The Foolproof Guide to Backing Up Your Files

POSTED ON March 27, 2012 IN Adventures in Organizing

So with the 2nd Annual Great Computer Spring Clean-a-thon coming to a close yesterday, I thought today would be a good day to talk about one of my biggest digital pet peeves: backing up.

Why pet peeve, you say? Because of stories like this:

“I just lost 200GB of photos from my baby’s first years because I never backed anything up.”

Tragic stories like this make me sad and wee bit frustrated because while you can’t always prepare for every eventuality (like your computer and backup external hard drive all dying on the same day), there is absolutely no excuse for having no backup at all. You’re doing yourself a disservice by not make sure you have a backup plan in place in case your computer or external hard drive decides to move on to that great electronics store in the sky.

After all, you loved those photos enough to taken them save them, why not make sure they’re as safe as possible?

I know backing up your files can seem tedious, daunting or overwhelming, especially if you don’t feel terribly tech-saavy and aren’t sure where to start. It can be a lot of pressure to know whether you’re doing the right things when such important files are at risk.

But I promise you it’s much easier than you think which is why I’ve put together this foolproof backup guide for you to get you started.

These are the rules I follow for my backups and while I can’t promise you nothing bad might ever happen, I can guarantee you’ll be in a MUCH better position than if you had no backup at all.

My Rules for Backing Up Important Files

Rule #1: Save all files in a minimum of 2 different locations.

This is by definition the meaning of a backup – any file you care about should have a duplicate copy of that file stored somewhere else, either on another external hard drive, another computer, online, a DVD, etc.

As long as you can count two copies of that file in two different locations, you have a backup.

For example, if you store a photo on your computer hard drive and have a duplicate copy of that photo stored on your external hard drive, you have a backup. But if you then delete that photo from your computer hard drive and only leave it on your external hard drive, you no longer have a backup.

The same is true if you’re storing photos or scrapbooking supplies on your external hard drive. you need to have a copy of those files stored somewhere else. Please don’t store your files on your external hard drive without a duplicate copy saved elsewhere as they are notorious for dying without warning and I would hate for that to happen to you.

Rule #2: The more important a file, the more diligent you should be about backing it up.

Now I’m not saying you should have 8 or 9 copies of a file, but the more important a file is to you, like say photos, the more diligent you should be about backing those files up.

For example, when I upload new photos from my camera, I never delete them off my Compact Flash card until I have run a backup of my computer onto my backup external hard drive. This way my photos are always in two places at once. If I’m traveling and can’t run my normal backup but need to empty and format my CF card, I will upload the photos to my computer and copy a temporary backup of the photos onto my portable external hard drive.

Extreme? Maybe. But my considering photos are irreplaceable, I’m willing to go the extra mile.

Rule #3: Simplify your backup process as much as possible.

I’m a firm believer that the more complicated you make your backup process, the less likely you are to actually do it. And a backup that isn’t kept up to date is only slightly better than no backup at all.

Which means investing in proper hardware, like an external hard drive over DVDs, and software that will track your backups for you is key to staying current with your backups.

If you’re a Mac user, Time Machine comes standard with the OS and is super easy to use with an external hard drive. When I was PC user, I used Acronis True Image to sync all my files and it worked great.

While yes you can copy files over by hand, I promise you that letting backup/syncing software do the work for you makes it SO much quicker and easier. Think of all the backup time you can spend scrapping instead!

Rule #4: Never go longer between backups than you care to lose.

This seems like an obvious one but it bears mentioning – the longer you go between backups, the more files you stand to lose. This is why simplicity is key. The easier your backup is to do, the more likely you are to do it and the less likely you are to lose a bunch of files at once.

Rule #5: You should have both an on-site AND off-site backup.

An on-site backup is a backup you keep in your home (like on an external hard drive) where as an off-site backup is a backup you store outside your home, whether on an external hard drive you store at work or in a P.O. Box or an online backup using a program like BackBlaze or Carbonite.

