I have noticed in person crops and scrapbooking retreats are happening more and more in the recent months. It is funny to me in some ways because I really feel like scrapbooking is best done when the weather is bad. In Western Washington we get quite a bit of bad weather. With the sun coming out every so often now that spring has come I like to be outside, at least until it starts to get too hot. Once the temps get too high I come back in and hide by the AC. It happens to sit next to my craft desk so I am a happy camper for sure! Anyway, with all the in person scrapbook gatherings I have been seeing I thought I would do a more detailed version of my Photo Organization post to help those of you packing up for your next crafty get together. If you didn’t catch the Photo Organization post and would like to know about it you can find it here. This current post will focus more on the process for prep and less on how I organize the photos beforehand.
Do you find yourself taking more scrapbook stuff to a crop then you do for your personal care? Does it fill your vehicle to the brim? Have you had to actually decide what to leave behind in order to get your clothes to fit in the vehicle? Does it look like your whole craft room is going with you and you are still not sure you have everything you need? Well, if you are willing to change things up I may have a solution for you. You have to be willing to try something different to get different results. Keep that in mind as I go through the steps. When you think to yourself… I can't do that… Just remember I was there once. Taking so much stuff a friend of mine and I thought we would have to take two separate cars because we filled her 8 passenger van to the hilt and I felt like it was mostly my stuff. I vowed then and there to make it easier to scrapbook away from home. My method works for me and I hope it can work for you. It doesn’t matter if you are a scrapbooker, paper crafter, or card maker the process can be adjusted for your needs.
Print. Print only the photos you love. You don’t need 16 pictures of the same view of the ocean clicked with every other wave. You only need 1. Maybe 2 if there was some cool boat, bird or interesting thing came into view that wasn’t in the 1 that was the best.
Sort. Sort your photos and organize by year and month. Within the month organize by event/type. Keep trips, events, etc all sorted so that each one has ALL the photos of that particular thing together so you aren’t hunting down missing pictures. I keep all the misc photos and photos of pets for the end. I don’t always scrap them. It will depend on how much I like the photo and if I have enough to fill a page or not. If it doesn’t really add to the story of the month it doesn’t need to be in the book. If you are working on an event scrapbook you would alter your sort to be things like opening gifts, cake, mingling for a birthday or for a trip you would organize by what was happening. Travel, visit to each place on your journey, etc. It helps tell your story and the flow of your book will be smooth rather than choppy. Toss any photos that ended up looking blurry or you decided you didn’t really want to scrapbook them. Make sure you label your photo storage with what is inside, Month, Date and in addition Event if you are needing to keep track of that.
Prep. Prep your pages using your sorted photos! This is my favorite part. I scrap chronologically. So, I would pick up the oldest package of photos I left off on and start my process of prepping the page. Lay out photos a 12x12 VersaMat so you know how many pictures will fit on a page. If you don’t have one, you can use a 12x12 piece of solid cardstock. If you are starting with the back side of your page and you use page protectors you have the background all ready as it may be the back side of your previous page (if it works with your photos). Even if I am working on a two page layout I still work with one side at a time making the photos the star. I just keep in mind what to group together knowing I will have multiple pages. I will sometimes crop the photos at this stage. It depends on how I feel at the moment. If you have more photos than you can fit, decide if you want to do extra pages, add a small pocket page, or my favorite… add Flip Flaps. If you know you will use flip flaps or the pocket page, put those photos inside the flaps or pockets right away. You can always get more when you need them, but you don’t want to be at a crop and not have them ready and available.
Choose. Choose your papers. With my background I always try to use the back sides of double sided paper. I may even pick a paper that isn’t as good as another one just so I can use the back side. If you only have one piece and want to do a double layout, use a solid color cardstock for the background and cut the patterned one in half. 6 inches for each side and now you have a double layout with the one piece of paper. Once you have you background paper picked out, put it behind the photos in a rough layout. Grab enough paper for your photo mats (however many mats you want) and then put that next to you as you look at your layout.
Pick your embellishments, stamps, or other mementos you want to add? Do you like ribbon accents, gems, or stickers? Those all go loosely on the layout. Use an exato knife to cut out stickers from a sheet and place it where you want it to go on the layout. It still has its backing so you don’t have to worry it will get stuck or anything while you finish your prep. If you are making a border, either make sure you have all the paper, etc to complete it and put that in the pile with your mat paper or make the border completely and place it on your layout (nothing gets adhered at this stage). If you have some stamps you want to use and you are not stamping directly on your pages, then go ahead and stamp away now. If you want to stamp directly on your pages you will need to keep a list in the front of your bin with what stamp sets, ink pads, etc you need to take with you. You also will need to remember to refer to that list when you are packing up. I don’t stamp directly on the page itself so I can stamp and add my images to the layout loosely. Lastly, if you are stamping directly on the page and not doing that right now (because everything is only loosely placed) it is good to put a note in the pile with your photo mat paper of the stamp set you wanted to use so you don’t forget when you pull it out 6 months or more later when you are putting the page together. If you need a Cricut title, get it cut and added to a baggie if it is in pieces with the title written on the bag so you don’t have to play guess the title while sitting at a crop laughing with your friends. You can also put the title together and then add the completed title loosely to the layout. Once you have every item ready and you don’t want to add anything else take everything for that layout and pile it on your background paper then slide it into a page protector. Make sure the background you want to use faces out toward you and everything you want on that page goes in front of it including flip flaps, mat paper, everything. If the back side is one you like and can use with your next photos you can just turn it over and start your next layout. When it is done you put everything for that page in the front of the background paper.
Repeat. Repeat steps 3-5 over and over until you finish the year. If you are doing an event, then you would prep until you have worked through all the photos.
As a note adding sketches is a great idea if you want to take time to do that. I only do it for pages where there are more than 4-5 photos and I am not sure I can remember what I was doing. My sketches are more like words written on an index card. I will write one word for each pic in the general spot it should be and things like border down the side where I want the border, etc. Again, I don’t do this often but it does help for pages with lots of photos so I know what I was thinking. I have gotten to a crop, pulled out my page protector, carefully separating one side from the other and laughing because I had no clue what I was thinking when I put it all in there to begin with. Sketches or quick notes can be a very good thing. When I don’t add an index note card and I can't figure out a layout there is some fun and creative improvising that goes on. LOL!
By prepping my pages with my new method, I was able to attend a very small three person crop for National Scrapbooking Day and complete 38 page protectors between laughing, going out for food, etc. It was about 9 hours of hands-on time and it was awesome. It means I got 76 pages completed in 9 hours because I had prepped everything beforehand. I had my adhesive, ruler, trimmer, pens, shimmer brushes and my XXL bag of tools. Know what? The only thing I grabbed from my XXL bag was my washi tape for the flip flaps when I cut them down. I could have brought my washi tape and left the XXL bag! How great is that!!! I didn’t have to kill my back lugging bin after bin of paper up and down stairs, I didn’t have to gather up my whole scrap room! It was such a different experience and I love it! So, when I am at home, I prep pages. I don’t do anything else. I sometimes will complete a page in the prep process, but mostly I just prep. I have prepped all the way to April 15th, 2021. I don’t have any more pictures loaded so that is the next step in my process. Which is referred to in my other post here. I have changed my process a bit because I no longer print every single photo. I am always adapting my process to achieve a need. This need is definitely marked off my list! Could you use this to help you scrap away from home without all the fuss? I hope so!
A little peak into the completed work on Saturday!
Sort
Prep
Choose
Pick
Repeat
Happy Crafting!