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.
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!
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!
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!
As I was thinking out a good subject for this week I thought of what I like to see while I blogbrowse. I like to see peeks of people's workspaces, their creative processes, and all that behind-the-scene stuff. You know the posts where someone goes through their fabulous scraprooms that are neatly organised and all.
Well, you are not at all going to see anything perfect this week, but I will show you how things work for me and hopefully you can be inspired by something! So, today I´ll show you how I organise my workspace to work for me while I scrapbook.
My scrapbookroom is located in the middle of our house and I love that I can still be midst all the family activity when I scrapbook. It is also always messy! When I took these photos I had just cleaned :). I have 2 desks; one that holds my computer (the printer is underneath), my sewing machine and typewriter. The second table is where the action happens! This is the set up:
1. Well, this is where I work. I used to work tight on the tabletop, but nowadays I have a sheet of heavy cardstock on there to protect the desk + it makes it ok to be messy with the glue and I can cut things to!
2. I keep my alphastamps in a divided container, originally for screws/nails, right on my desk. I lost the lid somewhere along the line so they got all dusty on the floor :) I love that they are right at hand.
3. My desk is a computer desk, so there is a pull out shelf where the keyboard suppose to go. I keep my paper embellishments here. I am a hybrid scrapper so I print most of my embellishments out from digital elements, hence all the papers here.
4. I keep my paper scraps + other bits and pieces in this basket. If the scrap paper fits, it goes in here, larger pieces goes back in the patterned paper basket that I keep under the desk.
5. My typewriter :)
6. A container full of pens, cutting stuff and such.
7. Ah, the bling. All my bling embellishments are stored in an old cupcake form. Organised by color.
8. The shelf holds bits and pieces like a few stamps, flowers etc.
9. This is a great idea! I made this weekly reminder dry erase board to help me keep track of online projects.
10. Sadly I keep my photos here, all unprotected! But I need to keep them where I see them!
This isn´t on any of the photos,but i also have a drawer on my desk that holds adhesives and such + two baskets with stickers, tapes and punches.
In my room I also have two bookshelves I keep my scrapbooking books and my albums. Since I scrap chronologically I have my albums sorted by year. Some years have up to 4 volumes.
I dug up some of the other Creative members craft spaces :)
Hi there everyone!! I don't know about you, but I'm constantly changing how I organize my space. Whenever my space evolves.... my storage has to as well. Including an office? Okay.... the stuff in that corner needs to find a new home. Making room for the kids' art supplies? Okay... that shelf has to go.
I'm trying to convince my hubby to go along with my scheme to make a shallow shelf for my mists out of an old bench... but right now I wanted to share with you all how I store my mist when my space is limited.
Right now I have a little spot in the corner of my room for my mists. Basically they live in metal and wooden boxes. Simple enough. But without seeing the labels on the mists it drives me nuts not knowing what colors I have. So, here's what I do.
The top of the cap of each mist bottle is labelled. I went to the dollar store and picked up a package of those little round stickers... the ones some people use for garage sale pricing. They fit the caps perfectly! Using my Slick Writer I write the name of each color on there. Now I can see which bottle's which.
But that doesn't help me with the color. I tossed around two ideas. Actually misting the stickers with the corresponding color or making a swatch ring.
I decided on making a swatch ring. I really like to take the ring to my layout, fan it out so I can see all my colors at once and then pick from there.
This is my October Afternoon ring.
So, that's my mist system... well, until my hubby's on board with my other plan! ;) How do you store your mists?
Before I begin today's post, I wanted to take a moment to thank Marnie for her amazing post on Saturday. Even though she never brags, Marnie keeps this place going. She is the one who posts the weekly giveaway posts and monthly debuts and she always makes a point to add personality to each and every post. Her pages are the perfect combination of humor and soul. She is witty, kind, caring, and loving. We are very lucky to have her as our leader and I wanted to make sure she knows how cherished she is and how thankful we are for her. Thank you for all you do, Marnie.
