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Tips for faster scrapping.....

well my latest layout only took me 30 mins but I have a feeling it was cause it was a template challenge layout that kind of did it self - maybe I am thinking my layouts take way way way longer than they do in reality.
 
littlekiwi said:
well my latest layout only took me 30 mins but I have a feeling it was cause it was a template challenge layout that kind of did it self - maybe I am thinking my layouts take way way way longer than they do in reality.
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I thought I was a much longer scrapper. Then I actually paid attention a few times and realized that yes, some layouts take me awhile, usually because there's something I need like looking up my old school, or finding the details on the Candy Bomber. But a lot of my layouts are quicker unless I'm interrupted by family or distracted by the forum!
 
I’m lucky that I can scrap when no one else is around which is a good thing.
 
When I am doing CT work and it is kit scrapping (or are working with a small grouping of products) generally I am a 30 minute scrapper. Oddly enough - using a template makes it longer for me.

But when I'm in a free for all frenzy of creating with anything from my stash, I probably am more of a 1 hr scrapper. I rarely go to 2hrs for any page. I think I'd just finish it and move on if I got close to 2 hours - that's a big 'nope' for me!
 
I'm a slow scrapper, too, but I'm trying to get faster. I noticed during MOC that the pages I did without templates came together much faster than the ones with templates. I've heard other people say that before, but I didn't realize it was true for me, too. So experiment a little and see whether you scrap faster with or without a template. (For me, that only holds true for 1 or 2 photo pages--more than that, and I need to use a template.)

I don't use alphas. A font with a style applied is faster.

The fewer the photos on a page, the faster the page comes together, at least for me.

I batch certain parts of the scrapping process. So I might spend 1 or 2 evenings just organizing the month's photos, including setting some aside in my To Scrap folder. I might spend another evening organizing all of my purchases from the month. Getting your stuff organized will definitely help, and it might take a little trial and error to see what organizational system works best for you.

Like LeeAndra, I have a folder of go-to basics. Then I don't have to search every time I need a paint spatter, or a star, or a leaf. If I need something less common and not in my Basics folder, I search.

If you do like I do and spend a long time either making initial decisions or adding finishing touches, make yourself move on faster. I need to commit to a design and kit faster, then not fiddle with elements at the end.

Stay off the Internet! Seriously, that's the number one thing I need to do to get more scrapped.
 
You know what you might be on to something @rach3975 , maybe I need to try scrapping with no internet cause I’m sure I get distracted and sucked into that time waster.

I do know that for me scrapping with templates or scrap lifting is faster than coming up with a page design on my own. I think my biggest time gobbler is deciding what to do and what supplies to use since i’m not a kit scrapper at all. Think I’m going to finish organising (honestly my digi organising was started in June last year but other things like job applications took priority) then I can really see if my scrapping is a bit faster - Currently 1/3 of my stash is organized, 1/3 is in a to sort folder half organized and 1/3 has been unzipped but sitting on my desktop
 
I have enjoyed reading through this thread. I do not think I have ever timed myself. I know some layouts come together quicker than others. But.. .I like to when I finish a layout... go away and come back a little later and I most times find something I want to change. I have even done this after uploading to the gallery, once I see my layout there I notice something I am not happy with.
 
jenn mccabe said:
Oddly enough - using a template makes it longer for me.
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Templates are terribly time consuming for me. I can crop and resize pretty quickly; anything else I have to do (line up to a template and clip to size, rejecting layers, etc.) slows me down.

rach3975 said:
The fewer the photos on a page, the faster the page comes together, at least for me.
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I am the opposite, with photos -- the more photos, the easier it is for me to pull a layout together. Every photo reminds me of a companion photo that is needed to tell a complete story or to illustrate a complete idea. The MOC layouts that required only one photo were by far the most difficult ones for me and took the longest to pull together.

As far as speeding up my own scrapping, the number one thing that takes me too long is the searching -- looking for a suitable template, looking for the right kit, picking out the right font. I tend to stick to a few kits, a couple of fonts, and refresh them occasionally (not often.) Reusing kits and fonts saves me time in searches, since I already know what is in them and how they might work on my page, without having to try them out.