I highly recommend you have both forms of backup for this reason: while an off-site/online backup is better than no backup and can be great in the event of a disaster like a fire or flood, it can take a LONG time to download all your files off of an online server in the event of a hard drive crash. This is when an on-site backup, like an external hard drive, can come in handy since you can just plug it in and you’re ready to go.

I’m currently using an external hard drive and Time Machine for my on-site backup and BackBlaze for my off-site backup.

Rule #6: Double-check your backups periodically to make sure they work.

All media degrades over time, which means no matter what method or tools you use for backing up your files, you should always check periodically to make sure your backups are still good quality and actually backing up the files you want. Nothing worse than needing your backup and realizing then your backup external hard drive has died or your online backup didn’t actually back up the files you wanted.

Well I hope there you have it, my rules for awesomely backing up your files. Hope it helps gets you started on your way to computer backup bliss! As always if you have any thoughts or questions, feel free to leave them in the comments section.

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The Key to Matching Your Organizing Style to Your Scrapbooking Style

POSTED ON March 20, 2012 IN Memory Keeping, The Great Computer Spring Clean-a-thon 2012

Welcome to the 2nd Annual Great Computer Spring Clean-a-thon Day 2! If you’re just popping in for the first time, be sure to check out Monday’s post explaining the details of this week-long organizing event! I’ll be back this afternoon to share my Day 1 progress but in the meantime I wanted to share some tips about the importance of matching your organizing style to your scrapbooking style.

As scrapbookers, we all understand this idea of finding your scrapbooking style – that common thread that runs through each of your layouts and makes them “yours”. But have you ever stopped to think about how your scrapbooking style relates to your organizing style?

I can tell you as a newbie scrapbooker, I never did. And as a result, I wasted a LOT of time following the organizing advice of much more established scrapbookers than I, building systems that didn’t mesh with the way I scrapped. Even though I felt like my supplies were technically “organized,” there were times when I felt like I couldn’t find anything! But what I learned overtime was it wasn’t that their advice or system was bad or that I had done anything wrong, it’s just what they were doing wasn’t right for me.

The Key to Organizing Anything

And ultimately that’s the key to organizing anything. It’s not about finding the perfect solution or system, it’s about finding the perfect solution or system for you.

Easy peasy, right?

I know, you’re probably thinking, yeah right Lynnette, if it was so easy we’d all be organizing gurus by now.

So perhaps easy isn’t the right word, but there is a simple key to organizing anything and that is this:

Before you begin organizing anything, whether it be scrapbooking supplies, photos or anything else, you need to first understand HOW you actually LOOK for those items. What goes through your head in that moment?

Because once you understand how you look for things, you can then tailor your organizing system to help you find things in a way that matches how your brain works.

How to Match Your Organizing Style to Your Scrapbooking Style

Let’s take for example scrapbooking. When you’re working on a layout and find yourself in need of something, say an element, what runs through your head?

For me it’s two things:

1) The basic type of element – ex: a flower

2) A color – ex: red

Essentially, I’ll think, I would really love to add a red flower right here.

Which means for me, organizing my elements into fairly broad categories like flowers, ribbons, etc and then tagging those elements by color so I can narrow them down is probably the way to go. Since I don’t ever think, say, I need a red gingham ribbon or I need a piece of twine not string, it’s probably not the best use of my time organize my elements to that level of detail.

The Key Questions to Ask Yourself Before Organizing

But of course we all think about things differently when it comes to our creative process, so how can you determine how the key to matching your organizing style to your scrapbooking style?

Well here’s a couple of questions to ask yourself:

Are you a kit scrapbooker or do you like to mix and match?
Do you look for supplies by designer or store?
Do you think about color? Style? Pattern?

The more detailed you can get about HOW you look for things, the easier it’ll be to know how to organize your files and more importantly how detailed to get in your organizing. No point tagging all your files when you only scrap from kits, right?

And, the same key to organizing holds true for your photos. Ask yourself, what are the most common types of photos you look for?

