Organizing Scrapbook Supplies – How to solve “Where did I put that?!”
Today we are organizing scrapbook supplies in honor of National Scrapbooking Day — always the first Saturday in May.
Are you a scrapper? Do you have millions of little bits and pieces of papers, stickers, stampers, paper punches, paper, pens, embellishments, did I mention p.a.p.e.r?? Today we’re going to take a peek into my scrapbooking organization methods.
We all start with a pack or two of paper, a few sheets of stickers, a couple of decorative scissors, and some mounting tabs. Everything fits neatly on the corner of a desk, or even in a tote. But then, the supply inventory begins a slow and quiet explosion.
Before we know it we have a dozen or more packs of paper, scraps of papers of varying sizes, more pens/markers than we know what to do with, embellishments that are saved for the “perfect page”, more punches, more stickers, vellum sayings, chipboard cutouts, and the list just goes on and on.
Organizing scrapbook supplies is a must when you’re a scrapper. Not only does it keep you sane, but you can actually find that embellishment you had been saving for the “perfect page” you’re now working on.
I’m going to give you a run-down of my scrapbook organization tips and tools for the areas that have exploded on me. These are what has worked for me, and hopefully a few of them work for you too.
1. Organizing Scrapbook Paper
OMG! Paper! I use 3 methods of paper organization based on the size of the paper piece.
* Full Sheets of Paper
I keep packs of paper together on a shelving unit. For a while I took apart packs of paper and began filing them by color in plastic drawer units. All the reds in one, all the blues in another, and so on. This comes in handy if you want to do a color theme. Just pull out the drawer and there’s all your blue. But soon these drawers were overflowing, so I began keeping the rest of my packs of paper intact. This comes in handy if you want to do a theme by paper pack. Since all the papers in a packet typically coordinate, it makes for another easy scrapping theme.
* Partial Sheets of Paper
I keep an expandable file folder with pieces of paper that have been cut and no longer fit the definition of a ‘full sheet of paper’ and is small enough to fit in the file folder. Any ideas how I organize these? You guessed it, by color!
* Scraps, Snippets, and Bits of Paper
I have small organization containers that hold any piece of paper small enough to fit. Think bits and pieces. If I can use it, it gets saves. Typically slivers that are too small to hold a mounting tab get tossed. If it’s too big to fit here, it goes in the expandable file folder. These little bits and pieces come in handy when you just need a little something but don’t want to tear apart a 12×12 piece of paper (although sometimes I do that too). Again, organized by what? Color.
2. Organizing Stickers, Stamps, & Embellishments
My stickers, chipboard, and vellum sayings are sorted by theme. I have containers for Christmas & Winter, Words & Phrases (that don’t fall into one of the other themes), Fall & Halloween, Boys & School, and Girls & Blooms. Embellishing Christmas pages is a snap!
Rubber and acrylic stampers are stored in the same type of containers as my stickers. They are also sorted similarly by theme. When I’m knee deep in scrapping boy albums I don’t want to search through flowers and hearts. I want baseballs and dirt bikes. If you have a child who is really into specific hobbies (think music, sports, etc) you could totally have a container or two for just those themes.
Embellishments can be a tough one. I like to keep my smaller ones in these small containers. I used an old coffee mug tree as my base. You could also use a paper towel holder. This is where I store my brads, buttons I specifically bought for scrapping (because I also sew), and really anything small enough to fit. I could also see using the organizer for the mini paper punches above to store these little tiny treasures.
3. Organizing Paper Punches
I don’t have a lot of paper punches so for now they’re just organized in a box lid, although I would like to get them in a more sturdy container so they are easier to carry to my scrapping area. I’m thinking a container with a snap on lid.
Although if I go on a paper punching spree and end up with a bunch of little trees or hearts or whatever I went punch happy with, I store those in a mini-organizer like this.
4. Organizing Ribbon
Ribbon is kept in an over-the-door shoe organizer and organized by color. I like to use the ones with clear pouches so I can see the ribbon that might get buried. This method is not as mobile as some of the other ideas in this post, but I can easily find a few rolls of different colors I can take along for an in-progress album.
5. Organizing Markers, Pens, & Scissors
Markers, pens, and scissors are each stored similarly, though definitely not together. I use old soup cans or re-use glass jars to store each of these. You could totally dress up the containers, or even use cute coffee mugs. At the time I was trying to do things on the cheap, and well, I’ve just not had a reason to change it. If it works, keep doing it! Markers usually take up a few cans, pens in another can (or 2), and scissors in a can of their own.
Conclusions for organizing scrapbook supplies
One thing to keep in mind is this organization didn’t happen overnight. When I first started, I had one bin of stickers. All of them went into it. I had one bin of embellishments, and I think I even stored some of them with my stickers. As different areas of my supplies grew, and/or I struggled to get to what I needed, I would re-organize. Many times re-organizing just meant breaking them into separate containers for similar themes.
You can also take a peek into how I use my organized scrapbook supplies.
Think about how YOU use your supplies and what organization method(s) make sense to you. After all, YOU’RE the one who will be using them, and you might as well make it as easy on yourself as you can. Save that creative brainpower for the actual scrapping, not pawing through bins of miscellaneous stuff not finding what you’re looking for.
How do you organize your scrapping supplies? Were you inspired to try something different? Drop me a note in the comments!
Organizing scrapbook supplies
