Would you like the journaling step of your scrapbooking to be easier?
Say hello to Photo Stories 2012 – a Paperclipping blog series.
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Posts Tagged ‘Organization’
Get Yourself Organized
Friday, January 13th, 2012
I tried something new this week.
I’ve mentioned many times that I’m not inspired by lists. They don’t motivate me. I don’t get the typical satisfaction of checking them off. They just don’t help me a whole lot.
But I need to see my tasks in order to remember and prioritize them, just like anybody else.
Monday morning I tried something different. I put each of my work tasks for the week on a post-it note and stuck them to the wall I face when sitting at my desk.
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Moving Scrapbook Supplies through My System
Tuesday, June 7th, 2011
I just put my daughter’s dance album and mini-book supplies in this box.
I would brag to you about how organized I am, except I would be exaggerating. I fully admit to what is still on my floor…
I told you I don’t unpack my new scrapbook purchases for months. You probably didn’t believe me, but there it is.
The dance supplies were on the top of that pile for about two weeks.
Why?
My boxes of unfinished (but organized!) projects were all already in use.
I could have bought more boxes. I still have room for a couple more.
But I decided to just finish one of my projects already and keep things moving at a healthier pace.
I pulled out my Week In the Life project from last year. It took me two sittings but I finished it and now I have a new home for these supplies I’m so excited to start using!
More on the dance supplies and the Week In the Life project later!
What’s On Your Scrapbook Table Right Now?
Tuesday, April 5th, 2011
What is the value of a cheap folding party table from Walmart? Monetarily, it’s about $38. But the real value? My big long ugly table allows me to work on multiple projects at once! And I LOVE that!
What You See From Right to Left
I know we usually explain things from left to right, but please bear with me on this one. It’ll do your creative brain some good to go backwards anyway!
Far Right - a scrapbook page about Trinity and a little phase she’s been in lately. During this weekend’s True Scrap event I’ll be sharing the step-by-step process of how I put this layout together (I’ll show it with photos) in terms of design and the principles involved in each step. If you’re interested in this event, you’re running out of time, so please sign up quickly!
Mid Right - the next scrapbook page just to the left is my story about walking to school with my crew in 1980. I went back-and-forth on this layout so many times. I’ll share this process with you this week on the Paperclipping Roundtable. In a couple days I’ll also post photos here on the blog of the layout from beginning to end!
Far Left - a stack of my art journals, plus one lying open to a page I’m working on (I have four, and I’ll share those some time next week hopefully). In that same spot on the table I was also spray-misting pieces for the first layout on the far right of the table.
Big Ugly Empty Tables
For a long time I kept a regular stash of items on my table — tools I need every time I work, adhesives I use the most, my tray of scraps, and a basket of new and old products I wanted to use (which got ignored and did not work for me at all!).
Now I keep nothing on my table except the current projects I’m working on. That leaves me plenty of room to scrapbook one or two pages on one side of the table and do artsy projects on the other side.
It turns out this seems to be the most perfect way for my particular manic creative brain. It goes along with my theory that by acting on ideas when you get them, instead of waiting or adding them to a list, you increase your creativity.
So this is how I’m facilitating my desire to be able to work on multiple projects at once. You can read this article to see how I organize all my unfinished projects.
Are You a Speed Crafter/Artist/Scrapboooker? Or Are You Slow and Thoughtful?
For years I’ve thought I was slow because I need to take many step-away breaks while I’m working. I’ll be chugging along and then suddenly I just need to let my brain twirl around for a few minutes before I’m ready to pick up again.
Now I realize I work up a feverish speed if I can have multiple different projects around me. For example, I’ll be working on a scrapbook page and hit one of those moments when I just want to stop and let the ideas mix around in my head for a few minutes. So I push my chair-on-wheels down to the other end of the table and look at my art journal and have an instant idea for a page I had been feeling stuck on. Then while I’m putting that new idea into action on my art journal page, I’ll suddenly come up with a solution for the middle layout on my table!
At that point I might interrupt my art journal to jump over to layout number two, or I might finish what I was doing first and then jump over as soon as I’m done. Inevitably, that process will then spur the next idea for the first layout I was working on. Overall I’m zipping up and down my table, back-and-forth, getting lots of idea bursts and making things happen.
So now I know I was wrong about myself all those years. I am a Speedy Gonzalez under the right circumstances for me.
So, back to my original question…
What’s on your table right now? What are you working on?
And…
Can you work on more than one thing at a time like I do? Are you fast or slow and thoughtful? Have you experimented with different processes?
Feel free to add to the conversation by leaving a comment!
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Scrapbook Storage: When Your Favorite Supplies Change
Wednesday, March 16th, 2011
Not that buttons were ever one of my favorite supplies, but I did use them more often than I do now. I rarely use them now (except for those super cute Jenni Bowlin buttons!).
