Scrapbooking How To: Organizing Your Scrapbook Paper

Once you begin accumulating paper and cardstock your biggest question will be how to organize your paper. And of course, there are as many answers to that question as there are scrapbookers. Everyone has a different method and no single answer is right or wrong. Let's look at some of the most popular ways to sort your paper.

By type: Most scrapbookers keep their cardstock separate from their patterned paper. By keeping your cardstock in a different section than your patterned papers, you can easily choose the background color that coordinates with your patterns. Cardstock is also commonly used as photo and journaling mats, so having it in a different section makes it simple to pull the exact shade of cardstock that you need. I keep all my 12x12 cardstock in its own paper holders, and also keep my 8.5x11 cardstock sorted on its own too.

By color: A common way to sort cardstock is by color. Using the rainbow system (ROY G. BIV = red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet) is the most popular. But use whatever order works best for you. I use the ROY G BIV system, and then add other colors in where they seem to belong - pink next to purple and brown, grey, black and white after all the brighter colors. You can also sort your patterned paper using this method by simply filing your patterned paper into whichever color is the most dominant in each sheet of paper. This method works best for geometric and generic themed papers. You might want to sort special themes into a different category.

By theme: It's much easier to keep all your theme papers together when you're working on themed scrapbook pages. For instance you'll want to keep all your Christmas paper together rather than sorting it into the individual color categories described above. It'll be easier to find and easier to see your entire selection at once. I have a few theme categories such as Christmas, Baby, Heritage, Pet/Animal, Outdoor/Hunting and Halloween.

By manufacturer: As you become more familiar with paper, you'll likely find yourself drawn to certain manufacturers and their specific lines of paper. An entire line of paper might not fit into a certain theme category and might have a variety of colors so wouldn't logically fit into a single color family either. So storing these sets of paper by manufacturer might make the most sense for you. For instance, I keep all my Basic Grey papers together since they coordinate so well with each other and I wouldn't want to misplace an individual sheet by filing it somewhere else.

By kits: Sometimes we purchase several sheets of paper together with a specific project in mind. For instance, you might find 3 or 4 sheets of patterned paper that coordinate with each other, and then pick up 1 or 2 sheets of cardstock that match the papers. You'll want to keep these 6 sheets of paper all together until you're ready to use them, right? When I make a purchase like this, I just use a standard paperclip and keep all these papers together, then store them in a paper holder that is reserved specifically for kits.

I use a combination of all of these methods. But no matter how you decide to organize your scrapbook paper, it is important to figure out what works best for you and how you create then devise a plan that you can live with.