Overwhelmed?

During my crop, I was having a conversation with one of the attendees who is fairly new to scrapbooking and feeling quite overwhelmed by all that she has in the way of pictures.

There are several things that you should remember when you begin to think about all that you have to do.

1. Don't think about all that you have. There is no way that you can always be caught up, especially if you are planning to scrap for children who are already here. Just when you are caught up, more things happen and there will always be more things to create.
2. Block off time. You won't be able to get anything accomplished unless you make the effort to block out time to do it. We all love to scrap but, realistically that is not on the top of the list of must do's unless that is what you are getting paid to do. Just like ball games and working out, you need to set aside time to do what you want.
3. Think about how you want to organize your books. I am making large chronological books for my boys. They each have 1 book than spans birth to their 6th birthday. Major events and everyday pages are in them. If the thought of one large book is too much, think mini albums. I know lots of scrappers who do events -- a vacation, a holiday theme, etc. This will allow you to take a small stack of pictures and do one thing at a time.
4. Take your stacks of pictures and think one page at a time. We all know that you have endless memories that you have captured in photos and you'd love to get them all scrapped. The thought of looking at hundreds of pictures makes you want to put them all back in the closet and shut the door. So consider making a Christmas 2009 layout. Don't think about the 14 years of Christmas pictures you have, just one year at a time.
5. Ask for help. Talk to someone you know who has experience. Take a class at a local store. Call me. I'll be happy to help you get started.

The new ele.ment.ary and Life Documented kits, exclusive to MemoryWorks, are perfect examples of easy ways to get started on scrapbooks. These kits are designed to be easy, stress free, and are beautiful. I used the LD kit to create a cruise album for my husband and me. The 20 page album took me less than 7 hours to create. (You can see pictures of the pages at my website under the idea gallery http://cindysmith.memory-works.com)). I just received my ele.ment.ary kits and haven't yet created with them but, the ideas are endless. Check out the Simple Stories blog for other MW consultant ideas and what to do with the kit (http://www.mysimplestories.com)