Saturday, March 26, 2011

Scrapbook Pages


Every so often I have readers ask about my scrapbooks.  I am sorry to say that I haven't been doing nearly as much personal scrapbooking as I intended to when I bought my Cricut.  The reason I wanted the Cricut was to make my scrapbooking easier and now I mostly make cards and other projects and run out of time to do pages.  One of my goals this year is to get back to completing some scrapbooks.




I have been working with a friend and Creative Memories customer who is making a scrapbook for each of her three grown children.  We have finished two and now are working on the last book - for the oldest child.  I thought I'd share (with her permission) a few of the pages we have done recently.  We are working with older photos and using the originals (gasp!).  Occasionally I scan or photograph one of her photos to do some digital editing, particularly if a photo has some damage or is drastically different in tone than then others to be used on the same spread.


In sharp contrast to the current popularity of pages with one or two photos and lots and lots of embellishments, our pages are filled up with photos with some sort of title and a little bit of journaling space.  When we are feeling adventurous we add borders or strips of colorful paper.  I think of what we are doing as "paving the pages" with photos since we usually work out a grid and even have "grout lines" between the photos.  There are usually (but not always) some Cricut cuts - often as the title.




Sometimes we just let the photos completely fill the pages.  It takes a lot of calculating and creative cropping to get a nice even grid with older photos.  If you are working from digital photos you can make a grid and size your photos to suit when you print them.  I enjoy the challenge of working out the page designs.  I try to keep a strong vertical or horizontal line for the eye to follow.




As we work, we might leave some gaps for photos that may still turn up.  In some cases we use mats to even up the photo sizes to make a grid layout work.




 While this style may not be for everyone, I think it is a good solution for situations when you want to included lots and lots of photos and still keep the album to a manageable size.  You can still be creative and add bits and pieces that personalize the book without overloading it with "stuff."


You can even have a photo serve as your title - as it does here for photos of the house they lived in for many years.  There is room for some journaling in the green textured box and you can also write a few details along the "grout lines" between the photos.


You can add more than just photos - these were bits and pieces (stamps, a card, images printed from websites) that represent some of her son's favorite things.  A page like this is not one that will win awards but it accomplishes the purpose of preserving childhood memories.




 I wonder if you can spot all of the Cricut cartridges we used.  I find that with so many cartridges available now, there is usually something that will add a nice finishing touch to a page - either as a title or an additional decorative element.  We started to notice a trend for the page titles to also be song titles so we have built on that idea as a theme throughout the book.

What do you think of this style of page?  Is it something you would do or do you prefer less photos and more decoration?  The wonderful thing about scrapbooking is that there isn't really a right way or a wrong way to do it.  If  your photos are properly adhered and the memories are safely recorded in journaling  and you are happy with the results - that is all that really matters.


I had a chance to go to IKEA with a friend today - I saw something that gave me an idea for a big improvement to my scraproom so I am working on a plan for another small building project for my very handy husband!   I'll have more details soon if we decide to go ahead with the plan...

One more thing - Happy Birthday Margie!


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31 comments:

  1. Those are all wonderfully done! :o) Have a great weekend!

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  2. This is my scrapbooking style -- especially when going back and making albums with older photos. I save the creative, blingy stuff for cards and home dec projects. That's why I became a CM consultant -- their philosophy used to support this syle -- where the pictures were the focus. My girls LOVE their albums like the ones you are helping to make. They will be treasured!

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  3. I love this style too but practice a little bit of both. Sometimes I like to highlight one or two pictures and use embellishments to make them stand out. But I have too many pictures (I am a grandma after all!) and want to use lots of them.

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  4. Diane,
    I just love a beautiful page. I love the imagining, designing, and cutting. But, in reality, when it comes to MY scrapbooks, I am just like you. The more pictures the better. I will cram as many pictures as I can on each page. How can I leave out any??? I do edit but I really like seeing all of the scraps and pictures of the event.

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  5. I am working on individual books for my boys too using the CM 11x15 books and I often fill the pages with lots of photos, I like that style too. The pages look great.

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  6. so take a good look at my face....
    (the scraps of my years) came to mind...
    love this and the johnny rivers song!

    kat

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  7. Scrapbooking should be about the photos and not focus on too many embellishments!! Thanks for sharing all your wonderful ideas.

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  8. I think this style is just fine and I have done a lot of it with my older pictures. Now that I'm digital I can pic and choose, resize, etc. more easily but I hate throwing away old photos and love to use them all!

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  9. I think this style of scrapbook is wonderful for the use of all the great old photos she wants to give her children. You did a fabulous job. I'm taking the lazy way out and making a scrapbook page about an 'event' (ie: a birthday party) and then using those photo sleeve keepers for scrapbooks that one can buy now. I'm in love with those.

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  10. I love, love, love it! I tend to put as many pictures as I can on a page...I embellish or add titles, but I let the pictures do all of the decorating in my scrapbooks. Every now and then, I will design a page with just one picture on it, but it is usually because of the size! Thank you for sharing your beautiful work!

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  11. I go both ways when it comes to the use of pictures. If I have a lot of really good ones I tend to hold back on all the bling, but when I only have one or two I will go all out with the layout to really highlight the photos. Beautiful pages, by the way , and they seem so simple.