Now back to our regularly scheduled program:
In 2008, I started taking daily photos of my then 3-year-old son, David. At that age, kids change quickly and I wanted to capture all of his moments and his spirit as much as I could. This was the same year the 7Gypsies ATC card holder was becoming popular. At the time, I was taking mixed media classes, and when I received a holder as a gift, I decided to create a project combining my photos, art, and the holder.
Each day, I printed my daily photo and painted and stamped an ATC card before I attached the photo to it. My goal was to fill the spinner with a year's worth of photos. I made it to week 24 before I gave up. (Here's a link to see them all.) That's 168 ATC cards. I am not one to give up on a project. In fact, I think that's one of the very very few I've ever walked away from and having it sit on my table was a regular reminder of my "failure." So when we moved to our current house, the holder ended up in a pile in the garage and I tried to forget about it.
I know some people display their layouts in their studio or even frame them around the house. For example, Kelly has this wonderful basket so her kids can grab and look through their favorite albums anytime.
Not me. My layouts sit in their albums above the shelf that stores my supplies. They are organized and I take them down anytime my son asks me to look at some, but in general, they are not accessible to him in that he can't just grab one on his own and look at it.
I will, from time to time, display some of our recent minibooks and guests, or even sometimes David, will thumb through those, but they sit on a high up shelf where David, now six, has to ask me to reach it for him. And, more often than not, they are there cause they look pretty and not because I try to encourage him to revisit all the wonderful memories and stories in them.
For the last year, I've been working out daily on the treadmill in our garage. The little boy, who is only two, hangs out with me in the pack and play but David is free to color or play with legos in the living room if he chooses to do so. Every now and then he will wander into the garage and hang out with us. During one of these days in mid-May, he grabbed the ATC holder (which he knows he can touch) and started looking through the pictures in it.
As I started the short running portion of my exercise, I put my headphones on and when I saw he was talking to me, I asked if he could wait a few minutes. When I was done, he said "I have two things to tell you. One, can we play with this toy again?" (He was pointing at a broken cardbord box he had in one of the photos.) When I told him I wasn't sure we still had the toy, he said, "Ok and the second thing is, looking through this makes me think good thoughts."
His words took my breath away. He had recently been telling me about how he sometimes feels lonely when he's in his room (or at school) and that makes him think sad thoughts and I was telling him that he can always come hug me and that when I feel sad, I try to think good thoughts that make me happy. After our conversation, I'd been worried about him feeling sad and trying to think of ways to work on it with him, and hearing him tell me that my "failed" project was making him happy brought tears to my eyes.
I asked him why it made him happy and he said that he liked seeing pictures of him and his daddy and the pretty art. Not that this should come as a surprise, but I realized yet again that my boy doesn't care about the quality of the photos or the design principles I might or might not have followed in my cards. He didn't care about color theory. He didn't care if I thought it was well balanced. He didn't care that I hadn't finished all 52 weeks. He cared that it had pictures of him and pictures of us and that it had happy colors. And that it was about him.
I asked him if he'd like to take it to his room so that anytime he felt sad, he could look at it as much as he wanted and he nodded. He took it to his room and put it inside the drawer so that his little brother couldn't rip it. It now sits next to his legos and other toys.
The next morning, he said, "you know what mommy, last night I was feeling sad but then I looked at the pictures and they made me happy."
I can't think of a better reason to scrapbook or create art.
This experience made me think about how I wanted to make an effort to make my art more accessible to my kids on a regular basis. I know my two year old is a little too young and will likely want to pull the embellishments off. So for him I could do a photo book or a digital layout. Both of these have no moving pieces and they can easily be reprinted if he rips them. This way, he gets to enjoy them and I don't have to worry about him "ruining it."
For David, I can choose which ones he has more independant access to so that the more fragile pages are still on the higher shelves, but the simpler pages can be accessible to him on a regular basis so he doesn't need my permission to look through them. His words made me remember that these pages I make are for my kids. They are for them to enjoy and remember. And that these albums/projects are not just for "someday." They are also for right now. One of the greatest gifts I can give my children is the appreciation of life as it happens.
Many of us tend to look back and remember the "good old days." What if we could treasure and celebrate the days as we live them? That, to me, is the true gift of scrapbooking the daily life.
