Organized & Inspired Scrapbooker

A few weeks ago on a short day trip to the Recycled Books store in Denton, Texas, I discovered a copy of Wendy Smedley & Aby Garvey's The Organized and Inspired Scrapbooker. I've read so many great reviews about this book on other scrapbookers' blogs and online class message boards that I knew I wanted to add it to my collection of scrapbooking reference materials. Finding the book at a half-priced store was an extra bonus!

After reading through the book, I agree that it is full of wonderful ideas for organizing your workspace, products, photos, stories, and tools. The first nine chapters are devoted to analyzing where you are currently in your organization and then assessing what and how you would like to make changes/updates/additions to create a space that will work for you. Then there are several examples featuring the scrapbook spaces of scrapbookers in the industry. The book concludes with several project ideas like a photo checklist and inspiration board.

Right now, I am very happy with my craft room and the organization of my supplies, tools, and photos, so I won't be making any major changes based on my read through of the book. However, I do think I'll add a Journal Kit to my room at some point - a basket with supplies for journaling all in one place. The basket would hold pens, pencils, a ruler, journal tags and boxes, plus scraps of paper that could be used for journaling. I like the idea of having something portable that I can take with me in another room and sit and record some stories to have one hand for layouts. I may combine this idea with my Story Cards basket where I have index cards ready to record layout ideas that can then be filed in my Category Drawers.

Have you discovered any great organizing ideas that you want to implement lately?