Organizing Pictures from Vacation

I am back! Sorry I have not been posting recently. Mike and I did a 12-day vacation for our 30th anniversary which is this October. The vacation included 3 days in Prague, a Viking River Cruise along the Danube River, and 2 days in Budapest. Between the both of us we took over 2,000 photos. Since we have been back I have been working on organizing the photos in order to start scrapbooking this wonderful vacation. I thought that I would share with you how I organize my trip photos to make scrapbooking them easier. 

I currently use Adobe Lightroom to organize my photos. I created a new Lightroom catalog for the trip so I can work with just the photos from the trip. I do have a general catalog which I use to organize all my photos. I have found using this temporary catalog makes it a lot easier to tag, select for printing, and edit just the photos I want to use for a scrapbook layout.

I imported all the photos into the catalog - it is important to note that I do not Copy or Move the photos into the catalog. I only Add them which keeps them in their original location on my computer. I like to have more control over my photos this way.

Once I do the import, I start tagging the photos using Lightroom keywords. The first tag I assign is the date the photo was taken. From there I add tags like location and tour or excursion it was part of, if applicable. I also add tags like - food, travel, hotel, us, etc..

Lightroom has a great feature called "Smart Collections" where you can group photos together by using things like dates, ratings, and keywords. I created Smart Collections for each date from the trip then some additional ones for food, selfies, and the places we stayed.

After adding keywords to the photos in Lightroom I go through each Smart Collection and start to "cull" the photos by adding ratings (stars) to each one. I use this to help me weed down the photos I want to scrapbook from a place or event. I will remove the unwanted ones from the collection by changing it's selection criteria to only keep those with 3 or more stars.

Once I have done this I am ready to start scrapbooking the vacation. I will go into the Smart Collection for what I want to scrapbook and send those photos to print.

Now, you may be thinking - "I don't have Lightroom, what can I do?". Well, I have another solution for you. Before I worked in Lightroom I use to use the file folders and tags on the computer to organize my photos. I would store the photos by date and then create sub-folders by tour or event from the trip. I also used the tags and ratings functions on the computer to help whittle down my photos. You can search by tags and ratings to select those photos you want.

I have tweaked the process a bit in recent years but this is how I have been organizing my vacation photos for quite some time and all in all it works pretty well for me. How do you organize yours?

I hope you got something from my system. Thanks for stopping by!

Everyday Happiness One Sheet Wonder Card Workshop

Happy to share this new One Sheet Wonder Card Workshop with you today. I love the Everyday Happiness Double Sided Patterned Paper from Stampin' Up and was excited to work with it to create this workshop.

This workshop creates 16 cards from 1 12"x12" sheet of double-sided patterned paper plus the coordinating cardstock. As always I am sharing the cutting diagram for the patterned paper here with you. The cardstock cutting diagrams and card sketches are available with purchase of the workshop digital files.

This is the cutting diagram for the patterned paper.

These are the 16 card designs you will be able to create with this workshop.

If you are interested in creating this workshop for yourself or with your customers, there are 4 ways to get the files:

1. Place a $35 or more Stampin' Up purchase from me (before taxes and shipping).

2. Purchase the workshop digital files directly (no qualifying website purchase needed). The files are $11.50 USD. Follow the "Buy It Now" link at the bottom of this post.

3. Join my Stampin' Up team, all team members have access to my workshop files FREE.

Other demonstrators are also welcome to order these files in support of their own business. You can use these files to host your own events as long as you follow the terms and conditions listed in the Demonstrator Release included in the  workshop files.

Here is what you will receive with the workshop files:

• Welcome Page 
• Cutting Guide with directions for cutting the papers needed
• Card Guide diagrams and color photos of the completed cards
• Demonstrator Release
• Social Media image for you to use in promoting the workshop for your customers

I hope you enjoy creating these cards just as much as I did creating them!

...

Father's Day Card

With Father's Day coming up and having the He's the Greatest Stamp Set from Stampin' Up to play with I was excited to work on some cards for my husband and father-in-law. I pulled out some of the Boho Vibes 6"x6" DSP along with some of the new In-Color cardstock for this. Really happy with how it came out!

The inspiration for this card came from this card sketch in the latest Stampin' Up Annual Catalog. I had been wanting to challenge myself with the sketches in this catalog and this was a great opportunity.

I played around a bit with different combinations of the patterns from the Boho Vibes DSP before deciding on this one. I also changed it up a bit to enlarge the circle elements and add a sentiment strip.

I did a second one with just changing the sentiment on it for my father-in-law.

