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What do y'all do to prepare for MOC?

I'm a kit tagger, and tag as I unzip. As I get a kit/template pack from TLP store I tag it as MOC friendly. So during MOC I only use those. As kits get retired or designers leave I remove the MOC tag from those products.
 
gonewiththewind said:
As far as photos and knowing what's available to scrap, I do mark my photos in Lightroom when they have been used on a page so I know to skip those. Additionally, I keep an Excel file for each year with the dates I took photos, what transpired that day, and then tuck in a thumbnail of the completed layout. It makes it easy to see the events that took place in a specific year without getting lost in Lightroom (which is easy for me to do).

You can download the blank Excel sheet HERE.
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I don't do MOC but I want to say... THIS SPREADSHEET IS SO AWESOME! When Cheryl shared a link to it before I downloaded it and half heartedly set it up for myself. I was in a period of not scrapping at the time. But in October a challenge @bestcee had posted during DSD motivated me to scrap. With the help of this spreadsheet I have now done 129 pages and I'm still going! It takes away the question of what to scrap next or what haven't I scrapped so makes the process go so much faster. I have set up separate tabs for: Scanned Photos, Digital, Peyton, DYD, Family Downloaded, Special Projects. My digital tab is for 2017 to the present so I set up another tab for Digital Pre-2017.
 
gonewiththewind said:
I generally check for active products as I'm scrapping (or if I'm scrapping live, then Courtney @bestcee checks for me LOL).

I just made these charts to keep track of the challenges in my Happy Planner. If anyone wants them, I can share a link to download. :) The circle under the date is for me to color in when I'm finished, and then the box to the side is for the name of the challenge and any special note.

The second page I left for miscellaneous notes on the bottom.

View attachment 365524 View attachment 365525
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That is SOOO cool!
 
Mostly I just make sure my "to-scrap" excel spreadsheet is up to date and has lots of ideas for pages listed so I can scan it for each challenge day and see if any of those ideas will work for that challenge. The only other thing I do is add "RETIRED" to the folder names for stuff that is retired.

I also find myself recently taking pictures of things with the ideas that I better stock up on random pictures and things to scrap about for MOC. :giggle I'm almost caught up right now and I don't like that going into MOC at all!
 
WOW, @Karen @HavaDrPepper @Angela Toucan,@gonewiththewind @tkradtke , @BevG , @bestcee @blueberries : Y'all are quite masterful with this thing! I have lost so many files, and then actual photos that I gave up trying to create albums.
This pretty much shows how I line up with y'alls skills:
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Now, if I use family photos, I try to make a page I would like to be printed. Otherwise I create for fun. :dancebun
I guess I will have to check all the collections though. Ugh. Didn't think of whether the designer had retired them. :faint2
@CarolynJoyce77 - I am with you. I've never been able to get into such detailed tracking, though I am certain it works perfectly. I used to be very organized. But after 50, it seems the freestyle part of my personality took charge and the administrative part went on vacation:fruit, lol! Maybe it was all the years o f school and the paperwork of teaching?!
 
My photos are already organized, and everything needing to be scrapped is in a separate folder.

Between Christmas and New Year's, when I'm off work, I will go through and pull out my TLP kits that haven't been used yet (I usually don't keep kits after I've scrapped with them once) and put those on my hard drive (vs. where they usually live on my EHD). I CT for BG & Mommyish so that helps, too.

I do the same thing that a lot of the other ladies do & make a Notepad list to track challenges... although it's just as easy to look through the challenge threads and see if my little avatar is there (meaning I've made a page & posted it). I always post to the challenge thread & my own individual thread at the same time so that I don't forget.

That's it! It's not the finding & organizing that is hard for me -- just finding the time to do 31 layouts in 31 days! This year I'll be turning 40 the last weekend of January and won't be scrapping at all that weekend since I'll be celebrating (and the last weekend of the month is usually when I catch up on pages) so that's going to be the biggest challenge for me in completing MOC.
 
Have any designers left this year? If so, then I need to remove them from my TLP folder.

I don't need to track my progress really because I usually don't move on to the next page until I've finished the previous. And I give them file names like "MOC7-1blind" (the name of my first page last January, which includes a word for the challenge name) so it's easy to see what I've done in my scrapbook folder, and they're in order.

As for photos, during MOC I do the same as I do all year and scrap what I feel like scrapping or what the challenge inspires. I've never been organized about it; I'm just happy to have made another page. Any amount is better than none.

Searching for photos on various topics and types of digiscrap elements works really well in Finder. I caption my photos in Lightroom all year, and most designers create file names so their products to come up in a search.

I've got to keep it simple! And this has worked for the last 4 years of MOCs, all of which I've completed.

My biggest tip is to not get more than a day behind. Last January I had even just started my new job, but I still managed to keep up and finish MOC. I had fewer work hours than I have been getting recently however, and I've scrapped so little since Love Our Designer after MOC earlier this year. So I'm a little wary. But I still think I can do it.

