Jump in where you are!

So many times I hear my friends say they are so 'behind' on their albums.  I even think that myself so often.  We think that because our entire life is not completely documented in albums already that we have to get caught up.  And that we need to start from the beginning (our childhood, or our wedding day, or our childs birth).

The size of that simple sounding task, getting 'caught up', is overwhelming and often paralyzing!

Let's try a new approach!  Jump in where you are.  Right now.  Just start off with the most recent photos taken (probably from the holidays).  Grab either your stack of prints from the photo center or a media card full of digital shots & get started.  Save the worrying about older photos or past years for another time.  Sometimes the hardest part is just getting started. 

Here are my tips for getting started wherever you are today:

1. Start with your most recent set of shots.  Include everything from a single event (such as Christmas) or pick a month (I usually have a bunch of random shots in February that don't fit in a single event).  
2. Get rid of the bad shots!  If you have photos that are grainy, dark or blurry, either toss them or enhance them.  If we do this first, we have less to worry about as we create pages.  If you are a digital user, this is easy to do in a variety of programs like CM's Memory Manager.  I'll cover MM tools in future posts but I always try out the 'Auto Color' first to see how it impacts my pictures.  MM automatically saves the original for you, but if you are using another program make sure to edit a copy.  You may need your original again later.  Anything that can't be salvaged, just get rid of it.  You may not use all the photos that are left, but at least you have eliminated the worst of them.
   
3. Choose your favorite size album to work with.  If you are a traditional scrapbooker, just gather refill pages in that size, don't worry about the album cover.  For digital scrapbookers, you can start a new album in that size & it can always be added to another album later if you choose.  
4. Quickly outline which photos will go together.  You'll probably move things around a bit later so don't spend much time here.  If you have only enough pictures for a 2-page spread, skip this step.  If you have several pages worth, it's helpful to decide how to roughly group them.  For instance when working with my aunt recently on a joint album, we started chronologically.  The album covered Thanksgiving week but encompassed several activities.  We grouped by a birthday party, the holiday meal, the obligatory holiday posed shots, and a post-holiday football game. We did not plan each page & the number of shots yet.  Just quick groupings.  
5. Start laying out your pages.  Now that you have a rough plan, you can start deciding exactly which photos go on which pages.  I'm a fan of the chronological method, but I've learned to fill in with other shots as needed.  Sometimes you may want one page of just the kids for example, or you might want to evenly distribute each person throughout the album.  Or maybe you are a stickler for going in order.  There is no right or wrong way here!  If you are a traditional scrapbooker, I highly recommend that you start on a right-side page and end on a left-side page. This leaves you no 'white' pages and allows you to insert these pages in any album.  Before printing, this will be necessary for digitial scrappers as well, but digital pages can be moved at any time so you can move them around to fit as needed.
6. Tell the story!  This is so important and is really want sets album-making apart from a standard drop-in photo album.  It's not necessary to be a English major or to have perfect handwriting.  Just tell who is in the picture, what is going on and why they are important to you.  I usually think to myself, what would I want someone to know about this picture if I weren't nearby to tell them?  Or, what would they ask me if I was showing this picture to them?  That's usually a good way to get started on your journalling.  If you have several pages covering the same event/topic, you may only need the story on the first page and only small comments along the way.  It does not matter if you write in the first or third person.
   
7. Now for the fun, decorate! This step varies depending on your style & the type of scrapbooking you prefer.  Digital users may have started with predesigned pages so that nothing else is needed but maybe a few touchups.   I love to add quotes to fit the theme!  And if I've used a more basic template such as the black pages, I like to add splashes of color & I love shadowing to create depth.  When I was doing traditional albums more often, I typically used only the pictures and a few enhancements (usually only precut paper photo mats & stickers).  I rarely used all the papers, cutouts, borders, and stickers that I had available.  All of those things are nice, but they are time-consuming and honestly your family just wants to see the pictures & stories.

January is the perfect time to jump in!  Let's get those holiday pictures in albums!  These seven tips will help you get those albums done so your family can enjoy them.  What album are you going to start this week?