Creativity and Organization
By kaylal on in Scrapbook Layouts with No Comments
Last week I downloaded Expressions Media and tried it out – for about two hours. All I could think the whole time I was trying it out was, “I wish I could just organize my digital products in Lightroom.” Change is difficult when you love a software interface. I have really enjoyed organizing my photos in Lightroom. As I was using EM, all I could think about is how much easier and more intuitive the interface in Lightroom was for me – I could see all sorts of ideas for ways to use the tools in Lightroom to organize my digital collection.
I searched Google again in vain – hoping against hope that since the last time I checked (about three weeks ago) that they might have figured it out. Then it hit me – there was a way to do it by using Bridge, Lightroom and Photoshop…. so for the past few days (minus a quick trip to Vegas) I have been testing my theories and so far so good.
I am finally organizing my supplies in Lightroom! 
One very positive thing about organizing all these digital supplies is getting the chance to go through all my digital kits and being reminded of all the cute stuff I have and almost had forgotten about. It is also good to purge all the stuff I know I will never use.
I have spent so much time the past few months getting organized, knowing I have so much more to do, that I haven’t made time for as much creativity as I would like. I think a part of that is that I use so much of the left side of my brain to organize and think of the big picture of things and the best way to use technology to do that – it is difficult to switch to the right side of things and create.
That is where good templates come in. Part of me feels a bit of guilt for going to templates and not being “creative enough” but the other part realizes that it is perfectly ok – at least I am scrapbooking . The good news is that I truly enjoy organizing. I also love that my photos and supplies are finally getting to the place where it will be a LOT easier for me to be creative – and that is a very good thing.
The above layout was created using a template by the fabulous CZ (layered template no. 55), Collage using Summer Driggs’ Freedom Aint Free papers (FREE KIT) and Flag patch by Jen Wilson designs. Fonts: Arial, Baby Bowser and Amelie.
sure hope you’ll share! i’ve been using bridge to organize mine and it is agonizing!!
i downloaded expressions media too after hearing about it on that paperclipping digi episode, but didn’t love it either. i’ve been using lightroom for less than a month, but i’m totally hooked!!
I am planning on sharing as soon as i get all the kinks worked out. This way you can avoid any mistakes I may make and know all the little ins and outs to make it easier that only come through working on it for awhile. I am hoping to get a lot of mine completed by the end of July and have a series of tutorial posts out in August.
Better than jumping the gun and sharing now only to learn that there was a better way later… 
I’d love to hear how Lightroom works for organizing supplies. It would be so much better to have only two programs open for scrapbooking: Lightroom and PSE 8. I am loving Lightroom, how easy it is to “fix” my photos and to search. But Lightroom doesn’t import png files from kits. So I’m looking forward to hearing what you learn.