Spring Break-Project Photo Rescue

Ah, Spring Break. How I love you!*

We didn't go anywhere for Spring Break this year, not that we really ever do anyways. Andrew's industry really starts picking up this time of year so it's short trips if any for us. I did however, have a lot of projects I wanted to get to. 

The main project for this week was to get my scrapbooks organized. I have a few themed albums and some Project Life albums, but the rest are just albums full of random layouts. Sorted mostly by the year I made them not when the photo on the layout was taken. So, if you wanted to see the evolution of my scrapbooking, it was perfect! However, 99% of the world would rather see the evolution of our lives. Heh! So, a sort of sorts was in order.

I had two sources of inspiration for this project. One, was Project Photo Rescue. A project that Becky Higgins created and I watched so many videos about and was so inspired by. Unfortunately, I was inspired right before our school carnival. And, as I was in charge of that this year, I had to focus on other things. I watched this, this, this, and this video and read this blog post as inspiration and motivation. My other source was a layout reorganization that Ali Edwards did a few years back. Here is her blog post on that project.

First, I gathered all my albums and put them on my bed. There's actually more than I thought which makes me pretty proud of all I have scrapped. :)

After I had them all together, I sat down and took notes on what I had and what was in each album.

Then, I moved onto my mini albums. I have quite a few random shaped/sized ones that I keep in a basket in our dining room. 

I sorted through them and repaired the ones that needed a little love and taking out the ones that needed finishing or were Christmas themed.

After all that, it was time for the bulk of the project. I placed sticky notes on my dining table with the years from 2006-2016 and went through each album and stacked each layout on their year. This took a while because I wasn't as good about dating my layouts as I am now.

I also had stacks in my scraproom for older layouts. 

While looking up some of the older photo ages on Lightroom, I was reminded that I had over a year's worth of photos that were completely undated. It happened when I backed them up and didn't set it up right and then I lost the original photos. So, I decided to reorganize these photos in monthly folders as best I could. That took forever!

Here's my completed stack of layouts in my dining room.

And, the older layouts in my scraproom.

I moved all my Project Life albums into a 2x2 Expedit in our living room and put my themed albums in there as well.

I took the older layouts from my scraproom and put them in albums and labeled them.

Then, I gathered all my empty albums and set them up in my scraproom.

I tried to estimate how many albums I would need for each year and matched them up so that I had coordinating albums for that year. Then, I started putting them all in their albums.

And, here they are! I have so many of those damask patterned ones because they were on sale for like $6 at Tuesday Morning and I hit every TM in the Portland-metro area to get them. (My dining room curtains are that pattern.)

I used the damask albums for odd years so that they didn't all run together. It's easy to see where the years are this way. Then I labeled the albums with this fancy punch and used some cute mini bulldog clips to attach them. This 4x4 Expedit is in my dining room.

It feels so good to have this project done and my family really enjoys being able to find specific years and events more easily.

*I know it's Summer Break right now but the school year gets so busy after Spring Break that I got halfway through this post and stopped. I finally got my act together today! :)

My Publication Binder (and some fun news!)

This year I decided to get serious about trying to get published more. And that meant getting organized! I grabbed a binder(aqua, of course) and a bunch of page protectors and got started!

 

First up, I created my main categories; Calls, Cards (unseen), Cards (seen), Layouts, Mini Albums and Other.

 

 

I printed out each category name on printer paper, placed them in page protectors and then stapled little tabs with the names on the side.

 

 

Behind the section for calls, I glued a tab for each magazine that I want to submit to. I've got sections for Paper Crafts, CK, Create, Cards, Scrapbook Trends and Simply Handmade. I need to add one for Scrapbook and Cards Today.

 

Once I print out a call, I slip it into the appropriate page protector and then it's all ready for me to check when I have a little time to create.

 

Once I've submitted a project, I print out a sheet that has the supplies I used and a quick step by step. Then I slip that into a page protector in the proper category. I keep the cards in the protectors with their write up. It's just easier to find them that way. I also write on there which call(s) I've subbed it for and when that call ends.

 

If I get something picked up, I pull it's info sheet and place it in the front of my binder along with a copy of the contract paperwork and the shipping receipt from the post office.

 

I keep this in the Expedit right behind my desk so it's easy to grab. It's also really easy for me to bring to crops. I'm also considering a section for challenges and contests but that may need it's own binder.

 

Now, for my fun news! I got my first layout picked up!  And, it's with Creating Keepsakes!  I'm beyond excited and can't wait to share it. It'll be in the Sept/Oct issue.

 

Thanks for stopping by!