My Layout & Cutting Guide Methods

So, we've covered my crafting goals, posting goals, blog candy details, fellow CTMH Consultant perks, & kitting paper.  Before I post those poorly done videos, let me explain the cutting guides so you have some background when watching about them.

My Layout Method:

1. Pick my event, see how many photos I have for it.
2. Find a layout sketch that meets the needs of the amount of photos I have or the size of the photos I'd like to use.
3. Send the photos to Costco to print.
4. Pull a paper pack/kit off the shelf to use with these photos.
5. Find 2-4 more sketches that I like in general...not for these photos.
6. Get the 1-5 sketches together, put them in the order I like them best (the one I'm using for the printing photos is always on top.)
7. Get my graph paper notebook, draw squares that equal a 12x12 sheet of paper, and start plotting the pieces of paper I need for layout #1 in the boxes.  Continue this with each layout until I can't get anymore layouts out of the pack or I have all 5 layouts in my grid.
8. Cut my paper based on my cutting guide (graph paper grids), put in piles of which layout in piece goes with
9. Assemble the layouts
10. Add the photos to the layout that started this chain of events.  Keep the remaining layout in page protectors since they are photo ready.

Sound complicated?  It's not.  Honest.  Here are some "FAQs" I've heard:

I don't want 5 layouts with the same paper in my album.
Then don't use them at the same time. :)  If you scrap chronologically, use the 1st layout for the current year, and save the remaining for photos from the next year, or the year after.  Be honest, who among us isn't 5 or more year behind in photos?  Right.  So if the paper isn't in the same album, does it matter that you have a different layout using the same paper in another album?  (It might, only you can answer that.  For me, the answer is "no!")

I have to have my photos ready before I can do a layout, I don't like pre-made layouts.
I totally agree with you.  Here's what changed my mind enough to do it this way - I'm getting stuff done, and when new photos present themselves I may have a layout ready to go, and that's going to make me finish more pages ore quickly.  Know what else I've done?  Swap layout with someone else.  They probably don't have the paper I used in their album, and I probably don't have their paper either.  I swap with enough paper for embellishments so everything matches (because I'm anal like that), but it's an option.  Most importantly, nothing impresses Mike (my husband) more than seeing me actually complete a layout.  This method has worked for me in getting them done.

How will I remember this layout a year from now?
I put a copy of the layout sketch or photo of what I planned to CASE in the page protector.  If it's from 1 company, I also write down the name of the paper pack &/or the colors that matched it so it makes it that much easier/faster when I pull it down.  I also write down the size of the photos, though I never put mats on layouts until the actual photos go on them, that way I'm not locked into any 1 size.  That's too much "forcing it" for me.

I can't make a cutting guide.
You don't have to.  That's where I come in.  If I used a layout as part of a cutting guide pack, I'll post that.  Some I didn't, I did them before this method.  I won't have cutting guides for those, but you can probably eyeball the sizes & amount of paper and CASE what you really like.  If you DO like a layout and there IS a cutting guide for it, you can get the cutting guide from me as a bonus with any purchase off my website (because it seems selling the guides outright violates CTMH policy.  Who knew?)  If you're local and come to a class, that counts as a purchase.

I don't have "that" paper pack.
So?  You have paper, right?  Did you make a kit?  Use that!!  My cutting guides are specific for the amounts of paper you need, not the company who made it.  Of course, I think the CTMH paper packs are the easiest to use and that's why I signed up with them a few years back...I was buying enough that I could make my own quotas and get a discount at the same time.  Just grab you kit - it=f you made it "my way" it will have the same amount of paper, pattern & solid, brad your nuetrals for a base & photo mats, and get cutting!

I can't follow this guide.
Can you use your trimmer?  Then yes you can.  Each box (you'll see a little of it in the video) represents one sheet of paper.  Take that first sheet and cut it into the dimensions I've drawn into the box.  Period.  I'll post more on this in the future as well.  If you can read a map & use a trimmer, you can do this.

How do I get the cutting guides?
Well, there was a little snafu a few weeks back.  Apparently I was violated CTMH policy about selling these guides, even though they weren't base don CTMH layouts.  Thanks to the anonymous local Consultant who felt threatened enough to call Corp.  To be honest, I had no idea it was against policy since it had nothing to do with CTMH.  While I cannot sell them, I can give them away as a "bonus with purchase."  If you come to a class in my home, order a class by mail, or place an order for any amount on my website (or through me directly), you get a cutting guide free.  You pick the guide you want, I'll mail you the color photos of my layouts & all pages of the cutting guide for that paper pack.