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Posted By: Brandi - Hair Editor Never scrapbooked before..... - 01/23/13 09:44 PM
I have never scrapbooked before and I have a million pictures sitting in a box. How would you tackle this so that it does not seen overwhelming. I have been wanting to do this for years and years and years. (I probably could add a couple more years in there.) I pull everything out, look at the pictures and then, put it all back. I need to tackle this problem. Any suggestions?
Hi Brandi! I'm so glad that you asked these questions. I have several suggestions below. They don't have to be done in a specific order.

1. My first question is, are the photos sorted in any manner? By year or event? They don't have to be sorted, but if they are, that may help you decide how to start your books. If they are, you can also remove just a year's worth or just an event or two at a time, so it's not so overwhelming.
If there is no order, that's ok! Tackle it in smaller chunks. It isn't something you can finish in a day - a million photos??

2. You will need a few supplies - an album, some scrapbook paper and if you want them, some embellishments. You may want to learn what to do with them before you purchase too many. #3 will help with that.

3. If you have never scrapbooked before, you might want to get with a local consultant or scrapbook store or start with a basic class. They can help guide you. They can encourage you when it seems too overwhelming and they can offer you crop opportunities. They can also help you with supplies!

4. Do you have time to go to a crop (or several)? This is where you would bring your photos and supplies and work on your album(s).

5. If there really are a million photos and you've put it off for years and years, etc. (First, maybe you're scaring yourself just with that kind of talk! LOL) then this will probably be overwhelming - that's natural.

6. Try thinking about it this way... if you do ONE crop a month, ONE day, say you can do 3 layouts per 12 hours... in ONE year, that's 12 days out of 365... 3 layouts x 12 days = 36 layouts... probably TWO full albums! (We sell our albums with 5 page protectors which would be 5 layouts, including a front and last page. If you add 2 more sets of page protectors, which would be 15 layouts.)

In a simple way, this is some shopping, a class and some re-thinking!! I CAN tell you that scrapbooking is fun! It's not just about getting the photos in books. Wouldn’t it be nice to flip through those photos when they are set in albums and not loose and disorganized???

I do cover some of this in the Scrapbook 101 section of my page - that can be some reference/back up information for you, if you have time to look it up. I would look at the articles Emotions of Scrapbooking, Plan Your Scrapbooking or Scrapbooking - Getting Started.
Somehow, I think this might become a future article! LOL
Posted By: Rhonda C Re: Never scrapbooked before..... - 02/17/13 11:40 AM
Kathleen, Great response and very helpful. I have several "current" albums that I am working on but I also have a lot of old photos that need to be scrapbooked. I just work on them when time permits and file them in chronological order later.

I look forward to reading your article on this subject.

Rhonda
Thanks, Rhonda! I actually wrote the article the week after. Here's the link: BellaOnline ALERT: Raw URLs are not allowed in these forums for security reasons. Please use UBB code. If you don't know how to do UBB code just post here for help - we will help out!
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