I really need to lay off such dramatic statements…
But what I meant to say by There's no turning back now, is that I recently reorganized my patterned paper collection. (Does that sound on the same par as saying, "Oh, I can't go out tonight. I'm going to stay in and wash my hair?") Well be that as it may, THIS is exciting stuff, people. Here's my shelf (also lovingly referred to as my "rack"):
(And yes, feel free to say it. You know you want to... nice rack!)
For a long time now, I've wondered how my productivity, or rather, my inspiration to become productive, would change if I organized my patterned paper by color, rather than how I've always done it, which is by manufacturer.
So a few weeks ago, I pulled everything out and started sorting into piles. I wasn't emotional. I wasn't sentimental. I didn't get hung up on, "But these florals have ALL colors in them!" I just made a gut decision based on each sheet and when things got confusing I asked myself, "What color cardstock would I pair this with?" and that answered my "What color group should this go into?" question.
It took me the whole morning to sort and purge, and when I was done, (which I'm not completely done yet) I had one nice column of paper in a ROYGBIV + brown, grey and black order.
The color group that turned out to be the largest? Pink. I think that's a given considering how girly I am. Or that's the story I'm going with.
My main motivation for doing this was because I'm working on a new class for Big Picture Scrapbooking, and it's called "Me: The Abridged Version," (more info coming soon) and it asks you to pull paper from your stash, based on coordinated colors, not necessarily from a single manufacturer. I wanted all my colors grouped together to ease my paper selection process and I'll be damned if the inspiration for my album project's color scheme didn't hit me right square in between the eyes!
(And then it changed five minutes later to a completely different color scheme, but still…)
Nothing like seeing your stuff in a whole new light.
[edited to add]
There was a dude who made the rack, and now he doesn't make the racks anymore. I'm sorry to say that! Although there was one blog reader who I hooked him up with at least a few years back and he made her a rack. But sadly, no more racks from the man who gave me such a nice rack. And by "gave" i mean, did it for $650 bucks.
