A page layout before journaling

I’ve been having fun scrapbooking since early December for our youngest ones in the family. It’s a bit of work too, but enjoyable. I also have my own bigger albums for our family.

Getting the photos from the parents, choosing the ones I want to use, and then laying them out on a page is the starting point. And of course, I take many of my own photos over visits and birthday celebrations.

I love taking photos, cropping (where necessary) and placing them on the page. Recently I’ve ordered smaller photos such as 4×4 and 5×5, and I also use the regular 4×6 photos. I ordered them online during COVID, when stores were closed or limited. For the last batch I went to a specialized photo place in town and got the photos the same day. That was time crunch as I wanted to assemble the books for their March birthdays.

Scrapbooking demands some thinking and supplies. I have amassed quite a supply of both paper and tools so that I have what I need when I’m ready to create pages.

8 x 8 albums

I used smaller albums for the smaller hands of the children and chose photos I wanted to use.

In Creative Memories products, there’s a wide variety of albums, papers, cardstock to choose from. It comes down to personal preference.

The first time I did the small albums, I had papers the right size for these smaller pages. Most papers come in 12 inch x 12 inch size, and from time to time when the smaller albums are available, there are also 8 x 8 pages to go with them. This is the second album for these small ones as the  first ones were already quite full and not too large for small hands to hold.

You might choose a different brand and that’s fine. No one size fits all. It’s just that I rather like the albums this company puts out and the way the pages are so easy to insert.

Once you choose the album, there are many tools to choose from. Most basic are the paper cutters, tape runners, photo trimmers, border makers.

A small selection of my tools and an album

Recently I purchased a new paper cutter that I can also use for scoring pages. The photo corner rounder has been part of my collection for a long while as well as the original photo trimmer. And I’ve had a lot of fun with the border maker and punches, a more recent acquisition as well.

Before I had those extra tools, what I had was pretty basic, though I did get round and oval trimmers at the time. I found with the older black and white photos, I preferred to preserve them as they were. I mainly labelled photos and didn’t journal as much then.

An original page in an older album

Our older girls are now enjoying the task of creating their own pages. They just come with their albums and photos and we scrap together. We spread out the tools, paper and embellishments and I show them how the tools work so they can do as much as possible on their own.

What I discovered as I created the small children’s albums was that writing the story as though they were talking was the most inviting for them as they look at their albums now. Someone in my advisor’s group said she liked it too.

Photos of the same event- Lucy and me

It’s also fun to create photo groupings of the same event, with slightly different poses.

Now that it’s April and the children have their new albums, it’s time for me to get back to my own pages—family pages, personal pages and other places of interest.

Perhaps you will try scrapbooking too. And if you do happen to choose the same company, I hope you get an advisor as good as mine. Thanks, Shelley.

Add your own touches too