Organizing Card Stock Scraps

Alright, this has got to be one of the biggest quandaries in organizing paper crafts. What to do with all the cardstock scraps! Right?!

I have stamped for over a decade and am just now figuring out a decent "scrap-keeping system". I didn't want to share this until I tested it for several months. And I am happy to report that the system is still working very well for me. So it's time to share!

Here we go. In my craft room, I have a great closet. The best closet in the house, actually. Our other closets need these organizing shelves, desperately! Anyways, this is my closet for storing home decor and homeschooling supplies. Down on the floor I have overstock of bulk foods, some folding chairs, and my vacuums.

One day while perusing crafty sites, I saw someone hang their cardstock scraps, in gallon size baggies, on pant hangers. I thought it was brilliant, and they looked oh-so-cute hanging in rainbow order. :) But with my vacuums having to stay in this closet, that wasn't an option for me.

However, hanging them facing me parallel instead of perpendicular on hangers would work. I figured out that the way to accomplish that was to use clothespins. I actually like this system better than pant hangers because then I just have to mess with one clip per bag, not two. I simply clip each bag in the corner, keeping the bags open, so I can easily throw scraps in. When I need to retrieve scraps, I take the bag down and clip the clip up on the higher wire so I can find it easily for putting the baggie back.

I only had room for 3 of the 4 Stampin' Up! color families. So my Neutrals and In-Colors are organized a little differently. But anyways, this hanging system takes care of most of my colors.

I put them into color families: Regals, Subtles, and Brights. Then I put them in rainbow order within each family.

Here's the cool part and why this post took awhile. The new SU ink pads have label stickers in four languages for you to peel off and use. While I put the English stickers on my ink pads, I put the Spanish stickers on my scrap bag clothespins! I can't read much Spanish, but I can find colors at a quick glance. :) I had to save up for and get all the new ink pads to finalize this organizing plan.

Here is how my closet usually looks, with the vacuums in place. It's not ideal but it works. :) It's easy enough to get to my scraps when I need them.