Saturday, May 10, 2014

How to Organize a Project Life Station

Here is my newly organized Project Life Station in my craft room, but I have some organizational tips that would work for any area. I will highlight each section and give tips below the photos. While each person uses a different set of supplies to make their Project Life albums, there are still many common items we need to complete the task. You really can complete your pages with nothing more than a journaling pen, Project Life Core Kit, Album, and pocket pages, and those are totally beautiful!!! For my personal style, I like a few embellishments,  seven or more 4x6 photos, and lots of journaling.  After all I do have a big craft room AND 15 YEARS of collected scrapbook supplies to use up:)




Tip #1)  Before I assembled my PL station, I wrote down all the supplies I had to collect from around my room to complete a Project Life spread. I realize almost every Professional Organizer has given this tip and I ignored it! It really does help though, ha!
Tip #2) Add vertical storage whenever possible. This distressed wood/metal organizer from Target really helped to get a more functional area. I had a few mini-albums displayed here before and moved them to display elsewhere. Now I have nine cubbies of storage where there was none!!
Tip #3) Use labels that have removable adhesive or that you can erase and relabel easily. These erasable chalkboard labels from Staples (MArtha Stewart Line) work well since I change favorites often:)





Here is a little sample of the die cut pail, that holds Cropper Hopper Embellishment boxes with my most used die cuts by shape.
Tip #4) Group like items. Simple, I used what I had on hand.





My most used die cuts are: circle, flower, numbers, butterflies, days of the week, Week No., stars, and hearts. Punched in white since I have lots of ink pads to recolor if need be.
Tip #5) Smaller scale die cuts, and punches work well on the smaller canvas of a 4x6, or 3x4 Project Life card.





I had these organizers already, but moved them to this station and reorganized the contents to suit my needs right now. Added PL Inserts( smaller than 12x12)  for when I need more photo or journaling room in a week. Added all the free printable Core Kit indexes from BeckyHiggins.com for all my current kits. Labeled in the aqua folder above" PL Core Card Index" so that I don't have to search through the boxes for a specific card. This is much quicker for me.




Here is a close up of how I labeled the inserts so I could find them easier; again old Cropper Hopper Paper File Dividers.
Tip#6) Label how you search. Easy enough.  Instead of going around the room to find page protectors, now I just have this central location for my most used inserts.





I found these aqua- lidded shoeboxes at Target $4.99/ five. Now my Studio Calico PRoject Life and Card Kit papers are organized by color, since thats how I search for them!




 More of my most used supplies:(from bottom Left) Green Bucket: Embossing Stylus ( for scoring fold-overs for extra pics) craft knife, tweezers, heart punch, star punches.
Aqua Buckets: circle punches (1.75", and 1.25") and self inking circular journaling stamp
Pink Bucket: circle punch(1.5")
Sharp, Detail, and sewing scissors, another circle punch, and the Pebbles Inc / Studio Calico Large roller stamp, a Tonic arrow punch, and my Tim Holtz stapler!
Top Row: PRoject Life Mini Kits, My pink ATG, Craft-Mate cases that lock for all the Studio Calico Kit Embellishments organized by color( this is a years' worth).

Thank you for visiting and I will be posting more Project Life organization soon!!







2 comments: