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Hi everyone
I am an occasional scrapper who is feeling extremely bogged down by the daunting task of going back into the years to update my scrapbook. I'm recently married and my husband brought up at Christmas that I haven't updated the album sine 2010.
I used to do whole albums for big trips but DH and I have been taking so many trips that this seems unreasonable to continue doing. Do I really need an album a year? Or N album a trip?
I love the memories and the journaling within but I don't want to be saddled with 50 albums by the time we are 50.
I'm just wondering what everyone else does album wise to not only get trips in there and accomplished but also how many and what type they do.
I understand, and I went through the same thing several years ago. Something that helped me was adopting (and adapting) Stacy Julian's philosophy to scrap what I love. I let go of the idea of being caught up and decided it's perfectly OK to NOT be caught up. You might enjoy her book entitled Photo Freedom.
When we take a big trip, I don't do a whole album. For our Alaskan cruise I probably put 10 2-page spreads in our travel album, and I put two 2-page spreads in each kid's album. So, all the journaling is there, and a good selection of the 500 photos we took. Sometimes I type up a detailed description of our trip, print it out, and tuck it behind one page or put it in a pocket page with some memorabelia (sp??).
First of all, scrap what you love. I normally have three to four albums going at any time. I scrap out of order, so I scrap only the photos I love. I use D ring albums so it is easy to add pages and move pages.
I am pretty sure most scrappers are NEVER caught up!!! There is always something else to scrap!!!
Another option for you could be to do some digital scrapbooking. For those trips? Maybe you want to preserve your photos but don't want to do a whole album or a traditional album. Digital scrapbooking might work for this. I have played with my Stampin' Up digital software but haven't used it tons. I have girlfriends who swear by it. I love traditional scrapbooking. But I can see where digital scrapbooking could help you get a lot done quickly.
I feel your pain, as do most of us who scrap. I now make a family digital photobook for each year. I use iPhoto and create an album, and have used Shutterfly too. We sort through all the photos, by date, and select a few to tell the story of our year. I have made separate books for big trips, but that is getting out of hand. I'm trying the Project Life format for an ongoing album for our trips, but it's not totally updated.
My BIG challenge is the impending arrival of my third grandchild. I was getting very behind on the books for the other two. I'm beginning to use digital pages to keep up. I now have SU MDS and have made several pages. I have made MANY pages with CTMH Studio J and I think that may be more my style.
My new motto: I can live it now and scrap it later
Elise17,
I checked for the book on half.com and its 60.00$ also my library doesn't have it. I'll keep my eye out for it at a thrift store. It's a little bit out of my reach at that price point.
Binkie, Edie,
Thank you for your replies. I think I do need to just scrap what I'd like. I do need to do something though. DH didn't make a big deal out of it but its sweet he cares. I just need to take some time and do it and not feel bad if I don't capture every meal for a vacation.
Sorting out my photos and deleting pictures is a great idea. This time around I am going to print out more photos than I think I need because I always mess up or run out of pictures - then have to go back to Walgreens to get new photos.
I used to try and scrap every photo I took. Overwhelming and not fun! Now I just choose the best few and create one double layout. I figure the rest of the photos are saved on my laptop so I don't need to print them all.....right? lol
Even for vacations I have cut back how many I scrap. Now I just do a few double layouts with the best photos for each trip.
Elise17,
I checked for the book on half.com and its 60.00$ also my library doesn't have it. I'll keep my eye out for it at a thrift store. It's a little bit out of my reach at that price point.
I use shutterfly to print all my photos: for two reasons- I can upload my photos at night while I am watching tv AND because shutterfly prints the date the photo was TAKEN not printed!!! That is HUGE for me since I scrapbook, I want the dates!!!! When I order, I might order 400 pictures at a time. I need dates!!!! I wait for codes, and then I print away!!!
I made the switch about 2 years ago, and I LOVE the flexibility of the D ring albums. It has made my new method of scrapbooking much more manageable.
