This is the 8th installment of a project in which Tami embarks upon a year-long quest (inspired by the Julie/Julia Project) to use the Get It Scrapped! book and website to get scrapbooking done. 

I thought we’d take a break from the book to put a different pep in our scrap “mojo”.   Let’s talk inspiration.  Now the book will definitely inspire you to Get It Scrapped!  Even this year as I re-scrap my way through this book I am inspired to get things done and especially to re-examine the method of organization I am using to get my story out.  My wheels turn on what collections I have. I remember that I can’t forget to scrap myself, and I’m  just inspired to have a more productive scrap life in general.

There are going to be times when you want to be productive and Get It Scrapped! but can’t stand the idea of doing yet another layout of Johnny swimming or Mikey’s soccer game.  One of the things I love about the book is it gives you permission to not scrapbook every photo.  Take Zach’s passion for soccer; his first season was done on one layout.  I don’t anticipate doing years of soccer on one layout so I am faced with several soccer layouts  in my scrap-future.  The same goes with any major holiday celebrated or routine events like back to school, birthdays, guitar concerts, etc.  How do we find the inspiration to do repetitive layouts differently?

This is where I start turning to techniques for inspiration.  What are some things I can do differently on the layout?  Now I could easily list 100 places; the book which has a ton of points to perk up your pages, the classes which are full of information for you to devour, the gallery which is full of our members work, etc.  Instead, I’m going to share the 5 sources of inspiration I most use.

1. Our very own Dina Wakley - she has an amazing style that is as if art journaling and traditional scrapbooking had a baby.  (I’m going to refer to it as Artful Scrapping, which I just googled and no one else has used that term.  You heard it hear first!)   I enjoy trying to copy the things she does in layouts.  Which is OK since I’ll never be published and here is one of the rare times I’ll share my poor woman’s attempt at her style.  Take a look at this layout she did; how easy would it be to change the vases/jars into a motif that fit your theme?  I decided to use this for my niece’s birthday party that we hosted.
   
2. Another GIS gal, Paula Gilarde, is the queen of inspiration, I still regularly refer to her hybrid instructions to add a little something to my layouts.  I attended one of her chats at GIS on finding inspiration.  We talked about clothes and t-shirt slogans and when I was done I had an entire page full of notes and little sketches of the t-shirt sayings.  It was such a fun chat and finding inspiration in something quirky like t-shirts was just the unique boost I needed.
3. YouTube.  (Yes, really.)  I just do a search on scrapbook techniques and see if there is anything I haven’t seen before, seen in awhile or forgotten I have seen.  The only danger in this is that sometimes you’ll spend so much time watching videos from such interesting and amazing people; you’ll lose track of time.
4. First, let me just say it’s just flat out fun to play with this program.  Try using an online color schemer, this one is intended for web developers but works perfectly.  I love challenging myself to push my color comfort envelope.  Just a note on using this, on the second tab at the bottom (Adjust Schemes) you can choose from a drop down box different presets like Pastel, Pales, High Contrast, etc.
5. You would be surprise at the inspiration you can find in your own scrapbook supplies.  I often just go through my supplies to take a mental inventory.  I get inspired by the color, texture or style of my supplies.  I also will challenge myself to use something that I know I’ve had for a long time or that I’ve been saving for a special page.  Every page is special, use that stuff!

These are just a few of the places I go when I start getting bored of birthday layouts or weary of one more green and red Christmas layout.  I want to challenge you to try these sources of inspiration on a layout.  What happens when you try to do an Artful Scrapbook page or dabble in hybrid scrapbooking?  How many techniques inspire you at YouTube?  Can you push your color comfort zone?  If all else fails, can you rise to the challenge of using up your supplies?

More importantly, where do you go for inspiration?  Please share it here and/or in the forums.

This is the 7th installment of a project in which Tami embarks upon a year-long quest (inspired by the Julie/Julia Project) to use the Get It Scrapped! book and website to get scrapbooking done. This month Tami’s focus is on Chapter 4 of Get It Scrapped: Get Collections Scrapped.

I would say that scrapbooking collections of photos is my favorite thing to do, but I imagine someone going back through posts I’ve made here or in the forums to find every time I’ve said something is my favorite.  I guess I should stop saying it and stick with the fact that sharing anything is my favorite.  I love this venue of art.  Scrapbooking allows us to share a part of a person or subject that is intimate to us, or to convey to the viewer that we too know something about the subject that they know.

