Once you start getting any amount of supplies together for scrapbooking, you will realize that you have to have some way to keep everything organized. Things can quickly get out of hand and more time will be spent just trying to find what you need than actually putting scrap book page layouts together! Since scrapping time is precious and often hard to come by, I have come up with 5 inexpensive tips to keep everything in order!

1.Invest in a good paper storage system. I have been using an accordion file system for all my papers. I have them separated by colors and by type, so all the red cardstock is in one file and all the red patterned paper is in another file. This helps reduce the amount of time I spend looking through paper! I also have a smaller accordion file for all the scraps I have and organize them by colors, too!

2.Eyelets and brads can be some of the most troublesome scrap book supplies to keep in order. They often come in little plastic bags that can't be reused, so unless you like them spilling all over everything, you have to get some containers to organize them. Most craft stores sell small boxes with dividers inside that make keeping colors and shapes apart very simple. I also like some of the plastic screw top containers. Or, if you are on a really tight budget, you can take small baby food jars, spray paint the lids and use them to keep everything nice and neat!

3.Ribbons, fibers and yarns can be such a pain in the neck to keep from becoming one big tangled mess! Ribbon spools can be thread onto small dowels or even pant hangers. These methods are nice because you can see each ribbon and cut from the spools easily. I know many people like to put short pieces of fibers and ribbons in large canning jars. Not only is this a good way to keep colors together, but it makes for a nice display. One way I have used to store yarn on the skein is by unwinding a small piece and putting the skein in a zipper plastic bag with the unwound piece hanging out. This makes finding the end to cut from much easier than trying to fish it out every time.

4.Stamps can be a challenge, especially if they aren't the new acrylic stamps that can easily fit in binders and other small spaces. Again, using storage boxes for wood mounted rubber stamps and organizing by themes is a good way to keep them organized. To make the process of finding a specific stamp easier, just stamp each image on a piece of paper and adhere it to the outside of the box.

5.If stickers have got you stuck, I have the best suggestion I've found: the Crop in Style Paper Sticker Binder. Not only does the binder keep all the stickers in a zipped up unit, but it has divided pages and dividers to keep different sizes and themes apart. Once I started using it, it not only helped keep everything neat, but it makes it so much easier to actually use the stickers I have! It saves you money by not buying more of the same kinds of stickers!

I hope that these five tips can help you get a good handle on all your supplies. All these tips are inexpensive tricks, but I have also really enjoyed having large totes and bags to take with me to crops. These products often have organizational pieces integrated into themselves like bags, pen and scissor organizers, etc.

Want a secret?? If you search some of the tool departments of your local discount stores, you might just find a rolling hardware tool box that will work beautifully for your scrap book supplies. I found a great one for under $25 several years ago and have loved it! It doesn't have all the bells and whistles that the ones specifically made for scrap booking do, but it serves its purpose and I had some money left over to invest in more scrap book supplies!

Just find a system that works well for you. You might go through a couple systems before you find one that really works for you, but don't give up! The time you will save by keeping all of your scrap book supplies in order will be worth all the effort!