Betsy Veldman
It seems every time summer rolls around I’m in the mood to clean and purge.
The kids are home all day and there’s generally more “stuff” around…baseball stuff, swimming stuff, toys, summer rec crafts, etc.! I don’t deal well with clutter, so I really get the urge to organize things!
Today I thought I’d share with you one of my recent organizational projects: my dreaded (but well-loved!) scrap basket.
Do you have an over abundance of scraps like me? Every time I think I’m going to do a project using my scraps, I feel like they actually multiply! But today is a new day.
I was inspired by some of the ladies chatting on the Papertrey Ink board. They were cutting their papers into 6×6 blocks. Oh, the genius! I also scrapbook, so I could never do this to all of my paper, but my scraps go pretty much exclusively to card making. So why not?
So that’s what I did. And when I finished trimming them neatly, I couldn’t just toss them all back in a bucket. So I sorted them by color. If a piece was double-sided, I tossed one piece into the pile that coordinated with the front side, and the second piece went into the pile that matched the back side.
Oh, sweet mother of scraps…I think I’ve died and gone to heaven.
I picked up these baskets at the dollar store. They fit the 6×6 pieces perfectly. I used my die cut machine to cut the dividers out of cardstock.
This first basket is sorted by color.
This second basket contains neutrals (cream/white, brown/black) as well as stripes, florals, dots, and Christmas.
Lookin’ good, don’t you think?
Oh, but wait. After cutting everything down to 6×6 blocks, I was left with…
THIS.
Will it ever end?
I had a little devil on one shoulder saying, “Just throw them away!!!”
But a little fairy, aka my 7-year-old daughter, sat on my other shoulder saying, “No, keep them! They’re soooooo pretty!”
How could I resist? So I issued myself a challenge. They need to be used by the end of the year or they need to go. I told my little fairy that she was welcome to dig out of that basket anytime she pleased.
So to get started on my challenge, my little fairy and I sat down together to work on a project to try and whittle down that stack of strips (the photo really doesn’t do it justice…there is A LOT of paper there!).
I decided to pull strips that worked well together. You know I love to mix patterns and colors, so I really enjoyed this process. I covered an 8 ½” x 11” sheet of cardstock with adhesive and filled it with strips. I trimmed off any excess even with the edge of the cardstock (and yes, threw it away! Go me!).
Here are the sheets I made…
And here’s one my daughter made. She loves blue, so she mixed and matched a bunch of blue pieces…
My thought is these sheets can be cut down to create card sets. I gave it a try and it was FUN! Here’s a set I made using a sheet from the photo above.
I grabbed the Essential Sentiments stamp set from A Muse Studio, which contains tons of great everyday and holiday sentiments.
This allowed me to quickly put together cards for lots of different occasions. I just added a few die cuts, a little twine, and some buttons. This would also make a great on-the-go project to take along on vacation or to a crop.
To get a better look at these cards, stop by my blog!
I’m on an organizational roll, so keep me going! Share your best tip here and I’ll pick one winner to take home the Essential Sentiments stamp set (seen above). All comments must be received by midnight (MDT) on Thursday, July 28.
Happy crafting!
Betsy Veldman,
Paper Crafts Go-to Gal
P.S. Just a reminder…you have one more day to vote in Round 3 of Gallery Idol! Click HERE to view the Top 10′s cards and cast your vote. Voing will end at noon (MDT) tomorrow!
Looks like your new little scraps would be perfect for the candles that are on the card of the new magazine.
One of my organizational tip is that I bought several plastic 12×12 paper holders from Targets $1 bins. I then put my season paper and embellishments in each one. This way one a season rolls around, everything is in one place. I also did this for girl and boy baby themes.
so clever and organized. I’m inspired to go through my bits of paper and do the same thing. I have drawers of papers sorted by colors but nothing as useful as you have here, but they will become cards soon. Thanks for the Inspiration
What an awesome idea! Love to win that stamp set. Thanks for sharing.
Organization tip – label, label and then label some more! I try to put like things together. For example, all of my tools are in one drawer that I LABELED…”tools”. All of my punches are in a wire mesh basket. All of my pattern papers are together in categories, i.e. Christmas, kid, seasons, etc. My inks, stamps, adhesive are stored together and then LABELED – it has made my life SO MUCH EASIER. Thanks for all you do Betsy – I LOVE your blog!
shelves!! I have 2 walls of shelves in our bedroom. My husband has joking said that if he moves out there will be more room for my crafting. Hmmmm?????
I keep my magazines under control by ripping out the pages I want and inserting them into a pocket page protector, which then goes into a three ring binder. It’s not an original idea, but it has saved me so much room and I love to flip through it because everything in it inspires me!
