by Sunday Lamdin

I am often asked about how I store all my packets of stash such as stickers and diecuts and rub-ons, etc.

Many scrapbookers have all sorts of packets in all sorts of places and find it difficult to keep them all organised.

Well I keep all mine in Lever Arch folders!

These folders are for keeping all my sheets of stickers, etc, the more bulky items such as very thick chipboard still remain in their packaging boxes, but this system is ideal for all those flat, but differently shaped and sized sheets.

The items are filed in different sections within each folder, ie, (1) Alphas and (2) Words and Phrases are in the Pink folder shown above and (3) Graphics are in the multi-coloured folder.

Within each folder I have placed ordinary clear sleeves with standard punched hole margins, and within each of the sleeves I have placed a white piece of paper.

The reason for adding the paper is two-fold, firstly it makes the sleeves a little more rigid and secondly, I can put twice as much in my folder because I can place separate items either side of the paper within the same sleeve because it is no longer completely transparent.

Another advantage is that often your stickers or rub-ons are attached to a transparent sheet and with the paper already in the sleeve you can 'ditch' the piece of card and cellophane wrapper to save on weight, as the white paper does the same job or showing up the contents.

It is very easy to flip through the pages looking for what you need for your scrapbooking project.

The folders are highly portable, unlike the hanging trees and poles for your craft room, so you can take your sheets of stickers, etc to crops with you, kept all in one album/folder.

The reason I use Lever Arch files as opposed to ordinary ring binders is because they are nice and wide and therefore take a lot more, they stand up easily by themselves on my crafting shelves, but the best part is that with the clip retainer on lever arch folders you can clip down the sleeves tightly so that they don't fall about all over the place!

So that's how I store my bits and pieces!

I have made a short video about this if you would like to watch it... click here.