Scrapbook Saturday

Taming the chaos!

For my scrapbooking friends, I thought I would share a few of my organizational ideas. 

When we go on a trip, we end up taking way too many pictures. Way more than I can or want to scrapbook. Since we are traveling so much, I decided that from now on, I will only do one, double page spread per trip. That means I really have to pare down the photos and the scads of memorabilia that I collect. 

1. While traveling, I try to edit my photos every day just to keep on top of it.

2. Once we get home, I go through all of the brochures and pamphlets and pull out anything I might use and recycle the rest. The object of this is to reduce the bulk. 

3. I put all of the brochures in a big manilla envelope along with any trip notes I made while traveling.

4. I choose all the pictures I want to print--more than I'll actually use--I want to make sure I have plenty of choices. I have the photos printed right away and add them to the envelope. That envelope might sit for a very long time--possibly years!

5. Once I'm ready to tackle the page, I dump everything out:

And, of course, I must have my tea. Then I'm ready to get started.

See those little slips of paper around the edge of the table?

6. That's how I start. I have a scrap for each day with a list of the activities and sights from that day.

7. Then I just start putting each item in the pile for the day that activity or picture happened.

This was our 7 day South Dakota trip with friends. 

As you can see, I have way more stuff than I could possibly use!

8. Once that's done, I gather each day and take another regular size piece of paper, fold it in half and tuck each day's worth of stuff in to it. I put it all back in the envelope until I'm ready to start scrapbooking. 

On this particular trip, my friends, Karolyn and Pam (who were on the trip) and I decided that we would do this page together with each of us doing a section. For this particular trip, we are making a fold out that will then technically be 6 pages while only appearing to be a single double page spread in the album. I do that sort of thing all the time with interactive pages--fold outs, flip ups, photo cascades, pockets, envelopes and folders--whatever I need to fit it all in.

Karolyn requested the title pages. Then Pam will have the first two pages for days 1-3. I'm doing days 4-7. 

I've already done mine:

I prefer to make a timeline for the trip. I use numbers (I have tons in my stash) along with a date label. I try to contain each day in just that section. So on this layout, each page is divided in half. Rather than add any patterned paper, I use the brochures and maps. I also cut titles from the brochures too. I add all the journaling--somewhere. Sometimes it's hidden like here:

I like using Kraft cardstock--especially for travel photos. It's a good neutral that works with any colors.

Next week, Pam, Nancy, Jeanne, Janet and I are meeting at Kentucky Lake for a long scrapbook weekend. I'm planning on scrapbooking only trips---I probably have 9 or 10 of them to do. The beauty of focusing on one thing like that is I can just bring my 12x12 plastic bin with all of my travel related things in it--stamps, papers, journal cards and embellishments. Makes it easy. 

The last time we went, I did only Christmas. By doing that, I can get "caught up" on a whole category! 

I'm really looking forward to it! Other than my once a month AYM layout, I get most of my scrapbooking done on these retreats.