The Weekly Pep Talk is a video podcast series designed to help you find more time for scrapbooking and use it well. Learn more in our free guide.
In this week’s episode, I’m sharing a secret technique I recently used to make six layouts in a row. It really works! Subscribers may need to visit the website to view the video.
Your Weekly Pep Talk
It’s your turn to talk! Do you use challenges to get started? What kind of scrapbooking boundaries work best for keeping you motivated?
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For me, picking out a solid colour paper, a neutral, as well as a coordinating solid and/or patterned paper is the key to getting started. I choose the focal point photo, lay it on the neutral or patterned page with the other photos chosen for that page, leaving adequate space for journalling and possibly borders. Leaving space for a specific embellishment and/or title is optional). I like to layout the adjacent page at the same time for a coordinating double layout). Then I mat and adhere the focal photo , followed by the other photos, embellishments, and sometimes a title. Lastly I add journalling.
Such a great video… thank you…. I have used challenges before but not as a prompt but to force myself to try other colours, styles or stories which has helped me grow so much and I love it. I have never thought of making myself kits and then just using them – I love this idea because I also battle so much when I go to a crop because I normally work by adding here and there and maybe this or that, so when I go away I never get anything done because I think I want to stamp and I dont have my stamps… so I love this idea… thank you x
Thank you! I am going to take your advice and get started!
Challenges can work well for me. Last month I did a 31 layout challenge and I scrapped a lot – over four times as many layouts as I usually make in a month. I didn’t start the challenge until the 14th and had probably only made 3 or 4 layouts at that point in January – none of which counted towards the challenge. I was also a guest on a creative team last month, so I had separate layouts to do for the team. Having to do that many layouts in such a short time really got me focused and into my scrapping zone. I was making layouts in as little as 45 minutes and it usually takes me at least an hour and usually longer. I made 43 layouts last month! I don’t want to scrap that much on a regular basis, I was a bit tired of scrapping by the end, but it was a lot of fun and I proved to myself that I can scrap faster!
Also, I find that the biggest stumbling block for me in getting started is deciding what photos to scrap. I’ve recently started tagging photos in Lightroom that I want to scrap and it’s made a big difference. Now when I sit down to scrap, I don’t have to look long to find a story to tell – the ones I want to tell are right in my quick collection. What I’m doing is basically a bit of an adaptation of Stacy Julian’s system in Finding Photo Freedom. I took the class in 2011 and it’s taken until now for me to really start implementing the systems.
I love challenges to get my started. I do so much of my creating during Layout a Day and now there is a free Layout a Day iphone app that helps with that daily spark of creativity! Really kicks my creating up a notch!
I did that this weekend as well. I told myself (and my husband) that I wanted to finish two cards on Sunday and it was so much easier to find the motivation to do so! I’m going to start doing it more often!
One idea that worked for me in the past was making page kits ahead of time…..I was going to attend a crop and to get ready for it I gathered all the photos I was going to use for my pages then I figured out what photos and materials I needed for each layout and put everything in separate 11 x 13 ziploc bags. This was a little time consuming in preparing this way but well worth all the effort. At the end of the crop I got so many pages done in a short amount of time.
I love the LOAD challenge too and find that making a list of ‘must do’ layout can help me on the days I feel like I’m not inspired by Lain’s prompts (or am short on time)
As for picking out supplies, I’ve found that sticking to one or two digi kits can help me too 🙂 Eg I just got this cool kit now I want to use it! 🙂 I love that everything’s precoordinated.