...magnetised by the mic while I kick my juice!
Ahhh, I just never get tired of those awesome lyrics… but it’s back to solving your scrapbooking problems.
I have so many ideas swirling around in my head, I know that I have to be a little smarter in the way I scrapbook. As I said earlier this week, I love being able to scrap out of order, working on different things at different times.
With that in mind I have set up albums that I can easily come back and add to over time. Kids school albums are a perfect example of this; set up your system and then each year you update. You know what you are doing and it shouldn’t take to long, you just have to watch that you don’t fall behind (not saying that that has happened to me. Ha!).
Other albums I have set up include fun albums like our “Little Book of Big Things”. I had noticed from our holiday snaps that we had gathered a small collection of photos of the kids posing with “big” things that you find in touristy spots. That was when I decided to make this small 6” x 6” album to document all these kitsch attractions.
I kept it really simple – photo
– location – journaling – date, and set the template up on my computer. I chose
a patterned paper I thought would go with a lot of photos and used a small
amount as my embellishment. I wrote a brief summary of how / why / when and
that’s it.
You can see the photos span nearly 10 years and I have plenty of space in that album to add another 10 years worth!
I
made sure I wrote down all the details of papers, fonts, point sizes and
colours so that I can always replicate it when I need to. I also cut the
patterned paper into the 6” x ½ “ strips that I needed and tucked all this in
the last page, so it is there whenever I go back to it. I can update an entry
in this album in about 20 minutes.
Sure, that paper might run out and I might not be able to find it (note to self: check sisters stash to see if she has a sheet of this Basic Grey Recess paper LOL) but if that happens, I will just choose another coordinating paper and move on. When people look through this album, it’s not the paper that they are laughing and reminiscing about.
My “Gimme 5” album (a great BPS class by Cathy Zielski) is set up the same way. I worked through all the entries I wanted to during the class, and then decided that there was nothing stopping me adding people as time went on.
I
have the template on my computer and when I think of a person, or 5 facts about
them I jot it down in a note at the back of the album. I also cut up plenty of
patterned paper squares so when I am ready for an update it will be quick and
painless, and I’m not at the mercy of having just the right orange patterned
paper on hand.
Other albums I have set up using this method include my “family stories “ album (old photos and a fond memory from my childhood). There is no pressure on me to update it, but if I come across a photo and I have a story, then I can quickly pull a page together.
There
is no rule that scrapbooking is an all or nothing proposition. Slow and steady
(adding a page here, adding a page there) really can win the scrapping race!! I
have lots of albums on the go and it does not bother me that they aren’t
“technically” finished, we still get lots of enjoyment out of them and that’s
really what its all about. OK,
tomorrow is our last day. Sigh. Now that you have seen the albums and the layouts,
I thought I would finish up by talking about the systems that I have in place
that let me get any sort of scrapbooking done. Sounds
like a plan… And just before I go, a few photos for Vicki who had asked me in the comments section on Wednesday about scrapping albums for sport coaches, and I told her I would find some old ones of mine. Here they are. Take heed 'cause I'm a lyrical poet Miami's on the scene just in case you didn't know it!