ladyscrapalot Posted November 6, 2015 Share Posted November 6, 2015 I think I finally got my supplies organized just the way I like them. When I ventured into the world of digital scrapbooking 5-6 years ago I downloaded just about any freebie I found online. I tried to organized my supplies as best as I could. I had a file for each type of elements - brads, buttons, ribbon, etc. and then subcategorized by color. I had papers sorted mostly by color. I had a file for different tools brushes, styles and the like. Then I discovered Scrap Girls!! Slowly I have been expanding my Scrap Girls supplies and hardly ever using any of the freebies, better quality of products. At first I didn't have very many collections but I had several papers from the Scrap Girl designers. I was still sorting the same way but it would take me forever to find anything and I would get frustrated. After searching the forums for tips on sorting/organizing I kept coming up with the word tagging (well not needing to tag). So I made a list of all the designers that I had items from. Then I would type their initials in the search box so I could find items from that designer. That helped but still took awhile to find. So now I have a file labeled scrapbooking supplies. In that file I left all the freebies sorted as I had them. I have another file labeled Scrap Girls. In that file I have a subfile labeled SG kits for all the collections with each collection in it's own file. In the Scrap Girls file I have a subfile for each designer with things that I have but are not part of a collection. So now I can search within a kit, by a designer, or by an embellie. For example if I want to use a certain kit I can either go directly to that kits file or type the kits name in the search box. If I want to look for a paper but I don't know what color or style I can type paper in the search box and all the papers pop up. Or if I know I'm looking for something from a certain designer I can just type in their initials (BMU for Brandy Murray) The one thing that I learned is to make sure I click open the Scrap Girls file first, so I don't waste time looking through everything on my EHD. It didn't take me all that long to set it up that way but it definitely makes it easier/faster to find what I want to use. I hardly ever use the freebie stuff but I didn't want to delete them. Now I don't have to wade through all of them to find my awesome Scrap Girls supplies that I love! Sorry this is so long. If you have any questions let me know. All in all it's whatever works best for you and this seems to work for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Florida granny Posted November 6, 2015 Share Posted November 6, 2015 Yours sounds like a great way to organize your scrapping stash. I'm printing it out and saving it. Thanks for sharing!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbc72 Posted November 6, 2015 Share Posted November 6, 2015 Good for you, Kelly! Sounds like a great organization method! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MariJ Posted November 6, 2015 Share Posted November 6, 2015 Wow, this sounds great and very efficient Kelly! Good for you for getting so organized and thanks for sharing your method. Me too - can't break up collections. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SodScrap Posted November 7, 2015 Share Posted November 7, 2015 Isn't it great having a system that works for you? Now you are ready for all the scrapping and chatting tomorrow! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smiles Posted November 7, 2015 Share Posted November 7, 2015 The way Scrap Girls names items makes it really easy to search for things you want. Your system sounds really helpful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkyMom Posted December 3, 2015 Share Posted December 3, 2015 Great post Kelly! I'm 4 years in and still organizing. I have tons of stuff. 99% scrapgirls but like you I have all those freebies I don't know what to do with. I love to scrap but seem more addicted to organizing and purchasing than actually scrapping. Maybe its just because I haven't settled on a system...but I'm working diligently! My question is: What search method are you using? Alot of gals use picasa but I'm wondering if you just search within your computer's search system. I have windows 10 and have just now, after decades on the computer, realized I can search for files (because of your post). Thank you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MariJ Posted December 4, 2015 Share Posted December 4, 2015 Yes, I discovered a few years back that the "Finder" on my Mac is very appropriately named and will find anything for me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ladyscrapalot Posted December 4, 2015 Author Share Posted December 4, 2015 Yes I just discovered the search box in the last few months. I have Windows 7 (debated upgrading to 10). I tried Picasa but I didn't like it. Most of the freebies aren't labeled very well. For me, my system works great. When I'm looking for something I sometimes know which designer made something so I can search in their file. Or maybe I want to find a ribbon or flower. I can use that in the search box. Since I have all my SG supplies in a file with subfiles I can search within that main SG file. My freebies are in a separate file with it's own subfiles. I still need to tweak things a bit, i.e. put all the styles in one folder so I can find them faster when using them. Oh one thing I didn't mention before is I put all the Marketing photo (not sure what to call it) in a separate file labeled 0- preview. I've looked through that file occasionally and I see something that I forgot I had. I also put any LOs that come with a collection in a file for inspiration. I think the key is to find a system that works best for you. Now to figure out which online backup service to use........ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ladyscrapalot Posted January 16, 2016 Author Share Posted January 16, 2016 I have been using my system for awhile now and I still like it, most of the time. However, I have discovered that all items are not labeled equally. For example some items will be labeled (in part) _mask while others will be labeled (again in part) PhotoMask. When I type in mask in the search box it will only pull up the first ones but not the second ones. I'm thinking there must be a trick to finding them all (at least I hope so) because I can't remember which ones are labeled which way but I know they are both in my stash. Also am I able to tag my items? I know for the most part I don't need to because of how the files are named but as I have said some files are labeled slightly different. Also I'd like to tag some of them for my way of thinking of how I would want to find them when searching. (Hope that makes sense.) I have windows 10 and use PS CS6 extended. TIA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BarbaraC1977 Posted January 18, 2016 Share Posted January 18, 2016 Well, you have a couple of choices to fix the mask labeling. First, do you use "bulk rename utility"? It's great. You could search your folders for anything containing "mask" and then rename all to _mask_. Then all photo mask and regular masks will include "_mask_" and it will be easy to find them. Or you change all PhotoMask, PhtMsk, etc to simply "mask". PNG files (anything with an irregular border or transparent areas) CAN be tagged in Picasa, BUT do not move them or rename folders there or at a higher level if you do! PNG files do NOT store their tag internally in the file information (JPGs do) and the tagging for PNG files is stored ONLY in the application that tags them. When the files are moved or the folders are renamed, the tag is lost. I keep two complete copies of my supplies, by the way. On an external drive (which is a raid 1, so everything is stored in two copies), I sort everything to papers, embellishments, etc, and subfolders like "birds & insects", "buttons & brads", or "orange coral peach rust" in papers, and then I keep intact collections local on my computer drive. It works for me, and is a backup to boot. Whatever works for you is perfect! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ladyscrapalot Posted January 18, 2016 Author Share Posted January 18, 2016 Thanks Barbara for your reply. I guess I will try your first suggestion. I used to sort my supplies like you do but then I changed to my new way because I wanted to separate my Scrap Girls goodies from the freebies that I acquired before I found SG but I don't want to delete. But as you said whatever works for each of us is perfect!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lesann Posted February 18, 2016 Share Posted February 18, 2016 So is anyone using tags on trying to find stuff? And if so, how for a PC. For instance, I'm always looking for frames in my gazillion of SG files (each collection, style etc as its own folder). I want to tag them so I can type in frames and it'll show which files has them. Any thoughts on this? Someone years ago said there was a program for this, but it seems like I should simply be able to add tags to each collection. Hugs L Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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