Since I started paper crafting, I've always had some sort of Ephemera box. In the past it was a lot smaller than this, but it has also been a lot bigger too!!
I've figured out that this sized box allows me to hoard bits and pieces, BUT not in a way where I don't want to even rummage through the box because it's so full and messy (which has happened in the past). I keep it all in one of the smaller Kuggis boxes from IKEA, and it stays open on my shelf so I can slide it on and off whenever I need it. It's labelled with my Dymo Label Embosser, as is everything else in my office!
Here's a little birds eye view for you, and granted it does look messy. I don't think an ephemera box can really look all that neat considering ephemera is random scraps, and bits & pieces you collect. But I divided the box into two sections so I could somewhat organise it, and keep things stacked in a way where I could flip through it all without much of a faff. You will also notice that not everything in here is 'ephemera', a large majority is, but some things in here simply don't have a home anywhere else.
I divided the box up using some little box dividers I got from eBay, and one of the mini tubs from The Range. The little dividers aren't the best, once you cut them down to a certain size, you can't make them bigger again. But they weren't a bad price and have come in handy on numerous occasions. The little tubs from The Range fit in these Kuggis boxes so well, and are definitely worth getting because the are only £1 for 3 tubs. I wanted something to hold all the smaller pieces I planned to store in here, so they don't all get lost in the bottom of the box.
Some of the things I store in here are scraps of paper, packaging, things I've received in/on happy mail, die cuts, frames, tabs, fabric shapes. Most things are 'second hand' as such, but there are some things I've bought brand new.
This green piece with the cacti on was cut out of packaging that I didn't want to just bung in the recycling because it's just too pretty! The handy thing about this box is I've found myself making use of pretty things I've come across so much more, because they are easily accessible being stored like this.
I also have the odd stickers that have made their way in here, along with die cuts and sections of fabric. It's my 'ephemera' box, but really it's my 'doesn't have a home elsewhere and I want to use it someday' box. Which I don't think is a bad thing to have, as it's all in one place it makes sorting through it and de-stashing when it gets too full, a lot easier.
I do keep a little plastic box in here for any bits of ephemera or die cuts that have text, quotes or phrases on them. I did have these all mixed in but found myself constantly loosing them within the main ephemera section. Luckily these little plastic boxes fit in this box perfectly, and if I did want to organise anymore pieces in here, then I could always get a few more boxes and do that.
In the little tub I store the smaller pieces of ephemera. There's lots of sticker flakes in here because I don't have anywhere else for them. There's two rolls of stickers too as I don't have enough of those for their own storage box. But they are kind of bulky so I can't really store them in my other sticker stash. There's these origami bird page tabs from Mustard, which again have the same reasoning as the sticker rolls. This little tub is always fun to have a dig through, I come across many little gems I'd completely forgotten about!
I think this is about as tidy as my ephemera box will ever be! It's one of my favourite boxes of supplies to use when I'm journaling, because I just don't know what I'm going to find. Some things in here are from some of my first ever penpals. When they sent little goodies or stuck things on their envelopes that I loved, I would take them, and hoard them. I knew I'd eventually want to use them somewhere, I've just not found their 'place' in any of my projects yet! But that's the joy of an ephemera box!
Do you have an ephemera box? Or do you have a load of random things in your craft stash that don't really have a home anywhere else?
Let me know, I'd love to see how other people store their ephemera!
- Daisy X
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