Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Project Life 3x4 Organization Using CTMH Organizer









I know- you didn't even know this blog still existed. I almost forgot, too-lol!

I had a request to post this so it could be pinned. So, here's my very first Project Life (PL) post! I won't even promise that there will be more, but this one is about my 3x4 Close To My Heart (CTMH) medium organizer full of 3x4 Project Life cards and how I organized them.

A fellow Project Lifer posted her fully organized CTMH organizer a couple of weeks back on Facebook, which immediately prompted me to order an organizer of my own! She had hers organized by color, and had colored file folder tabs on spare PL cards as dividers. I loved that so much that I went out and bought tabs, too, but . . . 

Then I saw a video by Taniesa Vlasak of The Crafty Pickle (http://thecraftypickle.com/2013/09/25/project-life-re-organization/) and she said she used her Silhouette to make dividers. I almost guilted myself into designing print-and-cut dividers in the Silhouette software - justifies having the machine, right? :)

Now I knew I wanted to organize by color, but I also wanted to keep the PL kits together somehow. This is what I thought would work for me: taller main dividers for the colors/seasons/holidays, and then shorter sub dividers with the kits' names. This resulted in me needing to make a LOT of dividers on my Cameo. This was labor intensive, but I feel is going to be worth it in the long run for me.

The Main divider categories:

Yellow
Orange
Pink
Red
Purple
Blue
Green
Neutrals
Fall
Halloween
Winter
Christmas
Love
Spring
Multi (as in multi-colored - no particular color stands out)

All of the sub dividers are names of my core kits (all partials), mini kits and even theme packs. I have a divider for them all. So if I'm doing a girly page where red works, I can go to the red main divider and then look for the 'Girl' theme pack sub divider. Colors of my photos usually dictate my color choice, so color being assessed first works best for me. The only time that may be an exception is for a season or a holiday.

I used Boulder font for the main dividers, and then Ali Edwards' free font for the sub dividers and the Journal  & Filler cards (http://aliedwards.com/about-ali/faq) stuck in the front of each section. I've also seen a "Words" section in addition to Journal and Filler, but I chose to put words cards in as fillers.

All of my 4x6 title and bifold cards are in Dollar Tree plastic little bins on the bottom shelf of my new IKEA Raskog cart.  Those have divider tabs with just the kit names. I don’t use 4x6s as much, and figure that my 3x4s will dictate what 4x6 I will need, if any. Some day down the road I may be justified in getting a 2nd medium organizer for 4x6s. One never knows! I also have one of those same Dollar Tree bins filled with the 3x4 packs of PL cardstock.


I think that’s about it. Let me know if you have questions. Happy PLing, all!!