My blog is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.
One day I’m talking about organizing a bathroom closet, then it’s sharing free downloads to make a book with your kids’ class at school, then it’s a mushy topic like showing love, and then on to bacon. Bacon! But then it’s a health-related topic. And then I’m doing some give-away for fun. And talking about how to nurture creativity in our children. And paying tribute to photography. Then answering your random questions about … everything random.
(If you missed the bacon post, it’s here.)
So … yeah. I’m pretty random. Just the way I like it. But I’m guessing what brought a lot of you here in the first place is scrapbooking.
So let’s talk about scrapbooking for a minute. Specifically, let’s talk about scrapbooking SYSTEMS. The numero uno thing I want to say, and I believe most scrapbookers who work in the scrapbooking industry would also say this … is that there is not one, end-all-be-all approach that works for everyone. We all agree on that, right? Good? Good. Okay.
And that’s precisely why this is such a fun discussion.
The second thing I want to say is that the reason I’m bringing this up now is because I’m having a hard look at my own system right now. Reflecting on what I’ve done for the past 15 years and thinking about my personal evolution in the organization of it all.
My approach is different than yours. And your approach is different than your sister-in-law’s. And her approach is different than … okay, you get it. So let’s get to it. I’ll share with you where I am with my SYSTEM right now. These are some of our ongoing chronological albums.
I transitioned from doing these “traditional” (whatever that means) scrapbooks for our family albums in 2009. Since then, I have been preserving our family’s story with the Project Life format, which has been very liberating and really fun. Now, with the addition of the digital version that we launched for 2010, I am doing one digital Project Life book each year now. This will be our annual family yearbook and I will make copies for each of the kids. (they’re very thin books, so space is no longer a concern as it is with big albums).
Okay, so on to the kids. And the “big albums” I’m referring to. This is where I still do scrapbooking in the “traditional” paper sense.
Porter’s albums are green.
Claire’s albums are yellow.
Crew’s albums are blue.
All albums (including the red family ones) are from We R Memory Keepers.
The main reason I am keeping the kids’ books like this is because kids have stuff. The stuff needs to go somewhere. Plus, let’s be honest. Scrapbooking is just in my blood. I gotta do it. I enjoy it. Just in smaller doses than I used to. That’s why I feel really, really good about our family stories being in a different format now.
I spent years and years deeply engrossed in the creative side of scrapbooking. Now, 3 kids later, I still enjoy keeping scrapbooks for each of our kids. My pages are simple. I still get to play with pretty papers and fun letter stickers and I still enjoy the art of putting a complete layout together. But I keep it really simple. My main purpose in doing books for my children isn’t to feed my creative spirit. (Although that’s certainly a fun side effect.) It’s to record their story and tell them how loved and valued they are. It’s to document their milestones, achievements, struggles, friends, excursions, family history, and education.
Lately, however … as in the past several months, I haven’t touched scrapbooking stuff. It’s been on the back burner. It’s been a busy season and I’ve been perfectly okay letting stuff pile up a bit.
I have just been sticking items on top of the albums lately. The pile is patiently waiting for me to organize and put away in albums. And I will. I can sense those creative juices flowing just a bit. I can tell that I’m ready to do a few layouts. Still need to finish Crew’s first year (one layout per month — still love that system) and I have a few school layouts to do for Porter’s and Claire’s books.
Here’s the bottom line for my CORE SYSTEM:
[ one ] Each child has a chronological, ongoing series of scrapbooks. The big-picture goal is that each child will have about 6-7 albums total that will cover their entire childhood, from birth through high school. My school kit will be the backbone of this system and create natural flow throughout the albums.
[ two ] I am doing an online family yearbook of each calendar year (Project Life) and printing copies for each child and for us to keep here at home. Right now I’m keeping up with a-picture-a-day and I love it. The big-picture goal is that everyone will have a series of skinny yearbooks representing our family life.
Okay, your turn. If you have a system of keeping memories & photos & stories that you want to share — because it really works for you — please do share with us. Give us the bottom line CORE SYSTEM. Can’t wait to learn from you!
Tags: albums, Project Life, scrapbooking system
We have modified Stacy Julians Library of Memories system that work for us in both of our albums and iPhoto. We have albums that are People We Love, Places we go, All about "ME" (which is one on each one of the 4 of us), and Things we do. The kids will each get to have a copy of the ablum about them. They are all in the American Crafts Modern 12×12 albums but we put in 12×12, 8.5×11 and 6×6 pages. Totally random but lets us get something done in the format that there is time for that moment when the mood to produce strikes.
Becky–what shelving system do you have that the WRMK books fit in so nicely??
My system… since you asked, Is I do everything chronological… EVERYTHING! I even try to do layouts about the little things in life and they just go in the book in order accordingly by date. This makes for some random scrapbooks but that is how life is around here too! RANDOM! When my scrapbooks are full. Then I scan the pages and put them on a disc or even make a slideshow out of them on to a dvd. This is what I will give to all the kids. (so far I have 3 + one on the way) We also love to watch these on sunday or as a fun activity when family is over. When I pass on my kids can share the actual scrapbooks- but they will all have everything on digital file and can all see the real thing when they visit home.
So… another question for you…. I have been a fan since day one, but I will admit your sketches was my favorite. I love your layouts. I love that they are simple, and creative. It would be great to see some becky layouts… someday… when you get to it… since I have all your books, but miss the inspiration of your beautiful traditional layouts. But you know I will be a fan forever so, no rush… when you get to it I hope you will share.
i too have gotten behind with my tradtional scrapbooking stuff. i havent wanted to take the leap into digital scrapbooking because i have so many supplies, love doing hands on scrapbooking, and have so much memorabilla to include with the pictures usually. i have my sons school albums, our family albums for each year, my sons baby album of his first year of life, an album of just "mom" pictures/events.
I have since gotten married, so i have my wedding album to do and have also started the baby kit for our new baby coming this summer. I will keep his school albums separate from my sons as well. I like to use the 12 x 12 memory keepers 3 ring binders with different colors. i have also used HSN photo share system to try to do a POTM method last year. I miss doing my scrapbooking on a consistent basis!!
also… incase you were wondering… yes I am behind… but I love scrapbooking so I do not care-
Hi I am a big fan of yours, and own the same albums as you for each of my three sons. But I will get other colors for Family, Christmas, Vacations, me and my husband. I love the way all the colors look like.
I am so happy you posted this. I currently have a book a year for each of my 2 boys (good thing they are still small!) and am contemplating VERY hard on where to go from here. I certainly dont want to hand them 18-20 books when they walk out my door one day, but I dont really know how to not do it that way… I take too many pictures and do too many things with them to not have huge books!
Right now I have yearly chronological books (actually 2 years in each one). The kids each have a school album and one with random things in it–one pagers. I have a pictures I love scrapbook, a scrapbook for each major vacation. The above albums are either 12 x 12 or 8 1/2 x 11. Then I have some smaller 8 x 8s and 6 x6s albums that are the "2 of U" (my kids together), the "4 of us", and the one of my husband and I together. I also have albums for each of our siblings (we have 3) that houses all school pictures and their family pictures throughout the years–once I get a new picture the outdated one goes in the album under the tab for that niece or nephew.