I'm going to have to look into this. When I purchased a scrap booked maybe 2 years ago the only had ones with brads in it? I have two now, one for a trip I took and then one is almost full and overflowing with pages.. it kind of bulges.
That would make it very easy to switch stuff around plus have more room and I wouldn't have to many albums, because the album itself is very thick.
I used to try and scrap every photo I took. Overwhelming and not fun! Now I just choose the best few and create one double layout. I figure the rest of the photos are saved on my laptop so I don't need to print them all.....right? lol
Even for vacations I have cut back how many I scrap. Now I just do a few double layouts with the best photos for each trip.
This sounds a lot more manageable. I like to do the double spread so its cohesive. I think I just need to pick and print only the best and not try and squeeze every thing into one book.
I use shutterfly to print all my photos: for two reasons- I can upload my photos at night while I am watching tv AND because shutterfly prints the date the photo was TAKEN not printed!!! That is HUGE for me since I scrapbook, I want the dates!!!! When I order, I might order 400 pictures at a time. I need dates!!!! I wait for codes, and then I print away!!!
Do you preform any photo editing? I am used to going to target and printing at the photo booth there. I tried editing on my computer last night and it is so hard to get everything just so - then save it. I'm not that editing savy so it takes what I feel like is too long. When I just want to do some simple things like crop, make smaller sized pictures, remove red eye, and add an occasional filter so it looks cool.
I use shutterfly to print all my photos: for two reasons- I can upload my photos at night while I am watching tv AND because shutterfly prints the date the photo was TAKEN not printed!!! That is HUGE for me since I scrapbook, I want the dates!!!! When I order, I might order 400 pictures at a time. I need dates!!!! I wait for codes, and then I print away!!!
Yep, that's why I use Shutterfly. Plus it was the lowest cost when I compared years ago. Costco, when there's a special can match the price of a prepaid plan. I have found that the shipping takes much longer now...up to a week. You can also upload photos to Costco, Walmart, Walgreens, etc. This is what I do at night while my husband watches TV.
I have used Shutterfly to edit, until I got a Mac with iPhoto...the EASIEST program, EVER.
I understand, and I went through the same thing several years ago. Something that helped me was adopting (and adapting) Stacy Julian's philosophy to scrap what I love. I let go of the idea of being caught up and decided it's perfectly OK to NOT be caught up. You might enjoy her book entitled Photo Freedom.
When we take a big trip, I don't do a whole album. For our Alaskan cruise I probably put 10 2-page spreads in our travel album, and I put two 2-page spreads in each kid's album. So, all the journaling is there, and a good selection of the 500 photos we took. Sometimes I type up a detailed description of our trip, print it out, and tuck it behind one page or put it in a pocket page with some memorabelia (sp??).
I found a library where my husband works so he checked out the books for me. I've started reading it, I am having a seriously hard time letting go of pages. I do want to get caught up but I like the idea of having separate pages for just random things.
I've noticed many people do pages entitled "Our Family" or "We Love Bubbles." That's really not my style. I do like that I can branch beyond the what we did for what occasion, being a birthday, wedding, sporting event, or life event. I think that would make scrapping more fun.
Nobody I know personal scrapbooks so its interesting to see what everyone else does.
I also went to the d ring style book. I was so where you are, overwhelmed to the max. This is supposed to be fun, right?
I have three books going one for me (the family book) one for my daughter's special pages and one for my son's special pages - I will often duplicate a great layout for my book and theirs.
Today I came to a new realization, it was like an epiphany with white lights and angels singing. I am changing my style again.
the reason I have failed with things like Project Life is my life is centered around a Sept - Aug year NOT Jan - Dec. It was so hard to organize a year when it didn't coincide with the kids school years.
So now I am going to have one Project Life style book for each child running sept thru aug so I can put all their activities in order, the programs, tickets etc. They like having all the not so good pictures included. Walgreen's does a composite picture - 8 1/2 x 11 with 20 photos on it. I will make one of these for big events - the prom say. I will still have an album for me to use cherished photos. I like pages with only one or two photos and cool layouts, so it will work for me.
