scrapbooking for two kids question?

I'm currently expecting our second child; another beautiful princess this spring. And up until now all of my scrapbooks have been family albums with the focus on our only child. We knew we wanted to have more eventually, but now that the time has come, I'm trying to figure out what to do scrap wise!

So my question is how do most of you organize family/kids albums? This might give me an idea on how I should continue organizing albums/pages?

Should I separate their school/extracurricular events into two albums (one for each) and keep one for family events?

Keep it all together and let them hash it out in the will? LOL


Or just keep the albums about them and have separate ones for travel, etc?

I don't want to overwhelm myself with album making, but do want them to have things all their own that can be cherished when they get older.

I did create a "first year" album for my oldest and plan to do the same for our new baby, so they'll each have that, but moving forward I'm trying to figure out an easy way.

I appreciate any feedback from those of you with multiple kids, grandkids, etc?

I am interested in seeing what others say. I will be in the same boat. We have a little girl and are trying for the second child. I was wondering the same thing.
I went overboard on the first kid. MANY MANY pictures in MANY MANY albums. I know I won't be able to do that with multiple children.

I made an album for each of my kids. I have 2. I am/did making a school album for each of them, too. My daughter got into scrapbooking, so she did some of her own albums, when she was in high school. I have sports ones done or to do for them, too.

I started scrapbooking when my oldest son was 3 months old so every LO I made was for him and for his albums (the exception being Christmas--that has always been it's own album). When my second son was born I continued doing the same--each boy had his own set of albums...which worked, but I got tired of pretty much doing duplicate LOs (especially around non-Christmas holidays). All of the journalling I do in their LOs is written to them ("You had fun...you...")

Around the time my oldest was in kindergarten or 1st grade I started a family album, starting with the January photos, but still continued with the boys' albums. If I scrapped a family event or something involving both boys then that LO went in the family album. If the event/photo focused more on one son, then the LO would go in his album. I would still include a 1 or 2 page LO in the boys' books about holidays, but the main bulk of the holiday LOs went in the family album (I have divorced parents so we typically have 3 family gatherings for most holidays). Same with a trip--I would usually end up with a mini-album/separate album for the trip, but the boys would each get a 2-page LO in their albums about it. Unless there was a great picture to commemorate the holiday/event, I just used the leftover pictures for their album LOs.

This has worked fairly well for me--especially when scrapping summer events because it's almost always both boys anyway. I've been able to "slow" down on how many albums they have (had been 2 fat postbound albums per child per year). I usually have 2-3 family albums per year and now get 1-2 years in their albums now.

And quite honestly...I tend to break or forget my rules some times! One year a music concert might go in the family album, but the next year it will be in the child's album. Recently I scrapped the ton of pictures I took of my brother & his family's short afternoon visit...I ended up with a LO for each of the boys' albums (oldest held the new baby awhile, the youngest's stuffed animals were taken over by their cousin...) and several LOs for the family album because they played outside, had a new baby with them, and opened presents for an upcoming birthday, and I had too many cute photos to condense all of that into a 2 page LO!!!

And I don't worry about who will get what when I die...because I won't care! My biggest worry is how I will store my ever expanding supply of completed albums...but since I enjoy making them I don't worry too hard...

First congratulations on the new addition.
The first child you always have a ton of pictures, its just the nature of being a new parent.

Anyway to get your question, I have three boys and each has their own album. When the camera is out I always take pictures what each child is doing since they each have a different perspective on what is happening around them. Whether it be an event or everyday. There are times I take a posed picture or group shot and I will scrap it similar for each book but the journaling is personalized for each son.

You can see a few of those in my gallery.

A couple of things shaped my perspective, one my mom did one for each of us (Mine was significantly thinner than the oldest, I was the last child. LOL) . The other reason, I remember watching my Father and My uncle tear apart beautiful vintage albums with my grandmother's handwritten notes to take their pictures. I had to leave the room, I couldn't watch them do it. I was a teenager and decided right then if I ever have kids they will each get an album.

the last thought I will share is as your kids get older the pictures will be less and less. I think in the last two years I can fit almost two years into one album for my 13 year old. That is saying a lot for me as I am a huge shutterbug.
My point is while its a lot of work while they are young it does start to slow down as they get older. Frankly I am behind and enjoying the pictures I have of them so small.

Just don't knock yourself out trying to keep up.

