Biggest Digi Scrapping Frustration

[angleigh]

We talk alot about what's so great with digital scrapbooking.  BUT..what's your biggest frustration?  Is it a computer crash? Not being able to find a file you wanted?  Realizing you saved your layout as a .jpg instead of a .psd file, is there a technique you've wanted to try and your frustrated about it?

Let's hear those things that make you want to bang your head into the wall

[angleigh]

Mine is probably organization.  I think it's because I have so many things to organize:  fonts, photos, actions (for photos), kits, CU stuff...ugh i'm a hot mess with organization. 

It's so bad I just found 2 dvd's that had baby photos of the boys on them in the bottom of a drawer. I had never put them on my computer..luckily I was cleaning things out or I would of never of found them.

Now don't get me wrong, because I am organized in my own weird way.  I think my biggest thing is I have so many backups of things, and sometimes I forget where i've backed up or which folder I put those pictures in.  Senior Cheer pictures..did I put in with the other school photos I took?  Maybe in my "Paid" photo folder, or in my personal one.  They would fit in all 3...now I have to search to see which ones I put it in.  LOL  So I know everything is there, it may just take me a moment or two to find.

 

[DixieLee]

Me too! It is my SG files- some collections I haven't used in years and I don't even remember what papers & ephemera are in those collections- I need to organize and delete those files I don't use- because I spend tooooo much time looking looking at my files to see what I want to use for a LO. 

[scrapgarden]

Organization for sure!!! I have tons of kits and stash. At one time I had most of them tagged and organized with ACDSee. Then ACDSee would not work anymore, (after a win10 update?). Screwed up the registry and no-one could fix it. So all organization was gone, gone, gone. The other thing that really gets to me is that over the years designers have move around a lot or are in more than one store. My favorite stores I have designer's folders under the store name, but that doesn't work anymore, so I have started transferring them into an alpha name file. That is only working so-so. The hardest part is all the duplicate buying I am doing. I try to go through and check all my stash, but I sure do miss a lot of stuff that I have and then find it after already I bought  it. Had pretty much decided to to not buy anymore unless I knew the designer was dedicated to only one site. BUT--I now have a different computer and ACDSee now will run on it. So a-tagging I will go. After I tag all designer's previews under their name I will then be able to see if I have that item, no matter where they are hiding.? The other thing I find frustrating is when doing a challenge trying to make sure that the designer I may want to use, and that I have listed under the shop on my computer is one that is allowed to be used. There have been times I've made a page and just not posted because I found out the designer was one that USED to be on that site, but is no longer. BTW SG is great about putting out lists of Scrap Girls designers, past and present. I love it.

Another frustration is related to Time, as in not enough of it. There are so many things I want to do and try that trying to organize my time is sometimes as frustrating as organizing my stash.

[Boatlady]

I have spent allot of time this winter- if you can call anytime in Florida "winter"- organizing my collections but what I need to do now is photos! I am very frustrated with the amount of useless photos I have so the only way is to go file by file and delete.

[MariJ]

2 hours ago, scrapgarden said:

Organization for sure!!! I have tons of kits and stash. At one time I had most of them tagged and organized with ACDSee. Then ACDSee would not work anymore, (after a win10 update?). Screwed up the registry and no-one could fix it. So all organization was gone, gone, gone. The other thing that really gets to me is that over the years designers have move around a lot or are in more than one store. My favorite stores I have designer's folders under the store name, but that doesn't work anymore, so I have started transferring them into an alpha name file. That is only working so-so. The hardest part is all the duplicate buying I am doing. I try to go through and check all my stash, but I sure do miss a lot of stuff that I have and then find it after already I bought  it. Had pretty much decided to to not buy anymore unless I knew the designer was dedicated to only one site. BUT--I now have a different computer and ACDSee now will run on it. So a-tagging I will go. After I tag all designer's previews under their name I will then be able to see if I have that item, no matter where they are hiding.? The other thing I find frustrating is when doing a challenge trying to make sure that the designer I may want to use, and that I have listed under the shop on my computer is one that is allowed to be used. There have been times I've made a page and just not posted because I found out the designer was one that USED to be on that site, but is no longer. BTW SG is great about putting out lists of Scrap Girls designers, past and present. I love it.

Another frustration is related to Time, as in not enough of it. There are so many things I want to do and try that trying to organize my time is sometimes as frustrating as organizing my stash.

Lynne, as far as I know SG has always allowed products from other sites, as long as you give credit to the designer, without a link to another store.  The only difference is the Weekly or Layout winners.   In order to be eligible to win, I’m fairly certain that you need to use “mostly” SG products.   I’ve always appreciated that SG has been accepting of pages using other sites’ products.  Even though SG was my first scrapping site so I barely have other products, it's been nice that I could use those products on a page.     Angie can verify this.

[MariJ]

I’m so organized in life, but my scrapping stash is pretty well organized!   What gets me, is having too much stuff!  Then again, it’s not all over the place so I don’t mind.  My hard drive does, though - I’ve run out of space!   ?

I think the hardest part of digital scrapping for me is losing my mojo, which seems to happen more than in paper scrapping.  Maybe because it’s so creative?  I just know that when it disappears it’s hard to get moving and get any layouts done, which is frustrating to me.

I’ll have to think more on this, I like digital scrapping so much it’s hard to come up with reasons I don’t! 

