Materials Needed The Challenge WHERE to Get Ideas HOW to

Get Organized
Get Organized Week #7 Ideas
Materials Needed
A notebook, album or card file
The Challenge
To get all paper ideas, digital ideas and sketches into a system that keeps ideas you
have, or ideas you find, accessible and easy to maintain.
Welcome to Week #7! Wow, after all of that information about Photos and Negatives last week
I’m so pleased you’re back and sticking to it. Hopefully you’re seeing exciting progress from
your effort and labor, and you’re able to see the surface of your scrap table! This week we’re
going to focus on a fun topic - IDEAS! This could be a “short” week which will free up some
time to work on other systems you’re still implementing in your studio.
WHERE to Get Ideas
Thankfully, there are only a few sources where we get layout ideas outside of our brain and
intuition:
1. Print form (magazines and books)
2. Digital form (online galleries and images)
When setting up your idea system you can go all print, all digital, or a combination of both. You
can also print digital ideas and add them to your idea files. It really depends on how you scrap,
and if you have access to a computer when you’re scrapping. If you don’t, you may want your
ideas in print form. If you have more room on your hard drive than in your studio, or if most of
your inspiration comes from online sources, then digital may be the way to go.
HOW to Organize Ideas
One of the best ways I’ve found to organize ideas is by category. This will work in both printand
digital formats. Some possibilities for themes include; titles, journaling, photography, layouts
(theme or by number of photos), quotes, tips and tricks, tags, borders, techniques, color, design,
embellishments, cards, borders, matting, etc.. You can have as many categories as
you want as long as you know where to go for each idea you store. You’re the best judge of
how you organize because you know how your mind works. One caveat, do NOT have a “miscellaneous” category in your system. It will become a catch-all for undetermined content and be
useless because you’ll rarely reference it!
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WHERE to Store Ideas
Consider storing your ideas in books that you place next to a comfy chair. The chair can
be in your studio or somewhere in your home where you want to sit down to browse. They can
also be stored near your workspace.
Storage Options for Ideas
If you decide to store your ideas digitally, you’re set to use your computer! If you go
with organizing in print form you’ll have more options to choose from.
Here are some storage solutions:
• Put ideas into 3-ring binders, with or without page protectors, divided into
categories.
• Mount copies onto note cards and store in a Cropper Hopper photo case
or file box.
• Use upright magazine holders to hold entire magazines if you save them.
• Mount pictures from magazines, or prints from online, in a handmade chipboard album with dividers and paper pages.
• Tack pictures on a large corkboard or “inspiration board.”
Choose your organization method not only by how it will fit in with your space, but
also by how you tend to look for ideas.
Magazines
Let’s address magazines and what can be done with the ideas you find in them.
There are three camps of scrappers on this subject:
1. Those who tear out ideas and toss the magazines.
2. Those who either flag the articles in their magazines, or are so familiar with
them they know every article and idea.
3. Those who keep the magazines whether or not they’ve looked at them in
the last few years, but are petrified to toss them.
If you fit into the third category consider that your bookcases are full of magazines
(and books) and those shelves could be holding scrap supplies and albums instead.
If you decide to keep your magazines, one organizational option might be to organize the ideas you like within using colored, sticky note references that stick out
from specific pages. You could assign each color of sticky note a topic, flagging
layouts or articles accordingly. This is probably the best of both worlds;
keeping magazines with your ideas organized inside! Most magazines offer a yearly
reference at the end of the year. You could use this reference as your guide (highlighting desired ideas within) instead of using a sticky note tagging system. Many
magazine companies are now out-of-business so our options for content are limited.
Stacy and I personally prefer tearing ideas out of magazines to file in our idea storage systems. We find it is much easier to flip through our books full of favorite ideas,
than to look through several magazines that contain only a handful of things we
might be looking for. Even though it takes a lot of time to set up our systems, we
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recoup those hours by not having to search anymore. A backlog of years and years
of magazines to go through is no small organizational task. But once you sort and
get organized, you’ll have another amazing system in your studio that will save
you time, so you can scrapbook more. Just keep in mind, that whatever
your organizational decision is this week, the aim is to clear out clutter and get an
idea storage system in place.
I have a collection of handmade idea albums that I made to house my clipped ideas.
I go to them when I want to sit in my comfy chair to get inspiration. I also go to my
computer for online ideas.
My albums have chipboard covers, and plain paper pages inside. I purchased these
albums, but they could easily be made using a Cinch or Bind it All machine. I don’t
have page protectors in my idea books because that is just one more barrier to
keep me from getting old ideas out, and new ideas in. I’m not in these books
enough to worry about wear and tear on the contents. I use repositionable adhesive
to attach the copies to both sides of the pages. By doing it this way I can remove old
or used ideas to make room for new.
