Each year when the Stampin’ Up! Annual Catalog retires, I go through a process of reorganizing and resetting my materials and supplies.
I do this to make sure only my current products are the ones in easy reach when I’m creating. As a demonstrator, I always try to use only current products. That way, I’m never teasing you, with items you can’t purchase. Now, whether you’re a demonstrator or not keeping all your supplies organized is an important (and fun) aspect of the craft. So… as I was resetting my space for the new catalog this year, I thought it might be helpful to share some of my organizing strategies. The main focus of today’s post is card stock organization and reorganization. Since Stampin’ Up! did a huge revamp of the colors offered and the color groups, reorganizing my cardstock has been a pretty big task.
I started by removing all the retiring colors of cardstock, ink pads, and markers, and packaging them up the way I do every year. Yes, I keep most of my retired cardstock. You never know if/when it will return. Plus, I may want to use it on a project in the future. While I keep my retired cardstock, ink pads and markers, I feel strongly that they shouldn’t be taking up “prime real estate” on my shelves that are within easy reach. This prime real estate is reserved for the supplies I’ll be using the most, and want to have easy access to.
So… how do I organize my cardstock?
I have shelves I’ve built from scratch that sit inside a cabinet behind my workspace. This cabinet has sliding doors on it, as I like to keep my cardstock protected from the sun and light. You’d be surprised how quickly cardstock can fade when exposed to sunlight!
Here’s a photo of the wall behind my desk. My cabinet with the sliding doors is on the lower right just behind where I sit. This cabinet is part of the Gallant Collection from Ikea.
Below you’ll see one side of my cabinet with the sliding doors. This is the bulk of my cardstock storage.
I have a little more, plus overstock in the left side of this cabinet. It’s not perfectly neat but it is very functional. Can you see the sheet protectors that lay on top of each pack of cardstock?
Within each compartment, I have my pack of cardstock and a sheet protector. The sheet protector has a full sheet of cardstock (either white with a label OR the actual color) in it.
– Each sheet protector is used to organize my cardstock pieces and scraps for that particular color.
– I put half and quarter sheets of that color on one side of the full cardstock piece and…
– On the other side, I put my miscellaneous scraps.
When I’m playing with a given color, I often have the corresponding card stock, in their respective sheet protectors, at my desk.
So what about the big picture cardstock organization?
Some people organize their cardstock in rainbow order and ignore the Stampin’ Up! color groups. For me, I like to keep the colors in their respective color groups, but within each color group, I organize them in rainbow order. Since my cubbies were created by me to fit this particular cabinet, the organization system is a bit wonky. I have most of the neutrals and some of the In Colors in the top cubbies, the bolds on the left, subtles in the middle and regals on the right. The rest of the In Colors and other colors that don’t fit here (the colors I like less) are on the left side of my cabinet.
* The important thing is that you pick a method that works!
So, when I reorganize to store my retiring card stock, here’s what I do…
– I take out each sheet protector, remove and recycle the smallest pieces so it’s less bulky, and I put it all into a Stampin’ Up! plastic sleeve for storage.
– I often have stacks of same size pieces of cardstock, held together with a binder clip, in with my scraps for a given color. I cut a large amount of cardstock when I’m preparing for clubs and classes. These stacks of same-size scraps really come in handy at times. Sometimes I even design to use up the scraps! That said, when I’m cleaning out, I recycle LOTS of the small strips. They just take up too much room and I may never use them so I purge. That’s why I have a pile of binder clips there.
– After each plastic sleeve is emptied, and the remaining pieces packaged up, I put them all in a box or container to tuck them away for storage. For this set of retiring colors, I’ve re-purposed a plastic container to store my retired card stock. It once contained croissant, from Cost Co.
I also often keep a small sleeve in with each color, that contains die cut or punched pieces. These pieces were cut while experimenting with a design but were never used.
These pieces will go into my “Card Salad” bin to package up with other coordinating items to make what I call, “Creative Kick-Start Project Kits”. I give these away as little gifts for customers to play with. Click HERE to check out what my customers made with their Creative Kick-Start Project Kits, at my annual Creative Escape Day event! Here’s the pile of die cut and punched pieces I “harvested” while sorting through my retired cardstock:
Here you see all my retired card stock packaged up neatly in my re-purposed Croissant container.
I love how it all fits perfectly in this container! I slipped the “Colors Going Away” document, in this box when I was done. That way I’ll have an easy reference of what’s contained inside when I pull it out later.
I hope you’ve enjoyed learning about my method for organizing card stock. Let me know if there’s a tip or method you think you’ll use in your crafting space! Please leave a comment and let me know!
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Happy Crafting AND Organizing friends!
Melissa 🙂
Beautiful
Thank you Carla!