I love to take photos. I love to look at photos. But I can't manage to get a single scrapbook finished.
I have tried to be a scrapbooker. Oh, how I have tried. I went through a scrapbooking phase when I was pregnant with our third child. It lasted about as long as my third trimester. All I have to show for it now is three children and three equally unfinished scrapbooks.
I felt guilty about that for a while. Not necessarily the fact that I didn't have a beautiful scrapbook. Rather, I was discouraged that I kept starting things without finishing them. And I was worried that my kids would grow up to feel neglected and unwanted because their mother couldn't document their lives past the day they came home from the hospital.
The guilt continued until I realized the reason I like scrapbooks is because of the photos.
Oh yeah. The photos. So I gave up the visions of becoming a ribbon/sticker/colored-paper whiz and settled on the fact that I just wanted a way to display the photos I had leftover from the days of film. So many photos. Rows and rows of them in drawers, waiting for embellishment with polka-dot paper and cute little bows. No longer.
I found this photo album at Target. Lots of places have them, but when I saw this one I hadn't ever seen one like it before. It has room for five photos on a page: three horizontal and two vertical. I liked the idea of that. So I bought three. And they sat on my shelf for a long time empty.
Until one day, I sat down and filled one. In a little over an hour, I had an album filled with our trip to Spain for The Man's brothers wedding. The trip we took in 2003.
I even labeled a few pages by writing on the back of a 4x6 index card because I'm fancy like that.
If you are a person who has beautiful scrapbooks of your children sitting on your shelves, I respectfully salute you for your ability to focus on the project and see it to completion and for your general awesomeness. But if you are like me and your scrapbook is more scrap than book, I highly recommend getting yourself an album you love and filling it up. It isn't perfect. But it's finished. These days, that is all the perfect I need.
**Edited: Several of you have asked about this album. It is called the "Umbra Horizon 5 Up Photo Album" and it holds 260 photos. If you Google "5 Up Photo Album" there are lots of colors and styles. Sorry my link didn't work earlier.
Monday, November 17, 2008
freedom for the un-scrapbooker
Todays topic:
a photographer
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48 comments:
I have been so busy with my photography business for the past 3 years...and got behind on my albums, so I did the same thing and PUT the pics in an album so we can at least LOOK at them! And I can later scrapbook,they are already in order! YEAH!
I do love to scrapbook, but it is easy to get overwhelmed and I feel so far behind right now. My oldest is a senior this year and I had the notion that I would get his entire life done so that we could look through the books at the graduation party....not happening.
I love the album idea. Target has great stuff like that. I often develop all my pics, but don't use all of them on the scrapbook page. I have been looking for an album to display the remainder of the photos.
Thanks for the tidbit! And maybe you will someday get brave enough to try it again.
Scrapper Mom
I totally agree, only, my pictures? Not so pretty. And blurry. And embarrassing because my children will wonder why they were fuzzy when they were babies. And I will have to tell them it was because we could only afford me as the photographer and I couldn't buy a nice camera because we spent all our income on Huggies.
Please tell me that Target is still selling these photo albums? I just love the way that they display photos. I have never seen anything like that before and it would be perfect for all the photos that I have and want to be able to store and show off.
That's cool. I too have TRIED to be a scrapbooker, but I get partially through it and lose steam. Plus, it can get crazy expensiveI love the album you posted. Must go to Tar-jay dot com (as there are no Tar-jay's in Germany-if they only knew!) and find some. Thousands of photos wait (im)patiently to be displayed.
I posted on my blog about a dream I had about Nester (yes, I am bordering on obsession, thank you very much) and you were in it too, only instead of crafting at the round table of awesomeness (along with me, Nester, Kimba and Fussy-how fantastic of a dream was this?), you were taking photos of us. I totally consider that a craft BTW. If you want a good giggle you should hop on over to my blog and read about my crazy dream.
I am exactly like you. I adore my photos and I really want to be a scrapbooker but I'm just not. I love all the supplies and I'm way more likely to use them for another project.
I've tried so hard to be a good scraper but all it does is make me feel guilty. I've started doing digital albums with the photos on my 'puter. Works great for me but I couldn't figure out what to do with the pre-digital photos. Duh! And album.
beautiful album!
More scrap than book. That's great. I actually had thoughts of making one of the bedrooms a scrapbook room. I like the album idea MUCH better. And right now my photos are in boxes. I should change that. More scrap than book... love it.
Can't wait to see those in person...they look fabulous! One only has to come in your house to know that you DISPLAY more photos than anyone I know, and it's because you love photos. I aspire to that!
