Write. Click. Scrapbook.

In Review

I loved this month's theme. Music moves my heart in ways I can hardly explain. A song from the past can drag me back to a memory long since faded and make it as radiant as the day it happened. I can turn on any Air Supply song and instantly begin to sing every. single. word. I can't seem to remember my grocery list longer than 5 minutes but I have a whole vault of 1980s lyrics forever seared into my brain!

How does music affect you and your life? Do you love it? Have you a favorite song? or genre? Is there a song that swings you back to your childhood? or your wedding day? Is there an artist that got you through a particularly rough time? Or do you prefer a silence? Either way, have you scrapbooked it?

If you haven't had a chance to be inspired by the gallery yet, let's take once last long lingering look at the loveliness it contains.

 

Aly First, look closely at Lexie's face. Can you see the excitement and the thrill of the stage? Such a terrific photo. I love how Aly didn't shy away from color on this layout. The costumes were vibrant and bright. I think many of us would have tried to go very neutral on this page, but Aly shows us we need not.  And because the star of the photo is in white, she isn't any bit lost as we take in the layout.

LisaK I hope you took a minute to read Lisa's journaling. It is honest and raw and made me miss the stage, too, and it isn't even my place! Moving journaling gets me! I love, too, that she handwrote her journaling. Quite a task to undertake, but it makes the heart of it shine so much more brightly.

Karen When I read Karen's title, I could immediately hear the trilling laughter of my own sweet Poppy. Her laugh climbs a scale and is every bit musical. I am going to have to steal Karen's idea and journal the music of the laughter. I think Karen's layout is a good reminder, too, that when you sit down to scrapbook a challenge, there is a way to make a page that fits the theme even if it isn't the straightforward option.

Francine When I first saw Francine's layout, I giggled at the terrific photos. Not only did she capture the action of the drumming, she also memorialized the delight on both his face and that of his uncle. Speaking of great photos, don't you find it is so easy to journal on layouts when your photograph so perfectly aligns with the story? Photos like these make for my favorite layouts to create (read: easiest to create, therefore favorite to create!!).

Christa Speaking of layouts that are creative takes on a theme, I love this! Christa cleverly wrapped her title up the side and across the top, providing a strong structural element within which she tucked the other elements of her layout. By starting her title treatment at the same horizontal level as her photos, Christa has created a focal point for her layout. She also has repeating elements with the circles (the "o" in to, the sunburst, and the circle behind the heart), the three tags and flags, and the repeated bit of red. All of which serve to create an incredibly cohesive layout.

LisaO Did you notice how many references to current culture Lisa has added to her layout? Not only does she list her current playlist, she also used a current photo. And not only are the colors are at the height of fashion, so, too, are the patterns and the little  iconic elements--the bird, the tape. All these elements combine to further tell the story of right now, not just the music.

EmilyS I consider myself quite well rounded when it comes to music, but I must admit Emily's layout had me rushing to my computer to listen to these songs. A few are also favorites of mine, so I figured I might just like them all. So hooray to Emily's layout for helping me expand my playlist!!! Now, onto the design, might I just say how much I adore white on white? And the little tiny graph lines in red did me in. Love love. I thought putting the songs on individual strips was genius, as was not worrying whether or not the lines matched up with those below!

EmilyS in case you haven't yet read Emily's journaling, go get a tissue, and now go read. I'll wait...  What a sweet moment captured. To me, this is the very heart of scrapbooking. Pure love.

Celeste I would love to have a photo of my music lessons. I spent years with my favorite teachers and yet, not a photo exists. If your children take lessons, or you do, be inspired by Celeste, and get a photograph of it!!

Kelly What a fun memory to record! Watching your child discover a new skill/talent is special which makes it scrap worthy by definition, right? I love how Kelly printed Crystal's label. It makes the journaling fit so well. Perfect!

Katrina Hooray! Katrina is back! Oh, Katrina! We have missed you so!! Welcome home! My favorite part of Katrina's layout is how she used the single covers as the "photographs." And could the flair be any more perfect?

Marnie I love the juxtaposition of Nigel's beautiful skill with his ratty athletic clothes. Sometimes we scrapbook photos that aren't perfect, and then realize that the layout is better for its little sprinkles of reality.

Marnie This list and layout is so overdue. Please, sit down right now and make a layout about your favorite music. Don't put it off any longer!

Diane Do you know what I love most about Diane's layout? The little letter stickers for s-h-i-n-e. And you do you know why? Usually, when we are going to emphasize a word, we think to put it in a bigger font/sticker. But here, Diane made it smaller. And it works! So well!

Keshet This sweet layout makes me swoon. And makes me want to put together a layout about how it felt to sing to my firstborn. Do you like, too, how Keshet's photo and journaling are taped onto the wood paper? It sort of makes it look like it was taped to a wooden wall, no?

Marie How much fun is this layout? Do you like how Marie used a record and tape on her layout? Cute!

Paula I love that Paula scanned her music in for her background paper! It makes such a statement and it adds to the story so well! I love, too, how she put her journaling in a column right in the middle of her page. Center stage. Not a usual placement, but it works so well, don't you think?

Marie The whiny song! How awesome is that? I can hear one of our three as I type!! I think Marie wonderful for catching a photo of a whiny child. I rarely think to grab my camera when the whine is on. But it is what it is, yes?

Alexandra I love the size on this layout. Long and thin. I also love how Alexandra juxtaposed the modern "get down" with the gold doily. And then she tied the tag with a neutral string is so simple and yet, the perfect last addition. It's those details that Alexandra gets to right!

