organizing printed paper

I am just starting to get my feet wet in the scrapbooking thing. I am just wondering if anyone could give advice on how to organize my paper that has prints on them. I have all of my solid colors organized by color but I am not sure what to do with the multicolor and print papers. any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I sort mine by manufacturer. Otherwise I'd go crazy trying to categorize it.

I do mine by manufacturer too, but a lot of people organize it by theme; birthday, holiday, etc.

Welcome to the crazy world of scrapbooking.

There are some themes, that are so distinct, most people separate them out by theme. Examples are Halloween, Christmas, travel, boy, girl, cat, dog, ocean/beach, patriotic, sport, kitchen, etc.
After separating out the distinct themes, some people like to keep certain manufacturers together for ease while other like to sort by color. Personally I like to keep manufacturers together but will include other manufacturers if they fit into my next category which are the loosely defined categories. My "loosely defined" categories things like distressed, tiny patterns, flourishes, etc.

And I always buy matching cardstock when I buy pattern paper so I keep the matching cardstock together with the pattern paper.

I never remember the manufacturer of my PPs so I sort by color.
I look at a piece of paper and whatever color is the majority or "screams" out to me, that is what color I consider it and then I file it w/ other similar colors.

So all my "Green" PPs are together
All my "Purple" are together
All my "Red" are together, etc...

My only exceptions are those that are themed.
If it's Christmas paper it goes w/ other Christmas.
Halloween w/ Halloween, Baby w/ Baby
etc...

It actually works really well for me!
Hope that helps!

I sort it by theme. All wintery papers together, springtime, sports, travel, holidays, etc.

The ones that have a pattern but no theme (like just polka dots) I either put them in the category for "multicolor" or I will place it in the color coded stacks next to a paper that coordinates with it so that I don't have to hunt for coordinating paper later.

I have mine by theme and company. (For example all Graphic 45 seems to go together). Honestly, it seems that different things work for different people.

The only way you can sort your paper in a way that will work for you is if you sort or file it the way you scrap.

If you like to work with the different manufacturer's lines, then sort your papers that way. I have a friend right now who is scrapping her trip to China from last year and using a lot of Birdsong. Its all together and she would go crazy finding different pieces if it were sorted by theme or color.

I, on the other hand, scrap first by themes so that is the logical way that mine are scrapped. USA Travel, International Travel, Holidays, Tropical (beach and palm trees etc), Cruise (water and cruise ship stuff) baby, Textured & Glitter), and several just marked misc.

I always buy several sheets of everything - if I love it then I buy up to 10 sheets. When I make a one page layout I hate to use something I have 2 or more of - would rather save that for a bigger layout and not break it up.

I am going to start a bin titled ophans which is for my papers that are just one and I will go through that first for single page layouts.

ALso, have 3 bins of misc (stipes, paisley, damask, polka-dots, misc) and I want to break those down into colors because if I'm not doing a theme, I'm going second by color. I've seen several people mention that and its a great idea. Wish I had read that idea a long time ago!

Right now I'm working on a page with morning doves which are pale blue and brown. Wish I had the bins with sorted by color instead of the 3 big misc. bins.

Patterned Paper Bins By Henri Jean

Yup, you need to figure out how you scrap...is it by colour? By theme? By emotion?

I sort mine by definite categories (Halloween, Christmas, Kids Stuff, Sports and Recreation, Birthday, Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter) and then by colour....my cardstock and my pp that doesn't fit into a category, is sorted by colour.
I don't sort by manufacturer because that's not the way I scrap....I like matching up papers but I don't care who the manufacturer is....

Alison

In my scraproom, papers with one predominant color that don't fit a theme are sorted by color. (So a white sheet with a blue dot pattern would go with my blue papers.) Specialty papers, like vellum, are all together regardless of color - unless they fit a theme. But I have a TON of themes - my big ones are Baseball, Travel, Books/Words/Writing. But I also have Christmas, Flowers (not many), Nature (animals but also anything else outdoorsy that's not a flower), Science/Technology, Food, Crafts/Hobbies (papers about scrapping and sewing and other crafts), a shelf of baby stuff for making gift albums, and about a dozen other loosely connected themes (like "Other Sports", which is mainly bicycle papers but takes any sport papers that aren't baseball). Every paper I have fits into one of my categories.

Patterns with more than one predominant color (like a multi-colored dot or stripe) go on a shelf for "Patterns" instead of choosing a color to shelve it with.

and 1 more piece of free advice...
Only buy things for your immediate projects. Beginners tend to over buy and then regret what they bought. It is so easy to get caught up in all of the pretty things. Pretty things that after a few months you will say "what was I thinking?".

Your scrapbook taste will change. What you buy today may not be what you want to use a few months down the road.

Oh yes! That is so true!

I went through all my patterned paper and kept thinking, "I may use this some day".

