SYW229 – Simple Ideas for Craft Organization

[00:01:15] Jennifer Wilson: Welcome to Scrapbook Your Way, the show that explores the breadth of ways to be a memory keeper today. I’m your host, Jennifer Wilson, owner of Simple Scrapper and author of The New Rules of Scrapbooking.

This is episode 229. In this episode I'm joined by Kate Garvin, a long-time card maker and more recent scrapbooker, to chat about her favorite strategies for organization. Our conversation includes how to manage supplies when you add a new crafty hobby into the mix.

[00:01:48] Jennifer Wilson: Hey, Kate. Welcome to Scrapbook Your Way.

[00:01:50] Kate Garvin: Hi. Thanks, Jennifer.

[00:01:53] Jennifer Wilson: I'm looking forward to our conversation and getting to know you even better, but can you start by sharing a bit about yourself?

[00:02:00] Kate Garvin: Yeah, so I'm Kate Garvin. I live in Columbus, Ohio with my husband and our two cats. I'm a marketing project manager, and I've been scrapbooking since 2020, so still pretty recent.

[00:02:12] Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, I can't wait to, uh, see how that is, uh, part of our conversation because you have quite a stash I saw on the videos just getting started, so. Now, I always love to ask our guests what is exciting you right now? So I wondered if you'd share a non scrapbooking thing, something outside of our hobby as well as something on the inside.

[00:02:35] Kate Garvin: Sure. So right now I'm playing a bunch of retro video games with my husband, which are things like he played in his childhood, but I didn't. Um, which is really exciting. So we just finished, like the first Final Fantasy game. They came out with a remake bundle, um, in the last couple months. And then we're currently playing the first, uh, Dragon Class game, so it's some fun to, um, we're playing them on like the, uh, the NES Classic, which is like a way to access like, uh, game files. So we're not actually playing it on like the real system, but, um, it's really fun.

[00:03:16] Jennifer Wilson: Yeah. Yeah, I still have the original system. It's just kind of harder to hook it up these days cause the tV only wants, you know, HDMI cables. Um, but it's been fun to play some of those older games through, uh, Emily's, uh, Nintendo Switch. So yeah, definitely lots of nostalgia there.

[00:03:37] Kate Garvin: Yeah. It's fun. Yeah. I grew up playing like Pokemon, but not really any the other games, so he's like educating me on the other stuff that I should know about.

[00:03:46] Jennifer Wilson: Fun. And then what about inside your scrapbooking hobby?

[00:03:51] Kate Garvin: Uh, so the Ali Edwards travel release just came out, so I bought some of that and I'm always excited about a new travel class. Um, I think that starts in July. Um, and then it inspired me to get out my travel collection that I bought a couple years ago and hadn't used, so I'm documenting a Chicago trip that we took Memorial Day weekend. So I've been working on that.

[00:04:16] Jennifer Wilson: Oh, super fun. Yeah, I love her products and colors and yeah, the, just the story focused of all of it is, always, uh, warms my heart and empties my pocketbook, so.

[00:04:28] Kate Garvin: Yeah, same. I think I'm subscribed to like everything I can possibly be subscribed to for her, so. All of it.

[00:04:36] Jennifer Wilson: So what's on your memory keeping bucket list, particularly as a newer scrapbooker? Is there a story that really feels important to tell but you haven't gotten to yet?

[00:04:46] Kate Garvin: Yeah, so I definitely have, you know, a lot of things on the back list, like things that, um, I didn't think about at the time, right. The scrapbooker, like when it was happening. But now I wanna go back and document. So one of those is, um, speaking of Ali when the Care Story kit came out, my first thing I wanted to document, and I haven't gotten around to it yet, I'm really disappointed with myself, is I wanted to document my best friend Catherine.

[00:05:13] Kate Garvin: Her maid of honor speech at my wedding, um, which was back in 2018. So like I've got the professional photos. Um, and the reason that I wanted to document this is because in her speech she basically talked about, you know, like to my husband about tips for like, how to take care of me, which I thought was really cute. Um, So I think my plan is we're gonna have, we'll been married five years this year in December. Um, I feel like it's a great time to rewatch the wedding recording and then take down some notes and I wanna include pieces of her speech, like in my journaling. So, um, hopefully I'll get that done this year.

[00:05:53] Jennifer Wilson: That sounds super fun. I love it. And it's so much like about you as it is about her and the wedding, and like there's so many different facets to that story.

