My Scrappy Workflow

I've been thinking a lot lately about my scrapping process.  So I thought I'd share it all with you.  First let me say that I am a chronological scrapper but I don't get hung up on actually scrapping in order.  My pages just have to be in order in my album!  So here is how I start...

I'm a MAC girl so I store all my pics in iPhoto.  Whenever I upload, which I do fairly frequently, I sort my pics into events.  I find it easiest to only upload one event at a time.  So while my camera may have july 4th, a birthday, and camp all on it at the same time I will only select the pics for July 4th and upload those.  Then I will go back to the camera and upload the next event.  OR you can also upload all pics at the same time then select the ones from a specific event and split.  

So when I want to scrap I scroll through my events and find one that interests me.  Then I go in and decide which pics I want to use on my layout.  On a side note, since I want my layouts to go chronological in my album I always have in mind which layouts I want to do.  I'll then put a sticky note in the album to hold the spot.  So when I do finish a layout I try to put it in the album where it will go, leaving space for the ones I haven't finished yet but know I'm going to do.

My next step is to edit the pics I want to use.  I do this in Photoshop Elements.  You can edit in iPhoto, but only very basic things.  I usually want to do a bit more in the way of edits so I choose to use PSE.  Another side note, I always duplicate the photo in iPhoto and edit the duplicate.  That way I still have the original file if I ever want to go back and edit in a different way.  Cause when you save in PSE it overwrites the photo, and if you rename it the file doesn't go directly into iPhoto.  Which means I have to use the finder to find the file and then import it into iPhoto which is a pain.  There may be a better way, but I haven't figured it out so I stick with duplicating the original photo, editing the duplicate, and then saving it over the duplicate.

Ok so once I know how many photos I'd like to use, I need to find a layout idea.  For this I do a variety of things.  Sometimes I look through my Ella eBooks, sometimes I look through magazines, and sometimes I search favorite blogs and websites.  Which is what I did here.  I went to one of my favorites, Write.Click.Scrapbook, and looked through their gallery of layouts with 4x6 photos.  I found this adorable one by Moon Ko and knew that would work perfectly for my pics.

When I am lifting a layout exactly I skip this next step but usually I am turning a one pager into two.  Some of you may already know this, but I am very linear.  And I like to know what sizes I need before I start cutting.  So I sketch out the inspiration layout and decide how I want to spread it across two pages.

In this case I left the original layout exactly as is and used it for the left page.  I knew I wanted one of the pics larger so I made space for a 5x7 on the right side.  Since I typically blog about my layouts I always make note on the sketch of where the layout inspiration came from.  I then keep the sketches in a 3-ring binder for future reference.

By the way, all of the above steps I often do in stages.  I might sit on the couch next to my husband, while he watches TV, working on uploading pics, editing, or searching for layout inspiration.  Grabbing my grid paper and sketching is another thing I do if I only have a little bit of spare time.  Once I pull out patterned paper I want to be able to sit and scrap until the layout is done, but the preparation steps are easily done in small bits when I don't have time to sit down and scrap.

Now that I know exactly how many photos I need and what size, it's time to print.  And yes, I print my pics at home.  When I want to scrap I want to do it now and I don't want to wait for pics to come in the mail.  AND I only want to print the ones I'm actually going to use, not all the ones I might want to scrap.  Another quirk of mine is that I don't like to print from PSE.  So once I save the file I go back to iPhoto to print.  The main reason is that PSE will only let me print one pic per page.  Sometimes I have odd sizes and want to do two photos on the same page.  iPhoto lets me do that.  In this case I was just printing 4x6 photos but I still print them from iPhoto.

I knew I wanted 4 patterns for my layout.  Since I chose to print my pics in black and white I knew I could pic any papers that struck my fancy.  I've actually had these in my stash for YEARS!  I'd been waiting for the perfect layout for the text paper all about boys.  Today was the day!

As I was looking at the papers I decided that I wanted the text paper to be a full 6 in wide rather than the 4 in I had originally sketched.  I decided to let the 5x7 photo overlap the text paper a bit.  So I wanted another piece of patterned paper to use as a mat for the pic.  Which is where my scrap stash came into play.  I store my scrap pieces in these square bins (I think I bought this at Hobby Lobby) by color.  Red/Pink/Orange, Yellow/Green, Blue/Purple, Brown, Black/Gray/White Patterns, White cardstock.

I pulled out my Blue/Purple drawer and found this striped sheet that matched perfectly!  Now I can begin to assemble the page.

Once I get all the papers cut and things laid out on the page I can figure out how much space I have for journaling.  In this case I had a 3x6 space for my story.  I usually type my journaling in Word.  I just make a text box the size I need, decide on a font and type.  Then I mess around with size and font until I'm happy with how it fills the space.  Sometimes I print my journaling on vellum but usually I print on cardstock.

Once it's printed I trim the paper down to the size I need and add it to the layout.

And then it's time to embellish!  One of my favorite parts!  Since my layout is essentially green and blue I pulled out those bins and started digging.

Small embellishments are in these plastic jars.  I just turn them to scroll through what I have.  Unopened packages are in the side of the bin so I also sort through those until something jumps out at me.

For this layout I found this adorable green tag (since it's mostly green it was in the green bin).  I also pulled out my white bin for the two buttons.

I didn't have much else that worked for this layout, but I wanted to accent this page a bit too.  A string of buttons did the trick.  Each bin has a small jar full of buttons.  I just pulled an assortment of blue and green buttons and glued them down.

The left page was super simple.  All photos and paper blocks were 4x6.  And the black and white photos really work with these bright fun papers!

The text paper on this side works so well for this page.  It highlights some of the fun characteristics of boys which goes right along with the pics and journaling for this layout.

And here is my final step before adding a layout to my album.  Taking some pics of it.  I like to stand above my layout and try to shoot straight down if possible.  I used to put the pages on the floor but in my new scraproom the brown of the carpet and lack of light makes for very icky pictures.  My white craft table is right next to a north facing window with great light.  So I put the pages on the table, stand CAREFULLY on my chair (which is a swivel chair on wheels), and take my pics.  No injuries so far...knock on wood...

And there is my completed layout.  Simple and fun.  And by the way, I started this blog post just intending to tell you about my process.  A few steps and screen shots in I decided to actually make a layout to show you pics of all the steps.  So even though I didn't intend to actually scrap today I ended up putting together this layout in just over and hour.  It's taken me a bit longer to finish the blog post, but I did have to make dinner and deal with kids in there too.  :)  I love that I ended up with such a cute spread!

Now that you know mine, tell me...what's your scrappy workflow?