Scraps: taming the paper monster!!

I am currently obsessed with cleaning up, using and organizing my scraps! They are making me crazy! I joined the scrap challenge, am making cards, tags, you name it! What are you doing with yours??

Hoarding mostly.. sharing with others. I do crafts with mentally ill patients and my students.

That is wonderful! I will also take some to school. Great idea!

I cut mine to size. 8 X 8 =envies, 4 X 5¼ =card faces and 2½ X 3½ =ATC's. If they are larger than 8½ X 11 I keep them. I toss the scraps.
For years I kept everything larger than my smallest punch. When it got to 2 bankers boxes, I said enough. Some of them changed my buying habits, they made me wonder "what was I thinking?"
I do not organize my scraps except for the trimmed ones. There are individual boxes for each of those. The others are in a modified shoebox, separated paper and cardstock. If I need a small piece of paper, I go thru the whole collection. I pretty much know what I have in the boxes.

at the old house I had 6-9 seperate drawers 8x11 of scraps sorted by color & type since I started in 97.. I had a ton of them but I used them all the time & loved using them. I used them for card, I used them on pages. I always saved the small pieces cause I used them for punches as well as sizzlets alphabets, & die cuts from any machine I was sad but when we moved from a large to small house & scraproom I left them. I have a 12x12 drawer here that I have collected since we moved. I love using them

My scraps are separated by color (the best that I can. Don mentioned in another tread its hard to separated by color and he sure is right...darn double sided paper!). Then whenever I start a new project I always start in the scrap drawers and add those to my page kits first. I've been using that technique for about a year now and it really keeps my scraps at bay. I kind of love how well its working.

"Leftovers." I started a Leftovers mini album with scraps from cards I've made rather than trying to put all the weird shaped paper back wherever it came from. I made myself a rule that I could only use what I had (no creating more scraps) but that if it really were a life or death situation, I could add a perfect embellishment. Also, it's okay to use things like Stickles, string, ribbon~stuff like that. I'm deliriously happy with it because everything's already color/theme coordinated, it's been a fun challenge to use up as much as I can and a great way to use the extra parts of cards I made/cut/embossed/whateve r, that I really can't use for anything else.

I only keep scraps that are big enough to cut something or punch a shape from. I toss them all in a basket and it sits out so that I use them. I like this system because if it's out, I'll use them. When they were sorted in a drawer, I never used them.
Also, when I'm digging through the basket for scraps, I often find something i never would have thought of using......I end up coming up with other colour options/combinations......

I am fairly organized in my scraproom, but scraps/ leftovers is just one thing I can't get a handle on.
For me there is no easy solution.
I do keep my cardstock and pattern paper separate.
For my cardstock I have 3 of the 12x12 sterile 3 drawer cubes, so 9 drawers, each storing a color ( I keep black and white in a separate spot because I use it more often) This works good, but pattern paper, forget it.....I lose!!
I was doing some rearranging the other day a came across a file box that had folders of pattern paper.
That was from years ago, well, we can see how often I use scraps- I even forgot I had it!

Great ideas!

I have one of those large rubbermaid carts with 4 drawers and one is for all my scraps. I just throw them in there I don't organize them. Cards, tags, diecuts is what I use them for. One exception are my G45 scraps, they have their own spot on my paper rack

Hi Don!

Paula, I'm with you: Graphic 45 scraps have their own hotel. Deluxe treatment! Lol.

Gin, good to see you!

I have my card stock solid scraps in page protectors and stored in a 12x12 file cabinet with their full sized papers. I do that with my glitter/metalic/pearlized papers too. Yes I keep my Graphic 45 in a separate area with the scraps in page protectors (in a rolling file cart). I have a plastic cart with drawers that I just toss in the patterned paper and just dig around when I want just a bit of paper. And the second drawer I keep my CoreDinations cardstock scraps just tossed in there too.

As to what I do with it, I use it when I need a smidge of paper or when I want to try a cut.

Hi Paula. How I miss the MM days and all the peeps.

• don1 Said:

I do too Don. What an eclectic group was there I still have some of those neat little swap embellies that find their way onto a card or lo.

I like that Donna, their own hotel

Hi Donna,
I am in the same situation!!! I have scraps literally falling out of my scraps drawer
I am trying to use them up by punching shapes out to use as my own embellishments and also trying to do layering more often

They really add up fast!! I have one drawer cleaned up. I have one more drawer and a creative memories file filled with old scraps. It's a process!