This is why I love collections.  I love sharing some intricate detail about a person that the viewer doesn’t know.

Journaling: Amanda taught Zach this funny face when he wasn't even two. I didn't realize how much he makes it until I was sorting photos one day.

The layout above was a pleasant bonus to organizing my photos back in January at the onset of this project.  As I reorganized my digital photos and learned more about tagging photos in Photo Shop Elements, I was able to pull up all photos of Zach.  This face immediately stood out.  Now I see so many collections in my photos.  This month I challenge you to take some time and go through your photos and find your collections.  Look for:

• Family Traits. Do certain family members share the same eyes, nose or hands?
• Similar expressions.  Does everyone give the same scowl or cheeky smile?
• Similar physical attributes. Do you have pictures of people sleeping, sitting or standing in the same position?
• Fashion. Does everyone make their own fashion statement?  Are there shared favorites or perhaps hand-me-downs each child was stuck wearing?
• Landscapes. Do you have several pictures of the same little cabin you vacation in every summer?
• Milestones.  Do you have a picture of everyone’s first steps or everyone’s high school graduation?
• Collections.  Do you have a collection of photos of your collections?  Purses, decor, coins, et. al?
• Time.  Do you have photos from each year of a person’s life or a period of their life?
• Repetition.  Does a certain activity get photographed repeatedly, whether it’s a holiday or dad snoozing in a chair?
• Love & hugs. Do you have a collection pictures of people together?  Husband and wife, brothers, best friends?

Once you start thinking in terms of collections you’ll start seeing them more and more in your photos.  Even now as I write this I am thinking of that last one and a collection of photos I have of my eldest son who went through a period where to get a photograph taken he would put his arm around the nearest person.  It is definitely in my pile of collections and this month I will Get It Scrapped!

When you’ve found your collections come share them or the layouts you create with them in the forums or in the gallery.

 

This is the 6th installment of a project in which Tami embarks upon a year-long quest (inspired by the Julie/Julia Project) to use the Get It Scrapped! book and website to get some scrapbooking done. This month Tami’s focus is on Chapter 3 of Get It Scrapped: Get Everyday Life Scrapped.

Project 365 · POTD (Photo of the Day) · 12 on the 12^th · A Week in the Life · 30 Days of Photos

There are a lot of fun ideas to get you taking photos of your everyday life. The problem is, it means more of those “around-the-house, hanging-out-with-friends, recording-the-garden’s-progress” photos. Aren’t those fun to scrap? If you are me you’re shaking your head no.

By and large they are my favorite type of photos. In my opinion they best capture my life and the life of my family. We go to events, we take vacations, we celebrate holidays, but in everyday life we just live. These photos express our personalities, our quirks. They expose us.

Check out this exposing layout of Debbie’s dresser. When I look at layouts like this, I imagine the response it will invoke. I see Debbie and her family looking through layouts 20 years from now and stopping when they see this. I imagine the stories her kids and husband will relate about specific items that were found on the dresser. At the very least, they will all have a good laugh at the fact the dresser still looks the same.

Everyone somewhat remembers vacations or events that took place. These are bigger moments, they are out of the routine of life. The routine things in life, the smaller stories are harder to remember. It’s the dresser that stands the chance of being forgotten. That’s why it’s important not only to take those photos regularly, but to document them. A photo a day is just a photo a day. If you don’t know the story, it’s not worth a 1000 words regardless of what Confucius says.

How do we get a simple photo of everyday life onto a scrapbook layout creatively and more importantly, meaningfully? Though the chapter is teeming with ideas and inspiration, I’ll just share my three favorite points in this chapter and how I used them in this layout (which I scrapped with Debbie’s April 2nd Sketch Bundle).

 

Journaling reads: Keagan has no problem expressing his emotions. He likes to make sure everyone knows when he’s sad, mad, or otherwise. Normally when he’s told no, he drops his shoulders and mopes away (of course looking back to make sure his audience is still watching) This time I told him ‘don’t walk away like that” So he stood there; shoulders dropped, pouty face and still looking around to make sure people were aware he was not happy about the answer.