With such few button-activity going on, why let them take up valuable real estate on my favorite go-to shelf — that one that sits within reach directly across from my eyes? I dumped my little glass dessert dish of buttons on top of the masks I may or may not have destroyed when I applied my heat gun to my art journal page before taking the masks off (oops!).
And there my buttons sat on my desk while I hoped to come across a cute bag for them to store them in my embellishment wine box. That cute bag has yet to appear, so I finally gave them a baggie
(Dear little buttons — it’s temporary! Something better will come along, I just know it!).
Anyway…
The Embellishments You Use All the Time
I realized I use Tim Holtz metal embellishments . . . oh, almost every time I scrapbook. Why have those been in a box I have to get up and walk to? Why not put your favorite embellies within reach?
Here’s another idea. One of the Paperclipping Members once told me that she puts a very different type of item right in front of her — items she tends to forget about but wished she uses! Very smart!
Either way, whether it’s buttons or ribbon or flowers or something else, pay attention to the changes in what you tend to use. Organize your space in part by what you use most, or what you wish you used most!
Speaking of what you use most — what are the embellishments you find yourself using all the time lately?
Scrapbook Albums: Putting Layouts Away
Friday, March 11th, 2011I was putting layouts into albums and thought I’d snap a little shot of the process.
Pages
I spread my pages into loose piles according to which album I want to put them in. Then I pull out the albums I need — a couple at a time — and get to work.
Albums
Right now I’m using a combination of American Crafts Corduroy and American Crafts Cloth albums. The blue is for the Things We Do category (I use Stacy Julian’s Library of Memories system) and this particular one is our Celebrations album. The red is for the People We Love category.
You can see to the right that I also use green for my This is Us Category. And I use a light tan corduroy for Places but I don’t have any showing in this picture.
Spines on the Titles
On the Paperclipping Roundtable I described my spine, patterned after Stacy. The only difference between mine and hers is that I type my titles onto a label and she hand-writes hers. I’ll have to snap a picture of the closeup. That will be a picture for another day, though. I’ve already put away my camera!
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Scraproom Organization for Scrapbook Tools
Wednesday, February 16th, 2011
Excuse the piles and stacks of mess above and below this cabinet. I’m in the middle of a long and slow room reorganization (slow as in, I’m moving about two items per month so far).
What I’m really meaning for you to look at is the open cabinet from Ikea (the middle of three) — it’s where I’ve been keeping the tools that are too large to fit in a bin or basket.
(I know the Cropodile is hardly a large tool but it’s larger than all of my other hand tools and I can no longer fit it into my hand tool bucket. Into the cabinet for large tools it goes!)
Level 3 on the “Within Reach” Meter
- Within Reach: Level 1 – on your work surface
- Within Reach: Level 2 – off the work surface but within arms length without moving from spot. May require standing.
- Within Reach: Level 3 – requires a zoom of the chair-on-wheels to a wall behind you or to the side (or you could take two steps if your chair is wheel-less; may require standing up to reach shelves.
Anything that requires more than two steps or a zoom of the chair is not within reach. That would include my closet, the cabinets to the right and left of the tool cabinet you’re looking at, and the shelf that is between my workspace and my closet.
The larger tool cabinet in the picture above is Level 3.
The Tools in my Level 3 Tool Cabinet
From right to left , front to back–
- Zutter Bind-It-All
- Cropodile
- Sizzix Big Shot Die Cut Machine
- Fiskars Paper Trimmer (still unresolved as to whether this is working for me).
- Fiskars Stamp Press
Why Isn’t My Cutting Tool on my Work Surface (Within Reach: Level 1)?
I got really tired of having a cutting tool in my way. I demoted it years ago.
Here’s the thing. When I move onto the embellishment phase of scrapbooking I do not need a cutting tool. Why have it take up so much space?
(Paperclipping Members should know my typical scrapbook workflow by now and why I have an “embellishment phase”).
When I’m mini-booking and using my task-batch mini-book process, I no longer need my cutting tool after the first step of laying the foundation.
Plus, I do other things on my table. I paint and art journal and sometimes I even alter three-dimensional items. Sometimes. I don’t need a cutting tool for those things.
Do You Really Use Your Cutting Tool All the Time?
I love that I can pull my cutting tool out for when I’m cutting, and then free my surface area when I’ve finished that step. Cutting tools are big — even my little Fiskars Trimmer is relatively large when you’re looking at the percentage of surface area it takes.
It goes like this . . .
- When I’m painting, inking, or misting, I pull out a mat.
- When I’m cutting paper I get out my cutting tool.
- When I’m adding embellishments, I pull out my embellishments.
An Empty Surface is Full of Possibilities
I guess for some it could feel as intimidating as a blank page, but I doubt that. Over the past months I’ve removed more and more regular items from my work table until now it is empty except when in use!
