Get Your Albums Put Together FAST!

Get your albums done with power-layouts and learn how to get organized here.

Keeping Organized

STORAGE

Take your photos OUT of the envelope they came in and put them into a storage box or file folder. A great way to store your negatives is to put them into a storage sheet and into a binder. This way all your negatives are stored together, safely, and out of the way.

STAYING ORGANIZED

A great way to stay organized and up to date is to take at least 1 roll of film of the baby each month. This way the next time you go grocery shopping just drop the film in and pick it up on your way out, quick & easy. You can now sit down and do your 2 page layout. When you’re finished, put the extra pictures away in storage.

COMMIT YOURSELF

We all have such busy lives these days and usually the only time we commit to scrapbooking is when we go to a crop. If you commit to at least once a month to sit down and do your 2 page layout of your baby, you’ll be completing an album in no time. Now if you want to sit and do 2 or 3 spreads, then by all means, please do.

IF YOUR CHILD IS OLDER

If you are scrapbooking your child’s baby pictures then get them involved too! We all know that scrapbooking is an awesome time to bond and build relationships with people. Why not your own child? Get them organizing & helping you out. Focus more on what was happening in the picture to help you remember at what age your baby was. If you can’t remember, then scrapbook the pictures by the event. It doesn’t necessarily have to be on chronological order.

Follow these above steps and you will stay organized and up to date on your baby’s first year.

Step 2

First things first. I want you to go right now and get busy into your photos. Admit it, you have a chest or drawer full of photos that you’ve had developed and you just haven’t had the time to take them out to scrapbook.

Take out all those folders, loose negatives, photos lying around and sit put all your folders with pictures & negatives (you know the folders you get once they’re developed) into one BIG box. If you have more than one box worth, then grab another one until you get all your folders are in these boxes.

Next, grab anything that is loose and put it all into a BIG envelope, or box. Mark the envelope as “loose.” When you’re done this, grab all certificates, paperwork, cd’s, newspaper articles you may have saved into a box or envelope. Mark this as “paper.”

This will be a big job for you, if it’s not then, We all give you a hand. This is a big task. And when I say everything, I mean everything!

If you have anything else that is laying around, mark it in an envelope or box as “extra.”

Step 3

Supplies Needed: Pen, Post It Notes, Photo Box

1) Take each folder of pictures and take the pictures out.

2) Label each group of photos with a post it note with the event, date, etc.

3) Now label the negatives the same way.

4) Now have 1 photo box for each child, and 1 for the family photos.

5) Place your photos in the appropriate box and repeat.

Step 4

Let’s get going here on our organizing. Now that you have all of your photos in separate boxes, and labled; it’s time to dig into a box. You may want to start with your baby’s photos for their own album.

1) Get the photos organized by either chronological order, or by event (Christmas, Firsts, Birthday).

2) Purchase a file folder from Creative Memories or find one at a local store. It should have lots of separate compartments to store lots of photos.

3) Organize each event, holiday, or if you did it chronologically, into each compartment.

4) Repeat this with each box until you’re finished.

Step 5

Getting Ready to Crop

So we’re finished up with sorting all of our photos – Let’s get them ready for your albums now.

This Tutorial is taken from the Creative Memories “Getting Ready” Crop Talk –Adapted to fit your baby scrapbooking needs.

If you would like a copy please send me an email and I’ll put it in the mail for you.

1) Find enough photos for 30 scrapbook album pages (for a 12×12 album that’s about 150-210 photos or about 7-8 packages of photos)

2) Gather all memorabilia that is related to these photos.

3) Roughly sort this specific photos into a File Folder of it’s own (so if you don’t have one, pick one up at your local scrapbook store)

4) Gather your 2 packages of blank refill pages (About 30 refill pages)

5) Get your Cutters out (tools to crop your photos, scissors, personal trimmer, etc.)

6) Get together your enhancements (mats, paper, corners, pre-cut paper, stickers, die cuts)

7) Look in your scrapbook magazines for layout ideas & inspiration. You can start your first page by adapting the layout to your liking. Remember you’re starting your first page on the right hand side of your book.

Tips to Organize Chronologically (You can also organize by theme)

Make a timeline for the years covered in your photos. Write down any significant events for these specific photos. Events could be your pregnancy, baby’s birth, baby shower. Etc.

Start with your earliest photos and organize them into your file folder specific to these photos. Or you can put them in a container / box that you have.

When you are done sorting all of your photos back into your file folder, take them out one section at a time and crop them.

Crop = Trim To Your Liking

Rules for cropping: (KISS) Keep It Simple Silly – take a really good look at your photos, if they look perfect and are centered nicely there’s no need to crop them.

Unless you really desire to do so. When you’ve decided which photos you will crop, Simply just decide if it would look nicer in an oval or circle, or maybe just trim the edges with a corner cutter.

Putting your photos into another shape will also cut out any undesired items in the background (like a hand, dogs tail, tons of background, etc.)

When you have finished cropping all of your photos, put them back into your file folder, and get ready for the next issue of this Newsletter.

Step 6

1) Now take all of your Refill Pages from your album out.

2) Lay them all out on the floor, you’ll need a big space for this so move some furniture around.

3) Take your photos from your file folder and start placing them loose on the pages. Until they are placed.

4) Take some short cuts (small pieces of paper for mats, or corners), and place them all out with each page.

5) Now go around and mount every single photo and mat to each page.

6) Put each refill back into your album.

Step 7

Now you have all your photos mounted onto the pages, all you have to do is bring it out from time to time and do your stickers, journaling, and titles of each page. You can take your time on these now. If you want to do another album, just start with Step 1.