This might be a common problem when you’ve gone without scrapping for a while. Or you may have the opposite problem: way too many pictures and no idea where to begin. Today we're going to identify which pictures you want to use for your jumpstart layouts.
If you have too many pictures:
Start with the story you are trying to tell (journaling from yesterday), and figure out what pictures do the best job telling that story. There is no reason all your pictures should end up on scrapbook pages (that’s what photo albums and hard drives are for) Be selective when deciding which pictures to print out, and don’t be afraid to delete 80% of your digital photos if you take a lot (many of those will be virtual duplicates of one another). For this week, worry ONLY about the pictures that will go on the three pages your are making.
If your journaling for one of your pages this week includes a list of some sort, this is your chance to use lots and lots of pictures on one layout. Looking all the way back to last Christmas, there was no way I was going to make layouts of each different activity we did. But I didn’t want to ignore the pictures (or the fun) so I made a simple summary layout using lots of pics and a quick list. Either print all the photos at a small and uniform size, or make a digital collage.
Now, if you have the opposite problem (like I did) and you don’t have enough pictures:
Your pictures and your story (journaling) do not have to come from the same day. If you don’t have pictures that go with your journaling, see if you have any other pictures with a similar feel. I wanted to make a layout about going to the park to hit balls with the kids and their dad. But I didn’t take my camera with me when we went. Should I drag us all back to the park and recreate the event to get some pics? No way. I did have a few pictures of the kids playing catch. They weren’t the best pictures in the world, and they didn’t have the golden evening sun in them, but you know what? They worked.
Use pictures from the same activity on different layouts. One Sunday afternoon I snapped a few pictures of each of my children. Instead of using all those pictures on a “Sunday afternoon photo shoot” layout, I chose two of each child to use on a personality-based layout. That means I’ll be able to create four different layouts using just one afternoon’s pictures.
Keep your camera handy for a day or two. Normally my camera is downstairs on a high shelf where my mountain climbing 2 year old can’t reach it. Which also means I can’t reach it very quickly. I brought the camera up to the main room in the house and kept it handy for a few days. I got some shots of some really everyday sorts of things – and found a few that would work with the layouts I had already written journaling for.
So, for your three jumpstart layouts, figure out which pictures your have that will work, or which pictures you can take today that will work.
You can either get your photos printed now in whatever size you are most comfortable scrapping, or you can wait until you see what's coming in the next few days--Friday and Saturday's posts will show you a couple easy ways to get all three layouts done in short order.
Don't forget to check back tomorrow for giveaway day!
