In Body + Soul magazine a few months ago, there was an article about the Zen of Scrapbooking. The author, Genevieve Morgan, wrote about what makes scrapbooking feel important to us. She said, “Part photo album, part journal, part family genealogy, part art project, they distill your life’s meaning in an accessible and intensely personal way—and create record of it for the future.”
When I wrote about being a life artist, this is what I was thinking of. It’s a chance to create something new, play around, try different things. You can really look deeply at what’s important in your life and make something of it. The idea is to mindfully choose what you want to use make memories permanent for others (possibly even your descendants) to share in pieces of your life.
I’ve spent a lot of time making traditional scrapbooks, documenting my children’s lives, and our lives together as a married couple. I’ve made a wedding album and several travel albums. I understand the elements and how they go together. Now I’d like to stretch out more and do pages about my thoughts and feelings, with or without accompanying photographs. I’d like to try different techniques, outside my usual realm. I’m ready to move forward again.
At the very least, you simply must get a red-eye pen. It’s a greenish felt tip marker that you dot on red eyes in photos. I’m telling you, my son and daughter-in-law’s wedding album would be a disaster without this vital item. I have a single male friend who likes to take concert photos. He asked me what to do about all the red eyes and I bought him one of these pens, because I really couldn’t see him traipsing through the scrapbook store, asking for one himself. He was very grateful.
Way back before they were married, I promised to make a wedding scrapbook for my son and his bride-to-be. Well, it only took two years to complete. I really have no excuse; I have done many pages in the meantime. It just overwhelmed me.
I wanted to keep it as simple as possible, so it won’t look horribly old-fashioned ten years from now. Although I realize this is a constant problem, as styles evolve, I think that by keeping it strong and classic, it will be less dated.
Dawn spent an afternoon with me going over all the photos from the pro photographer, her family and friends, and our family and friends. Probably 500 pictures total. The real job was narrowing it down to what was important to tell the story.
Some things you might notice: all the pages have the same cardstock as a background, unifying the whole album. I used similar charms and ribbon on almost every page. Pale blue and cream keep the pages light and bright. Very minimal writing, all in the same black font. Most photos are 4x6 and unmatted. My son and daughter-in-law are amazingly good-looking!
I used to spend hours and hours on each page, but lately I have had a psychological breakthrough. I am less intimidated about doing it exactly right. Before, I would come to a point where I didn’t know the exact right thing to do next and I would completely stop, waiting for inspiration. Now I force myself to keep going, and this has actually made it easier on me, not to mention, quicker. If I can’t solve the problem immediately, I must move on to some other aspect of the page, or another page, and then go back to the original problem to see if there’s a resolution yet. This actually works! It gives your mind time to mull over the situation, while your hands are actively putting things together. And, viola! You are done before you know it.
Use only solid cardstock as a background, and usually no more than one piece of patterned paper per two page layout.
Use mostly all 4x6 photos; they fit together in good groupings on a 12x12 piece of paper. This means a lot less cropping.
Only frame the most important picture of the page. If it’s really good, make it a 5x7 or 8x10.
Do not, under any circumstances, use “cutsy” titles.
Print all headlines and journaling on the computer. Use the page set-up to change margins to fit your page. Use consistent fonts throughout to give a feeling of unity. Use 1.5 spacing for easier readablity. If necessary, break large blocks of writing into columns.
You can print titles directly on a 12x12 paper if you cut the paper to 8x12, print it landscape, and then tape it back together. Use patterned paper or photos to cover up the line.
This time I was lucky, ‘cause I had all my blogging done. I just copied and pasted it. In general, it’s best to take notes during, or immediately after an event, or you’ll forget the good stuff.
Do not fill up your pages with silly embellishments. If you buy them, they cost a fortune and they distract the viewer from your pictures. If you make them, they take tons of time and no one notices. I use strips of colored paper to ground the photos and add visual excitement. Sometimes you can find and crop a small part of a picture to use as a relevant embellishment.
I love corner rounding. It brings pictures together and makes them seem complete somehow. I didn’t have a lot of time to do it for this album.
I actually like the technique of inking all the edges of the papers too. It looks real cool when you’re bringing an album together. And it would be very appropriate with this theme, but I didn’t have time for that either. Maybe I’ll go back and add it another time, but that means disassembling the whole album. Is it worth it?
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PS The scrapbook pages are straight; it's the photo/cropping that's crooked.