I love your scrap bins and the cards you made are gorgeous! Thanks for the inspiration!
LOVE the scrap basket challenge idea and the way you organized your paper. I need to get a better handle on my stash on hand and think cutting 12x12s to 6x6s would be a BIG plus since I don’t scrapbook. To organize my Nestabilities, I bought a zippered CD case with plastic inserts from Target. I cut a magnetic sheet to fit the insert and the dies adhere to it. Finish by printing a clear label on my computer with the name of the Nestabilities set. They are all in one place, zips shut and easy to store.
I’ll go with my most recent organizational addition. I put up a silver cafe rod in my craft room to hold all my spools of twine. It’s easy to get to and I just cut what I need. I like that it doesn’t take up room on my work table anymore.
Love the idea with cutting down the 12 x 12 papers. As I only make cards I do the same but my papers are just stacked in a huge pile. I hope you don’t mind if I borrow the basket idea
.
This summer I am finally getting my crafting space (it’s currently a huge box and the kitchen table) so I don’t have any storage solutions yet.
Love your card which is a fabulous way to use up all the scraps I am sure we all end up with. Thank you for sharing
I am not overly organised with my crafts as I don’t have much storage space, but I do have folders with clear pockets from Kaisercraft to put my clear stamps in . I also have a icecream container with scraps similar to your basket.
I love this idea! I do scrapbook but I make more cards than anything. I can see this working for me by cutting them down to a mat size to fit a card base. Now I will have to go through my stash and do this! My tip: I get those photo storage boxes from the craft store when they are on sale and super cheap. I organize my cards in these boxes and make sure I lable them, like birthday, sympathy, thank you, and I have a card when I need one. When I am getting low in a particular section, I know the next set of cards I make need to go in that section. And when hubby, other family member, or neighbor needs a card, I just give them the box and they can look through them. I haven’t bought a store bought card in 7 years!
other than keeping my solid cs organized in hanging file folders under my work desk and buttons sorted by colors in jars, I don’t really have any other ideas. I love these ideas you have shown for scraps! I will most certainly have to try them out! thank you!
I love what you did with your scraps. I will have to try this. I found that shelves and labeling are my best friends. I used to have everything around me on the floor or table. Then one day DH built me some shelfs right above my table and OH MY….this is awesome. I organized and labeled and have everything at hand.
this is so clever, so functional and yet so fun! thanks for the great idea.
one organization tip is: to have a place for everything. once everything has a home, it is so much easier to return it to the right place and not just in a huge pile at the top of your craft space. =)
I love what you did with the scraps – and your daughter did a fabulous job on her piece as well (she’s well on her way to becoming a fantastic artist, just like her mom). I’m not the most organized person (my craft room is testimony to that fact!), and I’m enjoying all the tips others have offered. Here’s mine – I added strips of magnetic “tape” to the insides of my Spellbinders folders, to hold all of the dies. The folders all sit neatly in a box on my desk, for easy access.
Love your idea! Especially using the strips to make some new paper. LOVE it!!
I have really been trying to organize this summer also. Two storage tips that I have, really passing on someone else’s idea that I read somewhere. First, I bought some CD/DVD boxes from Walmart in the office supplies section, they come in several different colors. I place my embossing folders in the boxes after writing the name of the embossing design on the folder in black sharpie. Nice and neat! Next, I have been trying to find a practical storage idea for my nestabilities that do not take up a lot of room. I found some plastic folders (also at Walmart) that are bound pocket pages with an extra pocket with a closure on the front of each pocket that is perfect to store the regular sized nestabilities that I have, lined up on magnets and just slip in the pocket and close it. The folder also has an elastic closure to keep it shut.
Love your ideas!! I organize my nesties by using the card folder that they come on. I cut vent magnets to the size of the folder, and then put the nesties on the magnet inside of the folder. I put a tab with the name on the edge of the folder and then store them in a box from Target that is just the right size. I can grab them from the shelf and see at a glance what I need.
Oh!!!! I am so jealous!!! I need to go through my scraps again too and am dreading it! BUT, I think you may have just motivated me to get started…first a trip to the dollar store to find some bins…lol! LOVE what you and your daughter did with the paper strips! Definitely need to try that, so cute!!! As far as organization goes, I am fortunate to have a corner of our basement for our(the kids & I) craftroom, I have collected items for it bit by bit over the past many years and it is actually starting to look like a REAL craftroom (as opposed to a FAKE craftroom! HA!) I would tell veryone to start collecting bit by bit, if it is a great sale item or a steal at a garage sale, snatch it up and eventually you will have a place to put everything! =)
I sort all of my scraps using 12 x 12 sterilite drawer containers. I have two units (total of 6 drawers) and each drawer is labeled with the color(s) it contains: pink/red, orange/yellow, green, blue, purple, white/black/brown.
