Organizing Your Digital Supplies

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I have always had a date system for my photos... I am starting on digital scrap now and will sure use many tips here... My question is how do you all remember who made the kit in order to give the due credits...

Mariana, designers usually include their name in the file and folder names.

I see them in kind of codes, like DS_SCRAPNART, is that what I should add as credit? Do I have to include the site where I got it from?
And I have some 10+ year-old files that, after a Hard Drive glitch, lost their original file name and all the metadata associated with them...

I feel your pain with the hard drive crash. That's happened to me before too.

If you're just uploading finished layouts, I wouldn't worry too much about crediting. Although, this site has an easy system for crediting designers on here, which you do during the upload process to the Gallery.

Let's say you download Rachel Martin's Bryony Bundle and create a layout with it, then go to upload the layout to the site to show off how amazing it looks. smiley

You hover over your name in the upper right corner of the screen, click on My Profile, then Gallery underneath your photo. This brings you to all of your Gallery layouts. Click Upload Layout, which takes you to this:

You would click on Kit Used.

In Kit Reference, type in Bryony and you'll get the following. I hovered my cursor over the Bundle, that's why it's highlighted in blue. Then simply click on it and it'll be added automatically as a credit.

You can also use the Unique ID number. This is great, especially for attributing individual graphics downloaded from this site. The Unique ID is included in file and folder names. It's located where I put the red box.

Hope this helps!

WOW!!!! Helps a lot... at least for the kits I get from ACOT... with the elements from elsewhere I will just pu down the author as it is on the file, or, at least, for the ones I still have...lol
I would love to credit all the awesome people who create elements... I am in total AWE of people who are capabl of creating elements!lol

Glad I could help! Simply naming the designer from another site is perfect.

Honestly, we all start somewhere, and there is always room for improvement. Even after 12+ years of making layouts and designing, I'm still trying to hone my creativity and craftiness. I think I'm better at designing elements, papers, and kits than creating actual layouts. lol I'm in awe of people who have a natural talent for making gorgeous layouts.

Great info. I am always looking for ways to store my files.

@Marisa Lerin, You mentioned in a blog post a while back that you had an organizational system that's working pretty well for you. Would you mind sharing the particulars? Maybe some screenshots of folders, etc?

I'm starting over. Again. I'd sure appreciate your expertise and guidance. smiley

@Sharin: The post is here. Spoiler, I don't actually organize anything smiley

Thanks for the link @Marisa; I'm definitely going to delve into it. But... How on Earth do you find a particular asset if you don't organize them? Do you tag everything so you can bring it up later? I'm super curious about how you and others are finding *exactly* what you're looking for. I'm not someone who will usually give up and just go with something else because I can't find it. I'll search for hours to find it. smiley smiley

I search for it here. I can usually find what I'm looking for.

@ Christina Carrano thank you so much for this information. I have many projects but am hesitant to share since I dont know of all the sources used. I guess using DS for almost everything would cut down on that problem considerably - lol.

I organise my Scrapkits by Year - Designer - name of kit
I have them going back to 2003. All on external Hard drives - I keep each bundle or kit together on external drives. I also keep a copy of the TOU in each folder so I can remind myself what those were.

Does anyone use Bridge to organize elements? How do you like it?

I've decided to take the plunge and use Bridge 2023 to help me organize all of my stash. I'm finding things everywhere I didn't even know I had. Also running across a lot of duplicate items. Is there a way to search for duplicates so I can get rid of them? Do you guys delete items from kits that you know you will never use?

I'm making a list of keywords I want to use. I have the basics, like flowers, paper, etc. Anyone have any suggestions or keywords they use?

Hi Carolyn!
Please let us know your thoughts on the Bridge, after you use it for a bit?!

I use my laptop for everything these days, so keeping it running smoothly is
important to me too. I use "Flash Drives" for all my goodies.

I start with creating folders for each place that I get my items from.
▫▫ I want to make sure that I am able to give proper credit if needed,
in following their "Terms Of Use." Some designers may state that the items in their
bundles and kits are not to be separated, so reading each "TOU" is most important.
For example, I have a folder named: DigitalScrapbook.com .. each member that I
download from, has their own separate folder, as some TOU's are different.
▫▫ I never rename items, as that makes giving proper credit much more difficult.

I have separate folders in each place that I download from, one for
digitally made items and the other is for isolated "scanned or photographed" items.
I then have folders for each type of item I am storing, for example, flowers,
and in that folder, I have folders listed as daisies, lavender, roses etc.
Then there is food, and in that, fruit, veggies, ice cream etc.
I do the same with the scrapbooking type elements as well, tags, ribbons, bows etc.
You can separate items by color if that helps you even further.
▫▫ I have just recently started the "Separate either digitally or isolated" concept,
as I have been accumulating much of both and finding it works better for me,
but you can certainly work with what helps you most.

I have folders inside folders in everything that pertains to scrapbooking.
There are a LOT of folders, but finding what I need is SO much easier.
▫▫ Yes, I delete items that I know I will not use, as long as keeping it
intact is not a TOU requirement from that designer.

