last weekend, i was organizing some pattern paper from a favorite manufacturer. then i had some other pattern paper to put away, and got to organizing that manufacturer as well. next thing you know, i ended up going through every single sheet of pattern paper that i own. my life could truely be one of those "if you give a mouse a cookie" books. lol!
as of tonight, my pattern paper is completely organized and cleaned out. every few months, i feel the need to weed through my stash. i'm still holding onto pattern paper that is over 5 years old. obviously, if i have kept it around that long, i really do like it. and i tend to have the mentality of "i can do something with this, right?". but every time i clean through my papers, i get a little bit better about letting go of what i havn't used in forever, or what i can't see myself getting around to using.
these 4 cubes on my ikea expedit shelf hold all of my pattern paper. last week, my stash took up 6 cubes on the shelf. yes, i seriously weeded out 2 full cubes of paper. and it felt good! this doesn't account for my cardstock. i keep my cardstock in the clear horizontal paper trays, in the 5 cubes below the pattern paper.
i use the cropper hopper vertical paper holders for my pattern paper. each one holds up to 400 sheets of pattern paper. i'm not going to do the math, as to how many sheets of paper i have in those cubes. lol! personally, i like to buy THIS SET, that comes with 1 paper holder, 4 paper pouches, and 12 dividers. the paper pouches hold up to 50 sheets of pattern paper. i love to use those for individual manufacturers, to seperate collections from a favorite manufacturer, or even to hold 12×12 sticker sheets and alphabet sheets. and the dividers come in handy for seperating papers within the paper holder or the paper pouches.
one thing that i never seem to do in my scraproom, is to label things. i have kept all those paper holders up there, without any labeling as to what is inside of each one. so when i go to look for a certain paper, i will pull out each paper holder, until i find what i need. since i am now freshly organized and have similiar manufacturers grouped together, i thought it was a good time to label things.
i do sort and organize my pattern paper by manufacturer. it's just how i work, and how i scrap. 94% of the time, i can tell you who made what paper, just by looking at it. a talent that will get me no where in regular life, but counts for something in my scrapping life. lol! most of the time, i just toss all the papers from each manufacturer in together in the paper holder. if i have a LOT of a manufacturer's papers, then i will seperate some of the collections within their spot in the paper holder.
the paper holders have this small cut out circle on the front. so i figured i would adhere my labels, directly over that circle. i had a few different ideas i was tossing around. but i finally decided on a basic punched out circle. sometimes, if i want to get something done, i need to make it quick and easy.
i went with a 2.5 inch circle punch. so i created a bunch of 2.5 inch text boxes on a page, in a word processing program. i typed in the names of the manufacturers for each paper holder, centering them within the text box and resizing my font as needed. some paper holders have one or two manufacturers, and some have three or four manufacturers. after i printed them, i used my fiskars circle punch to punch out each set. i used 4 glue dots on each circle, to adhere it to the front of the paper holder.
how cute is this font? and you'll never guess what it's called. "too much paper". i thought it was highly appropiate for labeling my pattern paper. lol! you can download it for free from kevin and amanda, one of my favorite places to find fonts. you're very welcome 🙂
i'll show you my four cubes of paper. this will give you a good idea of what manufacturers i'm fond of. you know making memories is up there. after 4 years of designing for them, i have built up a very large stash of their papers. the two paper holders that are turned around, hold a lot of "backstock". extras of what is in the other two paper holders.
i also have a large supply of bella blvd, and even a lot of basic grey. not sure if you can tell, but in that first bella blvd paper holder, i have some of the paper pouches inside. i have one that holds their older alphabet sheets, and one that holds their newer alphabet sheets.
fancy pants, little yellow bicycle, echo park, pebbles, american crafts, dear lizzy, and jillibean soup.
the first paper holder here, holds assorted papers. these are really just manufacturers that i have a small amount of papers, but not a lot of papers. this holder, has a TON of different manufacturers inside. that second paper holder? that has all that paper that's 3-5 years old, that i can't seem to get rid of. lol! classic chatterbox papers and ki memories papers, that i never seem to use, but can't get rid of yet. the last two paper holders, have 4 manufacturers in each. more favorites of mine.
in the "assorted paper" holder, i use these 12×12 white file folders. they're pretty ancient, and i can't seem to find anything like them to link you too. they have the hanging file folders, but these are just regular folders. i probably have about 20 of them, in just this one paper holder.
in the rest of the paper holders, i use the clear dividers to seperate papers. i use them to seperate manufacturers from each other. or to seperate collections, within the same manufacturer. they have tabs on the top, so i guess i could really label those too. baby steps, people. baby steps 😉
so there you go. my entire pattern paper collection. totally organized and labeled. i feel like i made such a huge accomplishment, with this one little project. next up, maybe i'll even label all the baskets of embellishments on my shelves. maybe. we'll see.
Laura Vegas 
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