CM#139 - Idea to Organize a 2011 Current Year's Scrapbook Album

Hello and Thank you for stopping by.

It is almost the New Year 2011. This is the time of year I get busy organizing for Scrapbooking and photo albums.

Last year I read an idea to keep a current year's scrapbook album for 2010. How? Using a Picfolio album. It is a slide in album. The idea is to work on it once per month and actually have a photo album for the current year. Then, at the end of the year, use it to create your "real" keepsake album.

The advantages of this method:

1) I can keep a Picfolio album up to date working on it 4-5 hours per month.

2) The family looooved! Having a current photo album. Usually I wait till the next year to make the scrapbook.

3) It trained me to take vertical and horizontal photographs (I stopped doing this).

4) I know the photographs that will print the best. I really can't tell just looking at the screen.

5) My goal was to make it look "nice" but not "wow" because it is a temporary album, I'm using it for 1 year. Less stress and fast.

6) The album itself is good quality and looks nice to show family and friends throughout the year.

7) Great way to use the remaining pieces of paper kits, so decoration costs are minimal.

The issues I encountered:

1) In a slide album, the pieces are not glued in. The boys quickly learned they could get a better look by pulling pieces OUT of the album. Lucky for me, they are old enough now.

2) I thought I could use 1 Picfolio album for the year. You really need 1 for every album you are trying to replace. I usually take 2 albums worth of pictures per year, so I needed 2 albums.

3) Missing 2 months of monthly activity, I forgot to keep up. It is best to make it a 1 night a month project and stick with it.

Would I do it again? Yes I plan to. I know to have a 2nd album by May so I don't lose my momentum. I don't know if I'll re use the 2010 albums right away or rotate 4 total albums (2 for each year, covering a 2 year span.)

Have a wonderful holiday season!
Lisa
LisaLovesToScrapbook.blogspot.com

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• scrapbook
• album
• current
• year
• creative memories
• picfolio
• slide
• how
• to
• organize
• advantages
• cons
• pros
• issues
• results
• summary
• up to date
• easy
• fast

[onecalmmom]

Good job Lisa! When my customers say they're overwhelmed with too much that needs to be scrapbooked I suggest that put their photos into Picfolio albums. Some of my customers actually sort their pictures into Picfolios and then they can decide if they want to transfer them into traditional albums. CM also makes an expandable Picfolio that has the divided areas like you used and pages with no divided areas. For 12 x 12 layouts use the Picfolio Max. That's what I use when I do albums for my mom.

[cropwithLisa]

@onecalmmom Thanks for the great comment. Love your ideas! I just bought the expandable Picfolio and I'm going to give it a shot.

[cropwithLisa]

Hi Crops4Fun - Good question ! Everyone does the transition differently, I think. I plan to not reuse anything. I'm using a home photo printer for the photos - not sure how much I trust this HP printiner long term. For me, the Picfolio is a short time photo album, an idea of how good my photos are for events, and a memory jogger. I am thinking of moving the picfolio items to a paper album and lettting my boys have it for their "own" album.

I would love to hear what everyone else is doing :)

[omo1001]

Lisa, this year (2011) I'm (for the first time) using strictly PicFolio's for my album. I'm thrilled that I'm staying caught up with this year. No, they won't all fit in one album (I have to many events and too many pictures to "Just pick 10"). I will probably end up with 4 of the non-expandable ones. I'm using the cream and am just labeling them volume 1-4. It feels really wonderful to be virtually caught up - at least I can show what we have been doing this year. Ola

[onecalmmom]

@cropwithLisa The thing I love about the expandable Picfolio is that you can mix the pages. I have artwork and certificates and larger memorabillia along with pictures -- so it works well for me. Hope you enjoy yours!

[crops4fun]

I'mm a little confused. Will you take the photos and embellishments out of the picfolio and do an actual scrapbook layout?

[momma2ski]

I'm very happy that you posted this, I've had this idea swimming around in my head and have even purchased most of the stuff to implement this system. Glad to hear it was so successful for you and your family.

~Jill

[galecrafts]

Good idea Lisa... you are one clever scrapper!

Huggs,

Gale The Happy Stamper :)