Melissa here, back for what I'm sure will be my favorite post this week.
As I mentioned yesterday, I love to organize. LOVE it. Give me a chunk of free time, and organizing something-or-other will be in my top three picks of how to spend it. Especially if we're talking about my scrapbooking supplies. I'm sure this obsession has made repeatedly modifying my scrap area so much less painful.
If I were limited by neither space nor cost, I would use vintage items for all my storage--a card catalog (hey, I have that!), wooden tool caddies, apothecary jars, old muffin tins... think Rebecca Sower and Jenni Bowlin, and you'll get the idea. But since those items would not work with my current space (and it would be so sad to hide them away), I settled for practical-but-cute.
The great thing is, I only spent $4 + tax on storage items for my new space, and that was for the four colored baskets. You who are good at math may have deduced by now that I bought them at the Dollar Tree. What a deal. Everything else I already had on hand.
I'll break my space down bit by bit as I explain how I organized everything. But first... I have to make a confession.
There are four major components of my stash that do not fit into the hutch.
{gasp}
The way I have these four things set up works so well for me that I am unwilling to change them to make them fit. Plus, two are nice to look at, so why fix something that ain't broke.
Here they are:
In the green file are 12 x 12 poly envelopes that hold my larger scraps, sorted by color. The Cropper Hopper paper holder contains 12 x 12 cardstock. This is not all of my cardstock. I simply went through and collected a sampling of my colors, including multiples of ones that I use the most. I keep these containers in a closet where they're easy to grab.
In these IKEA drawers I keep chipboard letters. They're all mixed together, three letters per drawer (more or less), numbers and punctuation in the last one. I love this method of storing my alphabets, as it helps to break me out of my matchy-matchy tendencies. I don't mind keeping this out in the open since it's easy on the eyes.
And then my favorite--the antique printer's tray. Don't hate me because I live by The Farm Chicks and find cool stuff at their shows.
Back when I read Big Picture Scrapbooking, I was inspired to organize my small embellishments by color. I used to have them in magnetic tins, but this tray really makes me happy. It's so me, and I can see all my little pretties at once. This gets stored on top of the card catalog (which, by the way, is still in the corner of the nursery), far out of the way of little hands.
One more thing. This is what it really looks like when you open the cupboard doors.
My Tonic Guillotine trimmer goes in first, followed by a portfolio of patterned paper, before the doors are closed.
Okay, confession over. Here again is a photo of my space minus those two items in front.
Now let's break it down.
LEFT DRAWER
Here I keep all my punches, except for borders. The end.
RIGHT DRAWER
This is where I store my border punches, Prima-type flowers (a generous sampling in a glass jar) and ribbon.
I'm a firm believer that you can't have too much ribbon, which is somewhat counter-productive when you're downsizing. So I took a 18" length from each spool, placed the ribbons into zippered bags according to color, used a clear reinforcer over each hole for strength, and threaded the bags onto two book rings.
Now for the bottom section. You'd be surprised how much can fit in here.
LEFT CUPBOARD
The shelves were already in here from the hutch's previous occupants, so I left them for the baskets. Once I decided what would go into each one, I labeled and attached tags from this free download and tied them on with ribbon. That definitely kicked the cuteness factor up a couple of notches. Not to mention it actually helps to know what's in each basket without having to remove it.
A few specific features to point out...
My journaling basket contains labels (including a label stamp set) and journaling spots, as well as some die-cut titles and quotes. I use smaller baskets within the basket to keep everything organized.
By the way, I think journaling spots are one of the best scrapbooking inventions ever.
One of my baskets contains rub-ons, and I wanted to mention that I devised a very handy system for my American Crafts mini-marks. I made copies of the inside of the cover where it shows all the designs that are in that pack. Then I attached each copy to a piece of black cardstock so that I have all the designs in one place for reference. Much easier than opening each booklet.
This is my miscellaneous embellishments basket being attacked by my youngest who is set to defy his mommy and turn one in 13 days. (Sniff.) He couldn't resist touching, and I couldn't resist including a picture of those sweet, dimply hands. I could eat 'em up.
Here I keep odds & ends that don't really fit in the printer's tray. All of my patterned brads are stuck in a cork coaster. The plastic snap pouches originally housed Autumn Leaves buttons. One of them contains felt flowers, the other fabric flowers.
Along the left side of the shelf is my portable trimmer. I keep it in there because it has a scalloped blade. Well, it used to. I misplaced it, and since I didn't find it during the changeover, I think I need to just buy a new one.
Under the shelves is a drawer from a 12 x 12 three-drawer storage container. It holds my favorite patterned papers as well as newer items I want to use. My brads are in there as well, stored by color in a watchmakers tin.
RIGHT CUPBOARD
The green container holds my sheets of alphabets and stickers. The fact that they're standing up makes it very easy to go through and choose what I want.
The three-drawer container on the right holds my 8.5 x 11 cardstock in the bottom two drawers and stamps in the top one. I keep my acrylic stamps in CD cases so that are easy to remove (what's up with those plastic sheets they come on, anyway?) and put away when I use them. I like to buy the little Studio G stamp sets at Michaels, and I can fit four of them into each case.
Sitting on top of the container is a tote that holds scissors, tools, pens, adhesives, erasers... lots of stuff! It's perfect, because I can just grab it out and sit it on the table while I work.
Along the right edge, I have slid a self-healing mat. And you may notice in the very back sits my lonely ATG gun, which I bought with birthday money two months ago but have yet to open. I'm excited to own it, but a little intimidated. Ask me later this week if it's out of the box yet, okay?
As I mentioned before, everything that I still don't want to part with is in storage. We actually have our house on the market and hope to be moving in the next few months. If I end up with a larger scrap space, then I will retrieve much of what's being stored. If I don't, I'll check back in a few months and do some more purging of whatever I didn't touch.
Well, I think that covers it! (At least I hope it does, since it's now 1:27 a.m. here on the left coast!) If you have a question, please leave a comment and I will do my best to answer. If the comments are still numbered, you will have to look for my reply "in the order it was received" rather than underneath your question.
Tomorrow's a giveaway day, so be sure to check back and enter! In the meantime, I hope you're motivated to do a bit of purging and organizing as you move toward a manageable and inspiring scrap space!
P.S. I realized this morning that I forgot to mention a few things. One is that my 4th basket contains chipboard shapes. Another is that behind the storage containers on the right (since they don't reach all the way to the back) are my Crop-A-Dile Big Bite and a plastic 8.5x11 document box holding my coluzzle mat, blade & circle templates. See, I told you it's surprising how much can fit in there!
