Finding our way to finished scrapbooks

If you’re anything like me, it’s really hard to find time to organize, print, get creative with, preserve, and show off your photos.  Not only is it hard to find time, but it’s easy to get overwhelmed with the sheer amount of photos and memories to preserve.  My kids are always doing and saying cute things I want to remember, participating in sports and other activities I want to record, and just being their adorable selves – the memories are happening faster than I can preserve and enjoy them!

Many of us here in the office share this dilemma and we’ve all come across a few ways that help us get more done and stay motivated.  These are things we’ve discovered that work for us personally, the things that help us stick with it. Below is my fast and simple approach.  Watch for more to come from our other contributors on how they stick with it.  And do stick with it – it’s so worth it!

Finding my way to finished scrapbooks

It took me a long time to find my scrapbooking “groove”.  I have worked in advertising for 10+ years.  Working closely with graphic artists and designers, but not actually being one had an interesting effect on my scrapbooking, especially after I started working at Archiver’s.  I wanted MY pages to look like a professional designer created them!

Unfortunately, I am NOT a professional designer.  I don’t have the patience to devote lots of time to each scrapbook page.  I find satisfaction in accomplishing a lot in little time.  For me, the quantity of pages and photos I get done is as important as the quality of pages.  For several years, this brought my scrapbooking to a stand-still.  I would sit with my pictures and supplies, ready to create, and just stare at a 12”x12” blank slate, intimidated and paralyzed by my expectations of design perfection.  Or I would finish a page and then, seeing it later, think it wasn’t good enough and try to redo it.  It was just too overwhelming, the prospect of all the elaborate pages I’d need to design for practically every photo I printed.  After a while, frustrated with my lack of achievement, I gave up and just avoided my photos altogether, letting them sit with the intention that someday, I would devote enough time to create the perfect pages I thought I wanted.

Then, about a year ago, I saw an album created by one of my co-workers that got me really excited.  She had used a pocket page album, filling the 4×6 pockets with photos and embellishing some with stickers and rub-ons, and in one or two pockets in each spread, including a decorated 4×6 journaling card amongst the photos, both to add the story behind the photos, and to add some creative flair to the basic look of the album.  For the first time in years, I got excited.  This was something I could imagine doing, and keeping up with!  I went out that same week and bought several pocket page albums and started scrapbooking again.  The first time I sat down and tried my new method, I was shocked at how many pages I got done and how much I loved them.  By shrinking the size of my ”blank slate” from 12×12 to 4×6, it was easy to add a little flair where I wanted to and I was able to showcase SO many more photos and so much more quickly and efficiently than ever before.

This new way of scrapbooking has changed everything for me.  It has motivated me to get started again and actually enjoy this hobby!  I am now back to scrapbooking on a regular basis again and when I do, I come away feeling like I accomplished a lot and loving the way my pages turned out.  I won’t claim I’ve achieved the “design perfection” I sought in earlier days, but I’ve gotten something much better–actual finished albums that my family and I can enjoy together.  Isn’t that what this is supposed to be all about?