Actually, my biggest hurdle is still that I haven't settled on how I want to scrap since realizing a year ago that I don't want to keep printing the heavy 12x12 albums I had been doing. I still prefer scrapping 12x12, but I don't want to print that size, but I do want to print something. See the confused circle? And with my reduced time to scrap . . . I'm a bit of a mess, scrapbooking-wise. Wow, didn't know I was going to rant. I'm saving this. It might make good journaling for a MOC page! :wub
 
The biggest worry I have is that something in my stash is not being sold in the store. I'm planning to go through everything and make sure this doesn't happen this year.
 
Cherylndesigns said:
The biggest worry I have is that something in my stash is not being sold in the store. I'm planning to go through everything and make sure this doesn't happen this year.
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Do you just go through your visual order history or kit by kit on your hard drive and look them up individually?
 
gonewiththewind said:
Do you just go through your visual order history or kit by kit on your hard drive and look them up individually?
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Pretty much - I know which ones are newer, but the files that are older, I look up. I haven't found an easier way to do it. I DO mark them RETIRED if I know they are - at least that much is done ahead of time. It's a pain, but I don't want to get disqualified because something I use isn't in the store.
 
Cherylndesigns said:
Pretty much - I know which ones are newer, but the files that are older, I look up. I haven't found an easier way to do it. I DO mark them RETIRED if I know they are - at least that much is done ahead of time. It's a pain, but I don't want to get disqualified because something I use isn't in the store.
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It's not perfect, but in windows you can sort by date. I usually check the oldest ones since they are most likely to be retired. Also, it shows me anything I've bought since the last retirement sale (March I believe? @gonewiththewind ?) Because if I downloaded it after March, it's probably in the store. Also, if I downloaded it in March - I should check it to see if it was part of the sale. IDK if that makes sense, but my head says it does....
 
The preparations I am making are to scan photos from my mother's old albums of my childhood to create pages. I plan to get printed an album about my childhood - just in case my grandchildren are interested in knowing a little about my growing up years.
Then for kits to use..... I am hoping most of the challenges will suit me scrapping those childhood photos and so I plan on using mostly kits by two designers whose products I think will suit the photos.
 
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bestcee said:
It's not perfect, but in windows you can sort by date. I usually check the oldest ones since they are most likely to be retired. Also, it shows me anything I've bought since the last retirement sale (March I believe? @gonewiththewind ?) Because if I downloaded it after March, it's probably in the store. Also, if I downloaded it in March - I should check it to see if it was part of the sale. IDK if that makes sense, but my head says it does....
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I guess that's sort of what I was saying. LOL I know which files are newer and the ones I worry about are the older ones. Better safe than sorry.
 
I'm a fly by the seat of my pants kind of scrapper during MOC. I just let the challenges inspire me. After I see what the challenge is, I go find photos and then kits. I sort my kits by designer and then date modified with the newest on top so they show first. If I want to use a kit, I check the store. If it's there I go ahead and use it, if not, I find something else or do a little shopping. I don't waste time checking everything in my TLP stash because I know I won't use it all. I just check the stuff I'll use for the day's challenge. Leaves more time for scrappin and shopping.

Speaking of shopping make sure you're taking advantage of the December Daily Deals, Froggy Fridays and SOSN sales. Build up your stash with things you know you'll use for MOC and beyond (templates, basics and themed kits to go with photos you know you need to scrap).

I also warn my family that January means MOC and that means mom is scrappin so everyone needs to pitch in and/or fend for themselves. I make sure I stock the fridge, pantry and freezer with easy meals so they won't starve... hehe
 
Cherylndesigns said:
I guess that's sort of what I was saying. LOL I know which files are newer and the ones I worry about are the older ones. Better safe than sorry.
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I just wait and check stuff as I'm going to use it. You can do a quick search of the kit name in the store and if it's there use it for your layout, if not pick something else to use. No need to check your entire stash of older items. That time can be used for scrappin! :agree
 
bestcee said:
It's not perfect, but in windows you can sort by date. I usually check the oldest ones since they are most likely to be retired. Also, it shows me anything I've bought since the last retirement sale (March I believe? @gonewiththewind ?) Because if I downloaded it after March, it's probably in the store. Also, if I downloaded it in March - I should check it to see if it was part of the sale. IDK if that makes sense, but my head says it does....
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Thanks for the update regarding the retirement sale!
 
I don't do much prep, but in January I love to stay on track and make a page a day, unless the time difference make that a problem or a specific photo is needed. I try to put retired designers in TLP folder with an X and kits and templates X-ed during the retirement sale, but I didn't this year so I will have to check if things are in store before I start a page or change things out when I go to link and discover they aren't there anymore.
 
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