Organizing...Craft Paper

I have lots of cardstock and patterned paper, and I like to keep scraps of paper for little projects - until now I've had it all in hanging folders in my garage craft area which worked ok but I'm worried about it getting dirty and it's kind of a pain when I want to find a scrap or the right color paper, it wasn't organized other than being jammed into some folders. So I took an idea from Ronda (on a much smaller scale, she has a whole wall of paper in individual cubbies!) and re-organized my paper crafting.

I separated the paper and scraps by color. Working with one color scheme, put the solid scraps in a page protector envelope (a large ziplock would also work) and the pattern scraps into another page protector - then put them with the coordinating whole sheets of cardstock in a plastic stacked drawer thing I had laying around (you can get these at lots of places - Target, Walmart, craft stores) and labeled the drawers.  For instance: I pulled together all shades of green cardstock, green scraps, and predominately green patterned paper scraps; then put the solid green scraps in one page protector and the patterned green scraps in another - then put both page protectors and the green cardstock into one drawer. Continue with the other colors. I don't have so much of any color to fill a whole drawer so I combined colors in each drawer - white to brown in one, blue and green in one, red/yellow/orange/pink in another, and so on.

I did keep my 12x12 paper in the hanging folder because it doesn't fit in the drawers, but it's organized now so I can easily see what's there....and maybe if I'd keep the garage cleaner the paper wouldn't get dusty! Yeah that's probably not gonna happen...;)

I spent the whole day organizing the rest of my craft area - my area isn't all that big but it was starting to be hard to find things all jammed together (and it was spilling out all over the work surface which drives me crazy!). Now I have "zones" - paper crafting is all in one cabinet (I removed the door from one of the upper cabinets so the plastic drawers would fit),  jewelry making is all together on the open shelf, etc.

My craft area in the garage is also my exercise area, the dark gray floor is a foamy mat and underneath it is an area I made by sticking linoleum tiles down so I have a tap-dancing surface. This little corner of the garage is certainly a multi-functioning space!

one year ago: Brooke's diy bubble maker

two years ago: super cute deviled egg chicks