Paper Organization: Revamped

As I write this, it is snowing outside... I think everyone agrees when I say, this has felt like one of the longest Winters ever! It seems as though Spring will never arrive...  In the meantime, I'm taking advantage of these cold winter nights to organize my crafting area. One of the most important areas of my craft room that needs to be organized (in my opinion) is paper (both cardstock and designer paper). I did a blog post almost a year ago now on Paper Organization (Part 1 and Part 2) and I have improved it a little since then. The filing box system works great, but I thought I would make it that much easier by adding tabs with the actual cardstock colours so I have a good visual:

My photo box of scraps is organized the same way. I used the Tab punch (a retired Stampin Up product) to punch out tabs of each of the colours and then simply stapled them to each ziploc bag. It makes it so much easier to find that specific colour I'm looking for!

And because I've added SO much more designer series paper to my collection, I've had to update my Stampin Up Colour Coordination Chart. Click here to see the latest version. This chart lists the colours alphabetically and in the 2nd column lists the DSP that this colour is in. It's SO handy. I can't count how many times I've used this chart! 

That concludes my paper organization... for now :) 

Papercraft Storage {Organizing Tools & Embellishments}

Along with enjoying the beautiful weather and doing some shopping, I spent a good part of my weekend organizing my craft area. Now that my paper is all nicely organized, I continued on with my tools and embellishments. This may be a bit of long post, as I wanted to combine tools and embellishments into one. Let's get started...

My ink pads are currently stacked on my crafting table. I have organized the piles by colour, like so:

My ink refills are placed in a box in one of the drawer organizer cubes from Michael's. I generally don't use these all that much, so I have them tucked away.

Someday, I would love to invest in the Stampin Up Colour Caddy. It holds up to 48 ink pads and ink refills can be put on top of the caddy. Even though it does take up some room on the table, it would be so handy!

I use sponging a lot on my papercraft projects, so I recently purchased the pack of 3 large round sponges from Stampin Up. I cut them in 8ths and using my tab punch, punched out tabs in different colours of cardstock and stapled them to the top of each sponge. I stuck them in a clear plastic tub that I bought at Michael's (they come in a pack of 3) and I have it sitting on my desk for easy access.

Moving on to my most favourite tool - punches! I have collected a lot of these over the years and they make papercrafting that much easier! In our apartment, we have ledges in every room. We've filled them with decor, books, etc. and in my crafting area they are perfect for my punches! I have lined them up in piles according to similar shapes. I have a section for the older style punches and a separate section for the newer style. Once we move, I'll have to make a shelf similar to this. It's nice to have them off the crafting table, but still in arms reach.

My sizzix dies are great for the more detailed papercrafting projects. I have them stored away in a 3-drawer organizer cube from Michael's.

Embossing folders are something I turn to quite often. They add that perfect texture to a greeting card or project. I have them stored in a greeting card box that I've recycled/reused. It fits them perfectly!

One day, when I have a bit more room, I'd like to have some type of storage unit with a table top just for my Big Shot, sizzix dies and embossing folders. Kind of a separate little station for any projects that require the Big Shot.

I have a lot of ribbon... more than I know what to do with! I did some research and came up with a fairly good way to organize my ribbon. I found an old pant suit hanger from our closet and hung it from a nail on the wall right beside my crafting table. It fits my spools of ribbon perfectly. For extra ribbon, I bought a basket (with holes in it) and bamboo sticks from the dollar store. You simply put the spools of ribbon on the bamboo stick and put it through the basket and then feed the ribbon through the holes. A picture may better illustrate what I am trying to explain:

 

This works out great! While it does not fit ALL of my ribbon spools (yes, I have more!), it works for the ribbon that I use the most. The rest of my ribbon spools are put in the drawer of one of my organizer cubes and scraps of ribbon are put in a plastic tub

Along with a lot of ribbon, I also have quite a few buttons and brads.They do come in a handy little tub from Stampin Up, however, I wanted to have them all in one place. So I went to the dollar store and picked up plastic storage cubes that are meant for holding nuts, bolts, nails, screws... They fit my small embellishments perfectly!

 

Thanks for stopping by! If you have any questions/suggestions/comments feel free to leave a comment below!

Papercraft Storage: Organizing Paper {Part 2}

Welcome to Part 2 on organizing paper, this time focusing on designer series paper (DSP).