• The story behind the story – In my journaling I made sure to include how Keagan normally walks off and looks back to make sure people are watching him pout. I wanted to include this story behind the story so when his wife looks at this layout she’ll know it isn’t an isolated incident.
• While it’s fresh – Face it, we scrapbookers are always going to have a backlog of layouts to-do. If you have the time, get the everyday photos done while they are fresh. Event photos are often accompanied by facts of the events and timelines of activities. These things can be scrapbooked later. Remembering this moment and scrapbooking it while it was fresh was fun. I smiled the entire time thinking about how funny Keagan was the other day just standing there waiting for someone to acknowledge he was pouting. And how much I laughed that for the first time in hours he picked that moment to
  actually mind what his Mom said.
• Taking it for granted – What I’m about to say has been said a thousand times. It’s been paraphrased through this entire article. You cannot take these everyday moments for granted. I have five children, and if the experience of parenting five children has taught me anything it’s that every human being is unique. My kids are so different from each other, in their reactions, emotions and talents. Keagan is the only one that takes his pouting so seriously. If I don’t capture these nuances of life with Keagan who will? These things that are a regular occurrence can easily be forgotten entirely. Or more likely when I’m 80, I’ll forget which child used to have this flair for the dramatic.

This month let’s spend some time using some of those photos from our photo a day projects and capture our everyday life. I’m not saying every one, but some of those photos deserve to have their story told. When you get a layout done share it in our gallery and come share your ideas or frustrations in our forums.

The 5th installment of a project in which Tami embarks upon a year-long quest (inspired by the Julie/Julia Project) to use the Get It Scrapped! book and website to Get It Scrapped!

What’s your point?

It’s probably the biggest “Debbie-ism” that goes through my brain. I found myself seeing my pages differently after reading Get It Scrapped. When I browsed my earlier layouts, I saw random images and realized that without the title many pages would be without a point. Thankfully I put creative titles on my pages like “Toledo Zoo” and “Science Fair.” I found when I looked through Debbie’s layouts many of them didn’t need a title. You could tell the event without reading the title or journaling.

Looking at Debbie’s image above you see it’s about Kayaking. You may not know the river or why the event is taking place but you know what’s going on at the event. My layouts lacked this focus. I went to extremes with all the shots being of the people or all the shots being of the event. My “Toledo Zoo” layout was pages of the kids’ faces and not one animal. I scrapped all the animals together on the following pages. That’s how I chose to group the photos; people – animals. Doing so left me with disconnected pages.

Now when I approach event photos I think of the two questions at the beginning of this chapter.

• What story do I want to tell on this layout? Is it the story of the entire event, or one activity or moment from the event, or is it somewhere between the two?
  
• Who is this layout really for? Is it my own record of what went on? Is it to show friends what my experience was? Is it for family now? Family later?

In short, what’s the point of your layout? I imagine Debbie would not have pages and pages of gorilla photos to prove she was at the zoo. She is selective about photos, the way she tells her story, even the way she arranges her photos.

While writing this article, I tried to think of how I can show you what an impact Debbie has had on my scrapbooking. (Heck, on my life for that matter, even in my parenting I am now often asking my kids “what’s the point?” but that’s a post for an entirely different site). In the end, I thought the best way to illustrate Debbie’s impact on my scrapbooking would be to show you my process Before Debbie (BD) and After Debbie (AD).

The Facts: Zach’s first soccer game. May 8, 2010. I took 33 photos (Rookie mistake, I accidently took a full SD card and had to keep deleting photos to make room for more). Zach kept getting distracted from the game.

My layout process before BD:

1. Look at all the photos. (think: OMG I have 33 photos?)

2. Find a sketch that fits a lot of photos. (think: I’ll just use it 4 times to scrap all 33 photos)

3. Throw photos on layout. (think: I am brilliant scrapbooker, look at me go)

4. Write about event. (think: two sentences will do, don’t have more room than that because of all these great photos I got)

5. Title the layout. (think: genius idea, I’ll call it soccer)

And the result would be this, followed by 3 more 2 page spreads of similar soccer photos from the same game.

AD is a more detailed process; however it becomes very fluid after just a few times. Debbie makes it easy by breaking it down. The main elements to think about are photos, story and arrangement. For me, and a few dear friends I know, the biggest problem is winnowing photos. Many people (hoarders like me) have a problem with understanding you don’t need to scrapbook every photo or keep every photo from an event. You can put duplicates in sleeves after the layout, stick them behind the page in the page protector, or keep them in a box for use in another layout type. Even more shocking, you can delete them. (Trust me, you don’t need 50 photos of the gorilla, and, if because of some shocking cosmic event, you find yourself in need of 50 gorilla photos you can email me and I’ll send you mine.)

