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my new scrapping idea

michelepixels

michelepixels

A pun is not fully matured until it is full groan.
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Jan 2, 2015
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I'm sad that I have barely scrapped, comparatively, in the last couple of years, so I've been thinking about what I could do. That is, after MOC and LOD. I keep scrapping for those and then the number of pages I make dwindles to almost nothing by the end of the year. I think I just feel like I have no time since I've been working 40 hours per week, and often I just want to rest rather than try to scrap. But I know my future self would rather I had watched fewer videos and did more scrapping.

Here's my new plan. I'm going to scrap just a little bit every day. Not a full page. Just a quadrant or maybe two, depending on whether I have a photo I want to include or whatever. I'll still make some full size pages (especially in the beginning of the year for MOC!) and two page spreads as well, but this is going to have me scrapping just a little bit every day. Surely I can find 15 minutes every day to scrap. That will keep my momentum going and be more fun and interesting than the calendar pages I've gotten tired of making this year. (Do you ever get near the end of year-long project and feel so glad to not have to do it anymore?)

To test out my idea, I made this in about a half hour. I'm not going to share in the gallery because I'm going to make use of my entire digistash, but these fun scrapbooking word arts are by Lynne Marie and the beautiful floral paper and animals and everything else in the right quadrant are from a kit by Joyce Paul, Petal & Pawprints. I scrap 8.5x11 so this is 2 quadrants of the page. I think I'll fill the other two tomorrow and this will be the last page of my 2025 album.

Have you ever scrapped just a little bit every day? Do you predict I'm going to find limiting myself to such a small space most days tiresome? Any thoughts I might not have thought of? Thanks for helping me brainstorm.

Screenshot 2025-12-30 at 8.16.33 PM.png
 
michelepixels said:
I'm sad that I have barely scrapped, comparatively, in the last couple of years, so I've been thinking about what I could do. That is, after MOC and LOD. I keep scrapping for those and then the number of pages I make dwindles to almost nothing by the end of the year. I think I just feel like I have no time since I've been working 40 hours per week, and often I just want to rest rather than try to scrap. But I know my future self would rather I had watched fewer videos and did more scrapping.

Here's my new plan. I'm going to scrap just a little bit every day. Not a full page. Just a quadrant or maybe two, depending on whether I have a photo I want to include or whatever. I'll still make some full size pages (especially in the beginning of the year for MOC!) and two page spreads as well, but this is going to have me scrapping just a little bit every day. Surely I can find 15 minutes every day to scrap. That will keep my momentum going and be more fun and interesting than the calendar pages I've gotten tired of making this year. (Do you ever get near the end of year-long project and feel so glad to not have to do it anymore?)

To test out my idea, I made this in about a half hour. I'm not going to share in the gallery because I'm going to make use of my entire digistash, but these fun scrapbooking word arts are by Lynne Marie and the beautiful floral paper and animals and everything else in the right quadrant are from a kit by Joyce Paul, Petal & Pawprints. I scrap 8.5x11 so this is 2 quadrants of the page. I think I'll fill the other two tomorrow and this will be the last page of my 2025 album.

Have you ever scrapped just a little bit every day? Do you predict I'm going to find limiting myself to such a small space most days tiresome? Any thoughts I might not have thought of? Thanks for helping me brainstorm.

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I am ecstatic that I'm done with my Project Life pages for 2025 and don't plan to do a weekly layout for 2026. I'm just going to do MOC and LOD and then scrap the monthly challenges as they come. I, too, work 40 hours a week, but I also don't sleep well anymore, so I am up very early and can sometimes start a page in the morning before work, and finish it in the evening. So, I'm not a stranger to incremental scrapping. There's no rule that says you have to carve out huge chunks of time to scrap, that's for sure. If 15 minutes is all you have the energy for, then that's great. Sometimes that 15 minutes might just be browsing your stash to find the gem you meant to use a long time ago. Maybe it's browsing photos and remembering a story you want to tell. Maybe getting started perks you up and you end up doing a whole page.

I am definitely a multi-tasker while scrapping. I "watch" movies and TV shows and listen to YouTube podcasts, so I still get to indulge in that stuff. I think I need to add audio books in the mix, because I feel terrible that I only read one novel in 2025, and maybe one non-fiction book, maybe two.