So, if you're like me, and put your projects out of reach for fear that they might get "destroyed" or hide projects that you might consider a "failure," I hope that you take the time to sort through them and see if your kids might want to touch, feel, experience some of these on their own. See if you can make your art more accessible to them.
This is not just for your kids, by the way, it's also true for guests, friends, roommates, significant others, or whomever is in your daily life. Making the projects accessible means more people get to experience your photos, stories, and art. And they get to do so right now: while you're still around and can see the joy it brings into their life.
It's that time of year: right now, the three scrapbook stores closest to me seem to get in some new line of supplies weekly. It's absolutely thrilling to stop by and see new items. My love of making layouts grows with each glimpse of never-before-seen paper, ribbon, stickers, and alphabets. (You know I have a hard time resisting the alphabets!) The appeal of the new: It's something that most scrappers succumb to. In the face of fresh supplies, our affection for what we already own (that we previously loved just as much) diminishes. Of course, I do buy some of the new lines—but only what I know I will use. I manage this by way of a recent epiphany.
Scrapbooking isn't my only craft; I'm also a quilter. And my scrapping epiphany actually comes from quilting and from reading quilting blogs. Quilters are just as interested in new fabrics as we scrappers are in new supplies, but they're far less likely to only use new stuff. They mix in their old fabrics in with the new; they save nearly every scrap to work in to some other quilt. A fabric isn't just used once—you'll find it popping up here and there in many different quilts.
Maybe this is because fabric is expensive—at least $10 a yard for the good stuff. You don't want to waste any. But if you do the math, fabric, by the inch, costs about the same as patterned paper. (One yard of fabric is equivalent to about 12 pieces of 12x12 patterned paper; if you pay .80 cents per patterned paper, you're spending $9.60 on a "yard" of paper.) Or maybe it's because you tend to purchase bigger pieces of fabric. But really I think it's simply a different way of looking at supplies. Quilters see their stash as a resource, the place they "shop" from first. The colors and patterns, no matter their age, are simply a medium used to create texture and shape. New stuff is worked in with old stuff to make something that's both useful and beautiful.
I think we scrappers tend to look at our stash as collections. This makes it harder to use our stuff because using it feels like deconstructing the collection. So, instead of shopping our stash, we buy new stuff—and then add it right into the collection. It's a tough cycle to break! When the new stuff comes out each six months or so, your "old" new stuff—what you bought a season before—loses some of its appeal. There in the scrapbook store (or looking at images online), it's easy to become swept up in the "I must have this NEW thing" reaction and to buy only because it is new, not because it will be useful for you. Plus, dare I say this: there's something about using the new stuff that helps you feel like you're in the club, the one that's also using everything new.
The only way to overcome that reaction is this way: use your stuff. I know...I might just be repeating myself. Haven't I been saying that all week? Yes! But something magical happens when you deconstruct your stash. You find yourself making things you love with supplies you love. You come to understand which products work within your design approach and which ones don't, which helps you resist the lure of the new. When you're consistently using your stash, the temptation to buy only what is new clears away. You can see your purchasing options in a simple light: I know I will use this, I know I won't use this.
You might even find there's a powerful little thrill in saying no to something new. You can acknowledge the beauty of something while still knowing it won't work for you—but only if you know what works for you! The rest of today's post will focus on the skill of knowing what to say no to, and what to say yes to.
Creative Energy
Pull out the same older album you browsed through yesterday, when you were looking for trends. Today, don't simply look at it—read it. Give yourself some time, maybe a half hour or 45 minutes, and read as much of your journaling as you can. Think about the stories you've put down, stories that now are much less likely to be lost. Laugh over the little things you might have forgotten if you hadn't written about them. Savor the details that have changed in your life. Remember how it used to be?
Next, pick one of your least-favorite layouts in this album. If you were given the assignment to redo this layout, what would you change? What products would you use? What extra details would you add to the journaling? How would the layout redo change the memory you preserved?
Close the album. Put it back on the shelf. Now, ask yourself: what is more vivid, the stories and the photos, or the products you used? For me, there is nearly always a positive memory attached to the making of a layout. It's a sort of memory layer: the memory of the layout's creation on top of the memory itself. But what makes me the most happy is knowing that the stories themselves are preserved, paired with pictures that help illustrate the experience.