Photos

I start by selecting photos. I follow Debbie’s guide:

• keep people key to the event (Zach, his team & coach)
• relevant items (the soccer ball)
• key activities (for this layout the key activity is to include a shot of Zach not playing the game)
• a sense of place (the field)
• lose duplicates
• discard photos of poor quality
• chuck photos that don’t contribute to the story

This step took my photos from 33 down to 6. Will i miss the other 27 photos? No. Poor quality photos will just be deleted and forgotten. Others I will save for different layouts like a compilation of Zach in soccer uniforms over the years or on a ‘brother’ page with a photo of Keagan at his first soccer game if he chooses to plays. Some I may just put in a sleeve behind the page I’m making.

Story

The story is a fine balance. You want to tell what’s important. You want to convey the feeling of how the event was, but you don’t want to write a novel. When I think of any journaling for a page, I think of what I want to remember. (That’s the point right?) I imagine in 50 years when my mental faculties are less than par, what will I think of this page? I don’t want it to be another boring soccer page. If Zach sticks with soccer I’ll have plenty of those. What was special about this game is that it was his first foray into organized sports.

By thinking of what point I want to make, I saw my journaling change. I went from 3^rd grade short sentences (Zach played soccer. It was fun.) to involved scene setting journaling. I realized I want the person viewing the layout to realize what Zach was like during this game.

Before my rudimentary journaling stated a few facts; it was short and to the point but missed out on the details that made the game so funny to witness.

“Zach’s first soccer game May 8^th 2010. He loved being one of the ‘boys’ but soon lost interest in the game.”

After Debbie’s book, my journaling evolved to storytelling.

“Zach’s first soccer game was a lesson in patience and child development. At 4, Zach is the youngest child on his team and it seemed the most distracted. He started the game with excitement and complete confusion on what he was actually supposed to be doing. We were the first parents yelling to our child “follow the ball!” It worked the first few times, Zach would run for the ball and try to kick it in whatever direction he thought it should go (not necessarily towards the goal). However, Zach soon became more interested in watching what other sports were being played on the city field; talking to friends or finding rocks. At the point, he ran off the field to chase a bird that landed near the fence. We stopped trying to get him ‘in the game’ after that. It was at that point we started noticing the other kids were also walking off the field for various reasons (water breaks, sit next to mom, ask when lunch was). By the end of the game, most of the kids had lost interest in the game at one point or another and just about every parent had said “follow the ball” at least once. Maybe Zach’s future as the next David Beckham isn’t as hopeless as it first seemed.”

Arrangement

Choosing how to arrange my layout comes last in my process. I choose the arrangement to fit what I want on the layout. I keep in mind that I want a focal photo. I was very lucky and managed to get this great shot of Zach at the beginning of the game. I knew I wanted to show that excitement he felt when the game first started and I knew it was my focal photo.

In the end, the layout I did using Debbie’s wise ways is much more focused. It feels less crowded and more visually appealing to me. It also tells the story, not just simple facts. My journaling is more true to who I am and how I would relay this to someone in a conversation. This inspired me to create a title that would make someone curious enough to read the journaling.

Do you know what’s even more amazing? All of this was just what I learned on the first 4 pages of the chapter. There are many more little tidbits throughout the chapter. It includes ideas that inspire me to scrap events in new and exciting ways to avoid page after page of the same formula. Spice up your event pages by creating focal photos without enlarging them, using motifs on your layouts to enhance the event theme, use coordinated supplies to tie multiple event layouts together.

This month I’d like to challenge you to scrapbook three events. Before you scrap them, think to yourself; “What’s the point?” I will be doing this challenge as well. I will scrapbook three events that Debbie has in this chapter:

· a celebration layout

· a holiday layout

· a travel/outing layout

Join us in the forum to chat about this chapter, share your work or ask any questions on Scrapping Events. I’ll share the other three layouts I scrap, and the tips I got from Debbie’s book in the forums. So come join us as we Get It Scrapped!

The 4th installment of a project in which Tami embarks upon a year-long quest (inspired by the Julie/Julia Project) to use the Get It Scrapped! book and website to Get It Scrapped!

