Albums--3 ring binders vs post bound

I can't stand the gap for purely aesthetic reasons so I like post bound better. I also don't like that I've never ever had a 3-ring binder that the rings haven't come apart in the middle and the protectors start falling out. What I did do was to swap out the posts for the Pioneer SnapLoad things on my post bound albums. It's a huge improvement.

Same here. I need to try the snap load things. I even have one here I've never put in a book.

I love binders. LOVE.

I've never had one fall apart.

I don't do 2 page LOs, so I actually like the gap to separate the pages.

It's just SO easy. And it should be easy.

Post bound is too much work. So much work that it's not fun anymore.

I like to make a Family Album each year and LO's are filed in somewhat date order. Since I scrap events out of order throughout the year, I use a 3 ring binder while the album is in process. Once my pages are complete and in the order I want, I transfer it all to a post bound album for permanent storage.

I prefer 3 ring albums but still have a mixture because I couldn't be bothered switching older albums over.

I like the 3 ring binders enough not to care about the esthetics of that gap.

Just did a major reorganization of all my albums and layouts. I don't scrap chronologically. The post bound were a major PITA. MAJOR. And, worse, I've done a couple of LOs that I now have to put INTO those post bound albums, and will have to totally re-sort them because I didn't leave gaps for future LOs
(that's worse than the gap of a 3 ring album IMO, to leave blank pages in an album!)

But yes, I've had 3 ring albums "fail" on my...probably 33% of them!

This is what I do.

I love 3-ring albums! I switched several years ago and have no regrets. The biggest complaint I have heard is the gap, but that doesn't bother me a bit. I have noticed that not all 3-ring albums are made equally, some are better quality than others. My favorite are WRMK. I wait until they are 50% off at JoAnn's online and stock up.



I have also seen people sew together two page protectors to get this effect. If you have a sewing machine, sewing on page protectors is a quick and easy process. Ali Edwards has some videos on her blog.

Most of my post bound books are around 3" thick! I have lots of layouts in them, I just use spacers to keep the books relatively flat. I used to just go buy longer posts at the hardware store, but now I use the SnapLoad things which makes them expand quite a bit. What limits me now is how long the spine cover for the album expands to, but I suppose with a little creative re-engineering and some coordinating fabric that could be easily solved too.

I should add that I do two page layouts almost exclusively, so that gap between the pages really ruins the visual flow of the layout for me. It probably wouldn't bother me nearly as much if I mostly scrapped one page layouts.

I have historically used post bound and still have some of these to use up but have started buying 3 ring and intend to use those going forward.  I like using different formatted page protectors mixed in with regular ones & this will make that so much easier.  I tend to more 1 page layouts then 2 pagers these days, so I don't think the gap will be an issue.

I got some of these on accident (i thought they were regular) and they are awesome! I think you would like them

Like everyone else, I love the look of postbound and the ease of 3-ring.  

I tried the Snapload thingies and I couldn't get them to stick to my album.  Probably user error, but I gave up.

Silly as it sounds, what I do now is basically have a 3-ring 'staging' album.  I put my layouts in page protectors and set them up in a 3-ring (or 2 or 3).  I'm able to move things & rearrange as I go along.  When I get to the end of the year, I move all the pages to a postbound.  It's a little bit of work, but not too much and it solves my problem.