Kroppin Karen's Korner

I've had my ScrapRack by Totally Tiffany for probably 15 years or so.  When I first set it up, I only could afford the rack itself and the spinders (the name for the 3 ring binder with velcro) and a few pages.  I had tons of Creative Memories sticker holders that fit in their binders.  They are very thick and sturdy and double-sided.  I sold stickers at that time and these worked out well for years.  The 4 Section System never failed me, I could always find what I needed. 

Over the years, though, I have expanded my ScrapRack to hold more than just Mrs. Grossman and Creative Memories stickers and have purchased the ScrapRack pages.  I am doing the Get Organized Challenge again https://www.totally-tiffany.com/classes/get-organized-challenge/ and I really didn't need to set up my system again, but I did need to clear it out.  I have purged tons of duplicate supplies, especially stickers that I had 10 of the same one from when I used to sell them.  I am going to a crop this weekend and will hopefully pass many of these on.  One added benefit I discovered, is that the Totally Tiffany ScrapRack pages are much thinner than the Creative Memories ones so I have been able to save a ton of space, at least 1/2 inch per spinder which will really add up in the end. 

I didn't take a photo of my ScrapRack until I had already started this process but there are the photos with about 6 spinders taken off the rack from the center:



 This section had a ton of the thicker organizing pages:

I know someone asked for advice on how to store extra ScrapRack pages and supplies, so I took some photos of my system. I use a Spinder Binder and section dividers for each type of page. One big benefit is that I know immediately if I'm running out of a certain type of page or if there are some that I really never use. Hope this will help someone here, let me know if you have any questions.

https://www.totally-tiffany.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Product-Catalog-2017.pdf

MAGAZINE PURGING!

I am been systematically going through supplies and am determined to set up the studio of my dreams (within my budget anyway).   This weekend I went through the collections to magazines.  I had these organized in magazine holders which I moved around my scrapbooking space several times.  I have not looked at these since I got them and realized how dumb it was to keep moving and storing them.  I thought I would share my results with you.  I have a really fun time doing this and going down "memory lane".  Wow have our methods, supplies and techniques changed over the years.  I have been scrapbooking since 1995 and never realized how much things have changed.  I had Memory Makers and Creating Keepsakes magazines saved since 1999.  I do remember I stopped getting the CK mags, since I almost exclusively used Creative Memories back then and CK was not my style.  Their pages tended to be very busy with lots of patterned paper and they really specialized in fancy lettering:



Making Memories had cleaner pages and were more my style:

All of the early magazine had many article about the safety of the supplies used:
ACID FREE being a big buzz word at the time.

After going through stacks and stacks of magazines, I have managed to save almost 10 feet of space.  Look at the stack of magazines in the photo and then compare how much I thought I would actually refer to.  Multiply that by years of magazines and imagine the space they were wasting.  I tore out pages that I thought I might copy the idea, use the title or layouts or just like the general look of the page and would use as inspiration.

I ran across this article in one of the old magazines.  The Zyron was my first big ticket purchase and I still have my original machine.  I can not believe the cost of this, almost as much as a Cricut machine!!!  WOW!!!

I really recommend doing this organization project yourself.  It was fun to look at old ideas and see how much we have changed and also get some fresh ideas that we will still use today.  The space I saved was huge and well worth the time I took to do this.  I plan to file the articles and pages I saved so I can find them again, and maybe hang a few for inspiration every month in my studio.  My plan going forward is to do this once a year or so from now on.  I don't buy as many magazines as I used to now, so I think that will work out well for me.