Scrap Happy Girl in an Organized World: 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.