How To Organize Your Digital Scrapbooking Supplies

In honor of the New Year I thought it might be time to revisit a favorite topic of digital scrapbookers, organization.

Did you know we have over300 responses to the question, "how do you organize your scrapbooking supplies"? And while some of this can be chalked up to personality differences, I think the real issue is that it's a nearly impossible task. I know this from my personal experience of trying to organize my own supplies. It's so frustrating and time consuming that I've finally given it up. I'd rather spend my time making stuff than constantly be thinking about and moving my digital stash around.

What has helped me to give up my own organization system is the fact that I was able to build DigitalScrapbook.com to be a much better organization and storage method than what I could come up with on my own. I used to organize my stash of templates and graphics on my computer (all the stuff I use for designing). But it quickly became clear that this was a difficult task and my own results weren't that great. It was so much easier to just search for whatever I needed on DigitalScrapbook.com that I eventually stopped my own system altogether. To repeat myself, I don't store any templates or files for designing on my own computer. I just search DigitalScrapbook.com for what I need when I need it.

search quickly and easily for whatever digital scrapbooking kit you need

Whether I'm working on designing something new, or decorating a layout, I basically just rely on DigitalScrapbook.com at this point. The ability to search for whatever I need, and actually find it, saves me so much time. Plus I don't have to spend any time organizing it in the first place. Our hardworking upload helpers have made sure that everything you need is uploaded individually and ready to be searched for wherever you need it.

When I'm working, I search for what I want, download it, use it and then delete it. I'm not only saving time with this method, but also hard drive space. My iPad has basically zero storage so this is a very important factor when I'm looking at digital scrapbooking supplies. And if you've ever had a hard drive go bad, you know the pain of that (we've had lots of sad posts in the forums about this as well). At DigitalScrapbook.com we worry about backing everything up so you don't have to.

(You can watch my scrapbooking process in one of my many Watch Me Digi Scrap videos.
They include me looking and downloading on DigitalScrapbook.com.)

It may seem conceited for me to be here telling you that DigitalScrapbook.com is great, since I did create it. But I think the truth is a little more subtle than that. DigitalScrapbook.com wasn't conceived as a money making business, but created by me to indulge my great passion for digital scrapbooking. Everything you see here was designed to make the hobby better and easier for me, and then it became clear that it was helpful to other people as well. But the reality I think is that since DigitalScrapbook.com is basically a part of me, I use it in a way that may not be apparent to others. So I wanted to share a little about my own creative process here and hope to inspire you to spend a little less time organizing and a little more time creating. If you haven't tried our unlimited download subscription yet, please give it a try. I think you will find that it can free up both your creative time and your hard drive.

Video Transcript:

Hi there! This is Marisa, and today I have a new Watch Me Digi Scrap video for you. In this video I am using the Fresh collaboration which is available at DigitalScrapbook.com. It's from a couple years ago, but the colors are really lovely and I thought they would go well with the photos of my newborn that are available this week.

So I am just scrolling through the papers online and downloading the ones that I want.
Sometimes I just like to browse that way, rather than downloading the whole bundle first. And now I'm also taking a look at the pocket cards that were included, and I'm downloading those. So I'll actually put those in first before I do my papers, just so I know what holes I want to fill with these nice cards.

And once I have those sorted, I will start adding the papers in the background. Once I have my papers settled in the background, I will start adding in the elements on top and
I will browse for those on DigitalScrapbook.com as well. There are lots of great filters in the sidebars, so you can easily browse through a particular bundle like this, and you can filter for papers, or for elements, or by color, or you know whatever you're searching for.

So I often find it easier to search online than just browsing randomly through a large bundle like this on my computer. So that's what I am doing here.

Thanks so much for watching this video. If you enjoyed it please give me a thumbs up and if you'd like to see more please subscribe to my YouTube channel. Have a great day!