Empty!
I love that.
How would you respond to an empty scrapbook work table? If all of your tools and supplies were above, below, behind, or to the side of you, would you be inspired or intimidated? Or something else?
Paperclipping 141 – Organization Tips
Tuesday, April 6th, 2010
This video is available to members only.
Paperclipping 85 – A Tour Of My Scraproom
Wednesday, January 14th, 2009After lots and lots of requests, I’m finally ready to show you around my scrapbook room and office. It took almost a year to get it to a state I’m happy with. But I believe that’s the best way to decorate and organize a room–to live in it and observe yourself and your needs before making decorative and organizational decisions.
My items are in a places that make sense for me now, so I have lots of tips to share…tips that are more like principles so they’ll help you make your own space work for you (as opposed to me).
Note: You can download the higher-quality episode by clicking here.
Are you trying to organize your space? Watch Ali Edwards’s blog because she’ll be sharing photos of her new room–probably tomorrow.
Interested in more scrapbooking video tutorials? Please visit the Membership Information Page.
How To Make A Vacation Scrapbook: Step 5
Friday, August 29th, 2008
8.5×11 Two-page Layout. Embellished area at the right side inspired by 2 Peas’ Garden Girl, Lisa McGarvey.
This week Paperclipping has been focusing on scrapbooking a big vacation, such as my family’s recent Disneyland trip. I’m working on my own album, as you work on yours.
Because many scrapbookers feel this project is overwhelming, I’ve broken up the process into a series of steps. But these steps won’t just make it easier on you. They’ll help you identify the rich stories you want to tell about your trip. If you missed the previous steps, here they are:
Step 5: Assess Your Needs
I know the temptation. The temptation is to find that super cute album you saw last week and to buy it for your vacation, without any idea how much space you actually need. That is a symptom of the number of products and projects in the magazines and online. But what do you really need to tell your story? If we are going to center our scrapbooking around the stories we have to tell, we need to start with the story and let that dictate the products.
How Many Pages Do You Need?
You’ve separated your pictures into individual stories. While you may end up changing this around a little (I have already), you should be able to count the piles for an approximation of how many pages you’ll need. Each story will normally equal one page, or one two-page spread.
What Size Of Pages Do You Need?
Approximately how many photos do you have for each story? The answer will be a major indicator for whether you need a 12×12 album, an 8.5×11 or something smaller, or if you can even use a more traditional photo album.
It will help to ask yourself the following questions:
1. Can you reprint some photos into smaller or larger sizes to better tell your stories?
2. Can you crop your photos manually in order to fit more into a smaller space?
3. How much journaling do you have for each story? Will you want to type and print it or do it by hand?
How did I decide on the size of my album? I had a varied number of photos for each of my stories. This meant I’d need some flexibility, making a traditional photo album more difficult (although, I was tempted to do this). I also wanted to type my journaling (for simplicity), and if I were to use 8.5×11 paper, I’d be able to type if right on my background pages.
I have a lot of experience re-sizing my original photos, so I decided 8.5×11 would be my best solution.
What Colors Will Highlight Your Pictures & Reproduce the Emotions Of Your Event?
If you were on top of Steps 1-3, then you should have a good idea in your mind of what the tone of the overall story is, and what colors will help you express that tone.
Originally, I skipped through this step and decided to go with white, just to make the project easier. But as I began working on my first page, I realized white wasn’t connecting with me, nor my story. I decided to find a collection of muted hues with subtle patterns that would give me the choice of warmth (browns and cream tones) or fun (light blue or red).
What Embellishments Can You Add To Support The Story?
Again, with so many wonderful products available to us, it’s easy let some popular or cute embellishments dictate our design, rather than the actual story we want to tell. I’m not saying we shouldn’t use all those embellishments. Just make sure you know what your stories are, and ask whether the embellishments support them or not.
Reuniting with some of my siblings and our parents to relive a regular childhood memory together and with our children was greater for me than the actual Disney park, itself. I decided to use minimal embellishments and instead, make the bounty of photos the real highlight of the pages.
I also wanted a very classic representative of Disney–one that I relate to all the way back to my childhood, since the story of this album is bringing together the past and the present at Disneyland. I decided to make a Mickey Mouse silhouette the main embellishment (and usually the only one) for each page.
Your Assignment
Are you still on track with me on this? If so, your assignment is to…
1. Count your stories (each pile of pictures and their story topics on notecards) to determine the approximate number of pages you need.
2. Look at the number of photos for each story/page and determine the size that will best work for you.
3. Choose colors based on the tone of the event and how you feel about it.
4. Choose embellishments that will help to tell your story.
You are now ready to play!
By the way, although I am now working on the third page for my scrapbook, I have yet to choose an album cover. It’s the least of my concerns because I know the cover will come eventually. It’s the story I’m most interested in.