When you look at your albums in this light, the products you use start to lose their importance. You begin to realize that there are a million different ways you could make a layout with the same pictures—but only one memory you are preserving. The products can enhance (or even detract from) the photos, but they can't change the memory itself. That is what endures.
An even more powerful exercise, if you can manage it, is to find someone who doesn't scrapbook to look at one of your albums, and then get her to talk about her reaction. This person could be the subject of your album, or someone else. Anyone who has an interest in your life. You'll notice that her reaction is different than a scrapbooker's would be. As a non-scrapbooker, this person will notice the stories and the photos first, the products second. I realized how profound our written stories are one day when my dad, who has Alzheimer's, spent an afternoon reading my albums. (You can read more about that day here if you're interested.) He was an artistic person, but he never once commented on any embellishment or title treatment or anything else scrap-related. Instead, it was the stories that mattered to him.
Your stories are the things that matter, too.
Smart Shopping
This week, if you've done all the creative energy exercises, you've gone a long way towards understanding what you really do use on your layouts. Take that knowledge with you when you shop for scrapping supplies. Ask yourself: am I drawn to this because it is pretty, because it is new and interesting, because I recognize it as something I will use? Sometimes the answer to all of those questions is affirmative and I count that as an emphatic yes! I can buy this!
When I am faced with all that new product, I try to focus my questions even more:
What do I already own that's similar? Is this different enough to justify the purchase?
Is this similar to something else I've already used often on a layout? Does that similarity mean I'm more likely to use this new thing (because it's worked for me in the past) orless (because it feels repetitive)?
Does this fit into the reality of my scrapbooking or the image of what scrappers are supposed to use? This question helps you think about why you want to buy this new product. As an example: I am consistently drawn to chipboard letters when I'm looking at new stuff. But when I'm actually scrapbooking, I tend to get frustrated by chipboard. Inevitably it doesn't stick (if self-adhesive) or the process of altering it is too time consuming. I know that most scrappers love chipboard. I love it too, in theory; I love it on other people's pages. But in the reality of my layouts, I don't use it that often.
How will this product help me to tell a story? I find that last question to be the most clarifying. It lets me see the new products in a different light. Maybe a saying on a sticker reminds me of a story I haven't told yet, or of an experience I'd like to write more about. Sometimes color can evoke memories, or textures. Sometimes it is a shape—a leaf can remind me of how summer feels, even in the middle of winter, and spark the desire to scrap a summery story.
Organizing
On my scrapbooking desk, I keep two baskets. One holds the tools I use on nearly every single layout: adhesive, small scissors, big scissors, my favorite snap-off knife, and black pens in various thicknesses. The other holds my most recent purchases. I keep all my new stuff right where I can see it because it makes me more likely to use it. I want to use my new stuff quickly not by virtue of its newness or because I want to belong to the club. Instead, it's so I don't add the new products to my collection. If I try to implement the new—by working it in with the older stuff—right away, it doesn't get collected. It gets used.
Once I've used the new stuff in that basket at least once, then I sort what's left (the sheet of stickers missing a few letters, the rest of the brads, some scraps of patterned paper and half a yard of ribbon) into the appropriate drawer or box. This has an added bonus: it lets everything mingle together. Once I've tossed a handful of, say, paper flowers into my flower drawer, I forget who made it and when I bought it. Instead, when I open that drawer, I just see a resource: a bunch of flowers.
Use your Stuff Tip
When I do take the time to alter chipboard, I always love the results. Here are some of my most-used tips:
If I'm altering with patterned paper, I nearly always paint the vertical edge first, with acrylic paint. Some of the paint will, of course, slop over onto the top of the letter or shape. Before the paint dries, I place the patterned paper right on top of the paint, then smooth it down. As it dries, the paint adheres the paper just as well as any glue, and I can skip the gluing step altogether.
