Creative Chat - Organizing Card Stock

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!

While I absolutely love this feature, I have to admit that this topic caused me a LOT of work.  I had been wanting to corral all my card stock in one location and my stamp room was in DIRE need of a cleaning/organizational kick in the pants.  So, after a full 8 hour day of cleaning and another 6-8 organizing, I have a SPARKLING clean stamp room and organized card stock.  I LOVE it!  

This month, I made a VIDEO giving a "tour" of my card stock storage.  Click the arrow below to watch it.  :) If you are viewing this post in a feed reader, you may not be able to see the video, but I have included a link for you to watch it>>> VIDEO:

I moved one of my large, folding craft tables along one wall and put 4 large plastic file holders underneath it.  I purchased them at Staples for about $17 each.

Placing the paper under the table meant I had bad lighting, so I went to Staples in search of the old style "tap lights".  I found these, in a three pack, for around $10 (but each needed 3, AAA batteries).  They are LED lights, and not super bright, so I placed one over each paper file box.

I use inexpensive hanging folders to hold my paper in.  They come in packs of 25 for about $6.

To label the folders, I cut a piece of the card stock to 2" X 5/8".  I print out the name of the card stock on copy paper small enough so I can punch it out with my Stampin' Up Word Window punch (14 point font, generally).  Here, you can see I am preparing my MFT Card Stock labels.  If you would like my typed up list, I am happy to share it with you, just e-mail me (e-mail address in the side bar).

Here, you can see all 4 lights mounted under the table, and all my 8 1/2 X 11 card stock. 

I arranged each bin in a similar way to make things easier to find.  In the front, I started with neutral colors, which I use most often: white, cream, black, grey, brown etc), and then progressed to colors in the same general order in each tub: yellows, oranges, pinks, reds, purples, blues, then greens.

 For the My Favorite Things Card Stock, I made myself a color chart in word.  I am happy to share it with you, just e-mail me (e-mail address in the side bar of my blog).  I punched a 1" square of each color and adhered in the labeled boxes.  I intend to do this for the the other brands of card stock I use (Papertrey Ink and Stampin' Up), but that will be a project for another day... LOL

On a shelf in another area of my room, I stacked the full packages of "back up" card stock, by company, in the same general order I have them in the file boxes (at this point, are you started to think I have a sickness?  LOL).

The only card stock that is "in use" and not in my files, is my 12 X 12 card stock.  I have all of that in some inexpensive drawers I purchased at Walmart (3 drawer unit for around $12).  I don't have them in any particular order.  I just throw them in there.  LOL  Most of them are multipacks (more than one color per pack).

I store my scraps in the same type of drawer system.  Here is the breakdown of each drawer:

• white, cream, clear
• black, grey
• brown, kraft
• rich colors
• light/pastel colors
• bright colors

I try to keep the top 3 drawers kinda organized, but the other three are just all mixed together and I dig through it to find what I need.

Ahhhhh clean and organized makes me HAPPY.  Wonder how long I can keep it looking like this?  LOL

Thanks for stopping by!  I'll see you tomorrow for Wednesday Stamp Club.  :)