I don’t exactly have album layouts to share today. Lately real life has been getting in the way of Project Life. :) But I do want to show you all what Kenny got me for a little Valentines gift this year. (Cue angels singing in the background…)
YEA!!! My new kits! Two of the Amber kits for my girls and one Turquoise kit for Kole. Talk about the best Valentine surprise ever. Isn’t it romantic!? ;) Now that I have my hands on my beautiful new kits I am SO motivated to get caught up so that I can start using them. Hoping that by next Tuesday I have LOTS of layouts to post.
I wanted to answer a question one reader had after my last Project Life post: “how do you keep track of the other stuff that goes with the pictures so when you scrapbook you have it all there?” I’ve had other similar questions on how I organize and assemble these albums so I thought I’d share my process – for any fellow scrapbookers out there who get as excited about all of this stuff as I do! :)
Step 1 – Go through photos. I organize my pictures by blog posts since I share most of my favorite pictures on my blog. For example, in my 2011 folder I have a January folder and in the January folder I have two other folders – one for January blog posts and one called January randomness (pics I am keeping from the month but didn’t blog). So if I’m working on Addison’s album, the first thing I do is go through my folders of pictures for each month and choose what I want to develop for her album. I put everything I’m going to develop in another folder titled something like “Addison’ PL March – June 2010” This step takes the longest for me because not only does it take a while to select the pictures, but I also have to crop and save any vertical pictures I’m using (directions on developing two 3×4’s as one 4×6 in Photoshop here). Luckily most of my photos have already been cropped/edited so I don’t have to add that step to the process. Blogging has made this all so much easier for me.
Step 2 – Upload photos to print. I’ve used on-line sites before, but I get really impatient with the whole shipping thing. There is a photo store near my home that is a bit pricey, but produces high quality prints so I usually just pay a little more and go there so that I can pick up the pictures an hour or so after I make the order.
Step 3 – Organize photos in order. I use my blog and picture folders to help me organize the pictures into piles in the order I will use them. I group them in themes (Disneyland, picking lemons, random February pictures, etc.) and spread them out all over my work space. You can see to the left that I was sharing a work space with Addison and her Valentines. :)
You can see in this picture I posted two weeks ago the piles of pictures on the right. (You can also see why I need a bigger scrapbook room!) :)
Step 4 – Add additional memorabilia. Any little thing I think I MAY want to add to these albums I keep organized in my PL drawers in my scrapbook room.
I have a pile for each of my girls (the work is organized on the left of the drawer). Here is a picture of Ellie’s stuff from March 2010 through today…
After I put my pictures in piles, I go through all of the paper pile and add anything that goes along with the pictures. (I date EVERYTHING I save for my girls (write the month and year on the back before I stick it in the drawer) so it’s easy to see what goes where. I decide what is really special enough to keep and trash the rest. Now that I’ve added their work to each picture pile, I’m almost ready for the fun part…
Step 5 – Before I start assembling the albums I do one last thing. I go through my blog and see if there is anything I want to print for their books. I know I mentioned this a lot when I first shared Ellie’s album, but I have to say again that blogging has made the journaling for these books so easy. Here are a few examples of how I’ve added material from blog posts to my albums…
On Ellie’s first day of Kindergarten I used the PL journaling cards to explain what was taking place in all of the pictures which left no room to write about the things Ellie told me about her first day of school.
I had blogged all of the little things she mentioned about the day so I just printed the post and added it to the book in an 8×11 sheet protector. These are the little things I cherish that I never would have written down or remembered if I wasn’t blogging.
In December I had written a whole post about all of our December traditions so I just printed the post and added it in with all of the Christmas pictures.
Here I added Addison’s “Quotable Quotes” from the summer of 09′ (just like the post I did yesterday) and printed it straight from my blog with the picture on it and everything. Blogging makes it so easy!
Step 6 – Assemble the albums. While I enjoy this whole process, assembling the albums is the most fun! These albums make the creative process so easy. Stick the pictures in the slots, choose the color/card scheme, and do a little journaling. Before you know it a beautiful album is coming together right before your eyes. :)
And that’s it! My process in a nutshell. Hope that answered any questions. Hope you too can find some time to scrapbook this week (if it’s something you enjoy). And I hope you all have a lovely Tuesday!
xoxo, Erin