[00:06:01] Kate Garvin: Yeah.

[00:06:02] Jennifer Wilson: So I'm excited to chat with you today about organization and particularly tips that can help someone to be organized from the start of their journey, or maybe they're just coming back to the hobby. Um, how can we get and stay organized? So I'd love to maybe start by hearing how you got into the hobby in 2020. I mean, maybe that's obvious, but maybe it's not.

[00:06:27] Kate Garvin: So, I started as a card maker actually, so I've been doing that since like 2015. So, that's why I, you know, I already had a good selection of stamps and things that I can pull from and, and use in my, uh, documenting. So I already had a pretty good like, you know, paper stamp ink collection. Um, of course I'd expanded along the way, but I started scrapbooking in the summer of 2020. After coming across an Instagram hop that featured card makers and scrapbookers, which was really exciting.

[00:06:57] Jennifer Wilson: Awesome.

[00:06:57] Kate Garvin: So after being inspired by all the projects and the creators, I decided to give scrapbooking a try. Um, I took like a, I think it was like a Victoria Marie, like she did an online crop one weekend.

[00:07:10] Kate Garvin: And so I just tried like a bunch of different styles and played along with the challenges and just used whatever was in my stash. Cause again, with card making, I had a lot of stuff to choose from. Um, and I quickly fall in love with it and the community, and so I've doing it ever since. I'm still making cards. Still a passion of mine, but now I'm trying to figure out how to balance the two hobbies.

[00:07:31] Jennifer Wilson: Oh, and so I'm, I'm gonna be wondering kind of as like an undercurrent thought here is did starting as a card maker inform. Uh, your strategies and perspective on organization because I feel like even though cards are a much smaller canvas, I feel like card makers have a lot of different things. Like they need all the colors and all the different stamps with different sentiments and, and, uh, graphics on them and all that. So I think that'll be interesting.

[00:08:02] Kate Garvin: Yeah, definitely. My, uh, my stamp organization and my ink organization were pretty, uh, well set, like once I started scrapbooking, so. Um, the other organization, um, things that I have are, are specifically for scrapbooking, but yeah, definitely the stamps and the inks were kind of already set up.

[00:08:21] Jennifer Wilson: So what advice might you have for our listeners who've been thinking about getting started or coming back? Like based on, you know, what you've learned over the past three years? Um, maybe particularly how scrapbooking is different from card making as well.

[00:08:38] Kate Garvin: Yeah, so I definitely grew up believing that scrapbooking was just 12 by 12, 12 layouts, um, specifically with people that had kids, right? They're documenting like school and you know, first birthdays and, and things like that. And so I also grew up not really being in a huge picture taker. Um, nor was my family big, a big picture taking family.

[00:09:05] Kate Garvin: Um, obviously we have like, you know, vacation photos and we've got the Christmas photos and the birthday photos. Um, but we don't have those everyday photos, um, which I think is so important with scrapbooking today. Like, I remember going home and looking through my mom's albums, and it's just like, oh, here's the one, you know, two, one or two Christmas photos, and then here's the birthday photos.

[00:09:27] Kate Garvin: And then it just kind of rotates through. So there's, there wasn't a whole lot of variety in like photo taking. Um, but I did take like a scrapbooking class, um, a long, long time ago. Um, with my mom and I remember like she ab like, she didn't like it. She was like, oh, I'm gonna scrapbook like all your baby stuff.

[00:09:48] Kate Garvin: And then she did one layout and was like, she was done. Um, but we did, but we got into card making together. We did like the Stampin' Up parties and all that. So that was our thing. Um, so with that kind of like preconceived notion in my head, like once I started researching scrapbooking in 2020, I was excited to learn about all the different layout sizes. And most importantly, that everyone was encouraged to scrapbook their stories, not just people with children. So like I said before, I tried a bunch of different sizes and styles. Um, now I mostly do six by eight and Traveler's notebook size layouts. Um, and we already talked about, you know, Ali and I also really like Everyday Explorers. I love their stuff. Um, and I bought a lot of Feed Your Craft before they closed. I'm really sad that I found them late in the game because I really like their stuff. Um, But I'm still able to get some of it with, uh, like Pink Fresh has Geralyn Sy who do, who, um, uh, created a lot for, for Feed Your Craft. She did a lot of design work for them. And then I'm able to buy her digital still, which is really great.

