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Making a vacation album: organizing the album

Hello! It's Jennifer Larson again, sharing more about my process for creating vacation albums. Here's the schedule for the week again:

Monday: Memorabilia and journaling

Tuesday: Organizing the album

Wednesday: Selection photos

Thursday: Layouts

Friday: Alternate albums

And today I'll talk about how I go about organizing the album.

Though I take notes during the vacation day by day, I don't create an album organized by days. Instead, I open up my vacation photos in PSE and browse through them to see what I took photos of:

(Note: I do not tag any photos when I import them. I probably should, but I generally remember the year and month things happened, so I just scroll until I find those pictures. It may be a little more time consuming, but doing this sometimes helps me discover long-buried stories along the way, which makes me happy).

Once I find the photos, I scroll through them, taking notes of themes that I can turn into layouts. For example, in my camping albums, I often have a page about our campsite, plus ones of various hikes we went on, locations we visited, and any water activities we did. Here's how I have tentatively organized the vacation album I'm working on for Glacier/Spokane:

1. Title page and contents (I always put a family photo on this page)
2. The road out
3. St. Mary's Campground
4. Hike with Mel and Dean (this title will change; I have to look in my journaling for the name of the trail)
5. Waterfalls (this will probably be a four-page layout because of the number of pictures and the depth of the story)
6. Logan Pass
7. Fish Creek Campground
8. Bowman Lake backcountry camping (this too will be four pages)
9. Polebridge (not sure this will be a spread, but it was memorable, so I have a placeholder)
10. Mel's house
11. Spokane (this might be 4 pages)
12. Dean's house
13. Looking back (on the last page I usually put a couple favorite photos, often taken from behind, with a quotation that seems to capture the vacation)

 Now that I have decided the subject for each layout, I am ready to start selecting photos for each layout. I'll share my process for that tomorrow!

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Out with the Old: Clear Your Desk & Make A DIY Scrapbook Kit

Hey Scrapbookers!  It's Katie Scott.

I'm excited to start fresh with my scrapbooking in 2016.  I had a challenging 2015 and didn't get to do much scrapbooking over the fall, so the supplies out on my scrapbooking desk seem stale and uninviting.  Here's what I did to clear my desk and make a DIY scrapbook kit to set myself up for more inspired scrapbooking in 2016 - give it a try and see if it helps you to feel ready to scrapbook:

1. Clear Your Scrapbooking Table: I cleared off my desk completely and put a new paper liner on it.  By taking everything off of my desk, I have a fresh slate and I will only put things back on the desk that I know I really want there.  Even if my desk doesn't look like this again in 2016, it feels good to have it cleared off right now.

2. Put Your Completed Layouts in Albums:  I keep a stack of completed layouts - it was long overdue for me to put them in page protectors and put them into albums.  While this process isn't always my favorite part of scrapbooking, it does allow me to take stock of what I have done and seeing all those completed layouts is inspiring.  The video link below includes a review of the layouts that I put away in to the albums on my Ikea shelves.

 

3. Put Away Any Supplies That Are Out: I find it useful to keep some things out that I use over and over for scrapbooking - like paper trimmers, adhesive, scissors, and basic tools.  But I seem to accumulate a stack of stuff - like papers, letter stickers and embellishments - that don't seem to get put away; taking time to put these items away helps to completely clear the decks.  Even if you don't organize all of your supplies - try to pick one category of items, like dimensional embellishments and wood veneers, and get them into order.

4. Make a DIY Scrapbook Kit:  I like to use an embellishment pack or a piece of patterned paper as my inspiration for creating a scrapbooking kit from my stash.  I try to pick supplies that are the newest to me an mix in some older product to help me feel excited and productive.  Then I make some scrapbook pages!

 

I made a video of my clearing the decks scrapbook process which includes a review of a big stack of layouts I completed in 2015: 

 

I hope that you will give this clearing the decks and creating a kit process a try - if you do make a kit, please leave us a comment with a link to a photo of you kit - I would love to see it!

:) Katie Scott.

 

 

Let's Make An Organizer

When recently going through some of my scrapbook supplies I ran across some super cute divider pages.I believe they were made for Smashbooks, but I had other plans for them.