Sketches and scraplifts can speed up the process for me; all of the placement ideas with none of the tedious clipping and aligning. However, searching for a suitable sketch or layout to copy uses up all that saved time and more, so unless it's for a challenge (and someone else picked out the sketch for me), I don't use those much either. I have a book of sketches, and those are helpful for when I'm struggling for ideas, but in those cases, I'm not making much progress on my own and that time spent searching is actually productive, and not time stealing.

All of this works for me because I scrap for photos, not pages; I'm trying to show off my photos with a short explanation of what they are, in an aesthetically pleasing (but not necessarily creatively unique or beautifully outstanding) display. If I think I want something specific, and it's not in the kit I'm using, I do something else. (Either change my idea or substitute a different element.) Those are not the important parts of my pages.
 
I'll be honest that the longer I've been scrapping, I feel like I'm getting slower and slower. Lol. It's just that I've learned new things to tweak like the warped shadows and then making my paint splatter blend into the backgrounds that I want to do to every layout and that just takes me longer... BUT, I will say that I have a few tricks to speed up the majority of the time I spend scrapping:

1. keep your photos organized
2. Keep a list of what you want to scrap (reduces the time to decide where to start)
3. When you see a new kit coming out that would work for something you want to scrap, make a note of it so you don't have to hunt for products later.

The part that takes me the longest almost every time is deciding what products I want to use for the memory I'm trying to capture.
 
Random time-savers I use:

After I pick my photos, I decide how much journaling I want to do and write it out, so I know how much space it will take up. Doing my journaling early in the process saves me time because it feels less forced.

Templates are quick for me. I typically customize them, though, to make room for more photos, but that's quick for me.

If I know how many photos I'm going to use and none of my templates are interesting to me for those photos, I'll look through galleries quickly for inspiration on designs with a similar number of photos. A quick breeze-through allows me to absorb a bunch of ideas without copying anyone directly.
 
I never even THOUGHT of using the search function to find an image I'm looking for. I just did that for butterfly and they all showed up. SCORE!!!!

To the OP question - I don't know how to answer that because I am a very slow scrapper. I find the whole process relaxing (unless it's the dispersion technique! LOL ) so I am the type that just enjoys the journey.
 
I'm a pretty fast scrapper & I think a lot of that has to do with Memory. I KNOW what my photos are & I generally have a good idea of what is in my stash even though I don't have things tagged. Also I'm pretty decisive in that once something is picked or catches my eye I try my best to use it. I don't second guess a lot of the time.

I also scrap weird in that I'm generally making my page first without thought of the specific photo until I'm nearing the end. The times I start with my photo I'm slower, lol, (still a generally fast scrapper, but slower).

Also I tend to stick with just one or two kits. That's just for ease of scrapping & ease of crediting in the gallery since I post everything.

I don't strive for perfect, I'm not going to reach that, so I try not to second guess or worry that I might have a better element in my stash somewhere. I do use the search function on my computer & see what comes up, but once I pick a thing or two I go with it.

I only scrap for myself, so I'm not worrying about chronology or any of that stuff. This is for me. My outlet. My fun.
 
think I've finally cracked the code for quicker layouts - template or scraplift idea + 75% or more of my supplies coming from one kit (honestly that is a tough ask most of the time as I tend to mix and match designers or in Jaimee's case Storyteller collections. Sure there will be layouts that are slower to do but for me to get 4 layouts done in approx a week I think is a good start
 
Great reading here, everyone! I even picked up some ideas! I am a pretty fast scrapper, but also am somewhat organized to the point of overkill---although my "to be filed" folder is now bulging at the seams!!!! I have folders first by designers where the kits go Then I have folders for every element----ribbons, paint splatters, flairs, etc etc etc. In those folders I put a preview of which kits have these items. I do this because I am mostly a kit scrapper. If I find a kit with a ribbon I like, I will look and see if the whole kit will work. Yes, I also have the kits filed by subject matter. Seems like a lot of extra work, but with my memory not that sharp I just don't remember where things are so I have to have as many paths as possible to find what I want. I am also in the process of renaming all the elements that designers just assign a number to. This way they will come up when I search. I am also learning to use templates more and more. Never use to use them but am finding that it speeds up my scrapping.
 
I’m a very slow scrapper but since I’m retired it is not a problem; it is my creative outlet. My husband calls it my hobby-jobbie!
I have a folder of photos I want to scrap (which saves an enormous amount of time) and I keep my stash of photos and supplies organized so that really helps me get going.
What slows me down is having to scan photos from the huge part of my predigital life!
 
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