self-contained vacation / themed album questions

When I did our Hawaii album (10 days, two islands) I organized my pages by theme and did not divide by island. So I have a page about food, the luau, the airport, the zoo, colors (different random photos of things that didn't fit somewhere else), a favorites page for each person on the trip with quotes, the beach, the Aloha Tower etc.

I used the same paper line for the entire album (DCWV Citrus Twist, I think) because I wanted to be able to buy more paper if I ran out... I also cut all the titles and die cuts in the same font and in the same color (kraft). I typed all the journaling in the same font on the same color paper as well. The Life's a Beach Cricut cartridge was put to good use!

It is the only album I've done like this, most of my albums do not match at all... I really like how it turned out.

My vacation albums are always chronological but I do like @breetheflea's idea of thematic sections. If it's a once in a lifetime trip, I'd go for a 12x12 album (3 ring holds more than post bound) and include whatever you want.i used two post bounds for a two week trip to Eurrope, but was able to put all those pages into one 12x12 ringed album. I stick to chronological because in Lightroom, I can sort and pick my photos by day. Then I just do as many pages or layouts as it takes to include those photos.

DIY Kits - I will create my own (often starting before we leave) and do a mix of new purchases and raiding my stash. It's definitely easier to choose a collection, but it's fun to throw in some other pieces you love. For my last mini, I planned out each section so I'd know how many enlargements I'd want to include. This way I made sure to select a certain number of pictures each day/per section that would be good as full page photos. I kept the theme or colour scheme consistent for each country we visited to avoid using the same papers for 30+ spreads. I'm all for cohesive, but after awhile I'd had enough of some prints. LOL

I always miss some photos when trying to print a large quantity, so I find it helpful to do a first print, trim and put them in the album, then go back and look for the gaps. I'll do a second round of photo picking to find the things I missed the first time. It does take longer, but sometimes a picture I passed on the first time adds the perfect complement to a story I want to tell on that page. Also, it takes the pressure off to get them all the first time. Same goes for reprinting pictures in a different size.

Good luck with your album.

If you know you want to keep it to the one album I'd do as Journeyfan suggests and work out how many photos you can reasonably fit in the album and start from there.

My vacation albums have no real plan at the start. I always have my layouts in chronological order in the album but I scrap whatever inspires me. I just got back from a 5 week trip that took in several countries. For this album I will have each country in the order we visited them and the days activities also roughly in order. I often use some of the random photos (like meals we ate or random scenic photos) as filler pages where I've ended up with an odd blank space between other layouts.

To work out what photos I'll print I create a copy of all my photos on a separate hard drive from my main photo storage and then go through and delete any of the photos that I know will definitely not be scrapped. Where I have a series of very similar photos I'll pick the best one/s and delete the rest. I then start pulling out any photos I know I want to print and move them to a subfolder call "to print". That means my folder now contains only photos I haven't decided on. As icequeen does I'll usually make more than one pass over these photos, printing in batches.

Once I've made a pile of layouts I can start to see the gaps in the overall story. This is usually when I'll revisit my photo files and look for photos that haven't been printed that will fill those gaps. I have no problems tossing photos at the end of the project that I printed but didn't end up including.

I don't use consistent supplies across my album but the same things may appear repeatedly in a smaller section of my albums. I did a trip to the US a couple of years ago which included a short stay in the Bahamas. While the album is eclectic most of the Bahamas pages include one of the same two or three blue patterned papers that have a watercolour or watery design. I would think that even if it takes you years and the supplies you have run out you could still create a cohesive feel through the colours you choose for your remaining pages.

Ooh I love Hawaii, sounds like an awesome trip! Honestly, I've given up on traditionally scrapping entire vacations. I did do a 6x12 album for a 6-day roadtrip to Quebec, that worked out pretty good. But I have a 12x12 album for a cruise I took in February 2013 that is still incomplete!

I have found a digital album/photo book works better for me. I actually just did a blog post about the one I did for my California trip last year. To include all my memorabilia, I scrapped a mini 6x8 album for that stuff to accompany the photo book. www.thepapergoddess.com/california-keepsakes/

I typically would scrap a trip by days, so day 1 this is what we did, etc. Then just go chronologically from there. I definitely would do a little pre-planning. For instance, I generally go through all my photos and pick out the ones I'm going to use and move them to a separate folder. Are you planning on scrapping every photo?
For a Disney album one time I mixed traditional layouts with divided page protectors, so I could include other photos without having to scrap every little thing. Adding stickers, washi, and journal cards to keep it cute.

I always have some sort of notebook/journal on trips and try to write down the days events. Usually on the plane ride back I go back and add more details while its fresh.

I only use D-ring, which I do think are a little sturdier than post-bound, but use what works for you. You can always add a second album if there's not enough space, unless you really want to limit yourself in what you include. Using lists or even daily schedules to record some events without always having a photo is a way to do that.

