How do you get caught up?

[littlelambie]

I am very far behind in my scrap booking, I am just starting to get back into it now that I have the room set up. I am just now doing our summer vacation from last year. Is anyone else this far behind, and how do you cope?? I have thought about starting from NOW, and working backwards. What does everyone else do???

[patchchild]

I really like working backwards, mostly because I've accepted the fact that I will never catch up. I work on a recent project, but I've also taken some time to sort and organize some of my past pictures into groups I want to scrap. That way, when I need a change or when I feel inspired, I'm set to go on some older projects.

[Mickster]

Slow and steady. I have fallen behind and "caught up" a few times. Right now I am doing stuff from last year too. I go to crops where I get a couple of uninteruppted hours. I leave it on my desk in my "office" aka scrap room so I can sit down and work on a page or two when I have a few minutes. I have given up trying to be completely current. I'm just happy that the pictures are getting into books. Now, don't ask at all about stuff before my kids were born. Nothing has been done with them. :rolleyes1

[JandJ]

I go between old and new. I do an album a year and have been doing that since 1999, and I work on that as events happen. I'm usually a couple months behind but I seem to always finish by January of the next year, then it's time to start all over again. Then I do an album for big/special events, obviously my wedding, honeymoon, European vacations, etc. So, I'll work on current stuff and when I get caught up or get bored I then work on other albums.

When my mom passed I inherited all of her albums and her mom's albums (the whole family said "Jen is the scrapbooker, just give it all to her") and I pulled all the pictures out, sorted them by year and event as best I could since there was no one to tell me when or what something was, and I'm now putting them in "decade albums" so I'll have the 1980's, the 1970's, etc. all the way back to the earliest pictures I have, the 1930's and 1940's. I'll probably be working on this the rest of my life!

I just don't let myself get overwhelmed. Will I ever get completely caught up, I doubt it, for Heaven's sake I still haven't even started my wedding album :rolleyes: but that's o.k. It's a hobby, I love scrapbooking, I don't want to feel overwhelmed and have it become a chore.

[latharia]

I started scrapbooking in 1998...and in 2005, I got totally caught up. In 1998, I started working backwards AND I stayed current with my photos as I developed them. Just a little at a time. Let me tell you, though, being caught up is a NIGHTMARE. I have no pictures to "choose" from ... and there have been 3 times in the past year and a half where I've had nothing to scrapbook. It is not a pleasant experience. Try to NEVER be quite caught up. I am just now working on my Disney pics from May ... and thoroughly enjoying being able to skip around with other events & things from June, July, and August, depending on my mood! :)

[huge mickey fan]

I understand being behind. I filled my son's album with Christmas last year. Instead of starting a new album I have let things get behind. I haven't even developed my pictures off my camera since last Christmas. I am considering going to one of these scrapbook retreat places to get caught up. Anyone ever been to one? I haven't decided if it is worth the money.

Huge Mickey Fan

[StitchIsOurHero]

I am SO behind! I finally just put all of our 2004 pics and 2005 pics in safe albums where I could just write on the lines outside and label them. One day, I may get them done. I still lack most of 2006, not to mention 3 Disney trips! One day, I MIGHT get caught up!!! ;)

[JESW]

You're supposed to be caught up???? :confused3

I am just up to 11/03 in dd's book and still back in 2002 in ds' book. I also have a box of pictures from Disney trips over the last couple of years - we have been going 2x a year for a while so there are A LOT of pictures and "stuff". I will *never* be caught up.

Jill

[huge mickey fan]

Maybe it's inspiration we all need. Or is it time? In my case I think it is both. I have a goal to be caught up before this year is up. Besides I have a Disney trip in December that I know I will be excited to start and I want things caught up until then.

Huge Mickey Fan

[llqool]

just to make all of you feel better, I haven't even STARTED and my older daughter is turning 4!!!

*but* I am determined to do our upcoming (sept 28th) trip, so I guess I am going to use the "work backward" methodology.

perhaps I will get inspired by this one project and get working on the rest of the stuff. I feel like such a bad mommy for not having a baby book for my daughters! (I have been keeping a written journal of their milestones, though).