The title spurred the entire idea to make an organizer to help keep me on track with things to do, projects, stuff I need to get and notes in general.

Divide & Conquer...how genius is that?!

Ok, let's get started!

   

Supplies

I love the bright colors...a different one for each section. 

I started by cutting the little hooks off the ends.

Next, I selected the paper for my inside pages. Instead of regular copy paper, I decided to use patterned paper since I have an abundant supply. :)

Organize

Once I had selected my paper, I sorted it into colors to coordinate with the tabs. I selected 10 sheets per section.

Assembling

I cut each page the same size as the divider pages, stamped titles onto the tabs and bound the book with my Bind It All. For the finishing touch I added an ampersand flair, from A Flair for Buttons, over the existing one printed on the cover to dress it up a bit.

On the inside pages I added copy paper to the pages that I thought would be difficult to see writing on, adhering it with washi tape.

Below are just a few pages from each of the sections.

Red Section - To Do

Orange Section - Urgent

Blue Section - Projects

Green Section - Notes

Pink Section - Shopping

I can't wait to start using my organizer, making to-do lists, and jotting down notes. I hope this will inspire you to dig into your stash and make an organizer that fits your needs too!

You can easily duplicate this project by making divider pages using cardstock or patterned paper from your stash. For the title page, use letter stickers or Thickers for a little dimension. Customize the tabs to fit your needs.

If you don't have binding machine, use 2-3 jump rings to keep it together. If using jump rings, you can even add or remove pages as needed!

Thank you for visiting today...I hope this has inspired you to dig into your stash and make something pretty to keep you organized.

Summer Summaries

Summer is quickly winding down - far too fast it seems - and if you are like me, you have a nice little pile of random photos from this all too brief season. After all, we take more photos in the summer than any other time of year. These casual shots likely do not warrant their own individual layouts, but neither do they deserve to be tossed in the trash. Today I'm going to present several ideas for combining these pictures on layouts that will help you summarize the summer season.

 

1. Unite Your Photos with A Map

Aside from The Big Vacation (it was the beach for us this year), we love to take little day trips that are closer to home. This layout combines one photo from each place we visited and a map that neatly summarizes our wanderings. That was such a fun summer!

2. Unite Your Photos by Location

The pool, the park, the zoo...think of all the places you frequent every summer and take photos every time you go. Do you really want to scrap a separate layout for each visit? No, me neither. A summer summary layout is the perfect solution. In this case, I stayed very close to home with a layout about the summer world that lies right outside my door.

 

3. Unite Your Photos with a Color Scheme

One year I selected a few random photos, added some fun product and created a summary layout based on color. The yellow, green and black palette reminds me of summer and I was able to unite the page even further with my journaling. Color always makes me happy.

 

4. Unite Your Photos with a Letter of the Alphabet

Look at the objects in your photos. Can you select a grouping that all begin with the same letter of the alphabet and use that to create a summer summary layout? That's exactly what I did here using the letter "B". This is still one of my favorite summer pages.

 

5. Unite Your Photos with a Common Theme

Summer eating is glorious. So much fresh produce, casual meals eaten outdoors, and ice cream. Lots of ice cream. We constantly snap pictures of summer food and I have actually created an entire layout about corn on the cob, but that is another story. This summer summary page uses photo strips of 2x2 shots to capture our favorite summer foods. Now I'm hungry!

 

There you go, five ideas for organizing and scrapping those stray summer photos. So many summer memories deserve a place in our scrapbooks. Combining them strengthens those memories and their impact on our lives. Happy scrapping!

Documenting Your December - Introduction & Organizing

Hi everyone!!  Welcome to a new week at write. click. scrapbook. This week we are diving into the holiday season early to get you all ready to document your December.

Ali Edwards embarks on her traditional "December Daily" every year and the result is just amazing! This will be my third year of completing a December album and it is, by far, my favorite project each year. I love pulling out my albums at the beginning of the holiday season and flipping through our memories. My kids and husband especially love them, which make them even more special!

Today I thought I would focus on "getting organized" since that's the sometimes the biggest part of the project....and the most fun, I think! I keep all of my Christmas supplies tucked away in plastic bins and only pull them out when Christmas is in sight! It keeps them "magical" and new!

