Your Scrapbooking Questions, Part 2

You thought I forgot, didn’t you? Dana and I are driving back to Nashville (he’s driving) and I have the laptop out with the Verizon wireless card in. Perfect time to do finish up your scrapbooking questions!

What’s your scrapbooking process? Like what do you start with, how long, story…etc, etc.? Any tips for getting your thoughts and items together easily into a comprehensive page?
This is such a great question. I haven’t ever really thought much about my process. Usually I get out my pictures first – sometimes more than I will actually use. Then I select the papers that I think will work and maybe a few embellishments. Once I figure out my photo placement, then I embellish – usually dragging out more stuff. 🙂

To create a comprehensive page quickly I recommend sticking with the basics – paper, pictures and journaling. At the end of the day scrapbooking is about communicating a story, not using tons of products (though that is fun!). Be simple and the process will go a lot faster.

Where do you scrapbook?
Lately in the living room so I can spend time with Matthew. If Matthew isn’t home, I scrapbook in our bedroom, as that is where my scrapbooking desk is.

Do you finish your layout right away or leave it for a while and come back?
Typically I finish my layout in one sitting, though sometimes I come back to it to finish the journaling, which I always do at the end. Sometimes I will finish a layout, show it to Matthew and he tells me something he doesn’t like about it (I like that I married an honest man, though sometimes I get mad when he says he doesn’t like something about a layout). Usually he is right and I will go back to the layout and mess with it a bit.

Have you found any techniques that really shorten creation time?
Using sketches or challenge blogs really jump starts my creativity and tends to shorten the time it takes me to complete a layout.

I also always handwrite my journaling – I never use a computer. Every time I have tried incorporating a computer into my scrapbooking process it slows me down. I much prefer just writing everything by hand.

How do you ensure scrapbooking does not become overwhelming? I don’t scrapbook all my pictures, just my favorites. The rest I put in a plain, every day album. I also do not develop all the pictures that I take (can you imagine if I developed every picture I took of Elias. Good grief that would be a lot of photos!!)