I think a major part of it is i need to organize our bonus room so that my scrapbooking/craft supplies are quick and easy to get at. right now they are all in tubs and bins. they *are* labelled, but still, it's not easy to get at.

[Cinderella@CK]

You're supposed to be caught up???? :confused3
Jill

I'm with you there Jill. I'll never be caught up. I started scrapping last year and I'm still working on our Disney trip from then and loving every minute of it. I'm hoping that by the time I finish we will have been on another trip and I can spend all my time visiting Disney and Scrappin' it! :thumbsup2

[Disneytwinz]

This is how I stay up to date with my albums.
I buy 12x12 albums when on sale in bulk. I use them to organize. I take all the pictures that I want on the page, along with the embellishments and anything else I have to use, and place them in the page protector. I use post it notes to jot any journaling down so I don't forget details. I also use post it notes to write down any embellishments that I need to buy, and grab those before I go to the craft store. Everything is handy for when I take my album to crops.

[PigletFairy]

I started scrapbooking in 1998...and in 2005, I got totally caught up. In 1998, I started working backwards AND I stayed current with my photos as I developed them. Just a little at a time. Let me tell you, though, being caught up is a NIGHTMARE. I have no pictures to "choose" from ... and there have been 3 times in the past year and a half where I've had nothing to scrapbook. It is not a pleasant experience. Try to NEVER be quite caught up. I am just now working on my Disney pics from May ... and thoroughly enjoying being able to skip around with other events & things from June, July, and August, depending on my mood! :)
I totally agree with this! I havent been scrapbooking very long but i am only working on 1 album. I dont have different pictures to choose from bc before this i was not much of a picture taker. So i dont think being caught up is a must. I would love to have 2 or 3 different projects to work at the same time.
Something i have seen is working with only a couple of techniques per page and organization by theme has helped me keep up with what i have. I have heard of people just using the paper they have and not getting new stuff. Also, i really like going to crops. Try a LSS or just a group of friends, dont forget to have snacks, that always helps with creativity!

[phantom728]

Caught up???? :confused3

I'm working on DL pics from 2004, Las Vegas from 2005 and also working on my DD's pictures from when she was younger.

I still have to work on cruise pics from this past January, but don't think that will happen till next year, which I'll be then also doing our next Disney trip in Dec. Plus trying to keep current on DD's activities in HS.

I tend to alternate work on 2 albums to break it up. Sometimes when I work on one book continuously, I end up in overload :crazy: .

[all4disney98]

Alright, I am feeling bad reading these. You guys think you are behind?? I am working on both my son and daughter's first year albums right now- they are 5 and 2! After those, I have the rest of their lives to catch up on, Disney trips, other vacations etc. etc. etc. Basically everything since the summer of 2001. Oh boy, I am feeling stressed! It is my own fault, I started buying scrapbooking supplies 5 years ago when I was pregnant with my son. I had such good intentions. I didn't actually sit down and start to scrapbook until this past March though!

[BernardandMissBianca]

Alright, I am feeling bad reading these. You guys think you are behind?? I am working on both my son and daughter's first year albums right now- they are 5 and 2! After those, I have the rest of their lives to catch up on, Disney trips, other vacations etc. etc. etc. Basically everything since the summer of 2001. Oh boy, I am feeling stressed! It is my own fault, I started buying scrapbooking supplies 5 years ago when I was pregnant with my son. I had such good intentions. I didn't actually sit down and start to scrapbook until this past March though!

My oldest DS is 10 and he has 2 pages done and I did those in a class. I also have a CM power sorter with well over 2400 pics plus about 10-15,000 on the 3 computers. So you are not alone!!!

I heard you should start with the most recent pics since those memories are freshest in your mind and then work backwards. Also organizing your photos by event, year, person, how ever it is easiest is also a good start. In my power sorter I have a section for me pre husband and kids, the same for DH, wedding -mine and best friends(I'm supposed to do her album too), living in Hawaii, animals with a sub section for our dog, our different houses, holidays, trips, and sections for each of our kids. In the section for the kids they have individual photos and then there is a sub section for more than 1 child in the pic so if I want it in more than 1 album I can easily find it to copy.