If the chipboard shape I'm using is self-adhesive and reversible, I alter the back side. This doesn't work, of course, for many letters (like F, G, L, and R), but it will work for some (like T, A, and V), and most shapes can be altered this way. I peel the backing off and then start sticking stuff down right on top of the adhesive, which is easier to work with than wet glue. Then I just glue the piece down on my layout.
If you are in desperate need of two chipboard shapes, but you only have one, try peeling that one piece into two. Most chipboards are thick enough that they can take this abuse! The resulting two pieces might need some sanding or paint to look presentable again (make sure to peel carefully!), but you've solved your desperate plight.
Although it seems like it would be too thick, chipboard can be sewn. Use a denim needle and a wide stitch length; sew slowly so your needle doesn't break. You also might have to adjust the tension, too. It looks nice when you're finished though!
Use Your Stuff Daily Challenge: Mix old and new
Working with whatever type of product or medium you want, incorporate at least one botanical shape (flower, leaf, grass, tree, etc), one narrow rectangle, and one curvy shape (paisley, fleur-de-lis, swirl, wave, etc). Try for a mix of old and new supplies.
Celeste made this layout using the suggestions in the challenge:
I love this layout—the colors, the products, and, mostly, the journaling. I think the products do exactly what products should: they draw your eye to the photo and create a mood that enhances the story.
Here's mine:
(Did you see that!? I used some chipboard!) Here is what I mean about mixing old and new. The yellow patterned paper (from Echo Park's For the Record line) is a new one I bought just a couple of days ago; the brown pattern is about a year old, the big flowers are somewhere in between, and I've had some of the small flowers for years. But when I opened up my flower drawer, I didn't look for new. I looked for what worked with the layout I had in mind.
Now that my week is over, I'm really, really hoping some of the tips and exercises I've shared will inspire you to use your stuff, too!
Before I wrote this post, I accomplished a task I’ve been needing to do—and dreading—for years: I decluttered my desk drawer. The drawer in question is the short-but-deep middle drawer of one of my favorite treasures, an antique desk I inherited from my grandpa Fuzz. Inside it is where I theoretically keep all my metal bits and pieces, but really it was crammed with a hodgepodge of stuff I hadn’t had the courage to work through in far too long.
Mixed in with empty bobbins, printer cartridges, and packaging, long-lost sewing machine parts, a house key, and Jacob’s library card were three (yes, three, I’m ashamed to confess) divided boxes with metal bits: eyelets, brads, charms, chains, and corners. Grommets and hinges and ribbon pulls and even a few little buckles. Plus the various tools you’d need to use all that metal on a layout or two. This mess was only sort of organized. If by “organized” you mean it would only take me, say, ten minutes or so to find exactly the brad I want to use—then, yes, it was organized.
Because here’s the thing: the only metal objects I really ever use on my layouts are brads. Everything else feels too heavy or thick or potentially layout-damaging for my design aesthetic. As I sorted out my metal issues, I thought about trends. How they come and go in the scrapbooking world (as elsewhere, of course), how they influence not only what we buy but what we feel—about the layouts we make and where we fit as scrappers. It’s a delicate balance: we want to fit in and have the same fun everyone else is having while we also stay true to ourselves.
I was completely untrue to myself with the eyelet topic. I liked the look on other people’s layouts, but I hated setting them and never could get them to look right. Maybe I liked all the tools—that little hammer was irresistible. Maybe it was the eyelets themselves, the neatly circumscribed hole begging to be tied with something cute. But really: I bought eyelets because everyone else was buying eyelets.
(I was not 15 when I did this.)
You’d think I’d know better. I do now as I sit here, sorting through my metals. Here’s proof: I put every single eyelet—even the cute silver flower ones I’ve been holding on to now for a decade or so—into my discard box. The tools for setting them are also in there. In fact, I narrowed down all my metal options from three boxes into just one—and there are still two empty spaces in that box. I feel empowered and free; I’m also certain I still own far too many brads. But at least I know what I have and can find them, which is exactly what is needed so I can use them.
Today’s post isn’t only about brads & eyelets & charms. It’s about all the little bits and pieces that make layouts outstanding. Journaling cards and die cut shapes and ribbon and rub-ons and yes, even brads and eyelets and buckles. Everything that isn’t paper, cardstock, or lettering supplies.
