One Album Caught Up! (well, sort of...)

I am excited to report that my six-year-old's scrapbook is caught up--almost! I have scrapped all the photos that I had printed for his album, which takes it to mid-October. The only layouts he doesn't have in his album are Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Even though by the time I get back to his album I will likely have at least six month's worth of pages to do for him, I at least feel like I have accomplished something. Here are the pages that round out my latest burst of scrapping energy:

For this layout, I used this sketch. The rest of these were likely inspired by other sketches on the site, but I didn't specifically use a sketch.

I managed to use some really old patterned paper on this one, which I always love. Every old piece of paper I use gets me that much closer to buying new paper!

For my next trick, I hope to do the same for my nine-year-old's album by the end of the month. I just looked through his stack of photos and I have ten more pages to do. While I work on those, I can contemplate how I want to tackle my 2009 album. Do I start at the beginning of the year and work chronologically (my usual plan of attack)? Do I start at the end of the year and work backwards? Or do I just randomly pull out pictures that strike my fancy and get working? I always say I'm going to try and do that, but my sense of order never seems to allow me to actually do it. However, since I've yet to purchase an actual album to put my 2009 pages in, it may be a little easier since I won't be able to see exactly where the pages are going. Oh, but I just realized I have a 50% off Michael's coupon sitting in my purse, along with a partially redeemed gift card. Hmm, looks like I may be choosing an album and letting go of my fantasy of non-chronological scrapbooking.

Duplicate Layouts

I've been on a self-imposed hiatus from scrapbooking the past week or two, simply because I've been distracted by other interests. I spent the better part of a week engrossed in reading the Twilight series, at the suggestion of my sister. Now that I've finished that, I am slowly working my way back toward my scrapbook area.

I wonder how many other scrappers out there make multiple layouts of the same event like I do. When my first son was born, I decided I wouldn't want to part with his scrapbooks when he was grown and on his own (at least I only hope he will move out someday; since he's still just nine I'm not in too big a hurry), so I decided to make pages for his album, and then pages for mine. Making duplicate layouts didn't bother me much. I generally did his album first, trying to stay fairly current. Then I had more time to go back and do mine, having the journaling from his pages to jog my memory when needed.

Then I had another son, and suddenly I wondered if I was insane for scrapbooking events in triplicate! I do it anyway, since I had already started down this road. I don't duplicate every page, and I have taken to only hitting the major events for the boys' albums, saving the more "everyday moments" for mine. My older son also has his own Cub Scout album, which I don't duplicate for myself.

Sometimes I make it really easy on myself and make identical pages for each of the boys, even copying the journaling word for word. Other times I'll take the same basic design and just change the colors. That's what I did for this recent layout. Most of the photos are identical, and I used the same design, but managed to individualize them just a bit.

I even managed to use some papers that have been sitting in my stash for years, which is always a plus. The paper collection always grows faster than it is depleted.

I have a number of pages lined up for the boys' albums that will likely take this same route. Let's hope I can carve out some time to actually work on them. My general scrapbooking goal is to keep my boys' albums fairly current, and mine about a year behind. I'm not doing too bad on the boys'. I am up to this summer. However, with a few random exceptions, I haven't even started my 2009 album. I do have the photos printed (thanks to the last day of 99-cent shipping at winkflash), so at least that's a start.

Cherry Pie and Disney Scrapbooks

Birthday Season is over for another year in our house. We now officially have a nine-year-old and a six-year-old, with the six-year-old celebrating his birthday on 10-10-10. My family was in town for the weekend, so it was a whirlwind of activity. They actually left on Sunday morning, so my in-laws (who are local) took us out to dinner to celebrate. The birthday boy wanted to go to IHOP for dinner, so IHOP it was. Really, who can say no to breakfast for dinner anyway? What was more unusual is that he requested a cherry pie for his birthday "cake." He was so excited about the pie prospect, but admitted to me the next day that he really didn't like it much. As it turned out, it was the first time he had ever had cherry pie, which I suspected and was why I was surprised that's what he chose. I have to give him props for trying something new, though, and on his birthday no less.

With Birthday Season over, I am going to try and get back into scrapbooking mode. Recently, I've been working on my son's Disney World pages from our first trip this past April. Here's what I came up with for his Magic Kingdom layout:

Next I need to do my older son's pages. The trouble is, by working on this Disney stuff, I have caught the bug for another trip already. This morning, while the youngest was at school, I wasted what could have been valuable scrapbooking time researching 2011 rates for a repeat spring break Disney trip. My husband, who works at home on Tuesdays, was no doubt irritated at my research, getting excited for a trip that will likely not occur.

For now, I need to steer clear of vacation planning and simply get back to scrapping the vacation photos. And who knows? Maybe I'll need to clear the Disney 2010 photos out of the way to make room for the 2011 ones? I won't hold my breath...

First Layout Post

I'm still quite new to the blogging world and have a lot to learn. Mainly I created my own blog to be able to share scrapbook pages with family and friends, and to say a little more than I could in a tweet (which I'm also still learning) or facebook status update. If anyone else happens to see and be mildly amused, great.

I have to admit I'm a little nervous about posting layouts for the world to see. Although I've been scrapping for years, I don't think my techniques have improved much. In my opinion, my pages still look much like a beginner. I think that's part of the reason I'm interested in posting them, though, so people can see that it's okay to be a scrapbooker and not have magazine-worthy pages.

This is my latest page for my younger son's album (I do albums for each of my children, as well as myself, but that's a story for another day).

This is a fairly typical layout for me. I've always put the emphasis on the photos and the journaling; the embellishment is secondary.

Well, I've gone and done it, and it wasn't so bad. Now I just need to find the time to be able to get some more done to be able to post in the near future.