Album, Cardstock & Paper Organization

Today, I'm going to share with you my organization for my albums, cardstock, and papers. This system is all being changed up now that I have made a 100% commitment to pocket scrapbooking, but I will share with you the changes when they are finished.

I love paper. I make no bones about it. If you don't absolutely love pretty paper, I am not sure we can be friends. I mean, how can you not love paper? I mean seriously!

I have tens of thousands of sheets of paper. No joke. I used to buy multiple sheets of my favorites, the ones I couldn't live without, the ones I knew I would use over and over and over and over etc. I have paper for almost every theme imaginable. I even had cowboy paper....I'm not a cowboy. Don't know any....don't ride horses either. One of our dogs used to wear bandanas so I think I started adding to the theme because of Oscar. I'll use the paper with some of my farm visits. No shortage of them around here! That's one of the reasons I absolutely looooooooooove living in the Finger Lakes.

All of my 12x12 papers are in 13x15 zipper bags. Each bags contains one collection. And by collection I mean Apple Cider from BoBunny, Silhouette from Close to My Heart, Alpine Frost from SEI, Cupcake from Basic Grey....does that give you an idea what I mean? I sort by theme not brand because...well...you'll see in a minute. A picture is worth a thousand words or 12 thousand in this case. :)

Each cubby on my Expedit contains a theme or several themes. The Expedit isn't labeled with the categories.  I kept that list on my MacBook. I made numbered labels for my Expedits....yup that is plural. I have 2 of the 25 cube Expedits. You'll see the second one soon! I should do a blog post about the labels I made, too.

So that's my messy paper collection. Ugh. Remember, I don't like messy. I'm probably the most anal scrapbooker alive. I have to clean as I scrapbook. I can't stand having the table covered with stuff. I just get so stressed. It's so weird. Anyway, this paper arrangement is in for a major overhaul!

My second Expedit holds my mountain of cardstock and my completely and empty albums. A few themes of my paper collection are stored here.....they don't fit in the other one. The top rows have empty and full albums. The bottom contains fabric bins from Ikea that hold my cardstock. The cardstock is all sorted by color. I have plastic inserts in each bin that divide the colors. I sort the cardstock by ROY G BIV and Browns and Blacks. Browns include the creams and ivories. Backs include the greys and whites. The cardstock sheets are all standing up in these bins. This Expedit, too, is going to be remodeled in the near future.

I know Ikea does not make the Expedit anymore. Big, huge sad face. I love them! I know I'm not the only crafter who loves them. Ikea replaced the Expedit with the Kallax. I believe the Kallax only comes in 20 cubes though. I could be totally wrong! I haven't seen them in person yet. I will next month when I go to Charlotte! I'm off to Raleigh for a huge crop. My understanding is that inside of the cubes are the same dimensions so they will still hold scrapbook albums!

Stop back tomorrow for a post on the numbered labels I created for my Expedits. I'm going to dig out the photos right now! :)

Changes to Sticker Organization

It's no secret that I have struggled with storage and organizing all of my scrapbooking and paper crafting supplies for years. I have a TON. No seriously. Many people say I have a store in my studio. They're really no exaggerating. I've actually been to stores that have less of everything that I do.

One thing that has really helped curb my hoarding and buying was changing my scrapbooking style. I am now an exclusive pocket scrapbooker. Yup, I have officially given up traditional scrapbooking. Hey no moaning or groaning! I didn't make this decision lightly. I've been working on this for about a year. In 2014, I started pocket scrapbooking when I attended Crop on the Cape. I wanted to get my nephew's first year done and I did. Oh he's going to be 8 in April!!! So I kind of figured it was time to get the kid in an album....pretty soon he'll be off to college and have grandchildren at the rate I was going. I also have 2 other nephews now! On my harddrives, I have about 100,000 digital photos. Yeah, you read that right.....100 THOUSAND. I'd like to get them scrapbooked before I'm 753 years old.

With the switch to pocket scrapbooking, I'm scrapbooking way more often and actually accomplishing something! I get hundreds of photos scrapbooked at weekend crops. I have 4 weekend crops scheduled between this weekend and mid-March. I will be getting so much scrapbooked! I'm so excited about this. I'm finally able to look at photos that are old and have never been printed.

