In this guest post team member Mandy Ross shares how she stays happy and productive in her scrapbooking.
Like most people, if something is too complicated, I won’t do it. However, if something is a part of my routine, I’ll do it with very little thought. It’s finding the right balance to get things done.
When it comes to my scrapbooking, I scrapbook for me. These are my memories, my stories. I scrapbook because I want to, because I have something to say with pictures and words. That means it has to be fun, or I won’t do it. Now, we all know that there are aspects of scrapbooking that aren’t as much fun. Organizing supplies, anyone?
My approach to these necessary duties is to make them easy for me to do with very little thought. The more incorporated they are into my routines, the less likely I am to think of them as a chore. I don’t like chores; chores are not fun.
The first part of my scrapbooking starts with my photos. The photos help me tell my stories. I am very good about pulling pictures off my cameras every week. Why? Because I do a weekly backup and it’s important to have the past week’s photos on that backup. This is such a part of my routine that I don’t even think of it as being part of my scrapbook workflow.
When I’m pulling the photos and putting them into folders, I also keep a written photo log in a notebook of the dates and the subject of the photos. This is such a small extra step. It doesn’t take much time. The photo log notebook is always on my desk and I can have it done in a couple of minutes. I know a lot of people tag their photos in Lightroom, Aperture, etc., but that’s never worked for me. I have tried. It just became too much of a project in itself.
I don’t edit my photos as I pull them off my camera either. For me, it doesn’t work because it becomes a chore. Why should I edit 20 photos when I’m only going to use 4 of them on a layout?
See how much other work you can make for yourself while trying to make things simpler? I know some people love editing photos, tagging them and can’t possible understand why I would skip these steps. It’s simple really, I don’t enjoy it. I know my routine. I know my plan of attack. I know what works for me. That’s the most important thing to remember – know what works for you and what doesn’t. Try new things, but if it’s not working, don’t force it.
Share Your Thoughts in the Comments
Now it’s your turn. We all skip steps and tailor the process to work for our own lives. What do you do to make scrapbooking work for you? Is there something not working that you’d love to change?
Organization, that is a MUST for me. I keep my supplies organized in a way that works for me. This makes it easier to go through my whole stash when putting a page together. Also, I only keep what I love. If I don’t love it I don’t keep it. This saves me space and time. I read once in a Feng Shui book that we should only have 3 types of things in our home:
Things that we love
Things that we use
Things that we consider beautiful
It is hard to do that because we have to get past our guilt and insecurities. But in the end it is well worth it.