Now that I'm in way over my head.....

[momtutu]

You all are probably going to be sick of me really quickly with all my questions!

I haven't really formally introduced myself - I'm Kate and I've been married to my best friend for 16 years and am mother of 2. I've got a 6 y.o. DD and an 8y.o. DS. I have waaayyyyy too many projects on my plate usually (including sewing clothes for DD and quilting) and I am a pediatric physical therapist working in the home health field but I only work 4 days/week so I get a 3 day weekend every week. When the kids are at school, I get Fridays to myself and usually spend the day crafting.

I've loved scrapbooking for years but have found myself to be sewing more over the past 3 years and my scrapbooking has taken a back seat. I turned my formal dining room into my sewing, scrapbooking, craft area but I can really only have one craft thing on my dining room table at a time without going absolutely bonkers! I just stumbled upon digi literally a week ago and have gone gung-ho with it! I can still have my sewing in the dining room and this in the study - WOOHOO!!! I can have my cake and eat it too!

So...here's my next question...

Now that I have downloaded tons of paper, elements and other goodies, where do I organize it all? I've got my pictures well organized so that's not a problem. I have made a folder called "scrapbooking" which I'm dumping everything into right now. But....some folders are paper, some have kits in them with paper and elements and text, you know how it is. Do you all separate you paper into diffferent folders and elements into others? Or do you try to keep the kits that go together all together? The problem I forsee, is that I will have so many folders in my "scrapbook" folder that I won't know where to look for a piece of red patterned paper or an element of a blue piece of ribbon? KWIM?

Any organizational thoughts or hints?

Sorry about the novel. If you've made it this far, you already know something about me - I'm long winded!

[BrattyMeg]

oyyy

I sort by Kits--designer--kit name--papers/elements/alpha

Ev1 organizes different ways and there's a few threads with diff tips in there. I do think however if you start out digiscrapping with a good method, that will help most in the long run.

I went to search and put in organize supplies you will got these different threads with info
https://www.sweetshoppedesigns.com/c...earchid=230717

and Welcome!! Hope you love it here!

[gracielou]

Well first welcome to the world of digi and welcome to SSD! Here is a link to a thread from a while back where I asked the same question. It has a wealth of amazing ideas to get you organized. Thanks to Shannon (ZaCola3) I am now so very organized.
https://www.sweetshoppedesigns.com/c...RGANIZING+KITS

If your will do a search here in the forum and type in Organizing kits that will pull up some very helpful threads also! HTH

[gracielou]

OH Meg beat me to it LOL! You will find great help in those threads though I promise!

[amystoffel]

I used to separate my kits by papers, elements...etc...but it became a bigger mess for me.


I keep one giant folder I call Scrap Kits. Then within it I organize them by designer. I also keep a folder of alphas, and other little tid-bits.

I keep a notebook of my kits, and whats in them. It sounds tedious...but then again digi scrapping can be tedious. Like for instance...I am addicted to staples. But not all kits have staples. So I can go to my notebook and see which kits have a staple to snag rather than opening up random kits and looking inside.

But everyone finds their own way of organizing and what works for them.

Welcome!

[OrianaVianey]

Well, this is a question that once a month pops in different forums. And nobody have THE answer. Everybody is different but there are a couple of things that may help.

- Organizing softwares as Picasa and ACDSee are very popular because allowed you to put different "tags" on every element but is very time consuming. But this is something that I recommend everybody to start since the very beginning because once your stash is growing tagging everything is a nightmare.

I myself keep two copys of everything I bought.
- One goes to a folder naming like this Designer - Name of the kits. And I have a copy of the previews so I can do a quick look when I'm searching for kits.

- The other is in My "TOOL" folder. This have several subfolders label as buttons, random papers, flowers, doodles, stars, frames, etc But I don't put everything there, just my fav and those handy elements that go with everything

[newfiemountiewife]

The ladies gave you good advice about organizing. You really need to find something that works for you.

Welcome!

