Paper Crafting, Rubber Stamping, Scrapbooking, and more

Organizing Your Craft Space

OK, you should know that my craft space is a MESS. I am serious -- I saw someone refer to their craft area as "The Crop Cave" and it made me laugh -- mostly because it fit my space to a "T".

I suspect my missing mojo is somewhere in the mess. I don't scrapbook very often because my space is overwhelming me and I'm now almost two full years behind. I love digital scrapbooking, and I do scrap several layouts like that, but my most therapeutic scrapping comes from playing with paper.

I'm getting ready to tackle the area and redo my "scrap process" and thought this would be a good topic for discussion. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

The redo list:

I'm going to ask the pizza man for empty (clean) pizza boxes to store my half done projects. That should free up about 2/3 of my desk! I'll finish projects when I have the mojo, and all the supplies and inspiration pieces will be in one place.
I will have all "scrap worthy" pictures printed NOW. I'll hunt the blogosphere for coupon codes to save money.
I will use the We R Memory Keepers divided 4x6 pages to hold my pictures, in the album, that need to be scrapped. That way my photo album is always "done", but I can go back and scrap a page whenever I want, and the pictures will be there waiting. I will use this same idea with 12x12 sleeves for professional pictures -- like baseball team shots, or school pictures.
I will no longer hoard paper crafting magazines. My current stash stacks up taller than my 8 year old! I will go through them and rip out the layouts that inspire me or that I want to scrap lift. I will store the scraplift inspiration pages in the scrapbook album, with the pictures that I want to scrap. This will (hopefully) mean that my things are "together" when I find my missing mojo.
I will box up my seasonal supplies and put them out of the way, and store the mot versatile crafting items in sight. Right now, stuff is crammed where it can be crammed.
This is a hard one: I will toss out most of the "found" containers that I hoard because I might alter them some day. This will free up space for pizza boxes :)

What are your tips and tricks for an effective scrap area and routine?

Tags: organization, scrapbooking, tips

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jan on May 1, 2010 at 4:26pm

You've got some great ideas :) My space is a CAVE too and I'm in the process of organizing! It really doesn't help that I have over 1800 sf of crafting space because I seem to keep filling it up!
I'm going to donate some of my unwanted supplies and papers to a child advocacy organization.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Susanna Boyd on May 1, 2010 at 4:28pm

We have an article coming out today about donating unused craft supplies to create life books for foster care kids. Noell Hyman from Paperclipping.com has a lot of great information about that. You'll see links later today in a special email blast for {inter}National Scrapbook Day

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Jan on May 1, 2010 at 4:56pm

Susanna,
This is great news! My hubby and I adopted 5 children (now ages 19, 18, 17, 16 and 13) and we started Life Books for them and they still get them out and look at years gone by :)

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Susanna Boyd on May 1, 2010 at 5:01pm

It's a wonderful idea! I'm going to find out who the person is for our area... if I can figure out how to do it!!

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Jan on May 1, 2010 at 5:12pm

Susanna,
The Department of Human Services can help you find Adoption Specialists that can give some supplies out when they give out Life Books..

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Susanna Boyd on May 1, 2010 at 5:17pm

I just meant that dealing with government is like... well... dealing with government!

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Jan on May 1, 2010 at 5:21pm

oh yes! LOL!

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Stephanie Watson on June 11, 2010 at 12:35pm

What a heart-warming idea! Yes, I WILL check into. Right now, I donate my unwanted supplies to some young teenage girls (13/14 year olds) to use. They love my old being their new!

Paperclipping.com ..... will check it out!

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by michelle ruelle on July 5, 2010 at 3:58pm

I'm a new comer to this site and just stumbled upon your post. Could you send me the link of where I could donate unused craft supplies for foster care kids? I do send items to the Make A Wish Foundation as well.

Thanks, Michelle