Time for Scrapbooking

Finding time for scrapbooking is not so elusive for those who choose to make scrapbooking a priority in their lives. Learn how to make scrapbooking part of your priorities.

Here are some time-saving scrapbooking ideas for making this hobby a priority.

1. Realize you must make an adjustment in your priorities. It's your choice. If you are not finding time for scrapbooking, then it is because you have chosen to do something else. If you are watching Survivor or an old episode of Lost, get up and step away from the television set. Okay, the same goes for the computer screen.

2. Keep a calendar. I learned to use the Google calendar to keep track of so many things while in school. I had my homework, my work schedule, tracking the bills, and setting aside time for my pet projects, which included making time for scrapbooking my albums. Consider what type of person you are. If you are a morning person get up an hour earlier a couple times in the week for your scrapbooking project. If you are an evening person, go to town scrapping when the home is quiet. Do what works best for you.

3. Don't be a perfectionist. Your page does not have to be perfect. Make your goal more to finish your albums than to have to create an exquisite scrapbooking page. Occasionally, you many actually produce a particularly nice page, but don't set yourself up so that you feel you must.

4. Do something related to scrapbooking every day. Sort out your material and make plans for future pages. National Scrapbooking Day comes once a year, the first Saturday in May. Try especially to do something on that day. Imagine, our own holiday!

5. Another way to make time for scrapbooking is to do one little thing. Feeling mentally blocked? Break the scrapbooking project up in tiny parts more manageable. Don't feel you have to get it all done in one day or evening.

6. Use a sketch pad. Carry a notebook with you so that when you get an idea, you can jot it down. For scrapbooking inspiration, look at billboards, magazine ads, and soda cans for ideas in color combinations and graphic designs. Whatever you may be doing, whether waiting for the bus, or on the bus, use the time to your advantage and you will have those time saving scrapbooking ideas to look back on later to jog your creativity. Working all day? Use some of your break, especially lunch to write down those ideas.

7. Journaling really can't be hurried. You would not want to hurry it either. But, do use your writing time wisely. When you get stuck on one subject or idea, take your title, photograph, or memory and in your notebook, free associate or brainstorm. Write down everything you can think of in relation to your event. Even if you think an idea is not related, still, write it down. Then later, sift through your words for a few keywords or ideas relating to the original idea.

8. Another time saving scrapbooking idea is the use of momentum, force, impulse. Just do it. Take a picture from your pile of photographs and scrap it. Set a timer. See how far you can go with it. Try something new. Use your idea books. Copy a layout you like. Test it out with an average photo first if you are not sure. But, the main point is do it and move on.

9. Lastly, take a break every hour or so. Recharge your creativity. Then go at it again. It is good to walk away from a project for a little time and come back to it later. It may help you see something you didn't see before. See it with fresh eyes.

It is possible to take time for scrapbooking. It's all about priority. It's your choice.

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