"Skinny" Scrapbooks?

Hello everyone!

I am new to this web page and forum and I have a question.

I have made a few scrapbooks in the past. But they are so big and heavy and take up so much space. So I tried digital photo books, but it is just not the same. Then I tried to let out my creativity with card making, which is fine, but I really want to scrapbook again.
Do you have solutions for making scrapbooks which are not so very big and heavy? While I love scrapbooking, I do not want to end up with a bookcase as big as my walls just for my scrapbooks. I want them to be nice memories and not a burden for me or my family when I move or die.
So far I worked with different album systems. They all contain a sturdy white page with some sort of fastener for the album. So the basic album with the sturdy pages is already quite heavy and big without photos and embellishments.

Thank you in advance for your tips,
Sylvia :-)

I looked around a bit on the internet and found 12 x 12 3-ring binders which do not look as bulky as the albums I have used so far and way easier to handle. With my old albums it was a real challenge to get the pages into the album due to the complicated fastening mechanism. With one album the mechanism is so unstable that I have to be very careful when picking it up or it will fall apart. But it seems that those kind of albums are not sold anymore. Something must have changed in the last 10 years :-)

Do you use 3-ring binders? Are you satisfied with them?

Thank you,
Sylvia :-)

Hi Sylvia, and welcome. I am sure you will love it here.
I use 3 ring binders and I love them. They are so easy to use.
If I think of "skinny albums" what comes to mind is post bound albums....you can add extra to them, but they start out skinny.
The superstore here sells them if you want to check them out.

I do not really care for the 3 ring binders; they are bulky and awkward. However, they are easy to load, I will say that. Creative Memories is selling their strap hinge albums again. I have used them since 2003 and they are really beautiful.. Harder to load, but I still love them.

Thank you for your answers. I had to look up "post bound album" and found a YouTube video. Now I know that I have post bound and strap hinge albums. The strap hinge album is the one that I like the least. Maybe I overloaded it, though. And I agree that they look nicer than a D-ring or 3-ring binder.

The post bound album is okay. However, it is bulky (due to the double flap to hide the posts) and heavy and the spine looks kind of awkward. But you were right that they started out skinny :-)

Since I already have an ensemble of different scrapbooks, I might as well add another type (3- or D-ring) and then see which one I like best in the end.

Thank you for all your suggestions :-)

Hi and welcome! I'm another one that prefers 3 ring binders. Mainly because they seem to hold up much better for me. I'm the opposite... I like thicker albums to keep entire events together, and I've actually had a few post-bound ones fall apart on me at the post because they were too heavy. The 3 rings are also much easier to work with and load and move pages around.

One thing I've noticed is that some page protectors are heavier weight and some are much thinner. My one album that has all the thin ones is MUCH skinnier than the album where I'm using all the thicker ones... It's amazing how much of a difference that makes.

I've do about 95% digital scrapbooking now. I use post for my paper and trimmer.

This is not the same as digital photo books.

I scanned my old scrapbook pages and turned them into digital scrapbooks first. That seems to be the medium that I love the most now - the books are skinny and look great on the shelf.

I loved the old pages scanned in so much that it was a natural step for me to start digital scrapping. We travel a lot so I can keep up while we travel - and I bought a great portable scanner (600 dpi) so I can add ticket stubs, brochures, maps and memorabilia.

I see all the flowers and embellishments that are 3D and think right off that it wont fit in a scrapbook or on a card. I wish there was a way to embellish your pages and cards and still be able to put them in a book or envelope.

All my albums are strap hinge. I couldn't get on with post-bound, and the D-ring were too big for my bookcase.

How many pages do you try to fit into your albums? The biggest album I ever did was 50 pages, all fairly flat. That was right on the limit of size, I think.

My other albums haven't gone beyond 30-40 pages, but they have bulkier embellishments. I'm waiting for the really bulky items to go out of fashion a bit, because I keep getting given stuff that people don't want because they're too big, and they're too big for me too.

Thank you all for welcoming me and answering my questions.

Vae: "some page protectors are heavier weight and some are much thinner. My one album that has all the thin ones is MUCH skinnier than the album where I'm using all the thicker ones"
That is really interesting. I will keep that in mind!

Henri Jean: I have heard of digital scrapbooking before. Actually I did something like that years and years ago (just 8x11). But it became too expensive and I was not really happy with the results. But I guess that the software and printers have changed in the past few years and maybe I should research it again. My husband does a yearly photo book. And that is fine to keep our relatives in Germany informed about our lives here, but I would like more possibilities for our personal scrapbooks. From what I have seen so far, digital scrapbooking offers more. I am just confused about how to get started. Again, I should research that more. Maybe I would like to do "everyday" memories digital and special events the old fashioned way. How do you store your printed pages?

southgirl: I hear you. I do not use those big 3D embellishments either for the same reason. I can imagine though, that one can use them for other crafts than scrapbooking or cardmaking.

