I came across these wonderful organizational tips yesterday and made a note to myself to post them here today. These are great tips I found in the Resource section by Sheri.

Organizational Tips: Alphabets by Sheri

As an alphabet addict, this was something I had to learn the hard way.

As my collection grew from a cm carrytote, to a manila folder, to a photo storage box, to a small decorative trunk-box with a lid, my alphabets became a huge mess!

Suddenly, it occurred to me to sort my alphabets by color.

AND THIS IS AWESOME!

Several times, I’ve been working on a project, knowing orange, for example, was my overall theme, I just went to my trunk, grabbed my orange alphas, used what I needed, and put them back in my box. No more digging!
I have them seperated by color first, then by size. So all my blacks are together, with largest packages in the back, moving up by size, then all clipped together with a binder clip. On alphabets that are thicker– like a package of epoxy stickers, for example, I might have another binder clip attatching just that pkg.. but still all clipped together in that color stack.

For my mm rubons, that come in those pkgs, they are loose.

I also had several Monograms/stencils that i’ve recv’d in swaps, and I have those binder clipped together by alpha.

Now my box stays nice and neat, and I can easily find what I need. Even if I’m going to mix it up, it’s still all right there!

I have a pretty cool system that I just love here. I’m big into the metal pieces, gameboard pieces and such as that for alphabets. I was having the same problems with stuff getting out of control. Although I never got into a trunk.

Anyway, I went in back in late June and organized mine differently. I have these trays by Craft Mates. They are plastic compartment things that lock shut. There are 14 compartments per tray. So, I took two of them and sorted by letter. There’s a space for each letter of the alphabet and I dig through it like that. I find that it’s much quicker for me to know if I’ve got enough of a certain type of something to write what word I want. Much quicker than rummaging through a package of that style and hunting desperately for an E. Ya know? Plus, when I want to do the mix and match ransom sort of effect, this system is totally perfect!!!!! I’m soooooooo glad I did this.

As for rub-ons… They are all together in a photo box and easy to sort through. My stickers are in Cropper Hopper Verticals with sticker organizers. One holds alphabets, one holds assorted leftovers and another holds all my nice sticker packages. I find that it works great!

If you happen to have any tips you would like to share with us please email them to me at thynner5@yahoo.ca and put CCAS Blog Tips in the subject line. Everytime you do you will earn a ballot for the monthly Blog Prize Draw!!

~Tara~

These tips are from the CCAS Resources Wiki:

Photo Storage Tips by Renee

Attics and Basements - The worst places to store your photographs or documents is in an uninsulated attic or basement. In the summer, temperatures in an attic could reach 125 degrees F. while in the winter they can get down to less than 0 degrees. With the constant high temperatures and humidity in the summer and low temperatures and humidity in the winter, the photographs or documents will become brittle. In severe cases, the emulsion (image) on the photograph can separate from the base (paper). These cyclic conditions will have a devastating effect on any paper product.

Uninsulated basements are usually moist which can cause photographs to stick to each other. Another problem encountered in basements is that they are great breeding grounds for insects and rodents which are strongly attracted to gelatin and cellulose in the photographic emulsion.

The best places to store important photographs or documents are in a safe deposit box at your bank. They are usually climate controlled and kept dark to provide almost ideal storage conditions. The ideal storage conditions are 68 degrees +/- 2 degrees and 50% relative humidity +/- 5% relative humidity.

I am so guilty of storing my pics in my uninsulated basement, I have had several all stuck together! If your photos are in these conditions, get them to a safe dry place now!!!

I found these great tips at the Resource section of the site. You can find all sort of wonderful scrappy information there. be sure to chekc it out when you have some time!

Storing Favourite Layouts

When you are stumped as to what your next layout will look like, it is a great idea to flip through a magazine or checkout online galleries and look at layouts that other people have created.
The question though is how do you organize the layouts that you see and really like, but can’t use as inspiration at that time.
When you are looking at online galleries, it is a good idea to save the images of the layouts to your computer in a file that you can then review when you are looking for inspiration or a layout to scraplift.
If you keep all of your magazines, you can flag the pages you would like to look at again, or attach a sticky note to the front of the magazine with a note about the layout to make it quicker to refer to them again.
If you are discarding the magazine, pull out the page and place it in a three ring binder in a page protector. You can then make a note on a sticky note reminding yourself what it is about the layout that inspires you.
Another option to consider is to scan the layouts you like from magazines, and then print out both the scanned images and the images you saved from online galleries on 4×6 photo paper. You can then store the images in a recipe card box, or punch holes in the upper corner and put them on a binder ring for future reference.

Remember that everytime you complete a challenge on the site, send in a tip, technique or tutorial, or use a font, you earn a ballot for the draw! Just send them to me at thynner5@yahoo.ca and put CCAS Blog in the subject line.

~Tara~