How To Organize Your Digi Supplies

Recent Comments

Marisa Lerin
Marisa Lerin Mon, 01/29/2024 - 08:52

@Sheri: In Photoshop the layers come in with their file name. So if the graphic has the designers name in it, it’s pretty easy to track down in the future. I’m not sure how other programs handle this.

Sheri Muro
Sheri Muro Sun, 01/28/2024 - 14:59

This is an interesting concept. Do you have any articles on how to tag what I used for a project/layout. I think one challenge is I'm always leaving things half way and coming back later, but than can never remember what kit I was using when I need to finish the layout or project.

Shaindel Plum
Shaindel Plum Sat, 01/13/2024 - 19:09

Like @Zoe Harris, I also use inDesign for scrapping. (Never met anyone else who does that, so Hi, Zoe!)
I keep every kit in a folder named with the name of the kit, and a subfolder for elements, papers, journal cards, alpha, etc. I tend to mix tons of kits in one layout - if I don't find what I'm looking for in one folder, I go on to the next.

Suzanne Eriksson
Suzanne Eriksson Fri, 01/12/2024 - 20:47

I have been using AcdSee for years to organize my supplies and it is working great and for storage I have OneDrive (have had enough of loosing photos etc by broken external drives).

Zoe Harris
Zoe Harris Thu, 01/11/2024 - 07:28

I use Adobe InDesign for my scrapping, which means that I functionally cannot work as you do, Marisa. Whereas Photoshop gives you the option of placing a linked or embedded asset, InDesign only does linked. It needs to look somewhere on my hard drive for where the asset I've placed on the page "lives."
That said, I've had an organization process and workflow for several years now that works really well for me, so I don't feel especially put out. The only downside is hard drive space, which comes at a premium since I work off of a Mac laptop. I'll probably start shifting old kits and bundles I haven't used in awhile onto an external hard drive when free space runs low.

Cheryl Chandler
Cheryl Chandler Sat, 12/03/2022 - 05:08

great suggestion Thankyou♥

Gail O'brien
Gail O'brien Fri, 11/11/2022 - 00:17

Thanks for this Marisa. I've been trying organise for years

Cheryl Chandler
Cheryl Chandler Sun, 12/13/2020 - 20:39

I have 3 external drives I save to, that works for me. ♥♥

Faith Anderson
Faith Anderson Fri, 11/27/2020 - 13:27

Why didn't I think of this? I have been downloading and saving for years. It's a big change to get rid of all my kits and then think of searching here! Maybe from now on? Thanks for the great idea Marisa.

Claire Grantham
Claire Grantham Thu, 11/26/2020 - 19:00

I am primarily a cardmaker and the organising my supplies is a BIG part of the fun for me.. perhaps because I am a Project Manager IRL. I am lucky and have a IT husband, so I have a server at home and it makes it easy for me to tag and link in PSE organizer, I love the tagging and organizing LOL

Millie Gagliano
Millie Gagliano Tue, 11/24/2020 - 16:52

totally get this. searching on here would be quicker then going thru my stash

Amy Carter
Amy Carter Tue, 11/24/2020 - 08:21

So interesting!

Linda2 Dlr
Linda2 Dlr Tue, 11/24/2020 - 07:12

The first time I saw you creating a layout during one of the Slow Scraps, need something, search for it on PS, then download and used it just like that, I was thoroughly impressed! I couldn't believe how quickly and easily it was to find something online - so much faster than searching through my own stash. I saw pretty quickly how far more convenient it was to do the unlimited download subscription for my creative process, too. Thanks for that. Now though, I think I've gotten most of the kits I've downloaded in my brain, so I can sorta find things quickly. I have several go-to kits now but a new kit always motivates me to create another layout and another and another...it's an unending process for me that I love. hahaha

Bourico Casper
Bourico Casper Tue, 11/24/2020 - 02:55

I like a lot of DigitalScrapbook.com, it's great, we find everything we need to create and make scrap pages
Thanks for everything Marisa