MJ, I did that and now I have about 27 little drawers with dividers full of punched images of various colors. I have hearts, ladybugs, butterflies, bells, circles, squares, and on and on. Can't toss them ... may need one or two someday.
This is exactly how stuff expands to fill all voids.

I have a 6 drawer card that is labeled for my scraps. I store my orange/yellow together and all my neutrals together but the rest are the separate. It works for me!! I like that when I need just a small piece for a card or tag, I open up a drawer and choose.

for my solid cardstock I keep them in something like this

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Innovative-Storage-Design-Rolling-File-Tote-18-x14-x10-9-10-Clear-w-Blue-Lid/19624120

except it is a tote that is sized for the hanging folders

I keep them organized by color, and keep this bin under my desk

Patterned paper is kept in a see through bin on a shelf.

Ummn, that'd be throwing 'em in the garbage. For real. I no longer feel obliged to keep wee bits of stuff hanging around just because I'm also a card-maker. Life is too short and storage space is a finite resource.

If you're having trouble binning little scraps, start with throwing out entire 12X12 sheets of paper you don't like. Once you've gotten rid of a few of those, scraps are easy to toss.

I have gobs of scraps, but I LOVE my scraps! Since my LO's are 8.5x11 then I keep all of my cardstock, papers, etc. in that size. However, I purchase my papers and cardstock in 12x12 because I usually want the "left overs" to make things with. If I get a paper that I don't like, I pass it on to either my SIL or my 14 yr. old niece.

After that, I cut them down into manageable sizes that I can make things with....borders, journaling cards, etc. Once a scrap becomes so small that I simply can not cut or make anything else out of it, then I sort it by color into baggies. If it is mixed colors then it goes into an old oatmeal canister. Once the baggies or canister get full (or at least have a good bit in them) then I turn them into NEW paper I'm literally obsessed with paper. I look at gift bags and start thinking "what pretty paper" or "that would make a wonderful envelope". My husband once jokingly said that I needed to find a "Paper Addicts Anonymous", I told him that I was already a member and regularly attended "meetings" because I joined Scrapbook.com and often talk with like minded people

Ummm Pilgrim,
Why don't you give your old, unwanted paper to The Girl Scouts or a preschool?? They would love it.

Ali, I commend you on your devoted thriftyiness. A tree gave up his life for our paper, right!!

It's not just thriftiness, I actually enjoy making paper. I got addicted to paper making due to a science experiment that I did with my boys in a science class when they were both in elementary school. It was close to Earth Day at the time and they were learning how paper was made. I found a "Bill Nye The Science Guy" paper making kit in the clearance section of Wal-Mart so I got it thinking they would enjoy the experiment. Little did I know that it would be me who would get hooked on a new craft from a science experiment.

Most of the time I use the handmade paper to send mail to my sister, grandmother, nieces or nephews. I don't have a deckle large enough to make 8.5x11 sheets yet. I keep begging my DH to make me one, but he hasn't yet. So this year for Christmas I'm going to have to decide if I want more scrapbooking things or if I want a premade 8.5x11 deckle.

I like that tote idea but it's bigger than what I use now, which is just an expandable file, I worry I'll start keeping too much again. When my expandable gets to the point where I can't close it, I know it's time to purge. How do you all organize your pattern scrap, by color or type. Right now, I have mine organized by type (dots, stripes, etc) and I don't find myself using it as often as I should.

I tend to organize mine by color. I tend to organize EVERYTHING with my scrapbooking by color. It works for me and limits me from having to go through various patterned papers to find a specific color theme.

Another way to use scraps is "mosaics" as backgrounds or inlaid designs.

Don, my students are doing a project soon using that very concept.

Ali, very cool. Would love to learn how to make paper.

Making paper is so much fun! We made our own molds and deckles in different sizes and experimented with all kinds of things.

The best handmade paper project we made was asking my sister for love letters she and her fiance wrote to each other (we promised not to read them and didn't). We didn't tell them what we were going to do with them, but did explain to make themselves a copy because we would be destroying them~can't imagine what they thought we had in mind. LOL! We tore up their letters, added plain white paper, cotton linters, some rose petals and made them a custom batch of paper for them to write love letters to each other in the future. So, embedded in their wedding present paper were love letters they wrote before they were married and you could see little bits of them here and there. Such a wonderful and sentimental project to work on and to be able to give.