Since I'm scrapbooking so much more, I'm using up a ton of supplies! I actually have had to refill my cardstock organizers!! Seriously. I make a lot of my own cards using stamps, stickers, embellishments, washi, memorabilia, and photos. I have hundreds of sheets of cardstock cut down from 12x12 to 4x6. They are sorted by color family and stored in medium Close To My Heart organizers. This makes traveling with them so much easier. And a tiny side perk....the organizers fit perfectly in the RASKOG cart from Ikea. Here's one of my RASKOG carts on the way home from Crop on the Cape 2014. Don't you love how it's seat belted in?

My flat sheets of stickers are all in organizers from Michael's. I'll have to grab a photo of those some time! The project of sorting the flat sticker sheets from the chipboard, thick stickers, 3D stickers, etc was quite a project. I sort everything by category. My papers, stickers, and stamps are all sorted by the same categories. This way I know what goes together.

I spend far too much time at Lowe's....one of the perks of buying an old house that needs fixing up. :D Well, this Christmas they had tons of Christmas decor I needed wanted. Our living room is all decked out in the Adirondacks so of course I needed those mitten and sweater ball ornaments amongst other goodies. On one of my 453 trips to a Lowe's during the month of December, I noticed they had white and red storage bins that were stackable....that got me thinking.....yeah totally dangerous!

I had been wanting to organize my thick stickers.....They were previously stored in racks and wire bins from Ikea. They serve the purpose, but digging through so many items was a challenge. And the bins were so large that every bin except the Christmas one had multipole categories. The categories didn't stay sorted. Things got so jumbled up that it would take a good hour to go through the entire bin to get out all of the stickers in just one category. Not helpful at all when packing for a crop.

So with the brain in gear, I had made the executive decision to change how I was storing the thick stickers. Unfortunately, the change was going to have to wait for Christmas to be over. I had no time to make the change. I was totally swamped with 100 million things...aren't we all around the holidays? :(

So off to Lowe's I went around New Year's Day. This adventure took a few days. I had to go to 3 Lowe's stores! These bins were only for Christmas....sigh. And I'm not fortunate enough to live near a Container Store. I have plans to finally visit one when I go to Raleigh for one of my crops! I'm making a pit stop in Charlotte for Ikea, Container Store, Crate & Barrel, and who knows what other goodies I'll find along the way. I know Container Store has a website, but I want to be able to touch what I'm buying and make sure the measurements work for my needs.....picky picky I know.

The bins from Lowe's come in white or red. They also come in 2 different sizes. I went with white because my studio colors are white, black, and blue. My walls are a golden yellow. I like it kind of bright and sunny. I've actually gotten away from most of the black which is odd because I looooove black.

Filling up bins!! Each bin has a post it note in it with the categories listed. I need to make some labels. I haven't decided what I'm going to do about that just yet.

Here the bins are all put away....no more mess! I get stressed by messes piling up around me. I can't stand it! The wooden rack the bins are stacked on is a wooden baker's rack we purchased shortly after we were married in 1996....yeah it's old and has been repurposed probably 100 times. It's a great piece and so useful for so many things.

Let's recap.....I went from this heart stopping mess.....

to this well organized, tucked out of sight set up. I love how it's not all messy looking with things poking out. This also seems so much smaller and brighter. Watch for more organizing tips from me in the future!

Paper Pad Mess

Since I've gotten into card making, I've stocked up on 6" x 6" paper pads. Their smaller scale works so much better for many cards. You get the full pattern on a much small piece of paper. 

What do I do with this mountain?? Seriously. It's ugly and looks terrible on my shelves. And then there's that whole problem with things falling over. Yeah, thanks, but no thanks. 

So here's my solution. I purchased the black plastic basket from Target. They are found in the kitchen plastics section by the dish drainers. My Target has them in black or white. The 6" x 6" paper pads fit in them perfectly!

To help with saving a smidge of space and not having to worry about the seals that hold the paper pads closed getting everything all sticky, I tore both covers off. My original plan was to just cut off the company name and collection name off the cover and put that with the paper pad. That's what I do with my 12" x 12" collections. I didn't like how that looked with the small pads since they stand up and the large collections lay down. Shuffling through them to find what I wanted was also not as easy since the cardboard piece would fall to the bottom of the bag.

