How do you organize your Lilypad products?

Discussion in 'Month of Challenges Nine - 2021' started by pbrooks, Jan 28, 2021.

  1. pbrooks

    pbrooks I need a realtor!

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    It takes me so long to do a layout and a small part is that I don't have my folders very organized. I have a Mac but I am sure most answers would work for a Mac or PC.

    Where are your folders? Desktop, documents, portable drive, etc.
    How do you organize your folders, by designer, kit, theme, etc.
     
  2. HavaDrPepper

    HavaDrPepper Space. The final frontier

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    I have a folder on my C: drive on my desktop called DigiScrapping. Everything I need is in that folder including my photos. Main folders are Canon Downloads, Dig Scrap Kits Most Used, Digital Layouts (also several other image folders and an folder for other misc scrapping like tutorials).

    Then in the Dig Scrap folder I have them sorted by Store, Designer, Kit.

    I don't separate kits but I do put all papers, elements, word art in one folder. I do leave alphas in their own folder under the kit. Then if a designer retires or moves to another store, I can just move the designer folder.
     
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  3. dotcomkari

    dotcomkari The Deaf Superstar

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    Mine are by designer. :) I have so many kits .. that I have quite a few saved on thumb drives.. my most used are on my hard drive and others.. from way back on CDS (those are rarely used!)
     
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  4. A-M

    A-M Not a lot of hustle in my hustle anymore

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    Presently because I am about to change to a new desktop computer, I have my Lily Pad products on a EHD ( External Hard Drive) they are all in Folders for each designer. Then I have a folder for Templates that are not challenge ones and that folder contains folders of the different designers with their templates in those. I also try to have a copy of the templates preview once I open up the Templates folder before then looking for the designers template I want to use.
     
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  5. julianz

    julianz Well-Known Member

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    The bulk of my supplies & photos are on an external drive with recents (maybe 3-6 months) on my laptop.
    Kits etc are in folders: store > designer > kit
    (For some designers I might have subfolders for word art, stamps, masks/overlays etc if they have a lot of smaller non-kit packs)
    Separate folder for templates with subfolders: albums, 1photo, 2photo, 3photo, 4photo, 5+photos, double page, small format
     
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  6. 3BluEyedBabies

    3BluEyedBabies Falling for pumpkin ...

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    I have all my scrap supplies organized by store. A separate folder for each designer in the store, and then another folder for each kit. I CT for two designers so they each have their own folder. I have two EHD plus my computer.
     
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  7. bestcee

    bestcee In love with places I've never been to

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    I have a folder called _Scrap Stuff. Then each store has a folder. Here's my TLP folder:
    Folders.JPG
    Then, here's the project I sometimes work on, very very slowly. I'm changing the folders to reflect the kit image. It's harder on Windows to do, I believe it's really easy on MAC? @michelepixels ?
    FJ.JPG
    As far as templates, I also have ACDSee. I've been labeling supplies in that, so I break my templates into 1-2 photos, 3-4 photos, 5-7 photos, and 8+. I've also been labeling with themes in ACDsee because it's easy to give one kit multiple themes to one kit. Like, I add BYOC tags and others.
    When searching for supplies for MOC, I'm very likely to just type what I want in Windows Search while in the TLP folder and see what pops up!

    All my supplies are backed up to an EHD quarterly, and to BackBlaze daily.
     
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  8. BevG

    BevG If I can't remember it, it didn't happen

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    My file folder structure is set up like below, with each indent being a sub-folder. I like my alpha separate from the kit. I throw everything in a kit together so I don't have to open additional folders. "Kit xx" below is whatever the actual kit name is. If the "kit" is just dates, or just frames, or just paints, or just papers, etc. then I preface those file folder names to group all of them together in the listing. If the kit name is not descriptive, I will add a descriptive word to the file folder name, ie. Winter, Nautical, Cooking, etc. I also label freebies and retired kits as such (helpful for MOC). I tend to put a Z on anything I want to sort to the bottom. I don't group by themes, but do searches for theme type words (i.e. Easter. egg, bunny, robin, chocolate, etc.).
    Designers TLP
    Allison Pennington
    Alpha - Kit 1 - red on white circle
    Alpha - Kit 2 - blue wood
    Kit 1 - winter
    Kit 2
    Kit 19 - freebie
    Dates - Kit 6
    Paint - Kit 17
    Paper - Kit 24
    Z Kit 20 - retired​
    Designers - Non TLP

    Templates are stored in a different location on my hard drive and are also sorted by designer. If a designer did an album such as a DYD set, then I keep them in a file folder within the designer's folder.

    Mine are all on my hard drive, along with my photos. Only my current project(s) are on my hard drive. The completed projects are on EHD.

