Scrapbooking Storage with Vintage Flair

In this article, you'll find a variety of ideas for turning frugal flea market finds into fabulous and functional scrapbooking storage. Not only will these ideas make your scrappy area homey and super-cute, but they're cheap and green to boot!

SUGGESTIONS FOR REPURPOSING COMMON THRIFTED ITEMS

1) Bling in a Bottle: Store small items that can be jumbled together cozily in a bottle. I store my sequins in an ilk bottle. It is handy enough to tip out and sort through a handful at a time, and easy to sweep them back in. This type of storage would also work well for buttons, beads, tiny flowers, or bits of ribbon.

2) Alphabet Stickers in a Napkin Holder: Flat sticker packs file handily one behind the other, and the napkin holder makes it easy to rifle through them quickly. This type of storage would also work well with decorative rub-on packs, smaller die-cut sheets, or other flat packaged scrappy embellishments.

3) Ribbon in a Teacup: Wound tightly around plastic bobbins and secured with straight pins, these little coiled and piled bits of ribbon are attractive and easily accessible. With the plethora of cute cups out there in thriftland, you could even go so far as to have a cup for each color in your collection! Teacups would also work well to store buttons, three-dimensional alphabet embellishments, flowers, brads, and eyelets.

4) Tools in a Pitcher: The neck of the pitcher keeps all of your tools upright, contained, and in easy reach. The shape, texture, and color of the pitcher can mask the business ends. This type of storage would also work for large quantities of smaller items you don't care to sort by color, like beads, buttons, or flowers. Just tip a handful out, find what you want, and sweep them back in! Easy-peasy.

5) Stamps in a Mail Organizer: Makes sense to store stamps in a mail organizer, I suppose--but wait, I'm talking about all those wonderful, clunky, wood stamps scrappers like to hoard and display. The shelves in a freestanding mail holder can hold a delightful quantity of stacked-up stamps, perfect for creating a variety of display vignettes. Bonus slotted dividers or drawers are also handy stashes for awkward sized tools or adhesives.

Try sorting brads and eyelets in a muffin tin, big spools of ribbon in a colander, glitter in salt and pepper shakers, or flowers in bowls. The possibilities are endless!

TIPS FOR VINTAGE STORAGE SHOPPING

• Take a gander at garage sales, fly through a flea market, or analyze an antique mall--you never know when you'll unearth a treasure.
• I refuse to pay more than $1-2 for an item or set. The one exception I make is for larger pieces of furniture, like a mailbox divider or set of shelves. Then my goal is to keep the total less than $10, including the cost of any materials used to alter the piece, like spray paint or new handles.
• Make sure closed containers open! Check in the store, so you're not frustrated when you get home and the lid to the adorable new tin that was going to house your alcohol inks won't budge. Vintage items, especially cheaper ones, may be rusted. Fortunately, there's plenty of functional items out there at a cheap price, so don't make excuses for any item that you know won't work once you get it home.