Scrapbook Chat? (Stamps, scrapbooking, whatever.... ;)

I took the Totally Tiffany scrap rack "classes". they are free online& there is a helpful Facebook group.. It helped me think about how I wanted to organize. Once you follow her system it is so much easier to find stuff. I used Patter's Rolodex system for stamps, but I am slowly converting to Evernote for dies, & stamps . I used a combo of Kat's & Jennifer Mcguire's suggestions & then just numbered them like Tiffany suggests. I think I am going to like it. To me we have a 3 -pronged hobby: shopping/organizing/actually scrapping or card making.

It's hard to organize if you have a lot of stuff to sort through. I finally got most of my boxes of scrap stuff unpacked and kind of sorted. As I unpacked boxes, I did a primary sort into "keep", "sell", "donate" and a big trash bag and a recycle box for anything that was bent, crumpled or otherwise unusable. The stuff to keep I put into Iris boxes labeled with various themes (winter/Christmas, fall/Halloween, birthday, spring/Easter, summer/ 4th of July/ cabin, travel, etc.). I also had boxes for chipboard, diecuts, stickers, alphabets, embellishments. I didn't spend a lot of time sorting anything down more than that at this point, I just wanted a basic sort by category or theme for now.

The stuff to sell just got chucked into a box to be labeled for future garage sales. The stuff to donate got put neatly into a box that I'll give to my kid's kindergarten class or a Girl Scout troop when I'm done. I dumped a huge box of scrap paper, cardboard header cards from stickers, old flyers, etc. into the recycling bin and several big bags of trash went into the trash.

My next step will be to go through each of the bins and sort them down more. For example, I have a TON of travel stuff that needs to be sorted down into various trips I've gone on (Mexico, Hawaii/S. Pacific, Caribbean, Disneyland, DisneyWorld, various states in the U.S.), and those items that are specific to a particular trip will be put together into one of those plastic 12x12 envelope things along with any memorabilia, printed photos, postcards, maps, etc. (Eventually I want to go through all of the photos from those trips, print the ones I want to scrap, match them up with sketches and throw them in with the other stuff for that trip.) I have several categories that need to be sorted down that way.

It's a long process but there's really no shortcut if I want to save time later when I'm actually sitting down to scrap. I think it will save me a lot of frustration too not having to dig through a hundred boxes looking for something specific that I know I have someplace.

Delta Dawn, how often do you actually scrap, or when did you last scrap a page? I'm asking this so you think about HOW you scrap a page. Perhpas that would help you start to organize a bit (although it is overwhelming when you think about it as an entire project- I do agree-- been there, done that.)

Think about what you would do if you had photos in your hand right now, ready to scrap-- would you go to the paper first, by a particular manufacturer?? Would you look at the pictures and say 'I need green and blue paper and embellishments for this page' or do you like to 'dig' through a box of random stuff to see what treasures you might find??

Thinking about HOW you do the process of making a project can help you figure out HOW to organize your supplies. Once you figure that out, you can slowly go through the process of sorting your materials out into those categories, based on how you use them when you're working with them.


For instance, here's how I have my stuff sorted, based on how I've found that I work on a page:

I have all my paper in a file box, (mostly) randomly put in there. I have all my label and border stickers in another box. I have all my small alphabets in a third box. My embellishments (sequins, wood veneers, rhinestone bling) are in another box. I have all my 6x6 papers in another box, pulled out of their respective paper pads (I went through them all and got rid of any sheets I knew I would never use).

My boxes of stuff are NOT sorted by color or manufacturer... when I do a page, I start with the photos, then pull out papers I think work together, regardless of what company manufactured them. After I have some paper choices, I pull embellishments, stickers, letter stickers, etc. that I think will work with my page out of their respective boxes. I end up taking lots more stuff out of my boxes than I'll end up using, but I want lots of choices.

How I work might not work for someone who likes having things grouped together by color-- all their blue paper, stickers, and embellishments might be stored together, because that's the way they would use them to make a scrapbook page or a card. But having my supplies separated like that would drive me batty- I'd never find anything 'interesting' in my stuff! (that's just because I work differently.)