For me it tends to be people, seasons and themes because of my CT requirements, but for you it might be something else. Maybe you’re big on chronology or maybe you’re not. Do you think in terms of seasons or months/years?

Choose a Style That Works For You

Ultimately, what it comes down to is this: there is no right or wrong way to organize your supplies.

Yes, you heard that right.

There is no right or wrong way to organize your supplies. There is only a right or wrong way to organize your supplies for YOU. And the more attention you pay to your scrapbooking style and how your brain works when looking for things, the better and more efficient your organizing system will be.

Well, I hope you found today’s organizing tip helpful! I’d love to hear your thoughts about matching your organizing style to your scrapbooking style so feel free to share in the comments.

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For the Love of: Fonts

POSTED ON March 8, 2012 IN Memory Keeping, Stuff I Love

Today’s font-tabulous post topic is brought to you courtesy of my awesome creative team, as they requested I write up a post sharing some of my favorite fonts. Since looking for new fonts is my idea of a good time, this seemed like an easy one! So without further ado, here’s a look at some of the fonts that are rocking my world right now and best of all, they’re (almost) all FREE!

Font #1: The Museo Family

Museo, Museo Sans and Museo Slab are currently my go-to font family. Museo Slab is the font I used for the NettioDesigns logo and the majority of the NettioDesigns website as well. I just love those little slab-tastic feet on each letter! I don’t use Museo and Museo Sans quite as often but when I need a subtle change of pace, one of them will usually fit the bill.

Font #2: Bebas

I can’t take credit for this font find as I found it through the lovely Elise Blaha but oh how I love it. It’s an all-caps font so use it sparingly unless you want to be shouting at everyone, but when you need to squeeze in a bunch of letters in a tight space, this font is your man.

Font #3: Grandby

This font is one of the few non-free fonts in my arsenal but I love it just as much today as the day I bought it. It’s a lesser known font so it doesn’t suffer from font overexposure like some fonts do, but with it’s clean lines and sans-style, it’s perfect for titles, journaling and even the tagline up there on my blog header.

Font #4: Lobster

This font is new-to-me but I used it recently in the promo graphics for my 1st Anniversary Celebration and I fell in love with it’s swishy vintage look. I’m already looking for more opportunities where I can squeeze this puppy into my designs.

Font #5: DJB 4 Lynnette

This final font on my list should come as no surprise: my custom handwriting font courtesy of Darcy Baldwin at Sweet Shoppe Designs. If you have not had your handwriting turned into a custom font by Darcy yet, you should RUNLIKETHEWIND over to the Sweet Shoppe and get yourself one. Seriously. I will wait until you get back.

Because this little font is hands-down my most used font when it comes to scrapbooking. The personal touch it adds to my digital pages thrills me to know end. If my handwriting were to put on a tuxedo and don a top-hat, this is what it would look like – a more perfectly perfect version of my writing. Seriously. Go get yourself one.

And there you have it, my top 5 most currently used fonts! If you’re wondering where I find a lot of my fonts, MyFonts and Font Squirrel are two of my go-to places. MyFonts has a mix of free and paid fonts but Font Squirrel fonts are all 100% free for commercial use.

And for all you extra-credit font lovers, here’s a peek at a few more fonts that have caught my eye but I haven’t had a chance to use yet:

Ok team, hope you enjoyed this font-tastic post! Now I’d love to hear, what’s one of your favorite fonts? You know I love me some fonts so link me up in the comments!

Psst…Looking for even more font-terrific tips? Check out this tutorial I wrote for the Sweet Shoppe blog about getting the most out of your typography.

Pssst…As always, I was not perked to mention any of these fonts or websites. I’m just a hardcore font lover.

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Holiday Faves Mini Album | How to Add a Fabric Spine & My Final Thoughts on this Project

POSTED ON January 13, 2012 IN Holiday Faves, Holiday Faves 2011

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post I have finished my Holiday Faves 2011 Mini Album. Woohoo!

