Project Progress: Crafty Organization Week 3

Like I mentioned last week, I focused on my scrapbooks this week. I had a huge stack of layouts that needed to be put away into scrapbooks. A while back, I bought a bunch of the stuff I needed for it, so I had plenty of page protectors and albums, thank goodness.

This ended up being a much more involved process than I was originally thinking. I mean, I just needed to stuff a few layouts into albums, right? Wrong. First, I sorted the stack of layouts that I had either recently finished or had been returned after being away at various companies (I think I still have a few things out there, but nothing I can do about that right now). I had a huge stack, probably 6 or 7" high. I wish I had a picture, but I didn't realize I didn't until I went to write this post.

So, I sorted them all and put them into albums. As I was doing that, I went through the albums and pulled any layouts that had damage. A few years ago, I had a bad batch of adhesive, so there were quite a few layouts where nothing was sticking. Also, when Aubrey was 18 months or so, she got a hold of one of Maxton's albums and ripped a bunch of things off layouts. Most of them were salvagable, but I hadn't repaired them yet. I also got out my box of unfinished layouts. These are usually from crops, when I get really stuck or sometimes they are all the way done except for journaling.

It looked about like this (and the label actually says "Pages to Finish"). It looks really sad and depressed. Poor little box:

After looking at that stack and then back at the stack that needed repair, I sort of wanted to quit. I mean, this is the most boring type of scrapbooking imaginable, even worse than digi scrapping (I kid, I kid). So, I thought, "Well, I'll just repair the ones that can be repaired really quickly." I got out my trusty ATG gun (we are, like, best friends forever) and started adhering things down.

After that chunk was done, I thought I'd write all the journaling that hadn't been done in one sitting. So, I did that and if the layout was already mostly finished, I slapped on the journaling. Then I went through and sorted which ones still needed dates, which I added. See how this was a much more involved process than I was thinking?

Once that was all done, I had a finished stack about like this:

There were layouts that I started, but left incomplete for years. I think the oldest one I finished was this one of Xander as a baby (about 5 months old), that has been sitting in my collection of "Pages to Finish" for about 6 years. That is really sad.

I started in on the ones that still needed title work or extensive design work. And I couldn't find anything, because, well, you've seen my craft area, nothing is where it was supposed to be! Everything was in my way, I had no clear spot to work and it's really annoying to scrap like that, I felt like I wasn't getting a thing done and I really wanted to move on in the organization process.

So, I stuck all those back in a box and I'm going to have another "organize scrapbooks" week at the end of this whole thing.

This is my box:

Much improved! I'm calling this week officially over (for now).

I lined up all the scrapbooks on my shelf. Since they are color coded (Xander is blue, Maxton is red, Griffin is Green, Aubrey is pink and family scrapbooks are tan/brown), I grouped all the colors together and I think the result is so pretty! When we move, I'm going to either buy another shelf system like this or have David build me one (or if I get really desperate, I will build it myself), to go in our family room to house these, so I can have my storage back, but for now, I love they way they look across my bookcase. Don't you agree?

Next week is sticker week! I know I have quite the collection and I have no idea what to do with it.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.