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Photobooks & Pocket Scrapbooking

Okay, let's, talk about photo book, this is another one you often see photo, space books or photo books. Um, I just called him photo books. So anyway, I have a couple examples of these here. Most of you have seen photo books before, but they're distinct from photo albums, so basically they're just hard or soft bound books that you can get printed on any typically any photos site like shutterfly or york photo and there's a lot of them in austin times, even on shutterfly. After you get photos developed, they'll email you later and say, we created a photo book with your photos. Would you like to order it? And it makes it really simple, so they're just again books that come in a variety of different sizes with your photos in them and oh, my gosh, there's a picture of cali in the bathtub. I'll find the big win in here. I had told you that story about my child sleeping in the bathtub. Um and of course, now I have to share it. I can find it. There she is. Cali in the bathtub with their little...

red face, I guess story within the son that day anyway. There's lots of reasons that photo books can be really, really, uh even to add to your scrapbooking, they're easy to dio as I mentioned shutterfly emails me each time I upload photos and they've already taken my photos and put them in order in a photo book, and all I have to do is either go in and add text, rearrange or eliminate some photos. If I want tio and it's ready to go, I just printed out and they get sent to me other sites you can, I'm sure they'll do the same thing. You select what forties you want, no import them in, so it is really easy to do it's also easy to share the same time I'm boarding one for me, I could be ordering one for my dad or my sister, someone else who took part in the event they're pre designed oftentimes there's, lots of pre designed options where they're templates where you just drag and drop your photos into them. And this was one example of a pre designed format where all I had to do was choose which photos I want to go where and I could swap them out, move them around, but it was really, really simple to d'oh because the design would they were already sized and all I had to do is drop them in and enlarge or or make them smaller and expand and put them in the order I wanted to, so it made it really easy. Also, they're great when you have lots of photos from something. So the two books I have here one is a trip to williamsburg, a vacation where we did have tons of photos and I knew I didn't want to scrap book each and every photo. So instead, what I did is created a little album with the photos from the event from the time we left through through the end. And you can see how many photos air getting on each page spread right here. Five photos. This one has five just really, really simple to add tons and tons of photos without having tio to crop or worry about the design because it was all pre designed in the dragon drop manner. I think photo books are great when you have a special, specific event like you're prepping for a wedding or prom or, like this specific event, a season of little league sports. Season where you know you want to keep the photos you want to show off those photos, you might even want to share those photos, but you don't want to scrap book each and everyone, especially sports photos. I think it can get really tedious because they're typically wearing the same thing because they wear a uniform there in the same background because they're usually on a green field, they're doing the same thing and it's like, how many times can you say ben caught a good game? So instead you create an album because those photos are important to him and he probably remembers every pitch of every time he was up to that I don't, but it was important to him, and if I put it in a photo book like this, he can have that I feel like I've done honor to his story and I don't have to sit there and scrapbook each and everyone because the baseball photos really get really get hard basketball, I think is even worse because it's hard to get good photos in that low light, but anyway, I think they're really great for things like that, and they're great front coaches, gifts, things like that to where you might not even know the name of every kid on the team, but you can easily imported mall in and, uh and give him the book and it's they're easy to store, they're all you know, nice and flat and they're pretty durable. Ahs well, and the photos inside are great because there they come from a photo developing site. The photos are typically really, really look really nice. So? So I have definitely incorporated photo books into my scrapbooking. I also use them as gifts for people who might not appreciate the effort that goes into a scrapbook. I've noticed even the people who love me most like my mom, you know, obviously, I'm her daughter. She loves me and loves what I do, but she never really got the whole scrapbooking thing. And she would rather have this than this it's easier for her to store on the shelf. I think maybe also as she got older, it was easy to hold because as we mentioned, these got really heavy. So why put the effort into creating something that's going to take hours and hours and hours of my life when she's going to enjoy this more and it's really about knowing that audience? So what else? What do you guys use for him? First of