My final task for finishing the album was to add a fabric covered spine to the mini book. I had seen this tutorial forever ago on Ali Edwards site but I hadn’t had a chance to try it out. Since the fabric spine has to be added after the album is finished, this seemed like the perfect opportunity.

If you want to give it a try yourself, I recommend following the tutorial linked above since she includes more detailed directions, but below is how I did it. Excuse the less-than-stunning photos. I was doing this at night and the overhead light in our office is wacky, haha.

How to Add a Fabric Spine to your Mini Album

Materials you’ll need:

Book cloth tape (like this) – I bought mine at Paper Source. It’s 3″ wide.
Patterned paper for the inside of your album
Super Tacky Tape – I bought mine at Michael’s.
A glue stick or tape runner

Step 1: Measure the thickness of your completed mini album. Mine was 2″ thick at the widest part.

Step 2: Cut a strip of book cloth tape a little longer than the height of your album.

Step 3: Trim the width of the book cloth tape to be equal to the width of the album, plus 1/2″. So I trimmed mine my 3″ tape down to 2.5″ (2″+ 1/2″=2.5″) using my paper trimmer. I really expected this not to work at all but it was surprisingly easy to cut with the trimmer – only took one pass!

Step 4: Once you have the book cloth tape trimmed to the proper size, lay the tape flat, fabric side facing up and place your front and back covers overlapping the tape a 1/4″ in on each side.

The space between the covers should equal the thickness of your album from Step 1. I used a cutting mat and ruler to help line everything up.

Now we’re going to attach the covers to the fabric side of the book cloth tape.

Step 5: Flip one of your covers over and attach a small strip of Super Tacky Tape along the edge of the cover.

Step 6: Remove the plastic protector from the tape, flip your album back over so the right side is facing up and attach it to the book cloth tape 1/4″ from the edge. To help keep it lined up, I placed a metal ruler at 1/4″ and line my cover up with it as I pressed down to stick the tape.

Once you’re done repeat steps 5 & 6 for the other half of your cover.

Now that we have the two covers attached to the front of the book cloth tape, we’re going to add the paper on the inside of the cover.

The directions in the tutorial are designed for you to use one big sheet of paper to cover the entire inside of the album but since I didn’t have a big enough sheet of paper on hand, I cut two papers for the sides and a third for the spine. This will make more sense in a minute.

Step 7: Flip your album over so the inside of the covers are shown.

Step 8: Measure and trim to size your papers for inside the cover. If you’re following the tutorial, you’ll only have one sheet of paper but in my case I had three. Since I wanted a little of the red painted album to show, I trimmed my inside cover papers to 5″ x 7.25″ and my spine paper to 2.5″ (the width of the book cloth tape) x 7.75″ (the height of my mini album covers).

Step 9: Remove the paper backing off the back of the book cloth tape so the sticky back is exposed.

Step 10: Add glue using a glue stick or tape runner to the back of your paper and attach it to the inside cover of the album. I didn’t bother measuring for this step, I just eyeballed where I wanted to paper.

It’ll now look like this:

If you used one sheet of paper for the inside, you’re inside cover should be done. Skip ahead to Step 14. If you’re using multiple papers like I am continue to step 11.

Step 11: Repeat Step 10 for the right hand inside paper so it looks like this:

Now we’re going to add the third paper to cover the inside of our fabric spine.

Step 12: Grab the strip of paper you trimmed for the inside spine, flip it over so the backside is facing up and add a small strip of glue to each edge using a glue stick or tape runner. This will make sure the paper sticks to the areas that don’t touch the sticky book cloth tape backing.

Step 13: Flip the inside spine paper over and attach it down onto the sticky backing of the book cloth tape. Smooth it down firmly to make sure all of the paper gets attached to the backing. You want to make sure this paper is nice and attached since it’ll get moved every time you open and close the mini album.