Creative Energy Today, think about your reaction to scrapbooking trends. How have they influenced your layouts in the past? How do they continue to shape your process?
Pull out an older album—one you worked on about five or six years ago. Flip through the entire book, focusing just on the trends you followed. (By “trend” I mean a technique or a way of using supplies that is or was new, innovative, unseen.) Do they trendiest layouts feel dated now, or do they pass the time test? Jot down a quick list. Put a check mark next to the ones you stopped using but still like. Cross out the ones you know don’t fit with your current design style. Then ask yourself: how could you implement one of those trends on one of your upcoming layouts?
My list included: dry embossing, hand drawn titles, eyelets (yep, I did use a few!), water coloring, chalking, faux metal letters, fibers (anyone else remember fibers? That is the next drawer I need to conquer!), color blocked papers, sanded edges, doodled designs (I am horrible at doodling!), and burned paper edges. One of the techniques I still like is dry embossing, although I don’t do it very often. (I can only shake my head at the burned paper edges which have, of course, smudged everywhere.) I did, however, find all my dry embossing templates when I cleaned out that drawer, so I think the technique will show up soon.
The point of this exercise is to help you think about what you like, rather than what the current trends say you should like. Jack Kerouac said that “great things are not accomplished by those who yield to trends,” and I think that applies to scrapbooking as well as it does to writing. The great thing you accomplish through scrapbooking is sticking down pieces of yourself alongside the pieces of your subject. This doesn’t mean you can't explore and play. It does mean that it is OK—more than just OK—to do things that you like, not because industry trends told you to, but because you like them.
Smart Shopping In the realm of trends, it’s tempting to buy everything all at once. Instead, try to take it in small bites to see if you really like the trend. If you have a scrapping friend, consider going halfsies on things you can split up (like eyelets!) or sharing tools. If you shop at a scrapbook store, ask if they have a sample you can try before you buy. Or buy the very minimum. Here’s the kicker, though: when you get this new trendy supply or tool home, use it. Use it quickly! Don’t let the creative energy that builds over the new thing dwindle. See if the new trend is something you can incorporate into your style. Ask yourself: is this a trend that will pass, or will it become a staple?
Organizing decorative brads (by which I mean the larger brads, with images, that come stuck in those white foam rectangles): I tend to buy this kind of brads with a specific purpose for one or two of them, and I buy the coordinating paper or letter stickers. After I’ve used the brads I bought the package for, I take the rest of them out of the foam rectangle and sort them. The small, plain ones go with the rest of that color of brad in my (one!) metals box. The other decorative brads all get dumped into one central box. That way, I can see them out of the “context” of the rest of the coordinating items, which means I can see different uses for them.
ribbon:most of my ribbon is organized in small drawers, based on colors. But I buy long lengths of my favorites (black, white, pink, and shades of blue), and these get flung over the clothes rod that’s still in the closet of my office. They stay much less wrinkled this way, and plus: they brighten up that little corner of the room.
small, flat pieces: I have one central basket where I toss small things like punch-outs, rub-ons, and journaling stickers. Sometimes I do have to hunt through this basket to find exactly what I’m looking for, but during the hunt I usually find something I’ve forgotten about, too. Riffling through your products is an excellent way to spark your creative energy!
Use Your Stuff Tip journaling spots/stickers/labels/cards: confession: I almost never use these for journaling—I have too much to say and can’t fit it all in that little space. But I also love the structured space you find on a journaling product. I use them quite often as the background of my title. I line up as many as I need—not all from the same manufacturer—then layer the title on top. Or, try buying multiples of the same journaling card (three or five) so you have more space to write your story.
brads: I keep a thumb tack in my box of brads. It will stick through almost everything—even chipboard—and makes the perfect size hole to slip your brad into.
rub-ons: one of the best things about rub-ons is their seamability. (That is not a real word, but it should be!) This means that if you pull the rub-on covering up too soon, while some of the design is not yet rubbed on all the way, it is simply a matter of matching up the edges and then seaming it back together by continuing to rub. It also means it’s easy to combine two different rub-on designs. They’ll look like they belong together because the seams just rub together.