I really need to get a second box but I'm trying to avoid it.

[llqool]

ok, what is a power sorter? i'm still learning about the tools that are out there!

[ImaDizneyNut]

I have a question

What exactly is being caught up :rotfl2:

Let's just say my son who is 5 1/2 has been to disney 4 times, disney cruise 1 time and we are going to disney in Dec and I only have his first trip scrapbooked.

I did get his Pre-k 3 book done and most of his babyhood done.

What I do (not that it works great for me since at this moment i"m working on 4 books for other people and in January I completed another book for someone else) is do the most current themes (I'll be working on Pre-4 in Oct) then I do a page or 2 from the past. Remember the past photos will always be there and will never change but the new ones keep coming so keep up on the newest ones and if you have time do a little extra 1 night and go backwards. This also helps me reminisce on his babyhood.

I started to scrap right after he was born (2001).

[Spinning]

I don't ever plan to be caught up! I gave up that dream years ago..but as I have posted before I decided what books I thought were most important to be caught up and they are all geared around the kids.
So I have a scout book for each, school book and a life/sports book. It sounds like a lot but I only scrap the most important pictures so they get a feel for the day/activity. I just think it is important for them to be able to look back on these times. School is such a huge part of their lives. I will do a vacation album I have 2 big trips to do still....need to work on them. I am about 6 months behind on these albums. But I am going to a weekend crop soon and hope to catch up on at least one kids stuff!

[laura&fam]

I just finished our scrapbook from our DL trip almost one year ago. When I just read the trip report, which I wrote right after we got back, it reminded me of alot of things that I had forgotten about out trip.

My philosophy (sp?) is to scrapbook what is most current. Write everything down when it happens, even if it's on scratch paper - but keep it with your pictures, and get caught up as you can. If you have kids they will want to see the pictures from recently anyway, not baby pictures of themselves.

Good luck to everyone and remember, anything is better than nothing.

[BernardandMissBianca]

ok, what is a power sorter? i'm still learning about the tools that are out there!

It's a box from Creative memories that has smaller containers inside that you can pull out plus each of those containers have dividers. It holds up to 2400 pictures but I swear mine has a lot more than that!

http://www.creativememories.com/dcVault/WCM005289/33984-1.jpg

[Spinning]

Buffy, how does that box hold up with transportation? Are the pictures inside a closed plastic section? You know like little envelopes or do you just lift out the pack? My biggest fear with anything like that is what happens if I drop it...which I have been know to do with my pictures....

[pjlla]

Just chiming in with my current "status"..... I started scrapping when DD was born in 1995.... did her first 5 months or so and then stopped dead. Fast forward to late 1998 after DS was born. Decided it was time to get back into it. Did the first few weeks of DS's life and then stopped dead again (maybe it had to do with having two babies at home!).

Jump to late 2001..... decide I REALLY need to catch up! Start working on first year albums for each child. Those first year albums are complete, done, finished. Take trip to WDW in early 2002.... finish scrapping that in late 2003. Take another trip to WDW in 2004.... just finishing that now!! Meanwhile take a 10 day trip across the Southwest, including Disneyland.... haven't started scrapping that yet! And then an 8 day trip to Washington, DC (whole family) and a 5 day trip to St. Louis with DD in 2006..... YIKES!

I am slowly trying to "catch up" with the early years of my kids lives while staying somewhat current with our Disney and other vacation albums. Keep in mind, I do a FULL album for each child for each trip and a full life album for each child simultaneously.

I am probably going to finish the 2004 WDW trip albums this month. I am caught up to September 2001 for DD (with a few stray pages done for 2002 and 2003). I am caught up to September 2001 for DS, also with a few stray 2002 and 2003 pages. But as the years go by, the kids get busier, and there is more to scrap for each year!