Went through it again (took hours) with the question in my mind - if saw this in the scrapbook store today would I buy it?

If the answer was no, then it was purged. I put it aside to put in a donation pile.

Sad part is, they are all expensive paper - all designed papers I had to have. Tastes change and I've gotten to know my style and what I will and will not use so I am giving up some beautiful papers - 300 or 400 of them that I paid $1.00 to $1.50 each for.

I am not hanging onto things that I definitely will not use.

• Gelidy Gelato Said:

OH SO TRUE!!!! i wish someone had told me about this when i first started out!

I like to mix and match patterned paper within the same collection so that's how I organize them ... by brand/designer and then by collection

I can't pass up something when I see it if I love it. I know how hard it is to track down paper that has been discontinued, so now if I find something I love, I buy it. This is why I have TONS of paper.

But when the zombies come I can board up my windows and have plenty of paper to hold me over.

Isort by theme first then anything leftover I break down to the type of pattern - floral, plaid, stripe, geometric shapes. i use cropper hopper files and my lovely ptouch label maker.

Thanks so much for all the great advice. I am sure I will have a ton more questions as I get in deeper.

• Fargomutt Said:

YES YES YES!!! When I first started I used to buy a lot of "orphan" papers from M's or J's when there was a good sale, like 7 sheets for $1. It was okay back then because my style was much simpler. But now, I like to do a bit of layering and mixing patterned papers, so all the "orphan" papers just sit and sit. I just sorted out about 4 inches worth of "orphan" papers to be donated. Nowadays I always buy at least a few sheets from the same line so that I have coordinated papers for layering and mixing.

Edited to add: I still don't have a system for organizing my papers... I just go through each sheet everytime I start a project

• Mama2Thomas Said:

I guess I'm still at the "just started" stage because I still buy random one-two-pages and cheap stacks )) and here I thought that years of scrapbooking will make me mature LOL)
am I the only one who never buys more than 2 pages of the kind? really, how many you need. I tend to coordinate across collections (and yes, I spend hours and hours just selecting papers) but I'd likely never use the same one on more than two-three pages, or one double. there are so many other options)

• Mama2Thomas Said:

I find the orphan papers are the best for layering because you don't worry about covering them up as much!

I buy at least 3 sheets if I love it becuase I may mess up one.

If I really really love it I buy 7 or 9 - always an uneven number to give me extra to cut up for double matting or extra sheets.

I did 8 pages for the King Tut exhibit and ran out of paper that looked like Papyrus and was on hold for a week until more could be delivered so now I have plenty. Also needed 8 sheets for a brothel layout I just did that was 8 pages long.

I often do 3 or 4 pages from the same trip or zoo or event and I like to tie them together with the same papers or accent strips of the same paper.

I love to work with stripes and diagonal stripes are my favorite. When I find a diagonal stripe I like I buy 7 or 9 sheets. I never buy less than 3 of anything anymore becuase too often I've not had enough to do a 3rd page or use extra for trim.

When I scrapped the Florida Everglades earlier this year it was 5 or 6 pages and I used the same paper through all of the pages to tie it together.

Good advice from all the pros here. So thank you. I also sort by color because that's how I learned to design in the Scrapbooking 101 class I took. Start with the pictures, choose papers that have similar colors if you use patterened paper. So color makes sense TO ME.

One question for you paper donators out there: where do you donate them TO? Seems like a place I need to GO!

I have paper sorted by the rainbow, ROYGBIV, then loose patterns, ie those not in a stack, are sorted also by predominant color, like Doreena does, and they go behind the color. Blue polka dot behind blues, etc. If I couldnt tell, I purged it cause it was also ugly, in most cases. I do keep my stacks together, labeled by theme, or manufacturer. I have pics of this in my gallery, if that helps. I'd post it here but can't remember how right now and its too late to try n figure it out tonite!

Also, my scraps are ROYGBIVed in an old Creative memories 3-ring binder bag. It works great, kinda like a smaller, portable version of the Scraprack!

as far as donations, take 'em to pre and elementary schools, scouts, shelters (esp good for women n teens) or even donate to military wives...can find the addy somewhere on Facebk for you!

I have not done it yet, but my friend and I are going to donate our excess papers and stickers to our local Children's hospital. I was told that the hospital has an area where parents/ relatives of sick/premature babies staying at the hospital can hang out and do some crafting/ scrapbooking to get their minds off of things for a bit.

They do...I also know the Girls Scouts do something as well with scrapbooking. Churches will appreciate that as well.

I donated stuff to our local children's hospital. My son was in the hospital there last winter and I know they have a room for the kids where they can go to play games and do crafts.
They were very happy to get my paper, decorative scissors, stickers etc...

Alison

I know buy paper with a specific project in mind so when I do I will put that paper in page bags (2 gallon size ziplocs with misc items I plan to use on those pages... or at least I try too