Monday, April 19, 2010

Organizational Blog Hop!! TODAY!






Hi and welcome to the organizational blog hop! I am so excited that you took the time to stop by and see how I have organized my ribbons and fibers. Please take a minute and leave me a comment so that I know you stopped by. I am going to send some new ribbon to one of the reader's drawn at random, on April 30, 2010 from one of the comments left between now and then on my section of the blog hop. If you would like to check out some other SCRAPTASTIC ideas for organizing your scrapbooking supplies, please hop to the all of the other blogs and be sure to leave a comment for them too!

Organizational Blog Hop April 19, 2010

Photograph Storage by Leanne - http://scrappingamma.blogspot.com/

Embellishment Storage by Jo - http://buckeyejo.blogspot.com/

YOU ARE HERE!! Ribbon & Fiber Storage by Shellie: http://clearlythemostcreativescrapbookers.blogspot.com/

Stamp Storage by Wendy - http://www.myscrapbookingblog.com/

Ink Pad Storage by Ramona - http://create-with-joy.blogspot.com

Pen & Pencil Storage by Jeanne Marie - http://missjeannemania.blogspot.com/

Sticker, Die Cuts and Rub-On Storage by Amanda - http://notimecrafting.wordpress.com/

Tools Storage and Paper Storage by Mary - http://mbryt1.blogspot.com/

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Ribbon and Fiber Storage


When I began scapbooking I was very limited on money and supplies (hey, I'm still limited on money and supplies) and stickers were my main embellishments. Slowly my embellishments grew the more I scrapped and the more I became involved in Close To My Heart, card making, and scrapbooking. I bought those tiny ribbon rolls first and then moved on to the bigger rolls as my skills grew. I joined the Personal Scrapper and went to some card workshops and slowly I started accumulating several different random varying lenghts of ribbon. I just stuck them into a ziploc bag. Soon my ribbon scraps outgrew the bag and I started to put them in a huge glass jar. It looks pretty, with all the ribbon swirling around the glass like a delicious lollipop! The ribbons and fibers mingled and soon tangled and it was very frustrating to find that Just Right piece of ribbon. My arm was swallowed up by the rainbow of ribbon when I began a new project. I had to do something, so I took one of the free priority mail boxes from the post office and I started to cut. I cut dozens and dozen of little cardboard strips about 2" x 3". Before long I was surrounded by a thin brown sea of cardboard. I called my girls up to help me start the daunting task of organizing that rainbow! We sat for a few hours, pulling one ribbon from the jar at a time and winding it around it's placard. Finally I took each ribbon, sorted them according to their color and placed them into clear shoe boxes from the Dollar Tree. Now I could clearly see each color and easily match it to the project I was working on. I grew frustrated with this whenever I would reach for the ribbon box and go to pull out a ribbon, several others would tag along and I was constantly straightening up my boxes.

Take Two on Ribbon and Fiber Organization....
One day I was at Craft Warehouse and I found some 3x3 plastic ribbon organizers. These were 3x3 pieces of plastic that you could wind your ribbon around on them. Ok, but that is what I was already doing with cardboard, so that wasn't much progress. Then, my sister, who has tons and tons and oodles upon oodles of scrapping embellishments, told be about her idea to use the 3x3 cards, cut them in half and then cut slits in each side to hold several ribbons at once. Sounds great! Unfortunately I am a very visual learner and I could not for the life of me, figure7e out what she was talking about. Then I went over to her house and saw what she meant. That helped a lot! She has an entire wall of ribbon and has each roll carefully placed on rows upon rows of dowels. She then showed me her ribbon scraps, beautifully organized onto the plastic, now 1 1/2" x 3" piece of ribbon card. She cut the ribbon csrd in half along the zig zagged line that runs up the middle of the card. Next she cut lines on each side of the card diagonally opposite each other, to hold each individual piece of ribbon. Finally she punched a hole into the top of each card so that she could put them together on a hinged ring! Genius! So I went to work making my own ribbon cards. I cut 4 slits in my cards whereas my sister only cut 3. Personal preference. Once my ribbons were put onto the cards, I slid each card onto a hinged ring, according to colors. I have 3 rings right now, full of varying lengths of ribbon. Recently I went to a crop and I took a paper towel tube and punched out six holes (3 on each side of the tube). I took my rings off of my storage unit and slid them onto the paper towel tube and took them to the crop! At the crop I noticed other people had taken those pants hangars and slid their ribbons onto the hangars and then hung them up on the wall. Super Cool!!!

I still use my other methods too...as much as I love the card method, it does not work well with fibers,they snag too much. I still organize my fibers on the cardboard according to color.

I keep a much smaller ribbon jar on top of my desk and when I finish with my ribbon, if I have some leftover, I put it in the jar and then once a week I hang the loose ribbons onto my hanging ribbon cards.

