This is a guest post from team member Aimee Maddern.
As a local scrapbook store owner I use to hear, “I am never going to catch up with my scrapbook” or “my scrapbook isn’t finished”. This use to drive me crazy, I would ask “why does it need to be finished?” I always felt, my life isn’t over, so why should my scrapbook be?
But if I died tomorrow, are all of my stories told?
How I Finished a Project
I am always “catching up”, but I also scrap for other people and have assignments with deadlines. As I write this post I am playing “catch up” on assignments due to personal illness. I also need to catch up on personal projects like my “Stories of Summer” album.
In May I started a “Stories of Summer” album. I made a few pages and it was set aside, {because summer wasn’t over} and never returned to it. I could feel the album guilting me all summer long. I finally bargained with this guilt and made a goal: this album needs to be completed when the weather changes! Summer was officially over 3 weeks ago, and just last week the weather has made a change.
I wrote the “Stories of Summer” into my calendar so it would get the same attention any other assignment would get. I gave myself a full Saturday to finish. I already had most of the photos ready to go. I then realized I didn’t have ALL the photos I wanted. I didn’t have the time and I didn’t want to wait to order more photos from the summer. I worked with the photos I did have and added many photos that I wouldn’t have if I were to wait for more photos to come.
I’m quite all right that I didn’t add all the photos from summer, or every trip we made. I am just happy that I have an album. One where memories were captured, and stories are told.
Editor’s Note: Do you have summer stories that have not been told? How can you find focus to get it done? We would love for you to share your ideas in the comments.
Thanks to various classes and challenges, I think 2013 is the most nearly up to date year in recent memory. I scrap with friends most Wednesday mornings, so I think I will make it my plan to use that time to fill in the holes of events/stories not done yet. We’ll see how close that gets me to a completely scrapped year by year end!
I have a mini-book I’ve called ‘Appreciating Winter’. It’s a perpetual album, meaning I aim to add entries whenever an idea occurs for years to come. No behind, no end – winter is a long, ongoing story.
if there isnt enough time to work on your own albums or somethings dont get put in an album and dont want to leave out, you can always get a SMASH*book journal. tit could shorten the task with its already made decorated pages and available items in the kit. ( as if ud need them.lol) u can devote an entire journal to an occasion theme or topic or mix it up. you can also use them to stay organized or products to recommend to clients for themselves or to give as gifts, especially when nobody knows wut to get for a girl in her teens. they arent exactly albums, but whatever is put in them is still being shared and again, might be more appropriate when you dont have the time for your own.
u can also hire a part time assistant to help out with simple tasks. and offer products or lessons and help with their own scrapbook business or blog marketing in exchange for service and time. or free spot in a scrapbook cruise/convention. or simply find creative ways for tricking others to do it for you. lol
or start some kind of scrapbook designer/store owner HELP network to all help eachother with the
the things you all dont have time for and can do for others while working on the task yourself or for client. the network is where the jobs or tasks or supplies needed or able to do can be posted and shared. this could help make things easier for everyone who have same business and time limiting situations. but im sure there is something already similar in scrapbooking forums. but this wuld eliminate those who done have scrapbooking/blogging business.
hope this helps