Saturday 19 July 2014

The Order of Scrapbooking

No, it's not a newly created award.....although it could be, and we could use the acronym..TOOS. I quite like it!   Gosh, I digress already.  No, this is a serious post about the Order of Scrapbooking.  
Before we move on - here's a glossary for non-scrap bookers:
Layout = page with photos on it, abbreviation for which is LO.

Years ago - 3 or 4 probably, when I was star struck and followed the blogs of celebrity scrapbookers, I remember being surprised by a post or comment made by the unmatchable Ali Edwards.  She was talking about the great piles of Layouts that she had waiting to be put in order and filed in their sleeves, and ergo, the albums.  
I kinda dismissed it as I think Ms Edwards has the most splendid control going on and if she doesn't file her Layouts at the time of finishing then hey, thanks for the evidence of a chink in your order.


The one thing I do in terms of tidy, is finish a LO and file it in the album straight away.  I like the closure.  It gives me a sense of accomplishment to see the album filling.  
And there's a very big BUT:
As previously, and probably often, discussed, I don't make LOs in any sort of order at all and they certainly are not chronological.  Chronological makes me lose the will to live. And besides, back in the day of photo developing, I didn't write on the back of the photos and I'm jiggered if I can remember when most of them were taken.  
Therefore...my eight or nine full albums contain LOs from across two centuries, three generations and are in the order that I scrapbook the photos.  Which is entirely down to my mood on the afternoon before I go to a crop.  Which as any regular reader will know, is an afternoon of torture in the choosing and the packing. Except the choosing of photos part..that's easy.  I flick through the enormous number waiting for me and just select ones which 'speak to me' that day. 
So - how do you?  Are your albums in order despite the un-ordered way you scrap?  Or do you scrap in a particular order anyway?  Or are you the type that leaves them in a finished pile, waiting.  Or...do you like to re-arrange the albums? I can see pleasure in this, re-visiting all your works of art. 
To the scrapbookers eye, from first to most recent, my albums certainly show the evolution of my scrapping style and (I hope) the change in my habits as a consumer of ephemera, embellishments and erm, such.  So perhaps, in a sense, they are in an order.  I don't particularly scrap with an eye to future generations to be honest, I scrap because I like it. As an only child, I'm fairly sure Miss Dunnit will enjoy having the album collection, but if at my tragic demise she decides she can't or doesn't want to keep them, that's fine; see, I've had all the pleasure! But..if she does want them and decides to use them to tell her part of our story...perhaps I should attempt a re-filing session?  I dunno.  I might leave it until I'm in my dotage. It will be something to do, and I can bore the pants of the day care with all the stories.

22 comments:

Helen said...

You make me laugh, Julia! I now have visions of you (in many years to come, natch) sitting in your chair at the nursing home with your albums trying to re-organise them...
I've made precisely 2 LO's so they are sitting in the pizza box I took them somewhere to show someone.... I think I'm with you, file them as you scrap them, there is too much order in this life!!

Sue - said...

Mine get filed as I make them too. When I started scrapping at a class I had to choose photos that fitted with the LO she had chosen so there was no way they were going to be chronological! Time I made some more!

Neet said...

I am not a scrapbooker so cannot answer your questions but would imagine I would file straight away.
It's the bit about Miss Dunnitt - my dil will just get a skip and bung all my supplies and everything in it when I go. As she is into genealogy maybe I should have scrapbooked!
Hugs, Neet xx

CoventryAnn said...

I don't file mine straight away, I like to look at them so have 5 of the most recent LOs blu-tacked to the wall in the kitchen (where i scrapbook). As new pages are made the blu-tack gallery has LOs removed to a pile in the study. Then, when I get the urge, I file them. Like you Julia I don't scrapbook chronologically, but my scrapbooks are themed, everyone in the family has one, along with a vintage, holiday and christmas books. So I just add the latest page to the right book when the pile gets filed; no particular order :)

fairyrocks said...

Scrapbooker here. I started after I had 2 grown children and one grandchild. So, no special order to my scrapping. I like to think I scrapbook in thrifts. Large subject focus areas. I started out filing in albums. The finished projects like the scrapbook space soon grew. Most of the albums are themed or person specific. The newest ones are in 13x13 hard sided cases. I recently went through and ordered them so that when the time comes, they can be split and passed on to my lovely family. I also have mini book collection and some of my favorite things on display.

misteejay said...

Like Sue, when I started 12x12 scrapping I did it with photos that went with the kits available at the classes/crops I attended. They have been stored in the order that I did them - not the order of the photo subject. I do have a couple of 'themed' albums - niece's wedding, cybercrops etc. but on the whole they are in the order of creation.

Toni xx

Sue said...

I do LOs for a specific album and then when that's full start another album. Usually photos are in date order.

I seem to have a phase of doing LOs, but then not do any for ages.

Jane said...

My layouts of which I only have a few are in absolutely no order at all!!

lisa said...

I do exactly the same as you, Julia. I choose a photo that jumps out for some reason, or even take one there and then to fit something I want to remember, like a funny saying, spend ages putting my Lo together and then file them in the order I do them, but I certainly won't ever put them in order, I like the randomness of the pages.
Hugs Lisax

voodoo vixen said...

