just launched their revolutionary new mini cutting machine called the Cricut Joy! The Cricut Joy mini Cricut has the cutest artwork available in it’s new collections, and I’m sooo happy I can finally show you what I’ve been working on!
The first thing we did was package up kits for everyone. On the back of our embroidery blanks, there are thread color suggestions to make it easy to match threads perfectly to your project. I used large lip and tape cello bags from Amazon, swirl lollipops, golden gumballs, and iridescent paper shred all from the Walmart party aisle to finish off the kits. I also used my Cricut to cut little paper butterflies to hold each embroidery needle so they wouldn’t get lost in the packaging.
Embroidery Party Supplies
Embroidery Panels: we used the Natalie Malan Cacti and Wreath available in Walmart stores and for pre-sale on Amazon.
This is a sponsored post that contains affiliate links.
You may have been following along with my paper printables and things from Miss Alice’s delivery and announcements, so this blog post will probably come as no surprise to you! Around here, watercolor florals are not in short supply. We celebrated her first birthday with a simple family party (blog post coming soon), and surprised her when she woke up to a room filled with balloons!!! She was so excited to see her siblings’ happy faces playing in her room and couldn’t stop batting balloons around.
DIY Watercolor Floral Crib Sheet
My gift to Alice was her new crib sheet with fabric I designed for Spoonflower. They kindly sent me two yards of their Basic Cotton Ultra in the pattern Watercolor Peonies for Alice. Sooooooo in love!!!!! It’s such a great print, and it’s so crisp and pretty on their Cotton Ultra. And it’s washed up wonderfully so many times already. It matches her swaddler from the hospital, and turned out exactly how I imagined it. I looked forever for something similar in a crib sheet and couldn’t find anything I liked, so I made my own. And it took me less time to sew it than it took me to write this blog post!!!! It was SOOO much faster than I imagined! 😉 You can find links to the fabric by clicking here. And here’s a good crib sheet sewing tutorial. I’ve also got a great video tutorial over on the Spoonflower blog on how to make your own no sew blanket so be sure to check that out too.
Her new crib sheet is my favorite thing in her room, and I love the thought of her waking up on top of a pattern that I painted for her before she was even born.
DIY Watercolor Floral Garland
My other gift for alice was making her another cute banner to celebrate. I loved the cute bassinet one I made for her birth (free download for that here) so much that I wanted something with that same look and feel. I used my wonderful watercolor pattern fill for Cricut. If you haven’t used a Cricut Design Space pattern fill before, there’s a great tutorial here. You can find the same pattern fill I used here in the pattern library.
I’ve created a little screen capture video tutorial for you to see how I did the pattern fill. Click here to continue to Cricut Design Space, and try it out for yourself for free! In design space you can try out images and plan your project before purchasing any files which I LOVE.
Click on the link below to download the free .svg cut files.
This post contains affiliate links, which means when you click through to Cricut.com I will receive a commission which in turn will help fatten up this anemic underweight little lady of mine, and keep me delivering great content and freebies to you! xoxo
Hey y’all! I’m busy prepping all my kits and two classes for Pinners Conference in Dallas Texas! And I wanted to share a promo code just for you for 10% off your registration fee for classes!
Pinners Conference Promo Code
The code is: NatalieMalan (and it’s not case sensitive). You can also use the code:FreeShopping …..to pre register for entrance to the trade show floor, but not any classes.
My watercolor classes have filled up INCEREDIBY quickly in the past, so make sure you sign up ASAP if you want to come! My class in Utah last year had a line around the space starting 45 min before so feel free to come to class early and purchase a kit and be ready to paint as soon as you walk in the door. I’ll be by the classroom early chatting and helping out with the kits. The $25 kits include a 36 color watercolor set, a great brush, pieces of paper to get you started. Can’t make it to the class? Check out our kits online here.
This year I’m offering TWO great classes;
Introduction to Watercolor
This is a great place to start if you’ve never watercolored before. We will talk about paint consistency, color mixing, edges, and more! And you will have time to practice what we have talked about in class while I walk around and answer questions.
Intermediate Watercolor Florals
The follow up class for the Intro class! We will go for it and start painting some really fun flowers in this class!
Optional items to bring to either class:
Water bottle if you have one! Preferably for water, Diet Coke is amazing, but may be a little sticky to paint with.
Questions! This is the BEST benefit of a LIVE class!!!! Ask away!
A smile! Because it’s scary on stage. And I love a good reassuring face in the crowd! And who doesn’t love a paint party?!
Just a quick post about what I’m doing these days to take care of my skin. (Somewhere a baby is crawling to a toilet and a toddler is escaping out the front door while I’m getting ready in the morning. But that’s beside the point)
Drink lots of water.
