Organizing patterned paper by color?

I was wondering how do you all organize your cardstock and your scrapbook paper? I organize my cardstock and my SU dsp (the ones that are a single color) by color. But I have SO much that is not only multiple colors on one side, but double sided and a totally different color on the flip side. How do you organize these?

If it's multiple colors, I store it in a separate area for multi-colored papers (that, or it's a themed paper and therefore gets stored with that theme). If it's wildly different on both sides, I store it by theme if one of the sides is themed, or I store one sheet with, say, purple, while the other sheet is stored with red. Or I store it by the side of the paper I like - if I bought it for the clock pattern on one side and don't like the generic green design on the other, it gets filed under clocks. If it's green stripes on one side and orange chevrons on the other, it gets filed under green, because I generally don't care for chevrons so I probably wouldn't be looking to use that side. It's definitely not a one-size-fits-all sorting scheme.

Well, here's an actual example from my own stash. I have, I think, three sheets of this Carta Bella Halloween paper, linked below. I've stored two of them with my fall/Halloween papers, with the Halloween side facing up, and the other sheet is with my multi-color patterns, with the wonderful polka-dotted side up.

aquabunny thank you for sharing the way you sort your paper.
Do you store the paper in any drawers or folders or boxes? I like how you sort the colors together.

My patterned paper is sorted by manufacturers ( Graphic 45, etc ),and themes (vintage, holiday, etc). Cardstock is by color. I have a paper rack in my scraproom.

Cardstock by color-(standing up vertically in Michael's sectioned cubes)
PP stays with the collection it came with (in stacking plastic no lipped paper trays), misc PP is loosely filed by--flowers, stripes... in upright plastic paper holders (2) other pp is filed by: sports, kids, school, baby, travel etc (hanging files)

My solid papers and card stocks are sorted by color.

My patterned paper is mostly sorted by theme (travel, holiday, school, etc.)

And for the ones that don't fit a theme, I sort them as masculine, feminine, neutral...it works for me since MOST of my LO's I need things that work for BOYS.

• bonprof Said:

Mine is sorted like this. I have clear trays for the cardstock. A use the 12x12ish baggies to store the pattern papers in. All then fit perfectly in an IKEA Expedit cabinet.

Michelle I love this way to sort paper. I need to look into getting these trays as well.

Thank you everyone for sharing your way. I like how everyone has a different way to sort their paper.

Michelle, I also have mine in the expedit!!! but I have no lipped trays--the lip drove me craaaaaazzzzy!...I also have the trays free standing on the floor-stacked because, well, ....................don't we all have too much paper???!!!

Yes, I have to agree on that I have a lot of PAPER!!
like growing out of my ears kind . 😄

I have gobs of paper, unfortunately, most of it I never picked out. My DH got this bright idea one year for Mother's Day to go on Ebay and purchase a lot of scrapbooking papers. They are nice, and all were still in their original wrappers. However, they are SOOOO outdated that I can't find them anywhere. And I have no two sheets that are alike, they are all different. And if that wasn't strange enough, my birth mom decided to send my youngest DS a birthday present 4 1/2 months AFTER his birthday. I gave the gift to my son, who promptly unwrapped it with all sorts of excitement and then he said, "what the heck...what am I supposed to do with this?" She had mailed him a "Me and My Big Ideas" scrapbook kit. About 10 minutes later, my son walked up to me and said "Umm, Mom I've decided that you might like this for Mother's Day" and he gave me the present his grandmother mailed him.

I don't make 12x12 scrapbooks, so I promptly took the kit apart and gave the album and the "baby girlish" papers to my SIL for her youngest daughter.

Now my DH keeps telling me that I have to use all of these papers before he will get me more...bummer. I want more paper, lol.

Ali, there was a thread on the forums about stash-busting projects not that long ago. Maybe you will find a way to decimate your unwanted papers if you look into it =)

Currently I'm going through them and seeing which ones would make good cards And I WAS working on a baby book for a nephew's wife...but umm I had to scrap that project. I asked the mom exactly how to spell the baby's name and she asked me "why do you want to know, he's not born yet." So, I said "well, I wanted to personalize a gift for him" and she said, "is it store bought?" And I said, "well, no" and her response was "If it's not store bought I'm probably not interested, and if you do get something from a store then I want things from Babies R Us and JC Penny because that's where my registry is. And I don't like clothes and things from Wal-Mart because they are too cheap." So much for the baby book and the burp cloths I was making...and boy am I glad that I didn't start on a quilt yet And boy does that girl have a LOT to learn...babies outgrow clothes too quickly to spend a fortune on clothes that they will likely only wear for a few weeks, or the clothes will get stained with spit up, etc.

• flhomeschoolmom Said:

How incredibly ungrateful and sad! I'm glad you found that out before you went to all the trouble of making stuff for her that she wouldn't appreciate.

I can't believe that girl's attitude! I agree with Joanie - how incredibly ungrateful!

Oh my word!! That is so incredibly rude of her to say! Some people just don't know how to be polite anymore let alone grateful that someone would want to give their child something. Her loss!!!

