Organizing Scrapbook Supplies Simply and Cheaply

As an avid scrapbooker, you may find yourself up to your elbows in ribbons, stickers and embellishments. Here are some simple and cheap ways to organize your scrapbook stuff...

• Eyelets, Brads, Snaps, Charms, Buttons,Paper Clips, Beads- Store these in pillboxes. You can get up to a 24 compartment size in the $1 store, with small compartments, or a 7 compartment with large spaces. The lids snap on tight, and the boxes are usually a clear frosted color you can see into. I like to organize all my similar items together in one pillbox- brads with brads, eyelets with eyelets... then I separate by color. So, all my brads are in one box, with each color or style in its own little compartment. It may be more helpful for you to separate by color- one whole box is pinks, with each little compartment holding brads, buttons, eyelets etc.
  

If you can find ice-cube trays that have a lid that snaps on, that would work well also.

Tic-Tac boxes also work for the tiniest seed beads and smallest bits. The lids stay tightly closed, they are see-through, and have a great little 'pour spout'.

• Scissors, Pens, Rulers- back to the Dollar Store, this time for a cutlery organizer (the kind where your forks and spoons stand straight up, rather than lay flat). You can see at a glance what you need, and since these are plastic, they can be cleaned if a pen leaks.

You can also hang a piece of pegboard on the wall (make sure to leave a half-inch gap between the pegboard and the wall). Hang all your fancy edging scissors on S-Hooks right on the wall where you can always find them.

• Paper Punches- Hang a clear plastic Shoe Organizer on the wall or behind a door, and fill the 'shoe areas' with your punches.

• Rubber Stamps- you want to be very careful not to store your stamps in any type of plastic that can destroy them. Instead, ask your local pizzeria for a few clean, new pizza boxes. You can separate your stamps into themes- 'Birthday', 'Alphabet', 'Christmas', or by Small, Medium, and Large. Decorate the boxes with pretty paper, or paint with acrylic paint. Write on the box tops what's inside, stack them on top of each other, and-Voila- more space to buy more stamps!

• Large Stencils- place in page protectors and load into a 3 Ring Binder. Binders are at the $1 store, page protectors (8.5x11) are about $3 for 100 at Staples or Office Max.

• Small (or Brass) Stencils- use the 'Baseball Card' protector sheets, and load into a binder with your other stencils.

Sticker modules (small squares or stickers) also fit well in Baseball Card Protector sheets. They have 9 pockets per page.

I have heard of storing short bits of fibers in the baseball card holders also. And die cuts. Heck, just buy a pack- they hold everything.

• Inkpads- store these upside-down, so the ink stays at the surface of the pad. Keep them neat in a Cassette holding rack. They come in really pretty wood, or cheap black plastic. I went with plastic so it wouldn't stain (I am clumsy)

Sizzix dies would fit well in a Cassette Rack also (most dies would work, Sizzix is a name used as an example)

• Ribbon Spools- decorate a regular cardboard shoebox with pretty papers or paint it with acrylics. Punch a hole at both of the long ends (heel to toe) , and punch 6 holes on each side. Run a dowel through heel to toe, with all your ribbon spools threaded on the dowel. Poke the end of each ribbon through it's own hole. You can stack the boxes on top of each other. These sell for $20+ at scrapbook stores, but you can make your own so simply.

• Loose Bits Of Ribbon- hang a multi-tiered clothes hanger (meant for pants or skirts), and use clothespins to hold each ribbon to a tier. You can decorate the clothespins with scraps of paper or embellishments. Or separate the scraps by main color and use clear glass mason-type jars on a shelf.
  

• Paper- I think in terms of color, so I separated my papers, using their dominant color (a white page with a few small blue and yellow flowers went in with white paper). I separated my cardstock from my paper, also sorted by color. I was a fool and bought a 12x12 Scrappers Tote for $15. It held the paper I had then, but since I've bought more I needed a cheaper, better solution. I got those plastic drawers that slide all the way out of a box. These are normally made for clothes. The drawer is frosted clear, and you can pull it out and take it into the other room. Sterlite is the brand name, and I found them on the curb one day, so they only cost me a bit of dish soap and water. (Yes, I liberated them from someone's recycling... hey, I recycled them myself) Target and Wal-Mart sell these in different sizes, for about $6-$20 each, depending on size.

As I come up with more ideas, I will add them here.
Happy Scrappin' !