Trying to decide if I should scrapbook!

[tkyes]

I'm looking for some thoughts from you guys, hoping you help me a bit.

I have scrapbooked before, only one small book. I'm trying to decide if I want to keep doing it.

Here are a couple of questions -

Do you all have regular photo albums too, or just your scrapbook? I would think I would still want a regular photo album incase I wanted to take a picture out (ie. of maybe a grandparent) and give it to someone.

So do you get doubles of all your pictures? Or do you get singles and then go get reprints made of just the ones you want for you book?

If you have kids and you make them their own album do you then do a family album and throw pictures in a plain album too?


Thanks guys!

Tamie

 

[Spinning]

AHHH Tykes welcome to the wonderful world of scrapbooking!
Those are question I wrestle with all the time!
I don't scrap all of my pictures. Prior to digital I kept pocket albums and would put all of my extra photos in there. Initially I always got doubles and put the original set in the pocket album and scrapped what I wanted and gave away or threw out the others. Now with digital I only print the ones I want and then burn the rest to a CD.

Kids Album: Each child has their own books which are
1. life album
2. School album
3. brownie/sports album: This is a flex book. I waited until I saw I had enough pictures to create a seperat album.

I then have a family album and Christmas album. Initially I was creating 2 family album so each child would have one but it got out of control! So I decided one will do and they can fight over them after I am long gone!

I must say I do love the digital camera. I now create slide shows and break it down into each kids school year and also a year in photo's. Then I plan to make a pocket in the scrapbook and give each kid a disc. That way they have all of the pictures!

I also love the flexablity of top loading albums. You can move things around and create the albums you want at a later date. That is what happened iwth the brownie album initially it was with the school pages but became too big!
Have fun with it! What ever you decide will be wonderful because you are save the memories!

 

[bananiem]

I don't scrap every picture. I wish I had started earlier but my kids were 4 and 6 when I started. I've done our vacations in albums and the building of this house. I'll do one of the next house as well. Someday I'll get around to the pictures of the first house! LOL!
I've managed to get the kids' first year albums done and plan to work on albums of all of the 8x10 pictures this fall.
I keep my photos that I don't use in photo boxes in chronological order so when I decide to go back in time at least they're in order for me.
I always got doubles with my 35mm. I porobably still will with the digital because I have two kids and two sets of grandparents to send them to.

 

[Shelby0007]

Great questions!

I use a regular 35mm camera and always get double prints. I use 1 set for regular photo album and 1 set to scrap.

So far I have a family scrap album, Virginia album (usually vacation there) and a started 2003 Disney album. (all 12X12)

I have plans on doing scrap albums for both of my kids in 8X11. I already have copies set aside for each child so when The right time comes...I'll be ready! This is where the 2nd set comes in handy. I can easily go through regular album, pick out special pics and have copies made whenever I want. This was recently a blessing as my mother-in-law recently passed. My son (9) was very close to her. Although the pics are not the greatest, they are special to my son. I have easy access to these pics and can have copies made for his book.

Going back to Disney in a few months...guess I'll have 2 Disney books started!

Shelby0007

 

[JudithM]

About a year & a half ago I pulled out all my "stuff" - photos, than k you notes, invitaitons, etc. - out of the old, sticky photo albums that I used for years. I could see what the glue stuff was doing to my photos & especially the newspaper clippings.

I have started to scrapbook all these photos. However, scrapbooking has taught me some lessons - I don't have to save every photo - who wants to see blurry pictures? I also know now that I can cut up/crop photos. My scrapbooks are what I call glorified photo albums. My pages are fairly simple compared to layouts I see in my LSS, online, etc.

We usually get two sets of prints developed - keep one set & give away/share the other set. I haven't started to print out many digital photos yet.

Right now I am scrapping lots of pages, but I haven't put them in books yet. I am waiting to see how I want to organize my books - strictly chronological order, maybe a separate Christmas only album, have sepaare family albums ... Who knows right now ? In the long run though I am finding it valuable to preserve my photos & memories.

 

[WendyZ]

Beware I tell you it's addicting!!
Here's what we do...
DD scraps her own book and her sports book. This has been a big help to me since I started over from day one.
Then I do DS's book. These books are from their birth to current day. We'll probably do them up until college.
I also do a family book for myself. This is just my favorite pictures through the years. Something for me to look back on once the kids have taken their books with them. In fifteen yrs. I have 3/4 of a book filled. So it's not to big. I plan to keep this in two books by the time grandkids come along.
Then I have a vacation book...this is our camping trips and small weekend getaways that we go on. I'm starting my first disney trip. I have four trips to scrap and I'm planning on putting two trips in each book. I figure big vacations (disney, etc.) will get a half book per vacation.
I do not scrap every picture in case we need one later. I only get single prints then get any extras later on. Now that I have a digital camera, I save everything to CD. This way if I need a print later, I can make another one no problem. I don't have extra prints lying around this way.

I love scrapbooking. It's alot of work sometimes, but I really enjoy looking back at my work. I always journal in my pages too. At least a little something. I didn't at first...but now I love it. This way when I'm 80 I can't remember it will be right there.

Good Luck and Happy Scrapping!!!

 

[ToDisney]

Before going digital, I always got doubles. What I didn't use went into an "already been scrapped box". Those pictures can be sent to family or to school for the any projects the kids might need pictures for.

