Paper Chaos~

Paper.  A necessary component of this craft.  And it gets chaotic, quickly.

My "usual" means of controlling is to just put it in an identified drawer of one of these storage containers, neatly at first, and then the scraps and bits and pieces take over.

I spent Friday pulling out all the patterned paper that I have accumulated in the past couple of years that has been lying in the drawers.  Since I was on somewhat of a hiatus for a while, many of the papers are no longer available.  Useful for personal projects, but not for design work or pub work.

First I determined what was still current in nature, that meant visiting manufacturer websites, some easier to navigate than others, to determine if what I had was still in their inventory.  I kept current full sheets full.  Any sheet that had been cut into (no matter how much)  I cut into 6 x 6 piece(s), if there was enough left for a 4 x 4 piece, then I cut that as well.  All retired papers were cut into those 2 sizes, period, no matter how much I liked them. The rest of of the scraps were taken away by the recycle trash truck that afternoon.  There are now 3 empty drawers in the unit, perfect for keeping projects that are still a work in progress inside and off my counter.

I filed these "new" scraps into a filing box that I picked up at Michaels a few years back.  Each manufacturer is separated by an identified tab; current in the front of the box, retired in the back.

The retired may eventually be offered up as a blog prize or gifted to a local school.  

For now, it's organized chaos. 

Another task I have been working on I will share later.  It's been a very handy app!

V.~