So onto Plan B! I threw away the cardboard pieces. They irked me. They also weren't very neat and once there's cut up papers in the bags, it would be even harder to find the tag. I have about 834 million labels around here. I went with the Avery 8478 labels. They're made for 1/3 tab file folders. There is a template you could use if that's your thing. I just used an Ultra Fine Point Sharpie and wrote on the labels. All I put on the label was the company name and the collection name. This solved my issues.

How do I organize my paper pads? Same way I do my collections. They are all sorted by theme. Christmas, winter, autumn, Halloween, Americana which covers the 4th of July and anything patriotic, spring, summer, beach/nautical, boy, girl, baby, love (includes Valentine's Day), wedding, Easter, outdoors, pets, school, etc. 

The bags. They are an odd size. I originally purchased them for my Close To My Heart stamp reorganization project. More on that in another post in the future when that project is complete. 

The bags are 7" x 7" zipper bags and I purchased them from eBay. They fit both the Close To My Heart stamp sets and the 6" x 6" paper pads perfectly! I'll have to find 9" x 9" zipper bags when I get some 8" x 8" pads. 

Oh one great thing about ordering the bags from eBay. You can find people selling them in 100 count or 1,000 count. I went with the box of 1,000 since I knew I have a huge project in the works. 

Hope this works for somebody out there! 

More Goodies Up for Grabs!

After a week, whatever hasn't sold will be moved to my Etsy store. If you'd like an item, please contact me! Shipping is not included in the price. US sales only. PayPal only for payment as well. All items will be shipped via USPS.

ALL items are brand NEW unless otherwise stated. ALL items come from a smoke free studio!

The Scrap Rack Travel Bag $25

The Scrap Rack Travel Bag - Blue - USED - 2 available - $25 - Comes with 2 spines and several 4 pocket pages - each pocket will hold a D size Close To My Heart Stamp Set (6"x6")

Anna Griffin Cuttlebug $50 SOLD

Anna Griffin Cuttlebug $50 SOLD

Anna Griffin Cuttlebug - Brand NEW - no plates included $50 SOLD

Sizzix Sizzlits Funky Bunch Dies $30

Sizzix Sizzlits Funky Bunch Dies $30

Sizzix Sizzlits Funky Bunch Dies - $30 - Brand NEW - Includes Storage Case 

Ellison Snickle Script Dies $30

Ellison Snickle Script Dies $30

Ellison Snickle Script Dies - $30 - Brand NEW - Includes Storage Case

Stampin' Up Wheel Handles & Wheel Storage Cases $15

Stampin' Up Regular & Jumbo Wheels and 2 Regular Wheel and 2 Jumbo Wheel Storage Cases - Brand NEW - $15

Disney Stripe Washi Tape $2

Disney Stripe Washi Tape - Brand NEW - Queen & Co - $2

Doggie Washi Tape $2

Doggie Washi Tape - Brand NEW - Queen & Co - $2

Step by Step Fabric Scrapbooking $10

Step by Step Fabric Scrapbooking book from Donna Downey  - Brand NEW - $10

House Mouse Food and Drink 3D Cards $10

House Mouse Food and Drink 3D Dimensional Cards - $10 - Brand NEW - Makes 20 Cut and Create Cards

House Mouse Christmas Eve 3D Cards $10

House Mouse Christmas Eve 3D Dimensional Cards - $10 - Brand NEW - Makes 20 Cut and Create Cards

I'm also including a free gift with every purchase made until August 31, 2013! Want something? Have questions? Email me.

Dies, Cuttlebug, Spellbinders, Quickutz, and Punches For Sale

Today I am posting several dies from Spellbinders and Quickutz, Fiskars and Stampin' Up punches, and a Cuttlebug for sale. The items will be available exclusively on Inky Hot Mess for a week. After a week, whatever hasn't sold will be moved to my Etsy store. If you'd like an item, please contact me! Prices may be slightly higher on Etsy due to the fees they charge. Shipping is not included in the price. US sales only. PayPal only for payment as well. You can pay with a credit card through PayPal and you don't need a PayPal account for payment. All items will be shipped via USPS.

ALL items are brand NEW unless otherwise stated. ALL items come from a smoke free studio!

