How do you organize your scrapping time?

[scrap2day]

So it's a new year and I'm trying to start things off differently. I haven't scrapbooked much in years. I want 2015 to be a year where I get caught up and include more scrapbooking time in my life.

Can anyone share any hints for how they plan their scrapbook time or organize projects so that they complete them?

Or even if you have taken any of the online courses for planning out your scrapbooking for the year? It's not really in my budget but if someone says the such and such course changed everything for me and now I'm cranking out pages every week I might just figure out how to swing it.

[nesser1981]

I'm trying to scrap at least 2 layouts a day this year. So far I've exceeded that goal, but it's only the 5th. LOL!

[rach3975]

1. Put kids to bed.
2. Sit down at computer.
3. Open a layout in progress or choose photos, then template, then kit. (Order changes if it's a CT page)
4. Scrap a few minutes.
5. Go online...just for a minute.
6. Return to LO 30 minutes later.
7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 over and over all night!

On a more serious note, I think the place to start is to figure out what's preventing you from scrapping. Lack of time? Lack of interest? Too many distractions? Lack of organization that makes it hard to know where to start? Overwhelmed by too many photos? Feeling like you'll never get everything scrapped that you want to? Lack of product or photos that inspire you? Big ideas but no idea how to make them happen over a year?

I have suggestions for some of those if you can narrow down what you're looking for help with or tell us more about what you're hoping to accomplish scrap-wise.

[michelepixels]

I was most prolific as a digi-scrapper in 2011 and 2012. For the last two years I focused more on my photography, picked up a couple outside obligations, and no longer managed to scrap. I kept thinking it should be no problem to just sit here and scrap for a couple of hours, but I kept doing other things and forgetting to scrap. Finally I decided to make Sunday my scrapbooking day. I got three pages done last Sunday. It's not that I don't do anything else Sunday, but I scrap first. I think this is going to work.

[adi&co.]

I don't set goals or do anything at all because if I put pressure on myself, it takes the joys out of it for me. Sorry, I know that's completely useless, lol

[kristijoy]

Originally Posted by rach3975

1. Put kids to bed.
2. Sit down at computer.
3. Open a layout in progress or choose photos, then template, then kit. (Order changes if it's a CT page)
4. Scrap a few minutes.
5. Go online...just for a minute.
6. Return to LO 30 minutes later.
7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 over and over all night!

That sounds like me!

[jak]

It took me nearly six years but I finally caught up on all my scrapping in 2014... the only way I achieved that was to be realistic about what photos I would scrap, and I only figured that out probably 3-4 years in to it. I had to spend a fair bit of time sorting through all my photos to narrow them down - I did this once and realised I still had too many, so I sorted through them again about a year later... once I had that done, I became so much more focused so that I could make every page I scrapped count. I even re-scrapped some earlier pages since my skills had improved heaps in the meantime.

My approach was to do one family album per year, albums for my two boys covering three years of their lives at a time (so 0-2, 3-5, 6-8...), and a holiday (vacations) book which has no set timeframe (we don't take many big holidays so its more a collection of our mini-holidays over the years), and being pretty strict about the number of pages in the books.

I limit each book to only about 100 pages - these are a combination of individual pages for photos I really love and for special events, stories and happenings, and a heap of pocket style pages (4-6 pages per month in the family book and 10-12 pages per year in my boys' books) to capture the hundreds of other photos that don't justify an individual page. Doing this I was actually able to include nearly everything I've photographed over the past 10+ years (and I photograph EVERYTHING, many times over!!).

Now that I'm caught up, I have more time to do challenges and CT LOs 'just for fun', in addition to staying on top of my current family album and kids' books. Some of the challenge/CT LOs make it into my books, others I park in a folder with the intention that I'll maybe one day make a book (for me) with them... that's a future project which I haven't thought too much about yet.

[Nixenkind]

My main focus is my daily diary, it's closest to my heart. Sometimes, I fall 3-5 days behind and have to do all of these layouts at once (which makes me simplify the whole process a lot), but mostly I manage to do my daily page once the kits are in bed. Only Mentalist days get ugly, because I have SO MANY photos then... I keep my pages relatively simple then and don't embellish as much as I usually do.