Beautiful. And, now you can just enjoy them! Creative Memories sells an awesome album, just like the one you found. However, it also has sleeves that you can buy individually - so you can customize how your pictures slide in. It even has one that is 11x14 for bigger photos, children's artwork or other memorabilia. It just allows for more flexibility! The best part of any photo-taking or scrapbooking is finding a way to complete it so that you can enjoy it!
I have the same intentions for Anja--to complete one scrapbook--but it has yet to be done. I figured out long ago that the photo albums with a little spot for journaling/captions are the way to go for me!
i am with you! i have a closet full of scrapbook stuff that my mom gave me and i tried...but i HATE scrapbooking! can't stand it! my film pics are still in photo boxes. one day i will get around to putting them in an album.
You are welcome to anything in my scrapbook store...oka...my hall closet. Seriously!! Now I just do birthday books, Christmas books...etc. One page a year for the special occasion. I can handle that since the pages are small...no embellishing allowed. I love taking the same picture every year and then
having that picture side by side is SO fun because you can see how they have changed over the years. Seriously...no store for you....just come HAVE!! You could even add some stickers to those pages for free. :)
your album(s) look great - i am inspired to go buy one myself!
I did the exact same thing and have felt like a champ ever since!
This posts frees me! I have so many photos all categorized in boxes in my master closet. Even though I enjoy scrapbooking, it just never happens. Your idea is so simple and easy. That's exactly what I need to do!
P.S. If it makes you feel any better, my daughter's scrapbook ends at her first birthday and my son's ends when he's about 2. They are 13 and 16 now! And who has time to catch up on all those years??? Not me!
I do the SAME thing!! Years ago, I tried scrapbooking.Scrapbooking one year, put me 3 years behind!!! That was the end of my scrapbook life.
Fellow Moms, release yourself from that guilt. These albums are the BEST!!
From a fellow non-scrapper... I heartily concur!
This is the best looking scrapbook thingy ever.
And all of the focus is on the photos! It looks great!
But I do love me some scrapbook paper and ribbon and safety pins and brads and book plates and fibers....
great post Emiily
I'm so glad to know I am not the only one overwhelmed by the scrapbooking thing. I love photography and have tons of pictures, but not time for all the scrapping. Thanks for making it "okay" to just have an album!
Oh Hallelujah and Praise the Lord!!!!! Who do you think is going to jump in her van and drive straight, without passing go, to Target??? I have mountains of paper, scissors, stickers, blah blah blah, and not a single scrap book to show for it. I have BOXES full of pictures. No albums. UNTIL NOW! FREEDOM, I tell you. You have given me FREEDOM. Life changing, out of the "I cannot finish a scrapbook to save my life" closet FREEDOM! I am not alone. I am not alone. I am not alone. My new mantra.
Well said! I am a scrapbooker... but to me, scrapbooking has gotten way out of hand! My books are filled with photos and stories... a few blank pages that I haven't quite gotten around to (and somehow I thought I'd still be able to remember all these years later??)- but not too many stickers and bows. I'm with you about the photos... and so I make sure that mine are what my books are about. And my kids love to read my words, and somday I think they will treasure that they are written in my own hand. But my motto has always been- Done is better than perfect! I know your kids will enjoy your albums... the stories of their lives :)
I do the exact same thing. Although for an un-scrapbooker, I'm still behind. :)
I love Target's selection of photo albums too!
Good for you!
Scrapbooking is a love of mine, but like you I can't seem to finish them either...but boy do I love to collect scrapbooking supplies!!! I love Target's photo album you showed, this looks wonderful!
Blessings,
Debbie
I got into the whole scrapbooking thing. My 13 year old's scrapbook rocks. Birth through 12 years of age=completely documented. My two other children got robbed. Their scrapbook spans birth through age two. That's where I lost interest.
Remember when everyone had photo albums? They're so fun to look at and kids love paging through them. Then, digital cameras were invented and, all of a sudden, photo albums went extinct.
I love the albums you found. Tres chic! I need to put some albums together. In a few years, I'm going to need something embarrasing to drag out when my son has a girlfriend over.
I have 4 of these albums from Target that I got for Christmas a few years ago. I love them.
This is why I love you.