all, have you done photo books before? Definitely see lots of nods. Tracy, have you ever done photo books or jane of your layout? Did you ever do that all the time, okay? Ok, so with that manner, what it would mean is that with digital scrap bookers you actually replace the photo with your digital layout so then you've got a book of your layout so you do that? How often would you say among mostly for many albums I I have one of um I took a picture of thin every month or every day birthday month once a month for his entire first year and then created a layout um about all of his milestones for that year and created an album I have ones for my week in the life and so but I do know someone who every time she hits one hundred layouts or something like that she creates a photo book so right and she's a chronological scrapper so they're going to be in chronological order but instead of having albums like this, she has a whole shelf of thin right above right that should covers the dentist I know that can be something that digital scrap pickers often wonder do I print out every lap and having the book is just a wonderful way to translate that digital page into physical and again because it's coming digitally to a photo processing company they're going to look gorgeous um probably much better than that if you printed them at home and put that in your album so that's that's great people who don't think they're scrap bookers make yeah isn't funny they say I'm not a scrapbook I do photo books and like your script okay a lot of people pride themselves on a very clean clear modern right, right? You know but then but then it's true and in fact it's really funny because I would normally just do a photo book but looking at when you put those photo books up and they didn't have any riding on that almost makes you want to like print, fight a book and then getting little pen and just write a couple of things I really like it a little more interact like totally in fact, one of the first drawbacks I have is it they're obviously focused on the photos and we've talked about today getting away from that photo centric approach and he's still have especially this one I still have some words and thoughts and them about you know what we did we visited some historic ce uh sites and things like that but it's not a really heavy story or deep story there more general stories so for somebody who's trying to move towards tellingme or personal heartfelt stories this might not be the best method. However, it could be great for again like we said telling a story that's that is really about the vacation or about getting ready for the prom or that sort of thing so that can be really useful that way also uh they can be superficial as a result if you only get a sentence or two on the page like this one says joy is where you find it I mean it's cute she's got the bubbles in her hand and she's got a happy look on her face and she's at disneyland but you know there's not a big story there it's very superficial and then this one says wisdom is knowledge in action and it's a picture of my son at at the science fair and again cute it's got a little bit of a story but you're gonna wonder it's like that new shoes picture it's like uh yeah but it's nice it's nice to have I'm glad we have these photos this was actually some of our top photos from the year it was a gift for my husband and he likes to have these at work because he doesn't like to have these at work but if he has one of the eu's and somebody comes in says show me some photos your family he's got this right here and you hear there it's really nice that way also you don't have the hands on fun that you might have if you were designed your page either digitally or physically where you get to play with all those different elements and there are ways to jazz that up within some of the photo book programs but I think creating a scrapbook page, the traditional manner is much more fun for me, this is more like, ok, more almost like a tour like I'm going to get it done and get it sent off and on its way. It's not really particularly fun for me to do it's fun to get it, but the process isn't does enjoyable is creating a scrapbook it can be restricting, too, because you are limited somewhat in terms of what you can do and especially if you're using one of their pre designed templates. It is difficult t get it toe look exactly like you want I've had trouble where I was like, well, I don't really like this photo it's going to do this so that the options are somewhat limited and technology can get in your way if you really aren't a technologically savvy person and or you don't enjoy working on the computer it's going to really be be not fun to sit down and try to do this even if shutterfly creates the book, you're going to want to go in and make sure the photos you want are in the right order and it just it's a computer program, so if you like that, then that's great, but if you really don't like working with computers, that might be a challenge for you. Again, you'll see that I suggested the first tip is to focus on the intention what are you trying to accomplish here? I knew I was not trying to tell the whole story of our year I was trying to get some great photos into a single book that my husband could take the office and have on his shelf without looking like a huge scrapbook. It wasn't supposed to be a replacement for my scrapbooks, so knowing this one supposed to document