Scrapbook Pages

Every so often I have readers ask about my scrapbooks.  I am sorry to say that I haven't been doing nearly as much personal scrapbooking as I intended to when I bought my Cricut.  The reason I wanted the Cricut was to make my scrapbooking easier and now I mostly make cards and other projects and run out of time to do pages.  One of my goals this year is to get back to completing some scrapbooks.

I have been working with a friend and Creative Memories customer who is making a scrapbook for each of her three grown children.  We have finished two and now are working on the last book - for the oldest child.  I thought I'd share (with her permission) a few of the pages we have done recently.  We are working with older photos and using the originals (gasp!).  Occasionally I scan or photograph one of her photos to do some digital editing, particularly if a photo has some damage or is drastically different in tone than then others to be used on the same spread.

In sharp contrast to the current popularity of pages with one or two photos and lots and lots of embellishments, our pages are filled up with photos with some sort of title and a little bit of journaling space.  When we are feeling adventurous we add borders or strips of colorful paper.  I think of what we are doing as "paving the pages" with photos since we usually work out a grid and even have "grout lines" between the photos.  There are usually (but not always) some Cricut cuts - often as the title.

Sometimes we just let the photos completely fill the pages.  It takes a lot of calculating and creative cropping to get a nice even grid with older photos.  If you are working from digital photos you can make a grid and size your photos to suit when you print them.  I enjoy the challenge of working out the page designs.  I try to keep a strong vertical or horizontal line for the eye to follow.

As we work, we might leave some gaps for photos that may still turn up.  In some cases we use mats to even up the photo sizes to make a grid layout work.

 While this style may not be for everyone, I think it is a good solution for situations when you want to included lots and lots of photos and still keep the album to a manageable size.  You can still be creative and add bits and pieces that personalize the book without overloading it with "stuff."

You can even have a photo serve as your title - as it does here for photos of the house they lived in for many years.  There is room for some journaling in the green textured box and you can also write a few details along the "grout lines" between the photos.

You can add more than just photos - these were bits and pieces (stamps, a card, images printed from websites) that represent some of her son's favorite things.  A page like this is not one that will win awards but it accomplishes the purpose of preserving childhood memories.

 I wonder if you can spot all of the Cricut cartridges we used.  I find that with so many cartridges available now, there is usually something that will add a nice finishing touch to a page - either as a title or an additional decorative element.  We started to notice a trend for the page titles to also be song titles so we have built on that idea as a theme throughout the book.

What do you think of this style of page?  Is it something you would do or do you prefer less photos and more decoration?  The wonderful thing about scrapbooking is that there isn't really a right way or a wrong way to do it.  If  your photos are properly adhered and the memories are safely recorded in journaling  and you are happy with the results - that is all that really matters.


I had a chance to go to IKEA with a friend today - I saw something that gave me an idea for a big improvement to my scraproom so I am working on a plan for another small building project for my very handy husband!   I'll have more details soon if we decide to go ahead with the plan...

One more thing - Happy Birthday Margie!


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