One Little Tip--Cataloging Ideas

Sometimes it's the smallest adjustments that can lead to big changes in our lives, right?

After the most recent episode of the Scrap Gals brought me to realize that my photos are all over the house and in total disasterous array, I began looking for a small way to improve the situation "one bite at a time" because this is a huge problem and I am completely overwhelmed by it! Already. 

I am a huge very loudly vocal proponent of printing pictures! It's something I feel strongly about. Print your photos!! I preach about this regularly to anyone who will listen. 

I get photos printed regularly...and consequently, there are stacks of photos always hanging around my workspace, my office, drawers, closets...you get the picture! 

So it's nice to talk about organizing photos and all but to think about actually tackling the task all at once sent me into fits of anxiety. That's scary.

It did occur to me that perhaps I could start by organizing just one kind of photos--kind of embrace the "eat the elephant one bite at a time" concept. Baby steps.

So here's what I learned.

For as long as I can remember, I have been trying to accomplish being an organized idea keeper. Let's face facts: one of the major aspects of being a papercrafter  is the (endless) collecting of ideas for potential future projects. 

There is never a shortage of ideas...and over the years, I have tried several methods for keeping them organized, with only moderate amounts of success. Most recently, I have come upon a way that allows me to create a catalog of ideas and inspiration from a variety of sources and keep it fresh and easily accessible. Another factor that leads me to happiness with this method is cost: it's very inexpensive! 

While browsing Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram or Google for inspirational images, I have learned that the quickest way to capture whatever images inspire me is to do a screen capture. On the iPhone, (my primary internet tool) if you press the home button and the button on the side at the same time, whatever is on the screen at that moment gets captured and saved as a photo. It's a very handy tool and once you start using it, it will quickly become second-nature.

Screen captures can be printed as photos. Every time I upload regular photos to my local print service, I also upload 20 or 30 of my favorite screen captures of ideas. For 9 cents each, I can get a 4x6 print of an idea that I really like and want to use. (That's less than the cost of a magazine.) 

Next, when I have amassed a stack of printed images, I arrange them into categories or themes and give them a home in a traditional photo album. 

Today, I happened to realize it was time to make a new idea catalog (the pictures were piling up) so I stopped at Michaels with a nice coupon and picked up this cute photo album.

I probably should have looked in the closet for an empty album before going out but this one was cheerful and cute and ya know...I had a coupon! 

 

This particular catalog focuses on card designs. I grouped the images together in a way that probably only makes sense in my head...but isn't that the point? 

I think my next catalog of ideas will be Christmas themed. I kept those separate. 

Here a quick little video flip-through of my idea catalog.

There are a few open spaces left--room to improve the collection is always a good thing. Now I can go and delete the screen captures off my phone and free up some space!

 

How do you preserve ideas and inspiration?

Tell me!

--Sarah