Okay this may be a stupid question, however..
How do you put your single layouts in an album? I'm a relative beginner (in number of pages, if not in years) and have done mostly duals or matching singles and they look great in an album when displayed side by side. But recently I've scrapped a few singles, and can't get used to having two pages of different style and color next to each other in an album. So .. the question is - do you put one layout per protector and pair it with a blank? or do you find two matching in color? what's the best way to display single layouts in an album?

The different colors, patterns, etc... doesn't bother me at all. I just place the layouts in the albums in chronological order.

Of course I haven't done that in a while, place them in albums, because I don't scrap chronologically so I found I was constantly moving layouts around! No bueno!!

Now I just have a huge stack of completed layouts waiting for the day when I will finally place them in albums (which means NEVER! LOL!)

Doreena that is what I am like...but jsut before I moved this spring a friend put all my los in albums in no particular order..which is no more random than they were. :lol;

When I actually do put los in my album I don't mind at all if they 'match' or go together or whatever.

I always find this question funny as when I look through a scrapbook, I never look at both pages together. I always look at one at a time and so when it is a double page it takes me a little while to realise I guess it's just the way different minds work and see things. I would just go for it and stick them in there

I've never done matching layouts. Now and again, I'll do the odd double spread, but 99% of my pages are stand alone and that's the way I like it.

It doesn't bother me at all to have two LOs next to each other that totally do not match at all. Then again I do too many LOs to try and put non-matching ones on their own page--my albums would be HUGE...and they are already too big!

Since I consider 1 page (or 2 max) as a story told, it's never bothered me to have non-matching pages beside each other. If anything, it helps me understand that any given short story has been told, and I'm moving onto the next one.

• SuperAllyFan Said:

yes, i guess you are right) when I looked at my layout on its own it was just fine, but when I stuck it in the album and started flipping, and after 4 doubles came two separate pages, it threw me off completely! It still feels weird. I guess, it's either all singles or all doubles, then it works.
How about 8*8 then? the pages are smaller and it's easier for the eyes to capture both pages, isn't it?

@MommaSaid:
great point about "story told", I haven't though of it that way,, but then not every story can fit onto one page, can it? ))

It doesn't worry me in the slightest if the facing pages don't match. Even if I have photos from the same day or the same event on facing pages, if I make the LOs at different times they might be completely different. Even in a themed album I might use different colours on facing pages, but they would at least tone if not match.

It's art-work. I wouldn't care if 2 pictures on the same wall matched, so why would it matter if my scrap books match?

No, that's very true. Each of DS's birthdays has spanned about five pages; but each aspect is no more than two pages. Ultimately, the page for blowing out the candles ends up right beside some wholly different topic, though. And then, there are multiple single pages after that; all very different in color; paper choice, arrangement of photo(s). Still, a story told is a story told.

One pagers drive me nuts. I've only ever done 2 one pagers. Even during the national scrapbook day challanges I did 2 page lo's.

I can always find a way to make it two page lo. I always take that into account when buying paper too. lol

Probably some day when I put my lo's in an actual book i'll end up doing a single as that 1st page and last page.

But I just can't help it and have to do 2 pagers!

I'm also a two-pager. The 1st page is my title page for the album and the last page...if I ever finish an entire album, will be an index of the people in the album. As I work on pages, I put the people in the lo into a spreadsheet. Eventually it will show a small picture of each person w/complete name, dob/dod, address, relationship, etc., then it will be printed on the final page. This keeps me from explaining who everyone is on every page and 100 yrs. from now maybe it will all make sense to someone.

My other pages I like to at least coordinate. I have so many pics that I don't want to force a page just so it comes out even, but I make them at least similar in colors/tones & emotion. I wouldn't put a crazy one with a serious one~

Non-matching pages drive me nuts, too. I am like MrsDriver, the only 1-pagers I do are first pages of albums. I look at each turn of the page as a new story, not each page separately.

I am a chronological scrapbooker so matching layouts don't bother me at all. Especially when I am doing my yearly album. I just scrap the layouts and put them in the album. The majority of my pages are singele layouts. Every once in a while I do a two page layout. I think it all depends on how you scrapbook. I think people that scrapbook by theme might have a problem scrapbooking single layouts.

I used to be a two-pager, going so far as to have a similar theme (color, events, etc.) throughout each book. I tried a one-pager one day and it was so liberating! I no long worry about the flow of my album. As a bonus, it turns out that my family didn't even notice the change from all 2-pages to mostly 1-pages until I pointed it out to them.

I am trying to scrap more stories, not just events....still, most of my pages end up in chronological order (I do mostly single LOs). So even if it's 2 separate pages, they end up sort of going together because they'll most probably both be winter pages or spring time of year or summer etc...IYKWIM? There will be similar colours, papers etc. even if they don't match exactly.
That doesn't bother me....but if the pages were very, very different, that would probably bother me (like a halloween page with dark colours next to a summer beach page for instance).....When I first turn a page, I do notice the two pages together, then I look at each page individually.....

Alison

I'm a chronological scrapper to - I do one pagers and two pagers. So if I do a one pager I put another one pager next to it and it never matches. But to me that makes the scrapbook interesting.

I have one book that is labeled "Friends and Family index" or something like that. It is an 8 1/2 x 11 book and I made a template and put everyone who is in one of my scrapbooks in it.

When we have guests they can find their name in the index and see what books contains layouts with them in it. Works great.

Some people are in 5 or 6 different books and they can find the books easily with their pictures. The index also tells the subject of the layout so they know if it was Christmas or just playing with their dogs.

The pages are not numbered but still, the index tells which book so they can still find them easily.

It doesn't bother me in the slightest if pages don't match or coordinate.

The idea of putting a blank page next to a single LO just so as not to have non-matching pages facing each other seems a bit odd, not to mention a waste or space.

To my mind some events really would be stretched to cover 2 pages, one works much better for me on those occasions so I guess I've never thought of it as an issue at all.

I do two pages for a lot of things, but my frequent one-pagers are why I plan out entire albums in advance, to keep everything in order. With my everyday albums, which I do more or less as things happen, I manage to work things out. I really dislike doing odd numbers other than 1 page, though I successfully managed to do a 5-page in my DC album. Another strategy I use to manage things that require three pages is to use fold-out page protectors.