I hope you like these cards. Thanks for stopping by!

Divided Gift Box Details and Process Video

The last papercraft project I did for last weekend's event is this Divided Gift Box. This was a fun box to make and you can easily customize the dividers for whatever treats you want to give. I added a gift card holder into the lid of the box to add something extra to it for gift giving.

To create this gift box you will need the following: 

    Cardstock - 8 5/8" x 9 1/2" for box, 4 1/2" x 4 7/8" for main insert, 1 5/8" x 6 1/4" for second insert
                        and 3 1/8" x 4 1/2" for patterned paper mat

    Patterned paper - 3" x 4 3/8" for lid and 4" x 1 3/4" for pocket

    Tools: trimmer with scoring blade or scoring platform, scissors, Tear Tape, 1" circle punch

1.  Score the cardstock pieces according to the following diagrams.

3. Fold each piece along the score lines. On the box piece, cut away the areas shaded in grey and cut the tabs for the box base at an angle

4. Place Tear Tape on the front side of the box base tabs as shown. Place Tear Tape on the inside of the box base sides as shown.

5. Place Tear Tape on the bottom of each insert piece as shown. Remove backing from adhesive on center fold and create inserts as shown.

6. Assemble box base by first adhering small tabs to sides then folding over sides as shown. Use a 1" circle punch to create a notch in the front side of the box base.

7. Adhere the larger insert to the box bottom first then the second insert over the first one.

8. Punch a notch in the pocket piece and adhere inside the lid. Mat the lid piece and adhere to the lid of the box.

9. Add some stamped and die cut pieces to embellish the box lid.  

You can watch my process on this video from my YouTube channel.

I hope you like this project. Thanks for stopping by!

Z-Fold Gift Card Holder Details and Process Video

The next papercraft project I did for last weekend's event is this Z-Fold Gift Card Holder. I was trying to think of items that would work for this time of year with end-of-year gifts and treats. This is a quick and easy gift card holder that can be made for any time of the year.

To create this gift card holder you will need the following: 

    Cardstock - 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" for base, 9 3/4" x 4 1/4" for z-fold, 3" x 4" for inside

    Patterned paper - 4" x 5 1/4" for base, 3" x 4" for front, 3" x 3/4" for band on front, 3" x 4" for inside
                               pocket section and 3" x 1 3/4" for pocket

    Tools: trimmer with scoring blade or scoring platform, scissors, Tear Tape, 1" circle punch

1.  Score the 9" x 4 1/4" cardstock at 3 1/4" and 6 1/2". Fold along score lines.

2. Adhere the patterned paper pieces to the base and fold out sections as shown. When adhering the gift card pocket use a thin strip of Tear Tape only on 3 sides. I use a leftover gift card as a placeholder when adhering to make sure there is enough room to slide the gift card in and out.

3. Using Tear Tape on the back side of the rightmost fold out section adhere the fold out centered on the base.

4. Add some stamped and die cut pieces to embellish the holder.  

You can watch my process on this video from my YouTube channel.

I hope you like this project. Thanks for stopping by!

Post-it Note and Pen Easel Holder Details and Process Video

The second papercraft item I did for the recent Northborough Cultural Council Open Studios event is this Post-it Note and Pen Easel Holder. I really enjoy creating papercraft items for gift giving and this was a fun project to do!

To create this holder you will need the following: 

    Cardstock - 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" for front, 3 3/4" x 8 1/4" for back, 7/8" x 4 1/4" for pen holder

    Patterned paper - 3 1/2" x 4" for upper part of front, 3 1/2" x 2" for front of pocket

    Tools: trimmer with scoring blade or scoring platform, scissors, Tear Tape

1.  Score the cardstock pieces according to the following diagrams.

2. Fold along the score lines. Cut away the grey areas from the front scored piece as shown in the following diagram. Cut the tabs at angles.

3. Adhere the patterned paper pieces to the front section as shown.

4. Apply Tear Tape to the front piece, back piece, and pen holder as shown.

5. Adhere the pen holder just below the patterned paper on the front piece - do not remove the adhesive backing from the tab yet.

6. Fold in the side and bottom tabs of the pocket and adhere. Remove backing from pen holder tab adhesive and carefully position to create holder.

7. Adhere the back to the top of the front piece and then the bottom tab to the back of the front piece to create the easel.

8. Add some stamped and die cut pieces to embellish the holder.  Add a Post-it Note pad and pen and give it as a gift!

You can watch my process on this video from my YouTube channel.

I hope you like this project. Thanks for stopping by!