Cropping on the go

This month is all about organizing but we are gonna step outside our scrap space today to address organizing for a crop or retreat.

If you are not organized when going to a crop or retreat you will be so disappointed, you will find that you spent lots of time and money and have very little to show for the effort you put in. I have been to so many crops and retreats where it takes some ladies 2 hours or more just to load their supplies into the cropping room, they have crates, storage boxes, rolling carts and bags that stack chest high when they are done but they tend to get very little accomplished other than digging around in the mounds of stash they brought with them.

I don't do that!! Here are a few of the reasons

1.) To lazy to do all that packing of supplies

2.) To lazy to drag it from the house to the car, from the car to the crop room them repeat the process all over at the end of the night

3.) To old to remember where I put everything when I was packing up

4.) Did I mention I was lazy?

If you are of a mature age like me your gonna end up throwing your back out lugging all that stuff around, for you younger ladies don't be straining those ovaries, not a good thing to do in your reproductive years .

So here is a quick easy way to pack for day crop, I will get back with you on a retreat tomorrow, but much of the information will be the same. When I head to a day crop I take one rolling tote. That's it nothing more even my wallet and keys will fit in the cart.

I get lots of looks when I sashay into the crop room with my single cart.

I know what they are saying.....

They figure I am a newbee and I will be bugging the snoot out of them with questions. I'm not there to crop but rather to talk. I am not very well endowed in the scrapbooking supplies area.

After a few hours they are singing a different tune when I have whipped out a dozen or more pages and they are still looking for that perfect shade of card stock to go with the pattern paper they think they might want to use.

So here is my Little secret; page kits....

That's it, I make up page kits before I leave home them load them up in some traveling folders to keep them safe, throw them in my cart along with a basic tool kit and I am ready to go.

I LOVE to use CTMH level 1 and level 2 kits, everything is already in a sealed bag and ready to go, they even have photo samples on the back of the stickease to take the guess work out of page design, I decide what photo's I want to use, put them in the bag and I am done.

I also do my own page kits, they take a little more time but not as much as you would think, here are the steps to making your homemade page kits.

1.) Pick the photo's that inspire you from photo albums (look at older post)

2.) Pick a pattern paper

3.) Match up your card stock, keep in mind what you will want for journaling block, mats and titles

4.) Pick out stickers, ribbon, embellishments you will want to use

5.) Jot down page title if one comes to mind on scratch paper, quick before you forget

6.) Stack it all together and use a binder clip to hold it all.

7.) Place all of them in a container that will keep the paper safe.

I know some of you thought binder clips!! Is she crazy? Remember this is just to keep everything together for a day or so, the binder clip won't hurt a thing

This along with a tool kit and a how to book for inspiration will have you whipping out pages like a scrapbooking machine. I know it seems crazy but believe me when I tell you less is more, you will find if you stick to the page kit method you will love it, and being away from home keeps you from digging around in your own stash trying to make a decision therefore wasting time.

I leave the page titles and journaling for when I return home, I use a Cricut for page titles most of the time, no need in lugging that big thing around and I find I journal better when I am in the mood, but I do make sure and have a journaling block on the layouts to use later.

If you are still unsure about my advise then add to your tote a photo album and some cash, if you run out of things to scrap you can always go on a little shopping splurge!!!