Power Scrapbooking

What?! Make TEN beautiful, original scrapbook pages in FIVE hours?

Some people like to spend days making one layout a beautiful work of art.
Some people like to crank out quick layouts just to have them finished.
Some people like to do both and you can too!

Yes, with a little planning, you can have your cake and eat it too! For just one hour a day for five days, you will be able to create ten great layouts! If you're short on time or creativity or just want to try a whole new way to scrapbook, try power scrapbooking. You could easily do ten pages in one day if you stay focused. But to start, do one day at a time and then open your mind and your Windows Explorer or File Manager and be ready for some serious scrapbooking and some serious fun!

POWER SCRAPBOOKING for Digital Scrappers

DAY ONE

1. Look through your digital photos or photo boxes and select photos for 10 layouts. Put each set of photos into one folder on your hard drive. (10 folders = 10 layouts) That's it for today!

Tips:
You might number your folders 1-10 to help you work in order.
If using digital photos, place copies of your photos in the folders so you don't alter the original photos.
If you scan your photos, you might scan one set at a time or place each set of photos in an envelope to scan all at once after you’ve chosen your ten sets.
You can choose photos with a similar theme or choose ones with ten separate themes.
This would be a great way to do an entire theme album.

DAY TWO

2. Open each folder and select the backgrounds or colors for each layout and while you are at it, choose the mats or colors too. Add those files or color swatches into the folders with the photos. That’s it!

Tips:
Page kits would be great to use here.
If you just want to choose colors, create a small jpg file with swatches of your desired colors that you can choose with an eyedropper tool later.
If adding backgrounds, keep a small notebook handy or use a text file or note function in your program to keep track of credits.

DAY THREE

3. Open each folder and find or make the perfect embellishments or style for each layout and put them into each folder. Choose your titles also and either type them in a text file or find title elements or word art to include in each folder. Stop there!

Tips:
If you choose a certain style, like montage or mosaic, simply type that into a text file and add to your folder.
You can search the store for Christmas or other Word Art for titles.
This is not the time to spend hours creating the perfect eyelet or bow element. Simply choose from your own creations or your stash of downloaded elements.
If you need more time to create elements, just give yourself another hour or day for this extra step.

DAY FOUR

4. So, now you have your photos, backgrounds, colors, embellishments, titles, and styles in each folder. Now go from folder to folder and start compiling them into one layout file in your scrapbooking program. Do NOT work on the layout, just compile all the pieces into one file for each layout. (Open one folder - open the background - drag in mats, photos, elements, and titles - save as a layered file - go to the next folder.) That’s all for today!
(Optional: This should only take 20 minutes. If you have time, you might want to find sketches to help with your layout tomorrow. There are many sketches in our Inspiration Gallery. Products like the Becky Higgins My Creative Companion has tons arranged by number of photos for easy searching. But pick quickly or just choose your own arrangement.)

Tips:
To make the next step easier, insert your pieces from the background up so that you have less moving to do tomorrow. Add backgrounds, mats, photos, embellishments, then titles and text.
To save hard drive space, once you’ve compiled and saved the layout files, delete (or move) the separate files from each of your folders.

DAY FIVE

5. Now all you do is quickly arrange your photos, embellishments, and titles on your backgrounds. If you get stuck with one layout, move on to the next. Spend as little time as possible to finish the layouts. Go with your first instinct and do not try out different placements if you find one that will work for you. Save room for journaling and go back to journal once all your page layouts are finished, but don’t skip this most important step!

Tips:
Save often! Don’t waste your hard work or your time!
Sketches would be great to use here, but don’t waste time searching for them. There are many sketches in our Inspiration Gallery. Products like the Becky Higgins My Creative Companion has tons arranged by number of photos for easy searching. But pick quickly or just choose your own arrangement.
Font managers such as The Font Thing make choosing the perfect font much easier.
If you need more time for the finishing touches, give yourself an extra hour today or tomorrow.
As soon as you finish and save each layout, immediately resize it for the web and save as a copy to share online at DSP!

THEN ENJOY!

You are now a power scrapbooker! Do this every day, every week, once a month, or save it for special occasions. But stick to the schedule, don't think ahead, don't get sidetracked, and you'll be cranking out pages in minutes. Pages that look like they took days!