I used to do everything chronological and with traditional supplies, but now 3 kids later… I did P365 in 2009 and now for 2010 I'm doing a top 10 of 2010 album. As for the kids, they each have their school albums which is their main album and then for the rest of the stories I use Stacy Julian's LOM system. And more and more I am finding myself going completely digital. It's just easier to keep up when I can take my laptop everywhere
I love Library of Memories. It's an amazing system if you are part physical photos and part digital or all of one or the other. The storage albums and catagory drawers are wonderful way to get yourself orgavized for sure. Project life fits perfectly in the LOM
Since I started scrapbooking way back in 1995 (the archival way), but was doing it nonetheless back 15 years earlier, I have done several things. When I set about the method I do now, there weren't a lot of products or albums out there. To test the waters, I did a few vacation albums and then launched into baby books for my three children (twins and a single born 23 months apart). Surprisingly, after the first 6 months (with twin preemies), I got a lot accomplished during their naptimes. By the time they were 2, I had their books up to date. Adding the third child, I still managed to get her baby book done (during a 2 hour nap, I dedicated to scrapbooking. Then I didn't have time for a few years. I continued to take pictures and collect memorabilia.
I sort our photos into photo boxes for each of my children and one for our family albums. Everyone has their own color for albums and I just recently (for my 2008 books, switched to 3 ring We R. Memory Keepers albums. I plan to use a combination of 12 x 12 pages, and divided pages. I still keep vacations in a separate album, with maybe a few pages in my family albums. I am planning to either use 2 up photo albums to catch up on stuff pre-kids or use the divided page protectors, which should help me get the old stuff caught up. I am also planning to create page kits for cropping so I can get more accomplished.
One other thing that has helped me scrap more efficiently, is to create similar pages for all the kids books when I scrapbook an event. I don't waste time, picking out papers and embellishments and can make all my cuts at the same time, then systematically put the pages together and move on to another events. Using this method/system I have completed over 200 pages in both 2008 and 2009.
I follow the "stacey way" pretty much too..Places We Go, People We Love (included extended family and friends), each child has their own albums, a school album for each (which I'm about to switch to Cathy Z's digital form, I'm pretty sure), Birthdays, Holidays..and then an album about just my husband and I..lots of different albums, but it works for me. I use the American Craft D-ring albums..and I've been doing a lot more digital too, but I just mix them in with the others..I haven't been very productive lately though? Grrrr…
Heather
I love the art of scrapbooking so even with four young children I still make time for it. God has given me stories that need to be told and so I don't think I would ever give up traditional scrapbooking.
I am doing Project Life (and LOVE it!)as POTD and we do a family picture each Sunday for our picture that day. I do mini books, albumns of all sizes and altered projects. I do what ever I feel tells each story best. I don't worry about chronilogical order. I work on what I want to when I want to. Scrapbooking is for fun so stop stressing!
my system is, i do whatever I want. I have NO system. i am not chronological at all. i just do what I want to do!
Does anyone still use photo albums to keep photos that they like, but don't think they will ever scrap?
My system so far has been: take a ton of photos, collect stuff, turn it all over to my mom and be extremely grateful for what she gives me back in scrapbook pages. (Why yes, I am in my mid-30's, married, with 2 kids.)
I've started P365 this year and have found I really enjoy it. So I'm working on a digital Project Life book for that and still letting my mom do the big stuff in traditional format. Thankfully she loves to do it.
Weird because this has SO much been on my mind lately as I try to sort it out and go forward. I started scrapbooking in highschool… twenty years later and I honestly don't have much to show for it except for random layouts here and there. I've never been good at completing an album. With the start of my own business, scrapbooking has almost gone out the window, but I think about it ALL the time so I know I can't let it go altogether.
I have watched you very closely through the years, studying your system, the books you use, etc. Have always loved the family albums you use. And then came Project Life. So this is the game plan and so far I'm keeping up. That's a first!
1. I'm doing the Project Life kit as a photo a day. This hard copy will be the family album. The kids will each get a digital version.
2. A photo a day is great, but that doesn't mean that I don't have 20 more great pictures from any given day, or a party, or Christmas, etc. So I bought an album like Becky's (We R Memory Keepers) along with a variety of page protectors with the slip in slots. This will also be a family album. I'm trying to keep it as simple as possible with the idea of just getting the pics in the book. Most of them will not be traditionally scrapbooked. But this system gives me the freedom to slip in a traditionally scrapbooked page every now and then which I love. Far less pressure. (IF I can fit the year's photos in the back of the Project Life book I will… keeping my fingers crossed.)
3. The kids will also have the same kind of books, color-coded, just like you. I'm going to follow the same system as the family book – most of the photos will be slipped into slots. Some pages will be traditionally scrapbooked if I really want to make a statement. IF I do scrapbook a layout from an event that both kids were involved in, they will both get the same layout in each of their books. Most of the slipped in photos will be specific to each kid otherwise.
4. We have a Family Christmas album where 4 pages are added each year.
5. Each kid will have a "School Years" Album.
6. Each kid will eventually have a baby book. But I'm guessing it will be a mix of traditional and slip in pages.
It feels good to finally have a plan that is do-able. My photos are finally being put into albums!
I'm a grandmother & late "scrapbook" bloomer, but love the paper & embellishment kind of scrapbooking. I'm also very chronologically-minded, so I'm doing a lot of catching up. What I decided to do as gifts (probably for Christmas – not sure what year!) for our 2 grown children is to make each an album that encompasses their birth through pre-married life. The first 4 years are quite detailed with lots of pics, but starting at age 5, the layouts are 2-pg. yearly recaps. I've included lots of journaling, beginning with a letter from me to each one relating how I (& their dad) felt when I first found out I was pregnant, how we planned for them, & including the day they were born. I'm able to do these albums simultaneously with our "family" albums. It has seemed daunting at times, but I'm moved every day by the tender memories that are surfacing. Sorry, didn't mean to write a book here!
Carol
I put all my pictures in photo albums (3 rings) I was so sad having them in boxes
Now when I want to scrap I go to my albums pick the pictures and I put the Lo righ there. I have an album for each year, some years two albums. Maybe in the future when my kids grow I just take his personal pages and make an album for each one, I have two kids.
Also, I scan every page I posted on line and I have them in my hard disk. My kids loves to see them in slideshow.
Love your blog and ideas.
Since when I started collecting stuff I was not gung ho into scrapbooking, I have various systems in place. When my 13 year old was little, I went the route of various (cute) boxes for his stuff. That's when I realized what a hoarder I was becoming. I moved on to big plastic bins: one for each of my sons, one for me, one for my husband, and one for us as a couple. My next step is to go "old school." I would really like to purchase some nice cedar chests for the boys and for us. I have embraced the fact that to scrapbook each thing in these boxes is an unachievable goal. However, I want them to be able to decide what to keep and what to pitch, and I think a cedar chest can be like a treasure chest. A nice piece of furniture for their adult lives.