Use Your Stuff Daily Challenge
Make a layout that uses the following bits and pieces: one die cut or punch out shape, two journaling tags, shapes, or stickers, three pieces of ribbon, two rub-ons and one brad. Alter the number of items if you want, but try to use each of the products.
And here are some challenge layouts from the WCS collective!
She used all of the challenge suggestions, but found the rub-ons the hardest. "I almost never use them," she told me, "but, I also never buy them anymore. I sort of learned that I'm not a rub-on girl and I've changed my buying habits accordingly." This sort of realization—and the change in shopping—is just what I am talking about!
(if you're counting, the die-cut is the small yellow button, the two journaling blocks are the sticker that is underneath the title and the circle die-cut that is in the lower left-hand corner, the three pieces of ribbon are up at the top of the layout, the two rub-ons are a piece of rub-on stitching that I cut in two and are at the boundaries between the green and yellow or green and blue pp and the phrase "It's all about the memories," and the one brad is the little owl)
Here's Monica's layout (again with the shoes! I love this pair, too!)
I love how she used all the products but still worked in plenty of white space!
(counts for Monika's page: die cut is the dress pattern, the journaling tags have journaling on them, the 3 pieces of ribbon are the butterfly print, the ball trim and shipping twine wrapped around the dress pattern die cut, the rub-ons are the zig-zag stitch on photos and at bottom right of cardstock and bracket shape, and the brad is by the ruffle)
And my stab at it:
Every once in awhile I go all-out and use a ton of product on a layout...these pictures felt like they wanted a lot of stuff!
(the punch out is the word "sun," the journaling tags—I used three—are under "warm spring sun," "sipping soda," and "grandpa's flowers," the three ribbons make the border, the two rub-ons are in the bottom corners, and the one brad is the word "play")
And, last but not least, today's card (I am happy to report I didn't have to make any extra cuts to make the card—it's completely scrap-made!)
So! Do share: is there a trend you wish you hadn't spent so much on?
I have a confession: I’ve a teeny, tiny obsession with letter stickers. Sure—chipboard letters are enticing. There’s the flexibility of cutting letters with my Silhouette, or stamping them, or even drawing them on my own. There’s also something to be said for rub-on letters, which are my second-favorite. But when it comes right down to it, my most-favorite, go-to-every-time title (and subtitle and sometimes even journaling) product is letter stickers. They are fast, versatile, and simple. In fact, I think I buy more letter stickers than any other scrapping supply—even patterned paper!
I'm certain you have your favorite lettering supply or technique, too. Alphas are such an essential part of a layout. Today's focus is on all those fabulous letters.
Creative Energy Yesterday you thought about how you use your supplies. Today, think about your shopping habits. Working with your three favorite colors, try to find the last ten or so lettering supplies that you’ve purchased. Make a list: type, color, brand. Put a checkmark next to the ones you’ve already used.
Now, within the generic “lettering supply” term, try to get a little bit more specific. What shape of font is your favorite? What size, texture, or mood feels most like you? To answer this question, pull an album off of your shelf (something other than the layouts you looked at yesterday) and flip through it. Pay attention to only the way you made letters. You could even keep a tally, if you want.
Is there a contrast between the lettering supplies you purchase and the ones you really use? That’s a sign: your purchases aren’t as useful as they could be. Try to analyze what draws you to purchase things versus use them. I’ll hold myself up as an example: it’s easy for me to get swept up in the "this is brand new and I have to have it right now" feeling. But when I look at what I really use, I can see two basic categories, script type and very simple types (either serif or sans) of alphabet stickers. I hardly ever use cute types, even if I love them in the scrapbook store. Knowing that, when I’m shopping I can more easily see if my I have to have this right now feeling is based on the excitement of something new or the recognition of something I’ll actually use.
Find the list you made yesterday—the one about your patterned paper preferences. Take a few minutes to analyze the difference between what you buy and what you use, focusing on your favorite lettering supply. Now add to your list—what lettering supply do you use most consistently? What style? Which supplies do you buy but not use consistently? Write this on your list.
