It’s been quiet around this blog. You see, I’ve been making progress on one of my new years resolutions.
Nope, haven’t lost any weight. But I’ll tell you what I have done.
Scrapbooking. I’ve always loved doing it, but it took a big backseat when I picked up sewing, blogging, photography, decorating, crafting, cooking, pinterest . . . . . . . . . . . .
Then one day I realized I was the only one enjoying our photo’s and memories when I would browse through them on the computer. Kinda selfish. I have now taken it upon myself to see that our pictures get put in books my kids can look through. But of course the crafty side of me could not be satisfied with simply putting picture prints into a photo album. I tried it. Wasn’t satisfied. I have also done the drag and drop photobooks and realized that it wouldn’t work when one daughter ripped a page.
So after 2 classes of Photoshop Elements, and 6 days total organizing pictures on the computer (kid-less at my mom’s – thanks to a wonderful husband), I have something to show. Not a lot, but something.
I’ve claimed my own style for my scrapbook pages. It’s defined as simple, and white based. I spent one whole day at my moms getting so excited about all the free scrapbooking downloads there are available on the web. It was like walking into hobby lobby and having free range at all the paper and embellishments I could ever want. Just check out this site, and you’ll see what I mean. It’s amazing what work people have put into this stuff and made it available for us for free.
Then when I was done with hours of downloading templates, paper, embellishments, overlays, styles, kits, fonts and more, I felt very overwhelmed. Where to start? I didn’t have the time to stew over what hundreds of options to use for each page. I have 3 years to scrapbook! I thought about using the sites that have pages already designed and you just drop your pictures. But I wasn’t satisfied with that either. It wasn’t me.
That’s when my scrapbooking style was born.
I begin by filling each 12 x 12 page with white and go from there adding simple shapes. There are few (if any) embellishments. The focus is on the picture, brief texts, and a pop of color. The pages are coming together quicker than I imagined. With so many pages done now, it has a very uniform and modern feel, which I really like.
It takes me about 20 minutes to throw together a couple of pages. Perfect for a nap time project. And I love that I can throw in a quick fix of creativity every day. It’s therapeutic for me.
I especially love that to do this I don’t have to drag out containers of messy paper, scissors, stickers and such. I am so glad I have given up paper scrapbooking. I could just kiss the inventors of Photoshop.
I’ve already ordered some prints from www.scrappingsimply.com. I’m excited to see how they turn out and even more excited to watch my children look at their memories.
And since we are talking about pictures and children, I’ll show you some of my favorite shots of them as of late.
I’m thinking once I get to scrapbooking the years where I’ve used my DSLR camera, things might slow down. I’ve got about 5 times more pictures to look through and sort.
I just have too many hobbies.
My husband reminds me of that every day.
So what do you think? Do you scrapbook? What methods have saved you time and sanity? I’d love to hear.
I started using Picaboo and Blog2Print a couple years ago. This way I can "scrapbook" but not have to work so hard. But I will admit, your pages are much prettier than mine. Although, my little guy does love to look through all our books. I even made his baby book using Picaboo. He really loves that one. Thanks for sharing…I feel more inspired already.
I used to scrappbook alot! But not so much now. My husband also says I have way too many hobbies! I crochet baby blankets for the families new babies (been kept REALLy busy lately) make name boards (painting) name bracelets with beads etc. Scrap booking via computer is easier but I still like the messy paper/glue/tape etc method better because those pages are one of a kind! 🙂 Yours do look