The Paper Addict in Me.

 Hi, my name is Bonnie and I am addicted to paper. I have tons of it and I still leave some good paper in the store! One night I was so proud of myself for walking out of Archiver's buying only 3 sheets of paper that I had to brag to my friend in paper Wanda. To my chagrin she laughed at me. "So you realize that that is like an alcoholic saying they just had three drinks." Yup. Paper. I can't live without it.
  So brings the age old question how do I keep it organized? While my system may not look quite as nice as your local scrapbook store, it works for me. As always, the first question I ask myself when organizing my scrap lot is how will I look for this?

Solid color card-stock---My basic solid color card-stock is divided by color. I have found that I really love the Cropper Hopper paper files because they protect my paper, it makes it easy and quick to file, and the plastic paper files are very portable. 
   However, I am truly in love with the Close to My Heart line card-stock, so I do keep that and the Stampin Up cardstock separate from everything else. With one file to every named color, I can quickly grab what I need and it is easier to keep track of what I need to reorder.

   As for the other store-bought variety, I currently have those in the horizontal stacking files simply because it is easy to grab the entire stack of red and find what I need that way, and see if I am getting low on one general color. Eventually I would like to put these in the cropper hopper paper files too, but that can go on my Christmas wish list.

Patterned Paper-- Keeping patterned paper organized is a challenge.

Themed Patterned paper- Although I do not believe they are on the market anymore, I do love my original Cropper Hoppers. I keep my themed stickers, dies and patterned paper in the plastic vertical paper files, and sticker files from cropper hopper and then use the old hanging file type system to separate the themes for easy location.  This works well if I am in a pinch for a quick get away, I can grab the theme files, my photos and off I go.

General patterns- These are the tricky ones. Still using the cropper hopper vertical paper files, I divided the patterns into main color. Then divided the colors into patterns. (ie:stripes, florals, circles and dots, etc....) Now this is where I ask myself, how will I look for this paper? Generally, when I am looking for paper to match my photos, I start with theme, then go to color, and it may not necessarily be one specific color, just a feeling, a mood for the page. Thus I divided the patterns into families. Warm, Cool and Neutral.

 Lately, I have been going through my patterns matching the stripes that go with the florals and such, creating my own kits, making it quicker and simpler to pull paper later. Since paper is generally colored to create a mood, it still files the same way in my system. It also works well with any pattern scraps that are left over larger than 4 x 6 or those single pages we are left with when I bought two and needed only one.

Okay the truth is that I really have too much paper and so to find anything I had to get down to the nitty gritty and divide and conquer. It works for me. Er, at least for now, because as we all know, half the fun of scrapbooking is reorganizing our stash!
 

80 Point items- Use your Stash

• Bottle Caps- I know, they are thick!
• Slide Frame-Do you still have these?
• Holographic paper- Nearly impossible to use without distracting the eye
• Flocking-Just plain nearly impossible to use
• Puff Paint-a risky business-especially at high altitude, test on scratch paper first
• Liquid Applique-plan ahead takes time to dry!
• Micro Beads- Must use with that red super tape to get to stick. It helps to put liquid glass over them.
• Use Paper that is less than 12" x 12" on a two page 12 x 12 layout -you know that pile of 8x10 paper
• Staples- very fun- Use to seal the bottom of a pocket page... or staple ribbon to the page
• Fun Foam-Go ahead, raid the kids craft box but it only counts if the stash was yours!
• Solid metal tags- the all metal ones, the vellum tags are worth less.
• Clips (slides)- the little metal things that slide onto the edge of your paper -held in place with brads
• Shrinky dinks-makes an oh so cool embellishment using your stamps and permanent ink (Stayz On)
• Felt- just try and glue it down, I dare you. (Not the self adhesive type now)

That single-sided paper on a two page layout?

Today's paper designers clearly don't actually scrapbook.We have all done it, picked up that beautiful scenic paper or a frame type style that lends itself to being a single side page, bought it, and then realized it is practically unusable for a two page spread because they don't make a right side page for it. You hate to cover it up because it is pretty, or you hate to use it because although it matches your theme, let's face it some of them are downright impossible to match for the second half of the layout. They almost always have a title you love or something that inspired you when you bought it, (in some cases years ago) But they sit and rot away in the back of your stash.
  I had to laugh at my scrap pal Wanda when she saw me take this paper out to use it with these photos. "You are not really going use that?" she questioned me. I smiled. "Yes and just wait until you see what I have planned for it." I had found inspiration in the colors and "spotlight" on the paper. It was all in the placement of the pieces. All in the cutting it to bits, and all in the embellishment of the once nearly discarded paper.
     I cut it strategically to show the parts of the color in the paper that I needed to blend with the girl's dress in the photos, saving the electric looking title to match the ticket stub, (which I forgot to actually place on the layout) Then I dressed it up with stickles, and used my other embellishments to cover sections of the paper I did not want to show.

