New Year 2023 Craft Space Organization Challenge ~ The Final Challenge!

The Final Challenge . . .

Preparing for a Crop

Crops can be a wonderful chance for you to get caught up on pages, catch up with friends, and enjoy your hobby with other Scrapbookers who understand your obsession. But planning ahead is very important to your success – it is a proven fact that the less you bring to a crop, the more you’ll actually get done. Here are a few tips to help you prepare:

Mission Statement: A crop is a rare chunk of time to spend on yourself. How long will the crop last? What do you want to accomplish? Do you want to socialize? Do you want to set a goal for completed pages? Would you like to complete a mini-album? Do you want to try to master a new technique? Do you want to organize your photos? Knowing what you want to get out of it and how much time you’ll have to do it is crucial to your planning, and helps to avoid frustration at the end of the day if you don’t achieve what you set out to do.

Gather your Blueprint: If you’re planning to get a certain number of pages done, having a blueprint for each page, whether a sketch, a rough drawing, or inspiration from a print ad or a layout you’d like to borrow, is an important step in the planning process. If these points of inspiration are in a book or magazine, consider copying them or cutting them out of the book so you can place it directly with your photos and papers.

Match Photos to the Blueprint: Once you have your sketches in mind, find photos that will coordinate with them. Then for each set of sketch and photos, do the following steps:

Journal: You know from your sketches where the journaling will go and how big it should be, so now is the perfect time to write it. Once you have your papers together, you can print it out – that way, your pages will be completely finished at the crop!

Coordinate Papers with your Photos and Journaling: Match the papers to the colors in your photos and the mood of your journaling.

Choose your embellishments: Whether your title will be printed on paper, created with stickers, or some other type of embellishment, gather the supplies for that, and then think about your finishing touches and include those. You may want to bring more than one option so you can decide exactly how you like it when you have everything else in place.

Place your supplies in a large ziploc bag: Store each set of blueprints, photos, papers, journaling and embellishments (otherwise known as a page kit) separately . Bring a few of these and your basic supplies & you can get pages done at the crop!!

Bring a Small Sticky-note Pad to the Crop: If you forget to bring something for your page, or decide it needs just one more thing, you can write it on the sticky note and attach it to your page. Now you have a perfect reminder when you get home!

Packing for crops does not need to be a huge chore the day before you go – consider pairing the above items together as page kits from time to time and filing them away – that way, if you get a last minute invitation to a crop, you’ll be able to grab and go! You’ll have fun, get more done, and be proud of your accomplishments!