- Hard drive
- External drive
- CDs
- Scan old/new photos to online backup source

My method is slightly different:

- Hard drive
- External drive
- SD cards

Since I switched to a digital camera many years ago, I’ve always kept the photos on the original SD card they were taken on. While the card is still being used in the camera, I periodically go through and delete unwanted photos. So when the card is full, it’s full of good stuff, the keepers. I eject the card, write the beginning and ending dates in permanent marker on the card, and store it in a firesafe box with our important papers.

The advantages of the SD cards as a storage method are that they are cheap, easy to find images on later, and super small and easy to store. I’m no techie but I also assume that, since they are a later technology than CDs, that I will have the ability to “read” them longer than I would using CDs. One question I have but have never researched is the longevity – anyone know? I think the archival CDS have a super-long retention time so maybe that would convince me to also CD backup if I find out the SD cards won’t retain my images for years to come.

Another thing I do different than the article is that I use iPhoto so there’s no need to do any fancy folder system when I download photos onto my hard drive. It does all that work for me ~ what a timesaver!

What is your method for backing up your photos?

For only 18 bucks, you get enough papers to do 3 double-page layouts, plus instructions, sketches, and a photo of the completed layouts. SOLD! I only wish I could’ve bought more of their fab-o kits because they have a ton and all are cute and SO worth the price. For only an extra $1.99 in shipping, they held the kit and included it the box with my July Super Sketch Club kit, which was nice.

Anyway, as excited as I was to get working on layouts from Shimelle’s THE PERFECT COLLECTION online class, I spent all Friday night and most of Saturday organizing my scrapbook room (photos and deets to follow this week!). So I was too brain-fried to even attempt the class.

So instead I pulled out the package with my Good Day Sunshine kit and got to work. About an hour later, I had all this to show for myself :)

{Yeah, I see you eye-ballin’ that October Afternoon “Cakewalk” paper. It’s cute huh?? But totally unrelated to this post}.

Sorry, to fit it all in 1 pic, I had to tilt one layout on it’s side but you get the gist, yeah? As you can see, I also had enough paper and die cuts left to make an additional single page layout. We go to the beach a lot so I’ll be putting these pre-done layouts to good use. I think I’m going to use them for a beach overnighter we did last summer where our hotel was right on the beach. I figure I can use the single page layout like a cover page with the title and a bunch of journaling, maybe 1 photo. Then the other 2 beach-related layouts will follow with beach photos and the other stuff we did there.

Sometimes when you have no brain power but want to cut some paper and use pop dots, a kit like this is a very good thing ;) Did you accomplish anything scrappy last weekend?

If I could build my perfect desk – with all the white cubes and huge workspace – that would be it. I love her cheerful rug, huge space, and how she says it’s often the center of “real life” activity.

What’s your favorite part of Katie’s space?

The room belongs to Stacey and I just love it. She uses a lot of my favorite ways to organize including …

- 12×12 Sterlite-type drawers, which I love because they hold just the right amount, are easy to access, and easy to put things away in.

- Cropper Hopper vertical 12×12 paper holders which make your paper so easy to flip through. I use them to sort by manufacturer and put everything in there – 12×12 papers, letters, stickers, die cuts, ribbon, and all other embellishments. I like to scrap using things from the same line and sometimes mixing and matching from the same manufacturer (many use the same color families over and over, which I love!). So I love having everything from, say, CRATE PAPER or FANCY PANTS, all in one place.

- Ribbon in jars … not only can you see all the varieties you have so you know where to start diggin’ (LOL), but they’re so decorative too. Which leads me to another thing I love about Stacey’s room …

- Everything is organized by color, and in ROY G BIV order no less. It makes this anal retentive girl’s heart skip a beat! Srsly. I have my cardstock, ribbons, Stickles, brads/metal embellishments, and Making Memories paints all organized by color. I’ve toyed with the idea many times of organizing all of my embellishments that way – like EVERYTHING red in one holder, etc. – but I don’t think I’d like it. I can see it works well for her, though. It’s all in the way you personally scrap.