If I don’t have time to process my ideas into my system right away, I tear the whole
page out of the magazine and place it in the back of the storage bin where I keep
my idea books. It’s safe there until I can process it, and it’s not in a pile
on my desk creating clutter.
Following are the titles of my handmade idea books:
• Projects
• Words - alphas, lettering, titles, journaling ideas
• Layout Design - layouts
• Embellishments - accents and hardware (not ribbon)
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•
•
•
•
•
Ribbon - ribbon, twine and fiber
Techniques
Photos
Color
Sketches (in a repurposed photo display—see below)
Published Idea Books
One nice thing about published idea books is that they don’t HAVE to be stored in
your scrapspace. You can place them throughout your home. But how do you keep
track of your favorite ideas that are inside them? You can leave them as they are,
flag them with sticky notes, scan them to store in your computer, or print them out
for your idea files. You can also make a master list that states the book, idea and
page number.
Both Stacy and I chose to get rid of most of our idea books during this challenge,
only keeping those that were full of topics or techniques we were interested in.
When we found ideas we loved, we noted each idea, and got it into our
idea files or handmade books.
Stacy scanned the ideas she liked, and edited the scans to fit onto 4 x6
note cards. She printed them and filed them into categories. Her system has
three parts: layout ideas, general ideas and card ideas. Each part has its own 3-ring
binder. She uses scrap paper, cardstock and notebook paper to glue her cut-out
ideas in. She’s able to add as many pages as she needs to her files. Stacy is very
selective about the books she buys now, because she doesn’t want to be stuck at
her scanner for hours and hours.
After 14 years of scrapbook idea books and magazines coming across my desk, I
too, have become VERY selective about the ideas I save for my idea books. As my
style has evolved, and my needs have changed, I’ve learned to only keep ideas that
are fresh and/or timeless as references. Once I use an idea on a layout,
I remove it from its idea book since I can access the idea again from the scrapbooked layout.
I used to have a collection of books about scrapbooking and scrapbooking ideas.
They took up valuable space in our bookcases, and they weren’t being used to their
full potential. When I decided to dejunk during this challenge I went through each
book. If I found a picture of something that absolutely took my breath away, I carefully cut it from the book with a cutting knife, trimmed it and glued it into its respective idea book. I have an agreement with some scrapbooking buddies that I pass
my cut-up books on to them, and they pass theirs on to me. I’ve become wiser
about book purchases because of this challenge.
More Insight from Jill
I store my digital ideas in my account at Scrapbook.com. I can tag favorite layouts, projects or
cards and drop them into my organizational system (you can make your own categories) and
it’s there for easy access. I don’t have to use space on my computer, and I have instant
access to my ideas, 24/7 from any computer, smart phone or tablet device. This
is a fabulous resource when I crop away from home.
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My categories in my Scrapbook.com Account are the same as those found in my handmade
idea albums e.g., layout styles, albums, projects, home décor, themes, techniques, embellishments, cards, colors, number of photos, size, etc. Because my system is in place it’s easy to
add something new when I find it in the Scrapbook.com Gallery. You can also tag your
favorite resources, tips, quotes, and articles found at Scrapbook.com in your account for future
reference. If you haven’t been using this free feature at Scrapbook.com, please consider doing
so.
Sketches
I love to use repurposed items in my studio. I wanted a unique place to store my
favorite sketches, so I kept my eye out for something I’d enjoy having near my workspace. One day I found a flip-style, tabletop photo display at a thrift store. I removed
the photo sleeves and repainted the base. Then, I made front and back covers and
added tabbed dividers and pages I’d cut and hole-punched to fit onto the base.
This display stand serves as a primary tool. It holds photocopies of favorite sketches
that are grouped behind tabs by the number of photos on each sketch. I find sketches online, in magazines or add drawings of favorite layouts I design or “sketch.” They
are attached to the front and back of the pages with repositionable adhesive. I can
get to my sketches quickly, look at them as I work, and the cards don’t get lost on
my workspace because the display is easel-style with pages attached. Sketches
have to be “absolute favorites” to make it into this organizer. When I need
a quick idea for a layout configuration, I simply flip through my sketches and get to
work.
Summary
Ideas shared by others for layouts, cards, techniques and projects can help you with your own
creative processes. Having a place to store your favorite ideas helps you keep order in your
space. Looking at those ideas can help your style flourish, aid in the flow of
inspiration, and make scrapbooking more enjoyable.
Congratulations, your scrapbooking ideas will soon be focused into an amazing organizational
system. Think about how good it will feel to have your favorite ideas in a useable, neat,
and orderly system. Good luck with your work this week. I’ll see you in Week #8 where
we’ll tackle projects in progress (incomplete layouts, cards, albums, home décor) and kits.
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