When do you give up...? LOL

[Studio Liv]

I have so many unfinished special albums... December Daily, WDW trips, other vacations. When do you call it quits? What helps you pick it back up? Do you adjust your plan so you can finish it?

[HavaDrPepper]

I don't really "give up". But it may take me awhile to get things done.

Several years ago, I finished the DYD for the previous year as I was taking photos the next year. In other words, I did it a year later mainly because I forgot about it and hadn't scrapped much!

I've had to put scrapping on hold for awhile so I'm in the middle of my Cape Cod vacation. Then I have DYD 2024 to do. I hope to get those done before my Rushmore vacation the end of June. I hope to start scrapping again when I finish my 100 day project (100 days for me will be May 16) that I haven't missed a day of doing counted cross stitch yet (73 days!).

Like your mother, I keep a spreadsheet of events that I need to scrap. If I need mojo, I might find something in that spreadsheet that will motivate me to scrap.

[Brendazzle]

Sometimes I have to remind myself that perfect is the enemy of done. My summer adventures album with my mama used a quick page for the cover because I was so tired by the end. (It was like 90 pages of really nice work. I owed myself a break.)

I frequently use challenges to get some of my creative mojo back. CT pages too

I also have been known to batch how I work on them: edit *all* the photos, put any I know I want to use a specific template for in the template, make any I'm super inspired about, and put placeholder PSDs in my working folder so I remember what is left to do. Sometimes I even make an extra page in my scrapbooking spreadsheet but I am also ridiculously extra like that.

My Mickey's Not-So-Scary album was 19 pages (I used the cover as page 20 to meet the minimum page threshold for Shutterfly) and took me almost a year to do because my life was super busy at the time. I did a page here and there as I could and posted them on social media so my friends would cheer me on.

I don't think I ever finished my 2016 album but I'm too scared to look.

[jacinda]

With Disney/trip albums, if it's taking me too long to complete, sometimes I get to the stage where I just put lots of photos on pages and don't even embellish. I figure having them in the album is better than not having them in there at all, and it gets my project done. And the pages look totally fine!

These kinds of templates make it really fast and easy to get lots of pages done:

[AmieN1]

NEVER! lol I mean, SOMEDAY we'll have time to finish them! I have a few half done DYD & a vacation album that I'm not sure if I'm just going to add the layouts to my normal yearly book, or keep it as a vacation album... I imagine someday I'll have less photos to work with as kids get older, so then I'll be able to get some of the old projects done!

[HavaDrPepper]

Originally Posted by Brendazzle

I also have been known to batch how I work on them: edit *all* the photos, put any I know I want to use a specific template for in the template, make any I'm super inspired about, and put placeholder PSDs in my working folder so I remember what is left to do. Sometimes I even make an extra page in my scrapbooking spreadsheet but I am also ridiculously extra like that.

I do this as well only mine are pspimage files! I had 2 layouts in this folder from my Cape Cod vacation for several months. I couldn't decide on a kit to use for those layouts. Meagan's Creations then released her Armed Forces Navy kit (which having a father in the Navy, I just had to buy!). My pages were about a Coast Guard station so I contacted Meagan and asked if she planned to do a kit for the Coast Guard because I had some pages that fit that theme. She said yes and that she could possibly release it in January. I said that would be quite alright. Now those pages are done but the next stop for the day on that trip is still sitting there since I haven't decided on a kit!

I also do layouts for my cousin's family. I pull photos when they post them on FB and put them into pspimage files. I copy any comments they've made about the photos into a OneNote page. I can then pull the photos from there instead of finding them in my saved posts on FB when it is time to scrap them. I don't always use all of the photos so I delete what I don't end up using.

So my "in process" folder is quite full at times!

[AliceM]

I never try to quit, but if I think of the projects I still have to make, yikes! I started recently with PL 2025 even though the others years are still waiting to be finished, I think this is better for my mojo and sometimes I start an older project in the meanwhile to make it done.

[Brendazzle]

Originally Posted by HavaDrPepper

I do this as well only mine are pspimage files! I had 2 layouts in this folder from my Cape Cod vacation for several months. I couldn't decide on a kit to use for those layouts. Meagan's Creations then released her Armed Forces Navy kit (which having a father in the Navy, I just had to buy!). My pages were about a Coast Guard station so I contacted Meagan and asked if she planned to do a kit for the Coast Guard because I had some pages that fit that theme. She said yes and that she could possibly release it in January. I said that would be quite alright. Now those pages are done but the next stop for the day on that trip is still sitting there since I haven't decided on a kit!