Step 14: Once your glue is nice and dry (I let mine sit for a little bit to be sure), fold in the front and back covers one at a time to make a nice crease on the spine. The tutorial recommends scoring it but since I don’t have a scoring tool, I just used a ruler and folded it using that as a guide. I wanted my spine to be more rounded so I was fine with now having a super sharp crease.

Step 15: Punch holes for where you want the binder rings to go through. Since I already punched holes in my covers when I originally put my album together, I used a screw (a nail would work too) to poke through the paper on the inside of the album. It’s not the cleanest hole ever but since I didn’t have a hole punch that could reach the holes, it worked well enough.

Here’s what the album cover looked like with the fabric spine attached and the holes in place:

And here’s what the fabric spine looks like with the rings added back in. Pretty, no?

The fabric spine from the other direction. You can see how the spine is rounded:

I really love the way it finishes off the album. It looks like a real little book now.

And that’s my final completed version of my Holiday Faves 2011 Mini Album!

Since I know it’s kind of hard to see how it flows all together in the blog post photos, I put together a 1 minute little video of all the pages together:

Holiday Faves Mini Album 2011 from Lynnette Penacho on Vimeo.

My Final Thoughts On My 2011 Holiday Faves Mini Album

So now that I’m officially finished with this album, here are a few of my final thoughts on this project:

1) WOOOHOOO, I’M FINISHED!!!!!!

Umm *ahem* *finishes happy dance* *composes self*

Sorry about that, but after 3 failed attempts at December Daily, I’m really excited that I actually finished this album this year! Which brings me to thought #2…

2) Holiday Faves is WAY easier than December Daily

I have no doubt THIS is the reason I finished this year. As much as I love the concept of December Daily and the numbers and all that jazz, it’s just not realistic for me to do keep up with a page a day and to be honest, I don’t want to commit to that amount of work in December. I want to be able to actually enjoy the holidays and not be hunkered down in my scrap room every night, trying to stay caught up.

That’s what I loved about this project. I was able to include things when I felt like it but not worry about capturing something each and every day.

3) I LOVED this mini album size

In my previous attempts at December Daily, I had done an 8×8-inch album and a 7×9-inch album so I was a little nervous that 5×7 might end up seeming too small.

But I actually think it was the perfect size. Not too big to carry around but still big enough to include memorabilia and photos. I especially loved the full size 5×7 photos – they’re stunning. Plus I loved being able to fit two photos/pages onto one sheet of paper. Yay for saving trees!

And as much as I love the mix and match look of some albums, I have to admit, keeping all the pages the same size definitely makes the album a whole lot simpler to put together.

My Top Tips for Finishing a Holiday Album

If you’re wondering what my top tips for finishing a December Holiday album it would these two:

1) Be honest with yourself about what you can actually get done.

I know, we all love projects. Especially ambitious projects like December Daily, A Week In the Life and Project Life.

But you really need to really ask yourself whether a project fits into your life, and if it doesn’t, figure out a solution that works for you. Don’t be afraid to go against what everyone else is doing if it’s what’s best for you. Doing something different is better than stressing yourself out or doing nothing at all.

2) Start with a plan but keep it flexible.

Starting December with the focus and foundation of your album ready to go is key. Having a clear idea in your head of how much and what exactly you want to capture makes the documentation process so much easier because it allows you to say free yourself from feeling like you need to capture every.little.thing.

And if you find you have to adapt your plan a little along the way, it is ok. Don’t be afraid to let things go or change things up when something doesn’t work out like you had planned. Again, doing something different is better than doing nothing at all.

Well, I hope you’ve enjoyed the 2011 Holiday Faves mini album adventure! I absolutely love how it came out! I did want to send an extra special thank you to everyone who left a comment or sent me a nice thought during this process. I know having people waiting to see what I was up to definitely kept me on track. : )

And with that it’s time to wrap up and move on to some new and exciting projects! Weeee, I can hardly wait!

Psst…if you haven’t shared your Holiday Faves or December Daily album in the comments, feel free to do so! I’d love to see what you’ve done!

