Scrapbooking. Say that word in a roomful of women and you’ll get a myriad of responses. Some women rank it up there with cat calendar’s and macrame plant holders. While other women wish they had the time, money and energy to start. Like many women, I sort of fall in the middle. I’m not one to want to spend hours upon hours and hundreds of dollars on tiny doo-da’s and rinky-dinks. I am, however, a sentimental sap who’d like to store and display all my concert tickets, favorite pictures, post cards, graduation programs, toddler drawings and potty charts in a nice, put-together book. But I want it to be simple and quick. And I want it to be accessible and something our whole family can take part in.
So before Christmas I bought two large Scrapbooks from the Martha Stewart line at Michael’s. They’re nice, big and come in beautiful colors of fabric that I coated with scotch guard to help them stay nice as long as possible. {They also happened to be 50% off at the time, so bonus… cuz seriously, that Martha likes to overprice just a little. Looks like they’re still on sale here.} I then bought a couple pads of decorative paper and spent a day inserting each page with random paper from the collection. I think it’s nice to have some sort of background without making each page an entire project on it’s own. It was easy just to throw then in since each pad contains coordinating colors and patterns. Some of my favorite paper choices come from Target.
Just this past week I’ve finally started to add in all the little things I’ve kept stored in a scrapbooking box for the past 5 years telling myself one day. Broadway playbills, concert tickets, dental school paraphernalia, etc. {Another bonus? I’ve been lacking in the motivation department lately, and this is something I can do while watching TV. It’s like chilling and being productive at the same time.} My idea is to get the books started with all the little mementos and memories I’ve kept, and then to keep the books out–with a glue stick near by–so that when we have something we want to add we can throw it in the book right then and there. I don’t want these to be super formal, time consuming books, but rather a family affair that we can all add to and write in together. My hope is that over the years we’ll have some great memories on hand and less clutter we’re holding on to.
Admittedly the scrapbooks aren’t too picture heavy. Mainly because everything is digital and I don’t print that many pictures out these days. This past year my husband made a photo book for us that spanned our 4 years in New York. It’s amazing. 160 pages, hard bound and pretty much all of our favorite pictures from the time we spent there. He did it through Blurb.com. It turned out great. We love it and look at it often and we’ll definitely do more in the future. Plus I really love the clean look and simple layout. A fantastic alternative to traditional scrapbooks.
What about you? Ideas, suggestions? Are you a scrapbooker or would you rather eat cow brains?
hey you sound a lot like me! I have some scrap books from when my oldest was first born…then time just got away from me after that! Lately I have been LOVING the on-line scrap-booking like you mentioned! I made a couple with Shutterfly and I love them! One documents our move to NY and the other is our vacation to the Cayman's…I love it so much this is my new and only way I will be scrap-booking!
here is my latest project….i got a imac for christmas and i have a decade of photos in my iphoto…You can build a book thru iphoto…so that is what I'm doing as secret birthday gifts for all my sister-in-laws! I can't wait to see how it turns out and how much they love it!…SSShhhh…it's a secret! 😉
I'm like you too on this. I have done two baby books in scrapbook form, but kept it simple. My youngest so far has a snapfish book (not the best quality)that I did for free over an Oprah promo. I think I'll do a simple scrapbook for him though. I am in the process of getting photos together for a Blurb book. I'm glad to hear you like yours. I've never done it before. I agree, though, you have to get all these momentos organized somehow. My kids love looking through them, so do I.
Kado–Yes we have a mac too and iphoto is awesome. I think blurb ended up being a little cheaper…I know my husband had to download some software to make the book. But it was a good program and allowed for lots of editing.
Terese–Exactly! Beanie loves looking through our photo book…that's a great reason right there to do scrapbooks of some sort.
Ha! That last line made me laugh out loud. I'm pretty non-sentimental, so I don't have much that I've hung on to throughout the years, but J has boxes and boxes of memory stuff that I'd love to have organized, and your method sounds right up my alley.
I'm SO not a scrapbooker, but I have been able to use shutterfly (a lot like blurb) for my photo books, and I really like how easy it is to do. I usually try and add photos as I take them to my book and then when shutterfly sends me an email for 50% off a photo book I order it up! It makes it worth paying the shipping etc.
I think I am totally going to copy you on your martha book idea. I have boxes of stuff I have saved. Thanks for the tip!
I'm really behind on life, but congrats on the baby!!!! and the Bangs!!!!! Both are really good things. I just got my bangs two weeks ago.
don't do it.
cow brains for me. i do love looking at photos, just not sprinkles and trinkets and doo dads… congrats on the baby news!