[scrap2day]

Originally Posted by rach3975

1. Put kids to bed.
2. Sit down at computer.
3. Open a layout in progress or choose photos, then template, then kit. (Order changes if it's a CT page)
4. Scrap a few minutes.
5. Go online...just for a minute.
6. Return to LO 30 minutes later.
7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 over and over all night!

On a more serious note, I think the place to start is to figure out what's preventing you from scrapping. Lack of time? Lack of interest? Too many distractions? Lack of organization that makes it hard to know where to start? Overwhelmed by too many photos? Feeling like you'll never get everything scrapped that you want to? Lack of product or photos that inspire you? Big ideas but no idea how to make them happen over a year?

I have suggestions for some of those if you can narrow down what you're looking for help with or tell us more about what you're hoping to accomplish scrap-wise.

I stopped scrapping a few years ago when I had difficulty scrapping a family event that had a lot of additional emotional pain tied to it. The easiest way for me to deal with not being able to scrap them was to stop scrapping all together. It is a get together I need to scrap because it will cause bigger problems with all the family, including extended family about why I didn't scrap them/include them, etc.

I feel ready to scrap those photos now and am allowing myself the grace of templates or whatever helps me to get those pages completed as quickly as possible.

Since I haven't really scrapped in years I'm so out of practice of making the time for me and of course I'm also an expert at number 5-7 above just include some TV programs in there too.

I definitely need to carve out some scrapbook time. I'm thinking at least one evening on the weekend. I definitely have a lot of projects to work on, even just the family basics from 2012 to now. I also want to make an album for my niece. I missed having it completed for her high school graduation but want to have it completed for her college graduation.

You asked really good questions. I'm thinking I need a way to organize my photos and kits into projects so when I do have my scrapbooking time I can just get to it.

[Sherri Tierney]

I definitely don't set scrapping goals these days. Working full time outside the home has really diminished the amount of time I have to spend scrapping. I want to find some ways to streamline the process and really work to maximize my very minimal scrapping time. I have been working on organizing my photos better. The next step will be organizing my digi kits and templates better. At that point I think I could be more efficient.

[LeeAndra]

I do something scrapelated almost every day. I find that this keeps ideas/inspiration almost always running through my mind so I can sit down whenever I have a few minutes and scrap at least a little. I keep up in the forums + keep my wishlist updated so I know what's going on and can catch any flash sales and/or know what exactly I'm going to scrap a certain photo or series of photos with when I get the time/money.

I also regularly go through my photos and pull out (copy+paste) which ones I want to be scrapped into a separate folder on my main hard drive (off my EHD). For photos that are very similar, like my stepson's football seasons, I will wait until the end of the season, pull out the best/most illustrative photos, and commit to scrapping them on one double page spread. That way, I don't get bogged down in creating a bunch of pages (taking time + energy away from other pages or projects) when one double page spread will suffice. I do the same thing with Christmas and birthday photos. I include a Notepad file with each photo (so they are all in subfolders within the To Be Scrapped folder) and jot down journaling + write down a specific template or kit (if I know ahead of time) that I want to use.

I keep a 'New/To Be Used' folder for the new scrap supplies I buy when I buy something that I don't have a certain use for at that moment. I will go through this folder first if I have photos I want to scrap. When I have used something from this folder, I move it to my regular EHD. I regularly purge my stash when I know a kit or template is no longer my style (or never was to begin with). I have been doing this a very long time and know my style and preferences.

Scrapping is my one thing I do for me. I don't have any other major hobbies. I make it a priority to scrap, and I don't feel bad abt taking that time for me (rather than cleaning, etc.) when I get it. Even if it's only 20 minutes of 'prescrapping' (pulling out photos to scrap and kits to scrap with) before bedtime, I do it.

Basically, if you spend the time in getting to know yourself and your style + keeping your photos and supplies super organized, you will get the most use out of your scrapping time when you get it.

HTH!

[semantje]

I'm trying to do 2-3 lay outs a week for my personal scrapbooks and not work on more than two project at a time. For now i'm working on a WDW album and one from a trip to Belgium.

CT I do beside that but there are almost never more than two lay outs a week since i'm only on two teams. Then I do challenges here on Sweet Shoppe and some days I do like 3 of them in a row. Depends on my mood I guess.

I wish I could do something like one lay out a day but I come home very late on working days so it's mostly cook, eat, shower, some browsing and off to bed again.

But if you have the time I would say one lay out a day is perfect. Just be sure everything else is done. That helps me create a better page.