scrapbooking questions

[s_gosney]

Has anyone here successfully started out really behind and then caught up in your scrapbooking? My SIL gave me an awesome gift this Christmas--a complete scrapbook of our wedding. So now I'm feeling inspired to start on the stuff that's happened since then (mainly our lives with dd). But, she's 2 now, and so much has happened. I try to think about how to get started and just get overwhelmed thinking about it. Any tips? Is it best to start from the beginning (pregnancy/birth) or from most current and work back? Any other tips about getting started? I have lots of tools, but I've just never had the chance to really put some time into it. Now that my coursework is out of the way and dh is on board for giving me a little more free time, I'm really wanting to get started on this. Thanks so much for any help you can give!

[mommy_someday]

Well, different things work for different people. But here are a few things that work for me. I try to have one weekend day per month where DH handles DS and I can focus on scrapping. I have a table downstairs in the basement and I leave all my scrapping supplies out. That way, I can sit down and do a bit here and there. When I have a hard time getting started, I sometimes start with more recent pictures, something with a definite theme like a holiday. Once I have that page done, I pick out other pics and then get a flow going. I have the pages that slide into page protectors, so it's really easy for me to switch them around if they are a bit out of sequence.

Your album sounds amazing - what a fantastic gift! Have a great time getting back into scrapping and HTH!

[SeekerMage]

I would start by organizing your pictures. Separate them by month, theme etc...how ever you decide to do that album. My mom did albums for my girls and they are really great. For Lil'bit she is doing a first year album, the first page is love, marriage, and a baby...starting with pictures of me and hubby, our wedding pic, her ultrasound and birth photo. She then has one page or the two page spreads with each month. some of the months are broken up with things in between. Pages like first smile, or or look how cute with several pictures from the previous months combined into a common theme etc. That way you can really see her grow month by month, but at the same time your not stuck to only that. Its also great if you arent exactluy sure just how old she might be at that time. Another option is my mom did an ABC album for my nephew and just used different pictures for each letter...some were simple like Oh how cute...or you should be stuck in a Zoo etc for the harder letters. Might be a fun idea for her second year? Or for all the extra pictures you might have that dont fit into the album under a certain "theme" Good luck...sounds like a lot of fun!

[firstbaby]

Did you keep any notes/calendars/baby books? What I've been doing is a two page spread for each month of his first year and then journalling what things he did or what happened that month i.e - he slept through the night, we went to the beach, etc. This has allowed me to be *much* more organized because I don't worry about grouping together bath pictures, etc. Don't ask me what I'll do when I get to years 1-2 yet - I haven't thought that far ahead ;) I think you could definitely catch up. I don't know if you have participated in any Creative Memories event but they have a workshop called Power Layouts and it gets a number of pages done in a set period of time. The pages aren't fancy but if your commitment is to get them in a scrapbook you can always go back and embellish later. Good luck!

[holliam]

Well, I've been scrapbooking for years, but I stopped two years ago when we had delays with our adoption. My daughter is now 16 months old, and I have not done any of her pages yet. I am finally getting restarted now.

So, I have tons and tons of pictures, including about 7 rolls from when she lived with her foster family. In those, I don't even really know what's going on.

I am planning on alternating working on current stuff and working on older stuff. I'm doing this because I'm more excited about the recent things. Ideas are fresh in my mind now that I'm thinking like a scrapbooker again.

Don't feel that you have to scrapbook every single picture. You don't have to do chronological albums either. You could do theme ones, like holidays, or just a couple pages for each month for her first year, etc.

Holli

[annasmom]

Gosh, I hope we can start out late and still finish! I did this beautiful scrapbook for my dd for her first year, and despite buying a scrapbook and some materials for my ds (before he was born), I haven't even started one for my ds even though his first birthday was last week!! I do plan to start it, and I think that you are all inspiring me to set off some time once a week or even once a month and get this thing done!!

By the way, what a wonderful and incredibly thoughtful gift your SIL gave to you!!

[aim]

There are many ways to come at this issue, but here are a few suggestions/things to check out.

Check out Simple Scrapbooks magazine (they have a website too). Their whole philosophy is that simple is good done is better than not and that you don't have to scrapbook every picture to have a great scrapbook. Also they advocate scrapbooking out of order (not chronologically) and it really frees you up to capture memories now while you are inspired to do so. Remember some memories preserved are better than none.

When I want to start a project and make it very do-able - I stick to one line of coodinating scrapbooking products. It takes a lot of the time and guess work out of putting together scrapbook pages.

It may or may not be your thing, but you might want to check out Creative Memories. They have consultants in every area (much like tupperware) and most cosultants host crops/workshops where you can come to work. The advantage of CM for many people is that all of the prodcuts coodinate and they advocate simple scrapbook pages. The "style" is not for everyone but they really can help you move pictures from shoeboxes to albums.

What I have done with my son's scrapbook... I have very general pages. One page each for the three trimesters of pregnancy. One for each shower (I had two) One each for the hospital, coming home and his room. Then I have a two page spread for each month - I include my favorite pics and what he did that month. I have a two page spread for pics with important people (for example, mom and me, dad and me, and each set of grandparetns) then his birthday. It was still a huge project, but thinking that I didn't have to preserve every person at every event and to just have several pics to illustrate the memories made it much more managable. And you should know that I took 7500 pics his first year and I have about 3000 printed and I think that the scrapbook has maybe a tenth of these - the rest are in a regular album (but honestly nobody really looks at that one).

Okay I ended up writing a disseration (hmmmm, maybe i should finish mine someday...that's another story totally)

Hope it helps- feel free to email me if you have questions.

[jhaud]

i didn't do anything for my dd's album (17 mo) until my scrapbook store's big crop last spring... and not since, but for my sil i did an album for their dc #1 for their shower. and now they are expecting dc #2 any day and requested an album as a christmas gift (hint hint!) so, i am doing double layouts that will work for my new niece and my dd. that way i only have to think once!!

i have found that i just pick a group of pictures i want to do... maybe mix in a couple, must do's now and again works best for me. so my pages are not done chronologically by any means. i am also going to start doing one page layouts. i have previously not done any except for the first and last pages this way, and have found it to be more freeing. i am also using very little embellishment these days (though i have tons and tons of supplies!)

good luck - you're not alone in the overwhelmed forever behind in scrapping club!

jennifer

[KrisM]

I started scrapping when DS was 11 months old. I had never done it before. What I've been doing is going to a scrapping night once/month with MOMS Club (at a scrap book store). I'm there about 4 hours and can get 2-4 pages done. I do simple layouts. I bring the most recent photos and 2 months of "old" photos. At this point, 9 months later, I have everything from his first birthday through Thanksgiving 2005 done as well as his birth through November 2004 done. So, I have 5 months of his first year to do and then Christmas for this past year. My thought was to both get caught up and to not get further behind at the same time. Hopefully, by the time the baby comes, I'll have DS's caught up and then I can keep both of them fairly current.