Source: stock.xchng.com / OeilDeNuit

What turns you on? In each interview on Inside the Actors’ Studio, James Lipton asks his guest 10 questions, including: “What turns you on?” Some of the answers can be quite, well . . . interesting.

When I think of scrapbooking, I have to say it’s layouts that make my eye move. There is something to be said about having a visual plan of action when you are scrapbooking. For some it’s not a thought process, it’s intuitive, organic. Visual triangles, grids, and focal points just happen on their layouts. For others, it probably can’t get any more calculated. I am one of the ‘others.’ Scrapbooking isn’t always as easy as it looks.

Take a look at Debbie’s layout above. She probably just plopped all her stuff on a page and it looks fantastic. Her layout has a powerful grid, a focal point photo, and elements that draw your eye around the page. I especially love the text across the bottom of the right side that pulls your eye from the left page to the right. I wouldn’t have thought of that, nor would I have thought of the visual triangle she made with her brad attached elements.

Don’t hate her, it’s not her fault she’s so talented. When I was in high school, I was in the band. I worked my tail off learning to play the French Horn, I mean I worked at it. I took private lessons and practiced for hours without end. My friend, she was like the Rain Man of musical instruments. She could just pick up an instrument and make beautiful music. If she hadn’t been my best friend, I would have hated her.

Scrapbooking is supposed to be fun and thinking about all of the things I like in a layout, for every layout, is not fun. I have developed ways to make it look like I am a pro such as Debbie, without losing my mind in the process. I’m going to share those with you, be prepared to be amazed! OK, maybe not ‘amazed’. My secrets to success are these three things:

1. Take classes

2. Use sketches

3. Make cheat sheets

Take Classes

If you want to learn something; take a class. Really it’s that simple.

This isn’t something I say lightly, I have taken several scrapbooking classes in my life. I have attended the Great Lakes Mega Meet in Novi, MI every year from the first year I scrapbooked until I moved to Vegas. I attended probably 50 classes at those meets in all the years I went. I have taken classes online from several sites, not just here at Get It Scrapped. If I add in classes from my local scrapbook store, Creating Keepsakes University and other retreats I am well over 100 classes.

I love learning. I have had just a few classes (3 to be exact) that have been a disappointment. Otherwise I have either learned something from each class, had things I already knew reinforced or been inspired to do techniques that I hadn’t done in awhile. I hope knowing this about me gives me some credibility to say that in all the classes I’ve taken, Debbie has taught me more about the foundations of scrapbooking than any other teacher full stop.

Her class Page Parts was by far the greatest class I have ever taken. Many of us regular Hodgelings (Hodge followers) periodically harass her to offer this class again. I think we may be wearing her down. The other fantastic class was Building Pages. If you see either of these classes is offered again, take them. You won’t be sorry. To get an idea of how fantastic Debbie is, I recommend checking out the “Why It Works” articles on the home page. Videos with Scrapbooking Design Lessons. Debbie takes a look at a couple scrapbook pages and breaks them down for you.

You can find other great page design articles on the home page that will get you started on fantastic pages. Lessons and Ideas for Scrapbook Page Design.

Use Sketches

This is a no brainer. Using sketches is not new. Scrapbooking is probably one of the few areas of life that copying another person’s design for your personal scrapbook is a good thing. We have sketches at Get It Scrapped, a new one posted every Friday. {link http://www.debbiehodge.com/gisforum/index.php?showforum=192}. I won’t get too in depth on sketches since I did that already, you can also read the article here. Using Scrapbook Page Sketches. I’ll just say that they are by far the easiest way to get a visual plan for your layout.

Make a Cheat Sheet

Surprisingly or not so surprisingly, another great class that helped my scrapbooking was a photography class. A lot of the ideas on visual composition for photos also apply to scrapbooking layouts. The suggestion in photography class for checking the composition of photos was to print the rule of thirds grid on a transparency. Then you use the transparency by holding it over photos to check the composition.

I realized this would be just as easy to do with a layout. Since I do not own a wide format printer, I had to make mine. I simply took a large transparency that I knew I wouldn’t actually use on a page and used some thin black tape I stole from my husband’s garage. (Shhh… That’s between you and me.) I taped a grid onto the transparency. I also purchased a dry erase marker.

Now when I am scrapbooking and want to work on practicing my page design skills, I will take that transparency and lay it on top of my layout before I adhere anything. I can check to see if it follows the rule of three with the grid. I can use the dry erase marker to mark focal points to see if they create a visual triangle. When I’m feeling adventurous I will play with tracing certain colors on my layout to see if I have followed the pint-quart-gallon rule of color choice. It can actually be fun ‘checking your work’ in this manner.

