In addition to SLP materials hoarding, I’ve recently been diagnosed as a clip art hoarder. This is in keeping with my long tradition of overpurchasing my craft-of-the-moment.
I’ve got stickers, fancy papers, and a CRICUT from my scrapbooking days.
I went through a phase of trying out crafts by purchasing kids kits. I’ve got a mosaic tile kit, a half completed knitting project AND a loom to make a rainbow scarf. Do you know ANYONE who buys themselves a loom? Well, you do now.
I started beading and have amassed 3 Ikea File cabinets filled with Beads and project ideas. I have a BIG rubbermaid container filled with jewelry I made when I was going to start selling my jewelry at local craft fairs. I did one. I sat outside for 10 hours and made 11.75. So now they just sit in the tub until it is someone’s birthday or there is a benefit.
So, it’s not surprising that when I would start to hoard clip art too. I buy most of my clip art on Etsy and sometimes I buy a whole packet because I need one picture in the group. But as I’ve gotten more art, I found it difficult or time consuming to figure out what I had-OR to remember what artist had completed the clip art I was using. I used to just look in my Etsy purchases-but since some artists run BOGO sales, half of the clip art I’m using doesn’t show up.
I needed to come up with a new strategy for organizing clip art.
I store all of my clip art on Dropbox so I can access it from each computer. When I purchase clip art, I take time to rename each picture or file so that I can easily figure out what it is.
I’ve made up a “page” in power point for each artist. I put the thumbnail sketch for each clip art product and also copied the artist’s terms of use.
It makes it really easy when I go to complete a product because I can quickly find the artist page and check the terms of use prior to finishing a project. What organizational strategies do you use?
