Responses to Sustainable Scrapbooking Webinar

From Sustainable Scrapbooking Webinar found at SimpleScrapper.

Step 1:  UNDERSTAND

1. What do I feel guilty about? Buying and buying and not using. I have so much and I get excited but then I do nothing. I feel guilty that I take pictures then do nothing with them. My family and friends want to see their photos. Why do I do this?
2. Where do you get stuck? I get overwhelmed with too many photos and too many steps to get from photo to layout. I want it easy and not so mind-numbingly boring to get from after the picture to making the layout.
3. What are your hang ups? I can't work in clutter. I get hung up coming down to the basement. I get caught up in downloading and sorting and labeling into Lightroom. Now I want to take everything out of Lightroom and start fresh with only my pictures and my newer kits. I also have a fear of committing, although I don't understand why.

Step 2: BRAINSTORM

Obstacle: I feel guilty that I take pictures then do nothing with them. My family and friends want to see their photos. 

Real objective: To share my best pictures with friends to feel that accomplished feeling - "You are so good at this." Can I just start with right now? Can I just start with one month's worth of photos? Do I have to have 9 million keywords.

"The first rule of sustainability is to align with natural forces, or at least not to try to defy them." Paul Hawken

"When you find your best compromise it takes the stress away but allows you to feel good about your photos and stories, you've found sustainable scrapbooking. The actual solution here considers your natural strengths and preferences and ignores the rest. This is what I call your sustainability fingerprint: The unique set of solutions that fill you up and fit your lifestyle." Jennifer Wilson

"You have to be realistic." Jennifer Wilson

Step 3: IMPLEMENT

You must get started. Implement, tweak, and perfect.

Focus (the key to implementation)

• centered
• intentional
• get up when you fall down
• simplicity goals at the forefront

Schedule routine checkins (monthly assessments). See where simplifying can help and keep moving forward.

Find a friend.

Make small, incremental changes.

GETTING STARTED - put all your obstacles through this process
Understand your challenges and chances to simplify.
Brainstorm good enough options for getting there.
Focus and implement the change.

Sustainable Approaches

• Photo books - no frills scrapbooking
• Reducing your decisions
• automate import of photos
• automate delivery of supplies
• Pocket Pages by Category: LOM-People, places, things
• Digital & Paper Baby Book - use simple approaches
• Re-assess and re-dedicate
• Recognize your workflow and motivation will wax and wane
• Support and accountability

MY GOAL:

 GET MY FAVORITE PICTURES

 OFF THE HARD DRIVE AND INTO AN ALBUM

1. Upload from DSLR - each month, or after a large event
2. Upload from phone - automatically through Dropbox
3. Star rate photos for the previous month (1's are Keepers; 2's are StoryTellers; 3's are Irreplaceables)
4. Identify Stories I want to tell (photos with 2's and 3's)
5. Create Smart Collection
6. Identify Project Life pics (when I don't have a long story, or I want to document that there's more to this story to come)

The rest is about Scrapbooking and that's for another post.