I have updated the way I store my images that are already fussy cut as well as I how store the images that aren’t cut out yet. Because of the way my brain works, fussy cutting images as I need them doesn’t work for me. But I came up with a solution that does work for me and keeps everything easily accessible.
This will seem like a lot of work to some, but if you are a person that needs to see what you have easily, this might work for you too. Because I started doing this after I got a couple of books, it is not a big deal for me.
For me, after the first couple of books, flipping through all the books to find an image was frustrating because I couldn’t remember what book I seen an image in. I can’t even imagine what it would be like now by having all but 3 of her books!
When a new book arrives, I remove all the pages from the books and scan the book from cover to cover (more on that later). Then I sort the pages into categories – backgrounds, main images, bits & bobs, words, etc. On pages that have multiple categories, I cut the pages apart. I grab some hanging file folders, label the folders by book name and put the files in a rolling file cart.
I have two drawers that store the pages from the books. One drawer holds folders of just images and the other drawer of just the backgrounds. The backgrounds are sorted by book, then by size and put into ziplock bags within the main background folder for that book. In front of the "Backgrounds" drawer are folders of images that won’t fit the 8.75 x 6.25-inch bins. Behind those are folders sorted by book then by category. For instance, Autumn Stories – Fairies/Kids, Autumn Stories – Bits & Bobs, Autumn Stories – Animals, etc.
When I am ready to fussy cut, I take a folder of the images I want to cut to to my chair in the front room. Then as I am watching/listening to my TV shows, I fussy cut, and toss the cut images into an empty bin. The next day, I sort the images in that bin into categories and put them into the correct bin. Each book has at least one bin.
The bins I use are ones I buy at Dollar Tree - Bins - I generally order 12 of them at a time and have them delivered.
I have the bins sorted by category/book for the most part. Things like rocks, planets, etc that aren’t specific to book, are put in one bin labeled "Misc". Animals are sorted into animals that are pets and "wild" animals and within the "Animals - Other" they are sorted by type.
For instance all forest animals, all fish, all farm animals, etc. For Bits & Bobs images that are specific for a season or theme like Autumn, or Halloween, etc I sort all of those into one bin. I feel that I can use any I use and for instance, Autumn Bits & Bobs image on any Autumn page/project.
I use small snack sized ziplock bags and small 3x5 inch ziplock bags I buy on Amazon to sort the smaller images. In the bins with people images, I sort the images by size and put them in ziplocks so I can find the size if images I want quickly.
The little drawers on the left side are also from Dollar Tree - Small Drawers. Those hold most of the smaller tickets that primarily came out of the Junk Journaling Tickets book. Using the small drawers made it easier for me to get the color I wanted quickily & easily.
I think the pictures will help explain what I am talking about, but I am more than happy to explain it more if you need additional info.
More info on the scanning I do. One of the reasons I scan the books is so I can print out extra backgrounds or images if I am making greeting cards (to give to family/friends). The other is that I can’t do the fine hand movements to draw lines around the smallest images for my ScanNCut to easily see. So, I use a graphic program to put an outline around each image, then print it out and have my ScanNCut cut it out.
Judy