[kelleymac]

Okay, I'm a brand new scrapbooker working through my first scrapbook for my son. I'm doing the "Waiting for Jonah" book which will chronicle the time between referral and bringing him home. It includes all of his reports, pictures each month, pictures from our visit and pickup trip and a timeline of our whole process.

My question is about general scrapbooking. I love to look at mags and books on techniques, but sometimes I'm overwhemled by the sheer "busyness" of a page. I think embellishments are wonderful, but I find myself making very simple pages that are focused mostly on the photos/journal. Is it because I'm scared to try more difficult things, or just because I'm most focused on the story/photos?

Insight?

Kelley

[rysmom]

Hi Kelley,
I don't know how much insight I can give you but you sound a lot like me when I first started scrapbooking. My first few pages are pretty simple also, but the more pages I did, the more ideas I got. Embellishments are great, but it is amazing what you can do with just a few different colors of paper. I think too, it depends on the occasion in the pictures...example: a birthday page might be more "busy" than a baptism or christening page.
If you are journaling on your pages...that is great!! That is one thing I don't do a lot of...just because I hate my hand writing. Sometimes if I want to journal something, I will print it out on the computer on colored paper...this works great.
Another hint...and I am sure you already do this, but...always get double prints of your pictures. I have one set to scrap with and one set to put in a regular photo album. Another thing, and I am sure some people would argue with this, but...don't be afraid to cut your pictures. For one thing, you can get more pictures on a page and I think it makes it not look so photo albumish. (I don't think that is a word!!)
One final note...do your album how you want to, I am sure your son will cherish it forever!!!
Have fun and Happy Scrapping!!
Kathi

[Linnie65]

Hi Kelley,
Keep it simple! I know that many pages with lots of embellishments are beautiful, but my philosphy is this. I
have a few hundres (or more) pictures I need to get into albums. I can spend 2 hours on an amazing two page spread that includes 2 or 3 pictures, I can stress about perfection and design and brads, and beads and stuff.
Or, I can keep it simple, and in the same 2 hours do about 8 pages and include 25-30 pictures with journaling. Some may say that my pages are not artistic enough, but that's ok! I'm not doing it to be an artist, I'm doing it to preserve my photos!
As Kathi said, don't be afraid to crop you photos and I also get double prints (although now that I'm a mostly digital photo gal, I just order the ones I'll be scrapping with and keep the rest on the computer).
There are a few magazines that have very simple ideas in them. I'm not sure if it's ok to mention them here, so PM me if you'd like.
Good Luck!

[Devora]

I vote for the keep it simple approach, too. I really do find a lot of the samples I see as being way too busy -- I guess it's mostly just a matter of preference.

I like the simple things that can help -- like Kathi suggested, maybe try layering different colors of paper so that instead of a picture on the page it's a picture with two layers of paper underneath it that stick out just a little around the edges of the photo.

I also like to use for background pages some that have a little print or texture -- not too much, though, or it gets too busy. I found at MJDesigns the paper "slabs" and use those. I'm keeping the same background color (yellow) for all of the pages, but there are 4 of 5 different patterns on them.

I have to laugh...it sounds like I've done this alot!! All I really have is the album, background sheets, and page headings printed out. But I have looked a lot...and I've talked with a friend who is a paper artist.

I think the only "rule" is: HAVE FUN!

Devora

[PriestessVivian]

Scrapbooking is a part time job for me on top of my regular one. If you go to www.creativememories.com, they have simple layout ideas for the taking.

FYI, my adoption/reunion story is going to be in their Sept. magazine! It's very exciting. I made lifebooks for my bmom, then one for my amom because she wanted one, and then one for my bdad when I found him.

[Kelli]

I'm another fan of the above mentioned company. Just this past Saturday I attended their all day National Scrapbook Day event and made great headway on my 2004 family album. Kelley, I think you've gotten good advice here. IMO, "keeping it simple" is the key to getting the albums complete rather than spending a lot of time worrying about how to make them elaborate. My sense is that your son is ultimately going to cherish them because of the love that went into putting them together and won't really care or notice the technique you used to do so. I'm not sure "menfolk" concern themselves with that sort of stuff anyway. At least my dh doesn't. He responds the same way ("that's nice") whether it's a simple page, or one that took me three hours to put together.

Anyway, welcome to scrapbooking. It's a lot of fun and very addictive.

Peace and blessings,

Another Kelli

[PriestessVivian]

Kelli--- my husband is exactly the same way! It's comical. He just keeps on saying "that's nice" even after I've showed him the same pages over and over again.

And yes, it's VERY addicting as well as rewarding!

[kelleymac]

Thanks, guys! I do love scrapbooking...it's not so time-consuming as my other hobbies, but more about the planning. (I take hours to plan a page and much less time to put one together.)

Thanks for all the advice, and I have one of those hubbies too! "That's nice." At least he's responding. LOL

Kelley

[PriestessVivian]

When my best friend and I have scrapbooking weekends I always try to get him to join in. If he ever did, I would probably have a heart attack. I'm with you on the layout. My friend gets 20 pages done and I only have 4. I'm slow, but I love how they turn out.

We should share adoption related page layouts with each other or something.