I cannot remember the last 12 x 12 page I made... so its on my to-do list to get going again at some point... but my albums are by subject... so a specific granddaughter has her own... my son, my family, his family, countries we have lived in etc... and when I did I page I would add it to the album I thought it should belong to... there are overlap problems with this of course!!

Claire said...

I file them when I've blogged them lol. Great layouts Julia.
C xx

Carmen said...

I only have one album and they are filed as I did them. I aim to start again but prolly more project life stylee but not daily or whatever it is they do - just as I find photos and go 'oooh, that was a good day that was!'

pearshapedcrafting said...

This has come like a kick up the bt for me!!! Haven't done anything recently but really NEED to get on with my grandchildren's year books - the only LOs that get put in order! The others just get put in my folder in the order I do them. Some times I date them but mostly don't!!! Hope you are continuing to get back to good health! Chrisxx

fairy thoughts said...

LOL especially at the last part ref nursing home. The only thing I can say about my scrapping is ...... Lapsed!
Although some of my DLP pages look like layouts especially the one I did today.
That said order of making would be the best .. Maybe in your dotage you might remember when the pictures were taken.
Janet

Hettie said...

Tee Hee! Helen's comment has just made me LOL!
Me? I scrapbook, photograph then file away in my albums. I have various albums for Doggies, Friends, Holidays, Prague but they go in the album as they come.
I do have a friend who does 2/3 LOs a week and puts them in the corner of her room until that period between Christmas and New Year. She then files them in chronological order shuffling albums around! NO WAY could I be bothered with all that. Anyhoo I like to see how tastes change and not know what is on the next page!
Hugs
xx

Bleubeard and Elizabeth said...

As you know, I'm not a scrap booker. BUT, I am making possibly the world's longest WIP altered book. Started in 2005 with a bunch of tip-ins from others, this is a book on the 7 continents. Over the years I have amassed more than my fair share of ephemera. 3 HUGE boxes full, in fact. HUGE boxes, bigger than file folder sized boxes. HUGE.

At first, I tried to work on a single continent at a time, as I got more and more ephemera. I was a hopeless mess and knew I could never keep up at that rate. One day I decided to heck with order. I would find enough ephemera to make a single layout and call it good. I admitted to myself that at some point, I might find something that would have gone better with my spread, but I didn't care. It was finished and FILED in a 3-ring binder book under the proper continent.

Like you, I look at my older work and compare it to what I make today. But one thing I'm convinced about is, if I tried to complete this book in order of continent, I would NEVER work on it again. At least now, I occasionally find time to make a spread or two, whether it's Australia, or South America. Alphabetical order is no longer important.

So, I applaud you for how you scrap. So what if it takes you till your nursing home years to arrange things. By then, your mind will be so addled, you won't remember or care, anyway!

Neesie said...

What a giggle Julie,
It's been years since I did a layout whoops sorry LO (getting into the lingo) but I hope to revisit one day. I have so much that I could include in a scrapbook that I'd probably end up with a library I'm sure.
Have a great week with lots of LO's (that's my abbreviation for Lounging Outside) xoxo

Eliza said...

Gosh you really crack me up sometimes but I do love it. Yes I scrap when I have time and not pushed to do other things. Anyway, both my children have their albums, one is for all the school stuff, ribbons, races, tournaments, achievements, sporting things. Then they have their own life albums things like parties, holiday trips etc. I also have a heritage album for both sides of the family but I have not worked on any of these for what feels like a millennium. I have family Christmas albums and they are done when I think about it or get an attack of the guilt's which you are making me have now LOL I am like you I do like to put them into the album as soon as they are done and filed. I might leave the album out for a few days in case the others in the house want to view it, which does happen and by golly if I put it away and they knew then they would just drag it out again. So there you have it. not brain science just plain and simple. Sounds like you are now getting into full swing and feeling lots better. Sending you Yoda hugs

Eliza

Robyn said...

I don't "scrapbook" at all or make layouts. I paste everything into my current journal . I used to have diff journals for diff things and gave that up, and now It's all in some sort of order as I date each day and entry, so If I looking for something it is theoretically possible to find it if I have some idea of what year it might have occurred !

Fiona@Staring at the Sea said...

This made me smile. Definitely no order to my scrapping or subsequent filing of it. Pick a photo, any that takes my fancy, scrap it, file it. Done.

505whimsygirl said...

Hi Julia,

I love your pages. I don't scrapbook so have nothing to confess. It might be fun, though, to start making an album with the history of a particular photo. Who I was with, when I took it, where it is, etc. That's a great idea..... who knew!

Hugs,
Kay

Sharon Madson said...

Funny! I scrapbook my trips right away and in order! However, the rest of them are out of order, as I get inspired to scrap. My photos are also not in order, because I mess them up as I go thru them, looking for something specific to scrap. So, it is a cluttered mess. I try to put my album in chronological order, but don't scrap them in order. So, yes, I have a mess! Boxes and boxes of all sides of families photos too.