As for my scrapbooking systems, I seem to like odd sizes and shapes of scrapbooks, so they are not nice and neat and aligned on a shelf (that, by the way, looks fantastic, and when my husband saw the pic, he wished I would take a hint). I found the key to be accessibility to those who enjoy them. When I was younger, I used to love pouring over photo albums that my mom kept. My youngest son loves a K & Company album (I got a loooong time ago) that allowed for sound recording. I used the album to help me through his early days of not speaking, before we had an autism diagnosis. He loves it and he pulls it out almost weekly. Therefore, I have to keep it accessible to him.
I have black modular shelves from Target in my craft area that house many of my scrapbooks. They work well and are at 5-year-old eye level. I typically buy albums according to a theme I plan to do. For example, I have a small scrapbook I bought at CKC a few years back. It was made from a license plate from Hawaii. Some day, I know I will get to Hawaii, and that album will be used for the trip. For now, it's empty. I have several albums like that hanging around in a big metal cabinet (also black) in my craft room. I'll get to them… I think…
Does this scattered response give you an idea of my lack of a solid system?
I started scrapbooking when I was 14 and looking back had absolutely no organization. I eventually started organizing my own books by category…school things, everyday life, friends, vacation, family, etc.
Now that I am older and married, I have tried to do one family album per year. I have also have our wedding album to work on. For big things, like a Europe trip, I have a book just devoted to that. I also blog about our life events for our far away relatives and have a book published at the end of each year. When we have kids I might publish one for each of them per year too, so they will have them when they are older.
Since we don't have any children yet, so I appreciate all the ideas of how people have scrapbooked everything for their kids. I love the color coded books idea and having books that cover their life.
I only have one child. This makes it super easy for me. I did a traditional album for her first year. Since then I have an album for Christmas, and another for Halloween (both traditional). I create a photo book on line (Shutterfly) for each Birthday. I am now using Project Life for the family any your school kit from your days with CK for her school life and the rest is really for my benefit. Scrapbooking is my creative outlet so I scrapbook the pictures I like and store them in chronological order. I just finished her second year (minus the Christmas/Birthday/Halloween) album. What I need is an album that will hold the layouts I create and the pictures I don't scrapbook. I am using Pebbles Inc. for the School Kit but the binder style rings are to limiting and I fear they won't be enough for all the things I am putting into her school kit.
I'm struggling with finding what to do for my family going forward. Thanks for posting this. I'm anxious to read lots of new ideas!
Oh, Becky, I am so glad to hear that you do still scrapbook the traditional way and still love to do it! I thought you were abandoning it in favor of project life.
I scrap traditionally, as well. I absolutely LOVE scrapbook supplies (and admint to being overstocked!). When I actually sit to scrapbook I do whatever brings me inspiration at that moment, however, all finished layouts are filed chronologically. I always do separate vacation albums as we normally take one good vacation every year. I also have a separate album for my son, although I did not start scrapbooking until he was in the 8th grade (wish I would've started sooner). I really do have intentions of going back to scrapbook baby photos…some day.
I started project 365 last year and am doing project life this year. I find that I do love the POTD process, as it is somewhat of a everyday journal of our lives, but it does not replace traditional scrapbooking for me. Plus, I find that I take WAY more pictures now in the past 2 years beause of it.
How 'bout a button on your blog for us traditional croppers who still need a Becky sketch now-and-then?
Love this topic:-)
Always adapting as we go (and grow as a family), I've tried to look at it from the opposite end—who is going to want to look at what when? So we have a Christmas album, a smaller Halloween album, a Places We Go album, and individual baby albums for the kids. These are the photos my kids most want to look at and share with friends.
I have one BH School Life album that I love and hope to have for each son. I love Project Life and I'm doing 365 for 2010. I don't see myself doing this every year though. I love Teresa's idea above and will probably do some version of that with WRMK albums and their 4×6 pockets on 12×12 pages mixed with layouts.
Someone asked about shelves…I have all of our WRMK albums in an Expedia bookcase from IKEA. Inexpensive and great!
When I started scrapbooking years ago, it was traditional layouts in strict chronological order. They were fun and beautiful.
Then I had my daughter, Kaylee, and it was a matter of finding time so chronological order sorta went out the window. I love doing traditional layouts, there are so many beautiful things and inspiration out there, I can't give it up. New philosophy "Scrapbook as the pictures grab me." if I scrapbook the same picture twice… so what?!
This year I have started Project Life. I'm in love with how easy it is to do and I've started doing "layouts" with 12×12 page protectors divided into 4×6 sections.
It's hard keeping up with everything sometimes but I can't seem to stick to one method. Do as much as you can, as often as time allows and do what makes you happy. It's the best way I have found so far.
I love this topic! I started scrapbooking when my first child was born about 8 years ago and found pretty quickly that is hobby was a. expensive, b. addictive, and c. a space hog. After doing 8 albums I realised that I couldn’t sustain this kind of scrapping. I went from 1-2 photos per layout to 15-20 photos per single page layout, but still the albums grew. After not being able to get your first Project365 kit I turned to digital scrapping as an option. Once I started that, I was hooked!
So this is my current system, I do ProjectLife but I have found a Cathey Zielske layout that works great for me and I use that for my POTD. I also do as many extra layouts as I want as I am no longer space restricted. Buying a new 500gb or 1tb drive is not so expensive anymore (but you definitely need a backup drive). I also have your school expansion kit which I do a double page layout per school year for my children and a 2-page spread per Year In Review. I have 2 albums for each of my kids and am hoping that it will fit all of of this up till their 21st bdays. I have also scanned in each and every layout I have done traditionally so I have a copy of everything that I have scrapped and can give each child (if they want) a digital copy of everything. I also do a 25 Days of Christmas Album in traditional scrapping, and do the occasional theme album. I still have quite a few supplies to use so I still need to do traditional scrapping, but digital scrapping is my main way of scrapbooking now and I love it.
My system is similar to yours. I have brown albums that are our family albums, green for my daughter, blue for my son, and red for family history stuff (when my husband and I were kids, our parents, grandparents, siblings, childhood). I decided to keep those separate instead of with the family albums because those are more "our" history than the history we're making together right now.
My goal with Project Life is to use it as a snapshot of our every day. A lot of these photos will take the place of some of our family layouts. I love taking snapshots of my kids sleeping but I also don't want 20 layouts of that! That's where Project Life is my saving grace.
Are there some photos and journaling that you duplicate in the family album and in each children's album? I think that is where I get stuck somtimes. I feel like I'm duplicating myself between a blog, albums etc…
Your thoughts?
Thanks
Kathy
Thanks for all the posts!! I enjoyed hearing all the different ideas. I am currently trying to figure out where I am going with my scrapbooking and organization. I have a 4 year old and 6 month old twins. Life has gotten pretty crazy and there is no time to scrapbook. (at least without feeling guilty)
Everything in my albums NEED to be in chronological order. Something in my brain will not allow me to do anything different. Since the twins arrival I have printed a seasonal album on Shutterfly as our family albums and I am trying very hard to keep up to date the Becky Higgins Baby Album. (which is amazing) Currently I am using 12×12 We R Memory Keepers albums, but have been contemplating using 8 1/2 by 11 to maybe allow me to keep up with events in our lives with a quick photo or two and just focus on the journaling to go with it instead of worrying about the layout. I pretty much scraplift most of my page ideas anyway, because I am so "in the box" thinking that I do not have the creative "out of the box" ideas for pages.
