Organize Your Beautiful Blanks

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Are you like me and see all the shiny beautiful blanks and need to have them all? I can spend hours window shopping for them and buying them too, of course! Craft Chameleon is one of my favorites. I am releasing designs through their designer marketplace and I cannot wait! I find the only problem with wanting (and getting) them all is keeping track of them. So many of them are small or oddly shaped that I find it more and more difficult to organize them.

When you have oddly shaped blanks, like the custom cut acrylics from Craft Chameleon; it can be hard, to not only nicely store them, but to keep track of what you have. Being able to see and find what you have is key! I am going to show you 3 different ways you can corral those beautiful blanks.

Blanks in Drawers (or on Shelves)

Storing your blanks in drawers is definitely an easy and convenient way to contain them. You want to be careful here to not just toss them all in. This will not only cause chaos when trying to find the exact one you want, it will inevitably lead to losing what you know you had, only to find it the next time you are looking for something else. So I suggest small containers or bins. I use THESE bins I found in the kitchen organizing section of Ikea. And I also like to utilize cutlery trays like THESE.

By using small bins within the drawer you can sort “like with like”. Thus allowing you to know when to put in your order with Craft Chameleon for your new acrylics or blanks! I always recommend putting the same sizes and shapes together. However, color is more of a group together within the bin. Some items you can simply place the in the drawers. These are larger items that simply won’t get lost if they aren’t corralled.

You can use this same concept on shelves, like I did here for my paper books. For that I do prefer the Like-It Brick system like THIS. At the Container Store you can get dividers for them and they come in other colors too. These nicely stack on shelving but can easily fit in my drawers too! I like versatility in my organizers.

Tips for Buying Organizers for Drawers

A few tips when searching for an organizer, first measure your drawer (or shelf), including the actual usable height! Don’t count on the store measurements to be right. Then you want to see how far your drawer pulls out. My drawers do not pull out all the way. Therefore the back is where I do longer term storage or larger items that are easily reached. Last measure or know the size of the acrylics you want to store. This will help you know what size bins to get.

If you don’t want to spend a fortune on organizers, this a great time to utilize small boxes that get tossed aside. For instance the one your cell phone came in. You don’t always have to purchase something to make your organization work!

Books for Blanks

I am a huge fan of using books for storing my vinyl. And it seems to be a really good solution for Blanks! When your blank is maybe 1-2″ its very hard to keep track of them. So after a bit of trial and error, I came up with a pretty good system. I use a regular 3 ring binder like THESE. And then I add divided page protectors like THESE. The key is that they are top loading, so everything doesn’t fall out. They also make the divided pages in various sizes like THESE that divide the page by 4. Getting a mix of sizes can be really helpful in expanding what you are storing.

Load Up & Label

Once I load up the pages I make sure to add a label telling me what it is and where it came from. I personally use THESE labels, but anyyou have will work. This allows me to easily locate the template, which would be stored via my digital filing method. I use the same name for both.

Once my sheets are loaded up and labeled I put them in the binder. I find using one sheet per type of blank ideal. So if you want to expand your inventory you can easily do so. For instance, dog tags would all go in the same sheet, but when I moved on to jewelry components I would start a new page. When you only have a few sheets in your books, I wouldn’t take the time to label and divide them. However, if your binders are more than about 10 sheets it can get to be a hassle to flip through all the pages. Use either a page divider like THIS or tabs like THESE. You can also just have a post-it on the end. Simple and easy, with broad categories is your best bet.

The only catch to this system is you DO NOT want to turn this book upside down. And avoid putting heavier items in the pages. You may want to cut yourself a decal telling you to keep this side up at all times. I haven’t found any good pages with resealable pockets instead of just dividers, so for now we make do.

Envelop Your Blanks

Envelop your blanks with envelopes. Okay, I couldn’t resist using those words in a sentence together… I found THESE awesome envelopes by Sizzix the other day. And they would work amazingly well for smaller items. They are transparent but have the ability to close with the envelope design. You can line them up in a small box or tray. You could decide to forgo the labels and write directly on the envelope. Although if you decide you don’t love that blank you’d be tossing the envelope out too.

Now you could also, just use envelopes. BUT you can’t see in to them, you don’t want to seal them and they tend to take up a lot of space. However they are cheap and who doesn’t have a bunch stashed in their house already. You could load up a shoe box and be set for basically no cost!

Hopefully one of these three systems can help you get a handle on your blanks so you not only know what you have but also what you need! And let’s be honest, we need all the shiny, pretty, fun acrylics and blanks! What is your favorite blank or acrylic to use?