Wow I am stunned that someone would be that unappreciative of sewed items for their baby. I always thought those were things to be treasured in a family. I am sorry you had to experience that level of insensitivity, Ali.
shaking my head.......

In regards to the original posters question.......

Are your multi color papers indiviual sheets or are they part of a collection? While I have my categories I do keep collections together within them.

If these are just individual random sheets, I started a process of how I decide. I first look for an overall theme ( season, holiday, obvious theme or color) Then which side I gravitate to the most. If I like both equally I go with "side A" that has all the manufacturer info on the brand strip that gets cut off.
Once I have made those decisions, I organize by theme or color respectively. I found the more general I kept my categories, color,season,obvious theme; the easier it was to organize these individual papers despite being from different collections or manufacturers.
I always keep in mind that I can always flip the sides if the one I choose isn't working for me. It helps in taking a bit of the decision making pressure off.

Cardstock is also by color...and I also have the horizontal trays that was pictured earlier in the thread. I do have some Recollections in a cropper hopper next to my cricut, as they are the preferred cardstock for cutting.

Cardstock that is 2 colors, I pick the color I like best and put it in with that color tray. or pocket in my travel case.

I do have a few that are by 'collection'...kept in a vertical cropper hopper...but not a lot. you know some of the Stampin Up sold by family.

PP, sigh, I like them by collections. I like that they are pre-matched and coordinated. They are stored for the most part by type... babies, little girls, little boys, summer, Christmas.... and some favorite manufacturers are set aside. Most are in Cropper Hoppers vertical files on a shelf.

I have a very small amount by color. The ones I bought from Ebay when I first started scrapbooking.(like flhomeschoolmom mentioned) And those are in a shelf unit that holds 4 or 5 Iris cases.

I'm really not too upset about the girl's reaction. I have decided 1) she has a LOT to learn, 2) I've began deconstructing the baby book and I'm going to reuse the papers to make boy birthday cards, 3) I cut the stitches out of the edges of the burp cloths and decided that some little boy will LOVE having a fabric covered dinosaur birthday card! I've had both the paper and the fabric for a long time and I'm just ready to get rid of it, so I'm going to make cards out of them.

I really like reading how other people organize their papers. I'm thinking about looking into getting some stacking trays soon. But first, I must convince my DH that I really need a bookshelf that I can solely dedicate to craft stuff.

Good for you Ali, making lemonade out of lemons! Love your ideas. Fingers crossed on convincing the hubby!

Answering the original question - this is long, but detailed. I am a retired school librarian so there is a method to my madness. Those of you that remember the old card catalog cards may understand it better. I break down my cardstock/paper organization into smaller and smaller subdivisions until each piece has it own location.

First, I divide the cardstock by solids or patterned. Solids are put in R-O-Y-G-B-I-V (red-orange-yellow-green- blue-indigo-violet) order. I file brown, black, white, and gray after the other colors. I further subdivide each color by manufacturer (American Crafts, Bazzill, Core'dinations, WorldWin). For some manufacturers I also further subdivide by collection (Core'dinations - Essentials, Foundations, Tim Holtz). I then put the colors by one manufacturer in order from lightest to darkest. I could have gone alphabetically, but decided that when I was looking for a certain color it was better to have all one shade together by that manufacturer (all the tans are together, chocolates together, dark browns together etc.) rather than scattered throughout that manufacturers cardstock. Hope that makes sense.

With patterned cardstock/paper first divide it by color (R-O-Y-G-B-I-V). Within each color I subdivide into single-sided cardstock, double-sided cardstock, single-sided paper, and double-sided paper. I further subdivide each of these categories by solids/distressed, shapes (circles/dots, plaids, stripes, miscellaneous shapes), nature, and miscellaneous. Finally I put each of those subdivisions in alphabetic order by manufacturer. When I have multiple collections by one manufacturer I put them in alphabetical order by collection, then name of the paper (for example - Basic Grey granola - honey; BG granola - vanilla bean; BG Motifica - Chalk; BG Motifica - Clay). Again hope that makes sense.

When I have a double-sided cardstock/paper I usually file it under the side I would most likely use. I will also put notes in the strip that is cut off which color it needs to be filed under or that there are more filed under another color.

I usually file the cardstock/paper with the predominate color, but if no color is predominate it goes into a section called multicolored.

At the end I have some themed papers/cardstock. This is sorted by theme, then alphabetically by manufacturer. One of my themes is travel - which I have divided by general travel (sorted alphabetically by manufacturer) or specific place (sorted alphabetically by place, then alphabetically by manufacturer).

All my stash (about 6 feet if stacked up) is stored vertically in old 12 x 12 boxes from the post office or Cropper Hopper paper files.

I know this sounds really complicated, but it makes it is super easy for me to find what I want and quick for me to put things away.

For anyone who is considering how to organize their cardstock/paper I would tell them to really stop and plan out (write down) how you are going to organize your stash. Before I put mine in this order I first wrote down the categories I was going to use. How I have organized my stash wouldn't work out for everyone, but it works for me. Hopefully others can get some ideas on what might work best for them

Happy Birthday Ali!

Thank you Marci!

Thank you everyone these are some good ideas I will have to keep them all in mind.