Progress cards

I wanted to keep track of the progress I am making in my Scrappy Challenge.  I made these cards using some blank 4 x 6 index cards I had on hand.  They count down to number one.  Hopefully by then I will have all my photos to date scrapped and in their happy home in my album cabinet.

Each day that I scrap, which is every day, I track the date, how many photos I managed to get scrapped and any other information that I feel like adding.  It really helps me to know where I am at and what I have accomplished that day.

As you can see, I was very excited to get out of 2010 that day.  Every little bit helps and it's good to celebrate the little milestones.

*The number of photos scrapped are the ones that are cropped, corner rounded and in pages with embellishments and journaled as needed.

Photo Crop Guides

I was searching for Project Life stuff on Amazon, making my wish list, when I came across something like this.  It was a set of crop guides to be used for scrapbooking.  I thought what a cool idea...I can make my own!  So I did.

I made these using some vellum I had on hand.  It helps to be able to see the through to the image on the photo so I know where to crop it.  I cut them in various sizes based on the Project life pocket pages I have on hand. The vellum works okay, but I'd like to make new ones with a sturdier material so I don't accidentally crop the guide along with the photo when I am trimming off the excess on some of my pictures (which I have done more than once!).

I am so glad I found these since they have come in very handy over the last few weeks and will continue to for a while!

Thanks for stopping by!

Diane

Playing Catch Up

This is kind of a long post, but when I got started I really had a lot to say!

Recently when I sat down to start scrapping again I came to the realization that I am five (!) years behind on my family scrapbooks.  We take a lot of photos of our life events so that translates to one heck of a lot of pictures that need to be scrapped.

I do scrap most of the photos we take.  The photos tell the story of our vacations, events, and our every day lives sometimes so I scrap those stories.  I weed out duplicates and blurry photos and the pictures that are just plain bad.  Maybe someday I will have to make a bad photo scrapbook.  Some of those "bad" ones are pretty funny.  Usually it's because of one of the dogs are sneaking in for a fabulous photobomb.

In order to get caught up I needed a plan.  "Without a plan there is no attack, with no attack there is no victory" - One Crazy Summer.  I love that movie!  Anyway, I have recently discovered the Project Life line of products by Becky Higgins.  I really love this method of scrapbooking.  What a time saver!  By using the pocket pages I can get more photos per page that I ever did with regular scrapbooking and the focus is on the pictures, not the embellishments.  I am truly having fun with scrapbooking again.

I searched Pinterest for ideas oh how to use Project Life to catch up on scrapbooking and came across a couple of wonderful blogs with some great ideas.

I found this amazing Project Life Catch Up Plan.  I immediately printed it out and got to work.

Here are just a few of the pages that I worked on... The to-do list...

and my favorite... The Why.  This page really helped me to refocus on why I love to scrapbook and why I should keep working on this as much as I can.  I need to get these memories in a book and out of my computer!!

I have the Why page hanging on the wall by my scrap table to help remind me when I start to lose focus,

I then organized the photos I already had printed.  There were over one thousand photos!  And that was only the beginning.  I still have many, many more photos on the computer that still need to be printed.  I really need a Snapfish deal so I can afford to do this!!

I spent a few days on my computer figuring out what I still need to print.  After two straight days of staring at my computer screen, I have over six thousand photos from the last five years that I need to scrap.  Oh.  My.  Gosh!!!!  That comes out to over a thousand a year.  I told you we take a lot of pictures.  Our vacations tend to take up a good portion of that number.

After all this organizing, counting, and planning, I knew I needed to come up with a deadline.  I hemmed and hawed about this for a little bit.  A shorter amount of time seems so daunting, but a longer amount of time might give me room to procrastinate.  Finally I just said "what the heck" and made a decision.  The deadline date for me to complete this awesome project is January 1, 2016. Yikes!  That is under four months!  It's a little scary.  Six thousand pictures in under four months?? 

I can't wait to get started!!  

I will keep you updated on my progress and a few of my pages from time to time as well.  Please check back and feel free to let me know how you are getting caught up on your scrapping too.

Thanks for stopping by!

Diane

It has been a while

It has been a while since I last posted.  Working full time derailed my crafting for a bit but I have to say I am so happy to be back and crafting again!  There are so many things I want to share.

I have one new pretty major project in the works that I will be posting about soon.  I will say it involves some pretty major catching up that I have to do.

I am keeping this post short today so I can get to work!

Thanks for stopping by!

Diane