A finished Paris album and other thoughts

After a long absence from this blog, I'm back to say that, although I haven't blogged about my scrapping lately, I have been scrapping. In fact, I have finished the Paris book, and once I have the chance to run over to Scrapbook Your Story for some page protectors, I'll be able to fully assemble it.

Here are two of my Eiffel Tower layouts. For some reason, I'm having trouble uploading photos to the blog, so I don't think I'll be able to add any more to this post. :-( Maybe I'll try again later.

There were so many great things to photograph in Paris that it was hard to narrow down my pictures to a reasonable number for the scrapbook. Natalie gave me a great idea to use one of the pocket pages that came with my variety pack -- a 12x12 with nine 4x4 pockets -- at the end of the book to make a couple of collages of cropped photos. As I was working on the book, I set aside photos that wouldn't fit in the main part of the book for possible use in the collages. I was able to use almost all of them that way. I would include a photo of the collages if I could get the photo feature to work! (Enter my frustration with technology!)

Now that I've finished my first hybrid album, I have to say I've measured the pros and cons. I love the ease of the 3-ring binder, but the pocket pages were a little inconvenient in the sense that they restricted me in some of my layouts. I can see myself using hybird books for future projects, though -- especially small, simple projects such as one I'm planning for a Christmas gift.

With Paris 2010 finished, I'm in between projects, trying to decide what to start next. I have a weeklong staycation starting a week from today, and I'm hoping to get in plenty of scrapping time. One project I need to do soon is a framed photo page in memory of Typo, the feral stray that adopted the SJ-R as her home more than 10 years ago and had to be put to sleep last week because she had large mammary gland tumors. I've gathered several pictures coworkers took of her over the years, and we're hoping, once I finish it, that we'll be allowed to hang it up somewhere in the building. Some other books I'm eager to dig into: the cupcake crawl, my reunion weekend at U of I with Sara, Heather and Steph this past April; a book of childhood family vacations (part of my long-term "scrapping the old, yellowing pictures" project); and a number of single layouts for my "favorite things" scrapbook, including Krispy Kreme, Einstein Bros. Bagels and meeting Boyz II Men. 

I decided to do a "favorite things" book back in March, during my last staycation, when I realized my tendency to take pictures of the things I love most in life. By "things," I mean things that are tangible (I should probably tackle people and concepts in a different book). For example, so far in my "favorite things" book, I have a lot of foods and food places -- cupcakes, Mel-O-Cream doughnuts, my mom's banana bread. I also have the old Doc Marten sandals I got just after college and wore for several summers, to the point of needing a strap repaired (after which I wore them for at least one more summer). And then I have a layout for all the Dave Matthews Band concerts I've been to. (I wore the sandals to a few of those!) It's fun to have a book dedicated to the small things that bring me joy. I'm all about taking pleasure in the little things. There just aren't enough "big" moments in life. We need to find happiness and contentment in the ordinary.

I'm sure in the coming days I'll become inspired for my next project. I have a few things to focus on before I can relax, though. I have a retreat next weekend on which I'm giving a talk, and I need to get through three more days of work. I'm more than ready for a week of leisurely scrapping, though. I know I can accomplish a lot in several wide-open days. Only seven days till then!

Scrapping a T-shirt quilt

I have a thought, and it's out of left field. I have a big plastic container full of old T-shirts I had planned to have made into a quilt. I asked around and found a quilter willing to do it. The problem? The cost is prohibitive, to say the least. Let's put it this way: for the cost of having a large T-shirt quilt made, I could get a good start on a new car. So I've started trying to think of alternative ways to preserve my shirts.

Of course, what's the first thing I thought of? Scrapping! I'm brainstorming whether or not there's a way to put my shirts into an album in a way that will be as satisfying to me as having a quilt.

I'm a highly nostalgic person, so it's hard for me to let go of things that have a lot of sentimental value. My T-shirts fall into that category. They represent everything from college to my favorite sports teams to my career and memorable places I've traveled to.

My only concept so far is to take close-up photos of the images on each shirt and put as many of them on a page as possible. (I'm thinking a hybrid album would be ideal for this project becuase all I really need are pocket pages. Multiple photos of T-shirts don't require much creativity to display; I just need to be able to see what's printed on the shirts.)

If you're reading, do you have any ideas for me as far as how to approach this project? I welcome scrapping and non-scrapping ideas. If anybody knows of a way to preserve my T-shirts on the cheap, please let me know!

Taking the hybrid album for a test drive

In my last post, I wrote about my vast goal to get all my old pictures into sparkling, new scrapbooks. I'm excited to get started, but I'm juggling them with current books I'm equally excited about completing.

My latest project is a book about our three-day stop in Paris last year on our way to visit my husband's family in Ivory Coast, West Africa. It's my first project using a "hybrid" album -- the 12x12 3-ring binders with a variety of pocket pages you can simply slide your photos into. With these books, you have the option of a page as simple as a group of photos or as elaborate as a picture here, an embellished block of cardstock there. It's a good concept, in my opinion, and no doubt the perfect solution for some scrappers. For me, it's turned out to be a mixed bag. I like the option of the pocket pages, and I LOVE the ease of popping open the binding without the hassle of taking the entire book apart, like with postbound albums, which I normally use.

What I don't like is how the pocket pages force you into layouts. I've labored to find just the right combination of horizontal and vertical photos to fill a page, only to turn the page and realize I have to do it all over again because I have to fill the back side. I've actually taped pocket pages together just to escape that frustration,which is a total waste of resources. My other pet peeve is the fact that the pages don't meet in the middle in hybrid albums. The 3-ring binding, much as I love it for its convenience in moving pages around, keeps me from being able to design a cohesive double-page spread with a photo or headline across the break in pages. That's a technique I've become rather fond of in the past couple of years, and I would hate to give it up.

I'm still open to using hybrid albums for some projects -- especially those with a lot of photos of the same thing, or for layouts for which I can't find just the right paper. And I just can't quite let go of that 3-ring binding's ease of use.

But, for the most part, I think I'll be sticking with my postbound books ... and, oh yeah, grumbling whenever it's time to add pages!