Something I learn this MOC...

I generally have the albums I'm currently working on laid out - pictures on pages ready to go. Then I see if what the instructions are work with any of the pages I have set up ready to go. If not, I will sometimes just hide the extra pictures (if it's a picture count), or try to fit a page I have ready into the requirements. I rarely create something just because of the challenge. I always want it to fit somewhere in something I'm working on. Albums currently trying to finish: my last Disney and Universal trip, my son's 7th grade 11th, & 10th grade album, my daughter's 7th & 8th grade album and our family albums for 2020 and 2019 Those are what you will most likely see from me this month!

 

I have the most trouble making sure the kits are all still in the store. I'm a big "mixer" of designers, and I never know before hand which ones I'm going to use. As careful as I am, I always get "surprised" by something not being in the store. I've had it happen already this year! I really try to be prepared, but something always slips past me.

 

In past years I have tried to work on albums. I got a lot done on them but some challenges just didn't fit what I wanted to do. This year I've been a bit disjointed so I'm scrapping whatever pops into my head. I think so far I've only done one page for a particular album. I typically like to keep it to one designer, but this year I'm all over the place. I place the kit folder/preview on the side of my working area so I know what I've included in a page, otherwise I'd have NO IDEA! It's worked for me all along.

I've liked what I've done so far this time and I've been trying to NOT use templates all of the time. I've succeeded a bit in that but I do love my templates!

 

I'm a bit of a list maker and like things organized so when I purchase an item I just add to my master list of owned items. I add the Designer, Item/Kit and Store. And then I link the kit name to the shop. SO during MOC or challenges, I just click on that link, if it goes thru, I know it's still in the store and all I have to do is copy and paste into the credits.

 

Due to the pandemic I had some extra time to scrap. I work from home now so I get 3 hours extra in a day. Hours I used to spend traveler to and from work. So I am catching up on all my scrapping. I finished almost all my vacation albums. I still need to scrap November and December 2020. And then January 2021.
But I don't have a plan for MOC. I have a good idea of what kits from my stash that are in store, but before I start, I'll double check the store.

 

This is me, no plans, just scrap the photos I have since I don't do specific albums. And like her I check the store before I scrap, I usually have a kit or two in mind when I start.

 

Great minds think alike, my friend.

 

I try to scrap pages I can use for albums I am working on. After reading the challenge requirements, I select my photos then check the store to make sure the kits I want to use are still available. I scrap the page the way I want it and then adapt it to meet the challenge requirements.

 

I've learned that when the retirement sale happens in March, I need to take the time to go through all the pages of stuff that is retiring and if it's something I have in my stash, I add "_RETIRED" to the kit folder so that when I want to use it, I know that it's retired. Most of the time I use it anyway, but not if it's for MOC. 3

 

I use various kits on my pages, by no means a 1 kit girl. I usually put the retired kits in a different folder, but did not keep it up this year, so to be safe this year I am using recently bought kits. If I am in doubt I check before.
I have a small folder of photos I like to scrap, but not for albums, just photos I like. I do this every year,and end up using about half of them.

 

This is the first year I've been doing credits as links and it's going pretty well.

The way I achieve it is every time I open a new product folder, before dragging any elements onto my page, I open up another tab in my browser and search for the product. So I confirm before I use it whether it's in the store. Then, when I'm creating my credits, I just go through my browser tabs, copy the URLs, and paste them in. Then I scroll through my layers panel and compare it to my credit list to make sure I didn't miss anything.

I used to just scroll through my layers panel and type the product name and designer in the credits, so this is actually saving me some typing. I think it takes the same amount of time though. Maybe adds a minute or two to the time I work on the page.

 

What a good idea ?! I'm going to do the same with my kits.
today, I have a folder titled OLD mais it's to complicate to search inside. I prefer to have all my kits in the same folder.
Thanks for sharing your experience

 

I don't pull photos ahead of time but I do pull kits ahead of time. I especially pay attention to the collab kits with one TLP designer and one designer from a different store that I CT for so that I don't accidentally overlook them when I'm pulling all my MOC kits together.

I already have all of the photos I want to scrap organized and on my EHD.

 

I buy three or four kits during MOC and those are all I use for the entire thing. (Shopping is my least favorite part; it takes up so much time.) I constantly copy and paste the credits since I only have a handful of kits to keep track of.

I already tackle my photos methodically, so that isn't something I need to adjust for MOC.

 

I try to do a specific album or two for each moc.
This year is a bunny album and my olw and book of me album. Was doing good with that, until my friend posted a photo I loved so I used it. Still a page done.

I in December I go through and see if the kits I own are still in store. I move everything that is still for sale into moc 9 2021. As I scrap the January challenges, I only pull from that folder. I’ve done this from my first moc when I was a newbie, so it’s easy to check the kits

 

You all are so organized. I am still at the learning photo shop stuff. The hue and saturation trick that one is new. The warp tool found that one by accident, the shadow box... well not sure if I could replicated it and I don't want to tell you how I got through but the file was 2G...lets just say I worked from the inside out. I did the credits this year by hand so I got done for using a kit that wasn't on sale in the store anymore, but was easy enough to fix. I learned about the aesthetics of manual stamping. So lots of technical stuff. I was also really inspired by all the great work in the gallery.
And I have learned (again) that some days that done is better than perfect.

 

I am blushing over here, Cynthia @MrsPeel !
I love challenges, so the MOC is a great place for me every year. Of course, some challenges may frustrate me if I can't think of how to use it right away, but it is also the exciting part - seeing the process through in my mind. I do the same in regular life, too. I read the challenges first thing in the morning. If I don't know right away what to do, I let it process in the back of my mind. I love to think of how to work around the problem -
It does help to be working mainly in a specific album so I usually don't have to hunt for photos. I look through the trip photos for what might work with that challenge - like if it is a single picture or white space page, I may search for something that I only took 1 picture of. Take a new photo, I think of what can I take a photo of that is from the trip (ie memorabilia, tickets, etc).
For my organization, I have all the Lilypad Designers in one folder with Designer Name>Kit Name, in December, I double check that they are still in the store, if not, I put retired after the kit name. I still keep it with everything else, but now I know not to use it for the main part of my page. If a Designer leaves, I will move the folder(s) out of TLP main folder area.

 

I create a MOC folder and in that folder I create 3 more sub folders; challenge freebies, JPEGs (my full size pages), and TIFFS (just in case I need to change something on my page because I missed something or misread the instructions. I also create a spreadsheet to list the challenge, items used for that challenge and the link to the finished page in the gallery.
At the end of each MOC I create a 6x6 photo book for that year. I make a cover then add in the collage of all completed pages, a list of challenges and then my pages follow. I love looking back on my previous years.

 

A few things come to mind....

Need to have an organised stash!

For me to have any hope of getting all 31 done, I need to stay super current (ie: not more than 1-3 days behind)

Finding my “happy place” scrap style wise...so much easier to create those kinds of layouts.