a vacation knowing your audience, knowing what the story is, it will really help you out and again, starting with the story as much as you are limited to that story telling knowing what the story is before you start helps you choose the photos because you're starting from a hole you know, thousands upon thousands of possible photos you could use. What are you trying to convey with your story with your photo book and then choosing from there and then spending a little bit of time learning the technology so you can get it to do what you wanted to do and make it look the way you want it to. So those are just some of the tips I have anything else here people have worked with photo books or james did one for my mom's seventieth birthday because again, you can't scrap that birthday one more time she needed something physical right right so that's right and it's also something that you could print out multiple cost angling and send it teo you know if it's one of these each set of grand parents or whatever very easily you don't have to do any additional work. How about online? Any thoughts on photo books from our friends at home there has been a discussion on various people that air nine bloggers I guess it's quite a few of them they do print the photos out men drawn them with shop ee or organ mentum you know, I think that's yeah there's an interesting comment here from sisterhood of the traveling stamp they say now are these photo books usually being made on a deadline? If you're getting these out to print? Is this something where you're maybe a little bit more cramped for time on these? It definitely could be so if I have, you know it's a week before christmas and I know my dad needs something I could create one of these out in a matter of an hour or less, whereas if I'm trying to do a scrapbook it's going to take me longer than an hour, even a mini album is going to take me longer than an hour when I make mine I'm typically not under any kind of huge pressure this was a christmas present for my husband, but it wasn't like I got to do this tonight but I do know people who are like oh my gosh christmas is next week next week I need to get these done or mother's day is coming I'm doing a photo book I better sit down and do it so it is a little I think it's less stressful than trying to create a traditional scrapbook or even a mini album on a deadline those khun b v a little hay day has reminded us that of course you're always on a deadline because there's usually a silent one of those ways flight you get this my sisterhood has made up a few times says it doesn't have to be supervision because a lot of people are agreeing it feels like a chore uh that it feels like a sure hey never to do it but she says you can scandal take photos of handwritten items we'll tell the story on the office of pipe so you it almost then it becomes digital scrapbooking right yeah in a way interactive right right although if I were going to do that I would just create a couple of stan things for me they serve a very pacific role within my scrapbooking and of course you're going to be different like tracey I don't create a lot of digital pages so I don't need to create photo books of my digital pages there's so few I just print them out or getting printed online but for somebody else they're going to be they might be the only thing they did. I know a lot of people who just do photo books now they used to be traditional scrap bookers now they say I just do photo books so yeah it's gonna fit if it's a role for me and it might be a different role for someone else so all right let's talk pockets scrapbooking I know we had becky higgins here at roger life talking about project life at creative live several months ago and her class of course it's still available and I just want to mention that though we often use project life interchangeably with pocket scrapbooking pocket a lot of project life refers to a specific approach to pocket scrapbooking where you're documenting on a weekly basis isis and there's also lots and lots of other manufacturers who make pocket scrapbooking supplies as well and you'll see all sorts of things like life pages pocket life you've probably seen my three sixty five mean there's all sorts of different creative ways of talking about it I often use the simple stories products just because the color theme works really well for me and then also gossamer blue has a visit called life pages life pages kid that you can use is that you can buy as an add on to their main scrapbooking kid and it coordinates with it so you can mix and match across each collection and I really enjoyed that so when you look at my page here it's a little bit of a mishmash we have some things lots of things from simple stories thie album I use of course a simple stories but I've also got some project life things some some gossamer blue things and I like that option of mixing things up to me that's what feels right I remember back when I first started scrapbooking with creative memories there were lots of creative memories people who only use creative memories in their scrapbooks and that just like why would you only why would you only do that so for me it's wide open and being able to print out things digitally and add them to my pages or create my own cut larger sheets down but basically the idea is that you have pocket pages that are like baseball card pages but in different sizes and they come in a variety of