Before you accuse me of sucking the fun out of scrapbooking, realize I don’t do it on every layout. However, with anything in life if you don’t continually practice these things they will never become an innate part of your scrapbooking.

“As practice makes perfect, I cannot but make progress; each drawing one makes, each study one paints, is a step forward.” – Vincent Van Gogh

It takes 21 days to develop a habit. I’m giving you 30. Over the next month you are challenged to scrapbook, scrapbook, and then scrapbook. All the while, practice the visual rules of design. As these rules become more natural to your process, it will make the rest of this project easier. The upcoming months of this project will be devoted to learning the different pages we scrapbook, how to emphasize the subject matter, and getting pages scrapped.

Take the challenge

I’d like to invite you to take this challenge and share what you create with us. When you find a page that shows a visual plan; a grid, a triangle, a strong focal point, share that layout with us. Put a link in the forum thread and share your thoughts on the layout. Share your process on page design; we’ll even let you brag if you’re one of those scrapbookers that are blessed and it comes naturally to you. On Wednesday April 28^st, join us for a Pop Quiz chat at 9PM EST. You know me; there will be prizes. Matter of fact, the more people that show, the more prizes I will give.

Now go Get It Scrapped!

The 3rd installment of a project in which Tami embarks upon a year-long quest (inspired by the Julie/Julia Project) to use the Get It Scrapped! book and website to Get It Scrapped!  Get It Scrapped!: Organize, Visualize, Create.  First edition, 2008.  Written by Debbie Hodge.  The book that began it all for a fun online community. You can buy the book at Amazon.com, and many local Joann’s and AC Moore stores (don’t forget your 40% off coupons for those local stores!).

You know who you are.  You’re the digi-scrapper who has made dozens and dozens of layouts that are now saved safely on your hard drive and fourteen back-up systems ‘just in case.’  You’re the paper scrapper with a knee-high pile of layouts.  You’ve got all of these completed layouts with only a minimal number actually in albums.  My father-in-law was the first to raise an eyebrow at my album issues.  He would come over and ask if I had anything new scrapbooked.  I did, but not in albums.  Then he gave me the look–that raised-eyebrow-that-makes-no-sense look.

It didn’t make sense.  I’m not going to bring a stack of albums out for people to look through, especially if most often they are children with grubby hands.  I needed a better album system than I had.  Like many others, I started with Creative Memories.  My albums were in chronological order, and in strap-hinge albums.  I found that my creativity was not chronological.  When I got a stack of pictures and loved a shot of one of my kids at the zoo, I hated having to scrapbook the month of pictures before the zoo outing.  I scrapped what inspired me, when it inspired me.  My layouts weren’t in albums because it meant work on my end.  I had to remember dates and put them in order.  If that wasn’t enough work, what if I had done a one page layout?  I needed to make sure there was a second one-page layout from the same time to pair with it. What if I had skipped that zoo trip? How many pages should I leave empty for it?  I am in no way exaggerating when I tell you that at one point I had five 12” stacks of layouts sitting along a shelf.  Ironically, it was built by my husband to hold albums.

So I posted on message boards, read books, and asked all my scrapbooking friends how they organized their albums.  With all of the opinions and information I received and three words from Debbie’s book, I developed a system that worked for me.   Now I don’t want to mislead you, Debbie’s book does not contain the greater mysteries of album organization.  What it does do is briefly explain formats and album types.  However, while reading the book three words on page 19 gave me permission to shun all of the “rules” I thought I had to follow.

The first thing I did was to switch to D-ring albums.  This allowed me to insert pages wherever I needed.  I loved the idea that if something came along in the future I could easily move pages around.  This move to D-ring also was inspired by Debbie’s use of pocket pages.  If I had loads of photos from an event like the zoo, I could scrap the moments that meant something and throw the series of elephant shots in pocket pages like these!   I also fell in love with Ali Edwards’ idea of using different sized page protectors in the same album.  [side note::  Ali has other articles on album organization that could help here.

After I made the decision to switch albums, I made a plan for organizing them.  Keeping with my newfound mantra from Debbie’s book--“Make it easy”--I decided to have my albums match the way I scrapbooked.  I took all of my layouts out of all of my albums and sorted them into piles.  These piles each became an album (or a series of albums).

