As part of our Simple Tip Saturday series, we’re inviting fresh voices into the mix. Today we’re hearing from Simple Scrapper team member Alexa Gill with her simple tip.
What is one way you simplify scrapbooking?
I store themed product together. My layouts aren’t usually overly themey but I certainly do like to use product that will support my story if I can. I have only created this designated storage for the subjects that I scrapbook regularly and I only include items which are very theme specific. This incorporates papers, 3×4 cards, stamps and embellishments. Themes that I have created designated storage for include: family, everyday, music, friends, travel, books, and home.
What problem does it solve for you?
Why do you think it works so well?
I tend to store the rest of my product in more non-thematic kits. Either pre-bought, as manufactured collections, or kits I’ve put together myself. This allows me to pick one of these up to work together with my chosen themed products and just get down to the business of creating my layout.
How can others get started with it?
Jot down the 3 topics you scrapbook the most. Find 3 designated places in which you can store product that fall into these themes. Consider the size of your storage, are you only planning to gather small embellishments like flair and die cuts or do you want to house 12×12 paper too? Next time you are sorting through your stash keep an eye out for any products which might fall into these themes and start adding them to your designated homes for them.
Your tip is food for thought for me! I appreciated your step by step info, especially the part about sorting as you work with your stash. I’m organized but need to adjust the ‘bits and bobs’ to fit my current workflow. Thanks for the help!
Great, tip. I so totally have to do this. I already had my product by theme because I scrap more that way. Except I have each type of product in a different area. Instead of every type of product with the same theme in one spot. So, to that end, I have a question for you … Do you have pictures of your craft storage/organizing set up that I could see? I went to your blog but I must have done a poor search because I didn’t come up with anything. I love your layouts and how you interpret the SimpleScrapper sketches. Your help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks for the great tip. As I was cleaning up from working on pages today, rather than putting things back in with everything else, I started a stash for outdoors/hiking/camping that I can add to as I use/buy/organize. I’ll have to think about what other categories I’ll be using.
Hi Kathleen, Glad to help! Let me know if you have any questions regarding my process.
Hi Elaine, Thanks for your kind words. Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of my organisational set up. The reason being that I am currently renting a room and so I don’t really have a dedicated scrap space & whilst my stash is organised, it’s still kinda messy! However, my set up isn’t anything fancy. At the moment I am just using 12×12 clear baggies and each has the theme labelled on the front. These are all stored in a canvas box so I can quickly flip through them. Hope this helps! I will try and have a bit of a tidy up this weekend so I can accomodate your request for pictures. 🙂
Hi Gerri, Glad to know I have helped! I have a category for the outdoors too. Another of my most used categories is Food. Let me know what other themes you come up with.
This is super easy with Elements Organizer, and I’m sure other programs for storing products. Just create a keyword for the theme you are looking for and add it to the product as you go. That way, the element or paper isn’t separated from the kit, but you can sort by theme easily when you are ready to use it. To pull up coordinated papers, etc. just do a new search for that kit name.