Fiskars Peacock Corner Punch $6 SOLD

~ Peacock corner punch from Fiskars - $6 - Brand NEW SOLD 

Stampin' Up Punch Set $8 SOLD

~ Stampin' Up Retired Punches - $8 for both - Brand NEW - Both Retired! Punch set includes a corner punch and a half circle slit punch SOLD

Spellbinders Fancy Tags Three $12 SOLD

~ Fancy Tags Three Spellbinders Shapeabilities - $12 - Brand NEW & Sealed Package SOLD

Spellbinders Labels Twenty $12 SOLD

~ Labels Twenty Spellbinders Shapeabilities $12 - Brand NEW & Sealed Package SOLD

Quickutz Caramel Apple Die $2

~ Caramel Apple Die - Quickutz - 2" x 2" Die - Brand NEW & Sealed Package

Quickutz Cornucopia Die $4

~ Cornucopia Quickutz Die Set - $4 - 4" x 4" Dies - Set of 2 Dies - Brand NEW - No packaging

Quickutz Label Die $2

~ Label Quickutz Die - $2 - 2" x 2" Die - Brand NEW & Sealed Package

Sizzix Framelit Storage Case $10

~ Sizzix Framelit Storage Case  - $10 - Holds ALL 2" x 2" Dies including Cuttlebug and Quickutz - NEW - No Packaging

Cuttlebug $25

~ Cuttlebug  - $25 - The Cuttlebug can cut all dies - Sizzix, Ellison Quickutz, Cuttlebug, Spellbinders, Papertrey Ink, Clear Dollar Stamps, etc  - Works with embossing folders as well - NO plates are included! - USED - No Packaging

I'm also including a free gift with every purchase made until August 31, 2013! Want something? Have questions? Email me.

Ink Pads and Markers For Sale

Today I am posting ink pads and markers from Close To My Heart for sale. The items will be available exclusively on Inky Hot Mess for a week. After a week, whatever hasn't sold will be moved to my Etsy store. If you'd like an item, please contact me! Prices may be slightly higher on Etsy due to the fees they charge. Shipping is not included in the price. US sales only. PayPal only for payment as well. You can pay with a credit card through PayPal and you don't need a PayPal account for payment. All items will be shipped via USPS.

ALL items are brand NEW unless otherwise stated. ALL items come from a smoke free studio!

Close To My Heart Markers $3 each 

~ Close To My Heart Markers - This marker style has been retired - Retired colors available! - ALL are brand NEW and tested - $3 each - Colors available: Sorbet, Lilac Mist (Retired Color), Creme Brulee, Cranberry, Spring Iris (Retired Color), Juniper, and Tulip (Retired Color)

Close To My Heart Ink Pads $5 each

~ Close To My Heart Ink Pads  - Retired colors available! - ALL are brand NEW and sealed - $5 each - Colors available: Garnet (Retired Color), Moonstruck (Retired Color), Cranberry, Ponderosa Pine

Marker Organizer $8

Marker Organizer Folded $8

~ Marker Organizer - Holds 72 markers - Markers in photo are NOT included - Folds flat or Stand up - $8

I'm also including a free gift with every purchase made until August 31, 2013! Want something? Have questions? Email me.

O Ribbon How Do I Store Thee?

I may have a small thing for ribbon. A teeny, tiny thing. Ok. Ok. Ok. So it's more than a thing. I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE RIBBBBBON! So there you have it.

back rack - photo bombed by Forrest 

I prefer to buy ribbon by the spool. That doesn't mean I don't have shorter pieces because I have about 500 million of them and they're sorted in different jars that you'll see in the future one day when I finish that project. Famous last words, right? ;)

I don't have any wall space left. Well, I do, but it's behind the door and I'm leaving that blank for now. So what do I do with my ribbons? Hang them on the door! Now, I live in a house that's 70 years old and has real wooden doors. I didn't want to damage them because I love them and I can't replace them. Some day, I will strip the layers of paint off of them and stain them. Anyone up for that?

Because I didn't want to damage my doors a trip to Lowe's was in order. Imagine that. Why Lowe's? It's 10 minutes away and Home Depot is 40 minutes away. That's the only difference 90 percent of the time.

