Scrap Order

I scrap what appeals to me in whatever order strikes me today in the years I'm working on currently 2004-2010. I put the layouts in my album chronologically, but don't crop in chronological order... This used to stress me alot, as I attached my pages to CM pages with permanent photo tape, so I had to use undu to move things around in chronological order sometimes.

Now I've switched to a removable photo tape that is made by scotch, and am one happy camper, cause I can move layouts around with ease, even though they are stuck to CM pages and covered with protectors without having to whip out the undu. I love the stuff, but it smells like lighter fluid and I have to air out the house after using it almost!

2006 and 2009 are the closest to being "done." I've done some work on all the others, and for this one brief moment in time - I am one layout away from being current in 2010 (cause its only March LOL)

My CM albums hold about 30 pages for me, as mine are chunky with lots of embellies. A year for me is 2 or 3 albums with 30 pages each depending on vacations and how many photos I took, etc.


Several questions --

First what order do you scrap in?
How do you organize your books?
For chronological scrappers how do you stay motivated to work within a single year until done?

I try to scrap chronologically but have made myself relax some and scrap as the inspiration or mood strikes me instead and then deal later with where to insert the lo.

Right now I'm working on several albums; my husband's retirement album (he retired a month ago so I guess that's pretty current); my mother's album which is long term and is dedicated to Alzheimer's; our Hawaii trip from last August, and the occasional lo for my Bom. I alsohave a Christmas album which is pretty easy to keep current for obvious reasons. Altogether I have maybe close to 30 albums. Not sure since most are in storage already in preparation for a move next month.

EEK! I'm going to have to pack up my scrappy stuff soon!

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I have a dear scrap friend who moved last year. She spent about 3 weeks making kits and packing a minimal set of tools, etc. in her crop bags, for use during the transition.

She enjoyed working on these layouts, and it gave her something to do until her scraproom in the new house was set up. She only used stick on letters during this time, etc. as the cricut and most of her big supplies were in storage.

She had fun making kits I think. She's still got some left and is working on them even now that her room is back together in the new house.

She packed most of her own scraproom. Her realtor and movers weren't sure what to make of a dedicated scrap room, I think.

Well, I hope to not be out of commission for too-too long, but what I'm afraid MAY happen is I might just set aside scrapping for a bit over the summer and just spend some time getting to know my new neighbors and decorate the home, etc. I retired last year and am still sort of transitioning into a less stressful, less goal-oriented lifestyle and just enjoying whatever strikes me at the moment. So I don't know, I'll just take each day as it comes and go with the flow although I do have in mind to scrap the move, and we're going down at then end of this week to get pictures of the house in progress, so I'll scrap that for sure.

I scrap whatever pictures inspire me. Those can range from my childhood up to current pictures of my children.

As of right now there is no organization in my albums. All LOs get put in an album with all the others. One day I may organize them..or not. I always say my kids can fight over them when I'm gone!

I scrap randomly.
I have albums per theme, like one for each child, and I swop my pages around to keep them chronological. I use the AMM albums, so I don't stick any layouts down, just have to take them out and slip them back into the correct sleeve.
I wouldn't try to scrap chronologically as I would get too bored.

I'm a random scrapper then put all in my album by year.

Ohoh, this is new!
I'm a girl who likes everything in order, almost to perfection. But when it comes to scrapbooking, it isn't. I do whatever I like, making a crown-book or canvas (50x70 cm) or at paper 30x30. There is no order en also in my album is no organization. That is so not me! Maybe I'll start putting them chronologically in my album soon Thanks for posting this item

I too scrap by what inspires me at the moment. I do have many albums going at one time (one for each child's school years, tiger scouts, sports album for each child)....I then keep each album in chronologically order. I am not up to date with my pictures but I do have their first year albums done (they are 5 and 6) and most of their school albums.
I have hundreds of pictures of each of them from when they were babies and I scrapped the milestones first, then I hope to go back and make other random pages with some of the best pictures. I give the doubles and the ones that I won't use to my kids who have started their own scrapbooks.

I scrap randomly....very randomly...one day I'll do a recent photo of one of our dd's, the next a photo taken several Christmases ago. Then I place them on an album...not in chronological order...

I do what you do minus the CM albums too much of a pain when I am moving thins about.....right now actually I have my LOs in a 12X12 file folder divided by which album they will go into, just because I dont have enough albums. I like the binder style albums but I am having a hard time finding them. I scrap what I want to not what needs to be dont I did a page from 1981 last night,,the page before that was 2005, the one before that 2010.

• Scrapkaty Said:

Yep... me too!

I scrap randomly ....i am scrapping 30 yrs of photos .....one day I scrap yesterdays pics .....the next I may scrap something 20 yrs ago .......I have several albums going and try to put the pages in something close to chronological order .....right now I have a stack of about 20 LOs that need to be put away! LOl

Random in a chronological order... meaning that I am redoing my childrens' books (so they are chronological) but I don't work on just them. I tend to work on current stuff, too, but in randon order.

