Photo and Autograph Albums

[Alex2kMommy]

DH and I took our first Disney vacation last September, and I decided I would make a mini-album for each boy. I bought CM 7x7 Disney albums and snap packs, and would assemble the albums once we returned, since I had no idea how many character photos and autographs we'd get.

I cut out colored, acid-free cardstock into 4x6 rectangles for autographing, bought a pack of colored 'clicker' Sharpies and a small clipboard, and thought I was all set. Was feeling pretty smart, actually.

BUT HERE'S WHAT I DID WRONG:

1. I forgot to pack the clipboard. Kinda hard to do autographs without a hard surface! We managed by holding the paper against the plastic, expandable photo holder containing all the cut cardstock.

2. The autograph and photos were 4x6, and to fit both on a single 7x7 page was quite a chore! I'm used to working with 12x12 pages, so wasn't thinking right. Especially with the fact that most autographs were landscape orientation, and most of the photos I took were portrait orientation.

3. With the digital format of my photos (my first time scrapping these), I was able to edit and crop them before I printed. I loved being able to zoom in on the interesting part of the photo, but this just added to my size problem. I still printed the already cropped photo to 4x6, so I wasn't cutting the print down smaller to fit onto the page.

4. The characters tended to fill the entire 4x6 card with the autograph, and I really didn't want to chop those up too much, so I wound up having to overlap creatively.

5. With the space issues, that didn't leave a whole lot of room to journal or embellish the page. Some of the pages look very cramped.

I WISH I HAD:

1. Bought bigger albums. I wanted something small enough that the boys (ages 6 and 2) could hold themselves, but I think I would have worked better on a slightly bigger album, maybe 8x10.

2. Given my smaller pages, I wish I'd printed the photos 3x5 (instead of 4x6.) Or perhaps not zoomed in so far on the editing before printing. That left me no room to size the print down for the page. I doubt I would have given the characters smaller cards to write on, though. Some of the ones with big paws or gloves had a hard enough time writing as it was!

Still, the boys loved the albums, and they were fun to do! Next project is the 12x12 family album of our trip!

Hopefully someone else can learn from my mistakes. I sure did!

 

[TammyNC]

Thanks for sharing your tips and suggestions. I understand what you are talking about when you are use to scrapping with the 12 x 12 albums, moving to the smaller sizes is very hard.

Would love to see some of your pages if you can scan them in.

 

[huge mickey fan]

I am in the process of doing my family 12 x 12 album and then I will start my 4 year old DS autograph album. I used a spiral bound 4 x 6 index cards for the autographs. It worked out well, keeping them all together in the park and then removing them when I got home. I will be using an 8 x 8 album with the picture on one side and the autograph on the facing page. Then I can do some journaling or embellishment and not be out of space.

 

[BuzzBelleMom]

I took a 5x7 binder, with plastic sleeves to protect the pages. Bad idea. We had to keep pulling out the sheets and that can get tricky at character meals. The characters had trouble without a hard surface.

Next time I will either make spiral-bound or notebooks. We have two years until the next trip, so I have time to decide.

Thanks for the tips!