roxanne's scrapbooking history

i made a goal to complete an album for each of my kids to highlight their first year.

i made this goal after i started Aidan's baby album.

perhaps i'm missing some details?

here is the history behind these albums...

i had done a few albums prior - of vacations. these were VERY SIMPLE albums. it consisted of buying a coiled plain page album, a sheet or two of stickers/rub-ons and maybe a special punch or new decorative edged scissors. most of my time went into deciding the order of the photos i was going to use. (over 10 years ago since i made that first album)

my local scrapbook stores always had neat layouts and mini projects displayed. and i was definitely an admirer. i had looked up 2peas on occasion. i spent time making special cards and a lot of thought was put into the annual Christmas card.

then i became a mother.

i was at the nearest scrapbook store (now my second home) and i think i was there looking for something neat to buy at their sale. not sure now. i was admiring their magazine/book shelf and debating to put my money down on a book by Becky Higgins. for some reason i got thinking about doing a baby album and wanted ideas because the first year is a long time and we already had a million photos saved on the computer. i wanted to do something different and thought a 12X12 album with page protectors and posts (so i could add/move pages). this was a totally new project for me and i was still unsure of where and how to begin. i asked one of the girls for her opinion and she pointed out a special magazine issue titled "Baby, Oh Baby!" (by BHG Scrapbooks Etc? i think). with total trust - that is rare when the salesperson isn't someone i know - i bought it.

well, that was the most amazing book. you could say that the rest is history.

i read through that book a hundred and one times. finally using post-it notes an marking my favourites.

then i started to scrap-lift.

the first page i did was a summary of Aidan's first month "An Inch Every Day". (i'll be posting that one next.) i picked the pages i wanted to copy, found photos that worked and then went shopping to get the stuff on the pages. or tried to get the stuff i saw on the pages. that is when i learned that the scrapbook world moves quickly. the layouts for the magazines are done months before it hits the stands, and by then many companies have new products out and no longer sell the "old" stuff. i was forced to improvise!

i didn't do pages in chronological order. i did them as i wanted to. and then when i was done, i moved them into chronological order! great system. allows me to change my mind, as i have been known to do once in awhile.

after a few pages i had my own ideas and started to put together pages on my own. it was tough at first, but then it became a totally fun process. but some of those layouts from the book were so incredible, i still copied some of them. i'll make notes of which pages were scraplifts.

these two layouts start each of their albums. these were my own creations. no scraplifting here!

if you are just starting out scrapping, know that it is completely okay to scraplift someone else's work. just don't send it in to some contest and not give the original owner credit! that is just not ethical. i posted a layout on 2peas last week, and in a few days someone posted a layout that was pretty much a scraplift of mine. (at first i was shocked....then wowed that someone liked something i did well enough to copy) i wasn't given credit though. perhaps it was just one of those times of "great minds thinking alike" kind of thing? oh well. telling myself that i got scraplifted makes me feel good, so that is the story i'll stick with! lol!!

These pages are from the birth day.

i'll post same theme pages side-by-side when possible.

Aidans' were done in 2005 and Kiara's were done in 2007.

both pages have hidden journalling...one of the photos has a hinge so that you can flip it over and read the stuff i wrote about that special day. sneaky huh?

so getting back to my goal:

i made a goal for all of my kids to make an album for their first year.
i made this goal after i started Aidan's baby album.

i knew before i started that i didn't want Aidan's album to look like i had done it in a weekend. i wanted to record his first year as it happened. i was honest and knew that each page would be different. and i was okay with this! (yeah that is amazing.) i also had seen enough layouts in magazines and websites to know that there are a million things to scrapbook that pertain to babies and children. that knowledge and enough people questioning me whether i could put this much work into the albums of each of my children! i want my scrapbook time to be fun and relaxing. i knew if it became a task, then it would become burdensome and stressful.

so i picked a reasonable goal for me.

the first year album would have two-page layouts for every month of that first year, the pregnancy, the birth day, first halloween, first christmas, first birthday and perhaps a special first if it worked. after the first year albums were completed, i would start another album and do pages to highlight the fun or new or crazy things about them. or i wouldn't and that would be okay too.

so far this goal is working for me. i have even started a family album. and i still have time to make fun little projects for us and also for gifts.

continue to visit as i will add the rest of the pages to their albums! i'd love to hear your comments too.

so glad i asked for help.

so glad i bought that special issue magazine which i blame for this "healthy addiction"!

so glad i gave it a try.

and i mean it....

...with all my heart!