Should I scan or re-create a digi album?

I did a baby book for my youngest about 2 years ago digitally. It was my first foray into the digital realm and it was quite fun. I have no idea why I did not stick with it then, but I didn't. In the meantime, I got a new computer and the actual digital file is gone. I sat on this book for a long time wondering what I should do with it. What I ended up doing was always an option, but it is the most annoying of the options. Once I chose it, I decided it did not matter if it took a little longer, I would just go with the flow.

Here is what I decided to do: I scanned the book pages themselves AND I am recreating the album digitally. Since they are 8" square, it is not a HUGE PITA. If they were 12" square, I would NOT be doing this. Yes, it is a pain, but it is nice that it is done and I will always have it digitally. The biggest problem I have run into so far is that I think a few of the templates for that storybook design have changed a little. In general, they look the same, but some have a different number of pictures (albeit small) and that makes it difficult to recreate, ya know?

I have both the scanned jpg files AND the storybook in digital format now. It took a little more work, but I am glad I did it because now I have it!

Tribute page

I want to create a tribute page. My grandfather died a few days ago. I realized I do not have any pictures of him alone or him with me or him with my kids. I am quite sad.

All these supplies!!

I have been wondering for quite some time now what I am going to do with all these supplies I have left because I do NOT want to use them for actual SB pages.

I have decided that I am going to use them to make cards. I love making cards and this might be a good excuse to both make cards and use those supplies. A few years ago I was so serious about making cards that I made up a bunch of sets, bought envelopes and even boxes for them in bulk, had a stamp made of my logo so I could put the logo on the back. I think a set of 8 makes a great gift and they had to be something I could make at least 8 of with the supplies I had. I am not sure I will be able to make 8 the same of anything, but since I had a bunch made up (and never did sell them locally or online) they were great gifts and it was nice to have cards already made up to give to people on their birthdays and stuff.

I also think I want to figure out how to use my digi skills and supplies to make digi cards as well. There are not enough hours in the day!!

Now my biggest problem is taking time away from regular scrapping to make cards...

Unibind Photobook Creator?

I have a new passion.The Unibind Photobook Creator. I want one. I am thinking of asking DH to find it for me for my birthday (in April). Does anyone have it and love it or hate it? I can think of a dozen things I want to do with it right now.

Looking back....

As part of the ole scanning project (the last part, thankfully!) I have been scanning all my old 12 inch albums that go back to 1992. I have a lot of pictures of our wedding and the two older kids when they were quite young.

The older two kids are not at the "tween" age where they are , let's say, challenging A LOT of the time. I keep thinking two things as I look through all these old albums. First of all, I think "Thank goodness I did this back then because I might not say they were cute then quite as much! I will not likely be redo-ing these pages." My second thought is "Thank goodness I do not have to re-do these pages!"

I have noticed, as I look at these older pages that I made a lot of decisions about these I may not make today. I cropped too many pictures round. I used too many stickers. Some of my vacation albums are a little embarrassing today. But I also see that I did a few very cool things back then. Not every page is a work of art and most are not totally great, but many of them have an element or two that is great that I will likely be copying in digital format even now.

If you have not gone through your older albums lately, DO IT! If nothing else, it will show you how far you may have come. Best case scenario, you may find a thing or two that your want to copy even now!!

The search for the perfect embellishment is like an amazing scavenger hunt

I know I will get to a point where I need new stuff to keep my layouts fresh and all, but so far, I have been able to find A LOT of stuff on the internet for free. Before I found all this stuff, I had purchased two embellishment packages from Creative Memories and now I am kicking myself! I am sure I will use the pieces and all, but my cheap side is coming out and I am really enjoying finding all the freebies on the internet!

It does take a lot of time to find stuff and then organize it and everything. BUT if you know what you want and only want to get a few things, I think it is kind of fun to go searching for it and almost like a sick sort of scavenger hunt...

Layout Machine

How many layouts have I gotten done already THIS YEAR? A lot! Let me count them up...
I have FINISHED over 50 layouts and DONE 5 gift albums (12 other albums are in process). All this in 2 months! This process makes me love it and quite honestly, I am a LAYOUT MACHINE!

I was even a pretty fast traditional scrapper and was never a huge user of all the little extras, but this is even faster AND I can use a lot more little extras without it taking any more time!

Just within my "individual pages" album, I have finished 32 pages and have placeholders for 30 more. When you add the layouts in all the other books I have gotten done, I can really crank these out! I was pretty fast before (with traditional scrapbooking) but this is even better! I can change embellishments and even paper and colors with a click of a mouse. And if I want to delete something, it's just another click.

Once I found out I could do my own thing with then software and not be locked in to their templates, I have really let the creative juices flow and am just going nuts!