Pattern papers are sorted by the first color my eyes see.
I also have a rule that I cannot cut into a full sheet of paper when making a card. Three years ago I made 400+ cards (school project) using just my scraps. I did something for the school, and my scrap stash was cleaned out.
I cycle what items i have on my desk…this helps me use up my stash quicker.
My organization tip – keep things visible and close at hand. If u pack it away in a box and place it somewhere else, you forget what u have and not only do you miss out on using it but you also could end up buying the same thing!
I am a big cardstock fan and I keep a small binder with page protectors to separate the different color scraps. If I’m on my way to a crop, I grab this and always have some type of cardstock with me.
Thanks for sharing. I definitely need to do this too.
It seems like I clean and purge my craft room every summer too. Love the stamp set……if I win it, I’ll give it a good home. 
What a great idea on the 8 1/2 x 11 sheets. I have so many long strips left over. I will be giving this a try.
Every time I buy a new stamp or stamp set, I scan the image sheet or cut & paste a picture of the stamps from the Internet. I keep all the image in a spreadsheet and periodically print off the images to keep in a binder. This allows me to flip through all my stamps and helps prevent buying duplicates!
Love your strip cards and 6×6 paper storage,
out where they can be seen. I store my scraps in an accordion
Folder by Color for solids, homemade backgrounds, patterned
Scraps are grouped by colors as well, which is far more useful than the
Large drawer i was tossing them into, that was such a mess. This sits on a tv
Tray so it’s not taking up work space. Easy to grab pieces when I’m die cutting or punching. I’m so proud that I’ve advanced to tossing unusable scraps.
Just the post that I needed… although an angel to help me do it would be no harm!!!! Thanks for this one… also have visited Betsy’s blog to get a good look at the fab cards!!!
Robin
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I use an expandable plastic file folder to store cardstock scraps by color. Patterned paper is a little trickier! Thanks for the suggestion!
Ok! I totally love this idea Betsy! Just one question, how do you know which manufactured/brand the paper is from when you eventually use it? (You probably have this awesome memory! Not me!)
I keep almost every single scrap of paper, the most useful are those thin left over strips which make great borders when you need something thin. I also use those tiny mis-shaped scraps and stamp small images like butterflies and dragonflies on them which I can then use on a project later!
Thanks so much for the inspiration today!
I love the idea of cutting the scraps down to a smaller size!
All of my scraps right now are in 2 large paper grocery bags, and the bags are overflowing!!!
Totally Groovin!
Groovy Deb♥
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Oooh, I’m gonna do this next week while my kiddo is gone! I have a 3 drawer cart filled with scraps that need a better home than shoved in a drawer and forgotten!
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Awesome idea!!!!! You inspired me so much I have just done the same thing! I just need to find a container to put them in, I have already come up with ideas to use them, I was so stuck in a creative rut, felt very overwhelmed with all the paper before now I can’t wait to use them! Thank You!
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I love the use of scraps to come up with stripped card sets! Genius! I’m a newbie, and I notice many scrappers brown the edges of their creations for effect. What do you use? (As seen in some of the scrap stripe sets you showed). Thanks!
Oh my I love this idea! I have so many scraps and can’t bear to throw them away but never really use them up as they are in a big mess! Guess I know what I will be doing over the coming few days!
Thanks sooo much for the ideas…they are AWESOME…and super cute..!!!
Kudos for the organizing! I love the idea of using strips to pre-make paper for your cards. Nice.
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OMG!! This is a great and motivational article!! TFS
Love this idea! I save my scraps in tubs – one for colored papers and the other for patterns. I use the scraps for cards, etc. I love what you did with the strips though and want to try that!
I manage my scraps similarly, but rather than 6×6, I cut them into a variety of sizes – I have them sorted by 6×12, 2×12, 8×8, 4×6, 5×7 and 8×8. I found those were the sizes I most often grabbed. I even have a filed called “card strips” where I keep strips that are maybe 1×6 that can be used along the bottom edge of a card.
As far as an organizational hint, I found a room divider made with curtain sheers hanging on each of the 3 sections. I removed the sheers and stapled on chicken wire. I painted the entire thing black and use clips to hang my Nesties, decorative scissors, misc. photos, etc. onto the wire.
i love to cut paper and love to use scrapbooks and loved this project