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Post by merry27 on Oct 5, 2022 17:19:14 GMT
I did PL in 12x12 albums for years. I quit doing it about 5 years ago due to burnout and not liking the 12x12 size. I find them cumbersome- they take up a lot of storage space and are too big and heavy to hold and look through. I also kind of regret all of the details and photos. While I like the birthdays, holidays, big moments and some of the everyday life, there is so much of the "filler" that I don't care about now. While it is neat to have a shot of my coffee, purse, car console, etc., I don't need 100's of photos of the same thing. I feel like there is a lot of repetition. I haven't looked at those albums in several years and recently pulled them back out while cleaning my craft room. I like them even less now and am wondering where to go from here. I have a ton of 9x12 albums that I got in a great sale and am thinking about condensing them down to those, but I still feel like that is too much.
I also have all of my old 12x12 scrapbooks from the beginning (pictures cut into wonky shapes and layouts with tons of product and only one photo) that I also feel the same about. I'm not sure what to do with all that I have accumulated. Has anyone digitized their scrapbooks? I still love to play with physical product and will continue to make travel albums, WITL and other 6x8 and TN size projects.
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Post by SnoopyFan on Oct 5, 2022 18:10:45 GMT
I did PL in 12x12 for four years. Not too long ago I pulled one of those albums out and flipped through it. Like you, I don't care for all the filler stuff that I put in the albums to complete the pages. None of it matters or is important to me, and those albums take up a lot of space!
I think I did two albums for each of the four years, so eight albums in total. I think I could pull out all my favorite things and just a couple of the random filler items and condense it down into two albums.
I also did individual albums for my three sons, from birth until they graduated from high school. It's a LOT of albums. I don't regret the time I spent scrapbooking because it brought me a lot of joy and I made some wonderful friends through the years going on scrapbooking retreats and to crops, but I know my sons well enough to know they will never want all of these albums. It's just too much! I would like to eventually digitize their albums and possibly make one smaller sized digital book for each of them, just hitting the highlights of their growing up years. I think they would like that.
I had decided at the end of the 2021 that I missed PL and wanted to do it again this year. I think I made it through three weeks and then realized that I really didn't want to do it after all. I would rather do smaller albums or Traveler's Notebooks. I'm not into the 12x12 size anymore!
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Post by MARIBETHR on Oct 5, 2022 18:10:45 GMT
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.
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Post by karinec on Oct 5, 2022 18:19:50 GMT
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. This, 100%
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Post by justjac on Oct 5, 2022 18:27:47 GMT
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.
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Post by amp on Oct 5, 2022 19:07:07 GMT
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. This, 100% Me too, although I do 12x12 Project Life and love it.
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alleyscrap
Junior Member
Posts: 94
Apr 4, 2022 18:43:23 GMT
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Post by alleyscrap on Oct 5, 2022 19:27:22 GMT
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.
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Post by jeremysgirl on Oct 5, 2022 20:18:03 GMT
Whatever you decide, do what makes you happiest. I've been all over the place with my feelings about scrapbooking lately. And the only one conclusion I've come to is that I like layouts with journaling and stories the absolute best. So I will focus on that. And I've finally gotten the idea of my head that everything needs to go in chronological order. I have over 30 albums. I did chronological for a long time, scrapbooked my kids younger years and now I'm just going to do what makes me happy. You should too.
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Post by mcjunkin on Oct 5, 2022 20:41:25 GMT
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.
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Post by myboysnme on Oct 5, 2022 22:05:30 GMT
I have a dream of living long enough to digitize my scrapbooks. There are way over 100 of them. I had hired someone to begin photographing layouts for me and she never even started.
Yes, I would digitize and get them printed into thin photo books.
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Post by refugeepea on Oct 5, 2022 22:07:11 GMT
I don't really do Project Life, it's just my family album using divided sheet protectors. It's loosely month to month. Sometimes I don't even bother making a monthly card. Mostly all photos with a few journal cards in there. I do throw some of the smaller things in there, but it's more about events and holidays. I don't love the 12x12 size but I bought TONS of page protectors. Since it's photo heavy and I don't take lots of them, I can sometimes get two years in one album.
Anyway, I'd never be able to make a Project Life album on a weekly basis, so I tweaked it into something manageable. Figuring out a page design is the part I hate the most in scrapbooking. So this style works for me.
