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Daunting Task

RebeccaH

RebeccaH

Life is exciting, yes it is!
Joined
Jul 12, 2009
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Okay ladies, I've decided I need to bit the bullet and take on the most daunting task IN THE WORLD... I NEED to get my scrap stuff organized so I can find it easier! My problem is that I don't have all of my stuff on my main harddrive... I have it all backed up on an EHD, but only my most prized possessions on my locad HD. Soooo.... whacha think... should i organize my local HD only or should I go all the way through the archives that are held on my EHD and organize EVERYTHING?

Also, what have you found to be the most helpful means of organizing?

Here are my thoughts: I have PSE, so I was just going to use the Organizer that comes with it and apply related tags to each file... like alpha, patterned paper, kraft paper, etc... so give me your thoughts on what would work best with that kind of system... OR if you think you've got a way better approach, I'm open to suggestions!! I just REALLY need to get this DONE!

(I'm starting to feel like Carly, who has WAY too much stuff and is always saying how she can't find anything, :giggle)
 
HEY now why you bring me into this LOL

my stuff is so unorganized i have no clue where anything is
 
oooh i hear you!!! i wanted to do this long time ago lool

well i got ACDSee and started tagging (its also working with tags) and i really like that system... but its too much work for me and i have way to much stuff and no time for this! Maybe when i`m grey and old haha... but for now i`m just too lazy

I backup all my stuff on DVDs so i started to make a folder and subfolders with the numbers of the dvds... i put the previews of the kits inside rename with designer/kit name and the number of the disc... and after i did all that i`ll organize them by store and designer i think... and maybe a folder for alphas/xmas/easter/etc...

this is not so much work than tagging everything and i have all previews on my HD. but still i have to search a lot :giggle
 
I have an EHD that is always hooke up to my computer. When I download new stuff I have it routed to just go onto my computer into my downloads folder. Every so often when that get's full or when I've used most of it, then I switch it over to my EHD! I use ACDSee to organize and tag and I love that for when I am looking for a "stitch" lets say or a "button", then it pulls up all of my stitches or buttons because i have everything tagged! I know it is totally overwhelming to think of doing the tagging and what not, but it is SOOOO worth it!
 
Julia, thus far, I've had the same problem... i've been just too lazy,

but MandaKay, I can totally envision HOW WONDERFUL it would be to have it all done! i'm SURE it is SO worth it!
 
so what are some useful tags Manda?
* stitches
* buttongs
* alphas..

???

i mean, how detailed do you get on yours? didn't know if 'patterned paper' was helpful, or whether 'striped paper' was better...

i don't want to spend all year doing this, but at the same time, if i'm gonna do it, i want it to work for me in the end, ya know?
 
I used to have ACDSee and never finished categorizing.

I have my stash organized by store and then designer. I mostly scrap for my teams and within a single kit. Occasionally there is something I am looking for and I'm thinking of doing folders for each of my teams with my go-to favorites so they are all in one place and easy to find.
 
carolee, that's a good idea... i could use a go-to tag to easily find those things i tend to use over & over. pse allows you to filter by tags, so i could do tlp, papers, go-to and it would show me only the things that meet all 3 criteria. i like that.
 
I have mulled about ACDSee for ages and with every day that goes by I know I'm only digging a bigger hole. I think at this point it would take me a year to tag everything in my stash. I really like the idea of it though and some days I long for it. I really love the idea of having everything as organized and MandaKay.

Right now, my system is much like Carolee's and a whole lot of memorizing things. Which works well enough, but sometimes can be time consuming if I'm on the hunt for something particular.
 
I use acdsee, All my scrap stuff is on my ehd.

I organize for store / designers

I am way behind in my tagging but some of my categories are

Colors - blue/cream/yellow/pink/black/purple etc
alphas
digital ink - brushes/glitter/masks/overlays/paint/stamps
elements - bling/butterfly's/buttons/dates/fastners/frames/journaling/ribbons/stitching/strings
shapes - arrows/borders/brackets/circles/flowers/hearts/mats/moon/rainbow/snowflake/stars/sun/swirls/wings
paper
previews
templates
wordart
themes - animals/baby/birthday/boy stuff/camping/chirstmas/dad/easter/fall/food/girl stuff/ halloween/ love/school/ summer/winter
 
thanks katrina!

*sigh* i was just backing everything up to get it all in one place before i started this... right now i'm feeling like this could take a lifetime. i think i'm just going to import things into the organizer one folder at a time and go folder by folder. idunno how else to take it in small chunks. i'll get burried alive if i don't look at it a little bit at a time!!
 
I have a fantastic memory for this stuff so I just know where to find it all! lol does that help?? :giggle
 
eryn, that's been kinda how i've rolled for the last few years... my brain is starting to overload though, and i have noticed i'm spending more time than i would like digging through files... blah!
 
I have a folder for each of my designers that I CT for. Inside those folders I have a sub folder called "0-burned" and "0-used". So I can tell at a glance whether I've used stuff in there and whether it's been backed up (aka burned to DVD).

Then I have a folder called "Purchased Scrap Supplies" and inside that folder I have a folder for each store. I also have a folder called "New". Everything I download goes in there and stays in there until I back it up and then it goes to the right store folder.

I downloaded ACDSee about two weeks ago and I was all set to do the tagging thing and get further organized for searching, but then I gave up before I started because I knew it was going to take a really long time and then I'd have to keep doing it everytime I download. SO instead, I just use the search in Windows File Explorer. If I need a stitch, I search for stitch and hope that the file name has stitch in it. :)

The other thing I do is keep a Word Doc with the thumbnails for everything I download both CT and Purchased so if I have something I want to scrap and I'm not sure what kit to use, I scroll through that for ideas of kits.

HTH!
 
My stuff is all over the place!! I have 3 ends and stuff on each of them! I also spend more time looking for stuff than scrapping! Every couple weeks I try to organize it, then get sidetracked! I'm waiting for the good fairy to show up and straighten it all out for me!
 
At one point I had everything tagged in ACDSee but then I had to reformat my PC and yes - I forgot to backup my database and lost all my tags! :cry

Because I couldn't face tagging everything again, I just started tagging the previews. It's a sort of halfway house that works for me at the moment! I started with the new stuff as I got it, then just went through my TLP folder as that's all I ever seem to use! :)
 
kate, tagging the preview is not a bad idea!! i've been doing something kinda similar (since i started yesterda, lol)...

i have always had my downloads stored on my computer by designer, and then a file for each kit or download from that designer. so it has been pretty easy to just start at Amy Martin (A - so she's first, lol) and import one kit at a time. then i stack the kit in pse, which basically puts them in a collapsable stack (hense the name :giggle). then i'm applying tags to the stack in most cases... like a whole pack of various paint strokes...

but for whole kits that have tons of different papers & elements, i still was going through and tagging each individual thing. which takes a bit longer. I still managed to get through all three designers last night, so maybe it won't be as bad as I'm thinking... maybe???

BUT i may go back through and make sure i have the previews tagged with everything, that way if i get lazy along the way, i can just do previews. good thinking!! thanks for the idea kate!
 
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