One thing about scrapping parts of a page, for me, would be a concern over whether it will feel cohesive. If you have the vision in your head of the outcome, then you could definitely make it work. Then again, a quadrant style design is a choice, sort of like pocket scrapping where you have certain spaces to fill. So, that could be fun, too.

I did learn a lot about not overthinking when I did my month-long personal ATC challenge in November. Limiting elements, for instance, to just 4 or 5 became a sort of rule for my little game. I enjoyed the structure of the small size and how it made me think of how big things really are in real life scrapping...like "does this make sense" in this small space.

I'll be cheering you on in 2026 to see how it goes, Michele!
 
I often take several days to make a page. I'll pick the photos and move them to the canvas. Then pick a kit and pick out a few things. Then I'll work on in as I'm inspired. You definitely don't have to finish a page on the same day and I'd say that sometimes it's a better page if you come back to it after taking a break.
 
Do you ever get near the end of year-long project and feel so glad to not have to do it anymore?
Yes and then I do it again anyway lol creature of habit!

I love your project idea Michele. Your first two quadrants are adorable. Have fun!
 
I have never worked on a page over more than a day, but I love your idea! I hope it works beautifully for you. My scrapping has really slowed down the last couple of years as well, and I'm not sure why. I honestly have more time now, but I'm not scrapping more. I'm hoping to make 2026 the year of being more intentional with my time.
Wishing you the best with your project and can't wait to see how it comes together!!
 
I think give yourself grace. If you spend 15mins choosing photos one day, 15 mins doing the title and journaling the next, 15 the third day playing with the placement and 12 on the 4th day finishing it up that's also all scrapbooking.

I heard something once about when one is feeling burnt out creatively/designing switching to the other side of the brain and organising or planning what's next or putting away supplies etc. It's all scrapbooking and helps with that burnt out feeling and keeps me going .

Good luck with your new ideas. Hope it works well for you.
 
if this works for you, it sounds like a plan - i know for me I'm better at 'one session' scrapping, i'd be coming back and tweaking the other quadrants every time i reopen that doc and taking more than 4 times as long to get to a finished page. Another option might be planning 4 pages at once - like opening 4 of your rectangle new doc's and adding photos to all 4 in one session, then picking papers in the next session, etc - i'm not sure if that would be harder or more efficient for me either but i'm with you on the goal of more finished pages!
 
Sounds good Michele! I am thrilled I just finally finished my 240 page trip book from our Best of Britain trip we did in 2024... took me almost 9 months as I was primarily doing it mostly on the weekends.

Regarding scrapping for me, I make a few pages a day, by doing them early in the morning over my drinking my coffee :)

When I worked after exercising etc and getting ready I had some spare minutes so I would scrap a little. Most days I turn off my laptop by 11am as I need time away from the screen. I am glad you are getting back into scrapping so have some fun.. do it like we did the speed scraps... I find if you don't think it goes faster.

Me - the book took so long as I was being picky re elements to add to my photos and I do not use templates for the books. I scrap my photos and place them on the page and do the journaling around it.
 
Thank you for sharing your idea! That sounds fun!
About feeling restrained by the small size over time, maybe it helps if you see these quadrants as a minimum but not as a "have to". You can do one of those but when you have an idea for a whole page you just start that in your 15 minutes. So you don't always work with the small size but have something to keep your scrapping habit up and going.
I usually do my pages over different sessions on different days. I almost never finish a page in one go. So for me it works really well to do a page in little snippets. And you could just start with anything that comes to mind, certain design and product ideas, choosing photos or do the journaling when the memories are still fresh. That way you can use the mojo when it hits without worrying about having to finish the whole page now and being "overwhelmed".
 
Fun idea! and I really hope it sparks your creativity! And you get more scrapping done! I think just getting into photoshop will get you going!

