Saturday, March 26, 2011

Let's Talk Scrapbook Albums

I'm a chronological scrapbooker.  How about you?  I scrapbook by year, rather than by subject, although I will do some albums for trips or the occasional theme (like my Christmas card picture album or "week in a life").   Here's the bookshelf with most of my scrapbook albums. I just counted, and I have about about fifty 12x12 albums.  Most have between 35 and 50 pages.  Not all of them are on this shelf because there are a few in each of the kids' rooms (I keep their "school days" and sports albums in their rooms).  I also have about 25 smaller format albums (8.5x11, 5x7, 6x6 etc.) that cover single events, trips or themes and three 12x15 albums .  I originally used Creative Memories albums and then switched to Close to My Heart.  More recently, I used Club Scrap albums until they discontinued them.  Right now, I'm looking for a good substitute.  I'd love suggestions.
As a chronological scrapper, I do try and stay "caught up" with my pictures.  For both my husband an I, I scrapped our childhood pictures (one album for each of us).  I also have a high school album and a university album for me, as well as one album that has all the pictures from when DS and I started dating until we started having children. From 1995 (the year DS Henry was born) until the present, I have at least one annual family album per year (most have two albums). There is also a "baby" album for each child, covering their first year.  Each child also has 2-4 school days albums which cover their school activities and/or their sports.  I'm currently about half way through 2010, so I am pretty "caught up."
There are two albums that I really want to do but haven't really made much of a dent on - our wedding album and a heritage/genealogy album.
So, that's my scrapbook album story.  What's yours?
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23 comments:

Ginger said...

I am definitely not that organized Rinda! In the past I scrapped chronologically, but found it limited my creativeness and enthusiasm and it wasn't until I started taking classes at BPC that I discovered I could scrap whatever I wanted. I put my pages in whatever album I have, I really like the American Craft ring albums so I can mix my pages as I don't only scrap one size. Good topic!

Amy said...

I scrap whatever I like, but it ends up being reasonably chronological. I decided when I began scrapping, June 2005, that I would just start at that moment in time, rather than feeling as though I had to go back and retrace everything - it has ended up being a good decision for me. Having said that, I'd really like to delve into some geneology, my father's family history is comprehensive, my mother's is ok but my husbands is almost non existent and I can't quite come to terms with that!

I also have used a variety of albums but have settled on 12x12 WRMK black faux leather ones, they seem to work well for me and their page protectors are very sturdy - I use these albums to store all page sizes.

I often use 6x6 and 4x6 albums for annotated photo albums for special events ... ok, that should just about cover everything I think! :-)

Anonymous said...

Impressive ... i'm chronological, too.. and i just finished 2010 ... i have started doing "disneyland" year albums (meaning there were 3 d-land trips in 2010 they all are in the same album) .. i have some smaller trip albums and some larger trip albums.. Angelina doesnt have a "baby" album, per se, i figure she will inherit our family albums some day, tho she does have a baby book with some photos in it ... i too am looking for a replacement for the CS albums, i'm not loving the new 3 ring ones they have now.. maybe they will grow on me :D i did do our wedding and i've done all the "heritage" type photos that i have ...

Mariana

Mary B said...

I have albums for each of my three grandsons both 12x12 and 8x8s (more than one each except the baby at just 1 year old he has one of each.)
My wedding album and my daughters wedding album neither of which are completed yet. lots and lots of 8x8 because I am first and foremost a digi scrapper. but I don't think I have anywhere near as many as you have and they are not stored as nicely I do need to reorganise them again.

scrappyjacky said...

You are amazingly organised, Rinda.....I know I'll never be able to scrap all the photos I want to....partly because I came to scrapping too late....and partly because I spend too long on each page!!!
I don't particularly scrap chronologically either.
I've far less albums done.....about 12 of the 12 x 12s and loads of mini albums....I also love the 11 x 8.5 size....and have a few of them.The smaller albums tend to be themed....holidays, Christmas, special events.I particularly like the American Crafts albums.
I've started a heritage one of my mum...but keep getting sidetracked into other things!!

helena said...

I do both. My albums of scrapbook pages are subject - 'Been there, done that'; 'Family and whanau' (Maori for extended family); I did it My Way'; and the miscellaneous one is called 'I felt like it'. Several books under each title - 12 x 12 albums but some pages are A4

I also have several mini albums on a theme. The year I turned 45 I did a big A4 album of 'Me at 45'.

Then I have the chronological records from photo a day and this year The Monthly which are digital and just photos and words with no embellishment

beccaf1970 said...

Wow, that's an impressive number of albums!! Like Ginger, since discovering Big Picture Classes & Stacy Julian's Photo Freedom book, I use American Crafts D-rings albums for non-chronological scrapping. It works well for me, since I only started scrapbooking 6 years ago and would never be "caught up" if I attempted chronological!

Cate Brickell said...

I only have about 10 albums, 1 post bound, and the rest 3 ring binders - a generic Australian brand and american crafts modern albums in 12x12 which I like to mix all my sizes in...

Capescrapper said...

