Scraproom Re-Do - organizing by color

Well, I did it. I reorganized all of my scrapping embellishments by color of the weekend. It was a pretty big decision to make, too! I am a creature of habit and I've have things the same way in my scrap area for a long time, so the idea of doing this really freaked me out for a bit! lol The first time I heard of organizing your embellishments by color was by Stacy Julian. She has talked about it in some of her books and on her web site also. I always loved looking at the photos of everything all pretty in their drawers by color. I have always organized my paper by color, but everything else was by type. All the ribbons together, all of the buttons together, flowers together....etc. This was working just fine for me, but I really wanted to try something different. And, after sitting and really think about how I scrap, I actually think what color I want to use, before what type of embellishment. This is funny, too, because I thought I was the other way around. I thought that I said to myself, "I need a button. A red one." But I really think, "I need something red, how about a button?" I think that this is probably the most important thing to think about seriously before deciding to organizing your embellishments this way. If you think, "I need a button" first and then decide on a color, then I wouldn't think about touching your embellies! lol This might really mess your scrap-thinking system. But, if you're feeling a little stale and like you're not using your embellishments as much as you'd like to, then this might be a way to mix things up a bit for you. Either way, I would really sit and think about how you scrap before you consider doing this. It is a huge change! lol

So here is what my scrap area looked like before......
This is my main work area. The counter top is pretty much full of stuff, especially the two, gray drawer units. These units had all of my small embellishments in them organized by type: buttons, ribbon scraps, brads, flowers, etc. These drawers were also my little ones favorite thing to play in! And, another reason why I decided to try this way or organizing honestly. She likes to work beside me while standing on a stool and she can easily reach these drawers and pull things out. This was really starting to drive me crazy! lol More so because she was putting things back in different drawers and mixing everything up. So, I knew that these drawers had to go, because she's only going to get bigger and able to reach more drawers! lol The two, small green drawer units hold my square-punched photos and the white drawers are my category drawers. Both of these are for my Library Of Memories system of organizing photos as taught by Stacy Julian and discussed in her book, Photo Freedom. I highly recommend this book if you're looking for a change in how you scrapbook photos! It totally helped me break out of the "I can only scrap chronologically" way of mind and threw me into the "I can scrap whatever I want to, whenever I want to!" scrapping freedom! No more, "I'll never get caught up.".....sorry, it's easy for me to get excited about that system. Oh how I wish and dream that I could afford to take her on-line class, but the book is awesome, too!
I have a 2-door, tall pantry that I keep my drawer units in. The unit on the left was pretty much a mess and waste of space. The top, three drawers were full of ribbon. Some were still on their rolls and others were wrapped around plastic, floss keepers. The other three drawers were completely unorganized and just full of stuff that needed to be sorted. This was really a waste of good organizing space! The unit on the left is actually two, 6 drawer units on top of each other. These held all of my paper scraps, organized by color: red, yellow/orange, green, blue, pink, purple, brown, white, black. Then, a drawer with specility papers like vellum and mulberry paper, one with scraps of only Chatterbox patterned papers (I had aquired over 300 pieces of Chatterbox paper at a garage sale for a steal and thought I should keep all of the scrap together, so that I could use them better....I was wrong, I never remembered they were there!). On top of these units is my one, true scrapbooking shame......I'm hanging my head in shame right now as I type.....those tall stacks of paper are layouts. Completed layouts that are waiting to be put into scrapbooks. Isn't that terrible????? I don't even want to know how many are sitting there. How can anyone enjoy them all piled up there, shoved in a cabinet? Oh, woe is me.......I think that should be my next project. Putting them into albums..........

After about two days of working, I was finished.......here's how it looks now:

The unit on the left now has embellishments in it, all organized by color. I had to use two drawers in the unit on the right for embellishments also - for white/black and then metallic. The pink/purple drawer is pretty full, but I'm going to try to keep those two colors together, because I don't have any more drawers that I can use! The unit on the right still has all scraps, organized by color and a drawer for specialty paper.

Here is a peek inside some of the drawers:
I used some of the little drawers from the gray unit to help keep some things organized together, like the ribbon, the rhinestones and glitter, and then a larger drawer for paper pieces, chip board, anything like that. I have the flowers in a zip-loc baggie as well as scraps of ribbon and fabric in a baggie. I have been saving these round, metal tins for years. One of the teachers at the school I used to work at was throwing them away and I took them, because I knew that I'd be able to use them for something! You can see them the easiest in the green and pink drawer (click on the photo to see it bigger). I have two in each color drawer. One has buttons and the other brads and eyelets. I punched out a flower in coordinating paper to put on top of each tin. I also did this for the front of each drawer in the units.

Here is the biggest change in my scrap area. My counter top. Getting rid of those two, gray units really freed up a lot of space on my counter top. I added a little shelf (a piece of scrap wood sitting on top of two, recycled spaghetti jars!) because I wanted to keep the two, green units right there and to put any small odds and ends. I have a jar full of black buttons and a jar of white buttons, because I had too many to keep in my color drawers. I also have my two Design with.... calendars from Autumn Leaves there, but I might move those because I never really look at them like I should. The white basket has silly odds and ends in it. Movie tickets, labels, card board coffee sleeves, things like that. It's another idea from Stacy Julian's Photo Freedom book. It's just fun stuff that you can sift through and add to a layout. Little things from every day life go in there. This can easily be moved to free up more space, if I need it. The red and white polka dot pot is my little trash bin and the square basket next to it has photos in it that I am planning on scrapping soon. Then I have my tool turn-around that I use to hold my pens, pencils, scissors, paint brushes, erasers, glue tubes, etc. The basket next to the lamp is full of small stamps that can be used on envelopes and the back of my cards and layouts: "hand stamped by" and "scrapbook layout by"....things like that. :-)

I hope you enjoyed seeing how I have reorganized my scrap area. I honesltly haven't been able to do one bit of scrapping since I did all of this work! The rest of my weekend was very full and I just haven't had the time to play in there at all and to try out my new system. I must say that when I open up one of my color drawers, my severely right-sided brain gets so happy! lol I can't wait to put it to the test and see if this helps me use more of my embellishments that get so easily forgotten about. I also had a ton of stickers and what-not just lying around. All of those have been put into plastic page protectors with pockets and into a binder with my alphabets and other stickers.

I guess I should say that I do not have any of my stickers in my color drawers. I decided to keep them organized together. Right now, I have a binder full of alphabets that are in page protectors and organized by color and a Crop-In-Style Paper/Sticker Binder full of stickers that are organized by theme - love, flower, sports, birthday, Christmas, Halloween, spring, etc...... I don't know if I will ever add all of those to my color drawers. I do like having them by theme and I think that I'll use them the most if I keep them organized that way.

Well, I have rambled on long enough about this! If you have photos of your color drawers on your blog or if you decide to do this, please share because I would love to see what you have done!

Take care and I hope you have a wonderful day........and hopefully are able to do something creative!