The 4 Sections

1. Alphabets, Numbers and Punctuation
2. Themes A to Z
3. The Calendar
4. The Rainbow

The most important thing about this system is putting EVERYTHING in one place. I know for some of us, the initial reaction to this statement is, “There’s no way I could fit all of my stuff in one place.” Like most things there is no “one size fits all answer.” But, we know this system works great for the vast majority of scrapbookers.

What you’re trying to eliminate is “Digging and Searching,” getting up out of your chair and coming back to your chair. This means that you need to put everything you would ever put on a scrapbook page into your 4 sections. If you buy large quantities of things you might also need to have a “Back Stock” area for storage. However, it you put some of those things into your 4 section system and then restock when you run out you’re going to save yourself tons of time and energy.

Section One – Alphabets and Numbers
These items are used on almost every kind of page regardless of the style, season, event or page content. Put your alphabet, number and punctuation supplies in this section, Diecuts, punch-out, tags, brads, buttons, and stickers should all be included. If it is a generic; number, letter or punctuation mark this is where it belongs. The exception to this rule is theme specific alphabets or number, i.e. Candy Cane letters would be kept with the rest of your Christmas stuff in December.

Chipboard in a Dream Dozen Sheet

Section Two – Themes A to Z
This is a section for keeping all of your theme or event specific papers and embellishments. Things like Art, Birthday, Camping, Travel, and Weather… It’s helpful when you are organizing this section to keep a Table of Contents. This will keep you more focused when you remember that you have Weather section instead of a Rain section.

• Animals
• Arts and Crafts
• Baby
• Bath Time
• Beach
• Birthday
• Camping
• Cooking

• Faith
• Family
• Fishing
• Gardening
• Heritage
• Money
• Moving
• Park

• Play
• Scouts
• Sports
• Toys
• Transportation
• Travel
• Weather
• Work

Baseball in a Fabulous 4 Sheet
Single sheet shown off the ScrapRack

Section Three – The Calendar Year
This is as simple as it sounds. January through December. This is where you will store holiday and season specific papers and embellishments. Using The Calendar allows you to store subjects you might use together, close together, i.e., Christmas in The Calendar would also be next to New Year’s Eve, Winter, and Thanksgiving, Easter would be next to Spring, etc.

January – Winter, New Year’s Day
February - Valentine’s Day, President’s Weekend
March – Spring, St. Pat’s Day
April – Easter
May – Memorial Weekend
June – Summer
July – 4th of July
August - Summer
September – Back to School, Fall
October – Halloween
November – Thanksgiving
December – Christmas, New Year’s Eve

4th of July in Perfect Six Sheet
Single sheet shown off the ScrapRack

Section Four – The Rainbow
This section should contain all of your solid colored supplies as well as patterned papers that are not theme specific (plaids, dots, stripes, etc.). This includes; Buttons, Brads, Eyelets, Fibers, Bows, Paper, etc. Remember the idea is to have everything in one place. When you need a red embellishment you don’t want to dig and search, you just want to flip to red.

• Printed Papers
• Patterned Papers
• Solid Papers
• Embellishments

• Fibers
• Buttons
• Die Cuts
• Feathers

• Brads
• Glitter
• Beads
• SCRAPS

Blue products in a Perfect Six Sheet
Single sheet shown off the ScrapRack

Red Fibers on a Fiberboard™ in a
Sideloader™ Single Sleeve