Video - How to easily Store your stickers, rub-ons, chipboard, diecuts in one place

I wrote this article (and made the video) for a past issue of the SimplyScrapbookingNow.com Newsletter. I reproduce it here for you as I was reminded of the subject again recently when someone asked me... "How do you store all your sheets of stickers, etc?"...



I am often asked about how I store all my packets of stash such as stickers and diecuts and rub-ons, etc. Many scrapbookers have all sorts of packets in all sorts of places and find it difficult to keep them all organised.

Well I keep all mine in Lever Arch folders!



These folders are for keeping all my sheets of stickers, etc, the more bulky items such as very thick chipboard still remain in their packaging boxes, but this system is ideal for all those flat, but differently shaped and sized sheets.

The items are filed in different sections within each folder, ie, (1) Alphas and (2) Words and Phrases are in the Pink folder shown above and (3) Graphics are in the multi-coloured folder.

Within each folder I have placed ordinary clear sleeves with standard punched hole margins, and within each of the sleeves I have placed a white piece of paper.


The reason for adding the paper is two-fold, firstly it makes the sleeves a little more rigid and secondly, I can put twice as much in my folder because I can place separate items either side of the paper within the same sleeve because it is no longer completely transparent.

Another advantage is that often your stickers or rub-ons are attached to a transparent sheet and with the paper already in the sleeve you can 'ditch' the piece of card and cellophane wrapper to save on weight, as the white paper does the same job or showing up the contents.

It is very easy to flip through the pages looking for what you need for your scrapbooking project.

The folders are highly portable, unlike the hanging trees and poles for your craft room, so you can take your sheets of stickers, etc to crops with you, kept all in one album/folder.

The reason I use Lever Arch files as opposed to ordinary ring binders is because they are nice and wide and therefore take a lot more, they stand up easily by themselves on my crafting shelves, but the best part is that with the clip retainer on lever arch folders you can clip down the sleeves tightly so that they don't fall about all over the place!

So that's how I store my bits and pieces!

Scrapbooking Inspiration - keeping notes

Here's a little one of my tips!

When I am surfing for Scrapbooking Layout Inspiration I make notes to remind of things I have seen, for later use... nothing new there!

However, when I am in my internet browser, I have my word processor package (Microsoft Word, in my case) running in the background.

When I see a layout I like, I copy the picture and paste it into my open page in Word. I then copy the address bar (the address of the exact page, not just the domain name) and paste that into my document too.

In Word, the links are "clickable" and I can get straight back to the right page directly from the open document.

I make notes, copy and paste text, etc... and I then save the document and can refer back to it later.

This is great for keeping sketches, layouts for scraplifting, etc because you have the information linked so that you can refer to the internet pages to make sure you give the correct credits... especially in my case with publishing on my blog here.

I often place these documents directly onto my "desktop" for easy access. When I have used the information, I simply delete the file! Of course you can print out these pages, but I mainly use this system for the ease of clickable links with which I can write some of my own notes.

Another EASY way to record your Stamps

Yesterday, I explained a way of recording what stamps you have in your stash by actually stamping the images.

Well here is another way of doing a similar thing.

Photocopy your stamps!

A lot of us have 3-in-one printers nowadays, and this technique is really only for those with easy access to a photocopier.

The photo here shows the actual stamps in their packaging on the right and the photocopied image on the left. It may have been worth taking them out of the cellophane wrapping to avoid the reflection, but by photocopying the packaging I will know what sort of packet I am looking for when I start to rummage!

Another point to remember about this way of doing things is that the stamps pictured have a printed acrylic sheet to which the stamps are stuck! The stamps themselves, being clear, don't photocopy that well! Used clear stamps with residue ink still on them can, however, provide a clear enough photocopied image.

But this is a good technique for the solid rubber unmounted stamps too, such as "See D's".

One EASY way to know what stamps you have!

How many stamps do you have? Do you know?

Can you remember what all your stamps look like?

Have they been tucked away somewhere and rarely see the light of day, so you have forgotten what you have?

Well, a solution to that little dilemma is to "Stamp your Stamps"!

Make a stamped image of all your stamps onto pieces of A4 (or 8.5 x 11") and then you can place the paper into a folder (or just clip them together) and keep that handy so that you can see quickly and easily what you have. Once you decide on the stamp(s) you want... then you can play "hunt the stamp" LOL.

If you have your stamps in difference places, ie, "box 1.", "box 2.", etc, you can easily write a note on the sheets of stamped paper about the whereabouts of each the stamps for ease of retrieval!

The stamped images do not have to be perfect, they are literally to give you an idea of what the image is and how big it is!

The photograph shows a some stamps (Anna Griffin) still on their background acrylic storage sheet. All I did was roughly ink up all 5 stamps at the same time and then just make a rough print. If I wanted to I could have filled the whole of the sheet of paper.

This is great for alphabets too... especially as you can see what the actual size is straight away and can "offer up" the printed sheets to a scrapbooking page-in-progress to check a stamp's suitability before the rummaging begins!

New Scrapbooking Wheelable Tote

Ah... my new toy! I bought it from a mega sized shop called "The Range" near Norwich (England). It was only £29.99, so I couldn't really leave without one!

I have a wheelable "workshop box" - is wheelable a word??? It's another Americanism isn't it?! I would call it a Rolling Tote... anyway I digress!

My workshop box is for DIY tools etc, it's not specifically for scrapbooking and it was a third of the price! But because of that it doesn't accommodate 12x12 stuff! So my papers and cardstock have been carried to crops in canvas type bags, within their convertina folders.

So here it the new storage device for crops. It will accompany my other wheelie, so look out all those in the corridors, I'm packing a duo! LOL

It's from Papermania and has LOADS of pockets, some are detachable and most are made of clear plastic so you can see what's inside!

But the bestpart is that I can get my 12x12 albums in, let alone 12x12 papers... now I just have to pack it all! Hmmmm.... what shall I take tomorrow!

Organising your Pages to Be!

I was researching another matter entirely when I came across a website called OrganizedScrapbooks.com and thought this (pictured) was a great idea. If you go to their website there are lots of great ideas for all sorts of things, however this Page planner is a particularly good one.

They are available in printable versions and there are 5 different types... such as this is for a single page, and there is one for a DPS, and so on.

Now... I do keep bits and pieces together and sketch out ideas, but it's all usually on scraps of paper - so this is great... check them out!