Scrapbooking Organization
Why is scrapbooking organization necessary?
Well for a start it is easier to start a session if you know where all your equipment, papers and photos are! They need to be easily accessible so that when the mood takes you it is simple to sit down with everything to hand. If you have to search for all the different stuff first it can put you off actually making your pages!
Of course it is ideal if you have a room that you can devote to crafts where you can leave things in progress out ready to work on at a moment's notice. But in reality, not many of us have this luxury do we?
So for the rest of us, here are a few tips that may help steer us in the right direction.
Scrapbooking Organization - Photos
Acid free photo storage boxes
- BY PERSON - who appears in the photographs
- BY EVENT - all your vacation photos together
- CHRONOLOGICALLY - a different box for each year (or month if you take lots of pictures)
- BY SIZE - all the large photos together
If you are likely to want to reprint any of your photos you will also need to keep your negatives safe. It is often best to keep these in the sleeves and packets in which they are placed after processing. However, labelling them is a good idea. Write (or print) on the labels before attaching them to the negative sleeves.
If you are using a digital camera, you will of course not have physical photos to organize until you print them out.
You may like to set up a folder structure based on a similar theme to the ones we discussed above. To help you find your pictures easily later it will help if you give each shot a unique name that means something rather than leaving the files with the cryptic numbers that the camera assigns to them.
Scrapbooking Organization - Papers
You can't do traditional scrapbooking without paper, lots of lovely paper! But how do you keep it clean, flat and easy to find?
In the beginning you may buy packs of assorted papers and keep them in the original packaging, but what happens when you buy loose, individual sheets?
You will soon want some way of organizing them so that you know where to find just the right colour or pattern for the page you are working on. We will all have our own preference for how we sort them, but maybe the following ideas will help you work out your own method.
- SIZE - 12x12, 8x8, smaller pieces
- PATTERN TYPE - plain, floral, striped, dotted, plaid, etc.
- PATTERN SIZE - tiny prints or large patterns
- COLOUR - earth tones, pastels, primary or predominantly blue, green, red etc.
- SUITABILITY - for babies, men, heritage, parties
- WEIGHT or thickness
- RARITY - one-offs or difficult to replace
If you have drawers to store your papers in, that is wonderful. You can also use plastic boxes or crates, some of which even have wheels making it easier to move them around. Remember a large collection of papers can be heavy!
If you need to carry a selection of papers with you to crops, then the Generations Memory File Expandable Storage Case
Scrapbooking Organization - Tools
As your collection of tools, such as eyelet setters, scissors, punches, rubber stamps, ink pads and heat guns, starts to grow you will need something to keep them all together.
Perhaps one of the cheapest solutions is to look around a DIY store. Plastic tool boxes with multiple small compartments are ideal and they will almost certainly be cheaper than boxes designed especially for scrapbookers.
Scrapbooking Organization - Embellishments
Along with your tools, you will also start to build up a collection of embellishments, many of them tiny. The boxes sold for storing embroidery floss are great for this purpose. They have individual compartments in which you can store your brads, sequins, eyelets, confetti, and buttons for example.
Shirley has a wonderful wooden tray with compartments that she keeps some of her scrapbook embellishments in, as shown in the photo below.
Beads and other tiny items can be tipped into 35mm film canisters, with a sample stuck to the top of the lid so you can see at a glance what is inside.
How are you organizing your scrapbooking supplies?
Share your tips for scrapbooking organization with other visitors to the site. How do you sort your papers? What do you use to store your tools and embellishment? What money saving hints do you have for getting organized on a budget? Let's build up a resource for all scrapbookers to dip into for tips and ideas.
See how others are organizing their supplies
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Scrapbooking the Organized Choas Theory
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Well, what can I say, my scrapbooking organization at times leaves a lot to be desired... I have the best intentions, they just don't always happen.
Papers ...