I did a little searching online and was looking for an over the door pantry shelf unit thingie. Yup. Another technical term. I needed something that I could just set the spools in without them falling out. And, yes, I did find just what I was looking for at Lowe's. This is what I purchased and it's from ClosetMaid. Home Depot also has a version. What you find in store may be different than what you find online.

front rack

My rack is 18 inches across. There are shorter ones available. Not sure about longer ones. This rack comes with hardware that allows for wall mounting if you prefer that method. So this pieces works for different mounting types and you could use it for punches and other items as well.

I actually had to purchase two of them. One hangs on each side of the door. I can't close my door tightly because of the racks, but I don't need to. All doors may not have this issue. I couldn't close the door when I had one rack no matter which side of the door it was on. Remember, I have old doors and old door jambs.

all of my Papertrey Ink ribbons in rainbow order 

This rack is completely adjustable. There are three sections to it. If you only need one or two sections, then you can use just them. The baskets are completely movable as well. You don't need to use all of them or you can buy another rack and borrow the baskets. I don't have the same number of baskets on both of my racks. They did come with the same number. I just rearranged them to suit my needs.

Until next time *

Organize! It's sooooo much easier when you can find what you're looking for and everything has a home.

Let's Begin...

Are you ready to begin the tour of my new studio? I am so let's get this party started! We're going to start with the walk-in closet. Yeah, odd I know, but it's not super glamourous so I figured we can get it over with.

My studio was an addition done by the previous owner to give themselves a nice size master bedroom. It's not a master suite and it's on the second floor so we decided to use a smaller first floor bedroom for ourselves until we can build an addition to include a first floor master suite for when we're older or are unable to go up and down stairs 100 times a day. And that is how I ended up with the largest room in the house for my studio. Thank you hubs!

Because this was the master bedroom, there were two closets. The small one we're going to add to the bathroom behind my studio to increase the size of it. It's a bit claustrophobic to me. I like being able to change my mind in the room I'm in. Yup, it's small for a full bath and it will be the only full bath for awhile in the near future. The second closet was a decent size walk-in closet. We used it for our clothes for awhile, but it was a pain with our bedroom on the first floor. So we evicted ourselves and added the walk-in closet to my storage space. It's actually full!

If you're interested in purchasing the storage items or finding out more info about them, I am including a ton of links. You'll notice the business name like Home Depot or Ikea and there will be a link on the name. If you see a store with more than one link, they are different links. Just wanted to make sure everyone knew that you could see Home Depot or whoever listed 100 times and each one will be different. Hope this all makes sense!

sticker and embellishment
wire bins 

Things that aren't super pretty are in there. I'm all about looks and functionality. Function supersedes looks, but some things are just ugly and there's no hope for them. This is very true of my wire storage bins and racks for my stickers and embellishments. There are a couple places you can find these bins Home Depot and Lowe's, but Ikea has something very similar and less costly. The bins are smaller from Ikea however. I'm not sure if you can still purchase the tops or not from Ikea. Lowe's has wooden ones and Home Depot has white plastic ones. Home Depot actually has two different sized racks. This link is for the larger rack.

Mine are from Lowe's and aren't exactly new. I've had them for years.  You were able to buy them in store at that time. I do know that you can purchase the racks and bins online and they'll ship to you or your local store. There may or may not be a shipping fee.

fabric cubes

Remember, the walk-in closet is chock full o' stuff! All of my fabric for my quilting and paper art projects is stashed in here. With it sorted like this, it seems like there's a heck of a lot less than I thought there was. That might be a good thing.


Simple storage for my fabrics. Yup. These wire cubes are cheap and easy to assemble! No tools or wicked muscles needed. They come in white and black and are readily available in Target. I purchased mine in store and on sale. I have two sets being used together. I do have some pieces left over.

wire racks

One the left wall, I have two wire racks from Target. Mine are chrome and are 36 inches long with five shelves and 72 inches tall. These racks hold lots of things that aren't so pretty and fall down all the darn time! I hate having to pick up things that are slippery and can't stand still. My paper mache boxes and acrylic goodies are in the fabric bins on the shelves. The fabric bins are from Target and the colors change frequently.

