The latest episode of the DigiScrap Geek Podcast was just published. Since the main topic refers to scrapbook galleries, I thought it might be appropriate to talk about building your personal gallery and creating your supply lists. Many design teams like to see you actively posting your work. It can seem time consuming but, if you have system in place, it doesn’t have to be hard. Today, I am going to share my personal system with you.
First, you need to decide where you will post. Episode 26 has several galleries listed in the show notes. There are of course, many more options. The best option for you will be the place you frequent the most. I spend a lot of time at Get It Scrapped, so I post there often. It’s always a good idea to have more than one gallery. My first gallery was at Club Creating Keepsakes and my second was at Two Peas in a Bucket. Sadly, neither are around any more. Having more than one gallery location ensures that, should your favorite gallery shut down, you will still have a good body of work already in existence. My primary galleries are at ScrapStacks, Get It Scrapped and Scrapbook.com. In addition to these, I also post pages to Cocoa Daisy and the Paperclipping forum.
The best move for me by far was to create a Pinterest board exclusively for my work. It’s titled “My Portfolio” and includes pins from my personal blog as well as design team blogs. I also pin any work that is highlighted on challenge sites or other blogs. This board allows me to showcase my projects as well as highlight how they are used in various articles and tutorials. It’s a nice concise representation of my work and I don’t think Pinterest is going away any time soon.
Before you start posting, there is one thing you should do. Make a supply list.Keeping a supply list is a good habit to get into. Manufacturers love to see you using their products. Other design teams want to make sure credit it given where it’s due. It’s also a plus for you when it comes to blogging your work. Reader’s want to know what you have used and should you decide to participate in an affiliate program, you will find it easier to create affiliate supply lists.
As I work, I make it a point to write down which supplies I am using on the back of my layout. This includes any digital kits I use for hybrid layouts. I also note any sketches or whether or not the supplies came from a kit club. If it’s from a kit club, I note which month and year it’s from. Even if I am not an affiliate of that kit club, I still share their products. I want to show my support for the businesses and products I love.After all, if people keep buying from them then it’s more likely that company will stay in business. I don’t usually mention the kit club in my supply list, but I will refer to it in the supply options at the bottom of each post.
How a supply list is formatted will vary from design team to design team. While you may not know what that format is, you can develop your own chosen format to display consistently on your website. Let’s look at a few examples of the way I like to format my supply lists.
Those Ears by Christy Strickler |Supplies Patterned Paper:Basic Grey, Cocoa Daisy; Letters: Freckled Fawn; Stamps: Kelly Purkey, Elle’s Studio; Ink: Staz-On, Versa Color;Punch: American Crafts; Die Cut: Elle’s Studio;Enamel Dots: My Mind’s Eye; Other: Ribbon, Glass Beads, Confetti, Tag; Based on Scrapbook Challenges Sketch # 434
This is a paper layout I created for Scrapbook Challenges. All of my supply lists include the same parts: page title, creator( that’s me), and then the supplies. I divide supplies by type but generally, I don’t worry about which collection it came from. Reader’s can find the specifics in the supply options section of my blog posts with affiliate links if they are available. I did add a small note( which you see in red) with the sketch this page is based on. This would also be the spot to share whether it appears in an article( see an example here) or to share if the page was scraplifted. If it’s a page of your own design, you don’t need to include these types of notes. I do italicize all of my supply lists but this is really a personal preference.
Be Cute, Be Fab, Be Yourself by Christy Strickler |Supplies Cardstock: Die Cuts with a View; Wood Veneer,Acrylic: Studio Calico; Enamel Dots: My Mind’s Eye;Jewels: Pinkfresh Studio; Other: Glossy Accents;Digital Kit: Glam Pop! by Traci Reed
This is a hybrid layout, meaning that I used both paper supplies and supplies I printed from a digital scrapbook kit. Note how I mentioned the digital kit in the supply list. It’s highlighted in red. Also note that, should you use several supplies from the same manufacturer, you can list them together (highlighted in purple). Do your best to keep the list as concise as possible. If you don’t know who makes the supply ( or the supply doesn’t fit in a standard category), don’t stress about it. Just create a category entitled “other” and place those supplies there.
Now that you have your supply list ready, it’s time to share the layout. As I mentioned above, I post to several galleries. I also post most layouts to my website. I have set procedure that I follow for each page. Once my blog post is published, I add the layout to each of the galleries on my list. I only have to type out the supply list once. After the layout is posted in the first location, I simple copy and paste the supply list to each additional gallery. Following this procedure saves me a ton of time and ensures I am not sitting down for long stretches posting layouts to galleries. You may wish to include a brief sentence about the story of your page with the supply list. As mentioned in the podcast, many people enjoy seeing the story behind the page. This is something new for me and I am hoping to make it a regular habit.
As far as Pinterest in concerned, I also make it a point to pin my layout when I publish the blog post. When it comes to Pinterest, there are multiple categories that the layout could be pinned to. I am trying to instill a new habit in the way that I pin my pages. Rather then pin the layout to each category of Pinterest board all at the same time, I plan to pin it over the series of a few days. I usually write an article or blog post for every page I create for a design team. So for example, my layout posts to the Get It Scrapped blog on Monday. I pin that layout to my portfolio board. On Wednesday, I come back and pin the layout from my website to another board, perhaps the board for 2 photo layouts. On Friday, I return to my website and pin the layout once again, say to the board about Easter pages. My plan is to increase the exposure of that blog post over the coarse of many days which should help increase traffic to my website.
You don’t have to build as many galleries as I have chosen to,however, having several regular places that you post to increases the chance of building traffic to your own personal blog. Try my system or figure out a system that works for you. You want to be spending your time creating and making memories with your family rather than stuck in front of a computer loading layouts to galleries. Most importantly, keep supply lists. Write down what you use as you work. It may seem tedious at first, but once you form the habit, it’s easy to do. Trust me when I tell you that it saves you so much time down the road when you are posting to your blog or sharing pages on a design team.