Francine This layout is a wonderful example of using 5 photos on one layout. By including all 5 photos, we get a much better sense of the occasion than if Francine had chosen just one. And because she grouped them as she did, the layout stays clean and polished.

Amy Having loved Amy's teen week, I am now wondering if this is one of the photos from the "I just had my hair done" collection. (Such a fun photo idea, by the way!) Sometimes lyrics are the perfect accent. And sometimes the perfect title. Also, did you read in Amy's notes how her lyrics block came from the negatives of a Silhouette cutout? That's what I call a two for one!

Donna I love the colors on this layout! The blue and clouds, the green, the little bit of pink, the pop of orange. And then the butterflies! Don't you love how Karen and Donna sneak items traditionally considered "girly" on their pages about their sons? Woohoo!

Erin Like Katrina, Erin let the album covers stand tall as an element of design and story. I love how she recorded her children's favorites, and not just her own playlist. A good idea, for certain! It would be interesting to make a layout like this every couple of years and then compare and see the changes! Oh, the inevitable changes!

EmilyP Do you like how the entire center of Emily's layout is just numbers? No photo, no journaling. But so much fun! And then as you look around, and I mean around, you see her top ten list.

 

The theme this month, Music, offered much inspiration for journaling, and photography, and our gallery was ripe with inspirational design. I took the challenge to document my musical tastes, and the design challenge of using a list, and added in some inspiration from Emily's layout, and put this one together.

My new favorite layout.

I hope you felt inspired to make a new favorite as well!

In Review

What a great month we have had! Join me as we take our final stroll through the January gallery and then put it all together for one last layout!

Francine: I love this layout for its groupings. Francine is a master of the collection. I love, too, how the photos seem perfectly placed. Like a well set table.

Karen:  I love how her layouts make me feel. She made use of my happy colors which tells me immediately that the title is not a mournful one, but cheerful. This layout reminds me to take pictures of things (and not just people and food) that make me happy. I have notes that have touched my heart that truly belong in my scrapbook. You, too?

Aly: The first time I saw this layout, I immediately wanted to rewind time to a time a few years' back when we were loaded in the car off to somewhere. Nigel, my oldest, never went in the car, unless we had a big destination. He had the luxury of staying inside. My littlest? She has been hauled about since she was small. At three weeks we started out to tennis in the cold midwestern winter, and we have not stopped since. Aly's layout made me realize I haven't take pictures of some of the more mundane activities. Add it to the checklist!

Celeste: I remember a winter as a child where the snow went halfway up our back door. We had to shove and shove to get the screen door open. But of course, there are no pictures. Celeste's layout is a reminder to me to keep my camera handy and take photos of those weather-related memories.

Marnie: Do you know that I purposefully took my camera along one day on our adventures knowing that I had this layout due? Do you that I am so glad that I did? I love to be a good student, and scrapbooking assignments help me to stretch just like school ones used to.

Erin: I love Erin's honesty. Sharing with us that her photos were taken for the Week in the Life album that never was. And how she didn't let them go to waste. Have you photos leftover from a particular purpose that might fit on a page of a different kind? Let Erin's example be your permission to get them on a layout!

Christa: Military wives are such an amazing lot to me. I am always impressed by how they roll with the punches, even when the changes are huge. And moving around the globe seems pretty huge to me. Wow.

Alexandra: Alexandra can take the simplest things and make them look beautiful. Have you taken a minute to finish up your December daily album? It's nearly February. Perhaps this weekend you could get it out and finish it up before the memories run cold?

Lisa: I love the linear beauty of Lisa's layout. And the little grouping of three at the bottom? Awesome! You know that our eye loves threes and fives best right?

Lisa: If you were to sit down and create a layout about today, what would a recounting of your schedule tell you? The changes in my own schedule over the past few years have been significant and annual. Join me in a pact to promise to record this before the memory of the madness fades?

Amy: For the past few years, Costco has offered free calendars with their holiday cards. I recognized this one, and think this is a magnificent use of one! Amy is so clever.

Marnie: I used to be so good at taking headshot pictures of my kids. Now we all seem too busy. So I was happy to find this one amidst my white balance practice photos. Plain headshots like these are permission to journal whatever I want. I love that.

Vivian: Do you ever read people's journaling and realize just how amazing they are? I loved reading Vivian's journaling. And I love how she introduced her daughter to this opportunity to serve our world. And you know what? It taught me that Vivian is a thoughtful person who is aware of others. And now I love her even more, not just for her great pages. Scrapbooking. It is so much more than paper and glue.

Ann: This photo will be a family treasure forever. When I used to teach at CKCs we would take polls on how many photos people took over a Disney vacation. 5000 was not unheard of. How does one begin to scrapbook that many? One at a time. Choose a favorite, just like Ann did. And what a favorite this one is.

Paula: This is your reminder. Get your family together and take a picture of all of you and then create a layout about today. I love how Paula's journaling becomes the vertical column. Clean and easy and purposeful. Perfect.

Celeste: One of my favorite features of Celeste's layout is the thick'ish black borders around the photos. It really helps ground them. And then I seem to notice each of them, rather than just a group of photos. Celeste's pages have such a definitive style, too. Don't you agree?

Celeste: Did you notice how Celeste makes use of a visual triangle on this page? But there is a bit more magic than just the triangle. The photo cluster on the left is the same width as the journaling space on the right. This makes it look like a missing puzzle piece, thereby adding an additional sense of cohesion. It is subtle design elements like these that can transform your pages.

Kelly: Kelly is becoming a hybrid master! With her date doing double duty as the title, the scene is already set for the photos and story. 12.26 conjures a sense of calm and laze for many of us. Choosing to have so much subtext in a title helps to strengthen the message of a page.

