Scrapropos

We’re living in a world where we’re overbooked, overworked, and overtired. It’s hard to “fit it all in” and scrapbooking sometimes gets pushed to the wayside. Thanks to fellow 451 blogger Shelly I’m going to try to answer the question “how to get caught up on your scrapbooking”.

To start with, work on your most recent photos first. In other words, stop playing the “catch-up” game and just worry about scrapping your latest events. Once you are current up to the last few months then start going backwards from there or choose a time period that you want to work on.

Choose a specific project that you want to stay up-to-date on. Perhaps it’s a school album, a baby’s first year album or an album for a specific vacation. You get a true sense of accomplishment with smaller projects that are easier to complete.

Set scrapbooking goals, which can be either weekly or monthly, and actually write them down. You can set goals to get a specific number of pages done each week/month or to set a certain amount of time aside each week/month to scrapbook. Maybe you set plan to crop 1 hour per week, or attend a crop once a month or meet with some friends once each week. Actually write your scrapbooking time on your calendar and stick to it.

Make a PLAN! It pays to take some time to pre-plan your scrapbook pages so that when you do go to a crop or sit down to scrapbook you can get more pages accomplished. I pre-plan all of my pages…I choose the photos, sketch a layout, grab the paper and embellishments I want, and keep a list of the extra supplies/tools I will need (see below). It pays to engage in a little creative scraplifting if you are pre-planning a lot of layouts. Have your favorite idea book or magazine by your side. I actually keep a binder of ideas that I tear out of magazines which is my favorite source of scraplifting.

And finally, BREAK IT DOWN…don’t get overwhelmed by telling yourself “I have 30 years of pictures, I’ll never get caught up”. Those large, seemingly insurmountable projects, can bring your creativity and motivation to a screaming hault. So change your mindset and break your projects down into smaller pieces. Think “elementary school” instead of “my childhood” or “Our Vacation to Yellowstone” instead of “Our family Vacations”.

Personally, the way I phrase it is “I don’t EVER want to be caught up because I just love scrapbooking that much!”