Ready to Scrapbook?

I have my papers - check 🗸  

stickers - check 🗸

embellishments - check 🗸 

tools and layout sketches - check 🗸

I AM READY TO GO! 

Or, so I thought.

What do you notice that is missing from my layouts?

That is correct! I am missing photos! 

Nothing dampens creativity more than spending hours looking for that perfect supply that you know you bought months ago or that picture you want to capture in a layout.

I spent months organizing my sheets of paper, scraps of paper, stickers, embellishments, stamps, inks, etc. because in order for me to create one layout, I was searching in 20 places for all my supplies. 

I finally found a system that works for me. It took a few tries. My stuff is organized. I can find it and I am happily using the large inventory that I have accumulated over the years.

Although I got my creative mojo rolling, my supplies are easily found and I am able to create layouts with more ease, I am still halted from completing a layout because my photos are not organized. 

WHAT???

That is correct, my photos are not organized. I was working on some winter layouts and when I went to the December folder for 2013 there were only 3 pictures. How can that be? December is a time for family and I am always taking pictures of my family. 

Where could those pictures be? Well, some were on a memory card in my camera, some were on the memory card in my camera bag. Digital photos were scattered all over the place. I spent a few days moving photos from 5 memory cards, a couple of USB sticks, various folders in the external hard drive and from our phones to a logical location. I simply moved photos to the proper month and year and plan to further organize them at a later date. 

Great! I can continue producing layouts on a weekly basis. Something I have never done before and it felt wonderful. 

Next set of layouts, I am working on our wedding photos. Argh! Where are those photos? I am sure I printed them. I am almost certain I flipped through them, reminiscing about that fabulous day. I looked in 8 possible boxes in my craft room and one possible place in the storage room. Nope!

I have come to the conclusion that I may not have printed the photos or that I may never find them. 

I could continue creating layouts with a place holder for the photo but it is a little more difficult. I am not sure what direction the photos will be in; vertical or horizontal. It is also best to have the photos on the layout if I want to put embellishments on them or closely hugging. 

I guess I will pause my creative projects and will spend time organizing the one thing that went amiss; my photos. The digital photos will move to a logical folder (month and year) on a hard drive. I will make a copy of those photos onto a separate hard drive to keep in a safe place, like my parents' place in case we were to ever have a fire. As for the boxes and boxes of printed photos, I will work towards minimizing the number of photos to those that mean the most to me and keeping them in the same location. 

I will never tell you what you must do. Everyone has a process that makes the most sense to them. However, for me, I am more productive when I can find everything easily. It's a good thing that I find organizing to be just as satisfying as creating. 

I hope my trials and tribulations may help you on your scrapbooking journey. 

I am off to organize my digital and print photos.