I plan on picking two days a week to scrap. I tend to be overzealous with my side hobbies, but get over involved in them and don't know how to balance. My two biggest ones are reading and scrapping. What you have planned might help me too, but I like to finish a page at a time, and I have never scrapped over days. So, I think I'll start with 2-3 days of scrapping, and 3-4 days reading. I'll give it a whirl! :P
 
IntenseMagic said:
I have never worked on a page over more than a day, but I love your idea! I hope it works beautifully for you. My scrapping has really slowed down the last couple of years as well, and I'm not sure why. I honestly have more time now, but I'm not scrapping more. I'm hoping to make 2026 the year of being more intentional with my time.
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Couldn't have said it better. I have more time yet less layouts. Going to make it an aim of doing more layouts this year....I have a number in my mind that would be doable but I'll think on it a bit first
StefanieS said:
I think give yourself grace. If you spend 15mins choosing photos one day, 15 mins doing the title and journaling the next, 15 the third day playing with the placement and 12 on the 4th day finishing it up that's also all scrapbooking.

I heard something once about when one is feeling burnt out creatively/designing switching to the other side of the brain and organising or planning what's next or putting away supplies etc. It's all scrapbooking and helps with that burnt out feeling and keeps me going .

Good luck with your new ideas. Hope it works well for you.
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Scrapping in smaller durations might make it more achievable for me....I've just got to get out of that all or nothing mindset when creating a page first.

Yes, organizing is a part of the scrapping process.....at least that's what I try & convince myself of!
 
I love that you are evolving and coming up with a plan to fit some scrapbooking into your busier days. :D I am almost finished with my very first DYD album and that's my first attempt (other MOC) at scrapbooking something daily. I LOVED it. I don't know if I could carry on with it for a whole year, but I'm actually thinking about it. I'm a goal oriented person, so when I set a goal, I'm usually pretty good and sticking to it because I "have to". :giggle I hope your new plan work out for you to carve out a little creative time each day!
 
I took 3 trips this year and when I started scrapping them, I did something different for me. I went through the photos to figure out how many to use for each day of the trip. Of course, some had more layouts than others. But that gave me an idea for what kind of template to use.

I then placed all the photos into the templates. At one time I had over 20 layouts ready to actually add papers/elements. For some, I needed new kits so waited until there was a sale to pick up what I needed. After Black Friday when I could get all the kits I needed, I got most of those finished in about 10 days (2 layouts per day). I've got 2 ready to scrap (kit is chosen) and I wanted to finish them this week but I had vision problems Friday (extremely dry eyes) and I've been sick since Saturday so haven't gotten them done. Guess they will be my first 2 layouts of 2026.

I found that doing this for these trips actually made the process go faster once I started adding papers/elements. I still have about 10 to 15 layouts for one trip then another trip of about 20 to 25 layouts to do. I'm going to keep up this process to get these hopefully done before my next trip in June!
 
I think it's worth a try to see how it works out for you. I don't always complete a page in one sitting. Sometimes I just gather the photos I want to use and then come back, sometimes I'll just crank out the entire thing. I'm going to try to use my notes app more as it really helped me to work through the Document Your December, which I've never done before, but the notes kept me going. I did that project in a 6 x 8 format to make it seem less daunting for a daily recap.
 
HavaDrPepper said:
I took 3 trips this year and when I started scrapping them, I did something different for me. I went through the photos to figure out how many to use for each day of the trip. Of course, some had more layouts than others. But that gave me an idea for what kind of template to use.

I then placed all the photos into the templates. At one time I had over 20 layouts ready to actually add papers/elements. For some, I needed new kits so waited until there was a sale to pick up what I needed. After Black Friday when I could get all the kits I needed, I got most of those finished in about 10 days (2 layouts per day). I've got 2 ready to scrap (kit is chosen) and I wanted to finish them this week but I had vision problems Friday (extremely dry eyes) and I've been sick since Saturday so haven't gotten them done. Guess they will be my first 2 layouts of 2026.

I found that doing this for these trips actually made the process go faster once I started adding papers/elements. I still have about 10 to 15 layouts for one trip then another trip of about 20 to 25 layouts to do. I'm going to keep up this process to get these hopefully done before my next trip in June!
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That is e great approach for vacation photos! Sometimes I do that for hiking days or something like that But it seems a great idea for a whole trip. Thanks a lot for sharing!
 
Thanks everyone! After reading all these responses I'm thinking of not making the size of the layout the important thing but the 15 minutes per day the important thing.
 
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