[00:10:52] Jennifer Wilson: I am curious, what is it about those smaller sizes that really appealed to you? Is it cuz it's closer to a card size and not a 12 by 12?

[00:11:01] Kate Garvin: Yeah, I think so. It just, it feels very, like the white space doesn't feel as overwhelming with like, especially the Citrus Twist, like the TN size. Like it is really a lot closer to, like, this is card size, right? This is like an A2 sized canvas that I get to play with. The 12 by 12 to me feels a lot more like creative, which like, not in a bad way, but just like I have to think about, like, I'm gonna use a lot more embellishments. It's gonna be a lot more like maybe mixed media or crafty. And I think a lot of times with my scrapbooking is I wanna use a few of the embellishments, but I want them to be like meaningful. I don't wanna just put things on a page to use up my, my stash. Um, So I think for me, like the 12 by 12 is just like, it's, it's too much product for me. It's too much blank space for me to do something with. So I like the smaller, smaller sizes like the six by eight and the TN size especially.

[00:12:03] Jennifer Wilson: I like the idea of really making sure that the every product that you're incorporating has, has a meaning and a connection to the story. So really kind of diving in here to organization. I wanna be like almost tactical here and hear about some of your favorite strategies and solutions. And so I'm wondering if you could kind of run us through four or five of them and you know why like, What's the purpose? What does this do for you? Maybe what it looks like, if it's like a physical solution. It could just be a strategy, and then why you think that works well for you.

[00:12:40] Kate Garvin: Yeah, so I can, yeah, so I'm gonna start with like my stamp storage. Like I said, I've been using the sa the same, like iDesign fridge bins that. I think Jennifer McGuire, who's really big in card making, uh, first recommended. So they're literally like the fridge bins that like go in your fridge to like organize like your produce and your different food and everything in your fridge.

[00:13:04] Kate Garvin: But they're great to store stamps sets in. Because they come in a bunch of different sizes. So you can buy like the ones that are like a double. They're clear, they're great cause you can flip through everything. Um, but I really like the double size one so I can fit like my four by six stamps on each side.

[00:13:22] Kate Garvin: And then that whole thing fits into a 12 by 12 Kallax which is another one of my favorite organizations, um, things to have in your craft room is have the Kallax uh, organizers cause they fit so many different things. But yeah, I just love the fridge bins because they fit great in the Kallax. It's easy to put everything in.

[00:13:41] Kate Garvin: They do get a little heavy, so like, you gotta be careful when you're pulling them out of your, your Kallax um, but they have, you know, a size that like the six by eight, the larger stamps fit in. Um, and then, like I said, I use that, um, that double, double size for most of the four by six, which is what a lot of my stamps are.

[00:13:57] Kate Garvin: Um, Yeah, and I think you can get those. Yeah, I used to be able to get those at like Bed Bath and Beyond, um, which I know has been going out. But, um, I think the Container Store, like you can still get a lot of those things, or even Amazon, so.

[00:14:13] Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, I think Amazon has a lot of varieties of that type, for sure. Yeah, I definitely wanna underscore the Kallax, particularly for newer scrapbookers who maybe are creating more in 12 by 12, and then putting those in albums, which inherently have to be larger than 12 by 12. Most of our typical bookshelves aren't gonna hold those. And so you're looking for something that's particularly deep and tall. Um, particularly the depth is really, I think, the limiting factor oftentimes when it comes to storing albums.

[00:14:45] Jennifer Wilson: Do you have more to share about your stamps? Like how do you categorize them and keep them separated and all that?

[00:14:52] Kate Garvin: So I'm mostly just categorized by company. Um, and that allows me to find most of what I need. Um, I would like to be better about putting them into like an organizational system. And by that I mean like I've had Airtable. But I've never been able to keep up with it. Um, Airtable is like a, um, it's like an organizational, like online system where you can put in like different tags and you can put the title of the stamp and the size of the stamp, and then it's all searchable.

[00:15:26] Kate Garvin: Um, there's also a really great app for card making specifically because they put in the, the, or the, uh, people that designed it, they put in a lot of like, the different companies' stamps. So they're already in like this little library for you. Um, and that's called Color My Life, um, which I also use. And so that's one of my goals is like, I feel like my stamps are really well organized in my room, but if I wanna find like a specific sentiment or like I wanna find all my, you know, cat stamps or something like that, um, I would love to have like a searchable like system.

