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Making a vacation album: alternate albums

This week I have been sharing my process for making a vacation album:

Monday: Memorabilia and journaling

Tuesday: Organizing the album

Wednesday: Selection photos

Thursday: Layouts

Friday: Alternate albums

As you can see, today I am sharing vacation albums that break the mold from what I usually do.

First, every year I ask my family what their five favorite things from vacation were and put them in an album. Here is one from a few years back:

This mini album usually tides me over until I have time to scrap the full album, but I don't see why you couldn't use this to represent your whole vacation.

I also did something different when we didn't go on a big vacation and instead camped for a week, the same vacation as the mini album above. That year I did a pocket page 6x8 album. Here are some pages:

I used October Afternoon's Daily Flash and Pebbles' Great Outdoors Project Life Cards for the most part.

This completes my vacation week! I hope I shared something this week that inspired you to scrapbook. If so, please share what you did!

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Making a vacation album: layouts

Today is the fourth day I am sharing my process for making a vacation album. Here's the schedule for the week:

Monday: Memorabilia and journaling

Tuesday: Organizing the album

Wednesday: Selection photos

Thursday: Layouts

Friday: Alternate albums

Today I share how I go from photos to finished layouts. First, I make my vacation albums 8.5x11, and I generally use the same design on every page:

When I printed photos for each layout, I printed 2-3 4x6 photos for the title page and journaling (keeping in mind I would have to physically trim them to make them fit) and I printed the full page collage on an 8.5x11 inch print with some white space for a border.

As for products, I tend to select just one line for the album, so I buy it, plus some extra papers and embellishments that I really like and store it with my ephemera. Then, when I am ready to make the album, I don't have to search for products. My vacation album from Disney in 2010 used October Afternoon's Boarding Pass:

My vacation album from South Dakota in 2011 used October Afternoon's Sasparilla:

My album from Maine in 2012 used Fancy Pants' Nautical:

And the album I will make for our 2013 trip to Glacier and Spokane will use Fancy Pants' Happy-go-Lucky.

You can see from my pages that I tend to house the whole page on alternating shades of cardstock and I use strips of patterned paper and clusters of embellishments. Using the same design and one line keeps the album cohesive and easy to make.

And that's my process for designing the layouts! Tomorrow I will share two ways I scrapbook vacation that break the pattern.

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Making a vacation album: selecting photos

Hello again! It's Jennifer Larson, continuing to share my process for creating vacation albums. Here again is the week's schedule:

Monday: Memorabilia and journaling

Tuesday: Organizing the album

Wednesday: Selection photos

Thursday: Layouts

Friday: Alternate albums

Today I'll talk about possibly the most time-consuming, and for me least fun, part of the process: deciding which photos I'll use in the album.

I use the list I made yesterday to organize my photo selection.  I'll take a chapter subject--the road out, for example--then look through PSE and open all the photos I like and that tell the story in PSE Editor. Next, I'll select the 2-3 best photos and crop them to 4x6; these I'll use on the same page as the title and journaling. Of the rest, I'll narrow it down to the best photos and the ones that tell the story best. Once I do, I will make a multi photo collage on an 8.5x11 inch base to take up an entire page. Here's a video:

How to create a multiple-photo collage using PSE 10 from Jennifer Larson on Vimeo.

From experience, I know that the collage best fits no more than 11-13 photos. If I don't have that many, I make fewer spots; at times I'll fill a spot with patterned paper and embellishments.

As I mentioned yesterday, I tend to put a family photo from vacation on the first page and a few photos that didn't make the 

Thanks for visiting! Tomorrow I'll discuss how I take the photos and finish the pages.

 

Making a vacation album: organizing the album

Hello! It's Jennifer Larson again, sharing more about my process for creating vacation albums. Here's the schedule for the week again:

Monday: Memorabilia and journaling

Tuesday: Organizing the album

Wednesday: Selection photos

Thursday: Layouts

Friday: Alternate albums

And today I'll talk about how I go about organizing the album.

Though I take notes during the vacation day by day, I don't create an album organized by days. Instead, I open up my vacation photos in PSE and browse through them to see what I took photos of:

(Note: I do not tag any photos when I import them. I probably should, but I generally remember the year and month things happened, so I just scroll until I find those pictures. It may be a little more time consuming, but doing this sometimes helps me discover long-buried stories along the way, which makes me happy).

Once I find the photos, I scroll through them, taking notes of themes that I can turn into layouts. For example, in my camping albums, I often have a page about our campsite, plus ones of various hikes we went on, locations we visited, and any water activities we did. Here's how I have tentatively organized the vacation album I'm working on for Glacier/Spokane:

1. Title page and contents (I always put a family photo on this page)
2. The road out
3. St. Mary's Campground
4. Hike with Mel and Dean (this title will change; I have to look in my journaling for the name of the trail)
5. Waterfalls (this will probably be a four-page layout because of the number of pictures and the depth of the story)
6. Logan Pass
7. Fish Creek Campground
8. Bowman Lake backcountry camping (this too will be four pages)
9. Polebridge (not sure this will be a spread, but it was memorable, so I have a placeholder)
10. Mel's house
11. Spokane (this might be 4 pages)
12. Dean's house
13. Looking back (on the last page I usually put a couple favorite photos, often taken from behind, with a quotation that seems to capture the vacation)

 Now that I have decided the subject for each layout, I am ready to start selecting photos for each layout. I'll share my process for that tomorrow!

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GIVEAWAY: WINNER!

Thank you for commenting to win a digital stamp set! By a random number generator Sandy Ross is our lucky winner! Yay! Please email: [email protected] to claim your prize!

Thank you for a fun week!

Lisa

Making a vacation album: memorabilia and journaling

Hello! It's Jennifer Larson. Since the monthly theme is vacationers, I wanted to share my process for creating a vacation album. I've shared my vacation albums before, but I am looking at it more fully from the beginning of the planning stages this time, and I've started trying something new that I'd like to share later this week. Here's the plan for the week:

Monday: Memorabilia and journaling

Tuesday: Organizing the album

Wednesday: Selection photos

Thursday: Layouts

Friday: Alternate albums

When I go on vacation, I usually keep a shopping bag in the car tucked under a front seat for memorabilia and ephemera: postcards, maps, stickers, etc. When I get home, I put them in a Craft Keeper or Iris container until I'm ready to make the album. Here's one I am working on right now from 2013, our trip to Glacier National Park and Spokane:

And the one I started for this year's vacation to Maine:

After I select the album I will use to scrap the vacation, I glue an envelope into the back of the album, cutting the flap off before I do. Then I cull the memorabilia/ephemera, keeping only the ones that accompany the story best, and I put them in the envelope, sort of as a last chapter for the vacation. Here's what I did for Glacier/Spokane:

While vacationing, I usually take a small notebook and write lists of memorable details that happen every day. When we return home, I tear out the pages and put them in the Craft Keeper with the ephemera. When I'm ready to make the layouts, I use these lists to recreate the vacation, even if I make the album years later. I'll discuss this more on Thursday.

That's it for today! Tomorrow I'll be back to share my process for organizing the album.

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