I don’t drink nearly enough most days and I can tell a difference when I do. My skin is more youthful and less dry (especially around my eyes) when I drink enough.
Exfoliate
PMD sent me their Microderm abrasion kit to try out recently. I’ve used Microderm abrasion for a few years now in the form of a cream. I have some slight scars on my chin and it makes them much less noticeable. But the PMD has been on my list to try for a while now, and I honestly thought it had needles in it for some strange reason???? Good news; it doesn’t. It uses unassuming little sander discs. So yay for not being scary.
I was excited to try the PMD out and see what I thought. Now, I want to be clear that the people at PMD aren’t paying me for a blog post; I was sent product for an Amazon review, and I’m posting it here because I really truly like the product.
I read all the instructions and gave it a try (I have sensitive skin so I used the gray disc). And my skin has been feeling dewy and soft since. I use less moisturizer and my make up goes on smoother when I take the time to exfoliate.
Moisturize & Exfoliate
My friend Kami who blogs over at Sweet Charli did a periscope recently about a product that I already had but never thought to put on my face. Amlactin is a product that my podiatrist recommended for super dry calloused feet and I’ve loved it for years. I buy the handy Costco pump version now after seeing her scope. Rub some on your feet morning and night and you’re good to go. No more scouring with pumice.
I use Amlactin at night every other or every third day. Don’t use it right after the PMD; be sure to wait a couple days. Also, don’t use it in the morning because it increases susceptibility to the sun. Which brings me to…
Sunscreen
Best thing my mother ever taught me for my skin. I wear it every single day. Rain or shine. Always. I started when I was 11 and fell off the wagon a little in college but I’m a believer for sure.
Cleanse
Right now I’m using a gentle moisturizing cleanser morning and night. Love Cetaphil. I also love Creamy Cleanser 2 from Mary Kay.
Vitamin E and Moisturizer
The Mary Kay Time Wise Moisturizer has been my fave since forever, and now I’m mixing one drop of Spring Valley vitamin E with it at night when I apply. I get my Mary Kay from Debbye (debbye (at) debbyecannon (dot) com) who also happens to be my mama, and skin care inspiration. She doesn’t know I’m posting this. Like I said, these are my honest opinions and routine.
Tell me your favorite tricks and tips??? In the comments below or catch me on Instagram!
I’ll be doing a live Periscope on Thursday July 21 at 9pm MST to hear your thoughts and answer questions. I’ll also be sharing another tip, that I forgot to include in this round up, with a product you probably already have at home!
Be sure to head over to Cricut before 7/5 to try out two of my favorite “One Cut” cards! My Get Well Soon card and also my Thanks card are both available as part of their Cricut Free Cut of the Week program! They are both from my Simple Cards Cartridge – which is chock full of easy, fast and cute cards to make! When I was designing it, I kept thinking that I wanted something I could make for friends and family that had my own personal touch, but that was fast and easy to put together for those days when I had no extra hands and no time. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!
Update!!!!!
Guys!!! I’m pretty sure the ENTIRE cartridge is free to use this week!!!! Go play!!!
I’m so excited to show you a lovely commission from from Sita Montgomey Interiors! She was looking for something light and airy to compliment her family room and decided a landscape would work best for what she had in mind.
I’ve followed Sita’s work for quite a while now, and have always loved how she incorporates classic styles with a contemporary twist.
We are so excited to show you the final project! Be sure to check out all the pics and our feature here at Sita Montgomery Interiors!!!! Watercolor Rhythm in Blush is now available as a print in the shop; you can find it here.
I’m so excited to show you the first installment of my newest line, Watercolor Wedding Vows for Cricut! I love how this print and cut series has everything designed for you, yet you can easily change the the wording to fit your occasion. Birthdays, baby announcements, tea parties…. the list goes on for cute occasions that would go well with this style of watercolor florals. I may have used it myself a time or two already!
I’m loving all the soft painted peonies and roses that are so on trend right now, and the Cricut showcases them so well in this collection. I cannot tell you how excited I get to print off my party goods and then sit and watch as my machine trims them all perfectly for me.
Cricut Meet the Maker Interview
You can catch me answering some questions about weddings, the new line, and my inspiration here on the Cricut “Meet the Maker” series! I love the way they let you get to know the artists behind their lines with their fun interviews – be sure to go check it out!
*This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive compensation to feed the family and keep creating great content for you to enjoy.
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This is the filming space we created along the back wall of my painting room.
Cricut just launched their revolutionary new mini cutting machine called the Cricut Joy! The Cricut Joy mini Cricut has the cutest artwork available in it’s new collections, and I’m sooo happy I can finally show you what I’ve been working on!