I store my little ribbon spools in a Close To My Heart Ribbon Organizer. My medium ribbon spools are kept on a spice rack that I found at the Goodwill and painted to match my scraproom. I store my larger ribbon spools on a rain gutter! It is awesome! We bought a small section of a plastic rain gutter and I put it on my shelf. It holds the spools and you can easily pull the ribbon off of the spool because the gutter is wide enough to let the spool turn around so you can pull off as much as you need.

Well, that's how I store my ribbons and fibers (sorry there is not too much on fibers, I don't use them very much). Thanks for taking the time to stop by my blog! Be sure to leave a comment so that you can have a chance to win some new ribbons from me! Please leave your contact information so that I can contact you if you win! Have a scrappy day and come back soon!

27 comments:

  1. I too use the "gutter" method of storing my spools of ribbon. My DH thought I was crazy hanging gutters on the wall. LOL Great post! Love your ideas

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  2. I wondered how to store them and you gave me some great ideas. Now to go and use them.

    Thanks
    Cindy

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  3. I love the gutter technique! Fabulous, I shall have to find myself one, as ribbons are my least organized area, lol

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  4. I love the ideas you have presented here! I will have to look into the gutters! Thank you so much ladies for this blog hop!

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  5. whoops, I should have left my email c.w at amtelecom dot net, sorry :-P

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  6. Some inspirational ideas! This "Organizational Blog Hop" is a great idea!

    Bjohn3237@aol.com

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  7. Hi Shellie,

    Very cool storage ideas - I'm not sure if I have seen this before!

    My link is missing from your blog post for the Ink Pad Storage - it is below.

    Thanks!
    Ramona
    http://create-with-joy.blogspot.com

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  8. Thank you for sharing your wonderful ideas.

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  9. I use the cards & love the idea of the gutterss which I have heard of before but have not got around to getting one yet. thanks for sharing

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  10. Your ribbon collection is fabulous! Very good ideas. Ribbon is so pretty that it should be seen!

    kltroyer@yahoo dotcom

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  11. I've never seen the gutter before so will have to check it out. Thank you for the great information.

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  12. the methods here are wonderful, always looking for new idea's. I also have some of my round ones in a 2qt. picture i cut holes thru and stuck the ribbon inside and poked the ribbon thru the holes. works well. Love your blog!!

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  13. oops sorry forgot my email..

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  14. Is each ribbon just tucked in one slit?
    Do you have to do anything to keep the ribbon from sliding out of the slits that slant downward?

    I use the floss sorting bags that go on the rings for DMC floss from Walmart. Rolling up the ribbon around 2 fingers, I stuff as many of one color/style into one bag as I can, and add a second bag as neccesary. Grouped by color on the ring. A little time involved, but always visible, accessible, clean, untangled, and very portable. Have to confess, I have to use 2 riings now, but leave 1 at home usually.

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  15. I love the rain gutter idea. I never would have thought of that! TFS! and happy scrappin!

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  16. the ribbon doesnt slide out. i just put the ones on spools in there. i just get out my handy dandy drill and make holes down one side that would be spaced apart for each ribbon. the like the idea of the bags that neet too. i have alot of loose ribbon also.

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  17. I'm just in the process of moving my stamp room! UGH! I might have to try the gutters. Thanks so much.

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  18. I thought that I had seen every idea out there! But no! I love, love the gutter idea! I hate when you have spools on a dowel and have to take everything off to get the empty spool off or to put something new in the right spot! This is great!

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  19. I know the blog hop is over but I'm just now getting to read each entry. Thanks for great suggestions for ribbons and fibers. I like your suggestions and the photos to go with them. Thanks for your part in making this a great blog hop.

    Gayle Taylor
    gaylememories@sbcglobal.net

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  20. Shellie,
    I absolutely love the gutter idea!! I love ideas that I can utilize things I already have laying around!! I also love the idea your sister gave you by hanging the ribbons on the cut cards. I am definitely going to implement that idea!!
    Thanks so much for the creative ideas!!
    Cheri

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  21. I really liked the idea of the plastic strips on a ring. Will have to try it. Thanks so much for all the great info.
    Bobbi
    nessy@televar.com

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  22. Thanks so much for sharing, now I am off to organize my ribbons!

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  23. I love how you created those little cards for ribbons. How clever of you and your sister. Thanks so much for sharing your ideas, I just might try that one.

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  24. Shellie,you have some great ideas. So glad you shared them. I have some ribbons on a spring tension rod "hung" between 2 cabinets, but it is sometimes a pain to take one off. I do like that it's easy to pull from the spools, tho.

    Pam
    plhissong@one-eleven.net

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  25. cool. i keep my ribbons in empty stampin' up boxes, label and filed by color. fits perfectly in the draw of an old dresser i have in my craft room.

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  26. Fab tips!!!! Now I have lots of ideas to corral my ribbon.

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  27. Hey Shellie how cool are you?
    Excuse me I have to go organize my ribbon. Great ideas thank you.

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