Organizing Digital Scrapbook Elements

Digital scrapbooking may have easier clean-up than traditional scrapbooking but organizing elements, papers and folders is just as important.

How many of you end up in a downloading frenzy one afternoon only to find your folders of digital scrapbook downloads have now turned into what looks like your child's playroom? Alphabets, papers, accents are all scattered throughout a generic folder you call "Digital Scrapbooking".

Well there is an easier way to organize and maintain your growing collection of treasured downloads.

The first thing you need to do is decide on the filing system that works best for you. You can organize kits and embellishments based on the designer. You can also organize the items by item.

If you decide to organize by designer you will then need to create separate folders for each designer you download items from. Inside of each designer's folder, designate a folderf or each kit you download with the name of the kit. That way when you are designing your layouts in your favorite photo editing program, such as Paint Shop Pro X, you can easily find and use all of the coordinating pieces in that kit.

Another way of finding some calm amongst the cluttered files would be to set up folders for each type of element/item you download. Examples would be 12x12 Papers, Alphas, Brads, Word Sentiments and so on. This way if you are accustomed to downloading and using only certain kinds of items such as background papers, you can easily find what you are looking for in one convenient folder.

Here are a few examples of folders that you can use when categorizing by type of item:

12X12 PAPERS

• Reds
• Browns
• Greys
• Greens
• Polka Dots
• Stripes
  

ALPHABETS

Holidays

• Christmas
• Birthday
• St. Patrick's
• Easter
• Thanksgiving
• Hannukah

Solids

• Reds
• Browns
• Greys
• Greens
• Patterned

Page Kits

• Mini Kits
• Ocassions
• Baby
• Graduation
• Miscellaneous
• Greens
• Blues
• Pinks
  

These are just a few examples. You can design and system that works for you. The more organized you are when creating digital layouts, the easier and faster you will complete your pages.

Article ©2006, Lisa Miller, Owner, www.thescrapprincess.com