Sometimes in scrapping I feel like an odd-man out. As we’ve been planning our new seasonal post series it got me thinking about how I don’t tell many seasonal stories. That further got me thinking about who else is like me. Maybe I’m not an odd-man out. So I asked the team…
I’m hoping by sharing their responses you can find an approach to seasonal scrapbooking that meshes with you. By the way, don’t forget to check out October’s seasonal post where the team shares their layouts for autumn. Whatever your approach to seasonal scrapping you’re sure to find inspiration in those posts
To theme or not to theme
I definitely use theme specific products when scrapbooking seasonally, more often than not. My fave seasonal themes would be Halloween, Christmas/winter, and St Patrick’s Day. I would say summer is more neutral – I use all types of products. Full disclosure – aside from spooky season (which I love) – I’m not that into traditional fall layouts. I’m also not generally keen on Easter. 🤷🏼♀️
Like Lindsy, I too use theme specific products for seasonal layouts.
I try to fill my stash with very flexible products. While I adore all the seasonal products and seeing the accompanying layouts, I don’t feel drawn to create very many seasonal pages. The holidays feel too much the same to me each year and I prefer to tell every day stories. I’ve been known to do seasonal layouts with zero seasonal products.
I fall into the ‘buy the themed things but don’t use them’ camp. I have heaps of cute Christmas papers etc but when our families get together, I forget to take photos. I used to when the kids were small. I think it is because no one likes how they look in photos. Which is a bit sad.
I think Claire hit on an important problem with this comment. How do we get more photos from events? I know I find I don’t take many since I am busy in the moment. Or, others just don’t want the camera in their face (for whatever reason). I think this needs to be a topic for the blog in the future!
Storing Supplies
I store mine in Iris containers. I have 2 for Autumn, 1 each for Winter and Halloween and 8 for Christmas. This includes papers and embellishments.
I organize my product in broad seasonal categories, Winter, Spring etc. I’ve learned not to micro organize my stash. When a collection starts to dwindle, I’ll mix leftovers with other paper or place it in my giveaway pile. I collect leftover embellishments in a zippered pouch to be used later, hopefully. I can buy Halloween and Christmas product with the best of them but try to curb the urge, well most of the time…
I do have a beautiful small collection of seasonal supplies that I keep in their own storage files. I can dive into those when I have seasonal projects.
When organizing I do tend to keep Christmas/Winter, Spooky Season, Valentine/Love collections, etc together. My organization is pretty haphazard though, so I wouldn’t trust my labeled-bags-stuffed-into-bins-or-totes method as something to be adopted. <giggles>
The only seasonal products I store separately from the rest of my stash are my Christmas products. And to be honest, I think this stems from when I was making a ton of Christmas themed items to sell at Christmas Markets.
I have two Iris boxes with December Daily 8 × 8 albums in. Unfinished. I might make a massive effort and finish them so I can clear a shelf! I have all the [Christmas] products in with the albums so it should be easy (ahem).
My Christmas papers/pads are definitely all together on a shelf but the embellishments are like Lindsy’s. Haphazard. Even my stamps are not in theme.
Like Claire, I have bins/baskets for my December Daily projects (2023 is staring me in the face as I type this). And also like Claire, I just need to bang out those albums and move the remainder into my general Christmas stash. Will that happen? who knows!
Changing Seasons... of life
I recently donated approximately 30 Christmas paper pads because I just wasn’t using them. I suspect it won’t be long before I will purge my Halloween since my youngest grandkids will soon outgrow trick or treating.
My tip, if you’re not using it, it’s just taking up space, so donate it. Someone else will enjoy having it.
…In a recent reorganization/purge I chose to get rid of almost all of my Halloween themed items. I am not the biggest Halloween fan and while the kids were little and dressing up and I had stories to scrapbook, I kept those items. Now that my kids are not so little and their activities aren’t necessarily ones I can scrapbook, I felt it was okay to get rid of all those papers and embellishments. Any photos I take or photos they send me of their activities I am confident I can scrapbook using non-themed items. I tend to mix and match a ton anyway.
My husband isn’t a holiday person in general. My kids have been the driver of holiday events. I used to think I loved the holidays, but as they have out-grown things, I have changed. I don’t feel drawn to the holidays anymore. My youngest right now is 17 and she still loves to pull out the holiday decorations. I’m glad when they are up and she keeps the cheer going. I don’t know what will happen when she moves out though.
Final thouhgts
Whether you season enthusiastically like Lindsy, or are a collector of the pretty things like Claire C, I hope you found some company in some of these answers. I know I did.
I’m going to leave you with a little hint of what is coming in November for our seasonal series. Hope you come back then!
Something else I do though A LOT, is use seasonal collections in unconventional ways (for layouts/projects that are not themed). If I can think of a way to incorporate Christmas or spooky paper/ephemera into a random layout I will!