If you are into scrapbooks, stamping, or other types of papercrafting, you most likely have quite alot of one thing: paper. Since I have so much paper, I used to have a terrible time trying to organize it all. I used to just store it in a drawer and would have to hunt around through the stack whenever I was looking for paper. Eventually I started using a couple of far more efficient methods for storage that looks beautiful and lets me pick out the perfect paper in a matter of seconds. Allow me to share with you my experience.
Most of my paper comes in 12x12 blocks perfect for large style scrapbooks. I also have a fair bit of 8.5x11 paper that is your normal letter sized paper. The paper I buy for my scrapbooking tends to be the 12x12 and it does not fit properly into a standard file cabinet like my letter paper would. When I buy the paper, it's usually in big paks, all shrink-wrapped up in a bundle. This saves alot of money and I get all sorts of wonderful paper from buying it this way. However, once the shrink-wrap is off, the paper is just loose and really requires a good storage solution.
Organize It!
The first thing I do when I unwrap my paper is organize it. The scrapbook paper tends to often only be imprinted on one side so I make sure all the paper is facing the same direction if it's imprinted paper. Once I have it all going in the same direction I organize it by color. How many colors you use depends on how much paper you have. If you only have a few hundred sheets then maybe the 3 primary colors will be sufficient. If your like me though, go ahead and make piles for all the colors. I actually now have piles for combinations of colors, such as red/green, as well as a separate pile for straight red and a separate pile for straight green.
Store It!
Now let's find a good method of storage. One great method is to use the large ziploc freezer bags. These bags are very large square baggies that can hold 12x12 paper. Make sure you get the heaviest ones you can and ones that have the little plastic zipper at the top of them. I once bought the non zipper kind of bags and they kept popping back open when I shuffled stuff around. I ended up just switching them out for the zipper ones.
Another great method for storing your paper is with the rubbermaid or clearview style plastic drawers. These translucent drawers are everywhere nowadays. They are affordable and they are often stackable. The drawers are actually available in 12x12 size and can fit large scrapbook paper perfectly. I have 3 sets of 3 drawers each that are stacked up beside my crafting station. That gives me 9 different drawers full of different colored paper that I can sort through very easily.
I hope these ideas have inspired you to organize your own collection of paper. Take the time and plan on spending a few hours going through all your paper, facing it the right direction, and organizing it into color coordinated piles. After you are done you will take pride in a job well done and you will thank yourself time and time again every time you reach for a piece of paper.
You can view more wonderful articles, tips, and crafting guides [http://crafting-links.com/scrapbooking/first_scrapbook_page.php] concerning scrapbooking, stamping, and other crafting topics at http://www.crafting-links.com [http://crafting-links.com], your online resource to the world of free crafts.
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