Why and How I Scrapbook.

I started paper scrapbooking when I was in middle school.

My favorite store to go to was a small store in a town just over from where I grew up.  They had a good selection of colored cardstock and oodles of stickers.

This is how I started; colored paper and stickers.  Then the scrapbooking world evolved and I evolved with it.

I spent hours scrapbooking with friends in college and when I was first married.

I even worked for a scrapbook store and taught classes.

I went on weekend retreats and pulled late-nighters with friends to make sure my memories where recorded.

Then as the scrapbook world evolved; so did my family.

By the third child I realized I would NEVER be able to scrapbook again.

If you feel this way; I am hoping that my solution might help you.

Every time I pulled out my stash of paper I was so overwhelmed because my kids wanted to go through it. 

I would begin with the intentions of creating something for one of their baby books, and finish with my kids creating some art project with my stash. 

During this time, we lived in small spaces so the ability to leave my mess out was not an option.

Right after I had Isaac, a friend suggested digital scrapbooking.  A way to scrapbook with out the mess.  All I had to do was click Save, and my mess was cleaned up.

I have to admit that the thought of not holding something tangible in my hands was frightening; not to mention the learning curve of learning Photoshop.  It all frightened me.

I decided it was worth a try.

I spent the $80 on Photoshop Elements and an afternoon learning the basics.

I will always be thankful for those two friends who sat down and got me started.

It was so addicting, and I never turned back.

as a note: I normally use photobucket as a host for my pictures.  I did not upload these scrapbook pages to photobucket for the simple purpose that I want you to be able to click on them and make them bigger to read and see.  With that in mind please know that the pages would be more crisp had I used a host.

Digital scrapbooking opened up a whole new world for me. 

Not only did it teach me the digital side of scrapbooking, but it also sparked

my interest in editing photos.

 

Which then led to blogging and photography.

It also allowed me to scrapbook again.

I am so thankful that I didn’t give up on scrapbooking.

I will admit that I am further behind than I ever was when I had more time and just one child.  I don’t do it as often as I would like; but I still love it.

I scrapbook because I love pictures.   My scrapbooks are full of pictures of my favorite people.

 

I scrapbook to record memories.  I love remembering how blessed I am.

I scrapbook because it makes me happy.

I thought it would be nice to share how and what I scrapbook.

What tools I use?

Up until 2007 everything in my life is on scrapbook paper, in sheet protectors and put in an album.  I have scrapbooked everything up until that point on paper.  I have at least 20 binders full of scrapbook pages.  We have moved and moved and moved these around.  I am thankful for them, but now I wish they were all digital, and not so bulky.

I like Blurb.com and mixbook.com for printing digital books.

I print my albums now in hard bound books that are similar to story book size.  I prefer the size 12x12.

Since 2007, I have digital scrapbooked.  Here is my very first spread:

I think you will see that my digital abilities have gotten better with practice.

I used Photoshop Elements 6 over 5 years ago to create this page with the help of two wonderful friends. 

Elements is a much easier and cheaper version than the real Photoshop.  Believe me; I have both.  I have Photoshop CS5 which I use to edit my photography.  I still go back to Elements to scrapbook because I think it is just easier.

Since that first page I have turned to www.jessicasprague.com to learn more about digital scrapbooking.

I also subscribed to scrapbooking magazines that have helped me along the way as well.  Most can be found on www.creatingkeepsakes.com

I have learned from doing and practicing.  The more you practice the faster you get.

Last year; I tried my memories suite for scrapbooking.  This is a great program, and very user friendly.  This is a great route for those of you who don’t want to learn Photoshop.

Both of these sites have digital paper that you can buy.

I use picasa from google to organize my photos and paper.  I have to say that this is by far my greatest scrapbooking secret.  It is FREE.

Ok.  So what do I scrapbook?

I scrapbook family albums by year.

So.. here is a sample of 2007; my first digital scrapbook.

Then beginning in 2008; I started my blog.  I contemplated what to do about this.  If I printed a blog book, it would include many of the pictures and journaling that I would use in my 2008 scrapbook.  I blogged about some of those events.  However; I didn’t blog about everything.  It didn’t make sense to have two books that may have duplicate pictures and info.