Right now I am concentrating on doing the "important stuff" such as holidays, 1st day of school, sports, family vacations. Later when I am "more caught up" (ha, ha) I will have time to go back and do smaller, day to day events.

This systems works for me because I am fairly ANAL about working in chronological order. And I am finally at the point where ALL of the photos I will be using are digital, so it will be much easier to make the copies I need to scrap. I am SO tired of having to go through the regular photo albums and find what I want, pull it out, scan it and print it or take it to a photo shop to be printed, and then file it back into the photo album! What a chore! It is so nice to just pull the pictures up on the screen and either print at home or order them online!!!

Anyhow, everyone's definition of "caught up" is different. I figure when I am 6 months or so away from being current, I will consider that caught up!..................P

[goaliewife]

I am one year behind right now and it is driving me nuts. I am usually about three months behind, but just haven't been able to get enough done at one time lately.

Going to a weekend crop in a few weeks and hope to get three Disney trips done and that will take out a huge bulk of pics for me.

:surfweb:

[BernardandMissBianca]

Buffy, how does that box hold up with transportation? Are the pictures inside a closed plastic section? You know like little envelopes or do you just lift out the pack? My biggest fear with anything like that is what happens if I drop it...which I have been know to do with my pictures....


They are lift out containers but they fit snuggly in the box. Also the lid has elastic loops on 2 sides and there are buttons on the box that the loops go around. It holds up pretty well and it's very sturdy. However when full it is extremely heavy. I just weighed mine and it's 25 lbs and stuffed to the gills. They do also have smaller ones that hold 600 photos. I think you would have a hard time losing anything when the box is closed if you dropped but they would scatter if it were open. HTH

FYI I am not a CMC, I just like their organization tools.:)

[CindyT]

I am planning on living 200 years...maybe I will get caught up then!

[MyLittlePiglet]

This is how I stay up to date with my albums.
I buy 12x12 albums when on sale in bulk. I use them to organize. I take all the pictures that I want on the page, along with the embellishments and anything else I have to use, and place them in the page protector. I use post it notes to jot any journaling down so I don't forget details. I also use post it notes to write down any embellishments that I need to buy, and grab those before I go to the craft store. Everything is handy for when I take my album to crops.

I thing I am going to have to steal this idea because storage in photo boxes is nto getting me anywhere, but if I could do this as I order my prints I might get more done!! THanks Disneytwinz!! :cheer2:

[TonyS20]

I am caught up with my racing photos and our trips. I try to be done with all my racing photos by the end of the year or at least before the first race of the next season! I also organize our trips and work on them until they are done (typically Disney so I'm excited to work on them and share with family)!

As for my family albums, I am just getting started. My grandmother gave me 8 large photo albums that have her school pictures and then pictures from when her and my grandfather were first marriend. The album continues to my aunt being born, then my father, and then them as children. There is a large gap and then they are teenagers. Then pictures of me! princess: Most of the photos from the first few years of my life are priceless because many of them are me and my grandfather. He passed away when I was six and was a big part of my life. Most of the photos portray the closeness that we shared and are amazing! :sunny: There are also lots of pictures with him and my brother as a baby. He passed when my brother was too young to remember him, but you can see their bond in the pictures as well.

Anyway, I have several thousand pictures that I will be scanning and printing. By next Christmas, I want to have albums for my grandmother, aunt, father, myself, my brother and my 2 cousins. That is my goal!

Lastly, my mother has tens of thousands of pictures from my childhood. I convinced her to get them out of the magnetic albums, but I'd like to get them scanned and scrapped. Again, albums for my mom, dad, myself and brother.

