Organizing a Smashbook Box…and More Journaling Pages

I mentioned last year that I was really enjoying the new “smashbook” form of scrapbooking and journaling. It works for me, my style and my time limits. Well, I’m still crazy about it. I have one journal filled, and I’m working on two others. I’m moving in a generally chronological order with the family books, and I’m fitting about 4 months into a book. But they’re not restricted to that. Some pages are more personal journaling if I find an old picture I love, or want to tell and old story.

I love being about to express such a “funky junk” eclectic style and just smash in whatever  I happen to like at the moment! 

Great things about smashbook journaling? It’s fun and it doesn’t have to be expensive because EVERYDAY LIFE is going to give you the supplies you need. Drawbacks? It involves keeping a lot of “junk.”

I use two main organizing methods to keep my supplies under control.

The first is Smash Bands. They have two types and I use both. They make rubber smash bands–basically a big, strong rubber band–and an elastic pen loop band. They are made to help hold your book closed because once you start it just gets fatter and fatter! {smile} But I also use them as a quick place to stash supplies and ephemera that I know I want to keep to smash later. Because I like to stack so many papers and scraps under the band, I prefer the elastic ones–they are wider and a little looser and gentler on my supplies. You could probably make some pretty easy, but they’re not expensive.

The second organizing method I’ve come up with is using a Smashbook Box. It corrals all my favorite smashbook supplies in one easy-to-carry-into-the-living-room box. Here’s how I put it together and what kind of stuff I keep in there…

I took a leftover boot box from Mr. Fix-It and aired it out for a week or two. New shoe smell might be nice for shoes, but it’s not how I want my scrapbooks smelling! {smile}

Then I used some little Ziploc containers that had lost their lids, some washed out butter containers and a leftover drawer organizer from our junk drawer to create manageable sections within the box. The key here is depth. You want your containers to have depth to hold your supplies–so something like a standard desk drawer organizer is not going to do the trick. For DIYers, I would try something like these Cereal Box Dividers.

The silver tin on the left side is from washi tape (I love this stuff!). I moved the washi tape to a butter bowl (bottom row) so  I could see it better, and re-used the tin for buttons, brads, and little stuff that needed a lid.

What do I keep in the box? And what do I save from our everyday life for our smashbooks?

The main utility supplies…

• Smashbook. (I usually make my own journals, but for long-term memory keeping I would not use a regular Comp Book. I love the K&Company product. It’s high quality, acid-free for preservation, heavy-duty paper, already partially decorated, and the spiral binding which holds everything together is strong. I would definitely invest in the book rather than try to make my own when it comes to preserving photos.)
• Permanent tape runner adhesive. (Bottom right corner)
• Double sided sticky tape. (The red, craft stuff.)
• Extra Smashbook pens (which have a glue stick on one end!)
• Mini stapler and staples (Bottom right corner, got mine from the Dollar Store!)
• Tape–many styles! I like both the K&Company smash tape and Cavalleni paper tape.)
• Smashbook date stamp and inker. (I like this, but it’s not a “need to have”–it was a splurge with a coupon. But the inker is a cool little tool!)
• Journaling pens and markers. (I like Slick Writers from American Crafts for writing on slick stickers and photos.)

Extra scrapbooking supplies I enjoy using…

I usually stash cool leftovers from other projects (like our Cowboy birthday party) in the smashbook box for later. I like these supplies, but again, these are nice-to-have, not need-to-have. I can scrounge or DIY most of these myself as well as using the packaged ones.

• Journaling cards
• Stickers (Especially letter stickers!)
• Punch outs/Cut outs/Die Cuts (I love K&Company’s Smash grab bags!)
• Ribbon and string (I’m a big fan of twine!)
• Buttons and brads
• Scrapbook pockets/Smashbook pockets 
• Smash Pads (K&Company’s version of Journaling cards–thinner paper and post-it note adhesive on some of them.)
• Clips, tabs, flags

As far as ephemera and non-traditional supplies, here’s some things I’ve saved and used that you might see on my pages…

• Supply packaging. (The “Wild Saffron” paper in Ladybug page above is the cardstock backing from a sheet of stickers. In my winter pages, I used the clear plastic wrap to make see-thru pockets for stashing nature walk items.)
• Hand written notes. (You can see I kept a bunch of notes and doodles from the Ladybug–one day she’ll see that handwriting and spelling and laugh!)
• Old stamps. (That graceful young lady in white on the Ladybug page is a postage stamp someone shared with me!)
• Hair clips. (See the pink one on the right side of the Ladybug page?)
• Receipts. (I love including bookstore, coffee, and food receipts to go with pictures of our outings.)
• Clothing and toy tags. (See the first picture at the top.)
• Party invitations.
• Book pages, quotes, hymn pages, or dictionary pages. (I have an old thrift store thesaurus a friend picked up for me that I use A LOT.)
• Maps.
• Brochures, flyers, and directions for projects or activities. (See the pine car derby pages below.)
• Paper clips, binder clips, post-it notes, post-it flags, etc.

One thing you won’t see on my supply list is scissors. I don’t keep a pair with my smashbook supplies and rarely use them for these projects. It’s just not my style.