Happy {inter}National Scrapbook Day!

OK, you should know that my craft space is a MESS. I am serious -- I saw someone refer to their craft area as "The Crop Cave" and it made me laugh -- mostly because it fit my space to a "T". I suspect my missing mojo is somewhere in or under the mess. 

I don't scrapbook very often because my space is overwhelming me and I'm now almost two full years behind. I love digital scrapbooking, and I do scrap several layouts like that, but my most therapeutic scrapping comes from playing with paper. 

I'm getting ready to tackle the area and redo my "scrap process" and thought this would be a good topic for discussion. I'd love to hear your thoughts. 

The redo list: 

I'm going to ask the pizza man for empty (clean) pizza boxes to store my half done projects. That should free up about 2/3 of my desk! I'll finish projects when I have the mojo, and all the supplies and inspiration pieces will be in one place. 

I will have all "scrap worthy" pictures printed NOW. I'll hunt the blogosphere for coupon codes to save money. 

I will use the We R Memory Keepers divided 4x6 pages to hold my pictures, in the album, that need to be scrapped. That way my photo album is always "done", but I can go back and scrap a page whenever I want, and the pictures will be there waiting. 

I will use this same idea with 12x12 sleeves for professional pictures -- like baseball team shots, or school pictures. 

I will no longer hoard paper crafting magazines. My current stash stacks up taller than my 8 year old! I will go through them and rip out the layouts that inspire me or that I want to scrap lift. I will store the scraplift inspiration pages in the scrapbook album, with the pictures that I want to scrap. This will (hopefully) mean that my things are "together" when I find my missing mojo. 

I will box up my seasonal supplies and put them out of the way, and store the mot versatile crafting items in sight. Right now, stuff is crammed where it can be crammed. 

This is a hard one: I will toss out most of the "found" containers that I hoard because I might alter them some day. This will free up space for pizza boxes :) 

What are your tips and tricks for an effective scrap area and routine?  I started a discussion on this on Paper Craft Planet and I'd love for you guys to join the conversation.  

The Best of the Blogosphere Scrapbooking lists. Remember these lovely little boxes don't show up in Google Reader, so if you can't see them, click on over to my site and they will magically appear. (When you see the boxes, there is a small "read more" in the bottom, right hand corner... click it and you can see the list with pictures as a web page!)

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Comments

[Dawn]

There was no link to click on to join you at PCP...I will head over and see if I can find your post there.
Always enjoy all your best of posts...

[Susanna Boyd]

Dawn, thanks for letting me know -- I'll include one in the next post.  There is always one in my sidebar, but that doesn't work if you're reading by email or a Reader.  You're awesome for giving me the heads up!

Susanna Boyd
Paper Craft Planet

Phone: 404.939.2693
Email: [email protected]
Site: http://www.papercraftplanet.com
Blog: http://cardoftheweek.com
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[Mary Hicken]

I reorganized my scrap space recently. I had everything in a small sun room, but I found it too cramped and too hot! So I put everything in my dining room. Now that it is in the main part of my living space, it forces me to keep it relatively tidy. I also got rid of many of my 'found' things that I hoped to alter. I laughed when I saw your post about the magazines. My plan was also to go through them and take out what I liked. I spent hours reminiscing as I went through them. In the end, I just got rid of them without looking through them. I figured if I hadn't looked at them in a year then I wouldn't need them. It was a relief to get rid of all that stuff. Paper was the hardest to part with. Most of my excess stash went to my school where the kids will get joy from it.

[Mel M]

Oh man oh MAN! Do I ever hear you on this one. I'm a SLOB. I just moved in, haven't even unpacked a zillion boxes, and yet it's already a MESS. lol. I wish you the best of luck! My favourite organizing tip (as if I can claim to be organized LOL) is to label everything. I use old take out (rectangle tupperware like containers) 12x12 plastic paper holders, hat boxes, dollarstore cloth baskets, mod podged boxes... to put everything in & made perty labels for it all on the computer (and with a punch & my patterned paper faves.) That way the neat freak that is hiding deep inside the oinky me, can be at least a little tempted to put things back, potentially. hehehe

Can't wait to read more about your adventures in a tidy "Crop Cave" :-D

[Michele]

Thank you for posting my mini book! And I too tend to hoard supplies! I just redid my room about a year ago and that made me get rid of a lot of stuff!!!

[Sylvia]

there are two things that help me to keep the crafty chaos in check ;-)
1. I always finish a card/project before starting the next one - without exception!
2. I love to use digital scrapbook kits :-)
I don't have stacks of papers and boxes of paper bits lying around (as I had before I discovered the joy of 'hybrid' crafting *lol*)

BTW if you have a minute and if you are still in search of hybrid projects, maybe you want to take a peek at my blogs:
http://sylviacraps.blogspot.com
http://sylviastamps.blogspot.com

there are tons of hybrid projects ;-)

Sylvia

[Susanna Boyd]

Sylvia, your blog is beautiful and the digi papers idea is brilliant!!!  I'm totally doing that!

Susanna Boyd
Paper Craft Planet

Phone: 404.939.2693
Email: [email protected]
Site: http://www.papercraftplanet.com
Blog: http://cardoftheweek.com
My profiles:

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[i {heart} papers]

Hah! Your list sounds like it could be in a self-help scrapping book of affirmations! Cracks me up!

[Gladys]

Gladys Chia
Here is my card for Mother day card
My Blog: http://gladyschia2010.wordpress.com/2010/05/05/happy-mother-day/

[Susanna Boyd]

OMG -- stunning.  Seriously.  You should do a tutorial on how to adhere all those gorgeous flowers. 

Susanna Boyd
Paper Craft Planet

Phone: 404.939.2693
Email: [email protected]lanet.net

Site: http://www.papercraftplanet.com

Blog: http://cardoftheweek.com

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