Right now, I am packing for a full day crop hosted by a local scrapbook store/community. Normally I pack pretty quickly and easily, because I use a project based approach to scrapbooking away from home.

What does that mean? Let’s break it down for you.

When you use a project based approach to your scrapbooking, you assemble your supplies so you have everything you need to finish a particular project, like a baby album or travel album, all in one place. There are a few supplies I store this way: papers and embellishments I use for my children’s school of life albums, Christmas supplies. Most everything else I store based on type of supply or general theme or technique. Punches live in one place, alphabet stickers in another, and stamps are sorted by theme. (Have I mentioned I have a LOT of stamps?) Papers are sorted by color, paint supplies and coloring mediums have their own places.

When I go to a crop however, I ramp up the project based approach. If I haven’t updated my kids’ round up albums, I bring the school themed box. If it’s Christmas time, I start assembling or completing a Christmas album. If I’ve got a project in the works, like a wedding album or travel album I bring those supplies.

But sometimes, I have no project in the works. That happens to be the case tonight. I haven’t gathered together highlight photos for my kids’ highlight albums. I have no travel albums in the works. I am working on a summer album, but that’s all digital this time around.

The only project I have in the works is trying to use up all the letter stickers for the alpha sticker challenge. While I do have papers set aside, the subject matter for each page is so different, I have no idea how I’m going to choose embellishments and extra tools to bring along. This should be interesting.

There are some basics I will be bringing. Paper trimmer. Adhesives. Scissors. Ruler. Paper. Pens and markers. But the extras? This will be challenging. I’ll let you know how it went later this week!