- Memorabilia organized by family member in accordion files. I would love to do this … but she must be WAY better at paring things down than I’ll ever be because I could never squeeze each family member into just one file, LOL.

So a big shout out to Stacey! She has, over all her years or scrapbooking and changing spaces, refined the systems that work for her. She’s super organized and has created a bright, functional space to create in.

What do you love about her room? What things would work for you and what wouldn’t? Do you use any of the same organizational systems of items she does?

Is that cool or what? My 3 favorite features:

1. It stores the bottles upside-down which is the preferred method for many Stickles luvahs.

2. You can leave the cover off to see all your pretty colors or you can put the cover on to take them to crops, or just to keep the dust off.

3. Speaking of pretty colors, you can line them all up in ROYGBIV order. Oh, be still my anal-retentive heart!

Okay, that’s 3 but I just thought of 2 more. So sue me.

4. You get 3 units in the set and can store up to 30 BOTTLES, people! {Don’t sit there all righteous and pretend you don’t have that many … we know you do}.

5. The Stickles Sort and Store can also hold other popular items like Liquid Pearl, Stampin Up ink pad refill, Claudine Helmuth Studio Mini Acrylic Paint, Mini Art, and Tim Holtz Adirondack Alcohol Ink.

Oh crap. I thought of another one.

6. It’s only $24 for a set of 3 which hold 10 bottles each.

I’m thinking they’re a new item because Tiffany’s website, THE SCRAPRACK MULTI-CRAFT, says they ship January 17th.

I’m trying to decide if I should get a set or not. My Stickles are currently lined up on a stamp shelf above my desk. Let me go count my bottles … K, I’m back. I have “only” 18 :P So I’ll probably hold off for now but I’m glad to know about this great new scrapbook organizational item. When I make it to 30 bottles, I am SO getting this.

What do you think of the Stickles Sort and Store?

I do have a lot of my items in vertical Cropper Hoppers stored by manufacturer … my 20 or so favorites like Pink Paislee, My Minds Eye, and October Afternoon.

For the (many) things I have that don’t fall into those main manufacturer categories, I use my Scraprack to sort them by theme. It’s so nice so be able to say, “I want to scrapbook a Christmas layout,” go to my Scraprack, turn to the Christmas/Winter section, and find all kinds of papers and embellishments that go with that theme. Sure, I might have some Christmas stuff mixed in with my MME or October Afternoon vertical file, but who wants to go digging through there? LOL If I know I’m working with a theme, my Scraprack is the first place I look.

Anyway, I follow the Scraprack BLOG and the owner, Tiffany, recently posted the BEFORE AND AFTER of her scrapbook room makeover. In this particular entry, she doesn’t go into detail about the Scraprack (there are other posts on her site that do, though!). But it was fun to follow along with her photos and see how she put her room together. My favorite things are the handpainted flowers on the walls, and the cute flowerpot cart that she uses to hold tools and pens. I also agree with what she says about having a big room and needing to make it “smaller” to maximize your efficiency when you scrap. Great job, Tiffany!

1. Get my kids another craft or two so I don’t go cray-cray before Thankgsgiving break is over.

2. Use the 40% off coupon in my wallet.

3. Buy my annual bag of cinnamon-scented pinecones. It’s just not the holiday season here without them :)

So I accomplished all 3 missions, actually combining #2 and #3 by using the coupon on a $10 kids’ craft. Got my cinnamon pinecones … mmm, the car smelled so good on the way home. Oh, and these jumped into my hand so I had to get them, too:

They’re called “Elizabeth Brownd Christmas Sequin Adhesive Gems” by K & Company. They are so pretty and sparkly in person!

So while I was at Michaels I also saw some new storage items that could be used for scrapbooking organization and my favorite one was THIS (I’m linking to another site because I can’t find it on Michaels.com):

There was no price on the shelf but it looks like they retail for about $50 … which is steep for sure … unless you have a 40% or 50% off coupon, girlie! Or wait for all their scrapbook storage to go on sale as it often does.