As you can see, it will take a while to scrap a lifetime of photos, but this is my hobby. If I run out of pictures, what will I do? :rotfl2:

[latharia]

As you can see, it will take a while to scrap a lifetime of photos, but this is my hobby. If I run out of pictures, what will I do? :rotfl2:

Trust me. It's not pretty. :blush:

[Izeesmom]

I have finished the first trip to disney, but still haven't finished the second one and we leave in 11 days! And plus the last 4 1/2 yrs of my son's life...lol...So I will NEVER be caught up! :rotfl2: :rotfl: :lmao: :crazy:

[pppiglet]

I will never be caught up either. I just started scrapping in June 2005. It was our first Disney cruise. I am just barely 3/4's done. I have a Carnival cruise from Feb 2006 to do next and hoping to get it done before our next Disney cruise next May. Other than that....I have scrapped 4 or so pages of our cats we adopted last December, but we just got another kitty and will have to do that too. If I ever get caught up, I will start going back though all our pictures and my DS's 22 years of life! How do you ever remember that far back?

[disneyfreakjackie]

Caught up??? What's that???!!!??? I've faced the fact ... I'll NEVER be caught up on my scrapbooking ... especially all my Disney trips!! :confused3

[LindaBabe]

I can see me at 102 - NO Lord! I can't die yet - I've still got Scrapping to do!!!!

Anyway, i've made a command decision. After 20 something fat 12 x 12 albums, I'm done - finito - kaput - with scrapping "Everything."

I'm planning to do one book a year of 1 -2 page Highlights layouts, maybe by month, Print the photos I want to look at regularly and put in photosafe albums, and leave the rest on the computer to view on the screensaver.

What will I do with my scrap time? FUN stuff - circle journals, cards, gift albums, framed pages, artsy things. The result, I expect, will be a creative outlet without the pressure to complete.

[laura&fam]

I believe less is more with scrapbooking. My daughters first album (0 to 2) is huge and boring. No one ever looks at it. Who wants to look at page after page of a baby anyway?

I just finished scrapping Halloween from last year and it is ONE page :cool1: I didn't even spread out to a two page layout! I've found that by cutting way back on what I scrapbook I stay caught up much better, save money (by scrapbooking less), and don't end up with a scrapbook library that takes up an entire room of my house.

Of course there are things I still need to work on. Our 6 day trip to DL I scrapbooked a ton of pictures. I guess that just means I need to go more often so I get better at not scrapbooking so much, right?

[Grumpy's Gal]

I advise NEVER to be caught up - always work about 6 months back.......wondering if I've lost my mind? I'll tell you why.

It NEVER fails that just when I've gotten caught up, a well-meaning friend or relative will give me a stack of pictures of my kids from just the same album I just finished. A school program or a holiday .......and I will wish I had waited.

[latharia]

I advise NEVER to be caught up - always work about 6 months back.......wondering if I've lost my mind? I'll tell you why.

It NEVER fails that just when I've gotten caught up, a well-meaning friend or relative will give me a stack of pictures of my kids from just the same album I just finished. A school program or a holiday .......and I will wish I had waited.

I second this idea! I just had a friends send me pics from CHA, which was 2 months ago...and I've been fighting the urge to do much scrapbooking, precisely because I knew there were more photos "out there"!

I also am trying to put off scrapbooking stuff because it never fails that I scrapbook something and a month later, new stuff comes out I wish I'd had. LOL. I did a whole pirate LO (http://www.houseofpaper.com/custom/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=8887&sort=3&cat=500&page=2), finding a map, pieces of eight, etc ... and two weeks later I see Karen Foster's pirate line. ARGH!! ... yeah ... Arrrrrr! indeed. :)

[BernardandMissBianca]

I LOVE your pirate layout!!!!! I like it just the way it is!!!

[latharia]

I LOVE your pirate layout!!!!! I like it just the way it is!!!
*blush* Well, thank you! I was pretty happy with how it turned out -- but it was a TON of work. LOL. It just would've been easier with the pre-made stuff. ;)

[pppiglet]

I agree with the above poster. I love your pirate layout. I really don't like all the premade layouts. It's like it's not really your own stuff. Your's is so much more original and won't look like everyone else's stuff.

[laura&fam]

I have had people give me pictures from about 6 months back, and it is frustrating. Unfortunately I have a horrible memory though so if I don't keep at the most 6 months behind I can't remember a thing to journal. Sometimes I can't even remember what the picture was. Now you know why I scrapbook :rotfl: