Tag Archives: scrapbooking

Scrapbooking with Your Elephant

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Do you struggle finding time to create pages?  Perhaps you don’t really have a space where you can leave out all your supplies, and you know that by the time you drag everything out and get ready, there would be no time to get anything else done and  you would have to put it all away!  When it seems you never have time to create a page, that’s when you know you have an elephant.  Yes, an elephant!  There’s an age old question, “How do you eat an elephant?” The answer is, “One bite at a a time!”  Your elephant is scrapbooking, and even though you aren’t going to eat it, you still need to know how to delve in; and that’s one step at a time!

Step 8:  Break your scrapbooking into segments. 

There is no rule that says you have complete a page all at once!    Whether you use an archival quality project sleeve or a 2 gallon ziplock bag, you can grab what you need and have it ready for the final step.  Keep the essential adhesives, scissors, paper trimmer, etc. together and you’ll be ready to grab your things and finish your page.  If you are a digital scrapper, this will still work for you!

  • Select your photos.
  • Decide on a layout.
  • Select your paper and embellishments.
  • Create your page!
In essence, you are creating your own kit, complete with photos!  It is amazing how much you can accomplish when you are prepared!
 
photo credit: Flickr.com Creative Commons, rollontravel

 

The Palest Ink is Better Than the Best Memory

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Today our discussion about making it easy to get more pages done is about

Step 7:  Journaling

The Chinese proverb, “The palest ink is better than the best memory” is certainly true and thought provoking when it comes to making your scrapbook pages.  Yes, years down the road someone is going to be thankful that there is something written on your scrapbook page!  The ink may be faded by then, but it will be better than only pictures of which people may not even remember anything about the who, what, why, when, or where.

So many people say they don’t like their handwriting on their pages (and that is a whole separate topic).  Okay, well type it out and stick it on!  Be mindful that it could be meaningful in days to come, even to you!  Journaling does not have to be the equivalent of writing a small essay.  It’s just jotting down the importance of the photo, if nothing else the who and when!  That won’t take you that long.  Don’t make a bigger thing out of than it is, and don’t let is stop you from getting a page done.  In fact, you could always add more detail another day, or add a little pocket for some hidden journaling, in case the fact of making it so “public” would stop you from doing it.

I am so grateful that my mother has such an interest in her family, both on her mother’s side, as well as her father’s.  I think you could say she is a true heritage keeper.  Even before scrapbooking, as we know it today, was popular, she spent hours and hours writing down information on the back of any old family pictures she has.  Even though the information is on the back of the pictures, and you have to remove it from the picture sleeve to read it, the information is there.  Without journaling, we would have no idea who the people were.  Once she is gone, that information would be gone with her.  Working with her to document some of the pictures we still find, is like detective work!  Sometimes we’ll have to compare photos to others we have to figure out who people are.  Even at that, we already have missing info.

In the end, it’s all about the pictures and the words. After my husband’s mother passed away, my sister-in-law came to me with a giant box of photos, which had been my mother-in-law’s method of memory keeping.  We sorted pictures into two piles; one pile for anything documented or who we knew, and the other was a pile of photos that we had no idea of their significance.  Sadly, there was a much larger pile of pictures of which we had no clue about.  Those are the pictures that we would have been grateful for having a faint bit of ink; but there was none.

In the end, it doesn’t matter what the theme of your layout is, or what colors you chose, or how the page is embellished, it’s all about the pictures and the words.  You may have pages that speak for themselves, to you — now, but wouldn’t it be nice to look at those same pages years down the road and still have some information?  A lot of things happen in life, and what seems to be something you feel you would never forget, will become far less important and the details fade from memory.

Stop in for the next segment on Managing Your Scrapbook Time, or Scrapbooking with your Elephant

Mother, May I Scrapbook?

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In today’s segment of getting more scrapping accomplished, lets talk about

Step 6:  Give yourself permission to be your family’s memory keeper. 

Some of you may remember the childhood game, Mother, May I? where you had to ask permission to move ahead or do various activities. Since scrapbooking is generally considered a hobby, many people seem to feel that it should only be done if _____, or _____ (you fill in the blanks). Realize that scrapbooking your personal memories, your family’s history, or whatever memories you want to document can be richly rewarding for you, your family, or maybe someone else.  You deserve a few minutes to document and save memories.  It’s such a rewarding thing for everyone to look back and be able to remember special moments.  Children especially benefit from seeing themselves in scrapbooks!

Documenting memories may not always be about “happy” times.  As part of the human experience, we have good times and not so good times and those experiences are all part of the story.  You don’t have to delve deeply into painful experiences, but to completely leave them out will leave holes in your story.  Sometimes just a sentence or two may be all you care to share.

MAKE the time to document and keep the memories.  While you are deciding how you will make time you may consider these questions:

  • Do you like to work with paper scrapbooking, digital, or hybrid (a combination of digital and traditional)?
  • Do you need to save time by using pre-designed sketches, templates, quick pages, or even pre-designed books?
  • Which style or size of scrapbook will work best for you and allow you to actually complete pages?

Select a method or format,  you think will be manageable and will work for you, and give yourself permission to jump in and make a page, or two!  Yes, I’m a mother, and I’m giving you permission.  Why?  Because I said so.

Stop back by because next time we’ll talk about how to make the story memorable.

Scraplifting is Not a Crime

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In today’s episode, let’s look at a way to really save time in your scrapbooking efforts, and that’s by “scraplifting” or using templates or sketches!

You don’t have to always reinvent the wheel with every page you make.  If you see a layout you like, use the basic layout on your own page!  Using your own colors, papers, embellishments and photos will make it your own!  (If you post your page in an online gallery it’s nice to credit who inspired you.)

Templates can really speed a page along, especially if you are digital scrapping.  Page maps/scrap maps are like a blueprint to follow to create a page.  Remember that you can get a totally different look simply by rotating or flipping a template or page map!  Sometimes the orientation of the original is not a good fit with your pictures or other elements of your page.  By rotating or flipping the design, it may better fit your needs.  So, go ahead and scraplift or get a head start using a template or a sketch someone else has put together!

Here’s an example of taking an idea, rotating it to the right 90 degrees, and then flipping it horizontally so that the title could be on the left and leave journaling on the right.  You can see the original design was slightly changed to meet the needs of the new page.  The patterned paper was removed and instead of completely coming up with a design from scratch, we have a new page that will be completely different!  It’s interesting to see that by rotating and flipping it, the two embellishment represented by the circles, have ended up in the same positions around the photo, the top left and bottom right!

Ring Bound Albums versus Post Bound Albums

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There are so many types of scrapbook albums on the market that is can be confusing!  There are several ways that pages can be bound, yet the two we tend to see most often are ring bound and post bound.

You may want to consider using ring binder albums as opposed to post bound.  Two of the greatest benefits of using a ring bound albums are:

  1. They allow you to insert pages where you want them, or easily rearrange them. (Especially nice when you are not scrapping in a chronological order.)
  2. They also allow you to mix different sized pages within the same album.  Being able to use different size pages within a single album can also add visual interest by having various sized pages, besides giving you the freedom to quickly scrap an 8×8 page or a 6×12 page to put in your album.  Different size page protectors are also great for adding other media as well, making it truly a scrapbook.

Notice how there are different sized items included; even a card has been punched and included right in the rings.
Photo credit: Bunches and Bits {Karina}, Flickr.com

Post Bound albums are more durable in some respects.   People sometimes have problems with the rings in ring bound getting all out of whack, especially when an album becomes very full and you have a lot of weight in pages you are turning.  Of course, there are levels of quality just as in most things.  A better made album will tend to give you less trouble with it’s ring mountings.

If you use a post bound album that is filled with page protector that you slip your pages into, it is going to be a lot easier to swap pages around if you need to.  Otherwise, an album that is filled with paper pages and you slip a protector over the page will not be as easy to swap pages around without having to disassemble the album so that you can take pages off the posts and reorder them.

Once you fill a post bound album, and need more room, you can buy add on posts and increase the number of pages you can use.  It is a little time consuming, but it is not difficult.

One thing some people don’t like about ring bound albums is the space that is left between open pages.  A double page spread that you create may not be quite the same cohesive feel that you get when the pages are right next to each other with virtually no space between them.

In the end, you’ll probably have scrapbooks bound by posts, rings, ribbons, staples, or who knows what!  Just don’t let album selection stand in your way of just getting something accomplished.  You can find a great article by Jill Davis about “albumology” and find out more specifics about different types of albums.

What’s your favorite type of album?  Do you have different types you use for different purposes!  Please share your thoughts with us!