Avoid a Die Cut and Sticker Catastrophe

Does your desk look like this? Is it a die cut or sticker catastrophe when you want to find a page accent? Don't you hate that feeling when you know you have a die cut, pre-made frame or sticker accent SOMEWHERE--if only you could lay your hands on it… Why waste all your time searching for lost supplies when that precious time can be used more effectively to make some layout pages? Don't leave your desk in a mess like this! Here is a solution:

You Need a System
I have tried several systems over the last ten years and came up one that works. Sorting by theme gives you a place to start looking for your dies and stickers. After all, what is the first question you ask yourself when you pull out a group of photos for a layout? Don’t you ask yourself, what are we doing in these photos? Where were we? What is my subject in the photo? Since pictures are often scrapbooked according to the theme of the photo, we should arrange our stored die cuts in a similar manner so we can find them quickly. Die cuts these days range from plain cardstock shapes to elaborate pre-made and embossed frames, as well as 3-D layered accents and paper dolls. Stickers can be found in all sizes, shapes, colors and themes. I organize them all with this system.

Storage Solution
To protect your die cuts and stickers and still keep them visible when you want flip through and access them, use clear storage pages. I used baseball card holders, 4 x 6 photo sleeve pages, 5 x 7 photo sleeve pages, full page protectors or special plastic pages made for accent storage. All these options were available at my local Wal-Mart and other discount stores. Any of these pages will fit in standard 3-ring binders.

I use four inexpensive white 8.5 x 11 3-ring binders to hold my supplies by theme. If you are concerned about larger sticker borders or die cuts and prefer a 12 x 12 system of storage, use a 12 x 12 binder or paper sticker binder. These 12 x 12 binders are available from Michael’s and Hobby Lobby as well as some online merchants.

You’ll need a binder style that opens and shuts easily. It should allow you to add or remove pages as you need. A zipper closure is nice too. I use notebook dividers in my binders so it is easy to flip to the category I want to search.

Categories
Here are some suggestions for categories to create to sort your supplies:

ABC's (letter dies in alphabetical order by font)
Animals
Baby
Bible and faith
Disney
Food
Garden/floral
Halloween and fall
Home
Hearts
Party (includes birthday)
School
Summer
Sports
Travel
Victorian and Heritage
Water
Winter

Sort your die cuts and stickers according to these categories, and then put them in the holders. Sorting will take a little time if you have not done it for a while-- but it is worth doing. If you are undecided on where a die cut or sticker fits in the category system and you have six or more items that can be grouped together, add a new category.

The Payoff
It’s SO nice to be able to reach for a die cut or sticker accent and actually find it almost immediately. My binders full of die cuts and stickers help me scrapbook even faster than ever. My desk is clear and I know where to find my page additions. I have found this alphabetical method really meshes with how I scrapbook. An added bonus is that your page accents are now protected and won’t get mangled, stepped on, or jammed behind a magazine. What a time and money saver good storage can be!

Related Links:

Embellishment Storage

Paper Storage

Scrap Rooms

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