Scrapbook Organization | Rethinking Pattern Paper Storage 

I think it's worth saying, it's OKAY to purge the papers you know you don't like, and will never use. In every collection or paper pad, we all know there's a couple papers we don't like at all, while we love the others. I fill large zip loc bags with my purge pages and send them off to the thrift store, hoping another scrapper somewhere will be glad to find them.

Hi Tammy, loved your thought process here. I have to say as a 'normal scrapper' i.e. I'm not a Maker, or associated with a specific brand, my approach appears to be a bit of a blend. I keep collections together, i.e. if they're in a kit or a themed pad, most of the time until I have used up as much as I think I'm going to with that specific theme. Then I break the left overs down into their main colours. For each main colour group e.g. all my oranges or all my greens, I have two shelves in my 12x12 storage shelves fitted into my Ikea Kallax unit. One of these colour shelves will be for plain cardstock in that colour group, the other shelf for patterned or specialist papers in that colour group. Becauser I'm not affiliated or particularly brand-loyal, I've never understood the logic of storing papers (once they're out of a collection) in manufacturer groups - if I'm making a birthday page I'm not going to be looking through every mfr to find what they've done in that theme. If I'm faced with a double sided paper with two different themes I'll "file" that paper into the shelf associated with the colour group I think I'm likely to use it for. If I'm faced with a 12 x 12 I can't see me ever using, it goes into a 12 x 12 sleeve and I'll use that for when I need to fill a gutted page (e.g. I wanted a 1" margin around the page but took out the middle square because it was too good to waste) .. so the 'blugh' paper is sacrficed to the cause 🙂 Here in Australia we don't have as many themed occasions or calendar events like you guys in the States; we don't "do" Halloween, Fall, 4th July, Thanksgiving and so forth (mores' the pity too I love the idea!) So I'm left with few I need to worry about keeping separate 'bins' for (the 4-5" width 12z12 bins) ; for me this is military, Christmas, and Pets. So then what do to when your 12 x 12 papers have been used and you have remnants. Papers A4 down to A5 size, offcuts and so forth, same idea, I have A4 pockets for each colour group. Same approach. I bought (don't laugh!) fishing tackle boxes one for each colour. I put ephemera, embellishments and die cuts I've done a bulk of for that colour group. So when I need to find complementing accessories for my pages I go ok, this page has predominantly x y z colours I'll get complementing a b c embellishment boxes. There's my five cents worth, hopefully out of all these thoughts we might help a world of scrappers sometimes in a world of pain over this housekeeping (oh but isn't it fun!) Smiles ... :-)

I love hearing your thought process. I could watch you do this all day. 😂

I love your thought process…what a great way to highlight ways to store paper so you use it…thanks❣️

I really enjoyed seeing your process! Subscribed! Waiting for the next one 😊

My Tuesday Morning store also closed and Hobby Lobby is changing its line to having home decor. Our small town has limited crafting choices. For the ladies who have "ugly" papers and you don't know what to do with them, use them as envelopes!

I absolutely love this & I can see a time where I switch to a this system, or add a component. What I do is this: -B sides/distressed solids/tone on tone papers -Themed paper I would ONLY use for that topic (sometimes in a themed collection you'll get generic flower or stripe that works for any page... but there will be some papers that only really make sense on, say, a birthday/travel/holiday page) -Kit starters: in (I think) 4 categories: Flowers, stripes, geometrics, icons/text The reason I am going to hold off taking the next step & doing what you've done is that I generally don't a make page kits, and I want to help myself mix my paper line. I start with the B side I want for my base, then go from there based on my photos. I am subscribed now to your website (which I hope will let me know when you make a blog post?) and I am going to watch your videos, especially ones on fixing layouts, and choosing papers to put together for layout.

I love to buy collection packs, especially from Tuesday Morning before mine closed. I jump into organization projects sometimes without thinking it through. Not sure I could ever do this, but I enjoyed listening to your process.

Great video Tammy. I think I will start a rainbow of tone on tone papers 😊

I've got huge stacks of single papers, from all brands, going back 20 years! First, all seasonal holidays, or specific subjects are sorted. Then what remains, is sorted by colors. It works great for me. Now if I could just quit buying more than I need...

Nice ideas

I have watched this video now for the second or third time. I love hearing the thought process and I like a lot of it. My question is what is your process to select embellishments when you are creating a page? I do purchase by collection therefore I have a sticker sheet usually, but also a few other things, and if I break up the collections, I’m not sure where to put the other things. So can you tell me more about that?

New Subbie 😊 great thoughts on organizing! It always scares me for some reason to separate collections, but you know what? There’s still the manufacturer strip on them and I could also pull them back together. I like how you store your B papers. I’ve been doing that recently myself, but in file folders. I may try your method in the cropper hopper as it takes up much less room!

This is SO interesting! So when do you go to your manufacturer’s bin? I can see when you would use your kit starters and your B side rainbow section, but when do you go to the manufacturer section? Off to watch your other videos!

New subscriber

Where did you get the organizer for your b papers? Just found your channel!

I miss basic grey

I sort paper by theme Christmas thanksgiving flowers graphic guys ect.

What do you mean when you say kit starter?