Preferred Album Size?

[Timon]

I am about two weeks away from finishing up my Cruise album and then I will FINALLY start scrapping my regular life! yay!!! I have used 12 x 12 on all my albums so far, basically because they have been vacation albums and I took SO many pictures that I needed the room for the pictures. But I am wondering about day-to-day pictures and what size album would be best....I know it's kind of a personal preference thing, but I thought I would ask you guys for some advice and some of your experiences.

My style is quite plain, clean...don't use too many die cuts or stickers and I find some of my 12 x 12 pages are a little too plain maybe, so maybe I am more suited for 8 x 10?

Any advice is appreciated!

 

[BevS97]

I like 12x12, but then for the same reason you said - I tend to have too many pictures and they would look squashed on an 8x10

I am currently working on an album for my dad, using old photo's from his childhood, and there are a few layouts with only 1 picture, and for the first time I am finding 12x12 a little large, but generally I am very happy with this size.

Bev

 

[LOVETHATMOUSE]

My first album I am working on is my DCL (like you Timon). I didn't get into scrapbooking until a few weeks after I returned from the cruise. A friend and I went to a class and were hooked!. Anyways, my DCL book is an 8x10 because it has to be. I am a huge picture taker and purchased three of the photo albums on the ship, so I am forced to use those. They even had a scrapbooking kit on board, but I didn't know I would be doing this. I took out the sticky pages and purchased a bulk 100 page protectors from Staples ( only 8.00) and will use the photo album pages for books I will will not scrap. My other albums which I have started (daughters school years, camping trips over the years and holidays) will be 12 x12. I just can't take one pic of something so I have TONS AND TONS of shots!

 

[Spinning]

Timon I feel for you I am struggling with this too! LOL! I first started with the 8x10 format for my kids every day life. I really liked it. I used the top load pages which was great because I could do what ever I wanted and then moved the pages around as needed. So I didn't have to seperate the kids pages into their own albums right away.
But then I went to a CM scrap and got a good look at 12x12 and their albums plus looking at everyone's albums and loved the clean look, I was using 3 ring binders. So I bought a CM book for DS school album but I still have a ton of "their life" photo's so once again I don't know what to do...
So this is my plan...
I am cheap and hate to waste money. I have a lot of 8x10 sleeves, paper etc...I will finish all the photos I have now and this summer. Then this fall I hope to find a nice 3 ring binder in the 12x12 size and cont with top load. I will use CM books for extra or special albums such as trips, school albums DD ballet/sports album DS sports album.
Not sure if that helps you or not.
I just think you need to look at your cropping style. Are you caught up? Do you like to work on one set of pictures or do you get bored and crop other stuff?
Oh on thing that does make me nuts about most 12x12, not everything is a true 12x12...so you usually have to cut some of the page off. That makes me big time nuts! CM and west trim are not true 12x12!

 

[BevS97]

I won't buy an album now if it's not true 12x12 - I spent 9 months trimming every page while I was working on my disney album (using their 12x12 ish album) - Never again!

I now use a Dalee album which is true 12x12 and very very nice - I'm also getting a SIAS album and I believe those are also true 12x12. I have a westrim top loading album that I bought before I knew what I was doing (LOL) and it is horrible - it's not true 12x12 and the page protectors are very thin and nasty - I much prefer the thick page protectors in the Dalee.


LOVETHATMOUSE - I would't use those sticky pages- not even for photo's you don't want to scrap - those pages do so much damage to your photo;s, and it is very hard to remove the pictures later- I am devastated at the state of all my childhood pictures which were stored in them. I would get some of those slip-in albums for the pics you don't want to scrap - at least your pictures will be safe in there.

Bev

 

[Timon]

Thanks for the input scrappers!

I, too, hate the whole 12 x 12 paper size thing!!!! When I first started scrappin, I was absolutely MAD!!!!! I couldn't believe the industry would do this, I mean, it's supposed to be 12 x 12! Grrrrrr!

My SB store sells 12 x 12 cardstock that is actually like 11 and 1/4 x 12 and the stuff I get from Michaels that I like is just a little bigger than 12 x 12. So most of my pages are either a little too small and move around or a little snug. And the worst part is that, even though I usually remember to crop the big sizes, sometimes I have a brain freeze and I forget...so I do a layout and then go to put it in my album and *&@^*@&$^*@&^$*&^@$&!!!

