How to Organize Scrapbook Stickers

Factors to Consider When Choosing an Organizational System

Before you can begin to organize your stickers, you’ll need to spend some time thinking about what type of system best fits your crafting profile. Ask yourself these questions:

• How many stickers do I have? Your organizational system won’t work unless it is large enough to accommodate your entire collection.
• How large do I expect my collection to get? Scrapbookers who only buy new stickers when they are needed for a specific project will need much less storage space than those who prefer to buy whatever catches their eye.
• Do I like to attend crops? Scrapbookers who need to transport their supplies to crops or classes will need to consider the portability of their organizational system.
• How much can I afford to spend? It’s not necessary to spend a small fortune to organize your stickers, but it is a good idea to consider your budget before purchasing any organizational tools.

How to Organize Scrapbook Stickers

Contrary to popular belief, there is no “right” way to organize your scrapbook supplies. When deciding how to organize scrapbook stickers, you have a number of options. For example:

• Theme: Scrapbookers who frequently complete pages with travel, baby, or holiday themes may find this method of organization most logical.
• Style: If you don’t scrapbook thematic pages, you can try organizing your stickers into general style categories such as vintage, grunge, contemporary, or ethnic-inspired.
• Color: If most of your stickers are general-purpose embellishments, sorting by dominant color is a simple yet highly effective organizational strategy.
• Purpose: Separating your stickers into categories such as alphabets, titles, borders, tags, and general embellishments is a simple way to organize smaller supply collections.
• Product Manufacturer: If you love Basic Grey, Chatterbox, KI Memories, or other coordinating product lines, sorting your supplies by manufacturer will make it easy to quickly pull together a finished layout.

If you have a relatively small amount of stickers, you may want to include your die cuts and rub-ons in the same file categories. Since all of these supplies serve the same general purpose, this is an easy way to minimize the amount of time you spend searching for embellishments.

Popular Organizational Tools

Organizational tools to consider when storing your scrapbook stickers include:

• Binders: A large binder filled with plastic page protectors makes it easy to flip through all of your stickers at a glance. If you have a number of smaller stickers, the pages commonly used to store baseball cards will be quite useful.
• Plastic Storage Drawers: Drawers help protect your stickers from damage while accommodating very large collections.
• Boxes: If you’re looking for a storage system that is both functional and attractive, pick up a number of decorative boxes and label each box with the appropriate category.
• Bulletin Board: If you like to be able to see all of your stickers, place them in plastic storage bags and tack them to a large bulletin board.

Creating a Scrapbook Inventory

Once you’ve gotten your sticker collection under control, you may want to consider creating a scrapbook inventory. An inventory should include the following information:

• Supply name
• Product description with size, color, and other relevant characteristics
• Manufacturer
• Date and location of purchase (if you remember)
• Cost (if you remember)

Keeping a small notebook or computer spreadsheet with this information will make it easier to plan future shopping trips while avoiding accidental duplicate purchases. If you ever decide to enter a scrapbook contest or submit your work for publication, your inventory will also make it easier to provide the required supply list.

Additional Information

For additional ideas on how to organize scrapbook stickers, check out the following helpful links:

• Taking Inventory
• Organizing Page Additions
• Avoid a Die Cut and Sticker Catastrophe
• The ScrapJazz Guide to Organizing Your Space