It’s Q&A month and I’m answering your biggest questions about life, business, and simple scrapbooking.
How do you fit scrapbooking into your day? When do you scrapbook and how often?
When you look at “the industry”, there are generally two types of people: professional scrapbookers and business owners. While there are many exceptions and variations, one of these groups does a lot more scrapbooking than the other. These are the talented women you see on design teams for manufacturers and teaching project-based classes in person and online.
I am a business owner, so the bulk of my day involves a lot of things that aren’t scrapbooking. While I have a great support system that helps keep things running, like many of you I wish I had more time to scrapbook. That said, I feel fortunate that scrapbooking is part of my workday some of the time and that I have some flexibility.
On average, you’ll find me scrapbooking on Mondays more than other days. Sometimes I’ll get a head start over the weekend, but the very beginning of the work week is often a great time to create with a fresh eye. When I have scrapbooking tasks planned, I make sure I (literally) don’t sit down until I’ve gotten started. This is so helpful for raising and carrying momentum throughout my morning.
But it doesn’t always work out that way. Sometimes I need Mondays for writing and creating gets pushed off. I’ll consider evenings, but know it’s not going to happen. My brain shuts off way too early on most nights. Weekends during naptime is my backup plan. Usually this gets used for managing my photos and organizing, but once in a while it’s the only time I can find to fit scrapbooking into my week.
Over a month, I tend to scrapbook more at the beginning of the month because of my calendar for the membership. I try to make sure the new sketches and templates are in the hands of the creative team by the 10th of each month – and in most months three of the five layouts are brand new. Once those pages are complete, I often turn my focus to other ongoing or unfinished projects for the rest of the month.
Because my time for layouts in a given month tends to be limited, I will give some thought to the stories I want to tell in advance. I rarely start scrapbooking without photos selected and paired with a set of products. I need to complete these more left-brained tasks in a separate sitting from the more right-brained design of a page.
While new projects and classes can impact my routine and have my scrapbooking a lot more intensively, I would say I scrapbook a fairly average (if not low) amount in any given month. One of the perils of this job is that I end up thinking and writing about scrapbooking a lot more than I am able to actually do it. I’m OK with that and feel good about what I get to accomplish for me and my family.
Would you like to be notified when we publish new blog posts?
Subscribe: RSS | Email | Feedly | Bloglovin’
“I rarely start scrapbooking without photos selected and paired with a set of products. I need to complete these more left-brained tasks in a separate sitting from the more right-brained design of a page.”
Love. That. I bet that is part of my scatterbrained problems! I’m gonna try to separate left-brained and right-brained tasks and see if that helps. I really wish I would have had the extra cash to have taken that class of yours. I seem to keep discovering little nuggets of wisdom from you, Jennifer. Thank you!
Lisa, I also talk about this concept in this post:
https://www.simplescrapper.com/2013/08/where-your-mojo-is-hiding/
I scrapbook a lot more than I used to now that I’ve discovered pocket scrapbooking. I’d say “Project Life” but I have gone beyond that. I took your class Jennifer ‘Before Your Story’ and loved the use of pages that were not just 12×12 for interest and variety.
Pre PL, I organize two retreats a year (4 days) and that would often be the only times a year I printed pictures and scrapbooked. I love traditional scrapbooking but have SO much stuff it’s not very easy to pick up and do a page here and there. I will keep doing traditional at these retreats and focus on big vacations.
Now my PL…sigh..those little embellishments, small packets. {{Grin}} I’ve been pretty good about working on my PL each week. A little here a little there. I am by no means ‘caught up’ but I plug along. I print the pictures I want on regular old paper and when I’m satisfied (some pics I use as 3×4 and those I make 2 as one 4×6 in PSE) I send a batch to Persnickety Prints to be printed and will replace the draft copies.
I subscribe to 2 kit clubs as I know myself well and would never be happy with just placing the photos in pockets and adding cards to fill in our journal. Not saying that doesn’t look great too. Just not for me.
I am finding a new fondness for sequins and enamel dots!
I think it’s awesome that you really understand what parts of the process fill you up. One thing to consider, if you ever do get down about being behind.. is that you can split your satisfaction. And by that I mean find little projects that meet your creative embellishment needs (layouts, cards, mini books etc.) while you use some streamlining to make a big leap forward in your PL memory keeping.
Related to PL-style embellishments, I am addicted too. I love how Project Life has brought flat, small, and less-thematic embellishments to the market. This is why I use my PL kit subscription on layouts – the supplies are perfect for simple scrapbookers who still want to play a little! And nothing excites me more than stapling a sequin to my page. 😉
So true. Great suggestion about splitting my satisfaction. I’m happy to say I have ‘let it go’ (OK, the song is in my head today) and been very satisfied with less than fully blinged pages. I nod, feel happy it’s documented, smile at the friends/family in the layout, and call it ‘DONE’. I may need to start a bit of stitching across the sequins. I like that look too.
I feel a sense of gladness when I get out the Tiny Attacher!