Where do I start????

[BrandiBoyer]

Hi ladies.

I really want to start scrappin', but I'm not sure where to start. Is it easier to start with current pics or to go back to the baby pics and work my way up????

Also, do most of you put all your kids pics together or make a separate book for each child??? And...if any of you have twins, how did you split the pics if you made each their own book???

Sorry for all the questions. I'm getting ready to place an order later this week and trying to make some decisions about what to get.

Thanks for any and all suggestions.

Brandi
(mom to 3 boys)

[Laurie FW]

Hi Brandi,
It was easier for me to start with current pictures of my family. I also started with just a family album, included holidays etc and it had all four of us in it. As I got more confident, I started branching out a little. I completed a whole entire year of a family album and then went back and did some older pictures, making an older family album (but by just a year or two). After building up some more confidence, I started with just a page or two for both of my kids. For example, my daughter was in first grade and I made her first day of school, then I made a few more pages that pertained just to her and her activities. Sometimes they had her friends or outside activities (scouts, music, etc) in those pages. Then I started with my son's pages, who was younger. For his album, I just started with pictures of him playing with a toddler friend, then added preschool pictures as he got older. Some people think that this is weird, but gradually over the years I have added about 25 to 30 pages in each of their album, I complete from 6 - 10 pages a year for each child's album.

I don't have twins, but have made several pages of both my children together in pictures for my family album. I use the pictures I really adore for the family album, since I am going to be keeping them! I do have pictures of each kid in each other's album as they get along really well and need to be able to see what they did with each other when they grow up! I just save my favorites for my own album, or get doubles! I plan on giving the kids their own albums when they are grown.

I hope this helps! Good luck!
Laurie

[camsmom]

I would start with maybe a theme (like Christmas or Birthdays) and go from there. The only problem with doing 1 book for all is who gets it???LOL

My friend's Mom did an awesome scrapbook for her 25th b-day. She had 1 2 page layout for birthdays, and had just 1 pic from many different dates, same with Christmas and Halloween. If you are doing them for multiple kids you may want to keep the layouts the same for all of them and do 1 for each. My Dada didn;t scrapbook for us, but he did go through and seperate pics when I was in high school so we each had a bag of our own. He gave us each our own if we were the only ones in te pics, and the divied up teh ones where we were together.

I would recommend the Simply Scrappin kits-they are all coordinating, and have self-adhesive tags now, so it is like having a sticker (easy) but made of SU cardstock (much classier!!) I know they have a b-day one, and a Christamas one and have lots to get started.

Hope that helps!

[photocropper]

Brandi,
Scrapin' can be very overwhelming when you start. When I started I was pregnant with my first child and did not really want to commit to doing every picture. I decided to do something with my wedding pictures and if I liked it I would do more. SO I completed my wedding album and started on our family album. I sorted all my pics by year and then month. Once everything was in order (honestly that is an ongoing project for me!) then I decided what to start working on. I took our trip home to see family. We lived in Hawaii at the time and came home for a month each year and I took at least 12 rolls of film. SO I started with those and that became my family album. I have since added the rest of the year to that. I plan to do an album for each of my children. I will of course start when they were babies and put birth to 3 years in one and put school in a seperate album starting with preschool and so on. I have not decided from there if I will have 2 ongoing albums for each child or not but I will cross that bridge when I get there!
I once knew someone who did a family album and then duplicated several of those pages in her daughters albums and some unique ones as well. That way she only had to do the real creating once!
Just get organized and go from there. You should consider a "Power Layout" class that Creative Memories Consultants do if you have a lot that you want to get done. I use the concept all the time and tend to get much more done that way!
Good Luck!

[Chris Fuhs]

Start with a vacation or an event (like a holiday).
Start with a 6x6 book.