Catching Up on Scrapbooking: Seattle...2005!

Boy, I'm really doing some time travel these days! Now we're venturing back to the year 2005 when we took a wonderful vacation to Seattle and the Vancouver area. I loved it so much that I never wanted to come home, so obviously these pictures need to be scrapbooked so that I can enjoy them!

But when I took a look at the photos from this trip, I noticed a few problems. First, they were already printed -- but as 3.5x5. For pocket scrapbooking, it's much better to use 4x6 photos since that's the size of most pockets. But it's not worth the cost of reprinting them all in the larger size so I'll just have to deal with that. (Long story short: They'll have to be matted on 4x6 cardstock before slipping into the pockets. This increases the bulk of the album and takes quite a bit more time!)

But the worst problem was that the 261 photos in the box were not in any order whatsoever. It was like they'd been dumped out and put back in random order!

 I had a list of the places we visited each day, but much of the scenery is so similar that it was hard to be sure which pictures were from which day. I enlisted Spouse's help but between the two of us, we had tons of photos we just couldn't place.

Then I remembered that most of the photos were from one of our first digital cameras and I still have them on the computer. So I sorted them in date order, and from there everything made sense! I just had to put the printed photos into the same order as the digital files, which was a bit of a tedious task but still very doable!

 When I sorted through my memorabilia, I was thrilled to find that Bailey had made a list of all the things we did each day. You can tell that this child is the daughter of a memory keeper! 😁 From a very young age, she made these lists for all of our trips. If not for her notes, this project would have been in very bad shape!

And get this: I found a picture of Bailey making the actual list that I still have...sort of a scrapbooker's dream!💕 So Bailey, if you're reading this...thank you!

Once the photos were sorted, I put them in labeled piles in the same order as The List. With the photos in the right order, I can visualize how the album will flow -- which should be in the same order as our trip!

 Next, I sorted through and grouped the memorabilia in the same order. There's not a ton but it will be good to add a few pieces here and there. Memorabilia helps jog my memory, which is helpful after -- quickly does math -- almost 14 years!

 

Next I put the piles of photos in a small basket with labeled tabs. I set up an album with assorted sleeves and pocket pages. I put a piece of 12x12 kraft cardstock in the full sleeves to represent pages where I'll make a traditional page. I positioned myself comfortably on the bed one evening for this part of the operation!

 I brought along my trusty helper but as you can see, she didn't last long!

 If you use pocket pages, you know that it can be tricky to figure out which configuration to use and how to fit all of your photos in them. There's really no easy answer...I usually start with a single "section" of an album and group the photos by horizontal/vertical orientation to see how many of each I have. If I have mostly horizontal photos, like in the image below, I'll use a horizontal pocket page. Then I'll put the remaining photos on a traditional page.

I continued like this through several sections and will keep on going until all the photos have a temporary "home". Of course, I'll end up moving things around some but this process helps me figure out how many pages the album will need and how it will be organized.

It was at this point that I realized I have only purchased two sheets (TWO!) of paper for this album. That will probably not be sufficient! But with the photos loosely in the album, I can now easily check my stash to see what I have on hand that will match. If I don't have enough, I'll take the album to Memory Bound and can easily find matching papers and cardstock. I think I can find an assortment of nature colors that will work for the whole album to hopefully give it a more cohesive feel.

I'm pretty excited to work on this album! Truly, the scenery in this neck of the woods is some of the prettiest anywhere and the photos we took on this trip remain some of my favorites.

Hurricane Ridge, Washington (based on my hair, you can see that it's appropriately named!)

Beautiful Butchart Gardens, Victoria, Vancouver

 

Pike Place Market, Seattle -- probably my favorite sign ever!

 

I'll report back on my progress with this project!  Again, if you're behind in your scrapbooking, know that you're not alone and it IS very possible to catch up! You just need to set aside time to get started and figure out a plan. Once you get going, you'll want to KEEP going!

Thanks for following along!

jp