So many of us scrappers use Iris bins, carts, and drawers to store our crap … erm, I mean, SCRAP stuff. I love how you can personalize the front of these drawers, even the handle! You could put in fabric or wallpaper that matches your room decor, a photo collage of your favorite people, or even a 12×12 scrapbook page with room to spare (we just gotta’ figure out how to work around that knob handle being right in the middle of our artwork, lol). You could also add a label of what’s inside.

Anyway, just wanted to share a few of my Michaels finds! I hope you have an amazing and blessed Thanksgiving surrounded by family and friends … and yummy food!

I would LOVE to see pictures of HER scrapbooking space. Do you suppose it’s perfectly organized … or is she like the cobbler with holes in his shoes? The chef who eats take-out? The bald hairdresser? Bwahaha! I could keep going … but I won’t. I’ll let you read the article.

Ok. Guh-hed.

From the whole room photo in my last post, you couldn’t even see this but it’s probably my favorite part of the room. It’s the wall made up of STORE IN STYLE CUBES and a variety of jars.

Here’s how the setup looked before my latest reorg project.

BEFORE

And here is the new and much improved version.

AFTER

So back to how it looked before:

*Disclaimer: I own so much MME paper because I bought a few of those huge packs that they sold at Costco years ago. I used the papers for goody bags when I held crops, sold them open stock, etc. There’s no way I’m EVAH going to use all that MME paper. But I have no plausible excuse for the rest of it.

In the past, I’d bought these cubes, assembled them, and put them in a good configuration for the room. I didn’t want to stack them too high because I need to be able to get to the jars spread across the top. {Otherwise – I love these stinkin’ cubes so much, I totally would stack them to the ceiling, lol}. In the past, I had also started using the CROPPER HOPPER VERTICAL FILES to store my paper and embellies by brand name.

I used a label maker to label each file with the brand name, then put in 12×12 papers along with embellishments. I like to store a lot of my things by manufacturer because when I go to scrap, I pull out that whole file and pretty much everything matches. I don’t have to rack my brain going, “Now, did I buy the matching letter stickers to go with this?” or “What paper would look great with this one?” Everything I need is right there.

So that organizing scheme worked out well but, as you can see, as I bought more items, instead of taking the time to pull the vertical file out and put the new things in their proper place, I just kinda’ shoved them on top. Hey, at least I got them in the right cube! But yeah, not the most effective way to find things later on and it sure started to look messy.

As you may know, my original plan to reorganize my scrap room/home office was to take 3 days really focusing on it, emptying everything out of the room, then put things back in an organized way, purging unwanted things as I went. {Details are HERE}. Needless to say, it didn’t much go to plan after Day 3 :)

But this photo is from Day 1 when I cleared most of the cubes out and moved all the paper files and other things to the dining room and living room.

I decided to keep some things where they were because their organization wasn’t going to change. The drawer jam-packed with adhesives and SNAPLOAD packs was left alone, as was my filer cube which has generic patterned papers filed by color.

Then it was time to install the doors on cubes that were still open.

I’d bought the doors months {gulp – or maybe even a year} ago but they’d just been sitting in boxes in my scrap room since then. I ain’t gonna’ lie … I absolutely HATE putting stuff like this together, even when it’s something this easy. I’d rather, like, go to the dentist or watch paint dry than assemble something. But I finally did it.

And leave it to a scrapbooker – when I couldn’t find any Elmer’s or white glue to install the magnets, I just used my trusty GLOSSY ACCENTS. Hey, same diff. It’s all sticky, right? And just think how glossy and shiny it is inside those tiny holes in the cubes. I bet they feel really special.

Okay, here’s some more things that didn’t get removed from the room because they were going to stay essentially the same.

These 4 gingerbread jars were chock full and had been organized already (journaling spots, flowers, and chipboard letters sorted into baggies). They didn’t need anything but a quick wipedown with Windex to get rid of some dust.

Speaking of cleaning …

Here are all the lids of the gingerbread jars laid out on the homework table drying. Yep, I washed everything with soap and water because I wanted to start over sparkly clean.

