Well hey there ScrapHappy peeps! It’s been AGES since I posted because … well … life, you know? In case you hadn’t heard, I opened an Arts & Crafts store (yep, Brick and Mortar and all that) with a long time crafty friend, back in July of 2021. Yes, yes, in the middle of this never-ending pandemic. I know, I’m completely crazy! I was managing to get all my blog commitments done until October I think? Then the wheels came off the bus! 50 hour work weeks turned into 80 hour work weeks as we prepared for both Christmas in the retail biz, and Christmas Craft Fairs (committed to in 2020).
But I’m back! And what better time to be finding my scrappy mojo again than LOAD. Nikki’s post is an amazing resource for LOAD tips, and as another long-haul LOADer, I’ve got a lot of the same tips. So rather than repeat what’s already been said, I thought I’d show you how I plan on being successful this LOAD.
Here’s a look at what I plan to work on during LOAD222.
As you can see, this is my album number 1 of our family holiday to the UK and Paris in 2017. I’ve started the album but there are roughly eleventybillion photos on my hard drive so it’s taking a lot longer than I first thought.
While my ideal way to tackle LOAD is to not pre-plan anything and let each prompt inspire me, when I have extremely limited time to complete a layout, having a specific project like this one to work on helps me be successful.
Ever heard of ‘decision fatigue”? It’s something that many people (typically women/mothers) experience. Every day you are faced with decisions at every turn. Should I have cereal or toast, coffee or tea, wear pants? LOL! The list is endless and it an be draining on our energies. Whatever you can do to minimize the number of decisions you have to make in a day, helps you reach the end of your day with energy to spare.
Nikki talked about creating a menu plan for the month – what a fantastic way to eliminate one daily decision! For me, having a set project, or group of photos, takes a bit of the guess work out of how to apply the prompts and minimizes my overall decision fatigue. This February in particular, I know my scrapping time is incredibly limited so I’m all about taking away as many decisions as I can in order to speed up the “making of the layout” process.
So now you know the project, let’s take a look at what’s in that box and dig deeper into how I am further reducing the number of decisions I make while creating each layout.
This contains all the scraps and embellishments I’ve already used in the album, as well as papers I pulled aside at the beginning of this project that I thought I could use to help tell my story. It also has some memorabilia pieces like shopping bags, maps, brochures, ticket stubs, etc. I like to add those in when I can.
Why do I keep all of these scraps? My main reason is to keep album continuity. When you sit down to scrapbook an event all in one sitting it’s easy to keep continuity. You get in a groove. Your supplies are all right to hand. You know exactly what the feel of the album is. When you stop and start a project like I’ve done with this one, that continuity is harder to keep. Gathering a stack of supplies at the beginning and then keeping them in one spot helps me fake that same ‘groove’ that I would have gotten by doing the project all in one go.
And guess what else? Using the same set of supplies helps me reduce the number of decisions on each layout! I don’t have to look through all my papers to find the “perfect one” to tell the story, I only have to flip through what’s in the box and get creating. I did the work years ago to pick papers and embellishments to give this album the feel I want, so now I simply have to grab and go. Brilliant!
But wait, you say. You’ve already acknowledged that it’s been awhile since you looked at this project, haven’t you forgotten what’s in there?
A little bit, yes, so before LOAD starts, I will flip through that album to see what stories I’ve already told and which photos I’ve already used. Then I will go through each scrap of paper, each embellishment, each piece of memorabilia, and familiarize myself with what’s there. Then I will go through all the photos I printed off at the beginning of this project (see below) and remind myself of the places, the people and the stories I want to tell.
Once I’ve done all that, I can hit the ground running on February 1st.
This is the box of photos I had developed back in 2017-ish when I first started this project. Remember when I said there are approximately eleventybillion photos? This box only contains the photos from the first week of our almost 3 week holiday. Yep, I’ve got my work cut out for me! LOL!
Depending on time over the next 2 weeks, I may print off the photos from Week 2 (England – Week 1 was Scotland), but if not, I know I’ve also got piles of school photos and sports photos already waiting for me to scrapbook. I’m pretty sure I will never run out of photos to scrapbook!
To recap, my Top Tips for Success During LOAD When You Are Crazy Busy are:
1 – Choose a project (or two) to work on. Something like a vacation album, baby album, all the school photos of your kids, your wedding, your kids wedding, your December Daily … you get the idea. Something that you could conceivably make 28 layouts for.
2 – Go through your stash and choose papers, letter stickers, journaling cards, and embellishments to help you tell the stories for that project. Put them all in one place that is easy to access.
3 – Print off all the photos you need to finish that project.
4 – Give yourself a break! At the end of the day, while getting the Finisher’s Prize is super fun, completing 1, 5, or 28 layouts means you’ve got more stories told, more memories preserved, and that makes you a winner!
See you on the LOAD message board, and don’t forget to check back all month as we share more LOAD Love on the blog.