Marie: Speaking of dates, how does one not love the date 1.1.11? and to have a baby born on that date? Well, that is pretty special. As a design tip, study Marie's choice of placement for her photos. When you are creating mosaics, make sure you don't have lopped off limbs leading into other limbs, and other such follies. Keep moving things around until they look right. You will know it when you see it.

Donna: I love the celebration of the everyday in Donna's layout. When I saw this, I wanted to run around my whole house and snap photos of all the clutter piles. And then I realized I didn't have hard space enough to record them all!! Teasing. Though I am not teasing about how much you will look back on photos like these and love how transported you will feel into times' past. Please remember to add these pictures to your list!

Celeste: Do you have a lazy day at your house? Or perhaps you have a day that has a regular routine? Have you captured it? Your photos don't need to be display worthy, remember you just want them to remind you of these days that are passing us by. If you do go on a photo field trip, perhaps keep your camera the same angle (up or sideways) for all the pictures as a means of linear bliss.

Keshet: I remember when Nigel was little and I wanted a photo to tell the whole story. And I couldn't figure out how. Well, silly, just add a blackboard! This is such a clever idea. If you check our Pinterest board you will see other examples of blackboards being put to good use, too.

Emily: Favorite part of this layout? The armchairs. Don't they just tell us a little bit about the story? Do you try to reach for embellishments that are purposeful? Don't you find when you do that you love them on your page? Me, too.

Marnie: This silly layout could have not been done and my children's lives would have been perfectly represented. But this page represents my love of learning and my efforts to continue to learn and grow and become every day better at something. And that is a page worth having.

 

The theme this month, Today, offered much inspiration for journaling, and photography, and our gallery was ripe with inspirational design. I took the challenge to document my right now with a new kid photo, stretched the journaling theme of everyday messes to include a messy photo, and added in one of the pieces of the printables page. Putting it all together, I came up with this. My new favorite layout.

I hope you felt inspired to make a new favorite as well!

Welcome, January!

Our new gallery is up! Our topic this month is, Today. We hope you enjoy our layouts and are inspired by them to create your own!

2011 Highlights!

As the year draws to a close, we are grateful for a year filled with new additions, a new look, and new features. We hope that you have loved everything we have created for you! As a finale for the year, we brought back a few fan favorites!

What a terrific year it has been. We can only imagine what next year will bring... Thank you, dear readers, for being here every step of the way!

December Dailies - an update

Hello dear Friends! Alexandra here to share with you a look at the three December Dailies I undertook this month of December.

With a daughter studying abroad, I really got to feel the warmth and magic the Holidays can bring. Nothing felt sweeter than having her home again and celebrating the Advent and Christmas with our three children.

 

Two years ago I kept one DD, last year I had two and this year three and eventhough I'm nuts about the concept of the December Daily, no I will not have four DDs in 2012!

DD#1 is a fabric covered 6inch post album. Its concept is very simple: one page is devoted to the journaling while the opposite page is composed of a 6" photo collage made under Picasa.

I made exactly the same album last December and found it both easy to keep and fun to go back to. As of today, I'm almost finished with this DD. All my mosaics are printed, I just have to type 5 journalings and it'll be finished.

***

DD#2 is a binder I made using a very soft red fabric and Tim Holtz fancy metal corners:

For this December Daily, I have used Hipstamatic pictures taken with my iPhone. I had prepared the pages ahead of time and used the beautiful Lost&Found collection.

This DD was by far the easiest and fastest album to finish. I also enjoyed the "creative" aspect of that one!

***

DD#3 is a series of folded card tucked into an empty cigar box.

I used "old" papers and Avital marvelous journaling cards for this December Daily. I have enjoyed keeping it but must admit it was too time consuming.

Here is a look at all 25 cards:

and what a card looks like when opened:

I still have to finish arranging quite a few instant pictures and journalings inside these cards.

How about you? Have you been journaling your December? Have you finished your album(s)? Do share!

 

Welcome, December! & give.away.day. featuring OCTOBER AFTERNOON

This month we wanted to celebrate the love and effort that we take decorating our homes for the holidays. No matter what the celebration, it seems there is always room for a little festivity!! (Or a lot, hee hee!!) Sit back, relax, and enjoy peering into our Holiday Homes.

 

 

December is here and we are thrilled to announce the return of our daily posting schedule! Much like our summer months, each day will feature a new author and a new topic. Our team is thrilled to inspire your December to be filled with paper crafting, scrapbooking, and photography. So, while the weather outside may be frightful, our site will be delightful...

 

 

But, wait, today is Thursday. And you know what that means...

To celebrate the start of December and the holiday season, we're kicking things off with an exciting give.away.day. We know that many of you are working on winter or holiday projects and would love to add to your stash of winter- and holiday-themed products, so...without further ado...we bring you October Afternoon's Holiday Style collection!

If you haven't already clicked on the link or the images above to get a closer look, the Holiday Style line features twelve double-sided patterned papers and a large variety of embellishments certain to add holiday style (get it? :)) to all of your projects. With the mix of patterns and products in this collection you'll have lots of opportunities to document your favorite memories of winters and holidays past and present and will have lots of bits leftover for cards, gift tags, etc.

Here's a layout Vivian created using die cut embellishments from the Flower Sack (clever Vivian cut them in half to stretch them!) as well as Word Stickers and Little Flyers.

An added bonus today: check out today's post on the October Afternoon blog to see the sketch upon which this layout was based.