This was me with my first Fallout page. Meagan and Megan (Flergs) were working on the kit, Robin put together an amazing inspiration board so I knew what was coming, and I knew it was not worth it to touch the page until *the* kit was in my stash. Template with photos was in the album folder, notes were on my spreadsheet, and I just had to wait (im)patiently until it was time.

I don't panic until it's almost the time of year I usually print at (currently my son's birthday because his album goes birthday to night before).

[kristalund]

I have tons of unfinished projects...I do plan to find my way back to them eventually.

[lorigaud]

Originally Posted by HavaDrPepper

Several years ago, I finished the DYD for the previous year as I was taking photos the next year. In other words, I did it a year later mainly because I forgot about it and hadn't scrapped much!

Then I have DYD 2024 to do.

DYD? Why can't I figure out what this means lol?

[Brendazzle]

Originally Posted by lorigaud

DYD? Why can't I figure out what this means lol?

Document Your December

I had a bit of a head scratch the first few times I encountered it in the wild too

[Studio Liv]

Reading your posts has given me the gumption to continue! Someday, we will finish these big projects.

Jacinda, giving myself permission to make simpler pages, or even just photo collages, is terrifying and also freeing! I was particularly stuck on a birthday that had SO many photos. After making a few special pages, I did a few that were mainly photos in pocket style. Getting over that hurdle has helped me soar into the next month!

Also, Renne, I had tried the spreadsheet trick from my mom (which I think was from Chelle before that??) before and it didn't click for me. Well, for some reason, it is working for me now! I love using it to plan out the spreads so things are cohesive (and in sets of 2s and 4s!)

Brenda, I have set up PSDs like that for one of my Disney albums. Photos prepicked. It definitely helps! I need to do that for my 2015 album.

[HavaDrPepper]

Originally Posted by Brendazzle

Document Your December

I had a bit of a head scratch the first few times I encountered it in the wild too

I got the term from The Lily Pad. They had a whole forum and products every year devoted to it.

[LeeAndra]

I actually like special albums as they are a finite amount of time and pages. They don't feel as overwhelming as PL or the chronological family album.

Once a trip has been planned and booked, I make a folder on my EHD and put all of the applicable kits & templates there ahead of time. Some of us don't live in beautiful sunny FL so we only get to use tropical palm tree kits when we visit there for a week or two and have PLENTY in our stash to choose from. This is also fun as it helps me keep up with the anticipation and excitement pre-trip in addition to having the time to go through my stash and pick out out other more specific kits that will coordinate with whatever activities we're doing.

After the trip is over, I go through all my photos and choose which ones I want to scrap. For things like a museum which have very few kit options and are boring for other people who didn't go with us (ha!), I will use a pocket page and call it good. [I also do this for other photo-heavy events like birthdays and Christmas.] I also will create full-page photos with a few elements on top for those photos that are beautiful but pretty self-explanatory. Each activity or story gets its own subfolder, and for those stories that are not immediately apparent by looking at the photo(s), I create a Notepad file with the journaling.

Once this is done the week after the trip, it's in permanent "ready to go" mode. Sometimes I do swap out kits if a new one is released that will work better or if as time passes, I find a story is not as relevant or interesting as I thought but otherwise, everything is organized and planned for whenever I get the urge to work on the album again. It goes very fast if I already have the template, photos, and kit chosen and journaling completed and sometimes completing a page in 30 minutes will help get me in the mindset of that trip again so I can complete 2 or 3 pages.

I got married in September 2023 and am still working on that album. It's okay, though, because all of the stories I want to tell are in my Notepad file, the kits and templates I want to use are collected in one folder, and I created a pretty-photos-only coffeetable book right after the wedding so I don't "need" to scrap every photo -- just the ones that tell the story of that day.

I hope this is helpful in some way! Can you tell my day job is being a project manager?!

[Connection Keeping]

LeeAndra - I wish I was so organized! I think that's why I do project life so that I can remember all of these moments. I've tried for so many years to keep with the daily notes, but it always falls off... just jotting down on the PL page is the only thing I can keep up with! On the bright side I always scrap a trip right afterwards, but your method of getting ahead of the game is genius!