Now that I've gone digital, I print only what I need.

I have 3 boys and they all have seperate books. I've given up even thinking I'll get all the pictures scrapped, but what I have done at least I know will tell a good deal about the life my children have led. (I will give them to the boys as gifts once they're married.)

 

[Fire14]

I only have my scrapbook pictures but I do have Dig camera and can print any copies someone may want. Up until I got my Dig I never really kept my pictures.

 

[FantasticDisFamily]

Welcome and YES! if you enjoyed the book you did keep going!

Here is what I do, you'll have so many 2 cents worth by the time we all chime in!

I am a strictly film girl myself. I have some digital photos in some of my albums only because someone else took the photo. I regularly get doubles and sometimes triples depending on the situation. Mainly because there is a group of us with kids in many of the same activities who have agreed to automatically share and when I get my photos developed it is cheaper to have the full second set made right away.

I immediately separate the sets and put one set into a pocket album. The second set is divided out for distribution. Having the first set in the pocket albums lets people look at the photos immediately rather than waiting for them to get scrapped.

Once I am ready to start a section, etc. I pull the photos out of the sleeves (rearranging to reuse the pages) and proceed through the regular sorting process for scrapping. Once I have finished a layout, series, etc I take a final look at the leftovers, distribute them if appropriate and then pitch anything else.

I also have the photo storage boxes with the envelopes containing my negatives. These are all labeled so if someone asked for a copy of a photo they saw in either the sleeve or final scrapbook I could go back to the negative and have a copy made.

As for books they are all over the board! I have books on particular trips, each child has their Scout book, son has his football, and then their life books. I presume some day I may get around to doing general family books....

Deb

 

[Alice28]

WELCOME to the wonderful world of scrapping! I used to get doubles of my pictures, and give away the doubles, or save some of them either in pocket albums or the envelope, but I found I never went back and looked at them or hardly ever gave any away. Now I have a digital camera and burn the keepers on a CD or put them on my computer for safe keeping.

I have mostly only family albums. I have scrapped since 1995 and from 1995-2002 I did 8.5x11 binder style albums, with the top loading page protectors. I switched to Creative Memories 12x12 in 2003. My two sons each have their own baby album of my pregnancy with them up to about their first year. Then I just do family albums after that- I just can't do that many individual albums at the same time. I do have a separate 12x12 album for our huge trip to WDW in March 2003, and I have another separate one for a trip we took to Hawaii some years back. I plan on doing a 12x12 album for my husband while he is deployed in Iraq of newspaper articles, pics he sends me etc., and I am making a 7x7 album for him to take with him.

HAVE FUN!

 

[4greatboys]

They have a lot of really great albums now that have places for journaling. If you dont want to scrap all your pictures also use one of these albums and you can also add in some stickers and boarders to make it look more personalized.

 

[cobbler]

I personally have regular photo albums and am converting them all to scrapbooks, for the simple fact that the books are more photo safe then the albums I own and I want something creative and meaningful for my family and for the future (boy do I sound like a CM advertisement ).

I have digital camera now but I did have advantix. I just get one set of prints and then keep the cartridge for the advantix or keep a picture CD for the digital in case I want extra prints.

I have divided my scrapbooks into things like family. One for each child, vacations, my dance and so on.

 

[TN Traveler]

Are you ready for some more ideas/suggestions?! I don't have a digital so still using 35 mm. Usually I get double prints and then I get copies of ones that are extra special. I'll keep 1 set of pictures in the little pocket albums for family & friends to see and put the extra set up. In the mean time I'll sort through the copies and decide which ones I want to keep. A while back I bought one of the large accordian (sp?) files and placed my 3 girls' names on the speraters and then will drop the pictures in the correct pocket. Then when I get around to making their album, I'll have their pictures when I need it! I don't keep all of the pictures, just the ones I especially like--rest I give to my parents, DH Mom, and others.

At first I was going to try to scrap all of our pictures in a large family album but so far behind right now, don't know if I will. so now thinking I might get pocket album so my pictures are current and just scrap the girls's pictures and our vacation pictures. I have an album from my trip to WDW in 2001, (8 x 11) our last 2 trips to Key West and then our family pictures to Panama City Beach-- (12 x 12.) Of course now I have our pictures from our trip this May & June which is my next project. I also would like to do one from my 25th class reunion & Hubby's 30th last year and a Heritage album for my Dad. THEN some day I'm going to scrap the albums from my FAM trips that I've been on in the last 9 years as a travel agent. I think it makes it nicer for clients to see cruise ships and hotel rooms in a real album as opposed to a brochure.

So you see....you never run out of pictures to scrap....only time to do the scrapping!!

 

[Spinning]

so have we convienced you this is a wonderful hobby and you should go for it?
The joy of scrapping you can do it any way you want!

 

[tkyes]

lol! oh, I know it's wonderful just based on the number of people who do it. It wasn't the act of scrapbooking I was debating about, more so the actual work of organizing photos and keeping up with the scrapbooking.

It's just such a big commiment, I had to decide if I wanted to do it. I don't just want to have scrapbooks of the first few years of our marriage and then drop off.

I picked up a new album last week and some photo storage boxes, I need to get work on organizing my photos first. Fun stuff!