i am determined to move past page 3 of baby bear's scrapbook. so, while hubby used this laptop tonight, i got on the "old" one... the one with the non-functional screen (thanks to the melodrama of a spider scurrying across the floor toward my baby girl a few months back). it's the one that is connected to an old-style monitor 2 feet above it on the top of my roll top desk. it's also the one that houses my treasured photographs. the last 2 years of our life are summarized on that computer. anyway, i grabbed a blank sheet of printer paper and made a list. will those of you who are experienced scrappers tell me if this looks like a reasonable start? For a refresher look, this is what I have already put together. (minus page 3: click HERE.)
- 2 pages per month
- 4-8 pictures per month up to 6 months, plus Holidays, birth pages (2), 1st 2 weeks pages (2)- I know, this doesn't leave much space for journaling. I may have to crop creatively or something.
- pregnancy: belly shots, ultrasounds, me and bec at showers
The problem I'm running into is that our daughter is so beautiful and I took SO many pictures of her in the early months. And of course I'm biased, but SO many are good. And then there are a bunch of pictures from other family members, like Caslon and Camera Guy. Those could be a separate scrapbook by themselves! I'm thinking what I originally wanted to be her 1st year scrapbook will be her 1st 6 months scrapbook. I do need to dig out the baby book I bought and be intentional about not duplicating too much of what will go in there, KWIM?
Maybe if CRT and I start a contest, I'll get going on this and she'll finish Maddie's scrapbook.
Anyway, I narrowed down some pics to choose from, and now I just have to have them printed. my goal is to print enough to have pictures for at least 4 or 5 pages. i have some fun charms, brads, and pastel colored safety pins to add as embellishments.
i'm also re-thinking my color scheme and wanting to do some cutesy "traditional" baby pages... i have the feeling i'll end up just mixing and matching a lot. and stamping on the white pages.
anyway, here goes...
9 comments:
competitions! i love competitions!
em's one year book is actually two books bursting with pages. have fun and do whatever you want. there's no equation.
ok, so what will the ground rules be? prizes? anyone else care to join us? farm wife, i know you have some scrap stuff to use.. bec, stephanie, anyone else? can us newbies get handicap points? lol.
baby bear loves looking at the "baby" in the pink book. she has no idea that she's the baby.
You guys are funny... I'll stick to my photo albums thank-you very much!
-Juliana's baby album has 45 pages (90 if you're counting front and back). It's too full.
-more than 4 pictures per page is usually too much unless you have them cropped really small. Try sticking to 3 or 4... even 2 if they are full-sized uncropped pics. And don't get 5x7s unless you're just doing one picture on the page. It makes it to cramped. Develop 4x6s.
-Once you have them developed, start by putting your pictures into categories. I like to try to keep things in the order in which they actually happened. Try to only have one category per page (but if you need to spread out one category over 2 or a few pages, that's ok). For example, you don't want to put "baby's first bath" and "friends come to visit" on the same page, even if you only have one of each picture. Fill up the space with decorations and words instead of cramming things together.
-once you have all your photos sorted into categories, make sure you keep them separated and in order. This will make things easier in the long run. Then just tackle one category at a time. A little organization in the beginning goes a looong way to not becoming overwhelmed.
-to help weed out having to use too many pictures, begin by cropping the pictures that you have in whatever category you're working on. Once you have them cropped, you can sort of lay them out on the page to visualize where you'll put them. Pick the one or two you absolutely HAVE to have and work around them. Whatever doesn't fit well around them, ditch 'em. If you can't get yourself to let go of them all together, get another photo album that is just a photo album (not a scrapbook) so you still have something to put these ditched pictures into. This way you can still look at them if you really want to. This makes it easier to let go of feeling like you HAVE to have them in the scrapbook. I'm doing much better with this in Juliana's 1 year album than I did in her baby album. (also, having the pics posted on Shutterfly helps ward of my feeling the need to print or use every picture). Every pose is just so cute!
-Although I don't do it all the time, it really helps things look nicer if you put borders around them. It also looks nicer to type up whatever captions or titles you may have... then again yours may look good enough without doing this since you have the pretty handwriting which I lack. Don't just stick with black ink, use colors. You can also use stamps and stickers.
-the corner rounder is my new best friend. I should have gotten one years ago!
Hope this helps!
I LOVE my corner rounder. I use it on cards whenever I make them. The teacher at the class I went to strongly recommended using your own handwriting even if you don't like it because it adds to the personalization/family historical value. OF course, if you can't read it, the purpose is defeated. maybe a combo? I will be sticking with my pens or embellishments rather than typing things out, for the most part. We can't all have CRT's writing, but at least I CAN make mine legible.
Thanks for all the great tips, bec!
Grace, don't worry I will be asking for photo albums for Christmas next year. The kind with places for captions/journaling.
ok, i don't think bec can be in the competition. she can be the master teacher. are you absolutly sure bec is the youngest and lauren's the oldest??? heeeee heeeee.:-)
yeah, if anyone wants to challenge the whole birth order theory, we're prime examples. but technically, i'm not the oldest. adam is. i'm pretty classic middle child, i do believe.
but typically the first born female (even if she's further down in the pecking order) has first born characteristics. have you read dr. kevin leman's the birth order book? it's really good. and now that i have my shelves i can find it.
hv't read the book, but apparently i'm atypical! :-)
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