blueprints: using memorabilia in your scrapbook albums

Welcome to the sixth post in our blueprints: conversations in album design series. I'm a bit behind in getting this post up, since I've been gone all week on a much-needed vacation with my girls. When I came home, I knew that I needed to dive into this project; the trouble (if you can call it that) is that I got too caught up in the whole process of sorting memorabilia for my girls' school albums. The great thing was that my girls also got caught up in looking at their elementary school papers, awards, and layouts. Just another reminder of why I embark on big projects like this in the first place...

When I talk about memorabilia for your albums, I'm talking about a number of different things:

• newspaper clippings
• awards, including ribbons or medals
• samples of classwork
• pieces of art
• letters or postcards
• menus, programs, and other paper items

Choosing to include memorabilia of any type in your album is a personal decision that depends on a couple of things, particularly your album type and scrapbooking style. If you are interested in doing a digital-only album that will be bound, then you're going to need access to a scanner so that you can render all of your memorabilia into an electronic format. However, if you will be putting together an album that is paper, digital, or hybrid with pages of various sizes, then I suggest using a D-ring album.

That's the option I chose, for a couple of reasons. 1) I already had a mix of paper and digital pages, in both sizes (12x12 and 8.5x11), so I needed an option that would incorporate both of them. 2) My memorabilia files included a number of items of different sizes, as well. 3) Most importantly, this is an ongoing project for me, and I need the flexibility of inserting pages as I complete them (which is not necessarily in chronological order.

I've been keeping papers, art samples, awards, and other important school papers each year with the intention of adding them to the girls' school albums. To be honest, before today, they all just went, willy-nilly, into a clear sterlite storage compartment. So of course, my first step involved SORTING, which actually fell into three stages: separating Cassidy's work from Cameron's work; separating each girl's work by grade level; within grade levels, sorting each pile by type (award, writing sample, art sample, clubs, extracurricular activities, sports, etc). Here's a glance at some of those piles:

At this point, I've taken all the paper (and printed digital --which isn't many) layouts that relate to school topics and put them into one large 12x12 D-ring album from American Crafts (I LOVE these albums!) They are sorted by grade level, and then all of the memorabilia was added, with each piece slipping into a clear page protector.

 

Here are my next steps:

1. Sort through my "finished digital pages" folder and upload layouts that need to be printed and added to this album.
2. Create a set of "grade level intro pages" that collects basic information about each school year.
3. Sort through my photo folders and determine which photos need to be scrapped (some will be stories that stand alone about the school year, others will support the memorabilia in the album). Use sticky notes on the memorabilia pages to note accompanying stories. Create a master list to help keep this organized.

Final thoughts: As I've noted previously on here, I tend to jump into projects without really having a sense of what I need to do. Breaking this album project down into stages, and outlining my next steps after each stage is completed, has really helped me to stay on target and kept the project from getting too overwhelming. This album gathers 7 years worth of stories and materials for two different kids, so adjusting the process to those demands has been the most essential step.

As always, Liz and I welcome your questions and comments about this album series. You can leave them here on the blog, or you can stop by our Formspring sites as well:

ask Audrey  |  ask Liz

Comments

[cate]

I've never tackled the school stuff... I have two children's worth of stuff waiting to be looked through (one finishes primary/elementary this year, the other is only half way through)... I'm determined that by 2012 I have a system in place for dealing with #3's album ~lol~ great job!

[aud neal]

Cass is in 7th grade and Cami is in 2nd grade, so I have a fair amount of catching up to do with Cass. Thats part of the reason why I designed the album to look like it does -- it definitely needed to be flexible, and it needed to be something that I could work on as time and inspiration allow. Thanks for stopping by!

[Stefanie]

Thanks for these tips.
I have three children (grade 11, 9 and 5) and I have probably done 4 or so in each one's albums.
The task seems just too overwhelming.
I have sorted their things, per child and per grade, so now just need to dive in, choose photos and memorabilia and create the LO's.

[aud neal]

And thats just the process Im going to be talking about on Sunday, so make sure you check in at that point! Thanks for leaving your thoughts. :)

[Carole N.]

I followed a link at Simple Scrapper to this article and I am so happy that I did. I am doing scrapbooks for two grandchildren, a girl that will be 16 and a boy that will be 13 this summer. I have pondered over what type of album to make, digital or paper. All my digital layouts are 8 1/2 x 11 so I can print them at home, but I want to do 12 x 12 paper layouts. I never even thought of combining both sizes in one album. What a great idea and thanks for helping solve this problem. I am so happy I read your article.
Thanks for sharing your ideas.
Hugs!