February 25, 2016

Stop And Organize Your Scrap Paper Now


Good morning, does your craft room look like this. I am an organized freak but this was just getting out of control. This is a plastic shoe box filled with scrap paper. They are smaller scraps as I have a 12"x 12" box of large sheets,  Mind you I took out about 3 inches of paper when I decided to take a few photos and not just the video, so this is how it looks without the paper!


This next area is right above my work area. So I cut something and throw the papers on the scrap boxes rather than sort small from large. As you can see it too is out of control. So get ready and let's get to work. The video will show you step by step what I did.


This is actually very easy, just time consuming as you need to decide what you are keeping and what you are throwing. Now you need to know I have a hard time throwing out paper so I even have a bunch of note cards ready to design now!


This is a bunch of stacks of papers in different sizes. I sorted papers in 5.5 x 4.25, 5.25 x 4, 5 x 3.75, 5 x anything smaller for easel cards and the inside of a card. I also kept small pieces of glitter paper and shiny paper to use on my scrapbooks and inside cards.


This is the start of a stack of card bases. Anything that would fit an A2 card was placed here. I also started 3 x 3 note card bases too, as I use them in gifts and many misc occasions.


These are my scrap bins. I used to put everything in them and then they got so filled up it was too heavy to lift them off the shelf everyday. I will go through these also and cut the small pieces and leave the large for making large projects. Remember I am not only a card maker, I am mainly into scrap booking.


Now this is how it looks now (before finishing). Easy to find and look for the colors you want. You can take new if you don't have in this little box. The labels are just 2 sheets of paper I didn't like cut in 5 1/2 x 5 inch sheet and then I just printed on the top on these make shift index cards.


As you can see each index card is different and it works to organize the papers in similar sizes that we use for the base of cards.


Thought you would like to see all of them so I took plenty of photos.


And another tab. This works so well I love organization it takes a while to do but it sure saves time each day.


Now this next one is the most used. And I might add this is how I got this idea. A friend of mine, Melissa of Melissa Made It cuts her card fronts up front and keeps them like this for future use. I took it a step further and made the sizes I use regularly.


As you can see if you file in the wrong slot it show up right away.


I keep the card bases up front and easy to access.


Then of course I fond papers that went great together and so I made the base of the card, all ready to finish.


I did all of the above yesterday. Today I tackled this stack and finished and filed everything in the box. I am ready to attack the next box to see if I have small paper in it and will only keep large papers in these 12 x 12 boxes.
I hope you enjoyed today's post and learned something that will save you time in the future. I really think this is so easy and it will make my card making a little easier. Thanks for joining me and for the sweet - sweet words. You comments always inspire me. Have a blessed week.

4 comments:

  1. Great idea! This is something I really need to do. One thing you didn't cover (and since you save EVERYTHING.....) - how do you decide what to save when you've done fussy cuts, text or other designs (say on the Cricut) that leave you with messy borders and "stuff"?

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    1. If it's large enough to make into something I cut it to the closest size that will fit my card base, especially if it it beautiful paper.

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  2. There are a lot of great tips in this video, Sheila! I do try to sort mine but I really need to spend a bit of time and do it right! I love to use the little pieces to die-cut flowers, butterflies, etc (small things) so I tend t save it all! I will be giving this a try soon. Thank you so much for sharing your ideas. BethAnn

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  3. Any tip for organization is welcomed. I use hanging folders that are in something I bought from The Container Store that's made to hold hanging folders. I have the scraps filed by color - solids and patterns. Now I have another expanding folder that holds my shopping spree of Recollections paper packs (such a sale!), but they're 8 1/2 x 11. Neither one of these has a top, so everything's easy to grab. I have several of the 12 x 12 Iris boxes too. Just yesterday I realized I have just too much card stock and paper. lol. I love your idea of pre-cutting into usable sizes and I think that's something I could do. Thanks, Sheila.

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Thank you for your sweet sweet words of encouragement.