Scrap space part 2

3. This sits right below where I scrap. First shelf is where I throw my scraps, and it's probably the best thing I did when I was organizing, because it's right below me and I can just drop them in as I go along. Second shelf holds the layouts I'm getting ready to do. The majority of my scrapping supplies are at my parents because I don't have room for them, so when I go home I get paper and cardstock and pair them up, and they sit on the second shelf until I'm ready for them. Third shelf is a bunch of letter stickers that I use all the time, mostly American Crafts and Making Memories. Fourth shelf is KI Memories and 7 Gypsies embellishements. Fifth shelf is just a bunch of embellishments that I use often. The bottom shelf holds some templates and stuff.
4. This is the other half of the top of my desk. The bottom green memory dock thing holds all my pictures. I have a whole system for organizing them, but it really only makes sense if you're me. The top Memory Dock two drawer thing holds a bunch more embellishments that I use alot, organized by theme. The little box on top is some chipboard embellishments, and I also keep my paper cutter up there when I'm not using it because it's out of the way and I can grab it when I need it. The bag is my crop bag, it holds a bunch of rub on letters, stuff like glue dots, and also some tools, like my tag maker and xyron and stuff.
5. I actually just hung this up, it's right next to where I sit. Right now it just has some quotes I want to use on pages written out on index cards, but it's pretty handy to have it right there.
Brunch boy took this picture of me the other day when he was over and I was finishing something up. So I guess this is as good a place as any to talk about how I scrap. It might be boring, but I always find learning about other people's processes interesting, plus my desk is pretty much set up the way it is because of how I scrap. I scrap at the end of the table so that I can watch tv if I want to (I have figured out exactly what I can and can't watch while scrapping. Can't watch 24, I get too caught up watching all the actiony stuff, plus I have to see whatever delightful face Chloe is making. Can't watch CSI, I get distracted by it. Can't watch soap operas because I have to fast forward too much. Stuff that's just kind of mindlessly entertaining works best for me, like 90210 or Melrose Place 0r the OC or Desperate Housewives). If I'm not watching tv I'm listenting to my iPod, I'm always changing my playlist so it's basically just whatever music I really love at the moment. I'm a really fast scrapbooker, too. If it takes me more than an hour to do it, I probably won't end up doing it. I generally take about a half hour to do a two page layout. A lot of what makes it so quick for me is that I tend to plan everything out in my head before I start, when I'm like, sitting in the car or trying to fall asleep I'll think of ideas or certain papers I want to use with certain pictures and have it all figured out before I start. I have the creative planner from Memory Dock, so I do sketch stuff out using it, and I also make just like, random rough sketches on scrap paper that no one but me would understand. My journalling is always written before I start. I took a lot of writing classes in college and I really developed my own voice, because of that I have to hear everything in my head first and then write it down and then I generally edit it again at least once before I'm done. I do the same thing with blog posts most of the time, it's the best way to say everything and have it sound like me. I also think of a lot of journalling when I'm trying to fall asleep or stuck in traffic. I have trouble journalling on like, birthday pages or whatever, I'm not so interested in the whole we went here and did this stuff, but I can write pages on like, my subway token necklace because it says something to me, something I want to share and put out there. It's not so much that I don't want to remember the birthdays and Christmases and such, it's just that I think I'm a little bit more inspired by all the random little stuff in life. I have kind of a quirky way of looking at things and that's what I really want to get down, the stuff that makes me different from everybody else. I do think it's important though, to have a record of all the we went here and did this stuff, so I do pages like that because I want to get it all down. I used to fool myself into thinking I didn't need to because I'd always remember, but I got over that notion. I also use a ton of quotes and song lyrics, sometimes as titles, sometimes as a place to start my journalling, sometimes just by themself, because I do think the right quote can kind of sum everything up sometimes. I don't mess with stuff a lot once I start putting it together. I kind of just trust my instincts and go with it. I'll get my pictures and journalling and then maybe a couple of embellishments to choose from (I generally know what I'm going to pick between before I start too, again, all in my head) and maybe move stuff around a little bit, but I do generally end up going with whatever was in my head to begin with. It only rarely doesn't work out the way I plan. Sometimes I get the idea for a page and then take pictures to go with it, but a lot of times I already have pictures. I take a ton of like, random pictures of whatever strikes me and don't worry about figuring out what I'll do with them until later. I figure, basically, if it speaks to me enough to want to capture it, I'll find something to say about it. I also don't scrap or store my pages in any kind of order. They basically go into my albums in the order I finish them, though I switch stuff around sometimes in my books if I think two pages look too much alike. I know myself well enough to know if I started going in order I would never, ever let myself be out of order and I'd drive myself crazy, so I just never let myself start. Since I'm not very eventy in my pages anyway, I also use pictures taken at different times together if I have some that help illistrate what I want to say. I've basically just learned to trust myself and that I know what I'm doing, and that at the end of the day I know what I like and want and it doesn't matter if it doesn't match up with what somebody else is doing.

That was really long. I hope it wasn't horribly boring. Happy Saturday guys.