Organization by "How You Scrap"

So whats this all about?? For instance............
I have a friend and she scraps one way, by theme. Nothing gets into her way and that is how she scraps. I myself don't depend on let say, traditional Christmas paper or Halloween or any other holiday or theme. S o for me dumping all my supplies in a tray or folder for these individual themes limits my creativity. I might create a Christmas layout by using a piece of paper from lets say a Summer theme, or maybe even a flowery paper, who knows! That is my point, who knows what I could come up with.

My point is not to create your organization to match a way that you don't scrap. If you are a theme scrapper then organizing your products according to them is a great way to go about it. If you are like me then maybe think about organizing things differently. I might organize all my Theme papers into one place.

Lets look at it. I use these great snap containers. In one of these I might take all my Halloween, Thanksgiving and Fall papers and stick into them.
Christmas might be just that or it can include, Christmas, Newyears, and Valentines day. That is just how I am. I put all my cardstock colors in one container (well truthfully there are many containers)
Now my friend might take one of these containers and put all her Halloween stuff in there. Her papers, coordinating cardstock and embellishments, stickers etc. Its all there and ready for her and all she has to do is open the lid and get going on it. For me I tried this and its not for me. I found myself digging through all kinds of these trays to find the paper that might go with my pictures. Am I unorganized. No! Its just the way that I personally scrap. I use a little bit of everything and the more the merrier!
Out of this article there are two things I want you to get. Organize your products according to how you prefer to scrap. Remember its your way or no way. Don't try to make your organization match the neighbors.
Next these cases are the greatest thing to organize your products. There is a great little rolling cart that goes with these. Actually its something that is on our list to get into the stores as one of new storage containers. If you got to a lot of crops, these work for throwing some products in a couple of them to take with you. They hold a lot of products and they are easy to tote along.
If your interested in some of these make sure you get a hold of me to get a special offer for them
Just email me for details at debbie@accents2scrapbooking.com
Have fun with your scrapbooking, do it your way and don't forget to organize accordingly!

Article by
Debbie Ruggles

Lets get going on Fall Projects!

Now fall is fast approaching and its time to think about getting ready for that winter craft projects.

I like to sit down and make a list of what I am going to get ready for Christmas. Starting early is the key. For most of us its getting our Christmas cards done, Family Calendars, altered containers for all our cookies and perhaps a small recipe album or two. So many projects so little time.

One thing I have found out to be true is that if I wait to long then I by the end of November I may as well hang it up for the season. I can tell you I have a few projects that I never finished, some that I finished the next year all because I tried to do this a couple weeks before the Christmas. Take it from me it doesn't work!

I start about now. I make my list of what I am going to make for who and then I get going at them. This year I worked on my Christmas cards during the summer, little by little, so that is one I can cross off as a done project.

I am working on our family calendar this weekend. I do have to say I am taking a 2 stage class to get it done, but its a great way to accomplish this one. I will have all my Calendars done and put together by the middle of October and all I have to do is go to the class and create.
Don't be afraid to take your projects to your crops. After all getting it done in peace and quiet without interruptions is what they are all about.

Now for the rest, I am making a couple altered paint cans to put cookies in and along with them a tag recipe book. These take time, but I plan on having the tins done by the beginning of November and of course the cookie baking will have to wait just a bit, but the really time consuming part is done!

I guess what we are trying to say is organizing your projects for big events is a must. It keeps thing in line and the time lines get them done. I don't know about most families but mine is big and they love all the home made things. I can't say enough about how personal a gift that you make yourself is for your family.

Its simple to organize this, just sit down with the time that it needs to be done. I like to write the recipients name and what project I am making for them and then after I have my gift list done I start organizing them according to getting them done, doing the most time consuming ones first. I just find getting them done first is major for me. If I get caught in that busy holiday shopping and season I tend to just let them all go! Then you will find me the week before Christmas scurring to finish my list off and eventually just going to the store and getting something. Its a long ways from a home made personal gift just because I didn't get my list going on time.

Remember to start early.
Make your list out
Get the projects done and cross them off your list
Start your harder more complicated projects first
Get your projects done then just sit back and smile through the holiday hustle and bustle!
Enjoy your holiday time

Article By
Debbie Ruggles

Organizations Super Size it.

We all started out with those little boxes to fit just this little bit of stuff in, then when we accomplished to make our supplies pour out over those we got a little bit bigger boxes and storage units until finally we had to get the big or super size boxes!

Just a little advice, those little boxes and organizers are great, but think big. Its going to happen and sooner or later you are going to have to get bigger organizers to fit all your scrapbooking supplies.

Think twice before purchasing! Look it over and make sure its going to be something that you will use and if you grow out of it you can us it to store something else.
My one downfall was the scrapbooking bag. My first one was just a small one. Lets face facts they are sooooo expensive. I eventually and not long after grew to a bigger bag until finally I ended up buying one of the large bags. My whole idea was not to have to drag 3 or 4 bags to the scrapbooking crops. I am here to tell you I wasted so much money in those 3 bags to ge the one I really wanted. So now I have them all sitting in a corner and rarely use 2 of the 3! My advice is to think before you purchase. Question yourself on how often you will use it, How much stuff are you going to fill it with and is there another use you can make of it if it gets to be to small.