A while ago, when Michael's had a sale, I purchased a few storage/organizer cubes, one of them being a file cube that fits 12" x 12" paper. I thought this would be perfect for my designer series paper! It came with a few hanging file folders, but because I have so much DSP, I had to purchase a couple of extra packs of file folders. I labeled each folder with the DSP name and organized them alphabetically so the paper is easy to find. In the front of each folder, I placed a piece of cardboard (using the ones that come with each DSP pack) and wrote the coordinating colours that are in that DSP pack. Here are a couple pictures to illustrate:

Just like I did with the cardstock, I separated out all the scraps of DSP, put them in ziploc bags, and stuck them in the appropriate file folder with the matching DSP.

Over time I have also purchased the DSP stacks of Stampin Up colour collections (Subtles, Brights, Regals, Neutrals, and In-Colours). These are filed in a separate filing box. Again, I found this at Michael's and purchased it when it was on sale (for about $12). It came with 3 file folders, which of course wasn't enough, so I purchased extra packs (these are not cheap, but I had a coupon). Here's a top-view of the filing box (I put extra packs of 12" x 12" cardstock in this filing box as well):



I really like the size of this box. It fits perfectly beside my desk next to my filing box of cardstock. The lid also has a couple compartments that could be quite handy.

For all other designer series paper (from local scrapbooking/craft stores) I put in this 12" x 12" paper storage 'bin', organizing them by colour:

I spent some time creating two Stampin Up Colour Coordination Charts. They both list the name of the DSP collections and the coordinating colours, but they are sorted differently. For example, say you want to use Daffodil Delight designer series paper on your card, but you're not sure which DSP collection has this colour. The Colour Coordination Chart lists the colours alphabetically and in the 2nd column lists the DSP that this colour is in. The second chart, entitled DSP Colour Coordination Chart, lists the name of the DSP in alphabetical order. If you want to use a specific DSP collection and want to know which coordinating colours are in that DSP collection, this list is a handy reference.
Of course, these lists will need to be updated as I get new DSP collections, as well as new colours, but, this is a great start, I think!

Hope you found this helpful!

Over the next few days I will be organizing other papercrafting supplies and hope to blog about it early next week. In the meantime, come back tomorrow for a new KCRR challenge!

Thanks for stopping by!

Papercraft Storage: Organizing Paper {Part 1}

Organizing papercrafting supplies can be a challenge if you have a small craft space like I do! But, it's definitely do-able. As promised, I'm going to share with you how I organize my craft area and hopefully it will inspire you and give you some new ideas!

This is Part 1 of 2 on organizing paper. I decided to separate this into two posts: cardstock and designer paper. The last couple of nights I spent organizing my cardstock. I have a lot of paper, so this was time consuming! I love colour coordinating paper with ink and embellishments, so I decided to separate all my cardstock by Stampin Up colours. A couple years ago, I bought a filing box and filled it with hanging file folders. I used to organize my paper by colours of the rainbow (red, orange, yellow, etc.) This worked well for a while, until I started collecting specific colours from Stampin Up. Everytime I try to look for a specific colour, I have to leaf through the "reds" file folder, for example, where there are 3 or 4 different Stampin Up reds. Just finding paper becomes quite a chore and quite time-consuming. So, I separated out all the Stampin Up colours, still organizing the file folders in order of the rainbow, but this time labeling each file folder with the specific Stampin Up colour.

To better illustrate what I'm trying to explain in words, here are a couple of pictures:

 

I thought of alphabetizing the file folders, but I decided to group them by shades of colours and then in order of the rainbow. Often, when I'm trying to decide what colour to use for a papercraft project/card, I look through 'pinks' or 'greens', for example, and then decide which shade I'm going to use.

 

This filing box fits all of my 8.5 x 11 cardstock (with a few unwrapped packs of paper outside of the box). It's a bit of a tight fit and my collection may be growing with the new In-Colours that are being introduced in the new annual catalogue. However, it works great for now.

 

As for my 12"x12" cardstock, I don't have too much of this size at the moment, but I put most of it in this 12"x12" paper storage container that I found at Michael's:

 

 

You may ask, what do I do with all the little scraps? I hate to waste paper, so I save almost all of my scraps. My motto is If I can punch something out of it, I keep it. :) So, I separated out the scraps by Stampin Up colour and put them in little ziploc bags. I then labeled each bag with a Sharpie. If I had more room in the filing box, I would put each bag in the appropriate file folder. However, it's pretty snug as it is, so I stuck the little baggies in a photo box on my craft table.

 

 



I know this will make my life much easier when I go to my crafting table to make a card or project. It's also a great way to see how much paper I have left in each colour before I put an order in. Currently, I have lots of paper to use up!

Thanks for stopping by. Come back tomorrow for Organizing Paper: Part 2!