October Afternoon is really close to having 10,000 followers on Facebook. If you haven't already headed over there to like them, please do so and let them know that you were sent there by Write. Click. Scrapbook. A little birdie told me that there might be a prize or two or more when the magic number appears.

Interested in a chance to win Holiday Style? I thought so. Go ahead and leave a comment on this post telling us what is your holiday style. Comments will remain open through tonight. One lucky number will be posted tomorrow. Please remember to claim your lucky number before Saturday at midnight.

 

 

 

Before you go, we have some sad news. Beth, Melissa, and Marcy are leaving us. I have worked with Beth since 2006 and I can't imagine my scrapbook life not including her. Not one bit. Beth is not only a fantastic designer but also an amazing woman, friend, and mother. Melissa has been with us since we launched. I first noticed her name attached to a layout with tiny footprints. It was love at first sight!! And I carry her camera strap on my camera so I will have an excuse to think of her everyday! And Marcy, my fellow Canadian, is leaving far too soon. Her pages are top notch. We are sad we won't have a chance to get to know her more. But also know that we will see her often. Happily so! We will miss you all and look forward to stalking your blogs to keep up!

 

 

That's it! Don't forget to pour over the new gallery, to visit October Afternoon, to return to leave your comment, and to include a heartfelt goodbye to Beth, Melissa, and Marcy. What a day! What a month! December is going to be awesome!

Making It Easy - Time

Welcome to the last day of Making it Easy! I know reading these posts and thinking about your process hasn't been so easy for the last few days but trust me, spending this time now will save you so much time and energy later that it's totally worth it. Paying attention and putting some processes in place will make the actual scrapbooking process more fun and much easier!

I wanted to end this week with a list of ideas on what you could do if you have 15-minutes of free time. Fifteen minutes feels like such a small amount of time that we often don't even bother to work on scrapbooking. But there's actually a long list of things you can do in just fifteen minutes. 

And sometimes, you might have a longer period of free time but you don't feel creative at all. Even during those times you can do things that will help you create scrapbooking pages. So here are a list of ideas from me and the write.click.scrapbook team to help use those precious minutes. 

Photos

• Edit photos
• Organize photos according to stories
• I browse my photo files to find the photos I want to use to tell my story
• Print some pictures

Stories

• I generally take out my photos, lay them on the page and think of a title
• Jot down some ideas/themes for my journaling
• Brainstorm to create a list of stories i want to tell
• Do a quick blog post

Design

• Digital: if I have 15 minutes I will throw together a page template based on something I've sketched or an idea for a page.
• Sketch an idea for a layout.

Supplies

• I might pick my letters for the title. or just a few papers that match my photos
• Glue some supplies down just to start the juices flowing
• Pull out some recent items I purchased and look for ideas with them
• Tear, mist or stamping something onto something else. It's sort of a "free-creative" process that tend to warm up my mojo plus I often end up using whatever it is that I put together either on a page or on a card.
• Sort through a supply drawer or two and put together a little page kit. (Then I pair it with photos—either the actual pictures if I have them, or a sticky note to remind me which photos I meant to use with that kit.)
• Choose my paper, embellishments and letter stickers so I'm ready to go next time

Organization

• Cleanup my space
• Dump out some items in my favorites bucket and put new ones
• I tend to go through my scraps or just fiddle around in my stash.
  
• Organize my supplies. I like to see what I haven't used in a while, or to find things that perhaps I meant to use for a story or layout and never did.  I'll pull out those items and then make a quick note of photos or story ideas that I think would work well with those supplies.

Inspiration

• Browse layout galleries
• Browse pinterest
• Look at tumblr for some layouts others saved
• I'll look through my collection of quotations for a quote I might like to use.  (www.thinkexist.com and www.quotegarden.com are also good spots for quotes.)
•  Print out my inspiration from the computer
• Go through my idea binder
• Flip through a magazine
• I have a cork board of my desk and I will pin the paper there for the next time I am sitting down to scrap.
• Pin new ideas on Pinterest

 

[cork board above lisa's desk]

 

[I find pinterest to be an endless source of inspiration. You can find write.click.scrapbook boards right here.]

As you can see there's a long list of things you can do in 15 minutes regardless of whether you're inspired or not. I would love for you to leave comments with more ideas and then I will add them all here and we can all bookmark it so next time we have 15 minutes free, we can use this huge list of possible ideas on how to spend that time effectively.

Thank you so much for joining me this week and I hope that at least some of the information was useful to you. And I wanted to extend a huge thanks to the whole write.click.scrapbook. team; without their support, help and ideas this week would have been impossible.

Making It Easy - The Supplies

Welcome back! Now that we covered the fundamentals, today we get to talk about the fun stuff: scrapbook supplies!

I asked the whole team how they organize their products so they can save time and streamline their process. There are days when all I do during my creative time is sort through my stash or clean up my desk or look for a specific supply. At the end of those days, I often feel frustrated that I wasted all this creative-time on busy-work. This is why I put a lot of focus on how and where I store my supplies so they work best with my particular way of scrapbooking. 

My goal today is to get you thinking about your process so you know where to put your supplies and how to organize them so that you can spend more time scrapping and less time moving things around.

So let's get started.

Coordinating and Grouping

Several team members said that they store their supplies by color. If you're the kind of person who is inspired by color, I think this is one of the easiest ways to organize your supplies. This way all your blue papers and flowers and alphas are together and you can match them very easily. This is my most-common way of creating a layout. I tend to pick a few colors from my photos and center my layout around them. So if I am creating a layout using green, red and blue, I just take out those three baskets and I am good to go.

