I wrote a long post but it deleted everything! I wanted to ask what kind of albums you do and if you planned them, do you use coordinated kits or let them grow page after page? I made a 12x12 blurb photobook for the first year of my first daughter, and now I'm doing the same for the second. But then? the 12x12 format is very expensive and not practical to hold in hand. I was thinking of using other formats such as 8x8 or 8x10... I'm doing the digital project life too and I choose the vertical 8x10 format. It would be nice to do it every year to have then a collection of our memories Sorry if I was a bit confused, and sorry for my English
Up this point, I have always just printed my 8x8 layouts and put them in to a 8x8 D-ring album--usually one per year. This year, I am doing digital project life, but am printing them 12x12 and adding them to a binder that I can add other memorabilia to as well as printing my regular scrapbook pages in 6x6 format and adding them to the Design E pocket sleeve. So, I guess the answer to your question is no, I don't plan my albums
I don't plan my albums either. I just keep an excel spreadsheet of the memories/events/fun pictures that I want to scrap in chronological order. I scrap on whichever of those I feel like scrapping until I have enough to fill a 12x12 Shutterfly book and then I order one. I don't match my facing pages with matching kits or anything. Once in a great while I will rearrange facing pages if they clash terribly, but otherwise they are just put in the book in chronological order. I used to do all 2 page layouts, but I was filling books WAY too fast!
I plan what photos I want to use. I had made a photoshop grid of sorts (2x2 squares) and separated them so it had 2 pages grouped per set. I then dragged on what photos I wanted to use for that event and labeled it. It worked SUPER well for the daily challenges in January so I could just know what my options to scrap were at a glance. I then deleted the photos from the square when they were scrapped and pasted in a small version of the scrapped page. However, too many pages/photos/layers and the file was cumbersome to open (and move things around when I wanted to change the order or add things in), so I'm actually transitioning to powerpoint since you can easily rearrange slides (but you can't group by 2). I just keep the screen small enough (normally 6 slides across) to see what pages look like together and keep the cover at the end so it doesn't mess up my 2, 2, 2 flow I'm putting in memorabilia and PL cards, etc. so I'm actually pasting in templates for the project life pockets (and WRMK product view from websites as a template) on slides to keep everything straight!
I don't scrap with a plan! So far, I have printed a bunch of my pages from my first year of scrapping and put them in albums (printed 8x8 because I didn't want to pay double for 12x12). Now I'm wishing I could do 12x12, but I also know that that would increase my cost a ton, and with 5 kids to print books for, its just not feasible. As far as arranging them, I just put them in whatever order - it is wayyyy too much work to make them chronological for me, and the kids really just like looking through the random pages. I will definitely let the older kids rearrange theirs if they feel the need tho
i do a yearly family album that includes my PL layouts . I don't always scrap in order but they are chronological when they go into the book. i print at Blurb 12 x12
I do a lot of album-type projects that I print as 16-20 page books or as Shutterfly albums. I just finished one up from our Disney trip and I've also done them for each of my nieces and nephew's first years, my Grandma's 80th birthday, weddings. They usually have one theme. I mostly plan out what pages I want to do - I love lists - and then I go from there! I used one of the BOYC collabs for my Grandma's book - it was perfect because there was so much stuff to mix and match. I used mostly one kit -Lauren & Jacque's Zero to Hero - for my Comic Con book because that was also just perfect for the theme. But my Disney book used all kinds of stuff - it's all over the place and I love that.