Also, to anybody thinking about making rice paper~it's not made from rice. Not white rice, not brown rice, not wild rice, not cooked rice, not uncooked rice. Just sayin'.

Gin, what a wonderful project...

Thanks, Donna~it really was fun to do. I remember being so worried something terrible would happen to the pulp~like we'd get a staple in the blender accidentally somehow or the bottom of the blender would fall out right then and we'd lose it all. Or I'd scorch them while ironing each one. LOL Turned out to be not only a very sentimental batch, but a very pretty color too.

You can make your own rice paper from the pith of a rice paper tree, which you can grow in your own backyard.
Or you can buy rice paper for $2 - $3 per 9 X 12 (m/l) per sheet.

Or you can learn the hard way and go through a dozen or so packages of rice from the grocery store.

Gin, that is a wonderful project that you made for your sister. I've used old letters and notes in my handmade paper, but usually all of the writing was my own

After my boys have their home school evaluations each year, I get the opportunity to recycle about a 3 inch 3 ring binder worth of paper from two years prior. We have to keep portfolios intact for 2 years, but after that they can be thrown away. I'm looking forward to recycling Algebra I don't recycle everything from the portfolio's, some things get set aside for the boys memory books.

Thanks, Ali! I love when you can see little bits of writing that survived the blender. Sounds like you've got a pretty steady source of paper to make more paper with!

I definitely do. But, I don't recycle all of it by making paper with it, sometimes I get to fed up with trying to manage it that I feed it to the earth worms Basically I shred it and dump it in the bottom of a compost bin so the earthworms can make their little homes with it. In return for me giving them paper and things from my kitchen, they give me fertilizer

The first thing I do after I'm finished with a project is to cut any leftover scraps into "mat-sized" pieces for cards. Those I file by color and love that I don't have to chop up a full sheet just to put a mat on the front of a card. I bought several of the "Thickers" plastic containers, stand them on end in a magazine holder, and label them by color. That's where I store my smaller scraps.
Scrap Storage By Dwelch

• dwelch Said:

Oh, I love them! Girl, I'm heading over to Amazon to load up my wish list with some of those right now! (I have a scrap system, and I have a stamp system, but those seem so fabulously usable!)

I can't say that my scraps are organized that well. If they are large enough to make borders with then I cut them down to the 11 inch size and put them in a box labeled "borders". My borders are NOT organized very well. 8.5x11 inch sheets go into clear plastic binder sleeves, I write the color on the front with a sharpie and stand them upright in a Priority Mail Shipping box. I'm fixing to redo my bedroom and when that gets done then I'm going to cereal box magazine type storage. My smaller or odd shaped scraps that I can still get something from go into ziplock bags and again I write the color theme on the bag with a sharpie and those are stored in one of my DH's old shoe boxes and labeled "scraps". The ones that are too small for anything, get sorted by color again to make stationary with.

I have to be a bit frugal with my supplies. The fact that I enjoy making paper is just a plus.

Dwelch, you need to come over! Wow! You are uber organized! Awesome!!

I keep cstdstock scraps larger than 1/4 page in hanging file folders sorted by color. I keep Patterned paper by collection and save the scraps that way as well. I periodically cull all of them, but they build up. I only use scraps for cards and I make lots of those.

I've shared before how I organise my scraps in a concertina file (check out my Gallery in the scraproom section if you're really interested). I'm one of those who doesn't throw anything away until it's been reduced to paper lace, and even then it goes out for the recyclers. I've been making more cards than scrapbook pages lately so I'm finding it easier to use up my scraps than to make more.

• RedSquirrel UK Said:

You sound like me, when you say that you don't toss anything until it becomes "paper lace". That is the point that I turn it into handmade paper! Making paper is a hobby I enjoy, paper crafting is a hobby I enjoy, and journaling is a hobby I enjoy. I have found that the three go together quite well. Besides, on my budget, being both frugal and creative is a very good thing.

Truthfully, I make most of my projects with scraps... I prefer the challenge of using the small bits vs. cutting into a large sheet!

I finally learned to trim all mine and throw the rest away. I was keeping every little thing and after 10 years and never hardly using any of the small scraps, I got them out cut them into usable pieces and trashed the rest Even my cardstock. To many it is a waste, but it just works better for me that way and so much easier to sort through.

I'm really trying to use what I can. I've started making nice tags for gifts, more cards even though I'm not wild about making them. And I make ATC's every month for a swap here. Not only is it super fun, it is a great way to use up scraps!!