Remember these things when you are going after some storage. Saving for the bigger item just might save you some money in the long run.

Article by
Debbie Ruggles

Organization of your Scrapbook items

One of my favorite things to store my eyelets and brads came from a friend having a baby. She started buying the Gerber baby foods in the little plastic square containers. She asked me if I would like some and I wasn't sure I wanted them, but not sure I didn't either. So I took some and I tell you they have been a fantastic storage idea!. They have a nice, tight fitting lid. These work great for all my different eyelets. I can put them in, see them in them and they stack one on top the other. Its a great idea. So if you know someone who is using these foods for their baby, ask them to save you some. They work great for a lot of your small items. Don't let them throw them away! Work better than the baby food jars!

Another great tip to store thing in is to use one of those kitchen tool caddy. You know the one that turns like a lazy suzan. This is so handy to leave on your table to put your scissors, rulers and pens in. Looking for something in it, just turn it around and find it. Such a simply, inexpensive idea that will give you a lot of options!

A couple of quick tips to help make you more organized!

Storing your tools!

This one isn't so hard!

Think about the tools you use the most. Mine are a ruler, scissors, and my pens and lets not forget my crop a dile. How about my cutter punches, inks etc. Ok so you get the drift, we need most all our tools when we are scrapbooking. We also need these tools handy and ready for when we need them. I personally don't want to look around for them because that gets frustrating.

Here is how I organize my tools

Pens and pencils: I actually have all mine in a smaller flower pot. Yep I had a clay pot, brand new sitting on a shelf and I was going to give it away, but then I looked at my pile of pens and they fit perfectly in there. It sits on my desk

Inks: I was in my local discount store when I seen these plastic baskets. $1.00 each. So I picked up a couple. Now I store my inks in one and I actually store my adhesives in another. They sit on the back of my desk ready to go.

My scissors were a big problem. I used them. put them down and then I couldn't find them, grab another pair, same thing happens. I personally have a bunch of scisoors. I love the little ones, but then you might need a bigger pair etc. anyway I had another basket that I wasnt using and it worked great to store all those pairs of scissors. Now I just throw them back into the basket and pick them out when I need them.

My cutter sits on the end of my table. I have a big rotary cutter and I can't work without it. So its like my best Scrapbookig friend and it sits right next to me, adorning the end of the table.

One last thing. I have a wheeled drawer cart. You can get these at your local discount store pretty reasonable. Its work the money. In these cart drawers you can keep a lot of things. The best part about it is its on wheels and you just move it next to your table and you have your tools ready. In here I keep oval cutters, punches, rulers, Xyron, and the list goes on. Its probably the best tool organizer I have ever purchased.

Hopefully you find your way to organize. Remember it doesn't have to be expensive, it just has to be efficient.

As always organization is the key to success. Believe me it also helps with a lot of time and frustration!

Article by

Debbie Ruggles

Organization Plan the room!

The rule is Organization must be done and kept done!
If you don’t organize your going to find your self using up to much precious scrapbooking time to find supplies. Don’t think yourself beyond a good organizing plan it not far fetched to set one up and keep it up.

The Room:
Here is your space, whether it’s a small piece of closet, a whole giant room, the basement, the spare bedroom, no matter it’s a scrapbook room! It need to be organized to give you the most for your time!

So now the plan needs to be worked out.
Maybe your room is already occupied with your scrapbooking supplies and tables. Take a good look around and see if it’s functional. Can you walk around that table, do you have to reach over to get the pile of stuff off the shelf. You want things within reach but you don’t want to have everything in reach! What you want to watch out for is not to knock things off of one place to get to things in another.

If you have a empty room, think about what you will need in your room and how can you start to keep it organized. Here are a few things

Peg board and hooks: This is a giant one to keep things you use right at hand. Remember scissors will hang on a hook, so will rulers and other packaged things you use like stickers. Also you can purchase containers and other things that will snap into the peg board to keep you organized. Peg board is inexpensive and a great way to get things in sight for use.

Shelves and storage: If you can put up a shelf or two go right ahead, believe me you will find some use for them. If you are like me and it’s a basement Scrap Room I can’t put shelves up in the cement blocks so I use bookcases. I have 3 in my room alone. I store all the larger things I need on them including my scrapbooks. I also make use of small baskets for my smaller things like inks and punches.

File Cabinet: This is worth mentioning if you have an old one laying around that you aren’t using. This is a great way to organize your paper scraps, stickers and other things in. So if you have one you don’t know what to do with, you might want to consider putting it in your scrap room

Work Area: Got to have a table. Maybe it’s a small one or perhaps it’s just a card table, but somewhere you have got to have one to work on. I have 2 in my scrap room. One just in case I have a scrapbooking friend over to work with me. It also comes in handy when I have my tools and cutters out. This way I can keep one table clear for my pages and one for my tools and cutting.