I just did that last week with my St Thomas page and I had eyelets at the edges of the pages so it was tough to fix! Now it is too small and moves around LOL!! Oh well.

Spinning,

I only do one layout at a time. Crop the pictures accordingly and then design my layout. Then I move on when my page is done. I am planning to scrap the last 6 years of our lives...going to start when I met my husband. My pics that I want to scrap are sitting there in 6 piles, organized by each year. Just calling my name....

Well, I have an 8 x 10 album sitting there that I got as a gift, so maybe I will use it for the first year and then if me no like it....well I will go back to the 12 x 12

Thanks for the help guys!

 

[grover]

I personally prefer the 12x12 size, seems to work well for me as I like to get many pics on a page. I sometimes will do only 1 picture and make it stand it and that looks great to! I did a 8.5 x 11 gift album for my mom, it turned out great, I liked the size for a gift as it seemed that I was able to get through it at a good pace!
Grover in Winnipeg

 

[Tiger Fan]

It's 12 x 12 for me. I take a ton of pictures (even of every day life) and often do several two page spreads for one event. I could never go smaller. Enjoy!!

Lisa

 

[BevS97]

if you are having trouble with poorly sized page protectors/cardstock, you need to find a brand of pp, and cardstock that works for you and then stick with it - I only use Dalee Page Protectors , and Bazill cardstock (OK - mainly because that's pretty much all that is available in the UK) - but they fit together perfectly -

I used some old cardstock last week, that was left over from my disney scrapbook, and was so annoyed when the strips I'd cut to make a border weren't long enough (only 11 1/2 inches instead of 12) - So, I won't buy anymore missized card-stock - I check the exact size before I buy.

I'm not so bothered about patterened paper - if that's too small you can mount it onto 12x12 cardstock, and it has a nice border around the edge which finishes the page nicely.

Bev

 

[dizfamily]

I use mostly 12x12 CM Premiere albums. I am doing an 8 1/2 x 11 for my dd's jr drill team pics, though. But for everything else, 8 1/2 x 11 would just be too small. And as far as problems with pages not being true 12x12, I don't do any "wallpapering," I just do my layouts directly on the CM page, so I never have a problem with anything like that. (I know CM's pages are 12x12 but it includes the jeeping.)

 

[JudithM]

I'm new to scrapbooking. I just finished my first scrapbook to give to a Disney friend as a gift/memory of her deceased husband's love of Disney. The album included many of his Internet posts about Disney which I retyped on my computer. I debated over what size album to use. I found an 8.5"x11" album at Michael's with threaded posts to hold the binder together. I really liked the album, & it was easy to use. I did a lot of pages using my computer & printer. My printer only holds 8.5"x11" paper. How do you all do a 12"x12" page? Do you not use a computer & printer?

 

[grover]

Hi Judith,
to use a 12 x 12 album you can purchase 12 x 12 paper at many craft stores and scrapbooking stores. You then use that as a base to mount your photos on. I have not yet used my computer for scrapbooking, I just figured out how to download fonts and will use it for some journalling. I am a tad leary about that however as I am not sure that it is acid and ligin free and archival as most scrapbook products are. I do all my jounralling myself right now as well as some titles . Hope this explains a bit-- clear as mud hey!
Grover in Winnipeg

 

[JudithM]

I was able to use my computer & printer to print out a lot of the pages from text & pictures that I downloaded. I bought some 8.5"x11" scrapbooking papers with appropriate borders, etc. at the craft store & printed info directly onto those pages. For a beginner I think I did pretty well. The friend & her adult children were happy with my efforts, so that is what counted the most !

 

[BevS97]

I use 12x12- I print a lot of my journalling, but not the entire page - I usually print onto 8x11 cardstock or vellum (I use a lot of vellum for my printed journalling) and then cut out what I want, and mat it onto my 12x12 page. If it's a title, you can get print nearly 12 inches on landscape, which makes a full sized title.

Bev

 

[Lesley]

I use 12x12 (CM..which, as Michelle said, includes the jeeping and are not designed for "wallpapering") but often have so many photos I've thought about going with a 12x15! My main reason for not doing this is that I have a hard enough time making shelf space for a 12x12...a 12x15 would need special shelves or would have to be stored the wrong way (albums are designed to be stored upright).

I have an APS camera so many of my photos are 4x7's...even on a 12x12 page I often only fit 2 photos!