Welcome to our homecoming mum craft room. We will call this post an informal photo tour of our craft room. We often get asked to make a tour of our organization and workspace and we are working on a full craft room tour on our YouTube channel. So, until then, bookmark or pin this page as we will update it as we find new supplies that help us be more efficient in making homecoming mums for our clients. And who doesn't love craft supplies anyway, right.
If you have a homecoming mum business, make sure to join our newsletter and subscribe to our YouTube channel. If we find something we think really helps us be more efficient we will share it with our subscribers.
We tried to divide these products into categories to make it easy for you to find so you may see a product listed more than once. Can we say scissors! We have acquired these items over many seasons of crafting and making homecoming mums. If you are new in the business, pick some items you think would best help your business be successful this year. We are here to help with any questions.
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Our Favorite Essentials
You can see a review of our favorite staplers here.
Bostich Office Plier Stapler - for braids, loops, and speciality ribbon (always remember to staple "backwards")
Bostich Staples (make sure to buy these staples below as standard staples will not work)
Bostich B8 Plier Stapler - heavier duty for skirt and actual mum assembly
Bostich B8 Staples - these are powercrown heavy duty staples
Automatic Stapler (new to use this year and we are loving it!)
Surebonder Cordless Hot Glue Gun (Black and Green) - Mini Fine Point Tip
Surebonder Lynn Lilly Addition Cordless Hot Glue Guns (Teal and Pink)
Large Hot Glue Gun - we use this for attaching flowers and assembly. Make sure to wear finger protectors as this glue gets hot!
Cricut Paper Trimmer - we have two and hang one on our pegboard using this paper towel holder trick
Ribbon Cutting Machines
As our quantity of homecoming mums we sold each year grew, we knew we needed a way to be more efficient with our time. Remember time is money, especially in a seasonal craft business like our industry where you prep all year for a 2-3 month selling season.
These two machines have helped us grow our business. If you already make a large quantity of mums each year or are looking to grow your own business we would suggest taking a look at these two below:
Small Cutting Machine (is a tape dispenser)
Homecoming Mum Prep & Assembly Essentials
Adjustable Costumer (White) - we talk about it more in our 6 Must-Know Tips for Upgrading your Homecoming Mum or Garter
Wheels for Costumer (not required, yet amazing! You will need the ability/tools to drill through the metal base of the costumer.) You can see the difference in this quick little video.
We R Memory Keeper Hole Punch - will punch holes in stacks of ribbon & braids for hanging
Bags to Store 6" Loops Flat - the 6" ones are shown here. We used these for all our loops until we found the larger ones above. Now we put our 6" backer loops for garters inside the 8" for matching sets .
Bags to Store Order Forms, Cutouts, Trinkets etc - we love this size because they hold an 8.5" x 11 printed order form
Avery Hole Reinforcements - we put these on the top left cover of the above bags underneath the zipper closure and then you can put the shower hooks through them for easy storage on hangers or pegboards along with the rest of our premade sets.
Hangers for Assembly and Storage - we use these hangers for storing prepped sets as they are cheaper and don't get as much use. For everyday use with mum assembly and design we prefer to use these hangers as the clips are easier to use.
Shower Hooks for Storage - we use these shower hooks to store prepped sets
Hanging Hooks - these plastic hangers are great for storing precut 36" bling. Get the jhook option so you can remove something from the back of the pegboard holder if needed. These boot hangers are a great hack for storing precut ribbon and braids on pegboards.
Making Cutouts: Our Favorite Heat Press & Accessories
You can see many of these items in action in our tutorial on making homecoming cutouts using HTV.
HTV Ront Heat Press - if you make a high quantity of cutouts we think they made this for homecoming mum professionals! Also comes in a light blue.
HTV Tape Dispenser - a must if you do a large quatity of cutouts
Cricut Cutting Machine - we have both a Cricut Explore & a Cricut Maker. If we only had one it would be our Maker as it cuts fabric for our homecoming bear custom outfits. We have them stacked on a 3D printed stacker we bought off Etsy a couple years ago. Last I checked it was not available. If I had to purchase a new one I would go with this stacker. I love that there is an option to have the bottom Cricut fully or partially opened. If you are investing in a second machine think about only using your old machine for glitter cardstock to keep your new machine as glitter free as possible. We use our Cricut Explore primarily for glitter cardstock to keep our Cricut Maker as clean as possible for cutting HTV vinyl fabric and more.
Cricut Joy - we love having this on our desk for quick cuts. We keep our scraps in the TE Simple Storage Cabinet from Stamp-n-Storage right by our Cricut Joy. They have several options and sizes to choose from. You can purchase the inserts from Stamp-n-Storage, Hobby Lobby or Michaels. We talk about how we use our HTV scraps in our cut-out tutorial.
Cutting Mats - we buy our cutting mats in bulk when they go on sale and combine our Cricut Access discount for a great cost per mat. The bulk mats usually last us several seasons. Check out our video for a trick on how we resuse our old cutting mats for glitter cardstock. We store them on a command hook on the side of our cabinet for easy access.
Portable Option for Storing Multiple Cricut Machines - when we first took the plunge into using two cutting machines we used this portable cart from Michaels to hold our machines. If you install the top rack upside down the the bottom machine will open fully when in use.
Bulk HTV Rotary Cutter - we have tried several paper trimmers and finally found THE ONE to help us cut super straight lines for our bulk glitter HTV quickly. You can see it in action here. See picture below for how we store our precut sheets. It comes in 20" wide rolls and we cut it into 12x12 and 8x12 sheets. You can see it in action here.
