Organizational {Friday} Cards for PL, Simple Stories, Etc.

For those of you doing some sort of Project Life or Simple Stories albums, you know finding what you have or want to use can be difficult. I got really frustrated earlier this week when my new Project Life Blush kit arrived. As I went through the kit and the other cards I already have, I knew I would never be able to find the date cards, the phrase cards, etc., easily. What should I do? Should I keep them separated by set, divide them out—I wasn't sure what to do.

So, as I sat in my studio, looked at all of the cards, and thought about it, I came up with a solution I love plus it looks pretty too! So today, that's what I want to share with you!

First, if you have any Project Life trays, don't throw them away. They are GREAT for storing your cards. The tray even fits in the IKEA Raskog cart perfectly! I put the plastic tray from my new PL Blush kit down into the top shelf of my Raskog cart. The tray makes it very easy to stand the cards up and flip through quickly to find what you are looking for. Click here to see my Raskog cart filled with Project Life goodies. :)

To organize them, I first needed to make some divider tabs. Library cards and washi tape are my favorite friends, so I chose to use those. I trimmed the library cards down just a bit as they were a tad tall. Once I trimmed them down, I rounded the corners with my Zutter Round-it-All. The pink Round-it-All makes rounded corners nearly identical to the size of the PL cards. Perfect! Then I decided on washi tape colors to use for each line and manufacturer.

I decided to keep the Project Life cards in their original sets; however, I separated out the cards a bit to find things more easily. For instance:

• Amber Journaling
• Amber Titles
• Bazzill Cardstock
• Blush Daily Cards
• Blush Journaling
• Blush Phrases
• Blush Titles
• Cherry Journaling
• Clementine Journaling
• Cobalt Daily Cards
• Cobalt Journaling
• Cobalt Phrases
• Cobalt Titles
• Free Printables
• Grid Journaling Cards
• Jade Journaling
• Simple Stories
• Webster's Pages

You will also note that I have a few manufacturer tabs too—Simple Stories, Bazzill, Webster's Pages, Free Printables, etc. I will show you what I did with those in a moment.

Now, if you notice from the list above, I only have daily/date cards in the Blush and Cobalt sets. I would never have remembered that. I probably would continue to search through each set wondering if there were date cards for a specific set. Now I know I only have them for those two sets, and I know right where to find them now with my tabs! I love it! The reason I don't have date cards for some sets is because I have been able to swap some sets with people, and I don't have the full sets.

Each Project Life line and each manufacturer were assigned a washi tape color. I tried to keep them in line with the colors of the cards to help me remember but they are labeled too so it is very easy for me to find things. And of course, everything is in alphabetical order too. Here are a few photos of the organized tabs and cards:

Manufacturer Tabs

Now my next dilemma was what should I do with the 3x4 cards from Simple Stories, Webster's Pages, free printables, etc. I wanted them all together in my cart but wasn't sure how to handle them. Again after much contemplation, here is what I decided to do. 

I don't have enough cards to warrant separate tabs for separate lines from these manufacturers. So, I just created one tab for each manufacturer. Then when cutting the cards apart (most of these come on 12x12 sheets), I kept the tab across the bottom of the page that says which line the cards are from. I then trimmed that down and used my removable adhesive to attach it to the first card in that line of cards. Oh gosh, is this making sense? Here is a photo of my Webster's Pages cards:

Now you can see, I don't have very many Webster's Pages cards but I have them separated by line within the divider tab by making these little tabs out of the bottom of the 12x12 paper. In the photo below you can see my Webster's Pages divider tab (light green in front of the library cards). Now, see the little "sub tabs" sticking up? This works really well for me. I have done the same with the Simple Stories lines too.

I did not round the corners of these cards. I will decide if I am going to do that when I use them. It will depend on the page layout. :)

4x6 Cards

The larger cards (4x6) are kept in the larger part of the tray with the same matching tabs as the 3x4 cards in the front. You can see them here:

The Back

And just look at the back of the cards? 

Look at the color just sitting in my room! Color makes me happy, and I love this little cart. I can roll it around anywhere in my room. I will be sharing what I keep on the other shelves in a later post.

And yes, a studio tour is coming soon. It is taking me so much longer than I wanted it to take but I continue to reorganize. It has never really been done yet because I am still not "happy" with it all yet. Plus with my daughter's issues and many doctor visits, things are slowed down a bit. Please be patient, and I hope I can get it up soon!

Update: The Studio Tour is done! :) Click here to see it!

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope this helps you as you organize those cards! Feel free to ask questions in the comment section, and I will respond there. Blessings,