All layouts are then put into albums...chronologically.

I usually will work on for one album for a while then get bored and switch to another.. I do have everything in chronological order in my albums.. I also use CM albums.. before I start working on a new album I write out everything I want in the scrapbook in order then shove that paper in the album so that I know where the gaps need to be filled in when I go back to that album.

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Ooooh, thanks for that idea! Course that would mean I have to plan what to include! LOL Um, ok I'm a work in progress... Thanks for the tip!

I have to plan event-specific albums in advance to account for both two-page and one-page layouts, although I can do some pages before I plan them at all, and I can do them in whatever order strikes me. The plan sometimes changes as the pages come along (usually in finding that I planned for too *many*), but it helps me know what still needs to be done - and I love making lists and especially crossing things off lists when they're done.

This won't be as big a deal for my recipe scrapbook, since I think most things won't be more than one page and they don't need to be chronological, and I don't worry about it for my rabbit's scrapbook either (which is only vaguely chronological in that it will start with her adoption profile from the shelter and then go to photos of her first few days with us), but my others are all pretty strictly in chronological order.

• DaisyButton Said:

Hiya - I'm mostly a chronological scrapper too, my mind just works that way. I'm kind of "caught up" now but not really. Um, let me explain that, LOL. And FYI even when not "caught up," I don't let it bother me too much because it's kind of an impossibility for me to do it all & be current. So I'm enjoying living life & scrapping what I can!

When I started modern scrapping in '05, I was 2 years "behind" as far as putting pics in regular albums. I knew I couldn't scrap EVERY pic but I tried to scrap every event at least. I enjoy scrapping lots of pics per LO so that helped. I got "caught up" within a year, but then I scrapped our wedding/honeymoon/courtsh ip (2 big books) & I was 2 yrs "behind" again.

Gradually, I just started letting myself scrap only key events/vacays. And I allowed myself to put pics in regular photo albums more. Also, I don't just do chron event pages, I do "moment" type pages too, whenever I'm inspired to.

It's gotten to the point now where I'm happy doing only a few LOs (or just one summary LO) for ONLY a few events a year. And put most of the rest in an album. BUT for vacations & such, things I think I'll scrap or definitely want to scrap, I'll put pics in photo holding page protectors so that they're at the ready for scrapping. So right now, I have only several more event LOs I plan to scrap (from '08 & '09) but if I'm motivated to, now I'll just work backwards from right now & scrap what I'm inspired to.

So to answer your questions specifically:

First what order do you scrap in? Like I said above, I am mostly "caught up" on '08/'09, just a few more summary LOs to go. While that's happening, if a challenge I want to do comes up & it doesn't apply to any of the LOs I've planned out, then I'll start from present day & work backwards, seeing which of my pics WOULD work for that challenge. Sure, I'd like to one day scrap some '07 events I didn't get to but the likelihood is that I probably won't, so at least they're in regular albums or in photo pocket page protectors in my scrapbooks!

How do you organize your books? They are placed mostly chronological but w/ some flashbacks & present day stuff sprinkled in. They're labeled accordingly to note this. Some of the early books are one year per book. Later books have events from a year or 2.

For chronological scrappers how do you stay motivated to work within a single year until done? I only do summary LOs for only certain events & put the rest in photo page protectors (examples linked here) if I think I might scrap 'em someday, or in my regular photo albums. I know I cannot scrap them all but at least the memory is preserved some way!

That's what works for me anyway!

Also, I'm not familiar w/ the albums you're talking about but I use 3-ring or D-ring scrapbooks. So LOs can be moved around to chron order, or whatever order you'd like, with ease.

Hope that helps!

I used to scrap by year, but have some projects I'm working on. I did a scrapbook for my boyfriend for our 5 yr anniversary (so 5 years in one book!) and am now working on my Quebec and Israel books. I've decided to focus on vacations for a while

Thanks so much for the wealth of ideas and the suggestion of using the sleeves to "hold" photos until I'm ready to scrap them... I think this would take the pressure off of thinking I have to catch up, because I could scrap as much or as little as I want and still have albums of photos for those things that aren't scrapped. I went through a period of feeling all photo albums are evil and took all my pictures out of albums that weren't acid free, but I think maybe your solution would keep me from feeling like I have to "hurry" and do all the old stuff because we can't look at it right now its in photo boxes... And the photos would be "safe" in the sleeves because they are acid free. We were early adopters of digital, so I don't worry too much about the new stuff, but I have old heritage photos with no negatives that I care a lot about, and will eventually scan and reprint to display...


I really appreciate the time and effort in your reply! Your insights have helped me alot.

I switched to the CM side loading sleeves so I can scrap whatever I want whenever I want and still use my CM albums.

I have a friend who does that too. Just wasn't sure if I would like that in a CM album... I guess I need to look at one of hers...