different flavors you could say like this one is all four by six horizontal photos while this one over here has some horse until four by six is at the top and three by force across the middle so there's different designs of pages that then you can use to fill in the pockets with bits of embellishments journaling cards, photos, napkins anything you want can go in the pockets and this is definitely become a huge huge trend within the last couple of years anybody here? Denise I know you do do the pocket scrapbooking and tracy you do hear who else does anybody else I've given it a go what do you think about it, what's your take on it? I like it sometimes I struggle with you know the pictures especially on those sheets where you have some vertical and horizontal getting you know, I might have to vertical spaces but for particle foot you know, and trying to get it to crop down and sometimes I get a little bit frustrated it doesn't feel like it should go as quickly as it looks like it. What malaysian it it looks like it might, you know, it just seems to go too long for me. Yeah. And you know what? I have had a very similar experience. There are some great reasons to try this approach and with aa lot of people do this on a weekly basis where the spread the two page spread is a week and they like this chronological approach to their life and it helps them collect the little stories that maybe are too small to put on a larger page but are perfect for a little card or something like that. I really view it as a compliment to my regular scrapbooking I don't see it as a replacement at all it's a completely different process for me it captures completely different stories some of the reasons people love this approach is it can be really quick and easy it can be I'm not saying it will be, but it can be because it's a plug and play kind of thing, everything is kind of a standardized size, so you know, this is a four by six, this is a three by four and the products come like that so you can take your card and just put it in or put a photo on it and move along. Also, it can be pre designed where everything goes, the other, like you can buy project life kids, or you could buy a simple stories kits where it's all coordinated, almost like the monthly scrapbooking kits. We've talked about where everything is going to go together, so you don't have to think about, you know, we're talking about the grand mals approach. We know this card's going to catch this one because it came from the same kit it's also a fun way to get lots of photos into a smaller space because the photos tend to be smaller on dh. One photo isn't dedicated or one, pages and dedicated to one photo. You've got multiple photos here, it's also coming really good for new scrap bookers who are intimidated by the all the options out there and don't want to even think about design so instead they just say ok, I'm going to put a card and where card goes I'm going put photos where photos fit and then I'm gonna move along so it can be much easier for people who are moving who are moving into scrap booking and haven't scrapbook before and then also you can really elect to keep it simple you could see the most complex project life pages pocket scrapbooking pages out there or people can choose to keep it really, really simple and that's a personal choice as someone who loves to scrapbook and loves my supplies mind tends to get a little more complex and I find myself it's almost like I'm creating six mini scrapbook layouts on a page versus one and I think it takes longer than traditional scrapbooking so I do believe that it puts a lot of focus on the photos versus the story and because it's chronological we're thinking about ok this photo goes here photo photo photo versus what story from this week do I want to tell it's almost like you've got to fill in all the space and to me I feel like I'm pushing my stories into a certain design sort of like what you said I've got a three by four horizontal but I only have a four by six vertical so sometimes I feel like I'm trying to fit within ah predetermined template and that could be a little frustrating for me because the cards are so small and because you're doing a week at a time sometimes the stories can be superficial they don't have to be but I think it kind of encourages a quick and simple approach to documenting the stories and it's hard to get into a lot of detail and meaning when it's only a three by four card what I find myself doing is capturing a lot of little tiny stories which are still fun but it's like my sandwich versus you know healthy eating or something like that and then also it can be restricting because what we talked about this is this is supposed to be one week and that's the way people do it it's designed to be one week and I feel like if I only use this is one week that I'm not following the instructions which wouldn't be the first time in my life that I ever did involve the instructions movil I found myself doing is if I don't have a lot to say I'll only use one side but sometimes I have a page and a half and it's just sometimes it feels a little restricting to me other people absolutely adore this they are the biggest proponents of this style scrapbooking ever for me like I said, it serves a very specific role I also like thie opportunity to include other pages in if I want tio I actually keep them separate when I'm at home I have a pocket scrapbooking album and I have my