Scrapbooking Idea Files: How to Create and Keep Track of Inspiration
When people ask me where I get my scrapbooking ideas, I almost have to laugh.
Ideas seem to fall from the very trees right around me.
It's not GETTING ideas that hinders me; it's making sense of them, organizing them, and storing them for later.
One method I've found especially helpful for keeping track of my scrapbooking layout ideas is an inspiration binder.
Here's how I set mine up: 1.
Designate a spot for your inspiration.
It could be a folder on your desktop, a binder, or an accordion file.
Just having a place where all those snips and scraps of inspiration can reside will help you fight overwhelm.
When something has a home, it's part of the process, not a pile.
I have a shelf in my office that holds my inspiration binders (yes, plura!).
I know exactly where to go when I need a color combination idea, or a sketch for getting five photos on a single page.
2.
Divide and conquer.
I started with one three-ring binder and now have six or seven, each on its own topic.
I save articles and inspiration pieces on color, layout ideas, projects, scrapbook supply storage, techniques, and more.
Some topics spill into several binders! If you're doing your file digitally, you might have folders within folders for different topics.
Create something that makes sense, but don't get too bogged down in the details, or come up with something so complicated that you can't remember where you put things.
3.
Develop a routine.
Maybe you mark ideas in scrapbooking magazines with sticky notes, maybe you rip pages out and stack them in a place to be filed later, maybe you print out images from your computer.
Whatever works for you, have a process for getting your inspiration into the binder or folder.
I rip pages out of my magazines and put them in a basket until I have a few minutes once a month or so to get them into the right binders.
As I'm tearing them out, I'll often make notes like, "color," or "storage ideas.
" That way when I'm sorting, I don't have to pause and re-read everything.
4.
Use it! Systems only work if you do! Pages don't sort themselves, images won't jump into the proper computer file (at least not yet!), so you're going to have to work the routine.
Also, just because you ripped a page out or saved it to your hard drive doesn't mean it's become a part of your consciousness; you need to revisit those inspiration pieces and actually put them to practice!
Ideas seem to fall from the very trees right around me.
It's not GETTING ideas that hinders me; it's making sense of them, organizing them, and storing them for later.
One method I've found especially helpful for keeping track of my scrapbooking layout ideas is an inspiration binder.
Here's how I set mine up: 1.
Designate a spot for your inspiration.
It could be a folder on your desktop, a binder, or an accordion file.
Just having a place where all those snips and scraps of inspiration can reside will help you fight overwhelm.
When something has a home, it's part of the process, not a pile.
I have a shelf in my office that holds my inspiration binders (yes, plura!).
I know exactly where to go when I need a color combination idea, or a sketch for getting five photos on a single page.
2.
Divide and conquer.
I started with one three-ring binder and now have six or seven, each on its own topic.
I save articles and inspiration pieces on color, layout ideas, projects, scrapbook supply storage, techniques, and more.
Some topics spill into several binders! If you're doing your file digitally, you might have folders within folders for different topics.
Create something that makes sense, but don't get too bogged down in the details, or come up with something so complicated that you can't remember where you put things.
3.
Develop a routine.
Maybe you mark ideas in scrapbooking magazines with sticky notes, maybe you rip pages out and stack them in a place to be filed later, maybe you print out images from your computer.
Whatever works for you, have a process for getting your inspiration into the binder or folder.
I rip pages out of my magazines and put them in a basket until I have a few minutes once a month or so to get them into the right binders.
As I'm tearing them out, I'll often make notes like, "color," or "storage ideas.
" That way when I'm sorting, I don't have to pause and re-read everything.
4.
Use it! Systems only work if you do! Pages don't sort themselves, images won't jump into the proper computer file (at least not yet!), so you're going to have to work the routine.
Also, just because you ripped a page out or saved it to your hard drive doesn't mean it's become a part of your consciousness; you need to revisit those inspiration pieces and actually put them to practice!
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