I get asked a lot if I scrapbook. I don’t. Which seems a bit odd since I’m super fanatical about taking and organizing photos, and more than a little nuts about paper in general. I’ve just never much been into it…my feelings for a particular project like to flit here and there and in general they don’t like to be restricted into one certain format. I like to make a card here, a birthday present there, a few party favors here and move on. I’m fickle, I admit it, but I excuse it under the guise of creativity. That being said, I still like a system for getting the photos out of the camera, out of the files, out of the blog. I download images off the camera daily, they are sorted into nice little files in an orderly fashion, and then grouped into albums which are sent off to the printer occasionally. I love the simplicity of the square Kolo albums, and I have them in every color for E’s photos. At a capacity of two hundred pictures each, I think we might be through five or six already. We also started an early tradition with both grandmothers. We fill black Kolo albums with photos of the kid – we filled the first one with her first year – updating them at Christmas and on Mother’s Day. Then, as the novelty of the kid wore off, we started filling the next ones with two years, which is still a respectable amount at one hundred per… We don’t stick to those kind of limits on ours – they are chock full of the good, the bad and the ugly. And there is enough space to the side of the photo for a caption – if I ever feel so inclined. (I did fill them in on my Europe pictures before I forgot all the names of the places, and the food, and the people that I lived with there.) Just don’t expect those captions to be in puffy, color coordinated bubble letters.
It’s a great exercise that keeps us motivated to stay up-to-date. And the kid loves to look through those books. A special treat night is to pull down one of hers – maybe poppy, or periwinkle – and browse through a few months of her life, telling and re-telling the story of her.
Birthday Card
And this is a card I made for my mom’s birthday this week – the candles are cut with an x-acto and then tissue paper was layered behind. I know it’s not the typical kid art gallery, but if you haven’t noticed already…we’re not really here. Pictures and stories coming soon!