[00:16:03] Kate Garvin: So I think once you've like got your stamps really well organized in your room, and especially when you're starting out, um, if you can have that digital database and build it as you go and as you're purchasing things, um, I think that's like a great, a great thing to do if you're able to.

[00:16:21] Jennifer Wilson: Yes. I think especially like if it's, you know, things that we tend to collect, um, It's so much easier to be able to know if you've already purchased something, to be able find something when you wanna use it. Um, and I love how technology can help us do that in a lot of different ways, depending on how your brain works, whether you're more, know, spreadsheet or visual oriented.

[00:16:44] Kate Garvin: Yeah, absolutely. And especially with that Color My Life app, it's like, you know, a lot of the work is already done for you because they've already got pictures of the stamp sets, which is great. Um, Airtable, you're more kind of building it yourself, but then you also get to customize it a lot more, which is nice.

[00:17:00] Jennifer Wilson: Yes, yes, yes. And I will link in the show notes an episode where I talked about, um, with Iris Fox, a Google Photos related strategy for organizing So just to kinda like round out the, the options.

[00:17:14] Kate Garvin: Yeah, yeah. No, that's great.

[00:17:16] Jennifer Wilson: Because, Um, she was leveraging like the AI technology to be able to identify images and words in the stamps.

[00:17:23] Kate Garvin: That's great.

[00:17:25] Jennifer Wilson: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:17:26] Kate Garvin: But yeah, as far as stamp organization, I'd say that's like, that is the biggest one. Um, I put all my stamps in Avery Elle Pockets, which you can get off of Amazon. And then I use my label maker to put the name of the company and the name of the stamp set. So then when I'm flipping through them in the fridge bin, it's really easy to see what I have.

[00:17:46] Jennifer Wilson: Cool. Cool. That sounds really handy. One of the most common strategies I feel like when I, cuz I've been scrapbooking since 2008 and when I came into the industry I was like, here's all the different ways you can organize your stamps. And now I most of us have settled on that this is the, the most convenient way. And, and now we're adding these, you know, indexes on top of them. So.

[00:18:09] Kate Garvin: Yeah, yeah, definitely. Um, and I think, you know we have people like Jennifer McGuire to thank for that. Cause it's like, oh, well if that's what Jennifer's doing then like that must, that might be the best way to do it and we should just go with that. You know.

[00:18:23] Jennifer Wilson: Totally. For sure.

[00:18:24] Kate Garvin: Don't question

[00:18:26] Jennifer Wilson: So what about, what's your next item?

[00:18:29] Kate Garvin: Yeah, so I have these white bins from IKEA.

[00:18:32] Kate Garvin: Um, I don't know the name of them, but I know they're like in kind of a smaller size and then a larger size. I wanna say they start with a V, but I have no idea how to pronounce the name. Um, I might be able to find the link if I look for it, but I have found 'em to be really great for storing kits. So specifically like the Ali Edwards Story kits, um, both fit.

[00:18:54] Kate Garvin: Um, like vertically in these bins. And then I can fit two of the bins on my Kallax uh, cube, which is great. So they fit side by side. And then I put my Everyday Explorers mini book kits in there as well. Um, so that's been like a really good storage for the, for the Ali Edwards kits and kind of whatever else is like that little, like envelope size, fits really nice in these.

[00:19:21] Jennifer Wilson: Now do you, and I think I know the answer to this, but do you prefer like open storage that you can see, or like closed storage that's not distracting.

[00:19:30] Kate Garvin: I do, I really like open storage. And I'm, I'm able to have open storage because I, I don't have kids, so I don't have to worry about, you know, little, uh, little people being able to like, get into all my stuff. I do have cats, but I just close the door and they stay out and they don't really bother things. So, but yeah, I do really like having the open, open storage so I can see everything I have.

[00:19:54] Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, it's really handy. And I think, um, oh, I can't think of the name of the store. There's this store in like the Pacific Northwest that I know is like really good for, um, very inexpensive storage containers, like even less expensive than IKEA. Um, and I can't, oh, I'll link it in the show notes. I have to look up what it is. Um, but I know that it looks very popular with those that live in that part of the country.

[00:20:18] Kate Garvin: Oh, cool. Yeah, we're fortunate to have our IKEA right here in Columbus, so it's easy to go and, you know, get more bins as I need them. Cause of course we always are, are buying more stuff, so.