In the background of the photo, you can also see where I started to fill in the cubes. I decided to move the Vertical Paper Holders to another part of the room. Part of the reason was to prevent fading of my papers. Can you see the lightswitch to the top right of the photo? To the right of that is a sliding glass door that gets full sun for half of the day. I noticed that the edges of some of my Beloved BAZZILL was fading :( I know, right? We CANNOT have THAT. So even though doors were going on those cubes, I thought it would be a good idea to move all my papers away from the sliding glass door.

Here’s what the cubes looked like once I got all 7 doors installed.

It looks so much neater, doesn’t it? The Store in Style DOORS only cost $13 each which I think was a good investment for my space. Other than the fading issue, another important advantage is that now I can use the cubes to hide things I don’t feel are very attractive to look at: empty albums, pages/page protectors, projects, etc. Most of these items used to be kept on an open bookshelf and I just hated looking at them. They looked so sloppy not to mention uninspiring. Now they’re hidden {wink}.

Here’s a closer photo of some of the things that are now kept on top of the white cubes.

Jar, jars, and more jars! There are also a few decorative things that I’m starting to collect that are in my favorite colors ~ turquoise, ocean green, robin’s egg blue, and white. These are colors that remind me of my favorite place in the world: the ocean. The Ball canning jar on the left I got from an antique store in Seattle last year. The pretty vase on the right is from a nursery near the beach house we stay at each summer. {I know I should put something cute inside it but I like that grassy straw stuff it came with for some reason, lol}. The dish is from my mom who is an expert at collectable china and often gives me pretty things. I’m thinking I can use it as a holding area for pretty embellies or flowers until I put them away in the proper jars.

Speaking of all those jars … I don’t have a good picture of them all put together, do I? But I’ll go across from left to right and tell you what I have stored in them:

- Sport embellishments
- Making Memories embellishments
- K & Company embellishments
- Ink pens
- Bling
- MAMBI/KI Memories embellishments
- Mists
- Flowers
- Chipboard
- Ribbon
- Twine and jute
- Photo corners
- Chipboard letters
- Journaling spots
- My Minds Eye embellishments
- Misc. embellishments (2)
- Decorative river rocks
- Decorative glass shells
- Empty (1)

Yes, I actually have a small ginger jar that is empty. It’s one of the jars without a lid so it’s harder to think of things to put in those. Maybe that will be an “embellies to file” jar or something :)

So back to the final product.

AFTER

You can also see my travel art hanging on the wall above the cubes. As I mentioned before, I wanted to add some personal touches that WEREN’T about scrapbooking this time around. I love to travel although I don’t get to do it much, so I dream through pictures of other countries and reading books about them. My first love is Italy but I dream of traveling all throughout Western Europe someday. For now, I can look up from my desk, see images of Paris, Provence, and Tuscany, sigh, and be content with dreaming.

With each of these entries, I’m going to put a list at the end of products I’ve used and where I got them, so here goes…

STORE IN STYLE CUBES: I collected these over time by using 40% or 50% off coupons at MICHAELS. You can also get them from Oriental Trading (the link is above).

GINGER JARS: I got these ones AND MORE for $40 from a local candy store via CRAIGSLIST. I’ve seen these at BED BATH & BEYOND which seem to be the same thing. THESE are sure cute from Pier One; you can label them with chalk.

MASON JARS: I’ve had these for ages but I got them at Pier One. I can’t find them on their website but THESE ONES from Amazon.com are sure cute.

Thank you for checking out my “cubes and jars” wall in my scrapbook space and please let me know if you have any questions!

So here is the view of my scrapbook room/home office from the doorway (it’s right off the dining room):

When I see this photo, I’m wondering if – to you – it still seems very cluttered in here :) But believe me, for all the junk you see now, it was WAY worse! This is a huge improvement, fer shizzle.

I’ll be doing a series of blog posts with before and after pics of different sections of the room and what I did to organize things. But I wanted to start by showing the entire room that I’m very blessed to have, clutter and all…