As a working mom, I feel like I have to keep things simple… although not everyone may think this is the simple way to do it, it works for me.
(1) I do a yearly digital scrapbooked album. This year I'm using blurb and loving it. I want to have a digital album for each year
(2) For my 2 kids (and any in the future), they each have a baby scrapbook and will each have a school years album to capture their learning journey. But the day-to-day family moments will be captured in the yearly family album.
(3) I also have Project Life and not sure yet how I will incorporate this in. I don't think it will (or can) replace my family yearly album. I may do it as a bonus here and there for fun. I keep thinking how fun it would be to just go back and see a picture from every day in a year of your life.
My traditional scrapbook system is similar to Stacy Julian's Library of Memories – I never feel behind with this system. LOVE IT!
1)Each kid has an album where I put in LOs when they are completed. We also have family albums that are NOT chronological (Place We Go, Things We Do, etc.)
2)Each kid has a 8.5×11 baby album with chronological LOs of the 1st year.
3)Each year I print a Blurb book of stories/pictures from my blog – another favorite!
4)Did P365 in '09 and am scaling back with Project Life in '10 – found I was missing time to creatively scrapbook. I will have random stuff for each month (only one spread) and will do spreads of things that I have more pictures of (like the day it snowed in TX).
I'm a fan of the Library of Memories system.
Ok… so I know that you asked us to share what works for us, but I'm not sure I've found that yet. I don't want to come across as "Negative Nancy", but I'm really struggling! I really wanted to get back into scrapbooking and when I saw Project Life I thought it would be the perfect solution for me. My husband and I just got married a few months ago and I thought it would be so awesome to document our first year of marriage. We don't have any children yet, but we both have full time jobs. Our life together is pretty routine and structured. It's been very hard to find something to take a picture of everyday after coming home from a long day at the office. After 3 months I feel that I've exhausted all possibilities! We've managed to keep up so far, but I can't imagine another 9 months of daily photos. On the other hand, traditional scrapbooking never really told my story. I did layouts for holidays and birthdays, but nothing in between! I am grateful for Project Life since I'm finding that I'm taking more pictures now and I can truly reflect on my life. I feel that it's a pretty accurate reflection of what the past 3 months have been for us. The problem is, you may not like what you see. It's making me realize that my job isn't my life and that there are probably things we're missing out on that we just haven't found yet. I'm hoping to find some balance between the two.
I do Project Life and follow Stacy Julian's Library of Memories. I am 100% happy with this system and can easily find any pictures I need at any given time. It's awesome!
My system is no system. I'm not stressing, I just take random photos I like, print them, then scrap in no order. I scrap like I live. Messy, unorganized, and just plain fun.
Believe me, I've tried to get more organized like I was when I worked outside the home, but as soon as I stayed at home…poof, that went out the door!
When I first started scrapbooking I tried to do everything chronologically. I quickly got behind and gave that up. Then I started scrapping whatever moved me at the moment. It has evolved into this basic system.
All albums are random, not chronological in anyway. Pages are mostly 12×12 with some 8 1/2 x 11. Layouts are single and double page spreads.
I've got the following albums going:
1 album or section of an album for each of the 9 kids. (my oldest is now up to 2 volumes – eek!)
2 volumes of a general family album
1 volume of my partner and me
2 volumes of theater productions (my kids do a lot of theater!)
2 volumes called Everyday Stuff
1 volume of holidays and traditions
1 volume of vacations
1 volume of special people (grandparents, friends, birth families for my adopted children etc)
I also have a ton of mini books on various topics.
I love paper scrapbooking – it's so therapeutic! I try to do it as often as I can, but I don't feel any pressure to do any particular topic, child, event etc.
What I struggle with the most is what to do with all of these albums! My kids are still young (2 to 14) and there is a lot of life left! I'm already up to about 20 albums and a huge basket of minis. How do you deal with the shear volume of albums (big or little) to store and display? Any advice??
Kari D.
I have considered myself a serious "scrapper" for about 9 years. I started to create albums chronologically for about 5 years, then I tried the Library of Memories system, but have recently gone back to a simpler chronological format. I am going to begin with 2008 (yep, I'm a couple of years behind) to create a 2 page 12×12 layout for each month of the year. Yes, some months have many events, others not so many, but I am committed to working with it. So it will be a total of 12, 2 page layouts for each year. I do have a blog and I am going to use that to help me document those smaller moments for each month. If a month happens to have a HUGE moment where I've taken hundreds of photos (such as an adoption of a child) I will dedicate a page just to that within the album. As far as vacations I have purchased some 2-up albums without note taking margins and I slide my photos into those albums and then every couple of pages I cut a 4×6 piece of card stock, add a few strips of patterned paper, some letter stickers, etc., and journal memories on that. That way I have smaller albums just for about 200 vacation photos and the journaling is included in a simple way. We are getting ready to adopt and I think that I will take on your approach for my child's album…simple 12×12 albums. I bought two of your baby kits a few years ago even though I didn't have kids, so I will be using one of those!!! I LOVE YOUR PRODUCTS!!! So simple and classic!
BTW…I love the We R Memory Keepers albums, but didn't want to invest $30 in each album. For your readers…Hobby Lobby has very similar albums and about once a month they are 50% off, making them $10 each!!! I have the dark red ones and LOVE them!
I too would love to see some more Becky inspired layouts too…even ones you've already done that weren't published already.
And a note to April who commented earlier…I too am married with no kids…I want you to encourage you to keep up with project life. You will appreciate looking back on the little things that made up your life before kids. Seriously, I took a photo of the Bath and Body works hand soap yesterday because it's just one of those little things I love to have in my home. Keep on girl… If you need some project life inspiration check out my blog at
http://www.angelamoore.typepad.com
I am doing albums for each of my girls (2 girls) and in those I am doing monthly layouts up to a year and then all the fun stuff in between and after that. I am just not doing as much stuff as I was doing when my first daughter was born because face it, if I did she would still be a year old in her albums when she is 14 (she is 3 now). I still get to be creative and have fun, I just dont have the pressure of getting EVERY picture scrapped. This is where my Project Life album comes in and I love it. I am able to record all of the "in between" stuff without having to make a big fancy layout about everything
thanks Becky!
Thanks, Angela! Love your blog and your daily pictures! Very inspiring! Ironically enough… I'm currently planning our next vacation in Sedona, AZ!
I knew it! I knew it was not possible for you to completely give up the kids' scrapbooks with the We R Memory books. Which brings me back to a comment that you commented on also. Project Life is great for people who are overwhelmed with the whole scrapbooking thing but for those of us who have diligently mirrored your system and followed your sketches, quite frankly I did not believe that you simple gave all of this up and had nothing for Crew….that being said….I'm glad you came clean! And I hope to see more layouts b/c as much as I love Project Life, not ready to give up the traditional scrapbooking and just end it all in the middle of their childhood!!