Take a deep breath. Pick out three or four alphabet supplies you probably won’t use and put them into your discard box.
Smart Shopping If I go to the scrapbook store simply because I find myself near one with a half hour or so to burn, it is easy for me to spend too much on stuff I’m likely not to use. Here are a few ways I control my spending when I'm browsing (instead of shopping for something specific, which we'll talk about later in the week):
I don’t put anything in my basket until I’ve looked at everything in the store. Once it’s in my basket, it feels like it’s mine, so it’s harder to say no to.
Before I put it in my basket, I think about how I would actually use the item. If I can only think of one way, I generally don’t buy it.
I give it the Cupid Test. Once upon a time, a long long time ago, I fell in love with a cupid-shaped punch. I adored it! Until I got it home, used it on a layout—a Valentine’s day spread—and then realized: yeah, when else will I use this? If something is so specific to a theme or a holiday that its versatility is lost, it fails my Cupid Test.
Bending the rules is allowed! I give myself some leeway so I don’t start to feel frustrated. Especially if something I want is on sale, I let myself indulge on one or two items.
If I discover an alphabet sticker that will work on several layouts, I buy two sheets. This alleviates some of my alphabet sticker anxiety.
Organizing Lettering Supplies Nearly every layout has some sort of lettering on it, so keeping these supplies organized is useful. What are your favorites? Keep them close to your workspace. The alphabet stickers I use the most are white, black, green, and blue; I keep these in a basket on the shelf above my desk. The others are all organized by color, so if I need some yellow alphabet stickers, I have to move across the room, but if I need white ones, they’re within reaching distance.
I keep all my raw and white chipboard letters in their own drawer. These are the ones I’m most likely to alter somehow, so I also keep my white and black paint in that drawer. (I like painting the vertical edge of chipboard either black or white, no matter how else I might alter it.)
Rub-on letters are the only products I keep in their packaging. I’ve had too many rub-on malfunctions happen to not store them like this! (It’s always that one last E you really, really need that was accidentally rubbed onto the inside of your storage container, isn’t it?) I also store these by color.
Use Your Stuff Tip Breaking into a brand-new sheet of letter stickers always gives me a bit of anxiety. There’s that little part of me that worries “what if these would work better on a different layout?” or “maybe this layout isn’t the place for these letters?” I get over this fear by keeping in mind a couple of things:
This is not the only “perfect” letter sticker (or rub on or ribbon or whatever I’m having anxiety about using). After scrapping for 15 years, I’ve seen a ton of new releases and learned this essential truth: there will always be something new. In six more months there’ll be a whole new batch of product I love just as much as this one. Saving it for the “perfect” layout is the perfect way to ensure it never gets used.
If the word, phrase, or title I’m using the stickers for is very long, I make sure I have enough of each letter before I start peeling off stickers. I usually jot down what I’m spelling onto whatever small scrap of paper is close by; I put tally marks next to the letters I need more than one of. This also helps me to see the words—so I don’t spell anything wrong!
I also mix letter stickers quite often. Breaking into two new sheets, or using an old one with a new one, alleviates the anxiety. Plus it makes for a more visually-interesting title!
I remind myself often that, in the end, all that really matters about a layout is that I matched a story with a picture. Everything else—even those perfect letter stickers—is just icing.
Use Your Stuff Daily Challenge: Letter Stickers
Create a layout that mixes and matches letter from a black sheet of stickers, a white sheet, and one other color, each from a different manufacturer; find one of your oldest non-letter stickers and use it your layout too.
Here’s Jody Dent-Pruk's take on the challenge. I adore the simplicity of the design combined with the pop of energy the title makes:
Our other Jody, Jody Wenke, also took the sticker challenge. I love the detail in that last “O”!
Here’s my take on the challenge:
Note how we each used a small themed sticker to add detail to our layouts. Somehow along the line, stickers got a bad rap, but I think they’re perfect for adding pop to a layout. The one I used is ancient; I know I bought it before 2003 because that’s when the store I purchased it from went out of business.
Here’s the card I made with my left-over supplies:
The seashells are the back side of that green dot patterned paper. It felt too girly for the layout, but perfect for the card!