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Post by vsimone on Oct 5, 2022 22:22:06 GMT
I love my 12x12 Project Life albums, but decided to stop making one this year because we are empty nesters and life hasn't been that interesting since covid. I think you could easily pull out any spreads you love and re-do them in 9x12 albums or condense a couple of years into each 12x12 and throw out the rest (or store in a box for a while just to be sure). 12x12 layouts are trickier. I stopped making them after only three albums, because I realised how much space they would quickly take up. I would probably digitise them and only keep the pages I really love - maybe one or two albums and going forward I'd make 9x12 pages instead. Can you cut some of the layouts down to 9x12 if they only have one photo on them?
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Post by sleepingbooty on Oct 5, 2022 23:14:17 GMT
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!
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Post by lisacharlotte on Oct 5, 2022 23:26:14 GMT
I have not really scrapped since COVID. I will eventually get there again. I did project life 2010-2019, 12x12, one album per year. 2020 is done thru November, nothing for 2021 or 2022.
I like Project Life, because I like the daily minutiae mixed with events. I am also appreciative of the details of daily life since I grew up with very few pictures from my childhood, just a few random holidays/birthdays. However, I'm not a fan of filler cards. In a design layout for inspiration, I get it. But I don't have the room for all that. I would suggest that things like day/week in the life and December Daily are good substitutes to get the daily minutiae without loading it up in your album daily/weekly/monthly.
I started scrapping after I was an empty nester. My albums are filled with things I do, alone and with family and also my pets. I actually decided to move to 9x12 for 2021 because I don't have enough to fill an album. But I also have no problem putting multiple years in one 12x12 album either. I do wish I had started scrapping earlier, but no use regretting it now.
I would hesitate to get rid of old albums or toss content. That is something I would have done when I was younger and would have regretted it now. You cannot get that back if you change your mind.
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blemon
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,518
Aug 1, 2014 20:06:00 GMT
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Post by blemon on Oct 6, 2022 0:48:38 GMT
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.
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Post by AussieMeg on Oct 6, 2022 1:08:11 GMT
Has anyone digitized their scrapbooks? I still love to play with physical product and will continue to make travel albums, WITL and other 6x8 and TN size projects. I do digital scrapping exclusively now, and when I finally get around to finishing a whole year I will make a photo book. I still several big bulky albums from when I used to do paper scrapping. I will eventually re-scrap all of those layouts digitally, and they will go in the photo book. I hadn't considered just digitising the paper layout before. I think I will do that with the paper layouts that I really like, and only re-scrap the pages that I don't like. 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'm impressed! I despise my first layouts, from the early CM days in the late 90s, and would never put those pages in a photobook. I would be embarrassed for anyone to see them, because I think they look like something a first grader made, and the journaling is super cringe-worthy.
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Post by AussieMeg on Oct 6, 2022 1:15:37 GMT
I also kind of regret all of the details and photos. While I like the birthdays, holidays, big moments and some of the everyday life, there is so much of the "filler" that I don't care about now. While it is neat to have a shot of my coffee, purse, car console, etc., I don't need 100's of photos of the same thing. I feel like there is a lot of repetition. 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.
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lynn0117
Full Member
Posts: 247
Jul 2, 2018 15:47:03 GMT
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Post by lynn0117 on Oct 6, 2022 1:16:55 GMT
There was someone on IG who digitized her first PL album and it looked amazing!! I think it was Shannan_pages. Becky even hinted to digitizing her massive album collection because of space issues.
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Post by marg on Oct 6, 2022 1:31:35 GMT
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.
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Post by merry27 on Oct 6, 2022 1:35:56 GMT
Thank you everyone for the replies and suggestions. I have been feeling this way about my albums for years and it is finally time to let some of them go. I’m going to disassemble them and condense them into smaller albums.
I need to realize that while I had fun making them, that doesn’t mean that I have to hold on to them forever and I won’t be losing all of my memories just because I don’t have photos for everything.
My kids have no interest in them and while I would have loved to have a few scrapbooks of my childhood or my moms, I definitely have no desire to see or keep 100’s or 1000’s of pages and journaling.
I get joy out of some of my older DD, WITL and travel albums so I will continue with those.
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Post by merry27 on Oct 6, 2022 1:38:02 GMT
Forgot to add:
It’s crazy how some of us love our older/first albums and layouts while others cringe- haha. My biggest regrets are cutting photos into weird shapes and all the years that I rounded corners in all of my PL albums. Ugh.