I hope this helped you a bit, and didn't leave you scratching your head.
There was certainly a lot of 'inside this folder, inside that." HaHaHa

❥ Happy Creating!

▫▫ I have just recently started the "Separate either digitally or isolated" concept,
as I have been accumulating much of both and finding it works better for me,
but you can certainly work with what helps you most.--

What do you mean by this concept? Items you have made yourself, photographed yourself? Or just random single images from places like Raw Pixel?
I have to sort all those too. lol

HaHaHa.. It's maddening at first for sure, but definitely pays off when your collection grows.
At least you are asking all the excellent questions early in your collection,
unlike me, I had to move things around which I had collected for quite some time.

My "Isolated" folder has transparent items only, no photos (that is another topic in itself HaHaHa).
Most either a single item, or a group of items that are part of a collection.
They are objects that have been extracted from an image, for example,
I take a picture of a tabletop that has a beautiful centerpiece that I want to use,
isolating is removing the background from the picture, so I can then use the centerpiece itself.
Most of the images will not have drop shadows or lighting, so that you as a designer, can
add those elements yourself. So in short, these are items either taken from a photo and/or scanned.

They can be images that you create without using any digital means as well,
drawing, coloring, writing etc. that can then be scanned or photographed.
Most of my "Isolated" are "Real-life" images. For example, flowers, foliage, food, drink, etc.
If you don't plan to use much of these items, then I would probably just add them to your
other existing folders and not worry about organizing those too.

I hope this helped a bit more.
▫▫▫ Others may be able to explain it better than I did! HaHaHa

@ Jennifer thank you for clarifying what you mean by "isolated" folder. I do much of my work in Picmonkey in terms of extracting an image from a photo or graphic (from rawpixel or creative commons free site) or removing the background and then incorporating it into my layout, card or project. Now that I am creating digital layouts and uploading to DS commons I see that I need to store my "original isolated" and "real life" images in a separate folder than the revised isolated images. Once revised though do you still credit the site that you isolated your graphic from? Labeling that will take some thought so I dont lose the original "author/artist" work. Did I lose you?

I take photographs of images and integrate them into my layouts; organizing them by year, month, separate folders for event (ie.Dad's bday, family reunion, etc.) I also began to organize folders by deceased person and year died (mainly for when someone passes to help with collage boards and slideshows specific to that person - breaking it down further by name of person provided the images). Unfortunately, my folders have grown in last 2 years with aging parents.

I really appreciate all the information on this thread.

@Carolyn I have heard about Bridge but know nothing - is this a free program or subscription? I'd like to hear more on the pros and cons once you've had an opportunity to use it. Thanks

Hello Elaine!

You have an excellent system in your storing of files.
You have certainly thought it through.
Separating via month, year is genius!

I give credit when it is part of their TOU (of course), and many times,
I will give credit to those that don't require it,
in hopes that it will help the artist with more visitors.

Some places that share mass amounts of resources,
like raw pixel, make it much easier in giving credit.
I credit "Raw Pixel" instead of the artist. (as is the TOU).
So with sites like that, I have everything in a folder named
"Raw Pixel", then I have sub categories for the actual images,
and not the artist. It sure makes finding things much easier to me.

I also have a notepad filled with info in each main folder.
It has a list of some of my favorite artists, images etc.
Making it a bit easier to locate exactly what I am looking for.

I am a Virgo, so with it, comes my OCD tendencies.
If these images were not digital, I would be stamping
everything with a label maker! HaHaHa

Thanks for sharing your ideas as well,
I am going to begin separating via year now too! ❥

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly Jenifer -
You bring up a good point about notes - do you have an actual notepad or notepad app that you keep info in?
I am old school right now and write out things but willing to try new things if it makes less clutter in the future.

I keep my files opposite of you in that I have a Downloaded Images file (some saved on picmonkey and majority saved on EHD) then each site has their own folder, i.e. rawpixel, graphics fairy, NY Public Library. I say whatever works for you - do it!

I can see though that I need to remove some of the graphics I paid for out of that file and into a folder of their own & check the TOU since those are two different types of downloads. (FREE vs. PD).
Sorry working it out in my head as I type...

I tend to isolate pieces of a photo or image and tweak it in picmonkey. Then use it in a card, mixed media layout or photo layout. Any other tips would be appreciated. Again thank you.

I"m still in the keywording phase with Bridge. I did use it to find things to make a layout and it was pretty awesome. I went through every folder of kits, images, etc and gave them keywords. Like all my papers have the keyword Paper. Then I used bridge to search and I could scroll through every paper I have and open directly to PS. Same with my flowers, etc.

I need to work on it some more and decide it I want to add a lot of sub keywords, Categories of paper styles, designers, and so on.

Its available from adobe for free. No sub required.

Carolyn thanks for the update on your progress. Isnt anything we do a moving target and need of work? Keep us in the loop about keywords that work for you. I'll look into the program and see if I am brave enough to jump in!

I've only been doing this about 4 months and I just have a big mess of everything, because everything is so pretty and I want it all!!!!

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