10 Tips for Organising your Scrapbook Supplies

The idea of creating a scrap book goes back to the 15th century, when commonplace books were a popular means to save and display favourite recipes, letters and so on. More recently, scrapbooking has become more than a personal hobby and is now a worldwide industry, with over four million women in the United States alone considering themselves to be scrapbookers.

And if, like me, you are not that well acquainted with scrapbooking, you will be amazed at the variety and quality of the materials that serious scrapbookers demand from their suppliers.

It's not just the scrapbooks themselves, but high quality paper, embellishments, glues, stamps, inks, the list seems endless. So how do you keep these supplies organised? Here are 10 tips to help you.

• Make sure you have a dedicated table or desk for your scrapbooking. Nothing kills your scrapbooking creativity more quickly than having to find and clear an area before you can start.
• Have lots of shelves available close to your desk. Floor standing shelves nearby and wall mounted shelving above your desk ensures that your supplies are close at hand.
• Look in kitchenware shops for rail and container units. These can be easily attached to the wall near your desk for items such as scissors, craft knives and so on.
• Many office supply stores carry carousel racks that make effective use of limited desk space.
• Organise your paper by using plastic trays. Separate plain from coloured paper and use stackable trays.
• Take a tip from a mechanics workshop and use glass jars with screw top lids for storing loose items such as beads and small nails. If you screw the lids to the underside of your shelves, you can simply screw the jar itself onto its respective lid to use otherwise wasted space.
• You'll need your pens and pencils close at hand, so store these in small containers. Terracotta plant pots are heavy enough not to risk being tipped over if you knock them accidentally.
• A kitchen paper roll holder makes a great storage unit for all those ribbon spools, just make sure that the dowel in the holder is not too thick to thread through the ribbon spool.
• Another steal from the kitchenware shop is a spice rack holder. Perfect for those numerous small pots of paint.
• Photo albums or ring binders with clear plastic folders are also useful for storing smaller embellishments. You can colour co-ordinate the outside with the contents to make your selection much easier.

Once you're organised, you'll be amazed at how much more efficient you will become, and you'll have more time to devote to the creative side of scrapbooking!