    After trying various methods of storing content, tagging it, organizing it, etc. I have found that a logical file folder structure works best for me. I have lost hours of work when systems I have used to help organize crashed, or got corrupt, or were updated, or I moved to a new computer and lost them. I use File Explorer to find things. I will rename some word art or elements so that File Explorer finds things. For me, the most helpful way is to keep going in the folders and reminding my memory of what I have.
     
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  9. gonewiththewind

    gonewiththewind I choose joy.

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    I have a folder on one of my EHDs that has the following:

    1 - KITS (subfolders inside are by designer)
    2 - TO SCRAP (products I've purchased that I haven't used yet)
    3 - TO KEYWORD (products I've used that need to have Lightroom keywords added)
    4 - RETIRED DESIGNERS (if a designer retires, I move their folder here)
    5- LR PLUGINS & PRESETS
    6 - UNZIP (products I've purchased that I need to unzip)
    7 - FOLDER ORGANIZATION (products that have been unzipped but need folders consolidated - for instance I put papers, elements, paints, journal cards, etc. all in one folder - I do keep alphas for a kit/collection in a subfolder but everything else is together.

    Organization_1.JPG

    I use Lightroom for keywording. Keywording can be as simple as papers/elements/alphas and then get subdivided into colors, patterns, element types, etc. What's nice is that it's not making a copy of the items, it's merely locating them in the various folders they are in.
     
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  10. bestcee

    bestcee In love with places I've never been to

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    I do this too! I'll change "word art 05" to "wa remember" or "summer memories".
     
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  11. michelepixels

    michelepixels A pun is not fully matured until it is full groan.

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    Courtney, I know I started doing that just prior to getting my first iMac but that was in 2011 so I can't remember how it compared.

    Here's how I do it:
    Double click on the image you want to replace the folder image, to open it in Preview.
    Select the image with Command-A, and copy it with Cmd-C. Close it.
    Back out of the folder, then right click on it and choose Get Info.
    In the info window, click on the tiny folder icon near the top, and hit Cmd-V to paste the image there. It will appear in the preview pane lower down too, and you'll see it change in Finder.
    That's all! :)

    Until September I kept all my files on an EHD because I didn't have enough space on the internal drive, and that worked fine. But my new iMac has a huge internal drive, and it has been a bit faster to access my files. My file structure has been the same for almost a decade. I organize by store. So I have a TLP folder and all my kits and products go into it. I can scroll quickly to a particular designer by looking at file names since the folder is usually sorted alphabetically by file name. Or I can scroll through and see the kit previews (because I've replaced all the blue folder icons with kit previews) and see what catches my eye. Or, what I do the most, I use the Search function if I'm looking for something specific like a staple or ribbon or theme and choose from what appears. Sometimes in the search results I'll right click on an item and choose "Open in enclosing folder" to get to the rest of the stuff in the kit.
     
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  12. SeattleSheri

    SeattleSheri Movers, cleaners, great hair. I'm a socialite!

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    There is definitely no right or wrong. I have a SUPER easy system. I dump everything into one folder. I use the tag feature on my MAC (vs. creating folders). Every time I download a new product, I add all of the appropriate tags (designer, store, theme and anything else that applies) to the product folder. I always add a kit preview so I can visually see what the kit is (I do it all at the same time and it takes me less than a minute). Most designers are awesome about labeling the items within their products, so once I filter by tag, I can easily look for certain items. It's a great balance between investment of time and ease of use (for me) :heartlub:heartlub
     
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  13. rach3975

    rach3975 Well-Known Member

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    For MOC I organize a little differently than usual. My "normal" scrap folders are named Store_Designer_Kit and I have it set so that I see a preview on each folder. Each kit is in its own folder, but I don't have subfolders for particular designers or stores because I'm an "out of sight, out of mind" kind of person. If it's buried in subfolders I'll forget all about it. Non-kits are arranged by thing (a folder of templates, a folder of frames, etc) and within that by designer. For MOC I need to be able to quickly scroll through everything that's MOC eligible in a way that lets me see what specific elements are in the kit, not just the colors and theme the way I can in my "normal" folder. So I have a separate folder of previews only for MOC. Within that I have subfolders for kits, templates, and styles.
     
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  14. Angela Toucan

    Angela Toucan I keep looking for THAT wardrobe

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    my folders are organised by Store - Designer - Kit
    I won a copy of ACDSee early on my scrapbooking and I tag with it. So I have tags for themes, BYOCs, MOC suitable, and colours. I also have tags for things that I use a lot of so I can easily find them if the kit I'm using doesn't have any.
     