Paper Storage: This one is tough. If you got the big bucks and can afford a great paper rack, then there is no problem. When I was starting out I couldn’t afford that, so I had a terrific dad that created me some paper storage cabinets. They are absolutely fantastic, but sorry not for sale. Before that I used some trays and stacked them up and before that I used paper boxes. You can find something to store you papers in, just make sure you keep it in mind. If you visit one of your discount stores, they do have the nice 12x12 cases that you can put hanging folders in and store your papers. They are pretty reasonable and they will work for you until you have way to much and need to upgrade.

Trash: Keep those trash cans handy! You’re going to need them. I even have a containers for scraps on my tables. Don’t forget to include them in your room. I have 2 med sized ones and a small container on each table to keep them cleaned up.

Now take these things in consideration and draw out your scrapbooking room:

Things to include:
Pegboards
Table and a chair
Shelving and ShelvesTables
Trash Cans
Paper and supply storage

Who needs brand new things? Look for items people want to get rid of and take them off their hands. A coat of paint and you can have some descent in your room. I always see people trying to get rid of an old table. Your gonna need one and why not get it for a great price or better yet free!
Here is my scrap room layout!

Go ahead and give it a try. Just think about what you need then draw it up, organize and get your room the way you want it to be. Be sure to arrange it so that it will be efficient and you don't do to much walking back and forth. Remember eye catching and within a small amount of distance. Your goal is to look up and see the tool or know where to get it and then use it and put it back after you are done.

Good luck and we would love to see some of your rooms! Email us a picture to
debbie@accents2scrapbooking.com

Article by:
Debbie Ruggles

Digital Scrapbooking Organization

By Nancy Keithley

Once you discover all the wonders of digitally manipulating your pictures and finding digi elements to add to and enhance your layouts, you may quickly be overwhelmed by the daunting task of finding the *right* thing when you need it. One tool that has really helped me with this issue as an amateur digital photographer; as well as paper, digi and hybrid scrapper, is a free download from Google called Picasa 2.

Picasa 2 will seek out all the picture files on your computer - be they jpg, png, tif, bmp, raw, gif, psd and movies (you pick which). It may also be set to actively seek new pictures in particular folders every time you launch it. Mine is searching for png files as I type this, since I forgot to check that when I set it up on my new laptop.

When you launch Picasa 2, it begins looking in the folders you have designated for new pictures and organizes as instructed - by folder name, creation date, size or recent changes. You can customize the Tree structure shown (amount of detail presented on screen) in the folder view.

Picasa not only makes it easy to search visually or by name for items, but it also allows you to make some changes to your digital or scanned photos, such as printing them in Black & White, Focused B&W or Focused color, and Sepia. You may also upload pictures to a web album to share or print. These and other features make Picasa 2 not only a great organizational tool, but also a handy tool to have on your machine if you work with digitally stored pictures.

System requirements are listed below, and Picasa 2 works well with Vista, too, although it is not listed. It *will* take some time the first time you launch it as it will be searching your system for pictures to manage, so I recommend starting it and going off to fix dinner :)

System Requirements
Microsoft Windows 98/ME/2000/XPMicrosoft Internet Explorer 5.0+ Picasa 2 is available in English only.

Organize those Stickers By Anita

It is that time of year again, when our thoughts turn to spring cleaning. So while we are making plans to clean our windows, air out our house, and wash those dreaded walls, let’s take a few moments to make a few plans for our scrapbook supplies.

Beginning with this month’s newsletter, we will tackle one area a month to clean out and organize. This month it is stickers.

The first step: Be brutally honest. Are you going to use those cute stickers again? Do you need them anymore? Take 15 minutes and sort your stickers in three piles – keep, donate or sale, and throw away.

Step 2: Immediately throw away or bag up those you are not going to keep (out of sight, out of mind – they won’t trickle back into your keep pile if you do this).

Step 3: Now take another 15 minutes and sort your keep stickers. I sorted mine in the following way: Alphabets, Animals, Biblical and Quotes, Children and School, Cooking and Food, fall, Family and Home, Floral and Gardening, Frames and sticker strips, Heritage and Victorian, Love and Party, Sports, spring and summer, and winter. (NOTE: In the season sections are any holidays which fall in those seasons).

This system works well for me, but you may find you have so many Christmas stickers that they need their own section, separate from winter, or Halloween separate from fall. Sort your stickers in a way that is good for you, not someone else.

Step 4: Now it is time to store our stickers for ease of use. There are several methods for storing stickers. Once again, you need to find the one that easiest for you. I chose to use hanging 12 x 12 file folders. This works for me as I can sit the file box next to me and just grab the file I need when I am working on a layout.

Another option is the Paper and Sticker Binder from Crop-In-style. This binder lays flat for ease of use and many options are available to protect the size of stickers you use.

Both the 12 x 12 file folders and the Paper Sticker Binder are available in our store.

Step 5: Now you are ready to scrap.

Drop us an email and let us know how you organize. We would love to hear your great tips.