NEWSLETTER
INSPIRATION
DIGITAL SCRAPBOOKINGKim’s TOP 10 for organized memory-keeping :o)
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Hello everyone! This is Kim here today with a bit of scrapbooking inspiration. It’s that time again… the beginning of another year. I know the beginning of a year makes us think of all sorts of things, but for us as scrap bookers, it often means the beginning of scrap projects! I don’t know if that makes you excited or intimidated or both!! I do know that sometimes the thought of starting a big scrap project can be overwhelming and I get asked a lot by friends how I get “organized” to start a scrapbook. Since these people know me and my obsession with taking pictures, I think what they mean is “How do you take the mountain of photos you have and make that into a scrapbook?” I’m not sure I have a simple answer to that question, and really there are lots of ways people organize their photos and scrapbooks. But I am going to share a few of my thoughts on scrapbooking with you and hopefully you can take some inspiration from these thoughts to help you get started in scrapping 2012 (or whatever project you are working on). So here it is… my “top ten” list of scrapbook advice!
Now for a little more about each of my top ten items.
Consider what the purpose of the scrapbook is: What is it you are trying to capture and want to remember when you look back at your book? For example, the baby books I have done for my children were meant to capture their first year in detail. I wanted to include lots of little stats like what they weighed and when they first rolled over and what their first food was. These books will be given to them when they are older so that hopefully when they have children and enjoy all those milestones, they can look back and see their own. However, when I create my family yearbooks, I don’t include quite as many of those details. Point is, think about what YOU want to show in your book, and let that help you decide what is important to be included.
Set certain times to sort through pictures and pick what will go in your scrapbook: This is one of the most important things I do myself to stay organized through a year of taking pictures. Why? Because our lives are busy and if you don’t set a goal for yourself and be intentional about it, it probably won’t happen. (This is my experience at least!!) For me, I stop at the end of each month and look at all the pictures I’ve taken. I copy all the pictures I want to include in my scrapbook to a certain folder in my computer I’ve set up for this. The folder can be deleted later when the scrapbook is done so you don’t have two copies of the same pictures. But I find it helps me to have the pictures I want to scrap set aside in a certain place.
Keep a running list of layouts/pages you want in your book: Once I have my folder of pictures for the month, I go ahead and organize them so I know what pages they will go on in my scrapbook. Because I am a list person, I keep a list of the pages I still need to work on. One good thing about this is that it helps me make sure there is not a single page layout that will not have another single page layout to print next to it. In grouping my pictures, some things are easy. If there’s a big event like a birthday, I know those all go together in a birthday layout. Some things are harder and take a little more creativity to decide how to group them. This is one of the things I have come to love about Project Scrap 2011. I can take several of the “random” pictures from my month that I love and intentionally include them in my book with a journaling overview of our month. I intend to keep doing this as we start up Project Scrap 2012… coming this Thursday!
Be realistic about how much time you have to scrap: Let’s face it. We love to scrap, but it’s not the most important thing in our lives. So I think it’s important to be real about the amount of time we have. Two things can help you be real about the time you have to scrap. Number one, pick a reasonable number of pictures to scrap. For me, I may take 200 photos each month, but I only have 50-75 that make the cut for my scrapbook! There’s no way I can scrap every photo I take! I say that just as an example. Your number may be different than mine, but make a realistic decision about what you will have time to scrap. Number two, remember that it’s OK to simplify the design of some of your pages. You may not be able to create a masterpiece layout for all your pages in the time you have. I very often do some “collage” style pages with simple design when I am getting behind on my scrapbook. Although I love to spend a lot of time on a layout and think over every detail, I can’t do that in every page of every project. It’s OK to simplify! And I might add that there are great products in the Shoppe that can help you too. Take a look at the piece-a-cake pages and easy-as-pie templates for some great ways to get layouts done more quickly.
Write down things you want to remember as they happen: If you like to include journaling in your scrapbooks, it is helpful to record things as they happen. There are a ton of ways to do this and different ways work for different people. I would just encourage you to be intentional about doing it!
Try not to get behind: Let’s face it. It can be hard not to get behind! When I mentioned that I look at my pictures at the end of each month and figure out which I’m going to scrap and group them by pages, I would love to add, “Then I go ahead and scrap all of the layouts from that month.” Sometimes that may happen. Other times, it just can’t happen! That’s why I like to do what I can to stay organized and keep a list of what I want to work on. But I will say that I do attempt not to get too far behind. It’s always my goal!!