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  15. bestcee

    bestcee In love with places I've never been to

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    I need to have you do a video to show how you do this! I feel like I'm not using it the best way, but it's such an easy program, I really want to make it work for me.
     
  16. Karen

    Karen Wiggle it, just a little bit!

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    I keep all of my photos and supplies on an External Hard Drive (EHD) because I have two computers that I can scrap on and I can just pick up my EHD and take it to that computer and I have everything ready to go. I have a folder on that EHD for all my TLP supplies. Inside that folder I have a folder for each designer. I also have a folder for BYOC, MPM, M3 and DYD catergories. I like to keep all the matching parts for each BYOC month together in their own folder too. It's so nice when I just want certain colors to look in a folder and have lots of coordinating products all in one place.

    Oh, I also have all of my templates in one folder too. When I download new products I have those all together in a folder called something like "New 1-29-21". Then I unzip everything in there and use it. Once I've used the products, they get filed away where they belong so I can hopefully find them easier next time. :)
     
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  17. HavaDrPepper

    HavaDrPepper Space. The final frontier

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    What I have been doing so that the kit image shows on the folder (my setup is a lot like yours), is having the preview in the folder only with the name "folder". Then it shows up. So now when I download a new kit that has 2 copies of the preview with one of them named folder, I keep both of them.

    I use Picasa and what I have started doing is putting a copy of the preview in the designer folder. Then I can get a quick view of the basic colors in each kit without going through all of them. So with 2 previews from a kit, the one with the kit name is in the designer's main folder and the one named folder is in the kit folder.

    And, like @Karen I also keep my supplies on an EHD. A copy of my Digi Scrapping directory. Goes back to my days of going to retreats and using my laptop. The EHD had everything I needed. Whenever I add any kits to the Digi Scrapping directory, they also get copied to the EHD at that time. Once a week I move layouts. If I were to go away to scrap and use my laptop, everything I need would be on that EHD. 2 other backups to EHD's are done on a monthly basis. I have a spreadsheet that I track what needs to be copied. So on one day a month I have my Digi Scrapping stuff on my desktop and 3 EHD's and they are all the same... until the next time I buy or scrap!
     
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  18. meagan43

    meagan43 Um, did you know that you're wrong?

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    I do the same thing.
    My digi supplies are all on my ehd, except for templates (which have sub folders of store).
    My main folders are by store, with a few exceptions (like all Disney kits are in one main folder, also main folders for books, food, seasons & holidays, vacation - these are more catch all). Then, within that main folder, it is organized by designer>kit name.
    So Lilypad has a folder of its own. The other thing that I do for my scrapbook software, so that I can find it alphabetically is the folder is named something like this:
    TLP Sahlin_Britt Candy Shop (in the Lilypad folder)
    TLP Allison Pennington Random Tricks (in the Lilypad folder)
    Disney PM - Cars (in the Disney folder)
    Disney PM - Classic (in the Disney folder)
    Disney Toy Story Kim Jensen Friend In Me (in the Disney folder)
    Disney Cars Mater Kesselring VJS Urban Blight (in the Disney folder)
    Disney Little Mermaid Bella Gypsy Life Is The Bubbles (in the Disney folder)
    TLP Paislee Diary of a Foodie (in the Food folder)
    TLP KAagard Storytime (in the Book folder)
    TLP Kesselring_LynneMarie - Comic (in the Comic folder)
    TLP SS Nifty Pixel Keep It Clean (in the Coronavirus folder - obviously a new addition)
    TLP Forever Joy_StudioBasic_Road Trip

    When I start to work on something specifically, I will create a new folder and put everything in it. Like when I was working on our Disneyland trip and we dressed as Stan Lee (Marvel creator), I made a main folder called Comic. Then, I moved each store's items to that folder, but kept them named with the beginning of their store. So, in the Comic folder, you have a bunch of items that are named with the store name>designer name>kit name.
    Disney is the one exception. I am in THAT folder ALL the time!!
     
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  19. meagan43

    meagan43 Um, did you know that you're wrong?

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    For those that want to rename a bunch at once for later searching purposes - Try downloading "Bulk Renaming Utility". https://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/
    I use this for the ones where maybe the designer didn't add her name at the beginning, or maybe the whole kit is named with an abbreviation that you will never remember or be able to search for later. It allows for a find a replace or add prefix, add suffix, etc. and will rename everything in that folder for you!
     
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  20. StefanieS

    StefanieS Think it over, think it under

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    Store - designer - kit/template
    When a kit is retired I add an X_ in front of it.
    When a designer leaves I X_ their folder too.
    For MOC I use recent releases from designers I Ct for, or store collabs which are stunning and suit so many occasions.
    I tend to be a one kit scrapper, just because it's easier for me that way.
     
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