     Also note that I used some really old holographic art paper to cover the chipboard brackets and behind the acrylic tag. Something so obnoxious, I never thought I would use it, but used in small bits it made the page!

It's All in the Drawers!

    Over the past 19 or so years I have tried and discarded many different organizational bags, boxes and assorted methods of sorting. The most important discovery I have made is that I only keep things organized if the system I use to sort them is quick to get out and put away. The easy access answer? Drawers. I keep almost everything in a drawer or file of some kind. I find that it is easier to open and close a drawer than to lug out a plastic storage box and open it just to put away what I did not use on the layout in progress.
     A year or three ago I purchased a couple standard hardware storage boxes. (You know the ones your hubby has all his screws and nails and etc in.) It was perfect for sorting my chipboard letters and various metal alphabets in. The only trouble was, it was not very portable. After one very long weekend of trial and error, my very sew-talented mother and I invented a bag that fits snugly around it to keep the drawers in place while traveling.
      Personally, I would not recommend it for the very small buttons and loose etc, as they do tend to gravitate from drawer to drawer, but it works fairly well for my chipboard letters.  To solve the gravitation problem I cut tagboard to the size of the drawers and insert the tagboard snugly on top of my little things. (note: I have strung a piece of twine in one end of the tag board to use as a pull string for easy removal.)
     I keep my smaller unpainted chipboard letters by letter in the smaller drawers so its easy to dig through and mix and match fonts on the unpainted letters as needed, and the alphabet sets that have color by color. This way when I know I need a white letter, I can see all of my white letters in one place.
    So here are some shots of my perfect little drawers. I hope it inspires!

Organizing those little bits and pieces

My scrapbooking stash seems to have a lot of little things. Brads, Buttons, spirals, paper clips, doodads and dolittles. The trick is to know where to find your little things when you just need that perfect finishing touch. Like almost everyone I know, I have tried and tried again to find the perfect way to keep these little things sorted and easily accessible. I have spent hours searching the fishing tackle sections, craft aisles and organization rows...I do have standards though. For me, any organization container must be portable,durable and not cut into my paper budget too much.
 At one time I had those cute little Cropper Hopper brand plastic boxes for every size and color of brad, eyelet and button I own. Were they cute? Yes. Did they look organized? You bet...but...
Stop for a moment. Think about how you make the decision about what embellishment you are going to use on a layout. You try something, it doesn't work, you put that back find something else. You know you want something small and let's say red... hmm I could use a button or a brad or what else??? Before you know it you have opened and dumped out sixteen different little boxes of little things. Yup, I quickly discarded those cute little boxes.
It was then that my friend, Wanda, discovered a tool box at Home Depot which we call Big Bertha. It is a bi-level tool box with two sizes of containers that stand upright inside it. She may not be pretty or pink, but she is definitely functional. The idea is that they are easy to dig around in, there is no cover that you have to open and close, and everything is in one place. The hard part was convincing myself to dump all of my little things together sorting them only by color and theme. So when I need something red, I dig in my RED container; something for Christmas... I dump out my Christmas stash.

The best part about this method is that when I want something red, I can look through all of the red things that I have, and play with them until I find just the right item to add to my layout. This is where the artist in me takes over. Besides, its just plain fun to dig in all those little things. SO Big Bertha is my perfect solution for my by color little bits and pieces.

100 point items- Use your stash

• Acrylic shapes
• chipboard, pre printed
• CM paper that is NOT true 12 x 12
• foil paper
• fuzzy or velvet paper
• Gingham paper
• Glittered Chipboard letters
• Metallic Thread or Embroidery Floss
• Mrs Grossman style flat sticker- used creatively
• Old CTMH pattern paper (like when it was DOTS)
• Paperkins dolls
• Photo like border strips
• preprinted diecut
• Printed Acetate paper or patterned transparencies
• printed flat photo frames
• Quilling strips
• scenic or framed style- one page style paper
• Thomas Kincaid paper
• vellum Titles or Quotes from vellum stacks
• Wood Shapes

90 Point items- Use your stash Challenge

The next section of items are things we find ourselves hoarding for various reasons. Yes, you can stop laughing because we all do it. Something we found in a LSS years ago that at the time was "perfect for a layout about......" so, we bought it, only to keep saving it for that perfect layout. It is almost painful to actually use it because you just know as soon as you glue it down on that layout the perfect pictures will appear magically on your camera. These items can also be rare, or no longer available for purchase so don't go looking for them out there now.  Besides, if they are in the store, I want them, so step away from my rubons!They are those cool embellishments that you love to collect but just can't make yourself use for fear of not being able to replace them when you do find that "perfect layout" for it.  These are the items that the manufactures need to reproduce again because we scrappers love them!
 So here are the 90 point items....