[my very untidy white drawer]

However this doesn't work for everyone. For example, while Aly organizes her embellishments by color, she keeps her patterned paper by manufacturer. She says: " Keeping my patterned paper this way allows me to find coordinating papers quickly since I find it easier to scrap with papers from the same line most of the time." This way she never has to make sure the blues or greens match. She uses papers that were created to coordinate. Donna does something similar and she mentioned that this also helps her use her scraps more often.

And if you're a big kit scrapper like Francine, her system might work best for you: "I'm a big user of monthly kits, which make it easy for me to grab an already coordinated set of products and get a page done. " Just keep them in their packaging and you have a set or pre-coordinated products at your disposal anytime.

Yet, other people like to coordinate by type. Francine sorts her general stash by type because it makes most sense to her to have it that way. Celeste said she does the same thing for her digital products: "I organize my digital products using ACD See by Store, Designer, and type of product. This makes it easy for me to find bits and pieces when I need them - like buttons or an alphabet."

So the trick is knowing how your process works. Do you tend to scrap by color or prefer several papers from a similar manufacturer? Do you prefer all your alphas in one place and buttons in another. The best way to do it is the way that works with your particular process so it flows naturally for you.

 

Tucked Aways vs Out in the Open

There are people who can only create in chaos and those who cannot create unless the desk is completely clean. It is important to know what kind of environment inspires you so you know how to store your product. 

I learned early on that I like everything tucked away. I don't mind chaos while I am creating but being able to see all the products overwhelms me, so I prefer to have things organized and then just pull out the drawers I need when I need them. And I always clean my desk after each project. The last thing I want to do when I am feeling creative is worry about cleaning my desk.

[my supplies are in baskets and drawers and I pull out whatever I need when I need it.]

[my desk as I create]

[my desk after i cleanup. you'll notice my sewing machine is always there. I stitch on every layout so I need to have my machine accessible.]

Donna mentioned that she likes to keep her space clean, too, but she does it for a slightly different reason: "I organize my embellishments and other supplies by type and keep them in open baskets. Everything is organized, but out in the open so that I can see what I have.  I don't work well in a cluttered workspace and so after I finish a layout or group of layouts I make sure to clean-up my space and put everything away.  For me, keeping my space clean is the key to making sure that I can find what I want when I want it." She has everything out in the open, so if it's all neat and organized, she can see everything well. 

Many people prefer to have their supplies out in the open cause they tend to forget what they have. So you need to figure out what's best for you. Maybe you want it all out in the open. Or you want the papers tucked away but the ribbons in see-through jars. It's all about what works for you.

Same goes for the kind of storage. Some people prefer vertical paper storage and others put them in drawers. Yet others use baskets. Glass jars, tins, there's an endless list of options. I think the two things that matter most is knowing whether you like a cluttered or a clean space and if you like your supplies to be tucked away or out in the open. Those two questions tell you the most about where you should organize your supplies.

[Amy says:  I mostly use the 12x12 drawers made by Sterlite. Each color has an embellishment drawer and a patterned paper drawer. I also have drawers for word-based items, Christmas, baby, and Halloween.]

Proximity

One of the things I discovered during my layout a day adventure was that I used at least 5 types of alphabet stickers on each layout. For me, alphabets were an obvious exception to the "I organize by color" decision. In the middle of the month, I pulled out all my alphas from each basket and put them all in one basket (sorted by color). This has saved me more time than I'd like to admit.

I also moved all my punches so I don't have to get up from my chair to get at them. Same with my adhesive and sewing machine and white cardstock. These are items I use on every single scrapbook layout so having them really close to my desk saves me a lot of time on each page.

[my punches are right next to my desk, I don't have to get up to reach them.]

Others on the team do similarly, Aly says, "My adhesives are all in a basket with a handle so I can easily pull them out and keep it on my desk while I'm working." And Francine says, "I keep my most used tools in a tool caddy on my main work area, with other tools like punches and paper cutters in drawers and shelves that are part of the working desk. I now keep my sewing machine out and ready to go if I need it."

[Aly's punches are portable and accessible]

[this smaller expedit is right next to my desk, those are albums I am currently putting layouts into, on top the basket holds the layouts I just finished but didn't put into albums yet, the black baskets hold things I use all the time like alphas and the drawers have the punches I showed above.]

Having often-used items nearby and ready to go will be invaluable. These are also items that you know you need to stock up. So if you use a particular type of adhesive on every page, make sure to buy a few extras so you never run out. I always keep an extra-large stash of white cardstock since I use it on every page. I would hate to sit down at my desk, full of ideas, and find out that I had no cardstock left.

Special Cases

I wanted to take the time to talk about a few exceptions that almost every team member mentioned. Most of us seem to create a special area for holidays like Halloween or Christmas. And also for Baby. Depending on your family, the categories might differ but there are a few occasions that are special and might need their own mini-organizational structure. I have a Christmas basket that only comes out when I am doing December Daily and then goes back in until the next year. Others might keep all the school-related supplies in a drawer of their own. It's worth taking the time to think about what might be special exceptions for you.

I wanted to mention one more thing I use frequently. Since I am a "put everything out of sight" scrapper, I created one little basket on my table. This is where I put my most recent purchases or a supply that I've been saving for a special occasion. This way it's right there and I can attempt to use it on each layout. It's my way of making sure I don't forget about those special supplies I bought that I really want to make sure to use.

[my favorites basket]

[I also put smaller items in this container and put the container in the favorites basket.]

[to be fair, most of the time it looks more like this.]

That's all I have for supplies.  Your task for today is to look at the way you organize your supplies and see if it works well with the flow of your scrapbook process. Can you change things around so it works better? 