[00:20:31] Jennifer Wilson: I have to drive at least two and a half hours in any direction to get to one of four IKEA's, but at least I have options. That's where all the Trader Joe's are as well, so.

[00:20:43] Kate Garvin: Oh, nice. Yeah. They always put like the best things all together.

[00:20:47] Jennifer Wilson: Yes. Yes. Well, it's not in my smaller college town, so.

[00:20:51] Kate Garvin: Mm-hmm.

[00:20:52] Jennifer Wilson: We have Target though, so that counts.

[00:20:54] Kate Garvin: There you go.

[00:20:56] Jennifer Wilson: All right. What else?

[00:20:59] Kate Garvin: So for inks, I have ink pad holders from Organize More. I have the ones that fit, uh, 72 ink pads. I have a couple of those. Um, so like my full size ink pads are what goes in those ink pad holders. They are wood, and then they have like particle board, um, separators. You can get certain sizes to fit, like just your regular like square ink pads, or they have specialty ones, I believe for like the Stampin' Up inks and they have, um, ones that can be modified. You just put like a little piece of cardboard in the back, um, to fit like your Distress Oxides. So they're really versatile. They have a lot of great stuff. They sell like the Copic marker holders too. I have those. Um, and then for my ink cubes, they have trays, that then fit in your Alex drawers so you can fit about three of these trays in the bottom Alex drawer, like the biggest, biggest size one. Um, so I really like those. Um, keeps all my inks where I can see them and they're organized. They're easy to grab.

[00:22:09] Jennifer Wilson: So this is a solution that I've looked at many times and I'm always like, uh, it's kind of expensive for like a storage thing. So can you tell me like how it changed how you use your inks and your being able to find things versus however you had them before, which I assume is like stacked somewhere in a bin or drawer or something like that.

[00:22:30] Kate Garvin: Yeah, so I definitely had like my ink cubes more in like a drawer. They weren't really, um, organized. I think when I first started buying inks, I just had a few, like out on my desk, but really once I started buying like the full sets, so like, um, I really like Catherine Pooler's inks, Concord & 9th. And so once I knew that I was really gonna invest in good quality ink, I wanted to store them in a way that they were accessible and I would use them. Um, and then, you know, just having them in a nice, nice space. Um, everything in my room, speaking of IKEA, like everything's pretty much white. So getting the white ink pad holders, like, they just, they look really nice on top of my Kallax I can fit four of them across. Um, So, so yeah, I would say, um, yes, they're an investment, but if you're really going to, um, be serious about your ink pads and the quality ink pads you're getting, which, you know, as we know, like they have a big difference on how good your, your stamping turns out.

[00:23:32] Kate Garvin: Um, I would, I would highly recommend them. Um, they sometimes have a sale, um, kind of around like, uh, Black Friday, they'll sometimes do sales or like around New Year's. So if you can catch one of those or they'll just, from time to time, they'll put certain products of theirs on sale. Um, you can, um, grab them at like a little bit of a cheaper price.

[00:23:55] Kate Garvin: But they've held up great. I've had them since we moved into our house, so that was like 2019. Um, and I've had no issues with them. So highly recommend. And they, but they are made to order, so like, they do take some time to get to you. So if you think that you want to invest in them, like order them before you really need them, that way they'll get there, you know, in plenty of time.

[00:24:20] Jennifer Wilson: Yes. Well, I'm glad we have such, I don't know, kind of customized solutions today and we can support small businesses and get something that really, really helps us in our hobby.

[00:24:30] Kate Garvin: Yeah, absolutely.

[00:24:32] Jennifer Wilson: So I have a tangential question. So do you either have a four by four Kallax or are you really tall? Cause I'm trying to think of these stamp the in holders on top of the Kallax and there's no way that I could reach that on mine, so.

[00:24:45] Kate Garvin: So I have a four by four, is my great big one. And then I have a four by two that's next to it. Those two put together, cuz I had the the four by two in my apartment before we moved into our house. So I had that one first for the longest time and that had like all my stamps on it, had all my paper.

[00:25:07] Kate Garvin: That was the only like Kallax I had. And then once I moved to my house, I got the, um, four by four. And so my ink pads are on top of there. And then I took the doors off my closet because it wasn't really serving me very well, um, in this room. And so I have another Kallex that is a three by four. Um, that I have in the closet too.