Once I pull out my supplies, I try to organize them to see what I have to work with.  I love using random little bowls and muffin tins when I organize. Cups, bowls and smaller dishes make it easy to transport your embellishments and other supplies when working on your album. 

Glass jars are perfect for storing your supplies as well! They keep everything in sight, and like the bowls, are easy to transport from place to place!

Baskets are great for storing larger items like sticker sets, bags, stamp sets and alphas. You can often find great baskets at the dollar store of the dollar spot at Target!

I keep loose items, like tags, trimmed papers and die cuts, in a small suitcase. When I work on my album, I dump everything out on my table and then rummage through them to find the perfect embellishment! To clean up, I just add everything back into the suitcase and then close the lid. 

So go get your supplies out and start organizing! I promise you will be inspired to create once you get everything unpacked and out in the open!  

I will be back tomorrow to continue on our "Documenting Your December" week!

Stamp Week | Intro, Organization, and Storage Ideas

 

Hi everyone!  It's Laura O'Donnell here.  This is my week on the blog and I'm going to talk about stamping.

First up I've got a coupon code to share from a very cool stamp company.

Technique Tuesday is offering 20% off to wcs readers with coupon code WRITECLICK.  This coupon is valid October 14 - 18 for everything except Studio AE and Greenhouse Society memberships.  

They have also sent some stamps to my wcs teammates to make projects with and I've got some stamp giveaways, too, which I'll share at the end of this post.

Today I'm going to talk about how I organize and store my stamps.  I don't have a dedicated craft room so I have to keep my stash of all papercrafting supplies fairly light and somewhat organized.  But whether your space is big or small I think storage ideas appeal to everyone.

I do have some wood mount and rubber cling stamps, but the clear stamps are what I reach for the most.  I store mine in Avery D Ring binders and Martha Stewart/Avery Secure Top Sheet Protectors.

And then here is where I keep the stamp binders and my most used scrap supplies.  I bought this cabinet at Pier 1 about 7 years ago.  I went into the store and measured the interior to be sure the vertical 12"x12" paper storage holders would fit.  On the bottom shelf in the green and blue binders are all of my stamps.  When I'm getting ready to make a layout or a card or Project Life page I go in here to pull patterned papers and embellishments and since the stamps are right there I flip through the binders and hopefully find some stamps.  All of my inks, embossing powders, and mists are in small plastic tubs in a closet in my kitchen.  I really don't do any papercrafting in this living room.  I use my kitchen island, so it makes sense for me to keep the inks in the kitchen.  I'm constantly carrying stuff back and forth but I don't let it stop me.

So now that you've got your coupon and some organising ideas here are a few stamped layouts made by myself and W.C.S. teammates

This is one that I made.  Just some very simple stamping.  Inking up the Everyday Words stamps with black ink and stamping right on the layout.

Francine made her background paper by using mists to ink her stamps.  The result is pure texturey goodness.

For this page Lisa used a tiny outline circle stamp filled in with paint to custom make a pattern for her title card.

Here is a closeup of the card she made with the tiny outline circle stamp from the Year Round stamp set pictured below.

And here is a beautiful page by Amy

Here are Amy's notes about her page:  In this layout I wanted to tell my husband of almost eight years all of those things that I feel on a daily basis, but don’t always say and Technique Tuesday’s Label Maker Stamp Set by Ali Edwards was perfect for helping me to add those sentiments to my page in a few fun ways.  Once I had my page foundation laid down I stamped directly on my background, using the “Thank you for being in my life” stamp, the heart stamp and the chevron stamp.  The I added another sentiment, stamped in white on back cardstock just under my photo, creating a bit of a “chalkboard” inspired look.  I used two different ink pads, Perfect Medium by Ranger Ink for my watermarking and the Staz-On Opaque White. 

 

 

I've got one more thing for today

Leave a comment on this post and I will do a draw to give away the stamps pictured above.  I person will receive Super Fantastic, 1 person will receive Favorite Circles, and 1 person will receive Twinkle On.  I will announce the lucky numbers on Friday the 18th.

See you tomorrow.

Organizing Scraps

Hello, it's Jenny Larson, and it's summer, which means one big thing for me: organization. I teach high school students the rest of the year, so most of my organziation happens in the summer. I thought I'd share for you my sorting and purging process for my scraps, plus a way I challenge myself creatively while doing it.

