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Beautiful things for you and your home!

Lots of homely thoughts on sewing, baking, papercrafts, gardening and all the things that go towards making your house a home

Sunday 31 March 2013

Scrapbooking Organisation

When it comes to scrapbooking, the organisation of all our lovely stash and tools is one of the hottest topics around. The web is full of images of beautiful images of beautiful scrapbook rooms, arranged to perfection and filled to the brim with goodies.



But let's face it, that's not the case for most of us. Most of us have to use the space we have carved out, and often share it with another person and/or purpose. It's tempting to pile everything into boxes and hide it away but I've found from experience that makes the actual business of scrapping, when you do get some time to sit down (or stand up) and do some, more difficult as you spend half of your precious time pulling stuff out of boxes and trying to locate things. It's hard to see what you do or don't have and consequently you can end up wasting scrapping time looking for that perfect embellishment that you think you got a while ago...

Some time ago I had a major overhaul of my scrappy stuff as I was getting into this predicament. I was wasting time in searching when I could've been scrapping. And I wasn't using stuff I had because I couldn't see it and therefore had forgotten I even had it at all. I did a lot of looking around on the Internet to get ideas, and also made use of my own design style and items I already had to find a better way for me.



It's a continually evolving process though. I have changed several things even over the relatively short time since I set up the area as I found that they weren't working for me, so did my best to find a solution that would. I then change to that, and see how that goes.

There's nothing written in stone about what scrapbooking storage should and shouldn't be. We are all individuals and what works for some, won't work for others. Some like to stuff all their die cuts into one pile and have a rummage, and some like to sort them into colours, or themes. It's the same with scraps - again, some like to mix them in one container, whilst for others this is too random and prefer to have them sorted into their respective manufacturer, theme, or colour. It's what works best for you, and your space.

Sure, get ideas and inspiration from media and the Internet but don't believe that it's that way or nothing. Don't despair that you don't have a room that looks as pretty and organised as those in the photos - they've been staged to look that good! You can bet that they don't look that way when there's any crafting going on!

Ikea was a great help in finding storage solutions for some of my items, but I also used items I had. Other stores that are worth a look are:
  •  Dunelm Mill
  •  Argos (I have a 5 drawer plastic tower drawer thing that I keep most of my tools in. It's not the prettiest but it wasn't expensive and it does the job)
  • The DIY stores
  • Don't forget to snoop around the supermarkets. They can have pretty baskets in their home departments.
  • Charity shops can also be a great source of useful items.
Of course, there are specialised companies online that make items specifically for craft so have a hunt online if you're after something particular, like photo boxes, etc.

If you're a follower of the scrappy superhero that is Glitter Girl, you may have seen her thoughts on storage video at the end of last year, but for anyone that missed it, take a look here.

In the meantime, happy scrapping, and Happy Easter!


Love, Maxi

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