As always, I would love to hear more ideas or any questions you have. I hope you're finding these helpful and I will see you one last time on Friday to talk about how we can optimize little chunks of time we might find here and there in our day!

Making It Easy - The Stories

Welcome back! I hope I didn't scare away too many of you with yesterday's post. I've found that the more thought I put into my process upfront, the more it ends up paying off when I am ready to scrap. So my goal is to get you thinking about some of your processes so you can streamline them to make it work for you.

So let's talk about journaling. In my experience, this is the part many scrappers dread. Some have nothing to say, others have too much to say. Some people hate their handwriting. Some people can't fit in the journaling into their design, etc, etc. 

In my experience, having your story ready is a huge time-saver when you're scrapbooking. It gives you an opportunity to integrate it into your page so it flows along with all the other elements on the layout. Like yesterday, I separated today into a few categories, so let's get started.

How to Write

I find that most people either like to write by hand or like to write on the computer exclusively. There are very few people who sometimes type and other times write by hand. A big part of the reason most people prefer the computer is that they don't like the way their handwriting looks on the page or how it doesn't allow them to plan out the size and shape of the journaling.

I used to be an only-on-the-computer journaler. When I decided I wanted to try doing a Layout a Day last year, I knew there was no way I could type journaling each day and, for me, journaling is a crucial part of my layout, so I wasn't willing to give it up. I decided to try journaling by hand. I found a journaling stamp and cut off its frame so all I had was just lines and used that on all the pages I created that month.

Above the frame I cut off from my stamp and below is what I am left with; just a few journaling lines.

The lines in the stamp were close together so I ended up writing pretty small and this made me hate my handwriting less. It also allowed me to integrate the journaling into the design of my page. So if you've always been one type of journaler, it might be worth trying something else just to see if it works for you. 

Either way, what matters most is knowing your preference. Alexandra says: "I don't like to see my handwriting on my pages so I keep a journal and other notebooks. When I'm ready to type, all I have to do is go back to my notebook for all the references." This way, when she's ready to journal, she already has her stories ready.

[Alexandra's book]

When I used to journal on the computer, I often would sit for an hour and type up a few stories. This way, I had them ready to go when I created the layout. The creative juices don't always flow, so I really didn't want to have to sit and type when I was feeling creative.

Where to Write

There are many different ways to collect and save your stories. Across our team, the most common one is to blog. Many members of our team have personal or family blogs where they write up stories as they happen. Then, when it's time to make a layout, they will print the story from their blog and they are ready to go.

Lisa said that she also uses Facebook to get down the funny little things her kids say.  She will sometimes print out a month of status updates and use that as journaling for a page. You can do the same with Twitter or Google Plus or other social networks you use.

Lisa says, "I also keep a little notebook beside my bed. I tend to think a lot as I am going to sleep, and sometimes I will turn on the light to write it all down." I know people who keep little notebooks all over the house so whatever room they happen to be in, they can jot down an idea or a quote.

[lisa's notebook]

The most important thing to remember is that our memory is flawed. If you really want to remember the details, you need to preserve them soon after they occur. Amy says "I try to write a lot of my journaling on the day I took the photos, or very soon after. That way, I get down the details while the experience is still fresh." She even does this while on vacation. 

Like several others, I also use my blog to record details. I also keep a Book of Stories for my journaling. This is a system I developed for a class but it's basically a way for me to keep track of all the stories I might like to tell so they are not specifically tied to a particular event or series of photos. This way I can match a story I want to tell with a smiling photo of my son and still get those thoughts or feelings down on my page. Amy does something similar, she wrote: "I also sometimes write down some journaling and then go out and take some photos to go with it." There's no rule saying that photos must come first. You can think of the stories you want to tell and take some photos to tell them with.

[my book of stories]

So think about where you want to store your stories. It can be something simple like a notebook. Or you can use a blog or create files on your computer. You can even use a tape recorder to leave yourself messages throughout the day. There's no wrong way to do this.

Just remember that if you're a computer-journaler and write your stories in a notebook, you will at some point have to type them up, so using the computer from the getgo might save you time. But this will only work if you use it. So if the notebook is more convenient for you and allows you to actually write down ideas, use that even if it means extra steps later. It's better to have stories you have to type up than to have nothing at all!

 

Helpful Extras

I had a few other ideas that didn't fall into either category but wanted to mention them anyway. 

I really liked Amy's system for storing her journaling alongside the photos so I thought you might, too. Here's what she says:  "I keep a folder on my computer for each member of my family and I save the journaling there with the date and a description in the file name. Then, in the directory where the photos are stored, I put a second copy of the journaling document. When I've scrapped those photos, I delete the second copy from the photo directory. This all means that no matter how long it takes me to scrap something, I nearly always have a place to start with my journaling. (I use what I wrote as a starting point and revise from there.)"

Isn't that brilliant?

 

[screenshot of amy's system]

I also found that if I spend some time thinking of a title or theme that goes along with my photos, it makes it easier for me to come up with the journaling. So I will look at my photos and think about why I want to scrap them. What's the story I want to tell with them? Why am I picking these particular photos to scrap? I will try to come up with one sentence like "You always take the time to help your brother." This way I know what I want the layout to be about and it's easier to come up with the rest of the journaling because I have my theme.

So, now it's your turn. Think about your journaling process. Do you like to write by hand or on the computer? What are ways you can prep your journaling ahead of time so when you sit at your table, you can get right down to scrapping? 

Do you have tricks that work for you? Please share them with us in the comments, I'd love to know them!

Thank you for spending another day with me! See you tomorrow when we talk about scrappy supplies and organization!

