My Scrapbooking Blog » Organizational Ideas

Embellish…your storage drawers

Wendy — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 05:00:41 +0000

I bought these drawers at Michael’s. Dh was putting them together when I came up with the idea to decorate the front of the drawers. I made him stop and I covered them with paper before they were put together (much easier!). Since the photo, I’ve added rhinestones to the top of the screws and I still need to make labels. The papers are CTMH Tickled Pink (a special kit from awhile back).

Get Organized Blog Hop

Wendy — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 23:00:58 +0000

I got together with a group of friends to bring you this blog hop and share ways that we organize our scrapbooking supplies. We hope that these ideas will help and inspire you to get more organized yourself. Scrapping is definitely easier when you can find your tools and supplies! My post is focusing on organizing your stamps.

I found this set of drawers at Lowe’s that works perfect to store my CTMH stamps. Unfortunately, I don’t think they carry it anymore. You could do something similar with any drawers or I also like to keep my stamps in baskets like at the top of the picture. Baskets are fun and come in many shapes and sizes and it is easy to flip through the stamp sets.

I have my stamps sorted alphabetically by name. This makes it quick and easy to pull out the ones I use often and know by name.

Something else I do is flip the stamp set around in the envelope so the images face the front. With my current system it doesn’t matter much but before I had my stamps cataloged this made it easy to flip through them and see the images. The easier they are to see, the easier they will be to find and use!

The best part of my stamp organization process is my binder where I have made a catalog of all my stamps. When I used wooden stamps I actually stamped all the images (this is a lot of work) but for my acrylics I just lay the stamp set on my scanner and print. I do one set per sheet because as a consultant I go through a lot of stamps and do a lot of buying and selling. This system is easy to keep updated. My previous catalog I had the stamps on 6×6 cardstock pieces and they were on the front and back. That was hard to update. In my new catalog I just make a copy and add when I get a new stamp set and I toss the sheet when I get rid of one. When choosing the categories for your own catalog, think about how you search for stamps and what you have in your collection. My categories are Alphabets, Sentiments, Flowers, Holiday, Misc. I have a flowers section because it’s an obsession. You may not have this issue but you may have a shapes or backgrounds section instead or in addition to some of the categories I have.

Other ideas:
For wooden stamps you can store them in short drawers so you can see all the images. I used this system before I went to all acrylic. I had an iris cart and the stamps were laid out in the drawers so I could open a drawer and easily see all the stamp images. I had each drawer organized and labeled by category.

Good luck and I hope you find an organizational style that suits your needs. What works for one person may not work for the next but the one thing that holds true for us all is that we work better when organized!

Now hop to Ramona’s Blog and see what she has come up with for ink pad storage.

Here is a list of all the participants:
Photograph Storage – Leanne
Embellishment Storage – Jo
Ribbon & Fiber Storage – Shellie
Stamp Storage – Wendy K. <—–You are here!
Ink Pad Storage – Ramona
Pen & Pencil Storage – Jeanne M.
Sticker, Die Cuts and Rub-On Storage -Amanda
Tools Storage and Paper Storage – Mary

Organizing your Glitter

Wendy — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 05:00:44 +0000

As you can see from the picture, I store my glitter upside-down. This allows me to easily see all the colors! I keep mine on top of my ink pad carousel but this also works with my embossing powders which are stored in a basket in a drawer. Would you like to be more organized? Do you struggle with organizing a particular supply? Come back next Monday, April 19 for an Organization Blog Hop!

My Scrapbook Room

Wendy — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 13:23:06 +0000

Someone said I should post pictures of my scrapbook room so here you go:

That tall cabinet in the corner is a favorite of mine. I bought it on sale at K-Mart. It holds all of my 12×12 papers. The shelves are the perfect height and I love that it is behind closed doors because (1) it looks neater and (2) my papers are out of the sun and protected from fading.

The clipboard to the left is on my to-do list; I want to alter it. It holds my layout goal list for the year and is a reminder of what I’ve completed and what I still need to do! Notice how I fit the lamp through the middle of the desk. I like lots of light!

This is the girls area. I don’t think it was clean much more than 5 minutes after I took the picture. We’ll have to work on that.

Not sure anyone wants to see my closet, but here it is. In addition to scrapbooking stuff, the closet also stores PTA stuff, Girl Scout stuff, a stash of last-minute gifts, and more. Since I have no shelving, the organizer with baskets (from Target) is a good substitute.

Decorate those jars!

Wendy — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 22:52:14 +0000

Closeup of the plastic jars on top, check out that sparkle!

Here’s another shelf I have that I recently reorganized:
Closeup of the decorated jars:

Well, I guess this is what you do when you have an overabundance of supplies…. I have wanted to do this for a long time and finally got around to decorating these cute plastic jars by Making Memories. They would also be great for decorating and adding candy for a nice little gift. The first shelf is Making Memories as well and is one of my favorite purchases from Crop Chocolate. I love the spots for photos on the drawers. It adds a personal feel. You could also use these to add a label of what’s inside the drawer. The second shelf was a great rummage sale find. I just love to have things look so pretty in my creative space. It is much more inspiring!

Win a New EZ View Desktop!

Wendy — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 21:12:08 +0000

Oh, I SO love this!! If you haven’t seen the Scrapbox and other awesome craft organizational units at The Original Scrapbox you have to check them out! They are amazing!! Then go to Andrea’s blog for a chance to win one of these:

If you post this on your blog after seeing it, please leave me a comment to let me know, thanks.

