Bad Sewing Machine Stitches - need organization help!

[julifish]

I was going through the gallery the other day and ran across a few layouts where I saw some layouts with really cool stitching. I look down in the credits and I see it's Traci's famous bad sewing machine...and low and behold I have that pack. I was floored!

I need advice on how to better organize and/or keep track of what all the stitches look like. Has anyone come up with a system to do this? It's a classic case of hoarding things to use and then not really being sure what you have. So share away - how do you keep Traci stitches (and other elements) all straight so you know what you have?

[MichaelsMomJo]

I keep each pack together, and then use the preview image as my folder image. That way I can see just by looking at the folder which sewing machine set it is.

[KateD]

I keep all my kits together by designer and copy all the previews into a set of folders that just have previews in them. One of my preview folders is just stitches, so when I want stitches I can browse that folder and see all of them. Some previews end up in multiple folders. If a kit has an alpha and stitches in it, I'll put copies of the preview in both of these folders, too. This system makes it really easy to find what I want and to avoid duplicate purchases :)

I also have the preview as my folder image and sometimes I'll browse that way, but I have XP on my laptop and the images are a bit too small for me to see comfortably.

I used to tag all my supplies in Picasa, then that became hard to keep up with so I started tagging just the previews. This worked well, but when I started scrapping on my laptop it couldn't handle having Picasa open at the same time as Photoshop.

[suladesign]

I do it similar to Kate, only I name the previews according to the product's name and add a category in front: i.e. Stitch, Bad Sewing Machine etc. That way I don't have to do several folders, it shows up sorted nicely in the one preview folder I have, once I have the computer sort the previews by name. Nice and easy and I always have an overview of my goodies, because I have a ton of them. I do that with element packs such as: alphas, labels, date stuff, stitches, etc.
I also do it the same principle with tools such as templates, clipping masks etc.


I keep all my kits together by designer and copy all the previews into a set of folders that just have previews in them. One of my preview folders is just stitches, so when I want stitches I can browse that folder and see all of them. Some previews end up in multiple folders. If a kit has an alpha and stitches in it, I'll put copies of the preview in both of these folders, too. This system makes it really easy to find what I want and to avoid duplicate purchases :)

I also have the preview as my folder image and sometimes I'll browse that way, but I have XP on my laptop and the images are a bit too small for me to see comfortably.

I used to tag all my supplies in Picasa, then that became hard to keep up with so I started tagging just the previews. This worked well, but when I started scrapping on my laptop it couldn't handle having Picasa open at the same time as Photoshop.

[tjscraps]

I do it similar to Kate too, I have everything sorted by designer, and if I only have 1-2 products from a designer I have theme folders (elements, stitches, wordart, etc). Then I have folders for all the previews, and I'm working on getting the previews from everything in there. I just started this system a few months ago, and I love it! Way easier than opening the kit folder every time to see colors, elements, etc.

[lovely1m]

Right now they are just shoved in Traci's folder on my EHD, but I have been wondering, too. I am like, I need a circle stitch, not which one is it and keep looking and looking. lol

[scrappurple]

I know that I take my stitching out of the separate folders they come in. That way if the preview looks like something I would use then I open the folder up and see all the stitches at one time. It is to time consuming for me to open each folder. I get frustrated and end up not using anything. :)

[Traci Reed]

For reference...I always start my previews with set 1 at the top and then goes through in order to set 6 as you go down....so if you like the 3rd from the top on the preview, then that's set #3 in the folders :) (the 6th one down is set 6, etc.)

[KateD]

For reference...I always start my previews with set 1 at the top and then goes through in order to set 6 as you go down....so if you like the 3rd from the top on the preview, then that's set #3 in the folders :) (the 6th one down is set 6, etc.)

Thanks, Traci, that helps!

[lovely1m]

For reference...I always start my previews with set 1 at the top and then goes through in order to set 6 as you go down....so if you like the 3rd from the top on the preview, then that's set #3 in the folders :) (the 6th one down is set 6, etc.)

umm, so why have I never figured this out before? Especially being I own every single pack?

[Nettio]

I was having the same issue so I made little preview icons for my folders like this:
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h232/linniep/SSD/treed_folderpreview.png

On my Mac it was really easy. I just opened the png file in Preview, cropped the part I wanted to use as the thumbnail and then just copied and pasted the cropped version in the Get Info box. On a PC I think it'd take more steps since you'd probably have to save the cropped version as a file to use as the icon.

But I did it for Libby's stitching too and it's been a huge help.

[Lyd]

Lynette you are genius. I wish I could live in your brain for just one day. :)

[carriesmom]

It is going to sound like a cop out but everything is in Picasa. I can type in stitch and see all my stitching, which is very helpful!

[Julie Billingsley]

wow, that's an awesome idea Lynnette! I'm totally going to do that!

[KateD]

It is going to sound like a cop out but everything is in Picasa. I can type in stitch and see all my stitching, which is very helpful!

That's a great way to do it, Liz! I had all my stuff tagged at one point in Picasa and I loved it. I had to stop doing that when I started scrapping on my laptop because it couldn't handle Photoshop and Picasa open at the same time :(

[julifish]

Lynette - that was exactly what I was looking for! Thank you! I have XP and the previews are super small or way too big -this will work perfectly!

[scrappurple]

For reference...I always start my previews with set 1 at the top and then goes through in order to set 6 as you go down....so if you like the 3rd from the top on the preview, then that's set #3 in the folders :) (the 6th one down is set 6, etc.)

Good to know!! :thumbup: