In between projects, I get the itch to get more organized. I tend to be a VERY messy scrapbooker. Usually before a project is finished, my entire desk is covered - I mean covered - with stuff, and I have about a 5x5" square of space in which to work. It takes me awhile to get things back in order! I tend to be visual, so if there are things out on my desk I can see, they will be more likely to get used.

(my Papertrey Ink ribbons)

I don't have a big, fancy scrapbook room. While I love our house, we only have 3 small bedrooms. So, I decided awhile back to set up camp down in the basement. About a year ago, I posted about my scrap space. It still looks pretty much the same, with a few slight adjustments!

I've added a thread rack to hold the colorful threads...the little cup holds my needles.

Recently, I needed to figure out a new die organization system for my Papertrey Ink dies. I wasn't quite sure how to get them organized. I tried them in a binder with CD sleeves, but that didn't really work for me because when I flipped the pages of the binder, the dies would fall out. I decided to take the CD sleeves out of the binder and put them in a container.

Now I can flip through them easily. For now, I'm just using sticky notes to divide them into sections. I divided them into these categories so far:

People (like the Simply Jane dies)

Tabs, Notebooks, Envelopes

Frames, Tags, Shapes (circles, Ad Sense shapes, etc)

Animals

Baby, Kid (Little Princess die, Truckin' It, etc)

Spring, Flowers, Trees

Jars, Food, Fruit

Fall, Halloween

Letters, Numbers, Words

Christmas, Winter

Impression Plates

What I love about this system is that I can add more or change my categories when I need to. Love flipping through to see all of my dies! I still need to label the actual CD sleeves with the die set names. The larger dies like the borders, Favor It boxes, etc. are in a large plastic baggie in my Papertrey Ink box next to my desk.

I have all my punches and stamping inks on the pull-out keyboard drawer of my desk, easily accessible...

My Papertrey Ink stamps are on the bookshelf organized by title alphabetically in CD cases, along with my Cricut cartridges.

Trust me, it's not always this clean! Oh, I organized my blog recently also and added some links to the top to clean it up a bit. What do you think?

Thanks for stopping by today. This week will be an exciting one -- Papertrey Ink celebrates its 5th ANNIVERSARY! So stay tuned to lots of projects, blog posts, giveaways and such.

a little about my scrap space...

I recently set up a desk in our basement, because I didn't have a place to call my own. I was scrapping in our dining room for a long time and decided it would be nice to have my sewing machine out and ready whenever I need to use it. (And then we could actually EAT at our dining table again too, a bonus!)

The desk is set up right where you come down the stairs and I share the room with my girls' big toys -- like their kitchen, lego table, art easel, etc. They love to hang out with me while I'm down there working. The easel and lego table are behind my chair. I'm lucky enough to have a storage room right next to where my scrap space is, so I have larger things like all my mini books and such stored in there, out of sight. The 2 large bins you see next to my desk on the right hold all my Jenni Bowlin and Pink Paislee products. (Except I keep the most recent Pink Paislee lines in the box under my desk, so I can quick grab what I need!) I have bins for Melissa Frances and Tattered Angels too, those are located in the storage room.

I found these large white cubes at AC Moore. They were about $40 a piece, so I saved my 40% off and 50% off coupons and bought them one at a time. I love seeing all the pretty colors of cardstock! The bottom tray holds layouts ready to be filed away. The drawers hold my flowers, buttons, ribbons, brads/bling, stamps, and other embellies. I bought some 12x12" Cropper Hoppers to hold the patterned papers (organized by manufacturer.) Rub ons, stickers and transparencies each have their own Cropper Hopper too.

On my desk, I have a basket for glues and hole punches, a cup for pens/scissors, and a container for my embossing supplies. I also leave my sewing machine up on my desk. The keyboard drawer pulls out and that's where I store all my punches for easy access. My hot glue gun and embossing gun are there too, along with a bag of photos to be scrapped.

Since I had SO many ribbons, I made my own ribbon wraps with cardboard. You can fit so many more ribbons in a drawer this way. (I have 2 drawers of them!) See the 12x12" clear file folders next to the ribbon? Those are holding my paper scraps by color. I don't keep a scrap, unless it is 6x6" or so.

These are the girls' toys...

Still a work in progress, and NO it's not always this clean, trust me!! But now that I have it organized, I think it will be a lot easier to keep it clean. :) Do you have pictures of where you scrap? I'd love to see them.
Danielle