15 Minute Miracles

Author Ernest Hemingway wrote, "Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is."

A lot of us who scrapbook are Mothers with young children still at home. This equates to a desperate shortage of time and energy. Of course, most of us also started scrapbooking to preserve the memories of those same children who are draining all of our time and energy. Although it would be ideal, most of us don't have hours to devote to our scrapbooking hobby every day. But, can you find 15 minutes?

The following is a list of necessary scrapbooking tasks that can be accomplished when you just have a snippet of time:

* Journal A Memory

You think you'll never forget the cute conversation you had with your daughter while waiting to pick older kids up from school, but you will! Write it down while it's fresh in your mind and you can use it for journaling later.

* Read a Magazine

Look through a new scrapbooking magazine to keep up with current trends and find fun new ideas.

* Create a Blog

Blogs are taking the internet by storm. A blog is essentially an online journal. Your blog can become a resource for future page ideas and journaling. There are even services that can turn your blog into a printed scrapbook. Check out Scrapbook Blogger.

* Create a Page Embellishment

Even though you may not have time to create an entire page, you can create one element of the page. Make a layered 3D embellishment or create a title for your page.

* Write About Your Day

Holidays, Vacations and special occasions are only a small portion of our lives. Make sure you capture the rest of your life. Take 15 minutes to write about what you did today. You never know what you could use in a scrapbook later.

* Shop

This is my favorite! Nothing gets me more motivated to work on a current scrapbooking project than buying new supplies.

* Crop Photos

Use a few spare minutes to crop your photos with a paper trimmer so they'll be all ready to go.

* Download New Fonts

You'll find terrific (and free!) font resources online.

*Clean Your Scrap Area

Set a timer for 15 minutes, and clear away as much surface clutter as possible. You'll be surprised how motivating a fresh clean table can be.

* Make Page Kits

Put together all the elements needed for a page: paper, stickers, embellishments, etc. Then when time permits, you'll be ready to scrapbook.

* Download and Order Photos

Download all the pictures that have been piling up on your camera and then order your favorites online.

* Edit Digital Photos

If you use photo-editing software, take 15 minutes to clean and crop a few photos so they're ready for printing.

Scrapbooking can be overwhelming, but by breaking it up into more manageable chunks, you can accomplish miracles in just a little time. Have fun scrapping this week!

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