Kate's Paper Creations

This is part three of sharing how I organize my craft room.  I hope you've been able to glean some ideas from what I've shared so far and will find today's post helpful if even in a small way.  Click on the links to see the first two installments Part One and Part Two.

Today I'll show you how I organize my card stock and designer papers.  Most of my card stock is in 8.5 x 11 size but I do have some in the 12 x 12 and all of the designer papers are in 12 x 12.  

The 8.5 x 11 cardstock I organize by color group, Brights, Regals, Neutrals and Subltes.  As I've said before using exclusively Stampin' Up! makes organizing a lot easier and I must say I have never had trouble coming up with the colors and patterns I needed to make something I wanted to make.That being said, I used magazine holders to hold the 8.5 x 11 card stock.  The holders sit on their side on a shelf I found at a yard sale for $10 dollars.

 I took one gallon zip lock bags and cut the closing end off and made sleeves that would hold the open pack of card stock.  The bag is wider than it needs to be so I just fold it over and use packing tape to keep it in place.  I can then write the color name on the bag and I attach the color card to the front as well.  That way when I pull out a color to use I can see what suggestions for matching and coordinating colors are recommended to use with that color.

This works well for me because the bags have room for those pesky scraps that I always have.  I just re-insert the smaller pieces back into the bag making sure they stay to the front side.  Then when I pull the bag off the shelf I can see there are smaller pieces that could be used if they work.  Much less waste and no digging through a huge drawer of scraps trying to find one in the color I need.  I've been there and done that, never again!

For the card stock that doesn't have a color group, metallics, white, vanilla, black, naturals ivory and white, Shimmer, vellum, and such.  I put those in drawers on the shelves below and all the drawers are marked so it's easy to see which one to open.

For the 12 x 12 I have holders that are no longer available, sorry.  They work really well and maybe there is something out there similar.  My dear hubby built a stair step frame to sit a second and third holder on so they are tiered and each sleeve has a label and again they are in alphabetical order so they are easy to find.

Lastly, there are those wonderful 4 x 6 designer paper stacks.  For those I made mini magazine holders and they work perfectly.

Now onto embellishments.  I don't use a lot of 3D embellishments because I like to make my cards mailable.  But, I do have a few that I like.  I have the rhinestones, pearls, candy dots, glimmer brads, silver brads, and a few others.  I have two different storage solutions for these.

The Rhinestones, Pearls, Candy Dots, Small Paper Doilies are all placed in Clear Mount or Wood Mount stamp cases.  A label on the spine tells me what is in them and then they sit perfetly on a shelf or in a drawer.  I like the wood mount cases for this because there is room for mulitple packages and all those little left over pieces that never get quite used up.

For those smaller embellishments like brads, confetti and such I bought the magnetic spice containers from Costco. Shelf space becomes a premium even in my ample size room so my dear hubby attached a piece of sheet metal to the wall above my paper shelf and these magnetic based containers attach really well.  The lids stay on really well too.  And an added perk, the lids turn to open a small slot for pouring out spices.  Well, they work really well for pouring out just a little bit of  confetti or a brad or two too.  Of course the lids do come off if needed.  I label the top the container so it's easy to grab the one I need. 

Whew!  That's it for today.  I'll be back with another installment in a few days so stay tuned.  Next on my list are my tools and supplies.  

Hope you found something useful today.  If you did I'd love to hear from you.

Hello and welcome to part two of organizing your craft room.  You can see my previous post about organizing stamp sets here.  Today, I am going to show you how I organize my embossing folders, dies, thinlits and framelits.

Stampin' Up! makes this very easy because I use the clear mount and wood mount stamp cases to organize these.   When I get a new embossing folder I take the cover with the picture on and insert it into the front of a clear mount stamp case and put the folder inside.  Then just like with my stamp sets I put a label with the name of the folder on the spine.

I have a notebook for all of my folders, dies, punches, thinlits, framelits, etc.  For the embossing folders I just take a copy of the front of the box and insert those into page protectors in my notebook.

They are then stored on the shelf, again in alphabetical order so they are easy to find.

For the framelits and thinlits the process is similar except those don't come with a picture on the front.  For those I use them to cut out the shapes, usually from black card stock.  I then create pages in my notebook with those shapes adhered onto white background and labeled so I know which set they are.  

Then I put a piece of sticky backed magnetic sheet in the case and attach the pieces to the magnet so they stay in place.  

Take a copy of them and insert into the case front.

Label the spine and put on the shelf in alphabetical order. 

I do the same with the thinlits too.

The punches are a little different.  For those I also make a black cut image of them and put them into my notebook and then they just stack on the shelf.

For those small punch packs.  I put them in a small wood mount stamp case and label the end of the case and put them on the punch shelf.  I also have one of those for the embosslit dies.  All of these have samples attached to a page in my notebook.

What I like about this is that I can look through my notebook and find what I want.  I have the actual item cut out and I can see if the size will work too.

It's a bit of work initially but once everything is in place it makes my creative time so much more relaxed.

If you end up using any of my idea I'd love to hear from you and see what you do.

 

I've been asked by a few lately how I organize my craft room.  I'll tell you, I am blessed to have an entire room for my crafting.  That comes from being old enough for my children to be grown and out on their own so one of the bedrooms became a craft room.

Don't misunderstand, I still have room for visits, especially from the grandchildren!

Anyway, I know a lot of you don't have that much space but I'm going to share things I've done that work for me and maybe you will pick up an idea or two that will work for you.  Everyone needs a way to organize and utilize their space as effeciently as possible, right?

I'll start off with how I organize my stamp sets.  I am a Stampin' Up! demonstrator so I buy their stamp sets exclusively.  This helps a lot  because I can keep the storage uniform.  I always buy "clear mount" or "photopolymer" stamps whenever possible.  Wood mounts take up so much more room I only have a very few of those.

When I get my stamp sets I make a copy of the front of the container that shows the images.  I then put them into page protectors in my own "stamp set catalog".  I have my catalog separated by catalog, "Annual", "Holiday" and "Spring" with another section for special promotions and Sale-a-Bration. 

Once the pictures of the sets are in my notebook catalog I add a label to the spine of the box with the name of the stamp set.  I also add Annual, Holiday, Hostess etc to the label after the name.  This makes it easier to sort and pull when it is time for the catalog change over.  It also makes the name of the set easier to see.  I don't know about you but I can't even begin to see those little tiny pictures and names they put on the spines so the larger label really helps me out with that.  BWG!

After labeling them I put them on bookshelves in alphabetical order.  This way I can look through my "catalog" find what I need for my project, note the name of the set and find it on the shelf lickity  split.  

You could also store them in drawers with the spines showing and accomplish the same thing if you don't have a bookcase.

I keep my "catalog" next to my work space so I can grab it and look through it to find just the right stamp for my project.  It works well for me because I certainly can't remember all the stamps I have and I need to see the image to know if it's going to fit with what I'm making.

So, that's the first installment of how I organize my craft room.  Next up will be organizing my embossing folders, thinits, framelits and dies.