A few questions as a beginner

[vicky23ny]

I use a program called Digi Scrap Catalog that was created by a husband of a scrapper here. I am not sure if it is still available.

Looks very helpful. I make a Previews Folder with everything bought and look everything up alphabetically. It's very helpful for now.

I like saving everything with the original price and sales price, so I don't feel guilty spending so much money on digital products.

 

[HavaDrPepper]

I tried the spreadsheet method of tracking kits and what I've used but even though I love spreadsheets, it wasn't working for me.

So I made a previews folder (putting a copy in there and leaving a copy with the kit folder). Then I used Adobe Bridge to read just that folder. That way it doesn't bring in the thousands of items I've bought over the years.

Since I shop at multiple stores, I made sub-folders in the preview folder for each store and put the applicable previews in those folders. For the couple of template designers that I have a huge stash, they also got their own folders. Yes, this was a big job to get everything organized but I it has totally been worth it!

The previews are named with the designer initials and kit name. For example, Studio Flergs kit Oceanic is "SF_Oceanic". For Kristin Cronin Barrow who does multiple kits under the same topic (i.e. A Scenic Route), I use the name "KCB_ASR-Rugged Beach". This way all kits by the same designer are shown together.

Then I set up a generic tagging system by themes. For example, "Oceanic" is tagged as "Adventure and Travel". "Rugged Beach" is tagged as "Beach" (which is a sub-keyword under Nature).

After tagging all kits, I can now do a search on any keyword to pull up the previews. I also set it up that I can add a color label to each kit when I've used it. Red is for Kit Used. Yellow is for Template Used. Then after I do a search say for "Autumn" and it pulls up all my kits, I can choose to only show the kits that have no label.

This has helped me to use up a lot of the stuff that has just been sitting there not used for awhile.

When I buy new kits, I put a copy of the preview in that folder as a part of my unzipping process and get it tagged so that it shows up right away.

The time I spent doing this has been totally worth it. Wish I would have done it sooner!

 

[vicky23ny]

I tried the spreadsheet method of tracking kits and what I've used but even though I love spreadsheets, it wasn't working for me.

So I made a previews folder (putting a copy in there and leaving a copy with the kit folder). Then I used Adobe Bridge to read just that folder. That way it doesn't bring in the thousands of items I've bought over the years.

Since I shop at multiple stores, I made sub-folders in the preview folder for each store and put the applicable previews in those folders. For the couple of template designers that I have a huge stash, they also got their own folders. Yes, this was a big job to get everything organized but I it has totally been worth it!

The previews are named with the designer initials and kit name. For example, Studio Flergs kit Oceanic is "SF_Oceanic". For Kristin Cronin Barrow who does multiple kits under the same topic (i.e. A Scenic Route), I use the name "KCB_ASR-Rugged Beach". This way all kits by the same designer are shown together.

Then I set up a generic tagging system by themes. For example, "Oceanic" is tagged as "Adventure and Travel". "Rugged Beach" is tagged as "Beach" (which is a sub-keyword under Nature).

After tagging all kits, I can now do a search on any keyword to pull up the previews. I also set it up that I can add a color label to each kit when I've used it. Red is for Kit Used. Yellow is for Template Used. Then after I do a search say for "Autumn" and it pulls up all my kits, I can choose to only show the kits that have no label.

This has helped me to use up a lot of the stuff that has just been sitting there not used for awhile.

When I buy new kits, I put a copy of the preview in that folder as a part of my unzipping process and get it tagged so that it shows up right away.

The time I spent doing this has been totally worth it. Wish I would have done it sooner!

Your organizing method is very interesting. I've never used Adobe Bridge before. I'll try it out and see if it works for me. That's what I plan on doing, tag only the previews with basic tags so I can find and use all my digi stash. Thank you for analyzing your method. I appreciate it.

 

[HavaDrPepper]

Your organizing method is very interesting. I've never used Adobe Bridge before. I'll try it out and see if it works for me. That's what I plan on doing, tag only the previews with basic tags so I can find and use all my digi stash. Thank you for analyzing your method. I appreciate it.

I've never been one to use tags and am normally a one kit scrapper. So I never saw a use for something like Bridge either. Since it is free I downloaded it and played around with it after I read about other people using it. I found that just tagging the theme worked best for me and putting all the preview in a separate folder with sub-folders kept Bridge from loading everything.

I saw someone that used Lightroom to label their photos when they have been used and the lightbulb turned on in my head... I can label the kits and templates when they have been used.

Again I say it has been totally worth it!