I am now thinking about starting with last years school year and getting this years started - It is a big year for both kids one is a senior and the other a freshman. Abby had the lead in Romeo and Juliet and Jake had a part too. He made Jazz band (almost unheard of for a freshman) so they are on cloud 9 this year and will really enjoy a Project Life style book to highlight everything they are doing.
And btw these will still be in d ring format, because I love the ease of it.
I used to try and scrap every photo I took. Overwhelming and not fun! Now I just choose the best few and create one double layout. I figure the rest of the photos are saved on my laptop so I don't need to print them all.....right? lol
Even for vacations I have cut back how many I scrap. Now I just do a few double layouts with the best photos for each trip.
This is how I scrapbook now, along with Binkie/Michelle's method of using D ring binder albums and scrapping in any order I want (SO freeing, I used to think it ALL had to be chronological).
We take sometimes over 1000 photos on a one week trip, so I've learned to sort my favourites into an album on iPhoto. From there I choose the best of those favourites. I read once that you should be able to tell or show someone the highlights of your vacation in 10 photos or less. It was an interesting thought - and of course I can always find more photos!! LOL - and while it may be a little absolute, it can be freeing too to look at the photos and realize that you don't need to scrapbook every single pose of similar photos for instance. I now scrapbook my favourite memories and best photos only.
__________________ Terri
Paper Crafty Goals for 2013: 50/135 pages and 185/75 cards.
I'm going to have to look into this. When I purchased a scrap booked maybe 2 years ago the only had ones with brads in it? I have two now, one for a trip I took and then one is almost full and overflowing with pages.. it kind of bulges.
That would make it very easy to switch stuff around plus have more room and I wouldn't have to many albums, because the album itself is very thick.
D Ring is definitely the way to go, in my opinion. I also mostly scrapbook digitally now (I print at home on a wide format printer, or upload to a print service at around $2 a page), and another advantage to digital is that the pages have all kinds of character and depth, but they are flat flat flat - I can fit more pages in an album for sure!
__________________ Terri
Paper Crafty Goals for 2013: 50/135 pages and 185/75 cards.
Question ladies on the 3-ring binders....I LOVE the flexibility, but I have yet to find one that I like the look of while it's sitting on a shelf. I may need to get over that CM style mentality. What are you using? and do you have them tucked away or out displayed? Am I judging the book by the cover?
Question ladies on the 3-ring binders....I LOVE the flexibility, but I have yet to find one that I like the look of while it's sitting on a shelf. I may need to get over that CM style mentality. What are you using? and do you have them tucked away or out displayed? Am I judging the book by the cover?
I just bought 3 of these (Amazon.com: We R Memory Keepers Faux Leather 12x12 3-Ring Binder Album: Black: Everything Else) The binders were 19.99 at target and come with some regular 12x12 pages inside, and one 12x12 with 4X6 slots.
My husband liked that they were simple and black. So I got three, just because I like uniformity. I have one old post bound book I started that I am transferring to one binder because it was already bulging partly due to all the stickers that were raised. I do have one scrapbook from a trip I took that I wont be transferring because I created it before I met my husband.
Tomorrow I am going to print out about 200 photos that were just sitting there asking to be scrapped on my computer. I've been doing more collages on the computer, combining 2 photos onto one 4x6. To give that scrapped with love feeling. I am really enjoying the flexibility that having the D ring provides. I'm just worried about when I have to fit something in the past in, Ill have to shift thing around a certain way. I find cutting pictures and fitting two into the typical 6X4 slot with some pretty paper is just as nice as what I did before. I almost think of every 6x4 slot as a scrapbook page and it makes the page go by faster.