scrapbook albums I don't commingle although a lot of people do label con kahr who is the marketing director for simple stories wonderful wonderful scrap occur she does a lot of co mingling where she'll do spread here and then she wanted twelve bigger story about this so she'll put it eight and a half by eleven or twelve by twelve page right in the album and that's you know again it's just a personal preference I've chosen to keep them separate but it is possible especially like simple stories the pages all fit the eight and a half by eleven the six by twelve twelve by twelve everything fits in the same album so that's really nice to have that versatility until I got the project like from you actually I never I had no idea how this was going to go and I found that I can't do the weekly so I do monthly but I do with traditional I quite often have a twelve by twelve and the pockets allow me to put slamming a lot more photos so my twelve by twelve is the important my story and this is like, oh, I got some of this stuff left over so I could stick it in here stuff and it's been working for me that way yeah, but I have to do it monthly yeah, I can't do it this whole weekly daily too much, but you can do traditional scrapping with it. No problem way we're talking about those garden photos if you could add a dozen or or half dozen garden photos here and then have one big page on the right hand side that talks specifically about more about the event that's a really fun way toe teo intermingle and and create the hybrid pocket page and traditional album together, and again, this album particularly I just love it for that versatility. Just when I was bringing everything here, I could shove it all in one album and know it was going to be safe and everything was gonna fit, so also I would just encourage you to be intentional if you decide to try this know what you're trying to accomplish with me, my pocket scrap booking, the weekend, a time that I do is just about that chronological what happened this week, it's not about the deep stories, and I realized that going into it, I realized also that I'm going to create other stories, other pages that tell more deep and complete stories and that's why I keep them separate I enjoyed the finished result of this I don't enjoy the process as much as I do with scrapbooking, other people are exactly opposite they love this they feel like it's, like a dream come true, and they don't like traditional scrapbooking and that's totally okay, it's just again, personal preference. Another example or another tip was to mix the pocket into a larger album, which we talked about and don't feel limited by the structure feel like you have the right to add another page in the middle or to only use half a page or use a page and a half for for your story for that week or the month, or do you know, do one day use, make it work for you rather than feeling like you've got a conform to this structure and that's when it I think it becomes most effective. I bet we have some comments about pocket scott looking angry that a lot of emotions and people having rabbit was signed it, and they like to change the rhythm in within the book by having, you know, a page with all this bunched honored and then another one that's well considered out when other people are saying it's, a really good way to catch up on all those old photos. So when you have crazy about books of photos that actually makes it more doable, literally breaks it down, right? That is such a great point because you might have tons of photos. From before you started scrapbooking and you want to get them in scrapbooks but you don't necessarily have the time or inclination to scrap book every page with the separate photo were handful of photos so this is a great way again teo honor those photos get them in a format that can be enjoyed and then move on with with what you want to document going forward I love those thank you collect app and that's well print on the tiny three by four cards with your picture and so if you're doing a picture every day and there's not a story behind it or if you photograph every meal um you don't need to scrap book it but it's nice to have it come right oh yeah I promised exactly and sometimes you can go back and then see oh my gosh. There was a bigger story here and you might not realize that till later and then this becomes kind of a catalog where you see there's a photo here I know which week it was taken I can blow it up and make a whole page about it or this happened here and here and here and I see a pattern now I see a theme and then scrapbook that all right I love this section art journals and smash books I think sally's gonna like this to have a quick look through a rather like smashed e o so I've got two examples here. This is my smash book and it's called smash book that's actually a brand name it's created by kate k I is that there's a kink cain company, it is k and company and it's a smash for the moments and musings that stick so that's a smash book, and this is an art journal, and I've group them together because I see some similarities between the two. Basically on art journal is a journal where you can get creative and messy and really just break down all the boundaries of what you think memory keeping and journaling might be. I've got paint in here, I've got stickers, I've got magazine things ripped out, I've got stencils I've got doodling everything under the sun can go in an art