Psssst…looking for more Holiday Faves inspiration? Check out all my Holiday Faves posts here.

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How To Use the Holiday Faves Templates To Create Your Own Holiday Album

POSTED ON November 17, 2011 IN Holiday Faves, Holiday Faves 2011

As I mentioned in Tuesday’s post, I’ve released my first-ever mini album templates in the NettioDesignsShoppe: the Holiday Faves 5×7 Mini Album Templates:

I’m sure there are some of you are wondering how you can use the mini album templates to build the foundation for your own Holiday album, so today I wanted to offer you a little glimpse into how I’m using these templates to build my own album.

As I mentioned on Tuesday, my Holiday Faves mini album is going to be a 5×7 hybrid mini album so I will be creating the foundation of my album digitally using these templates and then printing out my pages and adding photos and accents directly to the album during the holiday season.

For the purpose of this post, I’m going to assume you’ll be creating a hybrid album as well but if you’re wanting to use these templates 100% digitally, the process is the same, you’ll just be printing out everything after you’ve finished your album rather than before the holiday season starts.

How To Use the Holiday Faves Mini Album Templates

Ok, so, the Holiday Faves mini album templates include four types of pages which can be mixed and match to create your album: Foundation & Accent Pages, Journaling Pages, Overlay Pages and Photo Pages.

Let’s dive a little deeper into the difference between all these pages and when you’d actually use them:

Foundation Pages

The Foundation Pages are designed to be the pages on which you build the well, foundation, of your album. All of the foundation page templates are made of simple paper strips or paper blocks, with the idea being that you will clip digital papers to them to pretty them up, print them, and then add photos, memorabilia, journaling or accents to them during the holiday season.

Accent Pages

The Accent Pages go along with the Foundation pages in building your album, but rather than adding anything to these pages during the holiday season, they’re designed to stand on their own as is and be the pretty jewels of your album.

I’m planning to embellish my accent pages digitally since I’m going to be traveling and would like to keep my album as flat as possible, but you could definitely add your papers to the templates and then embellish them with real world paper accents as well.

Journaling Pages

The journaling pages are the pages where you’ll add your stories: in my case, my Holiday Faves. I’m planning to add my journaling by hand so I’ll be printing all my journaling pages out at the same time as my accent and foundation pages, but if you would rather add your journaling digitally, you can wait to print your journaling pages until after you’ve typed up your story.

Overlay Pages

The Overlay Pages aren’t really pages as much as they are transparent PNG files you can use to create your own printable ink jet transparency pages for your album.

If you’ve seen Ali Edwards’ December Daily albums, you probably know what I’m talking about but the Overlay pages are like clear accent or foundation pages that allow you to see the pages behind it, sort of like this:

Then when you turn the overlay transparency page, you reveal the photo page beneath it like this:

I love to include overlay pages like this because it adds some fun dimension to the album without adding to much bulk so I’ll be sharing more about how I print the overlays onto the ink jet transparencies next week.

Photo Pages

Unlike the Foundation, Accent and Journaling pages, the Photo Pages are not meant to be printed out ahead of time as part of your album foundation. I included them in the templates as any easy way for you to create multiple photo 5×7 sized pages to your album after the holiday season starts. Just clip your photos and print the page out on photo paper and add it to your album.

Putting All the Pages Together

So how do you go about actually combining all these different types of pages to create your album?

Well it’s really it’s up to you!

All of the templates are designed to be completely mix and match so there’s really no “right” way to combine them.

But a few things you might want to consider as you’re ordering your pages are:

making sure to leave room to add photos and/or memorabilia
how often you want to include journaling
whether you’re planning to add additional non-digital pages into your album as well (like fabric pages, page protectors, etc)

I’ll be sharing my full Holiday Faves mini album foundation next week, but here’s a glimpse at a six page grouping I’m planning to include in my album to give you an idea about how I’m combining all the pages together.

