I was asked a few weeks ago about my process with regards to printing and storing my layouts. More specifically, how do I determine which layouts go into photo books and what happens to my monthly pages?
The medium I choose is basically dependent on whether the subject I am dealing with has a definitive beginning and end, or is open-ended and on-going.
It's that simple.
Projects with a clear start and finish are photo book projects. These are often events, vacations or complete stories that have unfolded in their entirety. I plan the project to accommodate a 20 page photo book and create the pages accordingly. I will not add to these stories in the future. Related stories or sequels are printed as additional volumes to create a series.
I have a growing collection of these books that document these types of events. You can view some of my photo book projects in my Shutterfly gallery.
I am a Shutterfly Advisory Team (SAT) member and I use Shutterfly for all of my photo book printing. This is a personal choice as opposed to a requirement. I am familiar with their upload/ordering process, the results are good and I am not concerned with discounts for volume pages because I always plan my subject matter to accommodate the minimum 20 page count, as opposed creating pages on the fly. This saves me both time and money.
All of my other scrapbook layouts fall into the open-ended ended category. Each page documents a story, which when grouped together in a collection, provides a view of the bigger picture, much like the jigsaw pieces of a puzzle. These stories are on-going and I will to add them over the years, as is the case with my Christmas, Halloween, AAM and Heritage volumes, for example. I use the word volumes, because when I have filled one album, I will begin a new one. These albums are never finished. For example, my Christmas volumes begin with pages dating back to the year 1995, and hold all our Christmas photos and memories to the present year.
My current list of on-going albums includes:
- Ella's Scrapbooking
- Luke's Scrapbooking
- Ella
- Luke
- Eric
- Anna (AAM)Heritage: Aspnes
- Heritage: Davies
- Heritage: Day
- Halloween
- Christmas
- Us and Ours
Note: That this list will expand over time. I am already planning on a Martial Arts volume for Ella and a Military volume for Eric when he retires.
I began this process of organization several years ago using different albums for each category using color to differentiate their content. As suppliers have gone out of business and/or stopped manufacturing certain albums, I have finally settled on on a uniform system of using a binder in the same color to house my growing collection of pages. The 12 X 12 WR Memory Keepers Faux Leather 3 Ring Binder best fits my needs and preferences and am slowly migrating over to using these albums exclusively.
In addition to themed albums, I have year or annual albums dating back to 2002 which are home to my monthly layouts. Layouts are stored in chronological order January through December. I do not keep duplicates, so my printed layouts either fit into one of the themed albums above, or go into the yearly albums below.
- Years 2002 - 2006*
- Year 2007
- Year 2008
- Year 2009
- Year 2010
* I began taking photos and scrapbooking in 2002. In the beginning, I did not have a system for organizing my pages. They were simply grouped together by year and printed in 100 page Shutterfly photo books. These books were expensive, and so rather than reprint all those pages, I keep them along-side my open volumes as documentation of my evolution in this sport. Obviously, I can no longer add to these photobooks, and so new pages from years 2002-2006 are stored in this folder. I'm sure there will come a time when this album will fill up, at which point I will separate the pages into their own individual years.
I currently print my individual pages in batches every 6 months at Persnickety Prints who offer super quality and customer service, at a very competitive price. Read my review on their service.
In the last few years, I have been playing with the idea of dividing my yearly/annual albums into chapters, much like a book, by creating a page that serves as an introduction to each month.
Here are several advantages to doing this:
- The content of the album is broken down into more manageable sub-groups for viewing purposes.
- Provides an opportunity for summarizing that month and showcasing photos that were not including in the other pages.
- The need for dating every page becomes less important if you are grouping your pages by month. There has been a great discussion about this at DesignerDigitals recently.
I have a experimented with different layout formats for creating a page to divide my monthly pages and have decided this year to go with a consistent introduction to each month using the same format and product. Next year, I am likely to switch it up again. I prefer consistency within an album but like variety as I move from one album to the next. It keeps me interested and represents my growth as an artist.
I have converted my design for this years MonthDividers into a set of 12X12 layered templates, MonthDivider Layered Templates No. 1, which are are now available in the DesignerDigitals store.
My pages for the first 3 months of my Year 2010 album:
Supplies: MonthDivider Layered Templates No. 1, ArtPlay Paletter Magic ValueSet, ArtPlay Palette Magic Solids Paperie by Anna Aspnes; Thick Memory Words by Ali Edwards.
I have purposely chosen a consistent approach to these dividers by repeating the use of the same products throughout the template, yet I've paired black and white photos, which I don't use very often these days, with bold and bright digital supplies to provide a contrast with the other pages in my album. I like this combination of maintaining a level of consistency yet also providing contrast to keep the album interesting. I also really liked the happy surprise of the brads in the ArtPlay Palette Magic ValueSet being almost the same size in the number 10. Love it when that happens!
I'm also quite enamored at the moment with the idea of providing a paragraph of introductory text to each group of layouts. I basically summarize what happened in that month or document what I remember most.
DesignerDigital CT Member, Terri, has demonstrated a completely different approach to using the templates. Her use of color photos in her MonthDivider layout dominates the pages, maximizing the photo capacity of the template. I really like the addition of the solid paper background to the template.
What criteria do you use for printing and storing your digital pages? I'm always interested in how others tackle organization of their digital pages.