I follow the LOM process for organizing my photos, but here is what I do with my albums:
I am doing Project Life this year to commemorate my 35th birthday.
Each child has a 1st year 12 X 12 scrapbook.
Each child has a nice, easy to hold 8 X 8 scrapbook that chronicles various things from ages 1-4
I do one digital scrapbook 8 X 8 or 8.5 X 11 for our yearly summer vacation(s).
I have three 12 X 12 albums dating from 2003-Present for our family. These fit all different size pages and divided protectors. I don't scrapbook in chrono order, but the layout goes in the corresponding year UNLESS it is a connections layout or a special story that I want to scrap (learned from LOM) then I place it in the album for when I finished it (i.e. I did a page with a picture of my 3 year old son across the kitchen table, labeled it Distance and wrote a story about how it has been hard to connect with him since his baby sister was born. The album was done in 2009, but the pic is from 2007. The layout was placed in the 2009 family album). I don't scrap every event anymore, I do highlights or not at all.
Back when I was doing paper I was kind of haphazard. Mostly I found myself scrapping events and not worrying about everyday. I had a divider system for my son's school things.
Now I scrap totally digitally and have completed the first 18 years of my ds's life. I have so far only gotten from birth to age two printed but did so in a 7 x 7 blurb book that I absolutely love and plan to get the rest printed this way. Years 2 -5 will be the next one printed and then 6-9, 10-13, 14-17 and then 18 by itself.
I also do potd and work on heritage pages when I have the chance as well as my aam and an art journal. I also am making a first year of life book for my sweet little great niece.
All the books that I print out for me I plan to get in the 7×7 size as it is just perfect to leave out for people to look at.
Since I do my pages digitally, all my photos are organized by day, month, year and the everyday pages are organized the same way and then all of this goes into one folder by month/year. That keeps me organized and so I know when a photo was taken if I decide in say March 2010 I want to scrap a photo from Nov 2009.
I hope this makes sense. Anyway my photos are way more organized now than when I got prints and did paper pages.
WOW…all of you are SO organized. I have tried for years. I think my problem is I am just soooo behind. Then I feel overwelmed and don't know where to even begin. That is why I am loving project life. As long as I take a pic everyday then I jot it down, but even if I don't I can look at the picture and remember why I took it. I feel like I am ripping my kids as when my oldest graduated from high school I threw a album together from around age 11 to 18 yrs. Thats only ONE album, when I started my kids were 11, 9, and 7. So I tried to start when they were babies. Would never make that mistake again.
So my new approach is just to scrap everything new from here on out. Any other suggestions Becky???
And I am also curious the shelving systemstorage you do have also. As whenever I see a picture your albums look so awesome and secure.
I love Stacy's Library of Memories too. And I especially love her philosophy that every picture doesn't need to be scrapped and no child is going to want to haul ten scrapbooks with them when they leave home. My kids are older–26, 18, 14 & 12–so I have had two leave the nest already. Stacy's right–a baby book and a School of Life book or two is plenty. I do those for my kids, plus books in the four LOM categories for the whole family to enjoy. The LOM books are mine–I figure that if the kids ever want copies of those layouts, they can scan them (or use whatever new and amazing technology will be available by then). I do mostly traditional scrapping (love to play with design and product), but have been doing some digital lately as well and have had so much fun. My degree was in art, so this is as much a creative outlet for me as it is a documentation of family life. Works for us!
For paper scrapping…I scrap chronologically. I use 12 x 12 Creative Memory albums for our family life. I started out with one album per year…now each year takes up two albums…Each decade has it's own color~
In addition I have separate 8 x 10 albums for each of my children…from birth til they got married…each year of their lives condensed into a readers digest version for each year of their lives…with 2 pages of journaling and about 6 pages of photos that shows the highlights of each month…this all fits into 2 albums each~
I have separate 12 x 12 albums for each of our family vacations…the album cover and book design depending on where that vacation was…Hawaii…Alaska…road trip…etc…
For digi scrapping…I scrap whatever photos go with the kits I am using…I am sad to say all my digital layouts are either still on my computer or copied on to CD's waiting to be printed~
I love that scrapbooking is versatile. I do both traditional sometimes very simple pages and digital. I always get my digital pages printed as 12 x 12 as this is my scrap system.
I have binder albums in different colours for my 3 children. I have family albums and I have holiday albums, all the same brand of album just different colours. I also have a different colour for photos been passed onto me by relations I have one for both my husbands and my side of the family.
I have a few smaller albums but I really do like my photos organised and in chrological order or some sort of order so have my 12 x 12 albums around all the time. I keep one on our lounge coffee table and change this around often so we can look through them.
After completing Project 365 in my own way last year I have these smaller albums in a cane basket on a cupboard in our back room where they can be looked at any time.
I am OK with the fact I only did that for one year and just happily scrap away when time permits either digitally or traditional and put them side by side in their respective albums. I am crazy for organisation so each L.O is in their album almost straigth away.
Love your system Becky! I just did a post on this very thing too. I explain my "system" at the bottom of the post.
http://kennyanderin.blogspot.com/2010/03/scrapbooking-and-strawberries.html
There is the link if anyone wants to read it. Basically I'll do my kids albums using the project life albums and school kits. My blog is our family scrapbooks (I'll print into books). And then I do a Christmas album and a Halloween album just for fun to give me an excuse to be creative and use my supplies.
Love having an organized system for it all!
Here is a post I recently did showing how I'm turning the Project Life albums into scrapbooks for my kids…
http://kennyanderin.blogspot.com/2010/03/project-life-addisons-book.html
LOVE the Project Life albums!!!
I would really love to see inside one of those albums. Pretty please.
I haven't done anything for a family book since having my first child 8 years ago. My oldest has a complete first year baby book, but that's it. I've done random layouts of my oldest when the "bug" bit me, but there's no real organization to it. My second child has about 3 layouts in her baby book and my 3rd has absolutely nothing.
This is why I'm SO excited about Project Life! I'm doing the digital version and finding it a wonderful place to capture our life a week at a time. My goal is to be caught up with this year on PL, then start doing a 2009 album, and if that works out, continue with previous years. I also intend to print my blog for a more detailed record of our family to accompany the PL books.
As for the kids' albums, I'm hoping that having the family book up to date will motivate me to get those baby books done for #2 and #3. I have your Baby Kit for my son, all divided into sheet protectors and ready to scrap, I just have to DO IT! Thanks for the inspiration!
Can we still get the school kit anywhere? I just found your site and love it
I do a chronological "family" album, an ongoing "Christmas" album, my son's "school album", my son's "birthday" album, my son's "sports" album and a "family portrait" album
and YES—I am behind on all of them But that is okay…..