Making It Easy - The Photos

Hi everyone! I am so excited to be back here with all of you! 

I spent a long time thinking about my week and finally settled on a week of "making it easy." The biggest worry I hear from all my friends who scrapbook is that they don't have enough time. They'd like to scrap more but they can never find the time to sit and do it. When they have time, their photos aren't ready or they don't know what story to scrap and by the time they have the photo printed and the journaling typed up, they've used up all their free time for the day.

So I thought it would be worthwhile to ask the write.click.scrapbook. team how they streamlined their scrapbooking so that they could find time to scrap more regularly. Throughout the week, we're going to focus on four different areas of time-saving tips. 

Today starts with photos and then tomorrow we will talk about journaling. On Wednesday we're going to talk about supplies. How to organize them and where to place them so they can be most efficient. And, finally, on Friday we're going to focus on things you can do in a super-short time or what you can do when you have time but are feeling uninspired to create. 

The goal is that when you're feeling super-creative and find yourself with a chunk of time, you can sit at your table and create. You don't have to waste this precious time processing or printing photos. Or figuring out journaling or looking for embellishments, etc. You can just sit and play.

I asked the whole write.click.scrapbook team to pitch in with their tried and tested ideas so that we can have suggestions and ideas for every kind of scrapper. I am hoping that at least some of these will resonate with you and give you ideas on how to make the process a little bit easier for yourself.

So let's get started, shall we?

I wanted to begin with photos for two reasons. One, because I think that's where most people begin their layouts. Most people are photo-driven scrappers and it's the first element we put down on our page. So if you don't have photos, you don't have your initial starting point.

And, two, unfortunately, photos often take a long time to get ready. You have to download them, edit them, print them or upload them somewhere so you can order prints and wait for them to come in. There's a lot of process that goes into getting your photos ready to be scrapped, so I thought it would be a good place to start saving time and streamlining. 

I collected ideas from the whole team and grouped them into several areas:

Editing and Preparing Photos

Let's talk about getting the photos ready. Once you take a photo, you have to download it onto your computer and then decide whether you will edit it or not. This could be simple editing like cropping and sizing or it could be a more complicated process that takes several minutes per photo.  There's no right or wrong answer here, the idea is to do what works for you. However, if you're taking so much time editing each photo that you now have no time to actually scrap them, you're doing yourself a disservice. So the first step for you is to go through your process and figure out how much time you're spending downloading and editing your photos. Can you speed up the process in any way? 

I generally take photos every single day. At the end of the day, I put my card into my computer and download that day's photos. I pick out my favorites (generally about 6-10 photos) and I edit them. Once they look the way I like, I put them in a special folder on my computer. The whole process takes me about 15 minutes a day. 

If I downloaded my photos weekly or monthly, there would be too many photos to go through and too many favorites to edit and it would be a several-hour process which would make me feel overwhelmed and I would likely put it off. 15 minutes a day doesn't seem terrible to me but 2-3 hours on a weekend is a lot more work, for me.  But if you take photos less frequently, a weekly download and edit time might be more appropriate for you.  Another idea is to do what Lisa does, she edits her photos while she's watching TV. So if you're watching an hour-long show, you can get quite a bit of processing done at the same time. However, unless you can do it at the same time as another long activity (like TV) I recommend keeping your process around 15-25 minutes. To most people, that doesn't feel like a large amount of time and we are more inclined to sit and do it instead of putting it off.

You can see in the photo above that my folder is called "2011 photos" and the images all have the date on them. For January 1, 2011, I have 5 favorite images. For January 2, I have 7, etc. I download and save these daily.

One other note on organizing photos. Some people spend time puttting tags and comments in their photos. This is very worthwhile if you find yourself going back and searching for specfic photos. However, if you're not going back to old photos ever, don't spend time doing this extra step. I generally scrap current photos, so when I process my images each night, I put them in one big folder called 2011. If I know a specific story I want to scrap with them, I will create another folder in the 2011 folder and give it the story's name. For example I might say "first day of school" and put all my favorite, already-processed, first-day photos in there. The date is there my default and I don't add any other tags or information. This saves me a lot of time.  

Where you save things matters, too, while I save my photos in a folder, Lisa creates photo collages in Picasa or Photoshop so they are completely ready to print when she's ready to print. We will discuss this more down below in the printing section.

So here are some questions for you to think about editing and prepping photos:

1. How often do you download your photos? Do you wait until there's a full card or do you do it each time you take new photos?

2. Do you like to edit while you watch TV or listen to a specific podcast, etc. where you know you can put a large chunk of time aside to edit? Or do you need to do it in 15-20 mintues you find here and there? How can you make it so you have the right amount of photos to edit when you sit to do it (so you're not overwhelmed before you even begin.)

3. Is there any part in your editing process that you can cut down? 

4. How and where do you save the photos so they are ready to be printed? 

Sizing Photos

Since I print my photos ahead of time, the most common question I get is how I know what size to print them in. How do I know what size will work best with my layout? The truth is, I don't know. I know that I tend to favor smaller photos. I also know that if I have a series of photos, I like them all to be the same size. So I size each of my photos differently, using small sizes. I make some of them 2x3s and others 3x4.5s etc. When it comes time to scrap, I just work with the size I have. For me, this process works just fine. But here are some ideas from other members of the team:

Donna says:  "I always start my scrapbooking process by pairing photos I want to scrapbook with a corresponding sketch from my sketch notebook.  Then I size and print my photos according to the sketches I have chosen.  Generally I do this in batches and send my photos to be printed at my favorite printer.  I number the pages of my sketch notebook so that I can keep track of which photos go with which sketch.  When I have time to scrapbook I simply pull out my sketch notebook and my photos and put everything together."