D Ring is definitely the way to go, in my opinion. I also mostly scrapbook digitally now (I print at home on a wide format printer, or upload to a print service at around $2 a page), and another advantage to digital is that the pages have all kinds of character and depth, but they are flat flat flat - I can fit more pages in an album for sure!
I looked at scrapping digitally and I spend all day at a computer and I really wnat nothing to do with a computer when I am scrapbooking. I see how it would be so easy! and easy to make multiples for other people too. Maybe when i have kids books to create I will consider going that route.
I also went to the d ring style book. I was so where you are, overwhelmed to the max. This is supposed to be fun, right?
I have three books going one for me (the family book) one for my daughter's special pages and one for my son's special pages - I will often duplicate a great layout for my book and theirs.
Today I came to a new realization, it was like an epiphany with white lights and angels singing. I am changing my style again.
the reason I have failed with things like Project Life is my life is centered around a Sept - Aug year NOT Jan - Dec. It was so hard to organize a year when it didn't coincide with the kids school years.
So now I am going to have one Project Life style book for each child running sept thru aug so I can put all their activities in order, the programs, tickets etc. They like having all the not so good pictures included. Walgreen's does a composite picture - 8 1/2 x 11 with 20 photos on it. I will make one of these for big events - the prom say. I will still have an album for me to use cherished photos. I like pages with only one or two photos and cool layouts, so it will work for me.
I am now thinking about starting with last years school year and getting this years started - It is a big year for both kids one is a senior and the other a freshman. Abby had the lead in Romeo and Juliet and Jake had a part too. He made Jazz band (almost unheard of for a freshman) so they are on cloud 9 this year and will really enjoy a Project Life style book to highlight everything they are doing.
And btw these will still be in d ring format, because I love the ease of it.
That makes total sense to scrap around the busy times of the year. I'm doing a project life book for all the random things that go on in our life. I'm using picasa to do my collages because that's where I store my photos. Have you tired them?
I am so so so stupid when it comes to photos and anything related. I take pictures put the card in my computer and erase the card. I upload to walgreens and pick them up. I do not edit them in anyway. I am sure I could have better pictures if I learned to do something with them but I just get frustrated, then I once I figure it out (if I do) I forget the next time. It is really something I should figure out.
I love the linen books SU has. I have some we r memory keeepers too, they are ok, I got a pink and a blue for the abby and jake books and a green one also, they were on sale for a great price. But I think the SU ones are classier, so i might need to go that way. especially since I am a demo. But I am not selling just telling you I think they are nice, since you asked
Captain013, thanks for the link. I checked it out and they do look very nice. I may need to reconsider...oh, and they're much less than the albums I have been buying:p
I also went to the d ring style book. I was so where you are, overwhelmed to the max. This is supposed to be fun, right?
I have three books going one for me (the family book) one for my daughter's special pages and one for my son's special pages - I will often duplicate a great layout for my book and theirs.
Today I came to a new realization, it was like an epiphany with white lights and angels singing. I am changing my style again.
the reason I have failed with things like Project Life is my life is centered around a Sept - Aug year NOT Jan - Dec. It was so hard to organize a year when it didn't coincide with the kids school years.
So now I am going to have one Project Life style book for each child running sept thru aug so I can put all their activities in order, the programs, tickets etc. They like having all the not so good pictures included. Walgreen's does a composite picture - 8 1/2 x 11 with 20 photos on it. I will make one of these for big events - the prom say. I will still have an album for me to use cherished photos. I like pages with only one or two photos and cool layouts, so it will work for me.
I am now thinking about starting with last years school year and getting this years started - It is a big year for both kids one is a senior and the other a freshman. Abby had the lead in Romeo and Juliet and Jake had a part too. He made Jazz band (almost unheard of for a freshman) so they are on cloud 9 this year and will really enjoy a Project Life style book to highlight everything they are doing.
And btw these will still be in d ring format, because I love the ease of it.
Understanding our own style, and what we need and want out of our hobby is so important, and then embracing it! You're ahead of the game once you do!