RedSquirrel UK: Hm, I never thought to measure my shelves first to make sure the albums would fit. What a great tip. I also counted the pages in my strap hinge albums and I would have never believed it, but I have 52 and 57 pages in there ... Maybe that is a bit much, even if the hinges are long enough and the spine still covers everything nicely.

I think you might be right. I think of scrapbook albums in the same way as coffee table books. If an album is too heavy and unwieldy to sit comfortably on a guest's lap, or to be held in one arm while the other hand turns a page, it's time to split it. Just my two-penny-worth.

I discovered a simple program called My Memories - I downloaded it from their site for about $39 but a friend just ordered it on Amazon for $25 and received a disk for the program.

I use it for travel pages because that is most of what I do. For home and the granddaughters and every day layouts, I use trimmer and paper.

I put them in the custom photo books from Shutterfly and have them printed. They all have the locations of where we were on the spines and a book number and look great on the bookshelf.

I go to custom photo books - not scrapbooks. Scrapbook are already formatted and has templates to throw you photos into. The photo books has a custom selection and from there you can get blank pages - each 12 x 12 and you can put an entire layout there.

I make my scrapbook pages either with paper and trimmer and scan them in or I make them digitally using My Memories and then download complete pages to Shutterfly.

If you go to my gallery, I have the first 15 pages of the last trip loaded there already. I can get as fancy as I want to get. For travel layouts, I keep it simple.

I bought a scanner and put in ticket stubs and all kinds of things. I even scan local currency wherever we are and add it to my pages.

I do a lot of journaling for my books because I tell the story of everything that happened getting ready for the trip and on the trip but most people don't do a lot of journaling. I like it.

When we go to a zoo or anywhere that there is a site map - like the one we got at Universal Studios in Singapore in February or March, I scan it and use it on my layouts. I did that with a free-range zoo in Melbourne a few months ago too.

I use those in paper and trimmer and now do the same thing in the digital.

If you want to pm me your email address I'll email you one of my Shutterfly books and you can see what I'm talking about. It is nothing like a photo book that you just add pictures to.

I think that is a very good advice. I have to put down my albums on a table. Unfortunately I can not split the two heavy ones I already have, since they are chronologically ordered and I added a "to be continued" and "the story goes on" page. However, I will be careful to not overload future albums.

I don't have an answer but have to agree with you. I scrap booked for several years and then quit. Part of the reason I quit was I just didn't find it a very convient way to store my memories. And I didnt start till my youngest was 10 so I don't have tons of scrapbooks like some do. I started again a few years ago because frankly I love the process . I am doing a sb for my daughters two trips to Disney and now I remember part of the problem. I have one 3 ring binder already crammed full and I'm only 1/4 of the way through the pictures, and I'm not sbing all of the pics. I'm doing a combo regular sb and project life. Still by the time I'm through I'll probably have 3 sbs for one trip which seems crazy. I don't know the answer. I just love doing it and comfort myself by saying I don't expect anyone to keep these albums when I'm gone if they are too much a burden.

I don't have a solution for you. I think we all just go with what we think will work for us. I started out with the strap hinge and ended up changing them to 3 D rings. I love them. Mine are all 50 pages or so and they can get bulky. I ended up buying two ladder shelves and the books fit beautifully on those shelves.

Hi Sylvia... I use the 3D ring albums and like them. I just did a quick looksee and most of my albums have 25 page protectors in them so that's 50 layouts. Ways I've heard of to keep them from being too bulky are:

1. don't put more than 20-30 page protectors in one (I only put 20 pages in my granddaughter's album so she can move them around).
2. don't use bulky embellishments
3. consider using a double sided piece of cardstock as your base for a layout and then turn it over and use the back for another layout.
4. do digi layouts

You can always scrap 8x8 size to cut down on the overall size of albums.

Thank you again for all your thoughts and suggestions.

After thinking it over for some time I decided to keep on scrapbooking the old fashioned way, because I just love it so much. Like rnruns said I will not expect my son to keep them if he does not want to. I will do them for myself. I am happy though to have learned from Henri Jean that my old fashioned scrapbook-pages could be scanned and printed into a "skinny" book if I or somebody else decided to do that. It is a comfort to have this possibility.
My son still also has my husband's photo books, which are also filled with all the best photos and journaling. Maybe those even appeal more to a my son than my approach with all the decorating and embellishments :-) The main thing is that my son will have those memories available. It does not really matter if it is my way or my husband's way.
I will use less pages in one scrapbook even though more would fit. I already did all my scrapbooks using one cardboard on both sides. I did it out of frugality, but Sunnydi made me aware that it also helps to keep the scrapbooks lighter. With my strap hinge albums, I kept the background white and I still like this simple approach.

Well, thank you again and happy scrapbooking to all of us, whichever way we do it :-)

Sounds like you found the solution that will work perfectly for you! Now you can have fun scrapbooking!

Enjoy!

I know some people who like to scrapbook the 8.5x11 size because they are so much easier to hold. And to be honest, I think the fomat is more visually appealling, but all the good supplies are 12 x 12. Hope you find a way to keep having fun!