Stampin up Pink Tape letters  (3" glue tape letters)
Magic Mesh (net- like tape)
Epoxy Bubbles Circles or Squares (self adhesive)
Charms ( little metal miniatures for scrappers)
Hinges (in all our favorite scrappin colors)
Closures
Buckles
Memory Makers original Rub on letters
Clear acrylic letters (Old West and Heidi Swapp)

Organization Mojo Style

I should probably start with my "Inventory book".
The Inventory Book came about because I got tired of not knowing what colors and fonts I owned when I was standing at the store. It also helps when I am at large crops and a friend is looking to borrow something from me. It saves me time by allowing them to choose what they want from the samples and then I can easily direct them to find what ever they may need to borrow.
It is a simple three ring notebook with page protected pages where I have samples of my Alphabet fonts in stamps, Cricut, Quikcutz, Sizzlets. Along with all of my stamps, punches, ink pads, markers and anything else you might want to view a sample of before using. I also have a page where I listed which stickles I own, and etc like that. I have found this to be an invaluable tool to stay organized and to keep track of what I have. Yes, it took time to create it initially, but after a few nights in front of the TV with this project it was done and is easily maintained as I purchase new things.

Using 8 x 10 paper on 12 x 12 layout

We all did it. This paper is so pretty, I know its  8 x 10 but I can still use it. Sure, and that is why I still carry around about a million pounds of it.  I saw this challenge on "Cafe Moms" not long ago and decided to bounce off the layout idea using one of my 8 x 10 sheets. (100 point item by the way) It is one of my favorite new layouts in my sons high school book!

New Scrapbook Room 2012

People are always saying to me "Wow- you are so organized!"

 ...My response is, I have to be organized if I ever want to find anything! I swear I spend at least half of my scrap time just organizing and reorganizing my stuff. Over the years, like many of you, I have tried and discarded many bags, boxes and containers and traded them for the next great organization hit. The days of me going to a crop of any kind with just one bag are definitely over, but now I have a system and it works for me. I will try to use organization corner to post photos of my latest and greatest organization ideas and update it at least once a month. So check it out! My new scraproom is the first shot.

Metal tags idea

This was a little tough for me to use- I have "saved" these copper tags for years- knowing I would someday need them for the perfect layout...what we refer to as "a hoarding item". But I think I found a great way to use them- with rub-ons and metallic thread. The Wood swirl is also a hoard item- but I love it on this layout!

Diecut frame idea

So here is the first bit of inspiration from my stash. The white "notebook paper behind the large photo and the frame around the pocket are both cut from an old diecut frame- the kind I never thought I would use.

Use Your Stash Challenge

How big is your stash? I can tell you that after 19 years of scrappin', I have enough bits and pieces to scrap for 6 years without buying anything but adhesive and page protectors. I say, it's about time I get inspired to use it! 

   

As some of you know I have been planning retreats for years with my favorite friend Wanda, and at each retreat we have tried to come up with a challenge to inspire our scrappers. We, however, have never actually had the time to play any of the games ourselves. Lately, I have been feeling so uninspired and finding myself copying the layout sketches I use, almost to the letter, and that is not what scrapbooking is to me. 

    SO... the gauntlet has been laid down. We have challenged each other to use what we have been hoarding, stashing and buying for the past 20 years. 

   We have assigned points to every kind of scrapbook embellishment or paper we could think of, 100 points being assigned to items we find hard or impossible for us to use like metallic thread or preprinted diecuts, and all the way down to 10 points for those that we have stashed so many of and use often, like brads. 

    The challenge runs for a period of one year. We keep score of our own pages and have to show them off at the monthly hostess club we have going this year. The winner gets a pedicure on the losers dime. ( We thought it might be fun to have the loser carry the winners stuff into the spring retreat, but we both decided that would be counter productive since the object is to have less stuff to carry next year!)

    Thus far, I am in the lead, but for me it really is more about using my stuff and completing as many inspired pages as I can do. We are both having a blast rediscovering new ways to use the things we never thought we would use again.  I am finding inspiration in a pre printed die cut frame circa 1998...and loving it! I will try to periodically post my layouts and inspiration I find along the way. 

     SO grab your best scrappin pal and join us in our quest, challenging each other to find new inspiration in old scrappin supplies that you have stashed but not actually used in a very long time!