I scrapbook chronologically, and am 'behind'… whatever that means! I have two girls, they are 5 and 6 and each have about 5 or 6 albums already. My oldests albums are all red 12 x 12 and my second is all pink 12 x 12. I have started taking ALOT less pictures, not because I'm lazy, they just don't change like they did in the first few years. Now they are in school and I do a school album for both of them ( I love the BH School Kits!) When I do scrapbook their everyday stuff I have gone from 2 page 12 x 12 spreads to 1 page 12 x 12 with only a couple pictures on there! And it is totally fine! We still know what happened on all these occasions and I still have all the pictures stored on my computer that I don't use, so we can still look at them!
Big long story here, but that's the way I do it.
I scrap traditionally & it's chronological for the most part, but I am never caught up. With an autistic child, I don't have much time due to his therapy, but scrapping is MY therapy. Each of my kids has a baby album (post bound), I then moved to the three rings binders. (I got tired of having to trim pages to fit in the post bound albums when they got full!) Each child also has an album dedicated to birthdays and one to school. This helps me at least keep up in those areas. I jumped into Project Life this year (Hooray!!) for our family stuff. I also want to thank you, Becky, for "freeing me" from feeling the need to make my pages sooooo artistic looking. I do them fast and simply now!
I do chronological scrapbooking and P365.
Thanks to P365 – I can now record all the fabulous little things that happen each day and save my scrapbooking time for the big stuff or my favorite photos etc. ie. I no longer feel obligated to scrapbook (in the traditional sense) every little thing. It's awesome.
Another benefit I've found is that I print less pictures and waste a lot less too! I used to print TONs of pictures and scrapbook most of them (eventually), but now I am only printing 365 pictures and will print scrapbook photos when I actually "catch up" to them.
OOH Becky,
This could not have come at a better time. Right now I am doing Project life with extra pages added for big events that week. I Love it. Which got me thinking. (Bad thing sometimes) I started scrapbooking back in High school and then started after I was married a Creative Memories Album to document my husbands Navy Career beccause I was not going to let him have an I love me wall in our house and this way it also keeps everything safe for the kids to look back on later about their fathers life.
I continued to use CM albums:
2-so far for vacations that we have taken alone or as a family.
1- School album for my 20 year old that is completed thru 8th grade. (I have 3 children 20,15 & 9) SO I am way behind.
2- Chronalogical albums complete for 2006 & 2007.
This is my dilema. I want to continue the school albums I have started for my other 2 children and finish my daughters High School album. But I don't know if I want to conintue with the CM albums. I like the flexiblity of the 3 ring albums. (My oldest is a die hard CM album fan) The problem is With CM you have to put the layouts in and adhere to the pages so there is no rearranging later.
I guess I need help deciding. I want to start LOM and continue with project life.
Any sugesstions on removing pages from CM Albums to place in 3 ring to have uniformaty on my bookshelf or just start where I am now.
Any input would help.
Thanks Becky
Good topic Becky. I am currently scrapbooking in chronologic family albums and then I have a separate album for each of my children as well. Right now it's working for me, but we'll see.
I saw someone else ask about the shelves you use for storing your albums. That seems to be my biggest problem with all of these albums. What type of shelving did you use to store your albums???
Thanks!
I moved away from "strictly chronological" a few years ago when I adopted the "Simple Philosophy" as in Simple Scrapbooks. So liberating to think I'm not behind and don't have to be caught up! I use a modified Library of Memories approach and scrap what moves me, in whatever order I want – usually using a BH sketch of course!! Also, the albums I'm creating now of my children are mine to keep forever! I want to be an old granny in the home looking at my boys' scrapbooks. My boys can take their school albums with them when they grow up, but the rest are mine!
Also, I create mostly "everyday life pages", and not so much event-based layouts. I feel that my albums are a good representation of my own Project Life!
I just started traditional paper scrapping 3 years ago and have two kids (7)&(12). I decided that I would never be able to go back and scrap all those years, so instead I did one layout for each year of their life (they each have their own 12X12 albums). The first layout was of their birth in the hospital, next one had 12 photos (one for each month of their first year), and then each LO thereafter also have 12 photos covering highlights of that one year with a block of journaling. With this sytem I was able to quickly catch up all those years. In the back of their album, I had 3 addtl LO's, one for Halloween(their costume), one for Xmas(fav photo), and one for Easter(egg hunt or with basket). Each LO has room for 12 photos, one photo a year to show the changes, rather than one LO for each of these holidays every year. (Again trying to condense into just a few books).
Also have the following 12X12 postbound albums:
*Sport album for each child, one layout per season.
*(2)summer vacation albums, but last year I made a 12X12 Shutterfly photo book & have decided to do all future vacations this way. Had so much fun making the big traditional albums, but again they are so bulky and the photo book I can leave on the coffee table.
*(2) Gourmet Dinner Party albums-for the last 10 years we have gotten together frequently for themed dinner parties with a group of friends, I went back and did one LO for each of these dinners using invitations, photos, etc. I want to eventually get them scanned to be able to give the other couples copies of these books, but not sure how to get them scanned.
* For 2010, I'm doing Digital PL, one photo a day, thinking it would replace my traditional photo albums in which I have always done 1 a year (unfortunately with no journaling). I was doing good just to get photos printed and in Costco type albums.
* In addition to scrapping, the kids have the old fashioned baby books, I have family Christmas books, an anniversay book, b-day books and school books for each child (all of which are Hallmark type journal/photo books covering several years). Now I'm not sure how these books will hold up years from now (and I am still left with big boxes of kids artwork & projects), but the books were kept up to date through the years, tell the story and I can't imagine trying to go back and scrap them all.
As you can see I have so many different things going on at the same time and am still trying to find the way to simplify and love reading everyone's ideas.
I really tried to do a book for each of my kids. I think I did six months of both. Then I realized I was just doing everything twice! I decided that I mostly do my scrapbooks for myself. So I do one a year for our family. When my kids grow up they can come over and look at the books. They are too special for me to give away to them
I am thinking about starting to incorporate your Project life into my scrapbooking. Not every page but blending my way with your way. I just don't have enough time to keep up. I seep to always be a year behind. The school kits you did are such a help for that but I just slide each school page in where it fit chronologically. I love love love the folders that came with those kits. They help store all the "stuff" that comes with each year and will be put into the back of that year's scrapbook.
I also miss your sketches…
Chiming in to say I LOVE this post and have been enjoying reading through all of the comments. I don't have a core system. I don't have ANY system. My photos are still in envelopes, boxes, and on my computer. I have one 3-ring scrapbook album (which is falling apart) with many traditional layouts, but that is it. I am overwhelmed by all of the photos I have. I am inspired by your Project Life Kit (although I still don't have it). I love memorykeeping and really want to find a way to make time for it in my week, but I don't want it to be complicated. I am thinking of adapting Stacy Julian's LOM system and your Project Life system to help me out. Thanks for the inspiration everyone!
I scrapbook chronologically, with paper, scissors, embellishments; the whole 9 yards. I can't imagine not playing with my paper and stickers, it is definitely my favorite thing to do in my spare time.
