Organizing My Photos

Organizing my photos has been something I have struggled with for a while. It is no secret that I love taking photos but I've had some roadblocks when it comes to actually getting them printed out and organized.

You all know that I love doing photo books and have several, including my most recent one of Trace that I love. However, I was struggling with what I would do for the future. Was I going to have a photo book for each year, for each boy? That seemed like a lot. What about little things like programs and certificates that I want to just stick into the pages? Also hard to do in a printed yearly photo book.

With the inspiration of a blog post on Clover Lane, I started designing 12x12 layouts on Picasa and finally got them printed through Persnickety Prints. To say they are awesome is an understatement. I love them and they are absolutely perfect.




(see my friday iphone photo collage? yay!)



I love that you can put a ton of photos on one page and they look as great printed as they do on my computer. I also love how flat the pages lie in the album because they are just one sheet of photo paper, not a huge stack of paper and stickers all stuck together. I also love it because I can just do a page or two at a time and not try to do a whole year at a time. Originally I would do design a page for an event (like the State Fair) and I did one page for Micheal and then I did one page for Trace. I wanted each boy to have their own book full of pictures of mostly just them so that when they grew up they could have it forever.

I grew up looking through my "baby book" photo album and I probably have each page memorized. I loved looking at it as a kid and still do (thanks mom, for letting me have it!!). Traditional post bound books (like the ones I am using) are great because the pages are covered in plastic and I'm not worried at all about Michael ruining it when he is looking at it. And boy...does he like looking at his scrapbook. His favorite pictures are the ones where he is eating cookies (go figure).



My new method of organizing is also a good fit for me because I can tuck things into the pockets that I want to scrapbook later-things like cards or prints I had made already that I don't need to do on my computer.

Trace has his own special traditional scrapbook in addition to his big photo book. I needed somewhere to put away all the little things we accumulated during his funeral and memory service. I tried to add some photos to the pages so it would seem happier but it is still just really sad. I don't look through it often but it is nice to know everything is in one spot.







While I'm on the subject of scrap booking and before I bore you all until your eyeballs fall out, I just wanted to share with you my little scrapbook pile:



The two fat ones on the right are Scott's books his mom made him while he was growing up. When she dug them out for me to look through I loved them. As someone who didn't know him or his family growing up, flipping through the pages of his scrapbooks was a great way to fill in some of the missing pieces and it is an inspiration to me to carry on the same tradition with my very own family.

My favorite part is that she saved her Christmas newsletter from each year and tucked it into his scrapbook. I feel like nothing can quite wrap up a whole year like the family newsletter. I hope I can carry on that tradition also through the years for myself and Michael.

And one last funny....yes, my husband had almost nearly every school function in the Corn Palace. He is that cool. :o)

I hope this post was helpful to you about scrap booking if it is something you are interested in. I was struggling for a while on what to do and I'm happy I've found my stride. As much as I love all things digital, there is just something great about holding a photo album full of love and goodness in your hands.