One of my favorite time saving tips is to plan, plan, plan. Pre-planning pages before you sit down to scrap is the quickest way to get an album done and as much scrapbooking as your time allows.
It’s really fairly simple to plan ahead. There are several different times that work for planning. First, when you get your photos back assemble your page kit right then. Or perhaps you might just have some papers and embellishments that coordinate perfectly and maybe you don’t have the photos yet, but still you can assemble a page kit in that way too. Another great way is to plan some time and just sit down and assemble page kits. You might have photos for some, and you might not, but if you plan this time you can catch up on your backlog much quicker!
What do you need to create a page kit?
Simple. You need storage first. Items such as a 12×12 envelope, page protector, file folder or something else that can hold your supplies are perfect. My favorite frugal tip is to use a Ziplock bag and punch holes into it then place into a binder.
The other items needed are cardstock, patterned paper, buttons, ribbons and any other coordinating embellishments that go together for that particular layout. You just place these supplies into your storage item, if you have photos to go with the page kit already, slide those in too, and then place into a binder or use a ring to hold it all together.
Some other great ways to make it go faster is to choose sketches and include those into your page kits, or pre-plan what type of page you want to do. If you can do the journaling then and place it in the page kit, this will save time later.
When you find time throughout the week to scrapbook, all you will need to do at that point is flip through your page kits and select a few to get done.
Before you know it you’ll have tons of layouts done and a completed album!
Good luck!
Nicole Humphrey writes articles for the Scrapbooking Blog and for the Frugal Blog. She also guest blogs on a variety of topics. You can read more of her articles by clicking here.
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