Ultimate Scrapbooking Space!

Achieving Your Ultimate Scrap Space

If you’re lucky enough to have a dedicated room or space specifically for scrapbooking, you’ll know the key to increasing your productivity is having a highly organized area. After all, how can you create stunning pages if you can’t find any of your materials? Have you ever spent time you could have spent scrapbooking in search of a sheet of stickers or embellishment that you just know you purchased last month? This article will give you some tips to setting up and maintaining your ultimate scrap space, making the limited time you have available to scrapbook more productive.

Prepare Your Space

Go into your scrap area, and look around like it’s the first time you’ve ever seen it. Take a mental inventory of what you’re currently using to store your supplies. Decide what kind of storage will work best for you based on your own design process. You’ll want to be able to easily access your most used supplies, without having to unpack and rummage through containers every time you need an adhesive or paper. A secret to organizing scrap supplies is to keep similar items together in the same location, and to label everything. Sort your scrapbook papers by colors, patterns and styles. Separate your stickers by theme. Keep all your additional embellishment items in a storage container that allows you to view everything at a glance. When you go to create your scrapbook layouts, you can start in one area to choose your papers, move to the sticker area to pick out any stickers and then browse your embellishments for that finishing touch. Once you’ve organized your supplies, make a commitment with yourself to immediately “file” anything new you purchase. Limit your purchases to what you have room for in your organizational system, and that way you’ll always use up supplies before you go on a shopping spree.

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Supply Storage

Keep your photos organized in cardboard boxes designated for photograph storage, or in plastic supply cases like the 12x12” Photo Supply Case from Cropper Hopper. (for more tips on photo organization, see our “Organizing your Photographs” article”)

The term “scrapbooker” is synonymous with “having a love for stationary”! Scrapbookers love paper, and since scrapbooking papers come in different colors, textures, and patterns- tend to have tons of it! You can organize a lot of paper in limited space with upright containers, like the Paper Holders from Cropper Hopper. They are similar to office files, but are sized to accommodate scrappers treasured 12x12” paper, and slide nicely into those square storage cubes you can get from Wal-mart or Target! If your scrap space has bookshelves already, you can easily slide these paper holders right onto existing shelves.

Small page accents and embellishments can easily overrun your scrap space if they’re not contained. Look for clear plastic containers that have multiple compartments for dividing the different types of eyelets, brads and fasteners. There are containers specifically designed for scrapbook supplies, like the Ultimate Stackers by Sweet Scrapsations, but don’t rule out looking through the office supply section of your favorite store, or even then sporting goods! Many scrapbookers have found toolboxes, and tackle boxes meant for fishing lures to work wonders for organizing their embellishments.

The secret to achieving your ultimate scrap space is organizing your supplies so that you know what you have, and can locate supplies quickly. If you get into the habit of putting your materials away after you’ve used them, and finding a “home” for any new supplies that you purchase, you’ll find your scrap space is an enjoyable place to preserve memories and you’ll create more pages than you do in an unorganized, cluttered space.

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