Chronological vs. themed

What do you do? I was thinking chronological for my son's first scrapbook but now I may do themed...
Do you ever do both? Like a few chronological pages and then a theme? I was thinking for things like baths, sleeping, smiling, I could do theme pages. But I want to do chronological also to show him growing up.
I haven't started anything yet because I'm afraid I'll put a bunch of it together and then get a better idea! LOL

My books are chronological because my goals are to "document" the children as they grow and what they do in a year. I see thematic as more something you might give a grandparent.

I do a little of both!

I've done themed in the past. I've done things like vacations, college years, etc - I'll probably start a chronological one eventually that will include my pets, holidays, my nephew, other family, etc.

I do chronological scrapbooks but I can see myself eventually doing themed scrapbooks with vacations and such.

I do chronological.

I saw a X-Mas album once and by the time I was half way through I was soooo sick of looking at X-Mas pics!!

• homesclscrapper Said:

I do chronological for my yearly albums but I also have themed albums for Christmas, pets, weddings, vacations.

maybe do chronological with things like my first smile followed by a page with smiles...as a first scrapbook chronological would probably work best to document all those special events...first smile, step, haircut etc with some journalling on the event

If you're using a bound book with plastic sleeves you can make whatever pages you like and just move them around as you like, when you decide exaclty how you want things

I kind of do both too. I don't have kids so I am scrapbooking my life at the moment. I don't generally go for chronological now. I just kind of make lo's as I feel the desire. However, they do sometimes come out chronolgical. If that makes sense. If I had a child, I would do a lot more chronological. That is simply because I would want to be current in more of my lo's in order to not forget the journaling and such. I am sure I would do some themed though too.

Oh and I saw a comment once that I loved. The scrapper said that she never does all her photos anyway. She knows that she may want to go back and do some later. I agree with this. I love looking back at baby photos of my 7 year old neice for example. I think I would want to leave some to do later with my thoughts then or even with comparisons of then and now kind of stuff.

HTH!

I am trying to do a little of both, I guess. I'm in the process of making a sports-themed album for my oldest son, from the time he was first in sports (age 5) up to now (he's 12). That is 7 years of baseball, wrestling, and football. I'm finding it a bit overwhelming!

• Mommy2Four Said:

I hear you on the overwhelming part. I'm going to start a Memory Book for both of my adult children this year. The though overwhelms me...gotta be organized. I'm going to do them by 'theme'....Birthday party pics; Halloween; Family picnics, etc. I'm going to organize the pics for both at the same time. Oh, overwhelming is right!!! ok, ok calm down....

For babies a great idea is to use a calendar... I used a blank one with my daughter. Hang the calendar someplace handy and whenever your baby hits a milestone, just pencil it in on the date. Then when the month is over you can tear the page out and use it on a scrapbook page. Then you have an easy month by month plan with all your son's important information without having to do double duty with a scrapbook and baby book. Fill in as many pages after each month as needed as for the pics you have.

I do chronological generally (to follow the documentation of our lives which is what I guess most of us aim for in theory) but then I also do extra or mini albums by theme to do a particular event or repeated occasion in more depth.

This may not work for others but it works for me.

I have never scrapped chronologically so my layouts are not chronologically placed. I don't put any pressure on myself. Just keep it totally fun because I enjoy it & it leaves me stress free. I enjoy the variety in my albums.

I do have separate Christmas albums, vacation albums & each of my dd's have separate pre-school albums. Other than that, every thing is free form.

I do both. My girls each have an album for each year but during that year I have themed albums too - such as a Christmas, family, vacation, dedication and sometimes birthday album.

chron here

I've started doing both, but has found that I've become bored w/ chron rather than themed or just outright doing what moves me & the boyz seem to love it better that way...I've noticed they skip over the chron book & goes straight for the other books...They don't seem to be as interested in things that happened when they were younger, but want to see how things progressed for them...I still put other photos when they were younger if I'm doing birthday theme and/or school..

I do chron., but with the extra pics (I get double prints), I put those aside to do themed albums.

I chron even though my boosk are like 4" thick! I have two books for 2005. We did ALOT that year I guess!

I think you can do both - right now I have mostly theme albums (wedding, honeymoon, pets, vacations) but I plan on doing a chronological one to document our relationship from the time we met - using letters and cards,and I do a page for each of our anniversaries, when we have children i plan on doing both

I scrap chronologically. That way when I look at the scrapbook I can see what we did from beginning to the end.

Another chronological scrapper here. I have an album for every year. But I'm also doing some themed albums too. My son graduates from hs in May and I'm working on a sports album and a school album for him. And I'm about to start a Disney album that will have our first trip to Disney World in it.

Chronologically for me. I have friends who do it all and a book for each kid. I am lucky to get mine done once and in order but it would be nice to have one for each child. I figure they can share the books --- I do 2 page layouts so they could even split them up it they wanted to fight later, LOL. Just have fun, later will worry about itself!!!

I have chonological books, but do them in chrono order. I found that I wasn't scrappin if I did strictly that way.

So I scrap in whatever mood I'm in. Sometimes I find paper that fits pictures I have from previous picts, and I do those. Sometimes I find a picture and I have to do them right away.

I do have theme books, like vacations, my daughters school years book and now I'm starting a book of just random layouts, no order just feelings and pictures that have no real place in chron order. I want to book of challenge pages I'm just getting into that and some of those may end up in a BOM (book of me)

This takes the pressure off and I can scrap whatever I want. I don't like pressure and have to's in my hobby, that's why I go to work.

I would do a little of both because I don't always have enough of the right stuff to go ALL chronological (and themes are easier and more fun most of the time) and because ALL theme would be kinda hard to do too because there might not really be a theme to work with from some of the pics. Mix it up, that's what I say. Express yo'self, girl!

• l8nitesb Said:

You said it ALL, girl! I like your style!

Most of my albums are arranged chronologically, but like others I do not necessarily scrap them in chrono order -- I work on what interests and inspires me on any given day. When I get bored or frustrated, I switch to another time period or another event.

I think it's great to do some albums that are just whatever pics you really love or have the most meaning for you. You might want to look at a book like The Big Picture by Stacy Julian. These are not exactly theme albums (like not one full album of xmases) but rather a compilation of important memories. This can also be a great place to start if you are new and facing a mountain of photos.

Scrapbooks do not have to only be about events and a basic life history -- they can be about who we are, what we believe, and what our life is like on a day-to-day basis. I think these make nice additions to albums that document a child's growth and similar (which is also important).

Nicole

I scrap chronologically. But make theme albums for others. Plus if I have a lot of photos for an event I'll scrap those into its own album but they'll be shelved chronologically.

I scrap chronologically, but I have made so many, one for each of my kids that I like them that way but I am doing "An all about me one" so its kinda scattered everywhere, but I like it cause as you flip to the next page, its a mystery!