Organizing Your Paper

As a scrapbooker I have collected A LOT of paper. Let's not discuss exactly how much... teehee .... most of you know EXACTLY what I'm talking about. We buy paper that is 8.5 x 11, 12x12, solid, patterned, loose, in a pad ... so many different types. There are so many different ways to organize your paper and depending on your scrapbooking style some ways work better than others. Hopefully this post will give you a few ideas for your paper organization. 

Organizing Solid and Patterned 8.5 x 11 Paper

I bought a metal, 3-drawer, filing cabinet. It works perfectly for 8.5 x 11 paper. Two of the drawers are used for my solid colors. On the outside of the cabinet I used my label maker to label which color was in which drawer. The third drawer is for my 8.5 x 11 paper pads. I don't have a lot but love the ones I have. I don't buy a lot of loose, patterned paper in 8.5 x 11 but when I do it doesn't go in this filing cabinet. I decide what themed folder it goes in with my 12x12 patterned paper. 

Organizing 12 x 12 Patterned Paper

I have a cube from Michaels that holds 12 x 12 hanging files. I use this to house all my loose patterned paper. The following are the themed sections I have:

• School
• Dots/Stripes
• Seasons
• Holiday
• Nautical
• Baby/Kids
• Animals
• Chevron
• Birthday
• Sparkle
• Sports/Games
• Wedding/Love
• Food/Drink
• Travel
• Pirate
• Beach/Water
• Nature 

I also put patterned 8.5 x 11 in these folders too since I don't have a lot. 

When it comes to my paper pads I use cubes from Michaels as well. They are open shelves. I label the spine with either a black permanent marker or I use my label maker. I try to group them by themes as much as possible but not as detailed as the loose paper. I put all baby pads together and school pads together, etc. 

I also have a bunch of paper packs/page kits from Close to my Heart and Echo Park. I store those upright in a cube as well. 

Organizing 12 x 12 Solid Paper

This is one area I have spent a chunk of money and it was worth EVERY SINGLE PENNY. After trying different organization methods for my solid paper I came across these wooden cubes that fit perfectly inside the IKEA cube shelves. Each wooden cube is about $85 and can be purchased at https://www.stampnstorage.com/paper-holder-for-ikea/ .... yes, that is pricey but like I said WORTH IT. My solid paper is in grabbing distance from my scrapbook desk and makes choosing paper a breeze. 

Make sure to check out my recent post about organizing your smaller paper scraps!!! Hopefully this helps you make order in a world of paper madness!!

As always if I can help in any way with your scrapbooking and organization needs I can be emailed at jessie.hood.3@gmail.com 

Organizing Your Paper: Scraps Edition

Check out my video of this post!

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHGETzqI69Y&t=49s

“Scraps”, the pieces of paper left over from cutting a large piece of paper – what do you do with them? Some people hoard them, some people immediately trash them, but how do you organize them to make them useful and not just one more thing taking up space?

Under my desk I have a white drawer unit (bought at Michaels). One of the drawers is labeled “scraps”. It has a cutout design to help you open the drawer, but that cutout is PERFECT for slipping in scraps. While I am crafting away I slide in all my scraps – big, little, solid, patterned. The only scraps that go straight to the trash are tiny pieces – smaller than my palm.  

 

While I’m scrapbooking, I grab scraps from that drawer but it is difficult to see what I have and I tend to grab a new sheet which isn't really needed. Every couple months (or when the drawer gets full) I pull all of the scraps out and dump them on my desk. From there I sort them by color.

How I group my colors:

·         black/white/grey

·         brown/tan/cream

·         red

·         orange/yellow

·         purple/pink

·         green

·         blue/teal

·         patterned

At this point I re-evaluate size to weed out some additional pieces that are too small to be useful. Then it’s time to weed out scraps that are small but “keep” worthy. Pieces about the size of my hand (ones that are too small to become photo mats but are big enough to be used when cutting out cricut images) go into a plastic shoebox. These pieces aren’t organized by color but it is easy to flip through and grab a piece of red paper to make a small birthday balloon. These are also the scraps I let my son play with while I’m scrapbooking.   

So now you have piles, sorted by color, but are “good sized” pieces, or 12in pieces. Where do they go? I have 12x12 plastic envelopes (Hobby Lobby currently has them). I have one folder for each of the color groups listed above. Those scraps go into the envelopes and are stored under my desk in a small rolling cart.

But what about the patterned paper??

After patterned paper leaves “the drawer” ..haha.. it usually goes to one of the 12x12 plastic envelopes, not sorted. When I get time I pull out the patterned paper folder and sort by theme.

Patterned Paper Themes:

·         School

·         Dots/Strips

·         Seasons

·         Holidays

·         Nautical

·         Baby/Kids

·         Animals

·         Chevron

·         Birthday

·         Sports/Games

·         Wedding/love

·         Food

·         Travel

·         Pirate

·         Beach/water

·         Nature

Some pieces are harder than others to sort. A piece that has “fireworks” on it easily goes into the “holidays” folder for the 4^th of July. But a piece with “hearts” on it might go in “wedding/love” or “holidays” for Valentine’s Day. Go with your gut, what is your first thought?

This music piece will go in my "school" folder. It makes me think of school music concerts. It could also go in "sports/games" for a concert. The roses could go in multiple places but I'm putting it in "wedding/love". The sand paper will go in "beach/water" but could also go in "nature". Like I said, go with your gut. 

After the pieces are sorted by theme they go into manila envelopes that are labeled with the theme. These folders go in the front of the 12x12 folder that holds the full sized patterned paper for that theme.

Why are scraps so valuable?

A popular use of scraps is accents on a page when you don't need a full sheet. Scraps are also great for making cards. But my FAVORITE use is when I'm creating titles or accents for a layout. Each piece is small so I don't need to cut a full sheet of paper. I can grab all the colors I need from my small scraps box.

Although having your paper organized helps you not waste paper, it doesn't have to stop you from buying ;-) Happy Crafting Y'all!!!