First, I store my scraps by color in file folders in this bin (plus a seprarate file each for themes, multicolors, and stripes. If papers are two sided, I file them by my favorite sides). As you can see it is stuffed; I haven't sorted and purged in a while, so it's time!

The first thing I do is go through each piece. I don't look at brand. I just go by my gut if I think I'll use it again, particularly based on what's in my stash now. If I have a lot of a particular pattern (yes, red polka dots, I'm talking about you), then I just include one or two.

This is my finished, thinner red scraps file. (Note about the file folders: I think I got them in the Target dollar section, which is where I get most of my scrapping organization tools, in addition to the clearance section at Joann's.)

Occasionally I have to stop and get nostalgic. Remember Chatterbox and Scenic Route? Two of my all time faves. *Sigh*

And this is the finished, much emptier scrap bucket! It will be much less cumbersome for me to dig in and use my scraps now.

Next issue: what to do with the scraps?

 

There's many things you can do with them, but I take them to my sons' former day care. They use them to teach colors and have the kids practice cutting and making art projects. I don't feel bad at all about donating them there because I tend to use patterned paper more than once and still end up with big scraps at the end.

 

To challenge myself as I purged, I randomly selected pieces to use on a page. I started with the die cut paper on the bottom. I figured if I didn't challenge myself to use it, I would have to toss it. From there I kept out random pieces that seemed to match.

 

And here's the page I made with the final, random scraps! Everything here is old Stash, so I feel very good now.

Thank you for sharing my sorting/purging/organization process! Good luck as you tackle any organizational challenges yourself this summer.

Welcome to "Use Your Stash" Week

Hey everyone, I am so happy to be here this week to help us use all that scrapbooking stash you have laying around.  With all the CHA goodies coming out, I'm sure you're quite tempted to reach for your wallet and load up on new supplies, but how about we try and make a dent in the stuff we have already purchased?  

I'm starting out the week with a post on organizing your stuff.  For me, I totally forget what I have unless it's out in front of me.  I try to keep myself organized so that I actually use those gorgeous products that I purchase.  Here is a little peek into my scrap space.

 

I usually purchase kits, instead of individual supplies.  I found that this helps me to actually use all my supplies before purchasing more.  I keep my kits together in the drawers under my desk so they're easy to grab and use. When my kit is almost used up, I move my embellishments into these small baskets on my desk.

 

These baskets hold my journaling supplies and embellishments, so they are right at my fingertips. I try to go through these baskets every few months and clean them out.  I always have a box for donating supplies handy.  

 

Christine also sent some pictures of her very organized space.  She said she's a firm believer in open storage so that she can see what she has and use it. She also keeps her most often used items near her work table so that seh has easy access to them. Both help her to use her stash!

How about a challenge to get our week started off?  You have until Friday, Feb 22 at midnight, and I'll pick a lucky number.  What's the challenge?

Use at least 3 older products to create a project of your choice tag, card, layout, mini, whatever you'd like and link us up to your project in the comments.

What will you get? How about a GC to Chic Tags? They have a great selection of tags and flair for you to pick from. The person chosen will get a $35 GC to spend on whatever they'd like.

Now, let's use up that stash to make room for more!!

PREPPING FOR A GOOD YEAR day three: school

Welcome back to our week of planning! Thank you for all your kind comments yesterday! I hope that yesterday sparked some ideas for you and helped you think of new ways to tackle repeating events, sporting or otherwise!!

Today we are moving on to another set of pages that could be preplanned: school events. My children's school puts out a yearly calendar that includes all the classroom, PTA, and extracurricular events added by date for the entire school year. As I was dragging and dropping said events into our personal calendar, I made a list of things that would be going on for my kids. Here is that list:

1. day one
2. meet the teacher
3. book fair
4. fall party
5. winter party
6. valentines party
7. spring concert
8. teacher appreciation
9. field day
10. last day

I know that I will bring my camera to these events, and that I will want to document their details. So I am going to build ten layouts that can sit and wait for their photos.

