OK, I usually don't ask for comments, but I'm hoping to get a lot of feedback on this....
I'm in a quandry.
I love the concept of scrapbooking. I'm fairly creative, I love photos, journaling, and looking at other people's scrapbooks. I also am sentimental and love the idea of preserving family history and stories.
However, although a kindergarten teacher, I'm not naturally artsy craftsy. My handwriting is messy. When I've done pages in my various scrapbooks, I usually mess up big time, either due to being impatient, or just general 'inept-ness.'
I am bummed that I made so many mistakes with Miss P's baby album that it is out of order and a mess. I started a 'toddler to teen' creative memories album, that I had high hopes for, but never did the 'titles' and didn't keep up with it. Last year, I was determined to fix this. I started organizing my mass of photos over the holiday break and made just a dent. Then I decided to do just yearly chronological albums. A two page layout for each month. One side for journaling (since that's one of my favorite parts - I typed the stories), and the other side for the photos that gave an overview of the month in a simple layout. However, again I didn't get past March. I love the end result, but I guess I don't love the act so much. With blogging it's been different, it doesn't feel like a chore. It feels much easier and I look forward to it.
So, my question is: do I just give away all my scrabooking stuff which is taking up room and not being used, and stop feeling guilty? If so, how can I keep my memories of P and our family? I know I have this blog, but I'd like to have something more tangible. Should I try and go back and make digital albums on snapfish or kodak.gallery? Should I start a seperate blog for P and turn it into a book through blogger? Should I just suck it up and go back to last year's idea of a very simple scrapbook, schedule the time, and just do it? What do you do?
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4 comments:
I wouldn't worry so much about the titles. When I did scrapbooks for my children, I used the letters that can be purchased for the titles! Then if I did any journaling or captions on the pages, I simply wrote or printed those in my normal handwriting. But if it burdens you - read on . . . ;-)
That said - you could forget the scrapbook idea and start purchasing nice, uniform photo albums that have room to write beside each photo! You can still record memories, etc. but won't be bogged down with the whole scrapbook process. exposuresonline.com
I wouldn't do a blog, or a blog book -- they're crazy expensive, and HARD to edit.
I love the snapfish books, etc. Maybe do one from each year? Honestly, I'd totally get into digital if I din't have SO much paper stuff (and when I say so much, I have a LOT). Digital's fun, and it's a beautiful end product.
However, if you enjoy the cathartic process of gluing, and the texture that paper scrapbooking brings -- by all means do that. :)
I hear you on all accounts! I always bought the goodies to make cute scrapbooking pages, but it is really time consuming. I have found the solution that has saved me time, saved my sanity, and saved me money (when you all up all you spend on papers, stickers, etc. it gets pricey). I make digital scrapbooking pages on www.shutterfly.com. Seriously, it is amazing! VERY user friendly. The good thing is that you can make 1 page at a time (in 12x12 or 8x8 size pages), order it, and slip it into your plastic sleeve pages in your album. Or you can order beautiful hardcover books for the year, or a specific event, or by the month, etc.
The great part about this is that there are so many different layouts, backgounds, edges, and fonts. You can add captions to tell the who, what, where, etc for each page. If you make digital books you can even have a full page of text to type the highlights of the trip/event.
OK, I promise to end this soon...I know I am getting long-winded, but a friend of mine has children and she is doing a fantastic job with her photos. She does a hardcover book for each season. So at the end of each year she has 4 little books. They are so super cute and take up SO MUCH less space on your bookshelves than a traditional scrapbook.
Oh and 1 more thing...I saw this on Oprah and have started doing it with some special projects. Nate Berkus (Oprah's favorite decorator) had this great idea of taking pictures of your child's artwork and adding these pictures to your photo album/scrapbook. Another fun idea I have seen is to scan your child's stories, pictures, etc and add these scanned pictures to your scrapbook. My neighbor has done this with the first spelling test of the year, a poem her son wrote about family, etc. She has them interspirsed throughout the album. The family poem is on the facing page as a Thanksgiving photo. When you scan them it justs makes it so much easier to put in the book. No gluing, cutting, etc.
That's my 2 cents.
I think the total low maintenance option is the snapfish photo books, one per year of all events. I am doing scrapbooks the old fashioned way, but am way behind too!!!!
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