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  12. This is EXACTLY the kind of scrapbooking that I like! I always have lots of pictures that I want to scrapbook, and this design is very pleasing to my eye!

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  13. This is the style I like!!!!! I think it is about the pictures and not all the embellishments. Putting one picture on a page drives me crazy. I realize sometimes you do just want that one special picture but to have a whole album made that way is just wrong. Thanks you so much for sharing these photos. It helped me to realize I am not the only one who embraces the more the better. ; )

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  14. I'm so glad to see that I'm not the only scrapper with a gazillion photos to scrapbook. Just to give you an example, when we went to Holland over the summer I took over 500 photos and finally managed to choose only 306 to scrapbook. Like you said, in order to keep the album to a manageable size, I've had to scrap a lot of pics into each page. This was a great inspiration to me. Thank you!!!

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  15. Yes, yes, yes! I love both styles, but have been second-guessing myself (lack of confidence here) and consequently getting nothing done, afraid to do it wrong. Thinking it will take way too long. Thanks for reminding me how wonderful simple can be!
    carolyn in nebraska

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  16. This was the BEST post I have read on your blog. This is IMHO, true scrapbooking. Perhaps that is because that is how I do it as well.:)

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  17. I'm glad to see so many liking this style. It has always been the way I scrapbooked and bought my carts to accent the kinds of photos I take. But I'm like you, Diane. Since I got my "for scrapbooking" Cricut, I have done mostly cards. Really need to get back to my layouts. Either way, I love it!

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  18. I'm so glad to see that a lot of other people are like me with their scrapping. My pages are all about the pictures. My embellishments are just to "add a little something". I see a lot of absolutely gorgeous LO's but to me the pictures get lost and your focus is more on the LO. (I know- to each his own.)

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  19. I agree with a lot of the previous comments. I take tons of photos and tend to love them all and went to keep and see them all. When I first saw the photos on your post I thought cool, finally a scrapbooker who puts lots of photos on her pages. I might want to start with the first right lead-in page, like a title page with a few photos and a large title and then open to a 2-page spread that starts it off and go into lots of photos from there. I love photos!

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  20. Wow all the pages are beautiful! I just love preserving those memories! Thank for sharing.

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  21. Hello from your sister-in-law. Your friend's pages make me want to pull out my scrapbooks. For Scott, I'm all to three months...he's nine now.
    For Burt & Anna's wedding I did a mix - some pages just have one picture with a lot of journaling. Some pages have pieces of a lot of pictures, cut with ovals, circles, etc. I also found that four of the modern 4 X 6 pictures fit nicely together with a square in the middle; strips along them made a nice grid. Bric-a-brac strips made one page a lot of fun.
    I think all scrapbooking will probably have to wait for the house project to be done, though.

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  22. I love this "style" of scrapbooking!! I would personally rather look at photos than a bunch of embellishments. :)

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  23. I've never been a scrapbooker mainly because all the extras seem to detract from the pictures but also because it's just so wasteful. This is definitely the method I would use if I ever scrapbooked. Great job!

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  24. Love the pages. Hate only 1 or two photos per page. My pages are somewhere in between: 3-4 photos, titles, journaling and a few embellishments.

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  25. Hi, Diane. This is definitely my style. I like that the pictures take center stage and the decorative elements are just little embellishments to the theme and don't scream for attention. I have LOTS of family photos to get caught up on too. Unfortunately, I have been bitten by the bind-it-all and chipboard 8x8 album format for special occasions. Too many ideas and supplies and too little time! It's so hard to focus on one thing at a time! Thank you for today's post. I think it's very helpful.

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  26. i like to be reminded that it is about the photos. Sometimes i get lost in trying to add "stuff" to my pages and don't get anything done. Thanks Cap

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  27. I really appreciate this post! I thought all scrapbookersonly used 1-2 photos per page and created works of art that the pictures were just a part of that art. I am still new to scrapbooking and I haven't really found my style yet. I love playing with color and embellishments but the photos are definitely my focus...preserving the memories is the reason I scrap. I would love any suggestionsor comments if you would please visit my blog. www.craftingwithfaith.blogspot.com

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  28. I enjoyed seeing these layouts. I like more pictures and little embellishment along with journaling.

    Like you I have been doing a lot of cards lately that has taken me away from doing layouts. I need to get back to layouts, I'm putting a grandchildren album together, so far I have onl done three out of ten grandchildren.

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  29. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I started scrapbooking over 10 years ago via Creative Memories. I think it is because I was taught the CM style that my books have way more pictures than embellishments. I originally bought the Cricut because I did not like have left-over sticker letters (you know - all the z and never enough vowels). Your pages are great and have been a big encouragement to me that I DON'T need all the embellishments.

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  30. It's nice to see pages with more than one photo on them. I can't imagine how much space is needed to store your albums if all you ever put one a page is one photo. Thank you!!!
    My pages have a lot of photos and either embellishments or designs printed on paper as well as a title.
    - Cil anticil at comcast dot net

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  31. That is beautiful.
    I love it.
    It seems to waste space when only one picture is on the page.
    Thanks

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