I get what you mean about the theme...i don't like things to be too matchy matchy, but maybe having a general color scheme would help streamline it a bit? You could use a certain palm tree sticker or plumeria to sort of tie it together. At least tropical elements will be easy to find. If it were me, I would probably go with a bright color scheme (orange, yellow, aqua) with an emphasis on a palm green. Or just as easy you could keep it bright white and sky blue.

Another thing I like about D-ring, is I get those envelope type inserts (I know becky higgins makes some) and then I include that in the back with random things that didn't get scrapped and extra photos.

Sounds like a fun project, good luck!

I have never done a Hawaii album, but I have done several WDW and DL trip albums and have 1000 of pics for each! The way I do it is I divide my photos for each park and then further divide them by theme or event or ride. Then I grab two pieces of black 12 x12 paper (I use black CS for all my disney albums) and lay down the pics quickly to get an idea on which ones will fit and go together on a two page spread. For instance, photos from a parade will not all fit on a two page spread, so I take my parade photos an see which ones go together and fit together best on a single two page spread, the rest I set aside and will use them next. I then take the photos I quickly arranged and stick them in a page protecter. I then pick up the set aside photos and do the same thing. Eventually all my photos are in page protectors and are ready to scrap when I have time.

I don't use the same line for Disney Photos, instead I just unify the album by using black cardstock as my base. For other trips I have used one line as the main portion, but supplemented with coordinating lines, and I liked that as well.

For my disney albums I end up with the pages divided by park (MK, AK, HS, Epcot) and that works for me and would be similar to you having the islands divided, I imagine. I don't scrap chronologically in the park sections but rather have events, food, parties, rides, characters etc in the subsets.

I would absolutely do a 3 ring binder, it is just easier and will hold so much more

You could let the island's colour drive the scheme for that section too.  I find I get more enjoyment scrapping our travels than I do every day life things.  So glad everyone was able to inspire you to get started.  Have fun!

I am working on one for a 2 week trip to Australia - it is organized by day or place/event usually a 2 page spread for each special place, sometimes more. Some days have numerous pages.

I think that much of what I do has already been covered, but I have recently scrapped two big trips and I'm happy to share my experiences.

For both albums, I printed all my pictures out to begin with. I enlarged my favourite photos, and printed the rest at 4x6.

The first was an album of a vacation to Cuba. During the trip, we stayed at a resort but had two separate day trips to Havana. I went in with every intention of scrapping this album chronologically; however, as I scrapped, I found that I ended up with a modified thematic/chronological pair of albums. The first of the two albums contains a chronology of the resort activities and excursions, with some thematic double page layouts (resort sights, flowers, food, etc.), The second of the two albums contains all my photos of Havana, even though they were taken on separate days.

I learned some lessons in scrapbooking this trip. The first was that pocket pages are your friend when you want to scrapbook lots of photos. The second lesson goes hand in hand with this, which is to plan a bit in advance. I scrapped the photos in random order and I ended up not being able to integrate the pocket pages effectively and doing a lot of one page layouts to fit in one more photo or a bit of journaling. I think it works better to scrapbook the photos in the order in which you want them in your album. I also used a lot of bulky embellishments meaning that I only fit about 25 layouts into each D-ring binder. I am ok with this, but I can understand how some people would want to limit it to one album.

The vacation album I'm currently working on is of a trip to Alaska. For this album I decided that a chronological style would work best. The first thing I did was took half a day and sorted through all my photos, putting them in the order I wanted to scrapbook. I also sorted my memorabilia (pamphlets, postcards, ticket stubs, etc.) and filed it with the photos. This was definitely not the most exciting aspect of the scrapbooking but it has made a HUGE difference in how smoothly the album is coming together. I am using a combination of traditional 12x12 and pocket pages, with a variety of inserts as needed (5x7, 6x8, 6x12 page protectors, etc). I take each event/location and decide which photos I want to include, and then see which type of layouts/page protectors I will use. I usually take a quick glance at the next set of photos, just to make sure that the page protector orientation works, but I haven't run into any obstacles yet. So far it's working great. I'm also really liking the look of the different inserts in the album. I think it provides some interest and fun to the album. I am using coordinating paper for each location/activity. For example, I have used one collection for my airport photos, another for a trip to a museum, etc. I am also coordinating my supplies between any 12x12 layouts and pocket pages, so if I do a traditional layout I take the scraps over to the facing pocket page to use for embellishments, cards and photo mats. I really like the look of this album and they way it's coming together.

This is a great thread...so many good ideas! Have fun scrapbooking your trip!

I did my two Hawaii trips digitally.
(difficult part for it was I didn't remember either trip. My husband, my daughter, or googling had to help will in journally, or it was skipped). 
I did it by dates.
day 1 we did this
day two this
day three this.
its what worked for me. 

I did it the same way for both trips. I had only partially scrapped the first trip before I got ill. 

Digital all was my saving grace.