The anatomy of my page kits

Page kits are my preferred method of cropping.  Why?  I tend to buy embellishments for certain layouts and in order to get them together, there is a bit of a filing system.  While not perfected, it works for me. 

First - photos are sorted as soon as they arrive - they go into paper folders with brief descriptions.  I just use notebook paper folders, so I do toss/recycle after pages are complete.  If I buy an embellishment, I try to put photos and embellies into a baggie prior to page kit, sometimes this happens, other times I have a stack of embellishments by the photos.  Normally, I spend about 5-10 minutes per kit.

How I create my page kits varies a bit, but the basics are below.

First - pick out the patterned papers I think I may want to use - as you can tell, this layout has something to do with fishing.   I used to start with card stock (years ago), but read a tip from someone (sorry, I don't remember who) about picking pp first as cs is so much cheaper and easier to find if you don't have the right color on hand.

 Next - pick out the cardstock.  This took forever for these pictures.  They are very dark and the colors I thought I wanted did not work.  Ended up with a gemstone and a blue (second photo)

   

 Then I narrowed the patterned papers as well.  I cut the two tags I wanted from the cardstock page and filed the rest of the papers back with fishing/outdoors.

 Now for some elements and notes - at first I only had a few, then the title came to mind and

 a bunch more embellishments showed up!

 Then I pulled a few scraps I thought I might want

 Finally - I had a basic idea in mind of what I wanted to do, so wrote it down quickly.

 Hmm, don't think I will use all the embellishments, or paper, but I am not pulling things out just yet.  I will leave all together for the next time I scrap in case I change my mind.  No lettering yet - I always have cricut, slice or letter templates with me, so I can decide on size/style of letter when I sit down to scrap.

Finally - into a 2 gallon baggie and next stop - my scrap case.  I try to keep about 20 kits ready to go at all times.  That way I can grab the shoulder bag of kits (sometimes a bag of plain cs arranged by color comes too), my tool kit and cutter (usually baby bug and gypsy or jukebox - depends on timing/space) and enjoy the day.  Week long crops require an 18 gallon rubbermaid tote of kits.  So, I do try to prep a bunch at a time.  Once I am in the 'groove' it all works and kits tend to come together quickly.  Not sure why, but this one did not - until I found the little fish die cut I was looking for.