Organizing Wrapping and Tissue Papers

I really like to wrap presents (I think you know this by now?), but if all my paper and supplies were buried in the closet or under the bed I might be less inclined to wrap a gift - so we've come up with a way to display everything and have it close at hand so it's easy to wrap when I need to. There was a small empty wall in my "office" (I call it my office but really its the spare bedroom that holds my desk, a fold out couch, my piano keyboard, books, wrapping paper, and all my miscellaneous stuff that doesn't have a home anywhere else!) that is now a wrapping paper station. My friend Mark made me this cool  holder from 2 long pieces of wood that are 1.5" wide with dowels attached every 6" - the dowels are angled slightly upward so the rolls of paper sit on them without rolling off. Laying across the bottom 2 dowels I have a small metal rod with some ribbon rolls threaded onto it.

I  hang all my tissue paper on plastic skirt hangers (on the left bottom dowel) - I save all the good tissue paper I get, smooth it out and clip it on these hangers...I can easily see what colors I have and by hanging it up the paper stays nice and flat, and is easy to get to. I would do this even if I didn't have a dowel on the wall to hang them from - it's such a nice way to organize tissue paper, otherwise it would be stuffed in a drawer somewhere and I'd just buy more not knowing what I already have; find a closet or somewhere you can hang them so you can see what you have and you'll save yourself some hassle when you need tissue paper!

Hanging on the right bottom dowel is a pretty canvas tote bag  that holds gift bags, wine bags, little fabric bags, etc...

I have bows, tags, markers, etc. displayed on a tray nearby so all of that stuff is also handy. I have no excuse to not wrap pretty presents - everything is easy to see and use.

Thanksgiving Tree

Made this Thanksgiving tree as part of our Thanksmas decorations, saw the idea in a magazine but as usual I can't remember where..

I found a piece of wood in the yard that the tree trimmers must have missed and drilled a small hole in it to fit a branch that I collected on one of our dog walks. Cut some leaf shapes out of  plain and patterned scrapbook paper, wrote a few things that I'm thankful for on the plain ones. Hot glue the leaves to the branch and it's a Thanksgiving tree!

This is how I organize my scrapbook paper - works good for me. In a hanging file holder I have all the paper in different sections (cardstock, 12x12, patterned, smaller sized paper...) and in an expandable folder I keep scraps of paper - I find that I need a small piece of paper for lots of projects so I keep the leftover scraps to use so I don't have to waste a whole sheet when I just need a little. Then I have the paper standing on a shelf in my craft closet along with other types of paper organized in a standing file holder.