"Spring Forward"

Daylight Saving Time has come again.
Have you recovered yet? I know I sure haven't. I love spring but I dread moving the clock forwad this time of the year. I tell myself I need at least 3 hours to recover from the springing forward event! Springing forward takes a lot of evergy!! I mean an hour is an hour—I definitely could have used that time to sleep, to catch up on my ironing pile (I mean mountain), to play with the kiddos and yes my favorite past time to scrap! Now you might be thinking to yourself an hour is hardly enough time for me to get any scrapping done! A year ago I would definately agree with you but since I have overhauled my scrapspace and found a way to organize my supplies I can get a ton more accomplished in my limited amount of scrapbooking time. When you sit down to scrap you don't want to waste one minute of your creative time! This week I am going to share with you a few of my favorite ways that I organize my supplies in the hope that I inspire you to do the same. Afterall, you have to actually find all the wonderful products you own, so that you can make something amazing if you can "find" that elusive hour somewhere!!

First thing I do is work in my scrapspace. If I have a few extra minutes during my day I walk into my scrapbook area and clean something up. I might empty my trash, put my stamps away where they belong or file my cardstock back into my stash. These little things add up over the day or the week so that I don’t avoid my creative area when I do have more time. How many times have you thought about scrapping but dreaded the fact that you would have to hunt for your desk before you could even think about making a layout!! Hmmm?? You want to be in your space as much as possible and the more times you enter your area the more creative you will feel. You will want to hurry up with your other obligations so that you can hurry back to your space. Now to make clean up quicker things need to have a space or a place to call home. This is one of my favorite things, organizing all of the scrapbooking goodies we collect. Here is a photo of my room and a few photos of how I organized things.

To organize my cardstock and pattern paper I used the Cropper Hopper Paper Holder for my pattern paper it is sorted by manufacturer. This method works for me because I remember the style and feel of each of the manufacturers. Some people sort their pattern paper by color or by theme it just depends on how you scrap and how you pick your papers when you are ready to work. My cardstock is filed in Cropper Hopper Paper Holders and labeled by the color using the Cropper Hopper Dividers. When I crop I use the swatch book to match colors instead of pulling out sheets of paper that I will have to put away later.

Another one of my favorite organizing gems is how I store my stickers and other paper embellishments. I use the same system for everything paper or sticker. Dimensional objects are sorted and organized differently. Alphabets are sorted by color and stored in American Craft Modern 12 x 12 albums Solid color sheets are separated from sheets that have mixed color sheets. I have labeled the outside of my binders with black American Craft letter Thickers. Most of the chipboard and alphabet rub -ons are stored in baskets on the same shelf. I also store embellishments this way. In am album I call “Wordage” I place sentiments stickers, rubons or paper embellishments are placed in page protectors and filed in the binder. I have binders for journaling cards, seasonal embellishments, accessories (all those cute die cut sheets that have swirls, flowers, animals, robots, hearts and stars etc.) you get the idea. Whenever a page needs a little something extra I flip through the binder and see what jumps out at me.

The other letters (chipboard, acrylic etc. ) are sorted by letter and stored in a drawer.

All of the little embellishments have a home in my closet. Plastic boxes and drawers line the shelves. This is where you find all the extras!

On my desk I have my tools in a magazine holder but I definately
have my eye on the brand new products from All My Memories.

Never forget a tool again. Set this tote on your desk and have it packed and ready to go to crops or parties. The best part about this new design is that it can connect to the accessory kit which is a drawer and a carousel in a protected sleeve! How cool is that?

No matter where your scrapbooking space is, an organized space, is a happy place. When you organize your space you might find a lot of things you no longer use. Spring is a great time to put those supplies in a yard sale. Group things into coordinating packages and sell them or host a supply swap with a group of friends. A great idea for Spring is to offer a free workshop on organizing. Judging by the number of magazines that discuss organizing, I think that any scrapbooker would be welcome to any ideas you would be able to offer.

I hope everyone has a great weekend. Sleep late or go to bed a little early so you can have lots of energy next week to get creative in your space! Consultants don't forget to check out the message board for some great challenges this month! (yes there are prizes)

...And for anyone who wants to share your organizing tips, stories, or just wants to chat... join me this week on the facebook message board where we can discuss these ideas and more!! (one random poster will receive a little something from yours truely)

Get Creative! Get Inspired! Get Organized!

Kari Roach

TeamWorks Member 2009