Monday, September 26, 2011

MFT Creative Chat - card stock storage

It's time for the MFT Creative Chat. The My Favorite Things Design Team Creative Chat is a monthly feature, where we are challenged to explore our creative spaces and share valuable organizational methods, tools, and shopping strategies with you. You'll be able to peek into our creative spaces, ask questions, and share your own ideas in the MFT forum.  This month, we were asked the following questions:  

How do you store and organize your card stock?   
How do you store your scrap card stock? 

Visit Kim's Blog for a full list of designers that have taken up the challenge and get ready to delve into the minds of our creative team!

Cardstock can easily get out of control, so it's important to have a storage system in place. I actually have two storage solutions to share, mostly because I outgrew the first system and needed more space.   ;-)


There's nothing fancy about my first card stock storage system...it's a plain 'ole file cabinet with letter sized hanging file folders. I should also mention that I only have 8.5" x 11" card stock...I don't own 12" x 12" card stock anymore.


The top drawer houses the four families of Stampin' Up! card stock colours. I added tabs to each of the file folders and placed a small piece of the card stock in the tab so I could tell what colour was inside each folder. To separate the colour families I placed all the tabs of one colour family in line, then offset the tabs of the next colour family.


When I needed more space for the in-colours and the neutrals I moved into the bottom drawer of the file cabinet, and found another place for household files.  :-) 


The right side is more SU card stock, but you can see I was a little more ambitious with the labeling and also wrote the name of the colour on the tab, in addition to putting the actual card stock into the tab.


Here you can see my open pink pirouette folder. I love the folder system because it's perfect for housing both full sheets of 8.5" x 11" card stock and all the scraps. 


The left side of the bottom drawer is my collection of Prism papers. I was short on folders when I had to put this card stock away so I grouped them a little. Prism card stock came in three hues of the same colour, so that's how I grouped them. You can see in this folder I have full sheets of blush red light, medium and dark, with scraps in front of their respective full sheets. 


Then I started collecting MFT card stock and I needed a new solution because there's no more space in my file cabinet. 


So I turned to the cubes in my stamping space and added Cropper Hopper plastic file folders to house packages of card stock. 


I knew I wanted to keep the scraps with each colour again, so the only way to do that was to leave the plastic packaging on the bundle of card stock. What I do is I carefully cut off the top inch of the plastic packaging (and I've drawn the line here with a sharpie to show you where I cut it all around the package) and this leaves the rest of the package intact so I can slip the scraps into the front. I also use the sharpie to write the name of the card stock on the plastic packaging.


Here are a couple of packages of MFT card stock that I've been using and slipping any cut pieces back into the front of the package.


I can't wait to see how everyone else stores their card stock.
Thanks for stopping by!
Karen

14 comments:

Sarah Gough said...

ohhh all that MFT cardstock makes me so jealous! I may just have to bite the shipping bullet and put in a huge order!

StampOwl said...

what fun to see how you store your cardstock Karen

Kary said...

Wow, such a wonderful collection of cardstock!! I'm envious!! Thanks for sharing, Karen!

Eva said...

Karen, love your drawers full of card stock!!! I think I need some drawers now! LOL

Inge Groot said...

Love the sight of all that MFT cardstock:-))))

Anonymous said...

Awesome display of your stash. I may need to get those new ones you have for my MFT cs as I am out of room too.

Lisa H. said...

soooo wonderful! love how simple it seems. tfs!

Michele Boyer said...

Your storage might be simple but it's great! I love the scraps with the packages, and I LOVE the MFT cs standing in the bins. So pretty.

Barbara said...

Great organization there, Karen!

Leslie said...

Well that's real eye candy! :) I've seen this in person and it is true organization. Love the tip about cutting off the top inch of the package to keep the scraps together = brilliant!

Queen Mary said...

Simple and sweet! I confess,seeing the MFT all in one place certainly made me drool!

Jody Morrow said...

Very pretty. I think you lining up all the tabs for the SU CS was pretty clever! Of COURSE you're clever. :)

bernshwag said...

Karen thanks so much for sharing your wonderful ideas!

Hugs,
Candi

Jodi Collins said...

AWESOME storage Karen!! LOVE the way you organize your paper, especially the MFT packs!