My Mini Album Foundation Before:

As you can see, I’ve included 2 Accent Pages, 1 Foundation Page, 1 Journaling Page and 1 Overlay Page. I also left the back of the Foundation Page blank so I can add a 5×7 photo later and I’ve left the journaling text off the journaling card so I can add my journaling by hand.

Here’s a look at what these same six pages might look like after I start adding in my photos and stories:

My Mini Album Foundation After:

So you can see how I left the accent pages alone but added a 4×6 photo to the front of the foundation page and 5×7 photo to the back. I also added my journaling onto the journaling page and I added a photo page behind the clear overlay page.

Anyway, I hope that gives you some ideas of how you can use the Holiday Faves 5×7 Mini Album templates to create your own Holiday mini album. As I mentioned I’ll be back next week to share by full mini album foundation but if you have any questions in the meantime, feel free to ask away in the comments section of this post.

Psst…Ready to get your Holiday Mini Album scrapbooking on? Stop by the NettioDesigns Shoppe and pick them the Holiday Faves 5×7 Mini Album Templates here.

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Ask Nettio: How Do You Remember Your Faves?

POSTED ON October 18, 2011 IN Ask Nettio, the Faves

As I mentioned in my last post, after getting a bit behind over the summer on my 2011 Faves layouts, I have finally gotten caught up through August. Only September left to go!

But that brings up a question I have been asked quite a few times and that is:

How do you remember your Faves when your scrapbooking, say, a July page in September or a June page in October?

Well as much as I’d love to say I’m a super organized scrapbooker who keeps a running list of her Faves each month, I am most definitely not, haha.

But that’s good news for you because it means YOU can use the same tricks I do for creating your own awesome Faves pages long after any month is over.

So without further ado, here is a list of my go-to tricks for remembering my Faves each month:

1) Browse Your Photos

As a scrapbooker I take a lot of photos over the course of the month on a random variety of topics: events, places, people, things.

So the first place I look when I’m starting a new Faves page is my photos from that month.

Not only do they provide a visual representation of all the moments that mattered to me most that month but odds are if I took the time to document something, there’s a good chance it’s a fave of mine.

2) Browse Your Completed Layouts

In the same vein as photos, the stories I scrapbook say a lot about what matters most to me at a given time. If I take the time to scrap a certain story, like my love for Pinterest or our trip to Sea World, it’s probably something I was lovin’ at that time.

3) Check Your Social Media Accounts

Facebook, Twitter, IM, texts, emails and forums are all great places to look for your Faves because thanks to the wonders of technology, it’s easy to go back in your history and see what loves you’ve been chatting about recently.

4) Include an Old Standby

We all have those favorite things of ours that don’t change month to month. For me this would include things like: hanging out with Adam, my iPhone, American Eagle jeans, cheese, margaritas, traveling, etc.

So anytime I need a few more Faves for my monthly list, I know I can call on one of these stand-bys to fit the bill.

5) Don’t Stress About the Date

Number 5 on this list is perhaps the most important lesson I have learned in 2 years of doing this Faves project, and that is this:

No one, including you, will remember a year or even a couple of months from now, whether something was actually a Fave of yours that specific month or not.

So if all you can remember is you loved a certain television show over the summer but don’t know whether it was on in June or July, don’t worry about it.

Yes, the foundation of the Faves project is themed around the idea of monthly Faves, but the truth is the date doesn’t matter. What is most important is that you took the time to document you and your Faves in the first place.

Don’t let your date perfectionism get in the way of getting more of YOU into your scrapbooks.

So there you have it! Five of my go-to tricks for getting my Faves scrapbooked. I hope this helps you get your Faves scrapbooked too!

Psst…Want a little extra help documenting your Faves? Be sure to check out my FAVE-O-RITES templates Volumes 1, 2, 3 and 4 in the NettioDesigns Shoppe.

Psssst…have a burning question you’d like to see answered in a future installment of Ask Nettio? Send me a note or leave a comment and let me know!

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