[lauren grier]

*waves* Hi Welcome to SSD "officially" LOL
Ditto the other gals.. Everyone organizes differently. I do not use any sort of organization software. You just need to figure out what way works best for you. I'm not much of a kit scrapper (though I've been trying more lately)- I also don't keep much "stock" on my HD.. so what I DO have is just the stuff I go to over and over- and it's organized in folders for Papers (I'm going to need to break that down more though soon), Misc Elements- which contains subs for Buttons, Ribbons, Flowers, Stars, Cardboard, Frames, Swirls, Word Art, Journaling, Hearts, uhhhhhhm... something else, then a folder for Doodles, a Folder for Alphas (well that has sub folders containing the alphas), and then I have a giant folder full of crap I havent' organized/doesn't have a folder yet, like stitching and misc attachments-- I'm not really on top of things It's been unorganized for a while.

[meems]

welcome!
you are wise to think of organizing stuff in these early days.

I personally swear by, love, totally rely on ACDSee10 PhotoManager (for PC only though). I used to use the Organizer that came with PSE but found ACDSee to be leaps and bounds better.

I haven't been keeping up with my tagging and I still love it b/c I think it's a nice way to look through my stash. It's basically Windows Explorer on crack and steroids.

My basic folder structure is Designer > Kit.

Anyway, when I d/l stuff I extract to a folder called New Kits (with the plan that I will burn the folder to DVD when I get a DVD's worth). After new stuff gets burned, I move it to appropriate designer folder. As long as I move stuff w/in ACDSee, my tags remain intact.

While you are thinking about organizing, you should also make sure you have a back up plan -- ideally 2 different kinds of back up. and don't forget to back up fonts!

[Laura_A]

Originally Posted by momtutu

I can have my cake and eat it too!

You just can't eat it on your dining room table. teehee... couldn't resist.

Anyway, welcome!

It's prolly going to be quite overwhelming at first, especially until you figure out HOW you scrap and search for things. The other girls have linked up with some good conversations on the subject.

I just recently set up ACDSee Photo Manager to organize all my stuff. It took a little getting use to at 1st but there are some really great video tutorials that totally helped me. I'm still in the process of tagging everything, but I can already tell I'm going to love it!

It's really great that you're starting NOW and not after you've accumulated 100s of kits! Good luck and don't hesitate to ask any questions you may have.

[ashliwolf]

you mean we have to organize it?!

lol...welcome welcome welcome to this sweet little place...itsn't it JUSt awesome! love love love it here!

i don't organize my stuff..sorry..i am no help..but i AM very happy that you are here! congrats on diving in to digi...wohoo..it is AWESOME.. xoxo

[momtutu]

I'm really comfortable using windows explorer and when I'm opening things in Elements, it goes straight to explorer and I can find it so I don't know that I would use ACDSee much. I do use Picassa but that would seem like overkill to have to open that up to get my pictures instead of just using explorer right? Or are you saving papers and stuff in Picassa also? I'm not sure how to do that. Hmmm...

I don't know the various designers yet but their names are on all of my folders that I've downloaded. I tend to look for stuff by color so I don't know that separating things by designer would work for me but doing it by shop might. I can see for sure that there are so many ways of doing things and there are no wrongs or rights.

Thanks for those links above. I should have done that search first before asking the question that must come up constantly by us newbies!

I'm going to sit on this and ponder it a while!

[Laura_A]

IMO it's better to leave your kits together... but I'm more of a kit scrapper.

I started... and I know other do this too... a file with just previews in it. That way, I can scroll through that and look at all my previews to find a kit I want to use instead of having to open each file to look at it. Maybe that would help you.

This thread is full of great info and she dosen't use ACDSee...

https://www.sweetshoppedesigns.com/c...light=organize

[meems]

you can open thingsp directly from ACDSee. actually I open ACDSee 1st have and it will launch my PS.

there should be a trial for ACDsee that you can check out. Honestly, SO much better than Windows Explorer and Picasa.

eta: I am v. partial to ACDsee. however, I guess I *could* accept that it's not for everyone. :P

[my3hens]

I am So horriblle at organization so you dont want my tips LOL But wanted to say welcome to the community!

[kscwgirl]

I'm very much a kit scrapper, so that is how I organize.

Welcome to SSD!!!

[momtutu]

Ahhhhh...Thank you Laura A for that link to Christy's input - that is exactly what I'm looking for. That's how my brain orgainizes things so that type of system and folders would work well for me.