Cricut Mini Heat Press we use our HTV Ront for most cutouts but our mini is a go to for inticate cuts and a must for ribbon. We use it to take creases out of any acetate ribbons and on certain braids (always use teflon between ribbon and iron. - (can also be found on Amazon)
Cricut Large Heat Press - you can press all homecoming letter loops at one time w/ this size. The one we have can be found on Amazon or there is a newer version on Cricut's website.
Cricut Lamps - we keep our floor lamp above our weeding area. It really helps us see those harder to see weeding lines on white and silver HTV.
Cricut Bright Pad - we love that it is portable. When using in our craft room, we keep it at an angle on this laptop stand. This helps us not have to lean over as much when weeding which our back greatly appreciates.
Goo Gone (for cleaning those scissors)
Teflon Sheets (Reusabale)
Cricut Basic Tools Set - we have a dedicated pair for cutting HTV (they get sticky).
Cricut Accessory Tool Holder - we store all our Cricut and cutting machine tools, pens and blades in these 3D printed organizers. Choose the color that matches your machine or best fits your personality!
Kallax Unit (this is on wheels as well and the you just need a normal drill for this one vs putting the costumer on wheels)
Stamp-n-Storage Inserts - we use the 12x12 Paper Holders (Kallax - 15 Slot). They come made for Kallax or the standard size which is slightly taller and wider. We like the 15 slot because it holds more variety, but the 12 slot may be right for you if you want to have a higher quanitity of one item. We use the paper spacers to keep our 8.5x11" paper from pushing back but they also make inserts for 8.5" x 11 paper. The paper sleeves are great for easy access to our larger scraps and have a tab to label your colors. Stamp-n-Storage comes in unfinished or white. If you choose unfinished you can leave it that way or paint it white yourself. I would suggest reading their paint policy to see which is right for you. Stamp-n-Storage products are very high quality and one of those investment pieces for your craft room. We added ours two at a time over several years.
Tape Dispenser we use painter's tape to keep glitter card stock down
IKEA Skaddis Pegboard - we attached one on each side of our Kallax unt. We love our skaddis accessories.
Storing Larger Cutouts - we use these large paper storage pockets from Stamp-n-Storage to store our larger pre-made cutouts that go on our flower heads. In fact, Stamp-n-Storage is the only place we have been able to find 12x12 hanging file folders!
Storage Containers
Cricut Joy Vinyl Storage we love this little storage unit from Stamp-n-Storage because the 6x7 storage pockets are perfect for keeping precut vinyl to use on our Cricut Joy to make personalized hangers You can see it in the picture sitting on top of ourHTV scrap storage unit also from Stamp-n-Storage.
Photo Cases - we use these to store cut-outs as well closer to our cutting station. You can find them at Stamp-n-Storage, Michaels, or Hobby Lobby
Small Storage Drawers - put this on your Amazon Prime watch list. We have collected ours over the years during sales. They are excellent quality and have dividers. We love this one because it fits 8" ribbon. We use these to store cutouts and ribbon scraps.
Dollar Store Fridge Bins - three of these fit perfect in a Kallax drawer and they also fit 8" ribbon
Wall Hanging Drawer Organizer - yes, it is really for clothes :) You can see it here.
Ikea Skadis with Lid - we love these for bling because they are portable
Photo Cases - we use these to store cut-outs as well closer to our cutting station. You can find them at Stamp-n-Storage, Michaels, or Hobby Lobby
On Our Pegboards
A quick word about pegboards - think about all the items you use most often and try to find a place for them on your pegboard. Any supplies or tools that are in arms reach will save you valuable time during your crafting and busy homecoming season. Also, be creative, we love our Ikea Skaddis pegboard & all our pegboard accessories but also use command strips to attach things to our pegboard. For example, our blow dryer holder or a towel rack used for holding transfer tape. One thing to remember if you decide to go with the IKEA pegboard is accesorries made for regular pegboards will not fit these pegboards. We like them because they are easy to assemble, with love the accessories and well they are just pretty!
Paper Towel Holder Tranfer Tape Holder - we use this hack to hold our transfer tape over our paper trimmer. You can check out the video here.
Blow Dryer and Holder - we use a blow dryer to remove cutouts and other items if a change is needed. Heat up the glue and remove. Be careful using the blow dryer on any cutout on the flower head so as not to heat up the glue that is holding the flower. We all use this spray to help our bows hold their shape.
Ikea Pegboard Accessories - we use the baskets to hold our storage bags and the shelfs are very versatile. The open container holds our staples and shower curtain hooks. You can see a close up of our favorite bling and how we organize it here.
3D Printed Ribbon Holder - we were excited to find this ribbon holder on etsy because the x-large size fits our 100 yard spool of homecoming ribbon. It is made for both IKEA or regular pegboards so make sure to choose the right one for you. We have a video of it here.
Craft Room Organization
Hand Held Vacuum (you can see it in action here)
Craft Room General
If you stand a lot in your craft room during mum season and have a hard surface we highly reccommend an anti-fatigue mat. We love the fun pattens in these mats. They are not just for the kitchen!
Do you have a favorite homecoming mum tool or orgaization item? We would love to hear your best time saving tools. We all know the homecoming season gets crazy and every second counts!
Want to see more of our favorite craft room items in action? Join us on YouTube for tutorials and craft room organization tips. That's it for now, until we find something new........
Happy Creating,
Rayanne and Sabrina