I think those 4x6 page protectors are a great idea! Sometimes I don't really need to scrap every photo but I want them together with my layouts of the same event. I could just mix the 4x6 pocket page protectors with my normal layouts. Awesome idea!

Oh that's a great idea!

First what order do you scrap in?
- Chronological all the time. I use cloth-hinged pages and scrap directly on the page so it's important for me to stick to the timeline if I want things in order.

How do you organize your books?
- I want my book to be something people can flip through and see the "story" of my life, so I scrap by date. Sometimes I'll scrap in a different order if it makes more logical sense (for example - putting all my wedding related events back to back even if other events happened in between)

For chronological scrappers how do you stay motivated to work within a single year until done?
- I work year by year and hope that one year I'll be all caught up to current I'm really kicking butt, I used to be stuck in 2004 but over the last few months I have caught up to 2007! I hope to be caught up through 2010 by the end of 2010 and then it will be simply a matter of scrapping events AS they happen.

I spend A LOT of time pre-organizing each year so I have a solid list of what order I will scrap the events. So when I got to 2007, I made a list of all the occasions in 2007 (it was a busy year!!). For 2007 I had to make a spreadsheet b/c there were just so many events! Then on the spreadsheet I move things around until I'm satisfied with the order. I try to plan if I want 2 page layouts for a certain event b/c I have to make sure the other events end in the right place

Ok so that sounds difficult, and it is time consuming! However once I have my organization done, then it is just a matter of going down the list to scrap each page and I don't think about the future pages at all. Sometimes I'll make minor changes to the order, but generally I stick to my plan! Other times I'll get to an event and decide not to scrap it and just put the photos in my album. Having a plan will help you stay motivated b/c it may help you stop thinking about future pages.

When I'm done with a page, the pics that didn't make the cut from that event go into a photo album (which are also in order by date).

Sorry for the long response BTW - I'm in IT, so that's probably why I like things VERY organized :-D

Several questions --

First what order do you scrap in?

i try to scrap chronologically but when i get tired of scrapping past years i have no problem scrapping something current. i am currently scrapping 2004.

How do you organize your books?

each of my four children have their own set of books. and i am arranging them in chronological order.

For chronological scrappers how do you stay motivated to work within a single year until done?

i print all of the pictures for a certain year at the same time. that way they are usually the only pics i have printed up. that way if i want to scrap something from another year, i need to get on the pc and print it out. sometimes i really wanna scrap the event and it is worth taking that time, but usually i want to scrap what i already have printed and organized.

I started scrapping in chronological order and arranging my scrapbooks the same way, but now I scrap completely out of order and I have been sorting my albums by theme (for example, I am putting all of my Christmas layouts in one album, anything about my nephews in their own albums, Halloween in another, etc.). I think I stopped doing things in chronological order because I started to scrap more subjects and ideas, rather than events, plus I like to just scrap whatever photos I am inspired by and those are usually the most recent photos that I have taken.
This wasn't one of the original questions, but here is my 2 cents about the albums. I really love the D-ring albums from American Crafts (or any D-ring album), because it is easy to rearrange or add layouts as I go. I would always mess up those strap hinge albums when I tried to expand them! I haven't tried the CM albums, but I hear good things about them.

Sometimes I have a picture and it just hits me right away, I know what I want to do with it and can't wait for the people to leave my house and get out of my way! But there are times when I have to scrap albulms, where I have to keep myself more focused. And believe you me, it ain't easy! This is supposed to be fun, right? So, mostly I do the pages that please me. I have lots of pictures gathered that I ought to make pages with, but I am just not motivated to do them, yet. Then I'll be at the store and see a paper or sticker and think, that's it! That's what I need for that page. And sometimes it is just an idea that hits me and I'll go back and do one of those pages. Rambling...I told you focus was and issue! lol

I used to scrap in Chronological order thank god I am free of that now. I just scrap what I feel like and then put it in an album because I stressed too much the other way!

I scrap randomly whatever strikes my fancy. It's not always the photos that inspire a page..sometimes it's a new product, like a new paper line or some neat Prima stuff or Basic Grey.
Every so often I organize chronologically within a set of albums, ie Christmas, daughters' books, heritage (new one), Disney and so on.
Since I move my pages around a lot I use top loading page protectors. Also I often journal on the back at the top and the pages can be pulled out of the protector a few inches to read it. I use post bound albums mostly but lately since I got so into flowers and because my pages are so fat cuz of that, I use D rings too.

I've thought about D rings, because I tend to be a "chunky" scrapper and use thick embellies etc. but I really like my CM albums... so I just add only about 30 pages instead of the 35-40 people with flatter pager can get in there...

Yup, Its suppossed to be fun, otherwise, I wouldn't do it! LOL I have a hard time with strict chronological... I just have to jump around some when I work to keep from being bored or stressed. But, its all good, cause it ends up chronological in the book.