Years – These albums house the events, everyday life and moments of our family.  Some of these events I will scrap again for a specific child’s book if it is relevant to that child.

Kids – Each child has their own set of albums that hold layouts of events, everyday life, collections, world and moments that are specific to that child.

Christmas – This is a big collection album.  It has just layouts of our family’s Christmas activities.

Me – This is the book where I put my events.  I also use this book to reminisce about my world, current events if they move me to do so, or just scrapbook things for the pure fun of the art.

I have found this to be the most relaxed method of organization for my albums, which still allows me to feel organized.  How are your albums organized?  Do you have a pile of layouts towering on the corner of your scrap desk?  Need help developing a system?  Join us in the forums and let us know where you are with your album organization.  If you’re brave, share how many layouts you have sitting in pile(s).

This is the last leg of organizing.  As you may have noticed, I did not cover supply organization.  This isn’t something that can be easily covered in an article so I ask you to keep an eye on the challenge forums in April for the Spring Cleaning challenge.  We’ll kick off that challenge off and discuss this project in a chat on March 31^st at 9PM EST.

For the rest of the year, the GIS project will focus on learning about the different types of pages and how to scrapbook those pages.  This means we will be producing a massive amount of layouts.  In anticipation of that, I challenge you this month to get prepared.   Organize your photos, organize your stories and get your layouts put into albums.  Imagine with all of this organization how much time we’ll have to Get It Scrapped!

The 2nd installment of a project in which Tami embarks upon a year-long quest (inspired by the Julie/Julia Project) to use the Get It Scrapped! book and website to Get It Scrapped!). Get It Scrapped!: Organize, Visualize, Create.  First edition, 2008.  Written by Debbie Hodge.  The book that began it all for a fun online community. You can buy the book at Amazon.com, The F+W Media Book Store, and many local Joann’s and AC Moore stores (don’t forget your 40% off coupons for those local stores!).

Organize your scrapbooking stories.

By now I hope you’ve made progress in organizing your photos.   Remember it’s an ongoing process; just keep doing it a few minutes each day.

This month we are going to organize our story.  This is a sidestep from the book itself.  When I read Debbie’s book, visit her blog, or view any of her layouts, I’m always captivated by the stories she shares.  I wonder how she always remembers such details and nuances of the moments.   I would swear she is scrapbooking while the moment is happening.  I ask myself, how can I better capture my stories?  How can I get my layouts to feel like I’m in the moment?

Write it down.

This isn’t new advice–the best advice rarely ever is, but it’s good advice.  My process began simply with pen and paper.  I am a notebook aficionado.  I love notebooks.  When I first started scrapbooking, I started with one notebook in my purse.  Then I realized it was easier to have another notebook on my nightstand than to remember where my purse was downstairs.  My one notebook became several.  Currently, I have a notebook on my nightstand, several on my scrapbook desk, a small one in my purse, and another larger one on my kitchen counter.    I also have a drawer full of notebooks waiting to be used.  In addition to my notebooks, I’ve left myself phone messages, so later when I have time I can add them to my notebooks.  I’ve emailed myself and often use my blog as a place to write down my stories.

The flaw in this method is finding the story I want to scrapbook, when I want to scrapbook it.  Around the same time I first received Debbie’s book, I was coming to the realization that I was accumulating a library of stories with no Dewey Decimal System.  On top of the several notebooks I’d accumulated, I also had a box of memorabilia, old school papers and art projects from my children that I wanted to incorporate onto my pages.  I realized it was no small coincidence that Debbie’s first chapter was “Get Organized” and I made a plan to tackle these odds and ends of my story.

Keep your stories organized.

My method is the 3-ring binder method.  I keep all of my stories in a regular 3-ring binder.  First, I purchased a few binders and a box of sheet protectors.  Then, I went through my box of saved items and put them in the sheet protectors.   I have one binder for my kids’ everyday life and another binder that holds family items.  Periodically, I go through my notebook putting each used page into it.  If they go with other items in the binder then I put them in that sheet protector.  Otherwise, they get their own sheet protector.  Now I have a binder full of my family’s stories that I can easily grab when I’m ready to scrapbook.

Tip.

For larger pieces of memorabilia or art projects you can scan or take a photo of the piece, then resize and print on smaller paper.  Or take a photo of the piece with someone holding it.  The person who went to the zoo holds up the zoo map, or the artist holds up their painting.}

How do you organize your story?

