Organizing Your Scrapbook Album There are many ways to organize your scrapbook. The way you organize it depends on what you’re going to put in it. Your page organization depends on what kind of photos you are going to put in an album. The way you scrapbook old family photos will be different than the way you scrapbook current ones. The easiest way to begin an organization scheme is to organize your scrapbook pages in the same way you’ve organized your photos on the computer. Each folder of images could actually make up an entire scrapbook. In Chapter 1 of this book, photos from a Caribbean cruise were organized into folders by port. Scrapbook pages can be organized in the same way—by port. If the computer is not your guide to scrapbooking organization, you can always organize your scrapbook chronologically by year, highlighting the events of the year. If there are too many pages for one year, you can make seasonal books. If you just have too many pages to fit in one book, sort your pages by theme and make a separate book for each theme (which you can then sort chronologically). Another way you can organize your scrapbook pages is by the date you made them. If you do this, you’ll see how your pages have gotten better (at least you hope) as time has passed. 86 ■ Scrapbooking Bug Gotcha? JOINING AND UPLOADING IMAGES AT SCRAPBOOK.COM Anybody who’s anybody in scrapbooking seems to be a member of scrapbook.com.Their photos grace their scrapbook pages, each one an original creation both beautiful and revealing. Members can upload their photography, too. To join scrapbook.com, you just give an email address, login name, and password.When you click on My Gallery on the site’s homepage, you’re taken to a place to upload your images. Just click Browse and then navigate to the photo or photos you want to upload (up to 10 at a time), then click Upload.After the photo uploads, a prompt will ask you what type of photo it is—Layout (paper scrapbook page), Digital Layout (digital scrapbook page), Card, Scraproom (image of the room you scrap in), Other Project, or Photo.Then input boxes will appear, asking you for the Title, Description, and Keywords.There are also groups of categories that you can click, which turn into drop-down menus of subcategories that you can check so that your image shows up in the right place in the Gallery. Finally, you click Submit to place the image in the Gallery. If you have old photos you want to scrap, you can do it by decades—’60s, ’70s, ’80s—for a retro feel. You can also arrange pages by people. You can scrapbook only photos that have images of your mother (or yourself) to have a book about a person. Finally, you can make books for life stages of your family, from your child’s toddler years to your daughter’s years playing soccer or other sports. Scrapbooking Bug Gotcha? ■ 87 NOTE Sometimes you’ll find a great themed quick page for which you want to find a photo. If you have many pages where that is the case, there will be no rhyme or reason to your scrapbook pages. If this is the case, you probably can organize the scrapbook pages by the date you made them. KINDS OF SCRAPBOOK ALBUMS The best bet for an album for your digital scrapbook pages is a spiral-bound notebook (see Figure 5.7).The best are D-ring notebooks for a couple of reasons. It’s easy to take out and put back pages. It isn’t the greatest setup, though, for two-page spreads because of the large white space and chrome rings in the middle. If you’re into making two-page spreads, post-bound albums are a good choice because they have minimal space between pages. At scrapbook.com you can order albums at http://store.scrapbook.com/ scrapbooks.html.You have choices of albums by size, type, color, and brand. Figure 5.7 A spiral-bound album is a good choice for a scrapbook album. Paper Scrapbookers’ Supplies Galore So what’s available to decorate your photos to the max (see Figure 5.8)? Here are just a few options to think about if you want to go all the way with your scrapbooking: ❈ Alphabets. Rub-on letters, letter stickers, download and print letters. ❈ Background sheets. Decorative sheets upon which you affix your scrapbook photos and embellishments. ❈ Brads. Two-pronged fasteners with decorations on the top. ❈ Chalk. Rub-on chalk and chalk pencils. ❈ Chipboards. Cardboard (anything from a cereal box inside to the back of a legal pad). You can also purchase chipboard with designs and a place for your photography drawn onto it, as well as chipboard alphabets. ❈ Die cuts. Designs that you cut and/or punch out from a cardboard page. ❈ E-cuts. Designs that you can color in Photoshop and then print out as many times as you want. ❈ Embellishments. Any extras on your scrapbook page—ribbons, buttons, brads (see above), stickers, and so on. ❈ Page protectors. Clear enclosures for scrapbook pages. (Archival is best to preserve pages.) ❈ Photo corners. Inserts that are placed on the four corners of the scrapbook page, into which you place your photos. (Archival is best to prevent damage to the photo.) ❈ Paper punches. Hole punches with which you can punch out shapes and designs or geometrical shapes (to make a frame on top of which you put your photo). ❈ Ribbons. Strips of decorative material from which you can make bows or that you can use to frame your photos. ❈ Stamps. Devices that come in different designs that you press on an inkpad and apply to paper. ❈ Stickers. Decorative material with adhesive on the back. (Use archival.) 88 ■ Scrapbooking Bug Gotcha? NOTE Along with your photos, you can include items such as invitations, concert and theater tickets, and postcards. Scrapbooking Bug Gotcha? ■ 89 Figure 5.8 This page by Crystal Brothers has buttons, cardstock, patterned paper, chipboard letters, and die-cut letters. . The best bet for an album for your digital scrapbook pages is a spiral-bound notebook (see Figure 5.7).The best are D-ring notebooks for a couple of reasons. It’s easy to take out and put back. page), Digital Layout (digital scrapbook page), Card, Scraproom (image of the room you scrap in), Other Project, or Photo.Then input boxes will appear, asking you for the Title, Description, and. yourself) to have a book about a person. Finally, you can make books for life stages of your family, from your child’s toddler years to your daughter’s years playing soccer or other sports. Scrapbooking