Sad Realization about Project Life and 12x12 Albums

I can't help you as I like the 12 x 12 format (although I did not do PL), and love my first pages to my last.  I am sorry this has become so worrisome for you.  If you are young, maybe you should pack them away for a while and address this in later years when you may appreciate them more.  I am old so I think that is why I enjoy them so much.

I still like making 12x12 traditional layouts. I did do a 12x12 monthly project life last year thanks to a Crop and Create class. I think since it was monthly I had less filler. I have thought about scanning some of my earlier pages and putting them in a photo book, but I couldn't find a scanner that was bigger than 11x17 and I didn't want to fuss with digitally stitching two scans together for every page. My mom has said she likes looking at my 6x8 albums more than my 12x12 because they aren't as heavy. If you aren't worried about price, there are companies like Forever that will scan your scrapbook pages for you.

I started PL in 6x8 and then moved into 9x12 and then did 2 years in 12x12. When I had TWO full 12x12 albums for 2021 to store I knew I needed to change something! I don’t plan on quitting PL anytime soon and the thought of having to eventually store years and years of giant albums freaked me out a bit. I’m a young millennial and I can only store so many albums in my room at my parents’ house, never mind in a small apartment. I switched back to 9x12 albums and feel that size is much more manageable for me.

What I have found very helpful for keeping my documenting in check is doing my PL monthly rather than weekly. I may have 1 spread or 5 spreads per month, it just depends on the stories I want to include. That way I don’t feel pressured to use filler photos to complete one spread per week if I didn’t have a lot going on. I find it usually balances out and I can stick to my newly established rule of only having one album per year!

I think what other peas have said about putting the albums that don’t bring you joy away for a while is a good place to start. I hope you find a way to tackle your documenting in a way that suits you and your terms.

Maybe for you scrapbooking is about the process rather than the product. I have not scrapped in a while, but when I did, the creating was more important to me that the final page itself, or the story even. And for a while I felt weird about that , but I have come to realize that it is totally OK.

Scrapbook however/whatever makes you happy going forward, and don't worry about how you will feel about the individual pages and completed albums down the road. Store the completed books somewhere out of the way and don't give them another thought.

I'll join you on the editing bench, merry27 . A few years back, I went through PL albums and was ruthless. Culled the project down mercilessly. I need my stored memories to make sense. The upside is that I'm now very good at having a couple of years in a single album. Heck, two years of PL-style documenting in 1 6x8 album? No problem.    Like you, 12x12 feels clunky and oversized to me as well. Minds alike and all that jazz! 

Some people love 12x12. Some don't.
Some people embrace PL and love ALL the photos to look back on. Some don't.

It's ok to be more selective and edit out stuff. It's ok to do certain projects differently. It's ok to be more goal-focused and avoid repetition. Don't feel bad for taking out photos and rearranging pages in a smaller format. These are your memories and you owe the "originally completed" project to absolutely no one. I've figured out a lot about my own PL and general documenting preferences going back through old old albums and taking out certain photos and anecdotes. It's a time-consuming process but there's a very satisfying feeling to achieving the PL album(s) you're actually comfortable with in the end. Good luck! 

joblackford digitized some of her older layouts. Maybe just DD, I'm not sure. But she either scanned in every page and made photobooks out of them from Blurb (I think) or re-did all the layouts using digital files.

I remember this from a thread from like a year ago but I was very impressed by what she showed us.

I agree with you on the filler photos! During the first two years of COVID, when we were in lock down for much of the time, most of the photos I took were of me walking the dog. And now my kids are both adults, so I'm not getting as many photos of them. I decided a couple of weeks ago to stop doing one double page spread per week for PL, and instead just scrapping whatever photos I have, and when I have enough photos on one spread, I will start another spread. There will be times where I have three weeks of photos on one double page spread, and other times where I might have just one weekend's worth of photos on a double page spread. 

I've done PL for 2013 and 2018-2022. This will be my final year, I think. I am so happy I did it - I captured the details of my son's last years of living at home before moving out, and me and my husband's transition to being empty nesters. I may start again if we decide to move, to document all of that minutia. My son really enjoys looking at the albums and pores over them when he's home, so they're definitely worth keeping, at least for us.

I don't have any advice for you, except maybe to say feelings come and go so maybe wait a bit just to make sure you won't change your mind?? Unless you've been feeling this way for years, in which case it wouldn't hurt to start digitizing.

I've been thinking more and more about digitizing my albums lately too. I started PL in 2013, 12x12 and have 2 albums for every year too and it's a lot. For 2020, I tried 8.5x11. I love that smaller size but didn't like that it made my photos smaller. I did 9x12 for 2021 & that's what I'm doing for this year. We in a much, much smaller space (and will be for the foreseeable future) so I just don't have a ton of space. My husband recently purchased a CZUR ET18 Pro Professional Document Scanner to scan my grandmother's cookbooks that are falling apart. I've done a test and I can scan my pocket pages without having to remove each pocket. It's pricey, but it scans the page in less than 2 seconds, does 12x12, and I'm impressed with the quality of the scan. I think I need to bite the bullet and scan all my albums. I can still keep them, but at least I'll have them digitally and can let them go when I'm ready.

For the future, I'm definitely going to do my son's baby album as a photo book. I may try next year's PL as a photo book and see how I feel. I love the tactile process of making a physical page, but I could focus on smaller projects like DD & WITL for those. I'm not sure yet. I think there's no right or wrong really. I lean on what I'm enjoying and what works with where my life is right now. And right now, for me, is not having ton of time and having even less space to store a bunch of stuff. As much as I love a good puffy sticker, it may be time to let more and more of my physical supplies go. Another vote for you doing what makes you happy, whatever that looks like for your documenting.

I think that's smart. I'm tossing around the idea of doing a monthly PL spread for 2023. There's no way I would have enough content for a weekly spread, and I don't want to force it.

I can totally understand the space issues. I shudder to think how massive my album collection would be if I hadn’t taken such a huge break (like 15 years). This is my first year of PL (last year I did a memory planner). The first six months I did a 12x6 album for weekly but this 6 months I switched to 12x9. 12x12 is just too big for me to want to flip through comfortably. My old albums are all 12x12 scrapbook pages. I switched because we are building a house and I want to document those steps in addition to our regular life stuff. Maybe I’m bad at editing but I never have “filler” - or at least what I would consider filler. I usually have to add a flip out or insert each week because I still have so much to include.

I’m not going to worry about the space for now because the memory keeping aspect is just about equal to the creative/hobby aspect part for me so if I want to make a bigger page to spread out and enjoy it more, dang it, I’m going to! Lol That said, I really would prefer a year to be in one album so maybe after our house project is finished I can make some changes like a spread for a two week period or something so it can all fit. We will see.

joblackford aww, I was happy to see Mimi in this post! And love how you found a way to make it work for you.

I have a question for digitizing, now that the technology is fairly good, has anyone taken photos of layouts to be reprinted? Or is scanning still a better option?

I am trying to get my head around starting to do this to be able to put a digital book together for my nephew in a few years. I figure if I can just take photos of the layouts, then I can start doing that as I go.