Close To My Heart
stamp storage bins

My Close To My Heart My Acrylix stamps are also stored in the closet. As you can see, I have a few or maybe a lot. I haven't quite decided yet. :) Anyway, it's best to store them away from sunlight which can degrade them over time. This is true for all types of stamps - rubber, acrylic, polymer, etc. My hubs actually came up with this storage solution for me! I looked for months for something and couldn't find what I wanted. It was driving me crazy and hubs came to the rescue! This Sterlite bins are inexpensive and can be used for many other things if I change my mind later and want to store the stamps differently. This bins are from Home Depot, but you could probably find similar ones at other stores since Sterilite is everywhere! The bins are stacked on a furniture dolly! This way I don't have to carry them around and move them 300 times to get things out of the closet which is awesome! Our furniture dolly is from Home Depot. So now see another use for one!

damask curtain

We took the closet door so we'd have more room in the studio. The door took up quite a bit of valuable space. Well, it wasn't the door it's self. It was the swing space it needed/used. We saved that door for a later project since we will be adding on to this house in the future. I purchased a tension shower curtain rod to hold up my curtain. This is the same curtain I have all over the room. Love the damask! The chandeliers aren't too bad either. These curtains are from Target and come in two sizes.

Well, that's all for the walk-in closet. You probably noticed there were labels on bins and I didn't share that info today. That info will be coming soon and there will be files included so you can print them out and use them!

Until next time *

Storage can be fun! And cheap. No need to spend a fortune when something for 10 bucks will do!

Are We There YET, Papa Smurf?

Normally, Papa Smurf says no about 150 times before arriving to the Smurfs' destination. Folks, we have arrived at our destination! Do you hear the excitement in my voice? You should. And you should hear it loud and clear.

It is official! My studio is COMPLETE! That's right. No more remodeling. No more painting. No more sanding. No more freaking cleaning. No more unpacking. No more figuring out where to put things. No more trying to figure out if I really want to keep some things. It's all done! I'm soooooooo freaking excited. I've been waiting for this day for months. We moved in six months ago today.

While at Crop on the Cape two weeks ago, I felt totally lost. I couldn't figure out how to lay out my scrapping goodies and where to begin! I used to have this down pat and had a serious system. It was so strange to me to be so lost while scrapbooking. I've never experienced this.

Was I losing my love for paper? Yeah, right! Not exactly. Someone asked me if I had scrapbooked since I moved. Nope. Then she asked me when the last time I scrapbooked was. I had to think about it for a minute. Good grief! It was last June in North Carolina. That's nine months ago. I've never gone that long without playing with my paper collection. No wonder I was so lost.

Good news is that I found my way. I got quite a bit accomplished. Not nearly as much as I expected to given my track record. But I was quite pleased since the first night I didn't get much done and I was so lost. It was rather quite sad.

This sadness motivated me. I have been working on unpacking my studio for about two months now. I thought it would take two weeks. Boy, was I dreaming! I really do have a lot of stuff. No arguments here. My quilting and office are also in my studio so that took me some extra time. Previously, they were together in their own room. Here I get to have everything together!

Over 70 boxes later, they are all empty! Most are already at the landfill being recycled into something useful again. Tomorrow the rest will be recycled. I'm so happy to see them gone. Gone. Gone!

With the Great Unpack 2013 comes some challenges and new things. I have gone through every piece of paper crafting material I own. I roughly went through everything before I moved and had 2 boxes of things I planned on selling. Well, now that everything has been unpacked and sorted out, I can say wowee! There are a ton of pieces I will be parting with. I have dozens of brand new stamps and ink pads I'll be selling. I will be listing with photos and details everything on here first. Then it will move to my new Etsy store after a week or so. This is my project for next week. Wish me luck! Pretty sure I'm going to need it.

I will be starting posts on my new studio Wednesday! Exciting I know! There will be tons and tons and tons of photos and links on where to get the items I used for storage. Yeah, I'm cool that way. And nothing is expensive. Remember, every dollar spent on storage takes away from my precious paper budget!

Think Tank Tuesday will also be back next week. I completely forgot to set it up while I was away at Crop on the Cape. I'm a bad girl. I know. Sorry! Oh and Crop on the Cape 2014 will be March 13-16. Please visit the Colorful Creations website for details. Registration opens in November so the details may not be announced until then, but you can see the crop from 2013 and it will be very similar.

Until next time *

Look through an album you haven't looked at in years! You might be surprised to see how your style has changed and how different the faces are now.