__________________ Terri
Paper Crafty Goals for 2013: 50/135 pages and 185/75 cards.
I use Creative Memories albums in black. We have built in shelving on either side of our living room fire place that I took out and resized to fit the 12 x 12 albums. Eventually, I probably will have 50, but they will fit and look like part of my decor. Right now I have 10-15.
I do 1-2 albums a year. I print about 500 photos at a time, with the idea of doing a 2-4 page spread per event/date and I do take photos if we go on a hike and not just family events. I try to keep each day to a two page spread and then send any photos that didn't make the cut to Grandma who is overseas. This way I don't feel guilty about the money being spent on printing.
I do scrap chronologically and find I have albums for every second year. I finish one year and then start the current year we are now in. At least this way the kids can see themselves growing up in the books, if not everything.
Yea, Lisa! This is the first time I checked out this thread and was going to say "Photo Freedom" or "Library of Memories"...Stacy Julian surely reformed my scrapbook guilt!
And HOORAY! for the ebook of Photo Freedom. Now I'll go buy it instead of borrowing my library's copy every couple of months. I read it over and over, trying to re-program myself!
The only thing I have to deal with is that I have gaboodles of CM albums...mega bucks invested there...and not much completed. So I have decided to use those albums until they are all used up and then switch later. Or not. I can't afford to replace everything. But I also know that I can make it work with Library of Memories, just takes a bit of thought.
Have you tried divided page protectors? You could do just one or two spreads for a whole trip that way. Just pick the best picture of each event, and then journal what you did. You can find lots of inspiration with this type of scrap booking if you search project life. I don't think you need their specific products though. Most paper crafters have plenty of paper to make their own journaling squares.
The only thing I have to deal with is that I have gaboodles of CM albums...mega bucks invested there...and not much completed. So I have decided to use those albums until they are all used up and then switch later. Or not. I can't afford to replace everything. But I also know that I can make it work with Library of Memories, just takes a bit of thought.
Ditto on the CM albums, just a few and not gaboodles ;) I am trying to figure out if I can use the coverset and use the Picfolio inserts, just to speed things up. I have started to use the side loading and inserting digital pages (I am having trouble with them crinkling at the edge). I'm down to two coversets, which is why I'm beginning to look around. The CM albums have been on sale a few times in the past six months so I think CM is adjusting too. Will be interesting to watch.
well, don't post much here and I guess it's ok to post a differing opinion. I still have tons of old pics to go thru. Just thought it might help some like it helped me. I started doing digital pages when my now 6 yr old grand niece was born and quickly got overwhelmed, not only with keeping up but I was printing 4 copies of ea page - one for her mom, my niece, one for her grandmom, my sis, one for grt grandmom, my mom, and one for me. Then I met someone who changed my life - turned me on to this software Create HD slideshows with ProShow. that makes slides shows you can play on your dvd player on your tv.
You can include as many pictures as you want, add music, and personalize as much or as little as you want. My main objective is that it gets the pictures out of your camera/computer so they can be enjoyed. Each year for the past 3 I've done a slideshow for each of my nieces of their young families for the whole previous year. It's become a Christmas tradition that later in the day when things are calmed down we watch their slideshows from the previous years. And you know who's the most emotional? My nieces husbands - one is kind of quite a lot but he thanks me profusely and sincerely many times for what I've done.
They have a free download to try and a "wizard" to make it idiot (for me) proof to get started - then as you learn more you can change/tweak more. I've even had a couple of "paid" jobs for other people. Right now I'm working on a kind of my history/family one from back in the dark ages when me, sis and bro were little. I'd gotten those pics in a box from my parents, scanned them all (90% in b&w) and now I'm putting that together as I have time.
Not a lot of computer skills needed and I just thought this might help someone like it helped me.
Diana
to keep this "legal" just wanted to add that the first slideshow I did I took the digital layouts and just included them as a "page" the graphics/stamping I'd done were included that way
Family albums
