Catching Up on Scrapbooking: Ready for 2013!

Well, it's been a long time since I've reported on my scrapbooking progress. I'm happy to report that 2012 is done and in the books...or scrapbooks, I should say!

The year 2012 brought with it a number of events I'd dreaded scrapbooking. My dad passed away unexpectedly in May 2013, so 2012 marked the last holidays and the last Iowa State Fair we'd spend with him. *SIGH* Working on these pages has been a bit of a long, slow slog. These photos are still really hard to handle, so I'm glad to have the pages done.

I hadn't printed many pictures for the year, so I've been batching and uploading a few months at a time to Walgreens. The quality has been good and I've been able to find coupons which make the price very reasonable. Walgreens is just up the street from our house and generally the prints are available in an hour or so which is great.

Of all the 2012 photos I had to work with, the fair pictures were the hardest. I started by sorting them into logical groupings. I wanted to fit as many as possible into pockets but reserve my favorites for traditional pages.

 As always, I relied heavily on pocket pages to help move the process along. If you're not using pocket pages in your scrapbooking, you definitely should! You can include many more photos than you'd otherwise be able to fit onto a traditional scrapbook page.
 
I store my pocket pages (and assorted full-size sleeves) in an extra 12x12 binder which, of course, will eventually be used for completed pages. The idea here is to use up all of these sleeves!

 Admittedly, using pocket pages can be a bit like fitting together a puzzle. After I sort my pictures into logical categories, I do a rough count of the number of horizontal and vertical prints. My method is pretty simple: If I have more horizontal pictures, I'll use a horizontal pocket page and the remainder of my photos will go on a traditional page next to it. The challenge generally comes on the BACK side of the pocket page, when you need to figure out which pictures to fit into the same pocket configuration. But if you're flexible, you can always make it work.

There are a few page designs that have both horizontal and vertical slots. This is very handy! Here I cut a few down to 3x4 which allowed me to fit 2 horizontal pictures into a vertical pocket. 

In this case, I used the extra space for a journaling block.

On this page, I cut 2 ice cream cone pictures into a vertical format and fit them into a horizontal slot. This breaks up the "blockiness" of the page and allows you to squeeze in an additional picture. And that's important when you're scrapbooking!

Before printing the 4x6 photos, I also set aside some to make collages (seriously, how many pages of sheep pictures does one need?). You can print collages through Walgreens or any other developer but I print mine at home. By adding text directly to the collage, I don't even have to worry about journaling. It can slip directly into a sleeve.

 During one of my recent visits to Memory Bound, I bought a layered die cut to use for the first page of this fair section. But I was in a hurry (pandemic, you know!) and didn't think to buy any coordinating or themed fair papers. So when I started working on these photos, I realized I was in a bit of a pickle. I found a 6x12 piece of striped paper that I liked and decided I'd make it work for this section by stretching it as far as possible. Luckily I found solid-color cardstock in my stash to coordinate with it!

 I'm generally ok with just a little bit of patterned paper, so this method worked just fine for me.

I cut narrow strips to use here and there and filled in with cardstock to make it all look (hopefully!) like I'd planned it that way. HA! 

This was the last year we camped at the fair -- and the last year that Bailey attended due to her college and summer schedule. So I wanted to put a little more emphasis on what camping has meant to me over my lifetime.

I printed a couple of photos (they're actually slides!) of me camping as a little girl and added them to this section.

 To speed up the journaling, I create text blocks for several pages at once in a Word document. I use the same fonts throughout the section to visually tie the pages together. Once I have enough done to fill a page, I print them out, cut them, and add them to the pages.

  
After working on the fair pictures, I was motivated to keep going and finished all of 2012, including the last Thanksgiving and Christmas we had with my dad.

  So even though these photos were bittersweet to scrapbook, I'm really glad I worked through them. Now they're safely tucked into an album for us to look back on and enjoy in years to come. 

Now on to 2013! Will I ever catch up to the present day? 
Yes, I really believe that I will!

jp