It's Jennifer Larson again with one final day to show you how to design a simple, classic vacation album quickly and easily.
Monday I shared how I would organize the "chapters" or layouts of the album. Tuesday I showed my photo secret--using templates to fit many photos on a page. Today I begin to assemble the album.
The first thing I do is select products. To make it easily, I use one scrapbooking collection for the whole album. I often pick the collection right after I return from vacation and keep it in the same Iris container I use for memorabilia. I don't pick themed paper per se--no Disney paper in this album--but I go for colors and patterns that remind me of our vacation. For the Disney album I picked October Afternoon's Boarding Pass.
Next I make the title page, which serves as a template for the whole album.
Here's the easiest part for me, which I've blogged about before: I use the same album design every year, and I use the same layout design on every page. Here's a basic sketch (You'll see there's a spot for three photos on the first page; you could also replace it with an embellishment cluster or more journaling.):
And here's the inside layout I've been working on this week:
I had originally planned separate pool and water pages, but I realized I didn't have enough photos for two spreads and instead combined them on the same spread. To do the journaling, I measure the space I have on the page, open a Word document, and create a text box (Insert-TextBox) that will fit. (Note: when I am working on the whole album, I usually put all the text boxes on the same document to save paper.)
On the layout, you'll see that I use a little patterned paper, a few embellishments, and a lot of photos and story. I may switch it up when I change layouts--put the title at the bottom and not the top, or put the title page on the right and the photo collage on the left--or I might rotate the patterned paper every few pages.. Still, it's the same design, which makes assembling this album quick, but with a classic design that highlights the story and photos.
I haven't yet affixed the journaling because I may ink the edges. (I actually planned the journaling first and printed it on my printer for one album I made, but that kind of attention to detail sort of sucked out a bit of my soul, so I prefer printing and affixing it on the page, even if it's tone-on-tone.) And I may pull out my sewing machine to stitch in between each photo on the collage. I am willing for some odd reason to torture myself in that way.
One final note for the back of the album:
On the inside cover of the back I glue a big envelope with a lot of strong adhesive, and I put the memorabilia that I want to keep in there. I satisfy my need to keep mementos without worrying about archival quality of the products or how to fit them in the design.
Thank you for spending the week with me! I hope this gave you ideas for how to tackle a big project like a vacation album and spend less time creating something you'll treasure for years.