Congratulations on expecting your second little bundle of joy! I have two boys who are teens now. They each have their own sets of albums-school, sports, holidays, family events, fun times, etc. When we go on big trips I create an album of that vacation for each of them. I really like knowing that they each have their own special memories captured in albums. I have not found it too difficult to keep up with their albums. The only draw back is that I love to take pictures so they each have a whole LOTTA albums. Their future wives are going to love that-LOL! Whatever memories you capture through pictures will definitely be enjoyed by your little princesses!

I do two of every book. The layouts are a bit more focused for the specific kiddo though. I have two boys and just felt like they should each have their own.

I just continued to scrap 'general' albums. I didn't start scrapping until my girls were about 7 and 9 years old (They're 21 and 23 now) so I knew I'd never catch up let alone overwhelm myself with having to do individual albums. They'll have to fight it out when the time comes

My advice - be realistic with what you think you'll be able/want to do in years to come.

I have 2 boys and they each have their own album. As they get older,it's a few school things, their birthday, a few holidays, and a lot of sports. I also make a separate vacation albums. I don't worry so much about maintaining albums,I just make pages and every so often I sort them and put them into the right album. When an album gets too full, I call it done and buy a new one. Each kid really doesn't want anything about the others sports, so it works out well. As the kids get older, albums cover more years.
I think I have a family album too,it gets only a few pages a year, and that's just because sometimes I want to make a page that doesn't really go with with kid or a vacation, I'm not terribly organized about th family album.

I only have one child, but I have thought about this subject in case we ever decide to have another. So far I have separated albums by:
1. DD's 1'st year, 2'nd year and ect.
2. All Christmases
3. All Halloweens
4. All Disney
5. General (to include family gathering, picks of my neices and nephews, random life, Me & DH, and ect.)
6. Vacations? (currently those are in the "general albums" because we have not really had many vaccations, but I am considering grouping trips together, so we can look back at all of our trips as one part of our life.)
7. Thanksgiving? I have many thanksgiving LO's but I am not really sure if I want to dedicate them to their own album)

If we ever have another child I would make sure to have their own first year album as well as albums just for them over the years. I think the story of the picture should define whether it goes into their personal album of the general family album.

I have two boys (oldest is almost 16 and youngest is 12) and I have been scrapbooking for 16 years and have a lot of layouts.

I use American Crafts binder albums.
All of Nathan's layouts are stored in blue albums chronologically.
All of Andrew's layouts are stored in red albums.
And family layout (this includes vacations and pictures of all of us together not specific to one kid) are stored in black albums.

I also have scrapped a lot of my childhood photos and layouts about me. I store those in pink albums.

Hope this helps.

I have four kiddos...17, 14, 12 and 6. I started scrapbooking when our oldest was in Kindergartan. Being the OCD person that I am, I wanted each child to have his/her own albums rather than them feel the need to "split" them at some point down the road. Each child has a school album, a birthday album, a sports album and a "Just Because..." album. Sadly, I have gotten a tad behind (only a few years though). I hope to get back on track soon though!!!

I have two boys and was struggling with the same thing. I was scrapbooking before but really got heavy into it only a couple years back. DS1 has his first and second year photo albums (still lots of cutesy photos in the 2nd year), then a scrapbook for him - his shots, portraits, his sports, school events, birthdays, etc. DS2 has pretty much the same - first year photo album plus a smallish scrapbook for 1st year, then scrapbook for 2nd year and on. I love looking through the individual books, it highlights how each kid has grown and changed.

General family albums go by year, and include their pages as brothers, all family events and trips (excluding birthdays), and vacation albums are separate. Sometimes a mini album here and there.

I don't think they will fight for the albums. By the time I'm old and ready to pass the albums on, the technology will be way ahead of what we can even dream. Even now we can scan the pages and print them in large photobooks - and should they wish to have some pages duplicated, this is what they would do. I teach them right now to respect my scrappy work as not just my hobby but my art, my creation, and be careful with the pages. Teach them while they are young LOL)))

• Michelle StClair Said:

I love that you color code the albums! I don't know why I didn't think of that. Thanks!

Thanks for all the input. This has been so helpful and it's great to hear what everyone does to help organize photos.
I'm for sure going to make our second baby her first year album and from there I'll keep their school/extracurricular life separate and family stuff together including vacations. At the end they'll have some for themselves and can hash out the family albums when we're gone!

I just hope one of them picks up this hobby to do together