Research book printers and pick one before you start: SP talked about this in her post to close Project Scrap 2011. She had a lot of great advice, so I won’t repeat what she said here. I do agree with her that it is best if possible to know what printer you will use before you begin a project and to follow their bleed and trim guidelines. It will save you time and headache later. One other comment I would add about book printers is that I find it helpful to know what their page limit is. One popular book printer I have used works great when I am doing a shorter book, but will not work for my family yearbooks, which go over their 100-page limit. You may not know how many pages your book will be at the start, but you don’t want to be surprised when you go to print and find there is a page limit.
Don’t forget the simple moments: It’s sometimes the everyday pictures and moments that will mean the most, so make a point to capture those too!
Stick to your style: I admit that I forget this sometimes myself. There is a lot of GREAT inspiration shared on blogs and galleries, especially our Shabby Shoppe gallery. And you should use that to inspire you. But you should not feel that your layouts need to look like everyone else’s. Make them your own! Create layouts that will make you proud because they come from your creativity. And related to this, I would encourage you if you are new to scrapbooking not to become discouraged if you can’t do everything you’d like to from the very beginning. Trust me, if you could see my first digital scrapbook, you would see how simple I started out! But you know what? It still records that year of my family’s life and I am glad I have it. So feel good about what you create!!
And last but not least… Have FUN!! That’s what it’s about, right??
I hope there’s something I’ve shared today that helps as you get started with your next scrap project. I know many of you are getting ready for Project Scrap 2012, which SP will kick off here on the blog this Thursday! It really is a great way to know that you are not alone in scrapping your year. There will be beautiful (FREE!) templates given away each month and lots of inspiration along the way. I can’t wait!!
But before then, stop by tomorrow for another fantastic post by the very talented Beckie. I always look forward to those! Have a great day!!
Apr 12, 2012 @ 08:31:25
I was wondering if you could show/explain how you organize your photos into ‘pages’ before you scrap them?
I am organizing by month, then editing as I can, then scrapping… keeping a paper journal of moments and journaling I want to include. But I can’t quite wrap my mind around how you organzie photos by page before scrapping the page in the computer. Thanks for this wonderful post and these comments are so helpful to a newbie too. ~Kimberlee
Apr 16, 2012 @ 11:07:51
I’m so glad you found this post helpful Kimberlee! Here’s a little more about how I organize my photos into layouts ahead of time. As I mentioned, I look at my photos at the end of each month and copy the ones I want to include in my family scrapbook into a “pictures to scrap” folder. Then I look at those photos to make a list of pages/layouts for that month that I need to create. I keep this running list stored on my computer so I can go back to it when I have time to scrap. I’m a list person, so it’s great for me to cross off the layouts as I finish them – LOL!!
Some layouts are obvious choices. For example, if we had a birthday party for one of the kids, I’m usually going to have a 2-page layout of the pictures for the birthday party. That goes on my running list of layouts to create, then those pictures go into a “birthday party” folder within my scrap pictures folder. Once the obvious layouts are pulled out, I see what photos I have left and this is where I just have to get creative sometimes. The project scrap layouts help a lot because they are a great way to pull together several of my “random” pictures from the month. But other pictures I group as needed.
I hope this all makes sense!! Maybe this is most helpful of all? This is what my “list of layouts” for January this year looked like. Those are the page numbers and what the layout is about.
2 Project Scrap Jan
3 Project Scrap Jan
4 Family Pics Outside Museum
5 Family Pics Outside Museum
6 Museum
7 Baby’s Six Months/First Tub Bath
8 Houston Trip
9 Houston Trip
With all this said, sometimes the plan has to change when I actually get to scrapping. It doesn’t have to be set in stone, but it helps me a lot to have an idea of where I’m going. Just don’t get discouraged! As you scrap more, you will figure out what works for you!!
Apr 18, 2012 @ 01:00:06
That really helps. The biggest change for me will be to edit photos in the public folder, then copy the ones I want to scrap into my scrap folder. That will be tons of help sorting through all of the photos. I couldn’t figure out how to keep the photos straight without overdoing steps (and most likely deleting the wrong ones). Thank you so much for this explaination of your process. ~Kimberlee
Jan 26, 2012 @ 04:13:56
This is a great post!
To add to the photo book sites discussion up above, Picaboo makes books with lay flat pages, and some of their books, including I believe their 12×12 and 8×8 books, can hold up to 160 pages. Check out their site at http://www.picaboo.com.
