Just Call Me A Scrap Wrangler

Last night my VSN high kept me up waaaay past my bed time, and while chatting with a few tweeps, I ended up watching the OWH Scrap Wrangler video. The admittedly fake Western accent bothers some people, but if you get past it (it's kinda cute, I think), she has some great ideas for managing our s-crap.

She goes way beyond what I'm willing to do, since I make cards for more than OWH, so a lot of her pre-cut ideas won't work for me 100%. However, she's right in that you don't need anything bigger than a 1/4 size of background papers. And you don't need to keep anything that's not a rectangle.

Note: She has a Donate Pile and a Recycle Pile. I only had the Recycle Pile, but that's me. 

Since I was totally stamped out from yesterday, I devoted today to wrangling my scraps. I took some really bad Before and After pictures, but I think you'll get the idea.

Here is my Before box of solid scraps:

That's a large box from The Container Store. It has paper in there from the beginning of time, I think. I know I discovered colors SU hasn't carried in 5+ years or more.

Here's the top view, so you can see what I deal with when I say, "Hmm, I wonder if I have a scrap this color ..." :

Mmmm-hmmm. You can see why I usually give up and cut into another piece of card stock.

Just because I can, here's the back of the box:

It wasn't until I started to unload it that I found what I was looking for last week, and the week before ...

I took out my paper trimmer, set up a huge recycle bag, and got to work. I started at the back of the big scrap box, pulling out green card stock. I cut it into 1/4 sheets and piled them up by color. Anything smaller got recycled. I have so much of the stuff, that if I need a piece for layering, I'll cut into another 1/4 sheet - I'm okay with that.

Then I moved on to the next color, until I was done. I'm telling you, I found colors I can no longer identify.

Sandy (from OWH) said we should toss anything that's a color we're pretty sure we'll never use.Well, since I have so much Basic Grey paper, I thought I'd keep the older colors (and the pinks and the purples), just in case I need a layer. Hey, it's already paid for, right?

I actually tackled the colors separately from the neutrals, including whites and creams, and I stored them separately. I know how I operate, and white is the first thing I look for, and then it's black or brown to layer it.

Here is the After of the scraps. First, the empty box:

It's now a table to hold the other stuff. :D Yes, I am very proud.

Here's the Whites and Neutrals:

Those are cardboard storage boxes from IKEA that proved too flimsy to hold my dies. And maybe too small, too. ;/ They are perfect for these scraps, though.

Since I like to use the same white for the sentiment that I use for the base, it's important to me to keep them sorted. I have SU Whisper White and Very Vanilla up front, followed by Naturals White, a huge pile of Naturals Cream I forgot I had, a pile of PTI white (that I'm using now for bases, so I need the scraps for sentiments), and in the back I have "specialty" papers, which right now are pieces of Bazzill and the textured linen card bases from clearbags.com that I 'm using.

And here's what's left of the colored card stock:

That box is half as tall as the original. Yes, I'm very proud of this, too. I may stack up a few more storage boxes to raise that up to the same height as the other ones so I don't hurt myself looking for a card stock layer.

Next, I tackled The Heaplet. Here's The Heaplet Before:

 

I cut everything into 4.25x5.5 pieces, but I did save a few smaller pieces, especially with the double-sided papers. I ended up with 4 tidy piles:

Back right are the 4.25x5.5 pieces. Back left we have 6x6. Front right are smaller pieces I NEEDED to keep, and front left are what I call "specialty" papers like wood, wood grain, star sheets, and one or two pre-printed digital images.

So, will it stay like this? I hope so! My new MO going back into stamping mode will be (1) trim it and put it away, or  (2) recycle it. That's my plan, anyway. Wish me luck!

Okay, I think I need some food, then I may do the last two VSN challenges I didn't get to yesterday. I'll be sure to share my creations with you as the week goes on. One or two of them have potential for OWH cards, even. :)

Thanks for stopping by!