Oh man. This is fantastic. I love scrapbooks but I just don't have the patience to sit down and make one. But right now I want something simple to hold some of our newlywed memories. I'll have to try this with our wedding pictures...we still don't have an album yet!
i don't scrapbook either but i do put all my photos in albums labeled by year.
however, one thing i love about blogging is how i can put words along with my pictures and i would like to do this in a scrapbook style but i don't really care for colored papers and ribbons because i like to keep things simple.
now if i can figure out how to print them nicely, i'll make a scrapbook for the baby (since i already have so many things writting about her on the blog).
oh and one more thing since i'm taking over your comments: blog books don't appeal to me because of the point of view, blog references and links and more obvious things like name changes for my kids. i have to do a lot of editing to my posts to make them book worthy, so slurping my blog posts into a book is not as easy as it sounds.
can you tell i've given this a lot of thought?
I totally agree with this! I've done some scrapbooking, always wanting to be like those people you see on their blogs or fancy sites, but I don't have the patience or time. But these "scrapbooks" of your's, I could see getting into and will definitely be looking for some wherever I go! Especially with baby one on the way and already having over 20 ultrasound pics and just now into my second trimester... oh yes, I need these albums!
Oh girl, I am SO with you! Who has TIME for scrapbooking? I saw similar photo albums at Sam's and nearly flipped a cartwheel right there in the middle of the aisle!
I just love the pictures..so cute!
-sandy toes
I'm totally the opposite. I like scrapbooks because of the stories.
You sound just like me...or I sound like you. Either way, I think I gave up the scrapping myself. 3 children ago that is.
This is exactly what I have done (except for the 6 pages I did 4 years ago, chronicalling the first 7 days of my oldest life). The pic are in order and ready if I ever get there. My boys love to look at them - in fact they fight over their favorites.
My mother-in-law did scrapbooks for all 3 sons just a couple years ago. She said it was good to have the distance, b/c in the moment it is too hard to pick the really important stuff. She made totally amazing scrapbooks that cover birth thru college in one book. She said the rest of their lives are up to their wives!
I saw your album when I was at Target today and thought of you! This is really great. I love scrapbooking but also love getting things done and out of boxes! Thanks for the inspiration! Kelly
I wish I could make a beautiful scrapbook too and my photo albums are still not filled. Photos are my big project which I will maybe accomplish in 2009, who knows!?!
Suzy
now that is a great idea...but i still love scrapping. even if i never get all the pages in an album, i love to do it!
Nice job! I am a scrapbooker and I love to do it but it is difficult to find the time. I just do a page or two at a time, slap them in a scrapbook and vow that someday, some time I will organize them by date. For now, it's nice that I have some events "scrapbooked" and people do enjoy looking at them. It will have to suffice.
I like the albums you got, they look great!
I was just at Walgreens and they had a 6 per page album. With it open, you were looking at 12 photos at once! I think my OCD would have preferred this set up, and it was on sale. They only had one though and I need more than that. Just wanted to let you guys it was out there.
I love these albums, Emily! I do enjoy scrapbooking, but recently my albums are more photos and brief comments rather than scrapbooks. I have bookmarked the google search for these and will add one to my Christmas list! Maybe they will be our baby boy's first year album...I think I could do one of those while he sleeps!
I'm a big fan of the photo books you can order on places like shutterfly/snapfish. My pictures are already in there and it's as simple as a click. I don't write anything in them, just have the pictures. And they are GREAT!
Hi Emily,
Great idea! I just picked up a few albums along with some scrapbook paper at the $ store, and when I find two unfilled hours I am going to sit down and tackle my shoe boxes of photos! I wanted to share with you a website that does online hardback scrapbooks called viovio.com We have done our children's photo books with them each year and they are amazing. Not that expensive either, considering you are getting a 20 page hardback book (if you count the back it is 40 pages)for around $35. Our 8 and 6 year olds love to look through them, and I don't worry as much because they can't damage them as easily as a scrapbook, either.
Hi Emily,
I gave you a blog award today, fyi. Sorry if it's one you've received before, but it's well-deserved. :)
Heidi
I went out today and bought one of these albums to try out. . . mine was a little different. They had the kind like your's, but I went for the plain old black faux leather. Thank you for sharing this product as I too had failed to be a productive scrapbooker. And having twins this year has made scrapbooking an even more unrealistic hobby for me!
Thanks!
I used to LOVE to scrap, that was pre 3 children. Now that I have 3 though I want all three of them to have fancy scrapped books, it just ain't happening and I do have piles of pictures in those little things they come in from snapfish waiting to at least be put in an album. I think you're right. I should do that. I may even steal your index card idea! Thanks, now I have to go buy me some photo albums, because clearly I need them.
More freedom from being perfect, THANK YOU Emily!
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