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caangel
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,715
Location: So Cal
Jun 26, 2014 16:42:12 GMT
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Post by caangel on Oct 6, 2022 1:59:24 GMT
This is the first year that I'm regularly "scrapping in the moment" and something traditional PL like.
I'm using the PL app (new update for Android today and fixed up date for iPhone is out too). I am doing a photo a day but they all fit on 2 pages. I'm using the 12x12 template that has four 4x6 vertical spots and twelve 2x2 spots down the center. I used one 4x6 spot for a month card and then have 31 spots for the days. I put in a PL card for shorter months. Each spot also has a overlay with the date, they mostly stay in order but I do move them around a bit to highlight significant photos in the 4x6 spots.
Then in a word doc I have a list from one to 31 where I write a short caption for each day. This will be printed on a 6x12 piece of paper front and back and will sit in between the two 12 by 12 pages.
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Post by scrappyem on Oct 6, 2022 2:01:30 GMT
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.
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Post by breakfastattiffanys on Oct 6, 2022 2:14:22 GMT
I did one PL in 2011 and enjoyed it until I got to the holidays. I love documenting Fall and Christmas in their own albums, and that year, it was a burden to document in 2 formats. I got through it and didn’t do PL again until this year. Now I’m doing it by month, and just hitting the highlights. Really enjoying it and hope documenting the holidays will be enjoyable too. However, I’m so glad I have 2011. I looked through it in early 2022. My family and life have changed so much in 11 years, both good and less so. It’s wonderful to have this time capsule of that time.
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msliz
Drama Llama
The Procrastinator
Posts: 6,419
Jun 26, 2014 21:32:34 GMT
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Post by msliz on Oct 6, 2022 6:06:24 GMT
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 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.
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Post by MARIBETHR on Oct 6, 2022 11:36:07 GMT
I'm impressed! I despise my first layouts, from the early CM days in the late 90s, and would never put those pages in a photobook. I would be embarrassed for anyone to see them, because I think they look like something a first grader made, and the journaling is super cringe-worthy. Oh some of mine are cringe-worthy for sure, however, it's an art form and we all evolve, and even devolve at times. It all represents a space in time and place for me. Where my abilities were, what product was available, what I could afford, how effectively I could use it. But for me it is all about the joy I had in making the creation however it turned out, as well as the memories contained in the photos. As for the OP, and the comment about taking repetitive photos of objects, that was a space and time and culture that was surrounding us at the time. I even have some of those lifestyle photos (not many) but I like to look back at those and recall "Hey that was a time when everyone was taking photos of just anything, and I was too." To me that is what this hobby is all about. Documenting history to bring me back to that place to remember it just as it was.
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paget
Drama Llama
Posts: 7,086
Jun 25, 2014 21:16:39 GMT
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Post by paget on Oct 6, 2022 17:03:51 GMT
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.
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Post by joblackford on Oct 7, 2022 2:49:33 GMT
Shannan Manton and Tracy Holdyk have both reworked and digitized their old PL pages and I was motivated to follow along with them. I had two in particular that were unwieldy, letter sized (I could never deal with a 12x12 binder). One was AE Story layouts, the other was PL for the same year, 2015, but I stopped partway through the year. I took them apart and recreated the pages using the digital files I already had or created new versions with digital photos, and scanned or photographed a few of the hybrid layouts. The photo book I had printed was about 1” thick and I like it a lot better. I have a long history of hating my prior work and wanting to re-do it, and I haven’t regretted turning them into photo books, although I hardly look at those either. I have 4 more 6x8” albums from 2013-14 I will probably tackle when life slows down a bit. http://instagram.com/p/Cc8Ry7cFeqd
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Post by scrapcat on Oct 7, 2022 16:47:49 GMT
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.
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Post by boymom5 on Oct 7, 2022 17:50:14 GMT
I think you need to do you. If you don’t like them then try something else. I personally enjoy our PL albums from the last few years because they include more of the daily. But I’m also in the stage of life with juggling multiple kids schedules along with my own. I know one day our lives will look drastically different and if it’s just DH and me we won’t have enough to fill a 12x12 PL album. But for us now it’s overfilled with our lives. I don’t really have filler pictures in there. I may include a pic of the weather report or food we’re enjoying but I feel that’s apart of who we are. My kids enjoy looking through and remembering those things just as much (if not more) than birthdays. I can see future grandchildren enjoying the same about their dads childhood.
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