As for my organization it is similar to Becky's. I also use the We R Memory Keepers 12×12 albums. Each of my children, have a book for each year. With my youngest, I did a couple of LO's for his birth, one for each month and threw in a couple of misc ones here and there. I am now going back through my oldest son's early albums to condense those down to 1 per year.(he had 3 or 4 for each of his first 3 years). I also do a family album for each year, that includes all of our family events.
I have taken Becky's expert advice to start summarizing certain events or seasons (ie: instead of doing a LO for each birthday party we go to and we go to a lot, I am doing one Birthday LO a year … 2010 Birthdays). My boys, of course, have their birthday layouts in their own albums. They will each have their own school album beginning with pre-school. I can't decide if I want to keep my vacation & Christmas LO's in separate albums or put them in the family album.
It is such a task trying to re-organize everything, but it will be very nice when it's done!!!
Great ideas everyone – Becky, thanks so much for suggesting this topic! I'm a new scrapper, with no kids. What's worked for me to get organized is to collect memorabilia and fnally print out some of those digital photos – and then simply place in sheet protectors in roughly chronological order. Now I have a place to collect everything, and then as I'm moved to scrap something, it moves to the "done" album, again in chronological order.
Judging from comments, I'm also still very much in the minority because I stick to the 8.5×11 size; I did one vacation in 12×12 but for everyday I lik that it fits on a regular bookcase, and seems to make it simpler for me.
Hope to try out the digital stuff soon … still debating whether to invest in Photoshop or stick with the (free) Google Picassa.
Well I am glad to see you talking about scrapbooking because honestly, I had decided you weren't going to do any traditional scrapping anymore and that blew my mind! I am glad to see that you are still going to do it in some fashion. I just can't fathom ever giving it up although I don't do much per year. I love "the stuff!" I use American Crafts 12×12 albums although I scrap primarily 8.5×11. I am doing the mixed pages album where you just scrap what size you want and stick it all in one album. I'm trying to keep it down to one album per year. I also have a School Days album for my only child and it has 4 pages per year…one is a pocket page. But we homeschool so I don't have to deal with most of the stuff that most people do. She is very crafty so I try to save her drawings in there and if she ever gets a certificate from Girl Scouts, homeschool group, spelling bee, etc.
I would love to see you talk about using memorabilia because that is one of my big issues in my regular albums. I have a huge pile of it but I never use it! Thanks for this post!
Last year I did Project 365 and this year I am doing Project Life (altho I am definitely not keeping up like I did last year
but I really love traditional scrapbooking too.
First, I use post-bond albums because one of the reasons I scrapbook is for historical purposes…so future generations can see who we were, how we lived etc. I am a genealogy and family history buff and worry about pages being lost out of binder-style albums (have you ever looked at a really old album that someone tore pictures out of (grrr).
I know that my kids will end up having a "boat load" of albums but I have several…Vacations (altho the Disney trip was an album in itself), weekends away, Christmas, Easter, Halloween, School, Baby, Heritage (100 plus years of family history to share with each child), Birthday. I also have done mini albums with collections of photos from over the years as Thanksgiving…whatever.
I love separate albums for different holidays so in the turn of a page you can see the changes and growth of a child.
I also have separate childhood albums for my husband and I and one of our life together before kids as well as (of course) a wedding album.
My style and goal is classic, simple, COMPLETED pages.
Two awesome tips I got off your blog (one was yours and one was a reader's) is the Christmas card photos album…love, love, love it and it is totally modeled after the pages you posted and everyone who has seen it wants to do one too. The other idea was to hole punch special birthday cards (I did Christmas too) put one of those big binder rings thru it and tie ribbons to the ring. I put these out at birthdays and Christmas and everyone loves to flip thru and enjoy the old cards…better than being in a box…and a nice way to remember special people who have passed away when you see an old card they sent.
Love to read all the ideas…
I use the LOM system by Stacy Julian, as do a lot of people, and I love it! I love that I don't feel obligated to scrapbook a certain topic because it is "next". It's very freeing for me and I find my creativity can bounce around however it wants. I use the WRMK albums, too. They are perfect for me!
We have 1 son. I use creative memories albums and have 3 family albums (26 dbl sided pages) per year until Randy was 7 – now I try to keep it to 2 albums per year. I can have 6 pages for a trip to Disneyland, Christmas or his birthday party. His first year is 2 full albums. Then there is the school album. I keep this simpler but so far preschool, kinder & first grade take up almost an entire album. But I can already see this slowing down now that he's at the end of 2nd grade. Now I want to do an album of my husbands scenery photos and an album that tells the story of my life – limiting that to 2. I'll sit in my rocker at the old folks home looking through my albums. I don't want them to be a burden to my son. He can keep what he wants to when the time comes.
I have been doing the picture a day album since the beginning of 2009…and love it. Nothing like feeling "caught up" when you finish the year. I have 2 girls. They each have a school book (couple pages for each grade). I have a Halloween book and a Christmas book. Those 2 albums I update each year with a page or two. I actually use page protectors with 6 4×6 pockets on a page to put most of my photos and use a pocket or two for jounaling (per page/event). Then I just scrapbook pages of photos that "speak to me". That's what works for me…at the moment!
Wow! I love this post and all the comments that were left.
Well…I have loved scrapping for over eight years now, and really don't have much to show for it.
Last year I completed my own version of Project 365 (didn't always take a picture a day, sometimes I did a month overview…but it was my family's 2009 album and I love that FINALLY after eight years I have a completed scrapbook!)
I created this album in digital format, and have printed out the pages and placed them into a 3-ring binder. I also uploaded each layout onto my blog: http://www.mar1anne.blogspot.com
Over the last few months, I have revised my scrapbook system, as I really love documenting my family life.
My scrapbook system:
*1 album filled with traditional scrapbooking layouts, I created about my husband and I from our dating days up to when we had our beautiful girls.
*1 album with our holidays pictures (pre children). Would love to get this album up to date with holidays we've had with our girls.
*Our 2009 Family Album – created digitally with the free downloads that Becky had on her blog.
*Our 2010 Family Album – I'm creating this with Project Life. Am also thinking about creating a digital Project Life book (a copy each for my girls).
*My children's albums – I bought another two Project Life kit. I have started Isabella's album (she's now 4) and love it. I've included traditional layouts (that I created when she was newborn), memorabilia and photos/journalling using Becky's kit. I've also purchased We R Memory Keepers 12×12 pages with 6×4 slots as extra pages. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that her album has a mixture of traditional, digital and hybrid layouts. This is definitely the style that I can see myself sticking with!
I have been transitioning from a chronological approach to Stacy Julian's LOM system over the past year and I am loving not feeling guilty about not being caught up! We have five ongoing 12 x 12 family albums – All about us, Places we go, People we love, Things we do and a Christmas album (not specifically LOM). Each of my boys has a baby album, a toddler album and then I'll do school years albums for each of them using Becky's school kit and Stacy's school of life system. The boys will take their baby, toddler and school books and the family albums stay with me!
I use Creative Memories albums and although they are strap hinge you can get slip-in page protectors so they can function more like a three ring or psot bound album now.
I mix traditional with digital pages in each album.