MY Ribbon Purse

Wendy — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 21:39:39 +0000

It’s called a ribbon purse. I saw something like this while browsing online and decided I could easily make my own. Of course, I wanted to try it RIGHT NOW. Luckily for me I found this plastic purse in my daughter’s room and was able to borrow the Big Bite from a friend. I almost forgot to take a before picture so you can see here that I have already prepped the purse by using a permanent marker to mark where I wanted to punch my holes.

It was a bit tricky to punch near the bottom of the purse but with a little twisting I got the job accomplished. If you try this I would suggest planning a break because my hand was sore when I was finished from holding the Big Bite (not because it’s hard to punch but because I was holding it upright with the purse wrapped around and underneath it). Next was the really fun part of stringing all my ribbons through the holes. I used the 1/8 size hole punch and I like that size. Most of my ribbons are 3/8 inch wide and they are snug so they won’t fall out but it’s still easy enough to pull them through. if the majority of your ribbon is over 1/2 inch I would suggest using the 3/16 hole. I would recommend to start stringing them in the bottom of the purse first and let them hang out until you are finished filling all the holes. Like this:

Next stuff all the ribbons in the purse and zip it up. Here is the finished product:

This tiny purse holds A LOT of ribbon! I emptied a large jar and a drawer. It’s great because it will hang on a doorknob, like my closet so now I have my ribbons out in the open where I can see them and they are more likely to get used rather than forgotten.

Side note: I saw the actual ribbon purse in my local scrapbooking store yesterday by Your Pictured Memories. I didn’t look at the price but it came empty so I’m sure that it was much more reasonable than the one I saw online. It is bigger than I thought and if my little homemade one holds all that it does I can’t imagine the amount you could put in this one. I am tempted to go back and check the price and get it!

Organizing Your Photos (Part 4)

Wendy — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 14:43:54 +0000

Now that you have your pictures all sorted we need to do something with them. Your challenge this week is to print some of those photos, or order prints. There are many online printing places that offer reasonable prices, just watch the shipping. I print most of my own at home but I often print many at once because it’s just easier that way and then I have them ready to scrap whenever I need them.

(Monday 11/3) Organizing Your Photos (Part 3)

Wendy — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 17:22:40 +0000

Your challenge this week is to backup all those photos that you now have organized. I can tell you from experience that one if the worst feelings is the one you have when you think you have lost all your photos. There are many options here – online storage, CDs, external harddrive, etc. Whatever you chose, make a point to do it this week. It will give you peace of mind and there may come a time when you will be very glad you did this.

Organizing Your Photos (Part 2)

Wendy — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 20:23:49 +0000

Because it can be time consuming to organize all your digital photos, your challenge this week is to continue with this project from last week. As you are going through your pictures don’t be afraid to delete some of the unnecessary ones – duplicates, many of the same shot, poor lighting, eyes closed, and just plain bad pictures. When we switch to digital we often end up taking way more pictures than we need in hopes of getting the perfect shot – just keep the good one (or a couple) and delete the rest.

Organizing All Those Photos!

Wendy — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 01:45:32 +0000

Today we will start a 4-week segment on getting those photos ready for your scrapbooks. These days most of us have switched to digital photography and that’s what this is all about. With that change comes a need for more organization. It’s very easy to let those photos pile up and get out of control and it becomes impossible to find what you are looking for when you need it. Your challenge this week is to find a system that works for you for sorting those photos on your computer and to begin to use it. When I first started I used a folder system with main folders like family/friends, and folders beneath those for each person. For that last couple years I have been using Adobe Photoshop Elements. There are many to chose from so I encourage you to shop around but I have been very happy with this program. I now have my photos automatically sorted by date and red-eye removed when they are imported into the program. My work is to “tag” each photo. I will say it takes time if you are starting with 1000+ photos but once you get your initial ones posted it’s just a matter of keeping up. I have people, places, and event tags. So a vacation picture of my family would be tagged with each family member and Walt Disney World (or wherever we went). What I love about this is as I am doing a scrapbook for one child I just click on their name and it separates out all the photos with that child in them. This also comes in handy if a relative asks “do you have any photos of Grandpa?” I just click on Grandpa’s name and it shows all the photos with him in them. This can be done for multiple people as well. If I want pictures of my entire family I select all of them and it will give me the pictures with everyone. The timeline allows me to go to any date quickly. See what’s out there, pick something that will work for you, and get started!

Storage Bins

Wendy — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 13:54:10 +0000

You know those storage bins that we use for the kid’s toys and stuff? Why not use them for our scrap supplies? The one pictured below is a smaller version than what you normally see but the larger ones would work too. I got tired of the bright colors and wanted something that fit my room better. I bought some spray paint that is especially for plastics. There is no prep work, just spray and let dry. You can find it at your local hardware store. I used two cans for this project. I love the new brown color and I have not had any problems with the paint coming off.

Here is a before picture of the bins on my scrapbooking desk (yellow/pink/blue in the center) and it also gives you a better idea of their size:

I use these bins to hold chalks, acrylic blocks, stamps, tags, foam brushes, adhesive, and lots of other things. Your challenge for this week is to find something in your scrapbook room that needs to be organized and come up with a way that works for you. Don’t organize all your supplies, just pick one thing. Once you have that one thing organized, focus on keeping it that way. Then it will be time to move on….baby steps!! If you need help with something specific or would like ideas on a organizing a particular supply, leave me a comment and I will post at least one idea for you!