Where do you keep your memorabilia, school papers or other such items?

Leave us a message here and visit our forums to share your method.

A monthly series in which Tami embarks upon a year-long quest (inspired by the Julie/Julia Project) to use the Get It Scrapped! book and website to Get It Scrapped!)

the book:

Get It Scrapped!: Organize, Visualize, Create.  First edition, 2008.  Written by Debbie Hodge.  The book that began it all for a fun online community.

You can buy the book at Amazon.com, The F+W Media Book Store, and many local Joann’s and AC Moore stores (don’t forget your 40% off coupons for those local stores!).

the contender:

You.  Can you take the challenge to Organize? To Visualize? To Create?  Can you be dared to review scrapping as you know it? Dare to tweak your system so you can more easily Get It Scrapped!

the schedule:

All of 2010.  Each month you take on a new challenge to Get It Scrapped! that comes out of Debbie’s book and articles here. The process will be broken down and easy to achieve.  (Ok maybe you won’t get your photos organized in a single month but you’ll at least you’ll make a dent in them!)

January 15^th:  Organize Photos
February 15^th: Organize Your Story
March 15^th: Organize Albums
April 15^th: Visualize a Plan of Action
May 15^th:  Get Events Scrapped
June 15^th: Get Everyday Scrapped
July 15^th:  Get Collections Scrapped
August 15^th:  Finding Inspiration
September 15^th:  Get Moments Scrapped
October 15^th:  Get Yourself Scrapped
November 15^th:  Get Your World Scrapped
December 15^th:  Prioritize Scrapbooking

Month #1 of The Get It Scrapped! Project: Get Organized

Yes I realize it’s a nasty eight letter word but it’s an important one.  When you are organized you are cutting out a lot of the time that gets squandered looking for photos, supplies, or ideas.   For some time I considered myself organized, then I got lazy about it.  Now, I am unorganized.   I spend more time looking for things, or trying to think of what to work on than I actually spend scrapbooking.  How much do I actually get done?  Next to nothing is the answer.  Since the very definition of a scrapbooker is one who creates scrapbooks, I am sure the scrap-police are en route to arrest me for catachresis.  (Don’t leave to look it up, it’s just a fancy way of saying ‘the misuse of a word’.)

Since the number one reason you are scrapbooking is to share photos and stories, we’ll put our focus there.   Wait!  Keep reading, don’t get intimidated.  I promise it won’t be as bad as it sounds.  We will break it down into achievable goals.  This month we are going to work on organizing our photos.  We may not get every photo filed and organized.  We are scrapbookers after all; some of us may be looking at filing and organizing thousands of photos.  It’s best to approach this challenge without the stress by setting simple, clear defined goals.

Step 1. Gather all photos into one spot.

• Printed photos – collect them all to one area, preferably where you can have some room to spread out.
• Digital photos – know where they are on your computer, know where your back-up copies are. (If you don’t have back-ups, please make them first. I am speaking from experience. I lost over 200 pictures of Christmas 2009 due to a computer hardware malfunction.)

Step 2. Decide upon a system for organizing your photos.

• If you currently have a system in place, take a moment to think about whether it works for you.  If it does: fantastic–you’re done! If it doesn’t  work, think about why it doesn’t and how that can be improved.
• If you do not have a system, let’s get one.  Chapter 1 in Debbie’s book is a fantastic point of reference for organizing photos. Don’t have the book yet? Debbie’s written about this in Getting Organized to Make Scrapbook Pages.

Step 3. Set a goal to spend ____ hours this month getting your photos organized.

Those three steps will get us ahead of the game.  Imagine that shortly you will find yourself with 20 minutes to scrapbook.  Now imagine spending the whole 20 minutes scrapbooking, no more wasted time spent looking for photos.

I hope you’ll join me in the Challenge Forums. We can share before-and-after shots, encourage each other, and help each other with our systems.   I’d also like to invite you to a chat on Tuesday, January 19^th at 9:00pm EST (CHANGE IN DATE TO: Weds, Jan 20th at 9pm EST). Come on in and we’ll talk about where we are with our organizing, have some laughs, and maybe win a scrapbook kit!

What are you waiting for? Go gather those photos; have fun doing it.  Who knows? You may find a photo you’d forgotten about.