I tried Project 365 last year and although I took a photo from each day I didn't like the format of the album so I am repurposing page protectors and the supplies into my other albums.
I still love to so mini's and 8×8 albums for specific, smaller projects as well.
Works for me, although I am finding less and less time to scrapbook as well. Seems like an epidemic!
Loved reading all the comments – it's great to learn from everyone. And I SO want to see some more Becky LO's…I am missing them so much!
I'm kind of a chronological scrapper. We don't have kids, so it's a litte more easy to stay "caught up". Now i'm trying to use only the best pictures instead of trying to scrap Every Single Picture.
I use 12" x 12" scrapbook binders. I like the smaller ones, but they just don't work for me, because i hardly do 1 or 2 picture layouts.
I too miss your sketches Becky, since they were great for lots of pictures!
Since I do project life, i feel more like i can keep up and use pictures i probably wouldn't put in my other scrapbooks (because they're too random),i think that's a really fun part of the
project in the first place!
Love reading your blog and the other comments too!
This post is awesome. Becky, ever since you posted that you do seasonal layouts for each of your kids I have felt liberated. I was trying to do an album a year until I realized that one day I would hand over 24 albums to my son on his wedding day (ridiculous) I used your school kit to do my childhood (I am almost finished) and your baby kit to complete my daughters first year (about six months behind) But I am curious to see if you would ever do a seasonal kit. I would totally buy three!! One for each kid, and one for the family.
I want to get the Project Life, but the link on Amazon says it's no longer available. Will it be made so again soon?
I have not touched my scrapbooking supplies for … wait for it … 3 YEARS! I even have a dedicated space in our family room — it looks really good and always tidy and clean. When we moved to this new home, I first got behind, than I got really behind and now I feel lost!!! I feel sad that I have missed 'moments' by not scrapping them. Anyways, I only share this because I am so thankful for your blog Becky. I love your Core System and I am feeling some motivation to enter my crafty world again. It's hard for me to believe that I have become so fearful of just 'doing it!' Anyways, thank you – thank you for sharing so much.
When I started scrapping when I was 14 back in 2003, I started by making just some random, but chonological, pages about my high school experiences. I stayed pretty much 8.5×11, because I could just send the layout through my printer to journal.
When my daughter was born in 2006, I was still doing chronological albums of each year (each year in a post-bound album), but I wanted to do something for a baby book for her. I tried to make her an 8x8baby book, but it didn't turn out the way I wanted, so I gifted it. I put baby scrapbooking on the back burner for awhile and just focused on pages for our family albums. I was still doing 8.5×11 until 2009 came around. I just got tired of the size. I also purchased 2 baby kits in 2008 when they came out and I busted out Cecilia's entire baby album, and put one away in case baby #2 came around. I quickly realized post-bound albums weren't going to cut it for all the memrobilia I had been colecting, so I got some 12x12Black AC albums for our family albums. Here is my system now:
1- DD's albums are in 12×12 WeR Orange Zest albums. Her favorite color is orange. I am trying to just have some ongoing traditional albums for her life. Her 1st year is documented using the Sweet Baby Kit. Memorobilia is tucked inside 8.5×11 page protectors or 8×8 page protectors that I stick in between the pages.
With baby #2 on the way, I plan to use the same system, and have not decided on Green WeR albums or the blue ones yet. I have an extra baby kit stored away for this baby.
2- Our family albums are still being converted into the 12×12 Black AC albums. I just like them, and they are available at mu local Michael's, so I don't have to have them shipped to my house. I am stuck in the middle of 2009, but I plan pages, write journaling, and have pictures stuck in page protectors, where there will be a page some day. All of my old 8.5X11 pages are finding their way into 12×12 albums, just for consistency on the shelf. A couple years only had a few layouts, and I've combined them into a single D-Ring album.
3- I am started to work on non-chronolgical stories about our family histories. I will put these pages of all different sizes in Brown AC 12×12 albums. I'm not telling these chrologically because I just want to ge the stories down before the only 2 people still living who remember them pass on (they're 90 and 76!). Just trying to get them down and out of old magnetic albums.
I am definately interested in a project-life style school kit, just because I'm trying to find a simpler way of doing some pages, especially with another LO and me in school. I don't do P365 simply because I found it too overwhelming, but I want to find a way to incorporate Project Life into our albums in a not P365 way.
i'm a little late contributing to this, but i figured someone else might relate (or glean a bit of perspective)…so i'm posting anyway
about a year ago, i was a "hybrid" scrapbooker. i loved the same albums as you, Becky…& i was on album #4 (we've only been married 3 years). but at a gathering at our house, i realized that NOT ONE person picked up the album & flipped through it. instead, they grabbed our wedding album (digital book put together by our photographer) on our coffee table & "ooh'd" & "ahh'd" over that instead. all my hard work preserving memories seemed TOTALLY A WASTE. if no one was going to ENJOY looking at the albums, WHY was i spending so much time on them? so i left traditional scrapbooking behind & decided to focus on PHOTOGRAPHY & DOCUMENTATION through digital photo books (explained here: http://dailypieces.blogspot.com/2010/03/13-ways-to-better-photosday-12-shoot_29.html). i'm still scrapbooking special events (here: http://dailypieces.blogspot.com/2010/02/13-ways-to-better-photosday-8.html) AND am still planning on scrapbooking the photos i've already printed (system here: http://dailypieces.blogspot.com/2009/02/when-it-all-comes-together-my-insane.html).
and guess what? NO GUILT. i don't want my kids to have to build an addition onto their house just to house their albums. i'll print our "family albums" about every 2 years–small albums for trips will be printed as i find coupons/freebies online…& we'll keep up with our "favorites" books each year. i LOVE it. and it lets me relax about "catching up" & focus on the big picture
Becky,
I noticed several people asked about your shelving system. Can you share with us what types of shelves they are? I am trying to find shelves that will fit the 12 x 12 albums nicely and I have been having a difficult time. Thanks!
i have a yearly book since my son was born in 2005 plus a december daily. for several years i was totally into the 8 1/2 x 8 1/2. this year i'm doing a quasi project live with other size page protectors as well mixed in. i love the variety. this year i scrap things said too or just journaling as well as photos. i am loving how for the first time, my life is really being captured. from movie advertisements to fav products, to random thoughts to the everyday photos.
These are all wonderful ideas! So glad others have shared.
I scrap 8.5×11 layouts because I make four copies of each page (one for myself, one for my mother, and also copies for my two sisters).
I tend to have one album per year (for each of us, LoL) and the pages tend to center around holidays and weekends together with family.
I got into scrapbooking when my father started his genealogy research and had a hard time finding stories to go with the photos. So, I try to journal more.
To enlist family members, I have also created an annual "10 questions" list that everyone had to fill out. The motivation was that you had to fill out your own list first before you could read anyone else's answers. This was given out at an annual vacation or Christmas together.
Finally, I take BPS classes as inspiration. My mother and I went through Cathy Zielske's A-Z class last fall. She loved it, and we all enjoyed reading her stories.
Wish I could get my sisters to do that class too. Maybe someday!
Kristin
[...] Becka Higgins [...]