scrappiness...

As promised...my scrap bins. Nothing too exciting here. These bins are from JoAnn's (used my 40% coupon, of course). They are 12x12 self-contained bins with locking lids, housed in a shelving unit so they stay all organized.

So here's how I use them. Last year sometime I went through all my paper...random scraps and all...and I organized them into colors. All the red went with the red, blue went with blue and so on.

Then, because of limited storage, I had to group certain colors together. So my drawers are: (1) red/pink/orange (2) yellow/green (3) blue/purple (4) neutrals (5) Basic Grey (yep, I use it enough that it gets it's own category) and (6) special occasion (for holiday papers).

The pieces that are least 12" long get pulled out. I store them with my full sized papers because they can be used as a border on a layout. All other pieces are stored in the scrap drawers/bins.

Now...I had a LOT of scraps. And I finally decided that anything that was smaller than about 4x4 had to go. Hard decision. That's a lot of paper. But I know myself. I don't use scraps a lot. So there is no sense in keeping small scraps. I either pass them on to my crafty kiddo or I *gasp* throw them away. Some times I package up a large amount of them and they find their way to a Cricut owner or two.

Inside the drawers it's really all hodge podge...just thrown in there. And you can see...sometimes I don't get rid of the little pieces. Depends what kind of mood I'm in. I actually need to thin out my scrap bins....they are starting to get a little full.


And the full size sheets and larger scraps go in my Cropper Hopper paper keepers. These sit on top of the large bookshelf in my scrap room...they are right there for me to stand up and grab whatever color group I am working with and peruse my options.

You'll see that they aren't really full. Several years ago I purged a ton of stuff and realized that I buy way.too.much. I know, it's a scrapbooker thing. But it was stuff that I loved on sight, would buy and then it would just sit there. Then it would be outdated or I didn't love it as much...and I would purge it. What a waste of money.

So my new thing is to only buy things that I have planned a layout for. It works nicely. I really only deviate from it a few times a year...for something I can't walk out of a store without. But over the last couple of years it's gotten easier to walk out.

If I'm totally in love with a piece of paper, I come home and plan a layout to use it on so I can justify it's purchase!

Basically what is left in those paper keepers are leftovers from my Green Tangerines work and a few must have papers.

Did that answer your questions? How do you store your scraps?

space pictures...finally

Okay, so don't get too excited. In the midst of all our hard work on Saturday, I guess I didn't take as many pictures as I thought.

You can find the low down of what all we did here.

This is mid-way through...a before of sorts. This room was a guest room before. It really only gets used about 5 nights a year. The way we have it laid out now, an air mattress can be set up in it for those 5 nights! This picture shows how we just dumped everything in the room for me to organize later...fun times.

This is more complete. It's basically the other side of the room (opposite of the above picture) and is my work space. The top of the book shelf has been cleared off now and houses my patterened paper and cardstock. Most of my years and years of albums fit in there now.

The photos on the wall are leftover from when it was a guest room...there are more to add. It's basically a generation photo collection...that big one with three boys is my dad and his two brothers...it used to hang over my grandma's bed. When she passed in 2006, I asked if I could have it...I had just found out I was pregnant with #3 and figured it was kismet. :)

The room has been used a lot in the last 4 days. Just to the left of this picture is T man's art desk. It's a fold up table that can be removed in case of guests, but he loves it. He is busy in there creating whatever his heart desires...and practicing his writing. S and J have hung out in there with him just checking it all out.

Have I actually scrapped in it yet? Nope. I'm busy putting the finishing touches on the organizing part. I have worked on some thank you cards though...long over due thank you cards!

So the best part of the room? The cost was free! Just time and hard work from hubby and me.

That's why it looks so hodge podge and dated. All of that furniture has been mine for 20 years. I was going to paint it and try to update it...but then I thought of all the things on my to do list that haven't gotten done and figured that I'll cross that bridge when I get to it...ultimately I'd love to have it done with professional built ins and such. A girl can dream, right?

For now I have a space downstairs, my kids can join me and I hope that once the school schedule kicks in...I can actually scrap there!