I would suggest thinking a little about HOW you want to work on your projects first, then go through your supplies a BIT at a time (perhaps only one or two boxes at a time, or 30 minutes at a time, and then stop), and do the 'do I love this, do I hate this, why did I ever buy this?' thing with them, sorting them into those 3 categories. Once you have a small bit of that done, stop for a while. You don't want it to overwhelm you, because it's discouraging (ask me how I know this, lol). Then, do it again... once you have a few of your supplies organized enough so you know where they are, try to make a page, a card, or another SMALL project with them, just to see if you're on track with whether your organizing categories are matching how you want to use your supplies. If not, re-tool it a little; if so, keep doing your organizing, a small bit at a time.

and it is fun to look through my supplies, when I don't have any creative inspiration, but I so totally get that it's mentally exhausting to face it when it's all a jumbled mess. That is a total inspiration-killer to me, and I have to WORK to get it back in order a little bit at a time, so I can work in my room again.

Good luck!! we're here for you to bounce ideas off of; you're not alone!!

On a January thread I joined some kind of list of folks who wanted to get organized. I made some progress and then completely stalled. Right now what I do is put items in bins together by theme. Then when I am working on certain pics I go to the bin and pull whatever I might use. I am going to scrap funeral pics so I will go to my box called 'Memory' and find memorial related stuff. Then I know what I have and what I need to pull from somewhere else. Some photos are family so I will go to my family bin.

I have so many bins I dont have shelf space, so instead I have bags and boxes of unsorted stuff. I do scrap about twice a month at crops.

One of these days I'm just going to pay someone to come in and completely organize my studio. I would much rather scrap than organize! My stuff is all in boxes. Pretty, decorated boxes from Michaels, but not organized at. all. Random stamps with completed cards with past SC kits with stamps. Box after box after box. It's a nightmare. I need help!

I would never let an ex-scrapbookers near my stuff.  NEV-AH!   They would be ruthless!  

My organization system involves shoving everything to the side of my desk until I can't stand it anymore... And then I tidy up and put it back where it belongs!

Knowing you WANT to downsize, and that there ARE some things that you're ready to get rid of is a good start!! You can do it!! Just don't try to tackle it all at once; try to break it down into smaller do-able pieces so you don't get overwhelmed.

I moved into a bigger space earlier this year. Tried to keep my organizing pretty much along the lines of what I had previously so I would not confuse myself...too much.

But right now I am finding myself overwhelmed by my kits. I really like to keep kits together, I like that they are coordinated for me. I have 3 'buckets totes' filled with kits. And recently tried to sort by 'girly' 'theme' and 'neutral'. But do not feel this was sufficient.

also, my paper pad storage is 'bugging' me right now. They are put away, but I don't feel I know where to go and what I have very well.

will be looking at this thread often for ideas...pics would be nice, too (hint, hint)

SunnySmile I tried to do a stamp catalog a long time (and thousands of stamps!) ago, and I had the hardest time with it. There were so many issues! What to do with sets? How should a stamp that could go under several categories be filed? (i.e. house with snow on it and a wreath on the door--file it under Christmas? Architecture? Snow? Winter? Aargh!) And then where to store the actual stamp? The boxes I was using were like pizza boxes and only had so much room in them, so if I ran out of space in the Christmas box there would be ONE lonely stamp in a second box taking up a ton of room on the shelf. It was a nightmare and I pretty much just gave up.

I think if I was going to do it now, I would sort them by category, take all the wood mounted and indexed stamps, throw them on the scanner glass and scan them a page at a time by category, print the page and label the images with whatever box number each stamp is located in. (Most of the cling stamps have index sheets too that could be scanned.) That is, AFTER I purge several thousand stamps that I doubt I will ever use again!

crimsoncat's advice is spot-on! Make a page, any page, but pay attention to the how and why of your creative process. Did you pull pix first? Papers? Embellies? Did you have a premade kit (did you make it or did you buy it?). These are all factors that will help you assess HOW you think and develop a way to organize to match the way you think.

Don't focus on inventory lists: that will just bog you down with unnecessary details (unless you own a LSS, of course). When I organized, I went for broke and took everything out, organized by color and put my system in place. I used the Wookiemouse challenge and it took nearly four months. Luckily, my family was very understanding. I organized it years ago and it still works because it is the way I think: color first, then the extras.

I hope you figure it out. Once you've got the hang of it, you will be amazed at how easy it is to pull together your pages. And you'll save lots of money knowing what you've already got on hand vs. accidentally buying doubles and triples of goodies. BTDT!