The Evolution of my Digital Scrapbooking and Memory Keeping

Tuesday I shared how I organize my pages into albums and marry digital + traditional pages. I want to be clear, I am pretty easy going about this topic! Since the beginning, I am more of a moments scrapper and will sit down and make a page because I like a photo or because my kids did something especially cute, funny etc. I don't have a page for every birthday and holiday and I am OK with that. I also get to a point where I say, what I have done is good enough and I simply move on. I really believe each page and recorded memory is better than none so I don't worry about being caught up. I never have. There are many popular scrappers who seem to embrace this same vibe and certainly have provided me with inspiration and motivation. At the top of the list is Ali Edwards.

  {September Summary page}

When 2008 began to wind down I realized I loved everything about digital scrapbooking and I had  a very novice understanding of PhotoShop which I hoped would be enough. At that point, I set out to record 2009 digitally with the ultimate goal of printing my first Shutterfly Photobook. My approach would include one summary layout for each month and random additional pages that covered events more fully. I embraced the use of templates and limited myself to a short list of digital kits and product. In the end, the whole book coordinated. 

{example of an individual page}

In late January of 2010, I called it good. I simply said the pages I have at this point are enough to tell our story. I uploaded and pressed order. The book is 34 pages and I treasure each one. The monthly summaries kept me on track and I really did not mind limiting myself to only a handful of products. This strategy worked so well that I did it again in 2010!

I again used a limited number of products and each page loosely coordinated. The biggest pro is that this format kept me on track. I rarely fell behind on completing the monthly layout and my biggest resource was my blog. I could look back for key events and happenings and then translate them onto the page. The con? I did tire of using the same items this time around. So much digi goodness available and I felt like I had imposed a restriction on myself so for 2011 I changed it up.

How do you record and organize your pages?

The main thing I have learned, and one that I have made an unwritten rule, is to print my pages! The format (photobook, individual pages, in an album or binder) doesn't matter but the enjoyment multiplies when you can hold your creations in your hand.

Pin It