[englishrose]

Is it too corny to say - too little free time to spend on it?!

[MariJ]

1 hour ago, englishrose said:

Is it too corny to say - too little free time to spend on it?!

Ditto!  I almost said same!  

[April Showers]

7 hours ago, scrapgarden said:

The other thing I find frustrating is when doing a challenge trying to make sure that the designer I may want to use, and that I have listed under the shop on my computer is one that is allowed to be used. There have been times I've made a page and just not posted because I found out the designer was one that USED to be on that site, but is no longer. BTW SG is great about putting out lists of Scrap Girls designers, past and present. I love it. 

 

The products don't have to be from current designers to fulfill the challenge requirement. If a former designer has moved on to another site, we'd rather you didn't count released after they've left as SG products. Truthfully, I don't check every layout to see what supplies you used, but if I see something I don't recognize at all, I'll check. 

The layout artists can't use retired products for their assignments, but they can still post their other challenge layouts using some them. I have a folder with current products and another with retired products, though they still need updating since the last retirement sale. I don't buy from other sites though, so things are a lot simpler for me.

[Smiles]

I guess my biggest frustration  is that my stash is so big I forget what I have.  I have so many collections I've never used because I forget what's in them.  I was using Picasa till I had to upgrade to Windows 10, but it doesn't play well with Picasa. Has anyone had any luck getting them to work together?

[Rose Ann]

My biggest frustrations are that I spend too much time looking at pictures and supplies so I get lost in the search and that by the time my mojo gets going, my time is up and I have to do other things like make dinner for the family or go to work.  Half kidding there, but it does seem that by the time I relax enough to be creative I have to move on. 

I guess Susie is right, since we're staying home it's a good time to scrap. 

[angleigh]

18 minutes ago, Rose Ann said:

My biggest frustrations are that I spend too much time looking at pictures and supplies so I get lost in the search and that by the time my mojo gets going, my time is up and I have to do other things like make dinner for the family or go to work.  Half kidding there, but it does seem that by the time I relax enough to be creative I have to move on. 

I guess Susie is right, since we're staying home it's a good time to scrap. 

Ha...exactly!  Or by the time I get done looking then i'm too tired and want to go to bed

[MariJ]

49 minutes ago, Rose Ann said:

My biggest frustrations are that I spend too much time looking at pictures and supplies so I get lost in the search and that by the time my mojo gets going, my time is up and I have to do other things like make dinner for the family or go to work.  Half kidding there, but it does seem that by the time I relax enough to be creative I have to move on. 

I guess Susie is right, since we're staying home it's a good time to scrap. 

Me too!  I can spend hours going through my stash, arranging, looking, filing, planning, thinking...  And, I enjoy doing it and can do the same looking through the Boutique!   And, then yes - by the time I’m done or I look at how much time has passed I’m too tired or need to move on!   
That’s a good one, Rose Ann!   

[LindaH57]

I'm glad I'm not the only who spends too much time going through my stash to look, organize,  plan, etc. Someone suggested to me to use either Adobe Organizer or ACDSee...any thoughts on using these programs? I'm an old dos user from 1984 and have been using an old Dbase format. 

[Mikelle]

I don't mind how my supplies are organized - I'd say 75% of what I have is from SG, and I have all that organized by designer, then type (papers, embellishments, etc).  I think my biggest frustration now, and it's really just been in the last few years, is I have a hard time searching for what I want.  I use the search function on my Mac a lot, but if the files aren't named according to what they are - like *paper_red, or *flower_blue_large - then I miss the collections that just come as numbered files.  That happens more with other scrapping sites, in my experience, not as much with SG, but seems to be an issue with the newer collections/designers.  Because of this, I've found myself from the beginning of a layout deciding I'm going to primarily use one particular collection, rather than the usual hodgepodge way I scrap.

[MariJ]

9 hours ago, Mikelle said:

I don't mind how my supplies are organized - I'd say 75% of what I have is from SG, and I have all that organized by designer, then type (papers, embellishments, etc).  I think my biggest frustration now, and it's really just been in the last few years, is I have a hard time searching for what I want.  I use the search function on my Mac a lot, but if the files aren't named according to what they are - like *paper_red, or *flower_blue_large - then I miss the collections that just come as numbered files.  That happens more with other scrapping sites, in my experience, not as much with SG, but seems to be an issue with the newer collections/designers.  Because of this, I've found myself from the beginning of a layout deciding I'm going to primarily use one particular collection, rather than the usual hodgepodge way I scrap.

I agree!  I have a Mac and Finder made it SOOOoooo easy to find things because ScrapGirl Designers always tagged everything, I could rely on that!  But, I too have noticed other Designers now here often don’t tag so it’s hard to find or then use their products.  I’ve started to try to remember to tag those myself and sometimes I don’t buy because I don’t want to have to do that.

[beatricemi]

Well I did just recently save my layered file as a jpg and it was a file that needed to be edited so that comment struck home. I'm pretty well organized- I don't use in tagging but I have windows and always name the preview as "folder" so I can quickly look through my stash. I also use the search function if I am looking for a particular item like a ribbon or doily. I also have a folder of favorites which has individual items like staples, stitching etc. that I might want to add to a layout. My photos are in folders by month and year and I also upload everything to flickr. I'm retired so I have the time to scrap and now more time than ever. I'm having trouble concentrating though.