But how will I know what the photos will look like? Well, chances are most of my photos will be horizontal. And having been through a couple (or more!) school years, I have a pretty good idea of what the pictures will be. As for color choices, each of my kids has their favorites, which means their clothes are pretty predictable as well. Further, the parties will match the seasons. I think this gives me enough to get started, and I can make some some small changes or additions later if necessary. Of course, if I know the colors on the layout, I can always dress them accordingly, right? heehee!! (so not above that one. so not above.)

Now, I hear a few of you wondering why not wait for the event to happen and then scrapbook it with pictures in hand? Well, remember yesterday when I noted that event layouts are neither my forte nor my favorite? Well, I'm quite sure that without these ready to go pages, the photos will sit in well organized folders waiting for their day. And despite my good intentions, history has proven that fear of event layouts trumps intention. Nearly without exception.

Until now! Because I have taken this understanding of my weakness and embraced it and figured out a way around it! Hooray for me! Hooray for nearly done pages!!

Here we are! Ten layouts ready for their closeups, Mr. DeMille.

1. day one


2. meet the teacher


3. book fair - For this layout, I looked to Lisa's layout for basic design and structure


4. fall party - I created this one based upon an August Becky Fleck Pagemap


5. winter party


6. valentine's party - this one is from a layout of Deb from the same post as Lisa's layout I used in #3 (I love the weekend posts... You, too?)


7. spring concert


8. teacher appreciation - I recycled an old layout for this one! sneaky...





9. field day - This layout is based upon Valerie's page in our Summer Lovin' gallery





10. last day
    
    

How about your school year? Have you checked your calendar to see what pages you could make ahead? Feel free to copy mine if you would like. I'd be honored that you might want to! I would love you to be this excited for a school's year beginning!! And if you have no school kids, yet or no longer, perhaps just having 10 new layouts is reason for happiness??

I hope you will come back tomorrow for another day of planning and prep! Don't you love the feeling of success on the horizon??!!

A demain! (until tomorrow)

PREPPING FOR A GOOD YEAR day one: intro

Hello! Welcome back to our regularly scheduled programming! This week we resume our week-long author weeks, and I have the pleasure of starting us out!!

I love September! I grew up in a family filled with teachers and September is our January. It is the month of new shoes, new clothes, new pencils, new patterns. And new resolutions. For me, January is the middle of a year, the middle of a season, the middle of many things. Which doesn't make it conducive for making changes, for me. September, on the other hand, seems ripe with opportunity and promise. Even during those in between years with no school (finished college, no school age kids yet), I still felt the urge for change nudging me each September.

This year is especially wondrous in our home as Lavender began kindergarten. For the first time in 8 years, I am home alone for 4 hours every day. My scrapbooking life is thrilled! Three years ago when Nigel began football, my evenings suddenly disappeared. Add to that piano, gymnastics, ballet, homework, church activities, free play, eating, and bedtime routines, and well, my evenings have evaporated and my scrapbooking hours have dwindled increasingly.

But suddenly I am going to have a few stolen hours! It made for an exciting September brainstorm this year! As I sat with pen and notebook in hand brainstorming my lifeplans for this next year, including my scrapbooking goals, I had so much fun knowing that I had a guilt free silent period!!

When I sit to map out the year, I try to not only make plans for success, but to honestly, and frankly, write down some observations about life as it currently exists. I do this topic by topic, activity by activity. I find it helps me figure out my goals, and to recognize my limitations. Failed grand plans cause me extreme heartache--honest doable plans are much more likely to be successful, both for outcome and mental/emotional health!!

Here are a few observations about my upcoming year of scrapbooking:

I have limited time. I have many repeating events and therefore repeating photos. Lots of our activities are scheduled so I know in advance what I will be scrapbooking. (This is in direct contrast to the tiny baby years where we had NO schedule and no idea of the pages I wanted to create.) I want to maximize my success. (And for right or wrong, sometimes success for me means pages completed. Not always, but for some photos, absolutely.)

 

For the next four days, we are going to talk about ways to plan for those repeating events, and those scheduled events in our lives and scrapbooks. Hopefully, you will find some ways to get ahead of the calendar, so we can have a terrific year of scrapbooking! And if September is not your time for change, but January is, please bookmark our week together and return when the time is right for you!

I am looking forward to a wonderful week of planning and prepping! Until then, I will leave you with a little bit of printable love!

You may download it here! Enjoy! And I will see you tomorrow!