choosing a story to tell

I talked a little bit in a previous post about how I'm really trying to get back to the basics of scrapbooking. For me, scrapping has really come full circle. When I started, my pages were simple -- the focus was on the stories and the photos. As I became more involved in the industry, I started receiving freelance assignments and working for design teams, where the focus was in promoting the product. I'm finally moving back to that original focus -- using pictures and words to remember what life is like in this family of four.

I wanted to talk a little bit today -- before sharing a couple of new layouts -- about something I touched on in that earlier post. I mentioned that I have two main objectives with my photos now: to scrapbook them or frame them. I want to talk a bit more about the scrapbooking part today, and share with you the process I am using to determine which photos need scrapping and which I can just let go.

First, a little bit about how I handle my photos. I don't have a really fancy process. I'm lucky in that my laptop has a built-in card reader, so I don't have to bother with getting out my cables and connecting my camera to my laptop. All I do is pop the card in the slot and move the photos to their own folder. I name this folder by event, month, and year; for example, I might have a folder called "cross country Oct 09" or a folder named "Highlands Festival Aug 07." If the photos in the folder can't really be classified by event, then I'll just stick with the month and year; sometimes, I'll take my camera on three or four outings before clearing the card.

I've been trying to set aside a block of time to go through one or two folders each week. Basically, I put a little notebook next to my computer and then I scroll through my photos twice. The first time is just a run-through to remind me of the photos that are in that folder -- it's a refresher, basically. The second time, I'm making note of any photos that remind me of stories I want to tell. I normally trust my first impressions, so if a certain photo makes me think of a memory from that event, then I jot down the photo number and put a few words about the story I want to tell in my notebook. If there are really good photos in the folder that I know I want to frame or set aside for other projects, then I move those to a folder marked favorites, making sure that I rename the photo to include the month, year, and event. Once I've scrapped the photos I want to scrap from a folder and moved any special photos to my favorites folder, then I just delete that folder. There's no point in having a bunch of extra pictures hanging around once I've scrapped them. (I should note that for backup purposes, I do move the pictures that I scrapped to my EHD, just to have a second copy of them in case something happens to my layouts.)

This process isn't foolproof, but it has helped me to make a great deal of progress in getting my stories told. Take the following layouts, for example. I had a folder of pictures taken at an academic team event for Cassidy last year. In looking through the pictures, I found that I had a lot of candids of the kids sitting around and waiting, the team taking part in a couple of matches, and a few of the awards ceremony. I knew, then, that I needed one layout about the awards ceremony -- nothing fancy, just a listing of the medals Cassidy won. I wanted another layout that showed the team members and talked about the fact that Cass was the only girl on the whole middle school team. I'm still working on a third layout that shows the team in competition mode; my journaling will focus on Cassidy's role as team captain and the lessons she's learned from that experience.

 

 

This third layout is about a couple of the boys on team who had a crush on Cass last year. As I was scrolling through the photos, I was trying to think about all the important things that happened during the academic team season. I knew I had covered the basics, but then I found this photo. It just so happens that it shows these two boys interacting with Cass, and I knew right then that it was another story I needed to tell.

 

A note about my journaling: Yes, I think it's very important to include journaling on every page. But not every page warrants lengthy intensive journaling either. For a couple of these pages, I just wanted to make sure I had the facts included. For others, I'll include a longer piece of writing; the layout I'm currently working on, for example, will have a lengthier piece of journaling, because there's more I need to say about the topic. It comes down to events vs. moments scrapbooking. Both are important, but I've found that my "moments" journaling is normally more in-depth. That's the balance I've found, and I'm happy with it.

A couple more notes about the layouts: I've found that it is easier for me to settle on one or two kits to scrap these photos when they are all from the same event. My pages still look unique but I don't have to start from scratch with a new color scheme each time. Using items from the same (or similar, in this case) designers also helps to create more variety within the same style.

All templates by Paislee Press; kits from TaylorMade Designs and Paislee Press.

Comments

[Lori Potts]

Audrey I am loving the approach u have been taking while sharing your scrap methods with us. I have been in such a sluump over the summer and I appreciate this bit of inspiration your offering. Lovely pages and memories too. So how is the bag hunt going?

[Marianne]

Such good ideas. I keep my photos by events in iPhoto but never thought to jot notes re stories when I do that. I think I would do one more thing... Title the notes and the pics the same way so I could find them as a pair more easily at a later time. Can hardly wait to try this idea!

Thanks.

[Jenn White]

Thanks for sharing your methods. I copy the pics I want to scrap into page folders with a text doc of notes. These go on my desktop in the "to scrap" folder. When I'm done I delete these folders, leaving all my original pics intact in our Photos folder on the EHD. But I'm thinking I should do what you do and work right from the photos folder, then delete what I don't need. You can't imagine how much garbage I'm hanging on to! Thanks for the food for thought!