[00:25:31] Kate Garvin: So I'm all about the Kallax around here.

[00:25:35] Jennifer Wilson: Now, I have seen some of those stamp organizing solutions that are inserts for the Kallax as well. Does that ring a bell? Maybe not this company, but I think I've heard of

[00:25:45] Kate Garvin: I've the ones for the paper.

[00:25:48] Jennifer Wilson: Okay.

[00:25:49] Kate Garvin: Um, that IKEA has. Um, you can get it to store like your 12 by 12 paper. Um, they're generally out of stock most of the time. They're hard to get. But they do have other organizers, like they've got one for like, if you do any kind of like, uh, needle work, like with yarn, they have like a really neat, it kinda looks like a wine holder actually that goes in your Kallax and they do have some shelving that you can put in.

[00:26:13] Kate Garvin: Um, the only thing I've done is I've put, um, I have a couple like wire baskets that will like hang over the edge of the cube and that's like where I have my label maker and my extra tape. So it's not really taking up the whole shelf, it's just kinda that space that's not really being used, um, on the sh on the hanging shelf.

[00:26:34] Kate Garvin: And then, um, yeah, and then I have the Scrapbook dot com, the plastic paper trays that are stackable. I have two of those and each of my Kallax cubes and they work great for all my 12 by 12, which I don't have a ton of, 12 by 12. Um, I buy that pretty sparingly, but, um, what I do have fits great in those organizers.

[00:26:55] Jennifer Wilson: Yes, I have those as well and really appreciate having them being able to like separate things. Um, Yeah, they're super, super handy. And I think they just did, I think that they just released another version. Maybe that's like solid white versus just the clear. So if like you have, you know, an aesthetic need, um, to have them all white.

[00:27:16] Kate Garvin: Yeah, I have the, yeah, I have the white. I didn't get the clear. I got the white, which I really like, cuz again, it just kind of blends with the inside of my cube.

[00:27:24] Jennifer Wilson: Nice. Yes, yes, yes. All right. Do you have another solution to share?

[00:27:31] Kate Garvin: Yeah. Um, so the other one again, more IKEA. IKEA's great for, for craft organization. Uh, the Raskog carts, um, I have two of them. I love them. They're a three tiered cart. I know you can get similar things that, like Michael's and JoAnne's too, so you can always pick up something with a coupon. Um, I love that it's easy to move around my room, um, and it holds a ton of supplies.

[00:27:57] Kate Garvin: So right now I have one that has all my current kits on it. And then the other one has like a Totally Tiffany Organizer on it that's got Week in the Life. Um, once I finish Week in the Life and then it's December Daily time, then all my December Daily stuff comes out and that all goes on a cart by itself.

[00:28:13] Kate Garvin: So they're really versatile and you can kind of switch 'em out with whatever project you wanna focus on. And then I like that everything's out there where I can see it. Um, and it, especially like during December Daily, it's, it encourages me to work on my project. So Raskog carts for sure.

[00:28:29] Jennifer Wilson: Yes, those carts are super handy. Uh, one of the ones that I have, and I don't know if IKEA has this, but I have lids for each compartment, so it makes them.

[00:28:38] Kate Garvin: Oh, cool.

[00:28:39] Jennifer Wilson: Shelves as well. So I use it for like, um, my various large tools like Die Cutters, manual and electronic. Um, what else is on there? Oh, my Minc so like all those things and then the supplies that go with them, like go inside the bin, you know, underneath the shelf. So that's really handy too.

[00:28:59] Kate Garvin: That's good. Yeah, I like that you can just put all kinds of little organizers like in them and put like your journal cards. And um, I also have these plastic embroidery boxes, which is the last thing that I recommend. Um, for like storing all your chipboard and your embellishments, all those little pieces that come in the kits.

[00:29:16] Kate Garvin: And then once we use up the majority of the kit, um, you can put it, you know, in these little, uh, embroidery box dividers. I know Ali's done, done something similar that's how I ended up with mine, but, um, you can just buy them like off Amazon. They're, they're really for embroidery floss, but they work great for all the little scrapbooking embellishments.

[00:29:36] Jennifer Wilson: Well, and they do such a good job of like, they go all the way up to the top, so you're less likely to get things totally messed up. I mean, I'm sure you shook it, it would, but, um, it does a good job holding things in place. I think I got mine back in the days of, like when sequins were like, I mean, they're big at December Daily, but sequins were really a thing for a while, and so needed a place to organize all my sequins.

