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Monday, February 8, 2010

Quick & Easy Scrapbooking - Power Layout

I'm not sure if it's nesting (I'm expecting my 5th child right now), or if it's just needing to clean house, but I've been on a mission to get my scrapbooking caught up. It's been about a year and a half since I went from taking film pictures to digital pictures. When I switched to digital, I've left those on the computer, with the goal of getting all the photos I had developed from film into albums.

Now, this might not seem so overwelming, but I do an album for the family, and then one for each of my four kids. I have all the kids, but my oldest caught up on film. My intension is to switch to digital albums after those are finished for the kids and continuing my scrapbooking with my family album. I love to scrapbook with real papers, stickers, etc. but, find that I can't keep up with all the fancies with 5 (soon to be 6) albums at a time. The digital albums will be a one time working commitment, and then ordering 4 or 5 copies for each of the kids! This should cut my time by 80%, making the family albums more enjoyable!

So, I thought I would share with you, what I did. First, I sorted all the pictures so they are in chronilogical order. Then, I layout all the pages alternating with layout sheets, so I can see on one big table all of the pages for the album.
I do this on a big 8 foot table. Then, I litterally deal out 4-6 photos in on each page. Next I cropped all the photos, making them all rectangle, except one photo on each page is an oval. Then I add decorative paper to go with each page layout. Now this, I simplified for the sake of getting the album done. What I did was put all the photos the the center of the two page spread and put strips of paper to the outside of the page, making it appealing to the eye and cohesive through the entire album. I found that one 12x12 sheet of decorative paper will go for 4 pages.  Keeping your project simple, helps to cut costs and time.  I cut 2 strips at 4 1/2 inches wide and the other other two are 1 1/2 inches wide. You can mix and match the papers (especially if you use the papers from the same Power Palette) or put the wide one on the side, with the thin one accross the top with a coordinating sheet.
I hope you can see how it all looks cropped and laid out here. The final thing that I do for this process is stack the pages on top of each other, keeping the first page on top. This I have a box for storing them in that is photo safe and will keep everything from sliding around (static helps out!).
Later, when I want to work at a crop or workshop, I just pull out my pen, tape runner, and stickers to embellish and I can finsh the album in no time. This particular album is completely done (it will fill the coverset). My son and I did the whole layout for 23 pages in less than 2 hours total. I am figuring about 4-6 hours for the final touches (journaling takes longer) and the album will be finished! Yeah!!

If you would like more detailed, step-by-step directions for this project, please comment or email me with your email address. If you need any supplies, I am an Independent Creative Memories Consultant, and you can directly order and get new ideas from my website, just click the CM logo on the right. If you live in the Sparta, WI area, I also offer personal and group sessions to learn this technique!  I would love to help you complete your albums, too!

I am linking to:
Met Monday - Between Naps on the Porch
DIY Day - A Soft Place to Land
It's So Very Renovated - It's So Very Cheri
2nd Time Around - A Picture is Worth 1000 Words
Transformation Thursday - The Shabby Chic Cottage
Frugalicious Friday - Finding Fabulous
Creative Cats - Poppies at Play