ORGANIZATION is my friend!!!

This past weekend's retreat was by far my most productive weekend ever. I even hit my "production goals" (Tom came up with that, are you suprised?) of 20 double page layouts in 48 hours!!! I really refined my organization technique and am thrilled with what I have come up with. It may not work for everyone but certainly worked for me. A few months ago I created my "Inspiration Binder".

Every month when my cherished Creating Keepsakes magazine arrives in the mailbox I sit down and tear out all the things I love. It may be a layout, a photo idea, sketches or even just a quote. Then it all goes into sections in my binder. I also print out ideas I see on-line or any other inspiration areas. The binder is divided into sections for layouts, sketches, crafts, quotes and other.
Then when I was preparing for the weekend away I figured out what photos/events I was wanting to scrap. I flipped through my pages in my binder pulling out ideas for each layout. I then labeled sticky notes for each layout and made a pile of inspiration pieces, photos, papers and embellishments I wanted to use. Each layout grouping went in it's own section of a 12x12 accordian folder. Then at the crop I would just pull out the items and be ready to go. It saved so much time of trying to organize my thoughts, realize I didn't have the right photos printed......

Here is one of my scraplifts. The idea from CK magazine, April 2009 page 40

And my layout