[00:29:59] Kate Garvin: Yeah. I've even put mine like on the side of like a, like next to a, a fridge bin, like, just cuz that's where I have space and I'll slip it on the side. And so like, for most of everything in there, like it stays pretty organized. Like, even though I'm storing outside and not flat. So, um, yeah, they're, they're great.

[00:30:19] Jennifer Wilson: Thank you so much for sharing so many details. I'll.

[00:30:22] Kate Garvin: Yeah. Of course I love organization.

[00:30:23] Jennifer Wilson: Definitely include a link to your, you're on Instagram, right?

[00:30:29] Kate Garvin: Yeah.

[00:30:30] Jennifer Wilson: Okay. So we'll include a link to, so people can see like things you create, any photos you have of, of your space and all that. So I'm also curious, kind of the flip side here, are there any like organization strategies or solutions that didn't work for you?

[00:30:46] Jennifer Wilson: Like big regrets of you got it all set up and then it didn't work, or you bought it and then you wish you could return it or you did return it?

[00:30:54] Kate Garvin: Yeah, so I feel like I kinda mentioned it earlier, but definitely that database, like I got really into setting up the Airtable and then I just kind of dropped off and, and haven't been using it. Um, and the same with the Color My Life app. I just haven't, um, been keeping up with that either. So, Um, definitely not like something I regret. Um, it's just how do you balance your time, organizing your supplies in this database, and then still making sure you have time to create. So hopefully I'll find like that happy medium. Um, but right now I just don't have everything into a database like I would like. Um, and then the other thing, which I was really excited to buy this, I did buy it on sale, so it's okay. Um, but the, We Are Memory Keepers Project Cart. I thought would use that thing like all the time. And it honestly just ends up being like a catchall for things that are like that, like mail that comes in, you know, like packages and like, that's just where all the new stuff gets put. And so like I've been most successful when I clear everything off of it.

[00:31:59] Kate Garvin: And I use it for like my online classes. So all the prep stuff when I do like online card making, uh, classes is what I do most frequently. So I can have like a tray for each of the classes and then organize all my supplies. But as far as like it's intended purpose, which is to keep track of your unfinished projects, I haven't been great about that. So that's one of my goals this year is to really like, that whole kind of corner of my room is kind of a mess. So I need to figure out a better way, um, to use that tray, because I do have stuff that's like, you know, a work in progress, um, but it's just not really getting put on that tray. It's getting put like somewhere else, or it's like, well, I did finish the projects and I didn't really need a tray. So, um, but yeah, I think it's a, it's a great thing. I just wouldn't, I wouldn't pay full price for it, which again, I got it on sale, but I know they're kind of expensive right now. But, um, they're basically just like the old, they're like the lunch tray, like cart when you had, when you were a kid, it's like you put the little lunch trays on the little cart. Like that's kinda what's, and they're plastic. So, um, I don't know why it's so expensive, honestly. But, um, the, the thought of it is really good if you use it.

[00:33:14] Jennifer Wilson: Well, and I, I agree and I've been attracted to it, but I have always talked myself out of it. And I think as I'm, I'm sitting here listening to you, we really can only work on one thing at a time. And so I don't necessarily wanna have like lots of in-progress things that out inaccessible, um, and I really haven't had that much of a problem with, with kids or cats getting into things. It's just like, to me mental weight of, oh look, there's all those things that I could be doing. Now, which one do I pick? I'd rather like them away, have a list somewhere, and then get out the one thing that I'm working on.

[00:33:55] Kate Garvin: Right. Well, and then part of like, you know, with not having kids is that I don't feel the pressure to scrap a chronologically all the time. Like, like you said, I jump around, I work on whatever projects or layouts I feel like working on. And so, I'll just pull out like all my travel stuff and work on this travel album.

[00:34:10] Kate Garvin: And then once that's done, then the travel stuff all gets put away, so, so yeah, I don't feel the need to like have all this stuff just like floating around on this tray. Like it's just, it hasn't been very beneficial. I thought I would use a lot for Project Life spreads because then I could keep all my stuff like on the tray, but.

[00:34:30] Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

[00:34:31] Kate Garvin: I haven't been doing Project Life lately either. So I haven't really been using it.

