1. Write It in Your Planner
I'm in the craft room every Thursday. I almost never schedule any appointments for Thursdays. $5 Friday is the last Friday of every month. Our monthly crops are usually mid-month on a Saturday. The next one is tomorrow, March 4!! And April's looks like the 22nd. I post them under Events.
2. Do it with a friend.
This is one of the reasons we have monthly crops: to get together with our friends, make new friends, and maybe, eat some chocolate! Often family members get together to scrapbook too. After all, you probably have a lot of the same holiday pictures or perhaps someone took a picture that YOU are actually in! Enlist Grandma to help with that heritage album. Mothers, daughters, sisters, and even fathers, sons and brothers, can find scrapbooking a rewarding family activity. Have children dictate journaling or write it themselves (secretly practicing their spelling and penmanship). Who remembers when my boys would teach eyelets and embossing? Hammers and power tools! My son's girlfriend even had him making Christmas cards a few months ago!
3. Attend a Monthly Crop, Workshop, or Club
I co-host a monthly crop. The next one is Saturday, April 22. Save the Date!!
$5 Friday Card Workshop is the last Friday of the month. The next one is Friday, March 31.
My Stamp and Scrap hostess club is $25/month ordered by the 15th. Details here.
4. Divide Up Tasks
In order to divide up tasks, you need to have a task list. Start yours now! It can be simple Organize, Design, Assemble. Note that tasks don't necessarily need to be accomplished in order. You could have paged finished today and print the photos later. Post your list in comments. I'll start with what I want to accomplish before the April 22 crop...
The Scrap Buzz with Tamara Sandwisch, Independent CTMH ConsultantHere's mine: 1. select event from prints 2. pull Creative Collection (themed paper) and matching cardstock 3. pick layout(s) from How To Books 4. gather coordinating embellishments 5. pack for crop
5. Commit to a Specific Amount of Time Each Day
There's a book called "10-20-30 Minutes to Sew." There's no reason you can't work on scrapbooking in short segments either. So many things can be done on your phone: Sort and order pictures while waiting in the school pick-up line; look for ideas on Pinterest at the doctor's office; design Cricut cuts using the app.
What about using your lunch hour to assemble pages? Pack a lunch! Do you have an empty time between commitments everyday--where one thing is finished but it's too early to go to the next task? Schedule scrapbooking time here. Write yourself a note so it's easy to pick up where you left off and move on to the next step.
6. Scrap Early in the Morning or Late at Night
Are you a morning person or a night owl? Either of these option is good "thinking time." It can also be doubly effective if you can get things out at night to work on in the morning or work on things at night and clean up in the morning.
7. Make It A Habit
You know habits aren't formed over-night, which brings us back to previous tips: write it in your planner, do it with a friend and commit to a specific time. Did you USED to scrapbook all the time? Did you ALWAYS attend crops? What changed?? Life is constantly changing but we can too. Adapt to new circumstances and try a new plan if the first one doesn't work well. When I went back to work I had to be more intentional with my time. Instead of filling in my Craft Life with appointments and social events, I had to fit my Craft Life into my work schedule. I had to replace old habits with new ones that allowed me to accomplish my goals.
9. Look into quicker options.
Have you tried Pocket Scrapbooking? This is actually what my old photo albums are. Did you know it's OK to MIX pocket and traditional scrapbooking? What?? Yes it is!! That's the idea behind our Workshop Your Way kits. The downloadable guides give instructions for three traditional double-page layouts PLUS the optional Pocket Plus Add-On which includes more of your pictures with very little extra effort. It's also the idea behind the Picture My Life card sheet included in our Creative Collection Paper Packs. We know you are busy!
10. Set Goals
This is something I do NOT enjoy nor am good at doing. Apparently, "Catching up with my scrapbooking" is not an appropriate goal statement! But it is more than a general To Do list.
S Make an album for child graduating from high school.
M 1 school photo per year K-12.
A Child just started Senior year.
R Photos were taken, purchased, received and stored.
T Present to child at Senior Banquet June 5.
M 1 school photo per year K-12.
A Child just started Senior year.
R Photos were taken, purchased, received and stored.
T Present to child at Senior Banquet June 5.
11. Replace Social Media Time
I know, shocking isn't it? This also goes back to the 10, 20, 30 minutes idea as well as others. Again, even if this is while waiting in the school pick-up line or during lunch, these few minutes add up. Plus, there's the whole in person vs online social aspect that is covered by #2 and #3. At least make sure your online time includes The Scrap Buzz blog and Facebook page! ;-)
12 Scrap Whenever You Watch TV
Women tend to multitask so this shouldn't be too much of a stretch if you don't have a 5 year old "helper." Usually it's the thinking, not the doing, that is hard for me if there are distractions. This is why I love our kits and How To books! They do the thinking for me. I like to cut paper when I'm watching TV or hand cut shapes if I have a stack of them.
13. Dedicate a Space to Memory Keeping
Even if your space isn't a work location, having all your supplies in a rolling tote or together in a closet will save time so you aren't spending it searching for that one stamp set or certain color of marker. Another tip, put everything back in its place after each project. Even though I have a scrap room, it's easy to forget what was pulled out for a crop or class. It actually saves me time if I take a few minutes to get organized.
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