After several trial runs; I finally decided to put them both together.  Now when I scrapbook, I include the journaling from my blog. Here is a few examples:

If it came from my blog, I always include: Blogged on: and then the date.

This is an example of a spread that has random pictures and lots of journaling.  It is just some random thoughts I had put on my blog.  I still think it is important to include this in my history because it is who I am, and what we were doing in that moment.

However; there will also be pages that don’t have my blog thoughts on them. These are pages of just important events or family time that didn’t get mentioned out in the blogosphere.  I didn’t blog about everything.  Here is a sample of that:

My digital scrapbooks for my family are a combination of both our memories and my thoughts. (it just so happens that I can more easily remember those thoughts because I have blogged) 

This has been the perfect solution for me because my blog is a history.  Now all our memories are in one place.

Along with family books, each child has a baby book.  This is a book all about them their first year:

Tessa and Isaac are the only ones who have digital books.

Jex and Stella have paper scrapbooks for their baby books.

I want to pull them out and share a few pages from them, but I never unpacked our scrapbooks.  It just seemed like one more thing to unpack and pack.  It was something we could live without for one year.  It makes me so sad that our memories are in boxes in my attic; but it will be the first thing I unpack when we become more permanent somewhere.

So I hope this makes sense; each child has their own baby book.  This is their book to keep.  I have their baby pages in my family book that I keep for myself for the year.

I still wanted my kids to have a book of memories beyond the first year of their life.

It did seem odd to hand them 18 books when they left the house.  It also seemed like a daunting task for me to create a book for each child, each year.

So I decided I would make them five spreads (spread being 2 pages next to each other) for each year.  I make:

a winter spread (a collection of pictures from Dec-Feb. of that year):

a spring spread (pictures from Mar.-May):

a summer spread(pictures from June-Aug.):

a fall spread(pictures from Sept.-Nov.):

and a birthday spread:

So in simple terms, each child will have 2 books; a baby book, and book with a collection of memories.

The collection book has five spreads from each year that highlight the big memories from each season.

Jex and Stella started with paper pages, and now they have some digital pages incorporated in their book.  For this reason I have kept their pages in a binder and sheet protectors. I print these pages individually. 

You can find many sites that print 12x12.  I print these from Jessica Sprague.  I usually print them when they are on sale and can usually print them for around $1.50 a page. (which is cheaper then buying paper and printing pictures)

I do the same for Isaac and Tessa.  I was worried about storing all those pages on my hard drive for 18 years and then printing them in to a bound book.  You never know what might change or what you might loose from now to then.

Digital scrapbooking can also be a cheap hobby.  You can get lots of FREE digital papers.  Your software is your only fee.  You can print pages or books when you have the money.  Unlike, paper that you have to own before you paper scrapbook.

I love knowing that when I want to create something, all I have to do is get on my computer.  I don’t have to go out and buy supplies because I already have them.

The books are not cheap to print, but keep in mind that you are no longer buying paper, sheet protectors, albums, or paying to print your pictures.  I think it is actually cheaper then printing all your pictures.

I have spent anywhere from $20 to $170 on the printing of a bound book.  It all depends on the size and how many pages.

Remember I print my family albums in bound books from sites like www.blurb.com or www.mixbook.com

I print individual 12x12 pages for my children’s collection books from this site.

For those of you who are intimidated by designing a scrapbook page; did you know there are pages that are already designed for you?

These pages are called quick pages.  These are made for Photoshop programs and allow you to just drop your pictures right in, and call it good.   My memories suite may also have some of these. Here is an example of what a quick page looks like:

Here it is with my pictures in it:

There are also pages for Photoshop called templates.  These are pages that have the layout made and all you have to do is pick your paper and add your pictures.

Here is what a template looks like:

Here is what it looks like when I added my pictures and paper:

Templates can only be used in Photoshop elements or the big Photoshop.

…and if you really want to keep it simple, many sites have books already made and all you have to do is add your pictures.

Whatever you decide to do; I hope this sparks your interest or answers some of the questions you may have about digital scrapbooking.

Visit here to read more about how I scrapbook.