[00:34:36] Jennifer Wilson: Well, it just shows how important it's to just kind of, whether it's something you're thinking about buying or have bought, but to really think about how you use it, how you won't use it. Like what are your everyday behaviors and is this really gonna fit with it? Because, you know, some things do and some things don't. Even, you know, you're talking about the databases. I'm, I'm kind of like you in that, I don't necessarily have the patience to. Index something, I have a lot more patience to visually like flip through and say, oh, I wanna use that thing. And I move on and I use it. Um, versus the constant indexing of new purchases I think would not be something that I have a lot of patience for.

[00:35:16] Kate Garvin: Yeah, and I think it goes down to, also comes down to also like, what does your space look like? You know, like when I started, I was in an office, in our apartment that I like shared with my husband. And so like that cart probably would've been great because I didn't have a ton of space. But now I'm really lucky to have a spare bedroom in our house and I have plenty of space. So like that cart just doesn't really fit into how I scrapbook or how I have my room set up as much anymore. As it might for someone who has a smaller craft space or you know, maybe just needs a couple carts, like the Raskog cart and the project cart to like store all their supplies. So I think it depends kind of on what your space looks like and what season of life you're in too.

[00:35:59] Jennifer Wilson: Yes, yes, yes, yes. So, stepping back maybe, what's one of the big things you've learned from your time as a scrapbooker since 2020?

[00:36:09] Kate Garvin: Yeah. So even though, um, I've only been scraping since 2020. I've learned how important it's to document my everyday stories, even if in the moment a lot of things look the same. So for part of why I haven't really been as successful with Project Life as I would like to be. Is I feel like I don't have a ton of stories to say and I can only like have so many pictures of my cats. But having said that, in the past year, we've lost two of our cats. So I'm thankful that we've, I have them documented my projects, like I've got them my December Daily and my Week in the Life. And now we have two, one year old cats. So life looks a lot different now, but at the time, you know, when I'm taking those photos and I'm putting those albums together, you don't anticipate like how things are going to change. So, I think even though what I feel like is really mundane, I still need to like document it and make it a priority. Because you just never know how things are gonna change in, in a couple years.

[00:37:08] Jennifer Wilson: Well, and I think that there's so many different options. Like you can do weekly Project Life. You could do monthly, you can do some sort of digital yearbook. You can do just Week in the Life and maybe Day in the Life and December Daily, you can be very project focused. But there's lots of choices to get you to this idea of I want to document more of the everyday details of my life. And that part's really cool.

[00:37:34] Kate Garvin: Absolutely. Yeah. I feel like now more than ever, there's so many like formats and ways that you can document. Like you said, you can do all digital if you want. You can do. Um, I've seen people do, like the memory planners are really big, which I've tried several times to do that, and it just doesn't work for me. But I love looking at everybody else's projects too. I think that's another thing I've learned is like, even though I like what someone else is doing, I can appreciate it, but I don't necessarily have to do it myself.

[00:38:05] Jennifer Wilson: Yes, that's, that's a hard thing to do sometimes.

[00:38:08] Kate Garvin: Yeah, for sure.

[00:38:10] Jennifer Wilson: Kate, this has been so fun. I can't wait to kind of follow more of your organizing exploits. Um, can you share where we can find you online, anything you might be doing later this year?

[00:38:22] Kate Garvin: Yeah, I'm on Instagram at CraftyKate616. Um, right now I mentioned what I'm working on is my Chicago travel album. And then, um, I just started yesterday a little, um, um, Citrus Twist notebook that I'm excited about. Um, my friend Amanda Wilder has a project called Little, little Summer Joys that she launched yesterday.

[00:38:45] Kate Garvin: Um, so I've been playing along and I did like the first two prompts, and so it's just like a good, like low risk way to like document your summer. So highly recommend to check it out.

[00:38:56] Jennifer Wilson: I love that. Yeah, and we've have, I will link to Amanda's episode of the podcast as well. So cuz she's been a guest.

[00:39:02] Kate Garvin: Yeah.

[00:39:03] Jennifer Wilson: Well this has been so fun. Thank you for spending time with me

[00:39:06] Kate Garvin: Yeah, thanks for having me. I always love talking about scrapbooking and and organizations. This is great.

[00:39:11] Jennifer Wilson: And to all of our listeners, please remember that you have permission to Scrapbook Your Way.