A week or so before the crop, start planning my layouts. sort through photos and put them in to zipper bags. Put a sticky note on each bag with a working title, dates, and any other info needed. choose card stock, Patterned Paper, embellishments, etc and also place them in the bags. also make sure you have enough adhesives, scissors, 12" trimmer and pens.

Quick & Easy Alphabet die cutting Make a list beforehand of the letters you need in a columnar fashion. Aaaa, Bb, Eee, ddd, K, Mmmm, ttt etc. You'll have your title punched out quickly

At CHA in Atlanta I got a lot catalogs and most of them had large pictures of papers or embellishments in them. I tore the ones I liked out to use instead of keeping the whole book which takes up so much space.

When ever we go away, I take a 2 gallon zip lock bag with me. I put all maps and souvenirs in it. This way when we come home all I have to to is label it and add my pictures to it. Then it will be ready for when I want to crop.

If you never seem like you have time to scrap start using a timer and set it for one or two hours. This is your time. Scrap only during this time and when the timer goes off, if you still feel like you need to get to other things then go ahead or you can keep scrapping. Plan for at least one hour everyday that you will set the timer and this will be your time. This will give you that one or two hours everyday for your scrapping. You still will find you have the rest of the day to get to the other things and you will be doing a little bit everyday.

If you're limited on time use a day to organize your layout and the next to start on it, then work on it, and finally finish it. Use a plastic folder to keep your themed paper, die-cuts, stickers, etc., so that when you're ready to sit down and work you can just piece together your page instead of searching for embellishments, stickers, etc.

To ensure your items are lined up accurately, use your ruler and mark guides on your paper with a light pencil line. This will help you make sure you have items evenly spaced and lined up accurately.