Jan 26, 2012 @ 04:15:08
Okay, now the discussion is below my comment, not above it. ;)
Jan 24, 2012 @ 21:11:25
Thanks for this inspiration Kim. I am so trying to be more organised this year and I really like your tip of putting the photos you want to scrap into a separate folder. Great advice!!!
Jan 24, 2012 @ 11:23:47
This is a great post. I am still wrapping up 2011, but my goal is to be done by the end of February.
I too make family yearbooks and this year it looks like I will have to split it in two, but you said there are printers that print more than 100 pages. While this goes against suggest #4, what printers do you know of that print 150-200 pages per book?
Jan 24, 2012 @ 11:48:52
Thanks for the comments everyone! For page size, I am fortunate that the book printer I use doesn’t need my pages to be resized (12×12 works fine), but the issue for me is the trim guidelines and the gutter guidelines. I have found that a good bit of the page does get pulled into the gutter, so I need to adjust my designs to leave room for that. I would LOVE to use a printer that has lay flat pages like SP showed, but I haven’t found one yet that also prints as many pages as I would like. (If anyone knows of one, please share!) I use blurb (www.blurb.com) to print my books. I don’t know how they compare to specialty printers for photographers, but I have been pleased with what I get for the money I spend. And they go up to something like 400+ pages. They are comparable to Shutterfly, as I’ve also printed with them before, but they have the 100-page limit. Just keep in mind that what I upload to print with blurb is usually adjusted slightly from what you see in my gallery here. (Adjusted to leave room for the gutter.)
Jan 24, 2012 @ 12:41:25
Do you need to be a pro photograher to order with whcc? I’ve looked at their website, but I can’t really tell if they require it.
Jan 25, 2012 @ 09:05:44
No, you do not need to be a pro to print with WHCC! Just leave the tax ID info blank and fill things out the best you can. Most pro labs are like this – so don’t be intimidated!
Other printers include MPIX.com and simplycolorlab.com, millerslab.com (the last two are more like WHCC)…I’ve also heard good things about viovio.com for their book printing!
I’m a print-by-page d-ring binder girl myself, so sorry I don’t know more about the book options at each!
Jan 24, 2012 @ 08:26:47
Awesome post, Kim! I wish I could’ve read this at the beginning of 2011, because now I’m paying the price of not having my pages organized properly. I especially like points 8 and 9, which are my #1 scrapping goals for 2012! I’m also planning on using Project Scrap as monthly divider pages between the rest of my story pages. Thanks for all the great tips!
Jan 24, 2012 @ 11:25:40
Rosy I had the same idea for my 2011 album! I start each month with my Project Scrap pages and then use my other layouts from the month in between. :)
Jan 24, 2012 @ 07:24:56
Great post Kim! I love the ideas and I really need to follow through with more of them. I’ve never thought to put the PHOTOS I know I want to scrap into their own folder, good idea! Also, I’ve been so torn trying to decide if I should go ahead and scrap to the printers guides or continue doing 12x12s. lol I’ve NEVER printed a 12×12 and ALWAYS resize which makes me feel like it’d be MUCH better to just scrap that size rather than resize! lol I just cant decide! lol Lots of great ideas here though, THANKS!
Jan 24, 2012 @ 08:32:23
I’m also going through this, Casharina! I’ve been scrapping at 10×10 because that’s what I print. 12×12 is way too big for me, but I’m trying to decide if I’ll ever need a 12×12 file down the road sometime. Anyone have more thoughts on this?
Jan 24, 2012 @ 11:55:57
I like the size of the 12×12 albums. I know they are large and take a lot of space. I scan my son’s artwork and scrap those on a 12×12 layout. This way I can have a mostly accurate size of his artwork and those precious finger painted hands and feet.
Jan 24, 2012 @ 14:12:06
That’s a GREAT idea Rosy…I take pictures of almost everything the girls make, there’s NO way to keep them all! ;) As for the 12×12, I ADORE them, they’re an AWESOME size in my opinion, they really bring the pictures and graphics to life…I LOVE the 2 that I have so far! :)
Jan 24, 2012 @ 05:39:18
thanks Kim, this is helpful stuff!! I especially like the last point that you made, about sticking to your own style, and not worrying about being able to do all the beautiful fancy stuff right away! I love the Shabby blog challenges because they give me a chance to try out new things and learn new tricks. I still can’t make some of my pages look quite the way I want them too, but I’m closer than I was before!! And I think its taken me a long time to figure out my own style, well still figuring it out really, but its fun!