Saturday, January 11, 2014

My Secrets to Speedy Scrapbooking

Recently I had a major run of scrapbooking where I completed a huge number of scrapbook pages in a really short period of time.  I teach scrapbooking classes at my local Michael's store, and I teach my students all my tips and tricks for getting scrapbooking done really quickly and well.  It occurred to me that it might be nice to share them on my blog.  So here goes!!!

-First of all, don't overthink it.  Nearly always, the page is going to turn out really cute in the end.  Just trust the process.  There are an infinite number of ways that the page could turn out, and they are not more or less cute, just different.  I have seen this time and time again.  They always turn out cute!  Just different ways of cute!  I really speed scrapbook using this attitude.  I have to get through my scrapbooking so I have more time to paint!!!

-I think of a scrapbook page as having 4 major parts-photos (always labeled with the date), title, space for journaling, and embellishments.  So as I scrapbook I do a quick mental checklist to make sure I'm not forgetting any of these major parts.

-The first step for me is to choose the photos, crop the photos, and then decide how much space the photos will take up on the page.  Then I look at the photos for the mood, subject, colors, season, etc. to give me ideas about what kind of paper and embellishments I want to use for that page.

-I choose the paper and embellishments that I want to use.  I have my paper sorted into different styles and manufacturers, as well as seasonal, i.e. Christmas.  I also have a monthly kit membership with Gossamer Blue, so I keep all the kit parts together and come back to it for different types of pages, i.e. this kit is good for family pages, this kit is good for summer/beach pages, this kit is good for fall pages, this kit is a good all-purpose kit, etc.  I also rotate in between kits because sometimes I can get bored and in a rut and switching to a different kit can re-invigorate my inspiration.  And if you keep all the kit pieces together, than you know everything already coordinates.  Which helps a ton with the whole speed thing.

-I start layering smaller pieces of paper on top of the main 12x12 piece of paper, which is like my canvas, and I mainly cover it up, since I try and cram as many photos as I can into almost all of my pages.  Sometimes I use the 6x6 pads of paper to do this, sometimes I just cut or tear from other 12x12 papers.

-When all the under papers are in place, I add the photos, usually in chronological order unless one is a funny shape and then I put it wherever I can get it to fit.  I either write the date directly onto the photo with a white or black photo slick writer pen, or else I make sure to write the date on label stickers before I adhere the photos.  This helps with speed also.  I also make sure to leave space for the title and the journaling space.

-I add a journaling space, either some ledger paper or a mini bag or a tag, the possibilities are endless.

-I add a title.

-I add flat embellishments, i.e. die-cuts or stickers.

-The last thing I do is add chunky embellishments, since I love buttons, fabric, brads, wooden items, metal items, ribbon, etc.

So that is my process.  I really follow that order of events for every scrapbook page and it enables me to go super fast once I get warmed up!  Also my studio is extremely organized, which helps me to go fast, with little containers for each type of embellishment, i.e. ribbons, buttons, brads, die-cuts, stickers, journaling papers, etc.

I have also decided to scrapbook LESS photos from now on, as I feel that I can slow down a little since William is getting older.  I want to try to follow a Project Life idea, i.e. try to average one scrapbook page per week to kind of sum up what happened over the course of the week.  I intend to just keep scrapbooking traditional pages though, not pocket pages. And then if there is a special event, like Christmas or a birthday, then to have a special scrapbook page just for that.

What about you?  Do you have any tips or tricks to help you get your scrapbooking done so you can get to all the other fun, crafty things that you want to do?

Hope you enjoyed all my secrets to speedy scrapbooking!!!

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