Isn't that super-clever? If you're a sketch-user, I think this is a fantastic idea!

 [photo of donna's book]

Just in case you're thinking you can't ever be so sure which sketch you want to use or that you won't change your mind, she also says: "To avoid getting stuck, because sometimes I do change my mind about the focus of a layout, I often print photos in a variety of sizes and choose multiple sketches for any given story.  Any leftover photos are saved for personality or seasonal pages (I like to make pages such as, "my favorite summer photos" and so on), or I will send those extra photos to the grandparents."

It's a matter of having extras vs flexibility. If you want to be more frugal, you need to be more decisive.

If you're not a huge sketch-user, but my system seems too relaxed for you, here's another clever idea from Amy: "When I'm processing photos, I have what I think of as "primary" and "secondary" photos. The secondary pictures are maybe not as strong as the primary photos, or not as important. I print the primary photos as 4x6s and the secondary photos as 2 3x4s. With photos I really, really love, I get 5x7s printed—they are probably my favorite size to work with for one-photo layouts. I store groupings of photos for layouts in ziplock bags, the sandwich size."

Do you have a favorite size? I've come to learn that knowing what size of photos work best for you is a really important step in having your photos ready to go. It's also important to know how many photos you like to have on a page and whether you prefer single-page layouts or double-pagers. All of these decisions will factor in the size of your photos.

Having pictures on hand before you sit to scrap will save you a lot of time and headache. So spending some time thinking about your preferences is worth the effort. Here are some questions to help you decide how you should size your photos:

1. Do you like to use sketches? Can a sketch help dictate sizes for you?

2. Do you like small or large photos? Do you have a favorite size?

3. Do you tend to scrap many photos per page or just one photo?

4. What's your preferred layout size? 

Like most things, deciding the size of your photos ahead of time takes practice but if you put the effort into figuring out how to make it work for you, you will be able to seperate it from the creating time so you can have your photos waiting for you when you sit at your table.

 

Printing and Storing Photos

Now that we've downloaded, edited, and sized our photos, it's time to print them. Here, too, there are a lot of different options available to you. I tend to print my photos at home. Mostly cause I am too impatient for them to come in the mail. Once a month, I open up my 2011 folder and pick all the new photos from that month, I resize them randomly and prepare 8.5x11-sized collages. I then print them out, cut them up, and put them in a small container right next to my desk. During that month, I use those photos for my layouts. Next month, I repeat the process. Some months, I don't get to scrap all the ones I printed and I might do them the next month or I might save them in my excess envelopes. Those envelopes are then used for random projects that come up throughout the year.

Just in case you don't know how to make one, here's a video on how to make collages for layouts. I use this to also just print lots of photos on one page and then cut them out for different layouts.

 

Lisa and Celeste both said they take advantage of sales at my their online photo processing sites and get a bunch of photos printed. Celeste also mentioned making some two-up 3x4s. This way they always have a few photos ready to go.

Several of the others print at home, like me. Erin said that even though she doesn't deliberately print photos in advance, when she's printing photos for a layout, she likes to fill up her 8.5x11 page so she ends up with a bunch of extra photos that she can put in a stash. 

Just so you don't think we all print in advance, Francine says "I only print after I have a general idea of how my page will look, then I decide what size or sizes or if to print in colour or black & white. Any photos that I don't end up using at that time, I place in a storage box, so that I have a source to just pull from without having to go through editing and printing."

So even she ends up with a few extras and a stash to use when the mood strikes. Maybe having all your photos printed ahead of time feels overwhelming so you can just get a few of them ready to use in case you feel motivated to scrap but don't feel like going through the computer and printing photos out.

As I mentioned, I tend to store my pages in a little box, but I loved Alexandra's idea, too. She says, "If I have an idea for the cardstock I'd like to use or the patterned papers, then I'll add them to the picture(s) and slide them in a see-through folder. This way it's easy for me to continue where I left off and my picture+papers are protected." Isn't that fabulous? It makes the process that much easier and faster.

Amy also mentioned storing her photos in groupings. She said she puts them in sandwich-sized ziplock bags. This keeps the connected photos together so you don't have to go digging in your stash each time.

The hardest part of getting the photos printed ahead of time is figuring out the sizing. So if you can commit to a particular size, there are two other questions to answer:

1. How many photos will you use to create this one layout?  (so, how many photos do you need to print)

2. Do you want color or black and white or a combination of the two? 

One you know the sizes and the answer to these two questions, you can start printing your photos ahead of time and building yourself a stash. A word of caution here, I generally recommend that you have a small stash of photos at any particular time. Maybe enough for 8-10 layouts. Unless you're a super-scrapper and create 20-30 layouts a month, it's nice to be able to have a small stash so you don't feel overwhelmed and can regularly add more recent photos to your pile. At least that's what I prefer. If you're more of a heritage scrapper, you might feel differently. Just pay attention to how different sized-stashes effect your scrapbooking and you'll find what's ideal for you.

And here we are. I know reading all of this might seem overwhelming but the idea is to think about all the steps between taking a photo and having it ready to be scrapped. If you can create a process that works for you so that your photos are ready and waiting for you when you sit at your table, you are much more likely to use the creative to create a layout. 

So your homework today is to figure out your own process and how you can make it easier. If you have questions about anything I didn't mention or want further explanations of some of our systems, just leave a message and I'll make sure to respond to comments. If you have other creative ideas please make sure to leave those in the comments, too!

And see you tomorrow when we talk about journaling!