Mid week Project

Some of you will totally not relate to this post and may think I need to take a chill pill. 
If that is you, I'd love to know your secret!
I also know I say some of the same things over and over (I've raised three kids - that is a given). My mantra: Organize what you have, so you know what you have, so you can use what you have!


Some day I may have a craft room like this:





But right now it is a  9x11 room I am very happy to have.
So I have to keep things organized and in order

In the last two weeks I have cranked out two sets of wedding stationary including  the calligraphy and images on the envelopes, that is over 400 pieces in two weeks, and these were multi layered, very detailed, lots and lots of papers, inks and glues.
I have another dozen projects to move on to.  I ahve to stay organized to stay productive.

Part of my card making style is using lots of layers and printed papers , so I have lots and lots of paper.  Last Summer in an effort to make using my 12x12  pads easier to use . I chopped them up into 6x6 pads.  That worked, I really am glad I did that but that left me with another problem, How to keep those organized.  
I read posts on organizing by color a, theme, brand and thought about going the color route.  But then that might really take a long time to do and what about those colors you can't decide what color it really is? I know this is as my oldest son would say a totally 1st world problem, but it becomes a waste of resources if you don't use what you have and I do not want to waste our money or our time!

So I thought about it and last week I came up with a solution!  

I'm going to share it with you, The only way I can describe it is a simple indexing system.

This is what I am starting with , 5 drawers of  6x6 pads of paper that have been chopped from 12x12 pads.  I might remember what I have, but finding anything was becoming a problem. 

 This indexing system solved both problems and it only took about 6 hours to do.

Before:



During:



After:





This was really very simple
I sorted all the pads and put like together, some of the chops had ended up in more than one place;

Then I made Tags and labled them  - nothing fancy


here you see #29 the 3 means drawer 3


 each set of papers has a corresponding label from the index


using one of the cover sheets I create the index tag, so now I know what I have and where it is




I placed the indexed cards in a basket, and miscellaneous papers to work with.  There is no problem to add in new sets.



That basket goes on a counter, behind it are a few 8x8 pads I have,


These 6x6 pads work great for my personal card making 

I still keep pads in the 12x12 format.
I use the 12 x12's for kit making, Journal/book making, DT work, Batches of cards for sale and things like that.

So that is how I store my printed papers, I hope you find this helpful, I really like having an index and making this happen was pretty easy.

Thanks for stopping by!
Ginny M 



Comments

Jan Castle said…
Super idea Ginny....and so happy it works for you - no down time hunting for the paper you know you have!!!
Paper Hugs,
Jan
Mehrll said…
I am glad that you have a system that works for you because you have so many cards to make. I am not sure that I understand it well enough for me to use it. Happy for you!
mariangel said…
so smart thanks so much

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