Fields Of Heather: Christmas In July

Week One - Planning & Organizing

I know for many, you are just anxious to get started on a project. I'd be the last to discourage that. Pick something, send it to cut, and while it is cutting, start thinking about organizing all of the svgs and supplies you already own.

For week one, my emphasis is on finding all of my Christmas SVGS, organizing them, setting up a folder to store some inspiration and projects to make in (a visual to do list) and then checking supplies and seeing what I need to be watching for in this months Christmas in July Sales. Amazon Prime Day is also coming up. This is the time to know what you have, and what you should be watching for.

This Weeks Goals:

Sort & Organize My Christmas SVGS [Details In This Post]
Check Your SVG Purchases
What Projects Did I Start Last Year And Not Finish?
Create Folders For Christmas Projects [Details In This Post]
Planner Page - Brainstorming Goals For The Christmas Season
Planner Page - Supply Inventory
Prep For A Week-End Project

Step one for me is to see what I already have. It's always more than I think.

Sorting & Organizing Christmas SVGS:

As I say over and over, what works for me may not work for you, and what works for you may not work for me. AND, what works for me is always "in progress", I'm constantly making changes. But here's a look at how I keep my svgs sorted:

These are the folders, under "SVG", on my wifi enabled external hard drive.

I use this MyCloud - https://amzn.to/3NxCIiP

I'm not actually recommending this to others, only telling you what I use. It's not overly user friendly. BUT - I can stream home movies and downloaded videos to our tv, and I can access it from all of our various devices, including three laptops - making it ideal, even if it was a pain to set up properly. In other words, I haven't found a better option.

Other options to consider include a plug in external drive, dropbox, google drive...

The folders shown above are organized by number, and text.

0 before holidays & Seasons

2 before materials

4 before machine options (sewing, laser, vinyl...)

And then just regular categories.

For many of my svgs, they are in more than one folder. For instance, my Christmas projects may be in paper crafting, AND in Christmas. Christmas Wreaths may be in Christmas AND in Wreaths - because sometimes a Christmas Wreath can be modified for another season.

Typically inside the above folders, there are two "subfolders". Paper, and vinyl. Sometimes a 3rd for cards. But for Christmas....

Christmas has a WHOLE LOT of subfolders. I have a lot of Christmas svgs, and to keep them from being jumbled together, I have them by category. And there are a lot of categorie

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STEP TWO

Checking My Purchases

Now that my files are all organized and I can see where everything is, it's a good time to check the sites I buy svgs from, and make sure there isn't anything I forgot to move over to these folders. In most cases, you can just go to your account, and look for your purchase history. Here are screenshots and more detailed instructions for the sites I purchase from most: https://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/2023/06/tip-search-your-purchase-history.html

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STEP THREE

CHRISTMAS 2023 "WORK" FOLDERS

I always keep a "Cut Now" folder in drop box, with the projects I want to make soon.

In that folder, I added a 2023 Cmas folder.

Inside, I stuck preview photos of the projects I'd like to make this July. In a folder labeled "2 upload", I have all of the files I need to add to Design Space. This is a visual to do list for me. I'll add more files as I decide exactly what I am doing this month, but this shows me some of the things I didn't get to last year.

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Now to find my stash of "Not completed" projects, and decide what I want to finish this week-end.

Next week, Week two, will be all about Christmas Cards.

Getting my list organized, my supplies ready, and deciding on a few designs to make. I won't make TOO many ahead - maybe half? Because I know there will be so many new designs I'll want to make later this year. I never make just one card design - I'm not cut out to be a factory worker. :-) I make many different designs each year.

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