Inspiration Organization

Where do you have your inspiration organized? I love to look at the beautiful layouts in galleries and on blogs, but finding those layouts later can be a challenge. I have two ways for you today.

Evernote: I created a notebook titled layout inspiration, every time I find a layout I love, I can highlight the image and add it to my notebook. I can also add nots about what I loved and why the layout is inspirational to me. If you use the web clipper to add the page to Evernote, it will automatically add the URL to the note, making it easy to refer back to the original for credits.

Pinterest: I created a board titled Scrapping Style. When I find a layout I want to add to Pinterest, I use the bookmarklet button to "Pin It". When the pop up window comes up to describe th pin, I like to add what I love about the layout. One note about pinning, make sure you are at the source of the image, the link in Pinterest will take you to whatever page you were on when you clicked "pin it". This is important if you later want to reference the layout, if you ar linked to the gallery, no problem, but if you've linked to the image directly, it might be hard to find the credits. You can follow my boards here.

I love both these methods for different reasons, I like to scrap when I don't have access to the Internet and Evernote let's me have access to my file even when I'm offline. Pinterest is Fun and pretty to look at, and the visual organization is awesome. I also love that I can find more inspiration while I'm on Pinterest and add to my boards.

I have tried to keep a file on my hard drive, but keeping the credits straight was too much of a challenge for me. I also tried marking my favorites in the galleries directly, but I tend to jump around in different galleries and could never find the layouts again.

How do you organize your inspiration? Do you need a Pinterest invite? Email me directly and I'll send you one- pinklimecreations (at) gmail (dot) com.

Organization, Files and Productivity

I have been working on converting and importing my digital supplies into Lightroom. Using the system described on DigiScrap 101. This system of key-wording and organizing could also be applied to Picasa, understanding that some of the keywords may not "stick" if you are tagging/key-wording PNG files.

I also added in a bit that I heard on the Paperclipping Digi Show, that scrapping can go faster if you have a "To Be Scrapped" file. So I took a twist on that and created collections in Lightroom with pictures, templates, papers and elements. Well, I haven't added all the papers, elements and templates yet, but I have pictures grouped into how I want to scrap them, so I can pick a bundle, look for a template, pick a kit and scrap!

Here is one of the first pages using my new system:

I used Echoes of Love:

not a traditional Christmas kit, the colors are beautiful for the pictures of Santa.

I have only imported 10 or so designers into my Lightroom catalog and I am now where near close to key-wording all of those. I do love that I can batch keyword items as I import them, so all my supplies are key-worded with the designer name and kit names. I am finding that it is easier to pick out what I want to scrap, and I am hoping to focus more on the stories that I want to get scrapped, while using the beautiful supplies that I have. How are your supplies organized? Do you have a system that works for you, or are you looking for a system?