journal, and they're very technique oriented, typically so there's a lot of artsy techniques with stamping and paints and and things like that stencils I've got washi tape up here, but really anything goes and there's, they're just a fun way to for me to document a completely different side of my brain and of my life. I still consider these scrapbooks, but I'm documenting completely different memories and oftentimes I don't use photos at all it'll be more doodling or images just really, really fun and to create this one, I just took it sketch album took out the wire binding and put in a binder rings, so it would allow me to go thicker because these tend to get really, really thick because I'm adding layers to them. There's a lot of fantastic art, journaling tutorials and examples online julie fei fan balzar is someone in particular you might want to check out in her last name is f e I f a n balzar julie say fan balls are fantastic tutorials, art journal ideas they could be a collection of quotes. It could be angst ridden it's whatever you want to do but it's really, really fun to add things that might not go in a regular sketchbook because they're more minor, much more scattered, they're not chronological at all, there's not there might not even be a specific story at any point in time might just be random musings or how I'm feeling that day, so this is really a journal that I add color, too. Smash books are pre created books that come with a wire binding and all sorts of different pages in them that you can then add photos or text or whatever you want on top of they also come with a little pen minds not here but when in his upended the other end is a glue stick and it just gives you everything in one to document their great for traveling for people who like to sketch and they have different seems so they have different styles of paper in them and I use mine I have a list of like my favorite words wack I love that word wack kids will say that I'm gonna whack you if you don't knock it off to each other it just cracks me up perfect I used perfect all the time and this was some of my favorite songs and I just started keeping a list on a page it came with the words good and great and sweet caroline is one of my favorites songs and let my love open the door sweet home alabama more than a feeling by boston just I just started writing them down because they weren't really going to go in a scrapbook per se but I wanted to document them and I did it in a fun manner in in my smash book you could do this in any kind of book but smash books are readily available and they're kind of nice because they're all inclusive and sort of fun to play with some people will use these scrapbooks danny taylor good friend of mine in fact uses hers as a way to document like her trips to disney and things like that she's got a whole whole year plan that she's going through a smash book and doing different things along the way so I think they're great because there a lot of fun they embrace imperfection. I'm not even trying to get near imperfection in this puppy I mean it's so messy but that's the joy of it is that I can just get in there, slapped the pain around and do whatever I want and it's a lot of fun also it's free form I don't have to it's like the exact opposite of back pocket scrapbooking it could be any size anything goes in here at all and it's a fun place to experiment. So if I'm trying out a new technique that I'm not sure it's gonna work on my scrapbook page, I might test it out in an art journal or smash book first and then once I feel like I've gotten a good hang of it, I can then put it on a scrapbook page. Some of the drawbacks sometimes storytelling can get lost when I'm just creating a lift of my favorite songs of my favorite words that's kind of a story, but I'm not telling a real solid story about anything in particular saying with the art journal oftentimes it's about that experimentation and that free form expression versus telling a particular story you can end up getting you can get a little frustrated because you might have to learn a particular technique teo working in our journal you might feel like it doesn't look right it's not looking like what you wanted it to be because you are experimenting and sometimes the photos get forgotten I don't have any photos in my smash book at all and I think the photos I haven't here like printouts of quotes or something andi sometimes people get intimidated if you go online and look it's like julie's are journals, you might think, oh my gosh, I could never do that, but you have to realize she's very experienced use a professional and years they're going to look different just because you're different person it's just like the scrapbooking perfectionism we can run into, so go into it with intention decide what you're going to do is it? This is just a place for experimentation for me on this is just fun just lifts list based use it as a way to capture different types of stories that might not come out in my scrapbook because this is really work in progress. Something from here might end up in my scrapbook someday, but I'm not creating a spreading here thinking that I'm telling a story air story be it's more of that just free expression and then don't be attached to the outcome really just have fun with the process. And I think you'll really enjoy again. Seeing what comes out, not necessarily knowing what is going to happen before you try it.