I am definitely NOT a chronological scrapper and follow Stacy Julian's Photo Freedom philosophy of scrapping. I print out pics I want to scrap, put them in a binder style album to browse thru. I am a Club Scrap member, as you know, and ALSB my layouts prior to getting the pics, so when I want to scrap those pic I just pull out the binders and match pics to pages. FUN FAST AND EASY! That is the way I love it. Thanks for asking!

Unknown said...

I am not a chronological scrapper, not at all. I also follow Library of Memory concepts. That being said, I decided that I need some modifications to the system and I store my layouts in chronological order in 3 ring albums. I have albums for my kids, family pictures album, friends and extended family. Everything else goes in general albums. I started with AC Modern albums but didn't like them. I switched to WRMK linen albums. I do like AC page protectors better so I use both brands.

ComfyMom~Stacey said...

I'm a loosely chronological scrapper. Mostly I am caught up with my scrapping so I go to my newest photos first but if they are not speaking to me I work my way back until I find something that does.

I have more photo albums that scrap albums but that is mostly because I scrap digitally & only get layouts printed once or twice a year, often in bound books rather than single pages for albums.

Sian said...

Wow! I scrap whatever I like, whenever I like - going right back to my childhood and flitting forward again to something from yesterday. All my pages are in albums arranged by the layout date - it makes it interesting to see how my style has evolved. Because the scrapping itself is such a pleasure for me I almost treat the end result as an "extra" - all our photos are chronologically in ordinary photo albums for posterity.

You have a fabulous collection!

Terry said...

I have not ever scrapbooked!!! Keep thinking about it! You sure are one organized lady! Have a great Sunday!

Anonymous said...

I started far too late to be a chronlogical scrapbooker. I have more mini-books and theme-related scrapbooks (ie. vacations) than chronological ones. The last two years, I've put my layouts for the current year in a 12X12 three ring binder, both 12X12 layouts and 8.5X11 layouts. I've been very happy with that system. I also used Stacy Julian's format for quite a while and have full albums for Just Us, Family and Friends, Places We Go, etc. I still add to those occasionally.

All my current albums are from Archivers as well as our photo albums. I took all the photos from our old albums out and sorted them by possible scrapbook theme. Then all the rest were put into photo albums. I think I have about 900 of them in albums now. I like the consistency of how they look on the shelf and they are good quality. Unfortunately there aren't any Archivers near to me so I to buy them in bulk if I'm visiting a store or order them.

Mary Ellyn said...

We scrap very similiarly. I started scrapping when my daughter was 9 and started twirling baton (she is now 20 and sadly no longer twirls) and I did one album for each competition year. About 7 years ago I started scrapping pictures our of family's life and I have done 1 album per year since then and usually keep pretty current. I have also gone back and scrapped alums of previous years in easy to segregate topics such as our trips to Disney, my wedding, and I have recently begun re-doing my children's baby books. I also would like to do an album for my husbands and my childhoods but that is a project for another day!

Carola Bartz said...

Rinda, I am completely impressed! I have quite a few scrapbbok albums and some are even finished, but I found that I often got tired with chronological scrapbooking and was craving something "fresh" - well, different. My daughter's baby album is still unfinished, but her early childhood years are pretty much done. I have been a very enthusiastic scrapbooker, but with the "discovery" of other art forms it was sent to the backburner and I had to try out other things. I still scrapbook, but not as much as I used to.

MonicaB said...

Rinda, Very impressive! I'm a random Chronological scrapper. I will do pages when they speak to me but in the end I go through and fill in chronologically. I have albums for each year (I'm finishing up 2008 but have a lot done in 2009 & 2010). I also have albums for my boys school years, wedding, honeymoon, a memory album for my dad (need to do one for my mom) and some special trips, events, Week in a Life, etc...

I recently converted all my albums to We R Memory 12x12 3-ring binders. I love looking at my albums and they are all the same. These albums have a book plate on the side which really looks great. I use brown for my yearly. Dark Blue for School and Sport. And Maroon for Heritage.

Alison said...

I don't scrap chronologically, but my albums are in chronological order. I use AC three ring binders at the moment, but have used a variety of others over the years.I also have some 'themed' albums from holidays etc.

humel said...

Oh my word, Rinda! How well organised you are - and how prolific! I love all those albums lined up on the shelves :-) I tend to scrap however the mood takes me, and each layout just goes into the next gap in whatever album - some time I really must start organising them into proper categories!

Heather said...

I don't think I would ever get any scrapping done if I thought I had to do it chronologically!!! Its great that we all have our own ways :))

Cheri said...

I literally am incapable of scrapping chronologically! I scrap whatever inspires me at the moment. I have several themed vacation and Christmas albums, a small "Library of Memories" collection, and tons of mini albums. I tend to be more project oriented.

Julie Shoemaker said...

Wow! Amazing Rinda, really. I'm not much of a scrapper. I do scrap chronologically for DD, pictures of my DGD. I still have all my family and childrens photos in boxes. I keep saying, someday...

Miriam said...

Gosh! So many albums and so organised, I just scrap whatever and whenever!. I have a number of photo albums from years ago, they are in chronological order but I still have boxes of photos that I will probably never scrap with. It is wonderful how different everyone is. x