Organizing Scrapbooks and Pages

Not sure how this began but on Sunday, I took a scrapbook off the shelf and then three more. None of them had a label on the outside indicating what was on the inside, so I had to flip through them. Which is not all bad because I love a trip down memory lane.

Before long, my girls were in on the action and oohing, aahing and reliving great moments in history (!). Long ago, I added simple Dymo labels to the outside of 6-8 of my first scrapbooks. Sunday night I decided it was time to add them to all of the scrapbooks.

I carried 10 albums, all the loose pages not housed in a scrapbook, a box of additional page protectors and the Dymo labeler downstairs to our family room. In this location, I could watch the Oscars and the girls could dig into the books with me. I got a screwdriver ready as I knew I'd be needing to add pages to some of the books that had room. I was able to expand three of the books.10 protectors per 12x12 album is a ridiculously small number, 15 complete pages seem to fit fine. Note: some of my pages were old school, paper pages. I have made exclusively digital pages since 2008-2009 and I have just mixed the two together in the albums chronologically as best I could.

I was left with about a dozen pages that did not fit into corresponding albums and after reviewing and making a list, it appeared the addition of two more books would be in order. I recall having purchased albums long ago at Big Lots for $5, and sure enough I found them there today.

Not beautiful but functional which is more than fine because last night  not one of us commented on the look of an album, just the pages inside.

 Two albums with stray pages waiting for homes.

 The humble, but effective Dymo!

Approximately 8 albums spanning the past 8 years.

 {early digi page circa 2008}

As an aside I want to share how I organize pages into albums. Early on, I made books for each of my girls and just placed pages inside in a somewhat chronological order. When a book got full, I'd start another. I did one album full of "sisters" pages that were pages solely on the two of them. Eventually that evolved to a family album where I stored pages that included all of us or were not exclusive to just one child.

{digi page included in 2009 album printed at Shutterfly}

As I began to make pages digitally, I just slipped them into the books alongside traditional pages. Eventually, they were all made digitally but I continued to print them as 12x12 pages. In 2009, I recorded everything digitally and then printed a Shutterfly album instead of individual pages. Check back Wednesday or Thursday to learn more about my evolution and where I am today. Pin It