Quickie Pages
Quickie Pages
You want to get your scrapbooks all caught up, but just don't seem to ever have the time. Your busy schedule keeps you from sitting and completing 5 pages at a time. Well here are some tips, ideas and more to help you get situated.
Get Organized:
- Get your photo's organized. Being organized is the BEST thing you can do to get your pages done quicker and more efficiently.
Leave It Out:
- Set up a corner in your house. In your bedroom, the kitchen, the dining room, a closet? Make sure if you have young kids, it's a place you can shut up and lock. If you leave all your supplies out, it makes it much easier to just sit down and start scrapping, rather than gathering all your supplies, getting them out, and then having to put them away at the end!
Scrapbooking Time:
- Set aside a specific time each week. Try and give yourself at least an hour, more would be helpful, but as few as 20 minutes can get at least a page or two done.
Don't think too hard:
- Be realistic! Can you afford to spend 4 hours on one page? (or even more than a half hour?) I doubt it! Don't get so caught up in how you're going to decorate the page that you miss the point of getting the photos in the album and recording the memory. As soon as you "jump in" and get a few pages done, you'll be rolling in no time flat!
A Page at a Time:
- Put all the photo's, stickers, and supplies that you need for a specific page or theme, into a sheet protector. This way you have a page at your fingertips and don't have to find everything to work.
Cut Loose:
- A paper cutter is probably the best investment you will make to get your page done quickly. You'll wonder how you ever scrapped without it.
Make Someone Else Do It:
- If you have older kids, who are interested in the scrapbooks and albums, let them do it. Just give them supplies and let them make their own albums. Or better yet, make it a family affair. Sit down with your kids and all of you can scrap your own pages. What a wonderful memory that would be!
Make it Snappy!!
Here are some techniques to help you speed up your scrapbooking but still have your albums looking great!
Quickie Mats:
- Mats are a quick, inexpensive way to give your pages some color. If you cut them ahead of time, you save LOADS of time! If most of your pictures are 4 X 6, cut your mats to 4 1/2 X 6 1/2. This is a half inch larger than your photo. Take 5 sheets of your favorite colors you use most often. So if you use red and green, take 5 of each, and cut them into mats. Store them in a rubbermade container. Then all you have to do is pull them out, cut them with decorative scissors or punches, or leave them plain and voila! An easy mat.
Think theme:
- You might want to select a consistent color theme throughout your books.Find a few colors of paper that look good together and stick with those. You could also limit your cropping to two or three shapes. Circles, Ovals and Squares work best. This reduces your cutting time and gives you more time to SCRAP!
Scrapbooking Time:
- Set aside a specific time each week. Try and give yourself at least an hour, more would be helpful, but as few as 20 minutes can get at least a page or two done.
Stationary Stuff:
- Another great bet, is using the stationary that scrapbook stores carry. It can make for a quick background, easy as 1-2-3. Also those cute little imprintable cards that are index card size and larger are PERFECT for making your page creatively cute without a lot of time! Just mount your picture to the card, adhere it to the page, and there ya go !
Patterned Pleasures
- Another quick way to add color and pattern to your pages is to use patterned papers. It's better to stick with a few single types of papers, such as checks, dots, etc..and combine them together to add lots of color, and decoration.
Good Luck!
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