I am very new to digital scrapbooking and I am very overwhelmed by the no. of papers I have downloaded. Yet, I can't seem to resist downloading more! The colours look great, the designs are so delicate in some ... While I cannot get enough of them, I can't help thinking at the back of mind how & why designers keep on designing more and more papers!
This sounds like a silly question, but how can we make good use of papers?
I can think of using it as
- background for layout and alphbets,
- clipping mask function to clip to shapes or frames etc and use them to give out layout a more interesting look
While colour coordination comes so easy for the creatvei and artistic people, is there good tips for coordinating different types of paper for those who need more help in this area?
How do you store your paper? All in one folder, or individual folders for different types of paper?(eg polka dots, stripes, black & whites...)
Hi,
At first I sorted al by paper, alphabets etc. But now I have different folders for each kit, the most I use are made by Marisa, and I have 1 folder with kits that I don't often use. But now I started all over, because my external disk, had problems, so all that I now downloaded, I look if I really like it. For me it's easier and I think i'ts nicer to use all thing from one kit/designer. It's blend more together.
and I don't scrap so long so maybe somebody else have much better ideas
Hi Fiona!
You must never, ever, lose the track of your scrap stuff attribution/terms of use. Maybe by now you don´t really need them as you´re only scrapping for yourself, and never posting on online galeries, but who knows the tomorrow? I´ve knew people that started playing on contests or challenges or even started digiscrap-based business later but couldn´t use their previous downloaded because just mixed up kits and authors, so couldn´t atribute them properly or check if they were not violating the terms of use. Also, if you put all your papers in the same folder, in some months your computer will have problems to process this folder.
The attribution thing is the main reason why quality designers always put things on a folder before zipping and put initials or names in the beginning of the file. However, you can´t rely only on it to give credits for lots of reasons, being the most easy to remember that you may happen to purchase dowloads for more than one designer that has the same initials. I don´t know any that uses same initials than I (Aka: LW) but I have downloaded from three designers that use SS and it´s not the only coincidence that I´ve ever found. So, best thing to do is keep it mostly separated by designer, with each kit on its folder or, if not separating by designer, but by theme, leave the full kit on the same folder. This said, I use Picasa to find easier what I need, (Marisa taught how here) but I know there are people that use other ways.
Please, don´t take it as an offense or think I´m being rude. I am just trying to help because I already had all this doubts and trouble, and spent twice more time reorganizing later than if I´d been organising on this way since the beginning.
There is another topic on organisation in this forum, but I can´t find it. Shawna?
The other topic on organising your digiscrap downloads is here: https://www.digitalscrapbook.com/forum/general-discussion/keep-it-organized
)
(Shawna is not the only one who can find stuff
Oh, you moderators are always making me laugh! And you all do great work with the forums. I don't know how you keep up with it all!
Ah Brooke, that is what we were all selected on by Marisa; swift and slightly mad girls with no life
Hey Melo, it´s not what I meant, lol. Just thought you´re busy drawing a black felt cat for me. I
you as much as Shawna 
Lol Lorien, I'll get to your cat, don't worry
And I didn't take it personally, I was just chuffed I finally got to beat Shawna to it 
@Melo: ROFLMHO b'wahahahahaha I love you. I wish I could meet you in person someday... You have a great fun personality my friend! "right up my alley" (have you heard that one yet?)
PS I have part French Canadian in me, but I don't know what the European or Dutch word "chuffed" means yet. Also, in TRUE American form... I have native Indian, Scotch-Irish, and German in me, too... I am the "melting pot" that is America.
LoL
OMG, I´ll have my cat? You just made my morning
I was just making fun of you, lol. And, you know what? I only make fun of people I like
Next time I´ll scream for you, and not for Shawna :p
Haha Shawna, you pretty well summed up every native American 'tribe' there ;D. You left out the British-English, and that is where 'chuffed' is used (sorry, I read too many Jane Austen books).
British : quite pleased : delighted
Wish I could meet all of you in person one day, but the Brazil-America-Jordan trip would be more than my wallet can handle! And yes Lorien, I am figuring out how to make a simple-shaped cat, since there was a second requester backing you up!
*anyway, back to topic now ladies ;-)*
Oooh, Melouise are you going to make the cat available to everyone? (Crossing my fingers).
@Fiona, I absolutely love kits that have lots of paper options. You can use them in many different clipping masks. Lately, I've been into making quilt like patterns (will be uploading another layout sometime today). Feel free to head over to my gallery to see some of the layouts.
Lately, I actually have noticed that if I download a small kit with only a few papers, I struggle to figure out a design. That's something I have to work on!
Also, as Lorien said, I always keep my files sorted by designer and within that folder, by the kit. I have little to no memory nowadays...so keeping track of TOU would be impossible without doing that.
Thank you ladies for your advices. I did realise I cannot give credits to sources properly. Just spent an evening reorganizing everything >.<
I have folders with the designers url on it (or name if no web site available) and then their kits are in folders within that folder. I then use picassa to assign tags that may be useful in finding a particular item like green papers. ALso, if I download something and I really love an item and know I want to make something with it I create a shortcut to the image in a "to do" folder just to aid my failing memory. I love organising - actually it's a little more OCD than that as I also have an icon and url for what stores they currently sell at and what blog trains they have participated in. Some people play Freecell and CandyCrush, I organise folders LOL
@Janet: Yes, I have a 'Add-on on demand' post up on my blog to ask people what sort of extra's they would like to see in my Birds and Bees blogtrain part, and the cat has come up twice so there is a big chance I am making one (or two). And I will put the add-ons on my blog as freebies as well... Just keep an eye on it
I started out by putting all papers in a 'solid' or 'patterned' folder, after making sure I renamed the papers with the designers name. But later on I realized it benefits my scrapping (in quality and time) to use a kit as a whole. So now I leave all big kits intact, but I can't seem to do a layout with the really tiny mini-kits. So I still break up the tiny kits into separate folders. I noticed that I rarely look into those folders anymore, I use those papers as overlays or finishing touches sometimes, but that's about it. Maybe I should just free up the space on my HD and delete them.... and stop downloading mini-kits I know I'll never use.
But maybe that's some crazy person inside me talking :S *stop downloading?! are you nuts!!?*
Sometimes I like to scrap with tiny kits, so I don´t overdo on putting frou-frou (see? I use the words I learn lol). Yesterday I did it and it was a great fun. I stopped thinking on "what to put" to think mostly at "where/how to use", and it was a refreshing experience. Took only half an hour to do this page - what you see in it is what the kit had, no more, no less:
Janet, can you tag those in the gallery with "quilt"? Cause I just love quilts, and so does my mom! My grandmother is still alive and has done several, and my SIL has just started taking some quilting classes, so I know I'll need to scrap lift some inspiration in the near future!
Picasa, which is free by the way, is a great organizing tool, and will eve search by basic colors automatically, without you having to tag things... I've even used it to find folks with similar colored clothes in photos from a large family reunion, so I could group the photos together.
And I love the idea of the web addy in the folder name...Picasa also uses folder names as automatic tags as far as searching goes. Don't know how my dad and I ever managed family trees and reunion administration duties before we found it! (have a huge family with that has first Saturday in August as a standing reunion date ANNUALLY... Though my immediate family didn't make it last yr and this year we have a wedding, so we won't make it again. )