Which page do you prefer?

By now, you should have your intended photo project visualized.

Let's suppose you've decided to challenge yourself into making a small photo album of a significant recent event -----

Hopefully your planning process includes gathering ONLY the supplies that you'll need to complete the project. Think of how you' d go about baking cookies, or a cake. You wouldn't bring out *ALL* your baking supplies, would you? No. You would only bring out what the recipe calls for.

So, what's the "recipe" for your small album project?
Write it down and stick to it when you create your book.

At this point though, the tendency is to gather *TOO MUCH*. Because of all the complicated scrapbook designs out there in magazines, we tend to use what we've seen as a precedent. We think we need to create something just as great, just as complicated.

After all, our pictures are precious aren't they?


EXAMPLE:
Look at the following pages. If these pages contained photos of your great, great grandchild ... which one would you prefer inheriting hundred years from now?







Photos to be uploaded soon. Please check back.





Now, go back to your "recipe" for your small album, and eliminate at least half of the supplies you wrote down. You really only need a few sheets of paper, a pen or two, some adhesive, and maybe a few stickers. Aim for the look of the simple page, not the complicated one. You can always add something here and there later on.

What is your vision?

Before I upload some examples, have you figured out what *your vision* is for your photo albums, digital photographs, frame projects, etc., etc.? In your "perfect world", where would all your photos be, and how would they be displayed?

If you don't know, or have never thought about this, arrange for 15-20 minutes of quiet time for yourself, have some tea, close your eyes, and decide what your vision is.

Just try to get an overall plan in your mind right now. Details aren't necessary.

Is there a family album on the coffee table? Are there photos on the wall of your ancestors, or your children, or your pets? Is there one big box that contains all your random photos in chronological order? Perhaps, there's an organized box for each of your children.

Relax. You don't have to do any work with your photos today. Just decide what your vision is and enjoy your tea.

It's all about the photos!

If there's too much clutter around your photographs, you won't notice the photo. And isn't the goal to display the picture, not the decoration around it?

With so many great decorating products out there ----- stickers, paper, die cuts, etc. ----- it's hard not to use them. But if you want to get your "picture projects" finished, keeping it simple will make this happen. Think of it as a "trade-off" between either decorative or done.

Next time, I will give you visual example of what I mean.

Simple = Timeless!

Consider this if you're skeptical about "simplicity" being the key component. Think of how photographers display their work. Usually, you'll see only one photograph displayed with a white or off-white matte, and then inside a simple black frame. You might also see a very simple title beneath the picture. But that's it.

Most artists know that the eye can only take in so much at one time.

Also, your taste for art changes over time. If your photos are displayed in a way that is too complicated or cluttered, you'll grow tired of the look, so keeping things simple will make your creations and photos look great for a long, long time.

Trust me. Simple = Timeless!

Simplicity is key!

I know you're now thinking that to display to your photographs ----- whether in a frame, a photo album, or under a glass top table, etc. ----- is either going to be very time-consuming, expensive, or both. You're probably also telling yourself that you aren't very creative anyway.

This is about the point that most people decide that doing something with their photos isn't worth the trouble, and back in the box the pictures go.

Is this really where you *want* your photos to be though ----- in boxes, drawers, closets, or the modern equivalent of somewhere on the computer harddrive?

Having said that, you need to move beyond your assumptions that creating something GREAT with your photographs is going to be difficult, expensive, and time-consuming.

You must start to believe that "Simplicity is Key"!

Scrapbooks are an art form!

Hello everyone!

I'm creating this blog to promote and inspire Scrapbook-Making and Scrapbook-Art ----- a type of creativity that I've loved since I was a child.

I remember my first scrapbook album was filled with photographs and journaled comments about our family and the pets we had owned. A few years later, I started creating other books that were filled with photos and artwork of horses. I have always been a horse person but a scrapbook that went beyond simply the family photos became, for me, more of a way of displaying artwork than just a random collection of pictures.

Like so many others, I have always loved photographs, but the way that photographs are *displayed* can truly be an art form. That is the purpose of my blog ----- to inspire you to think of your photographs as an art form too, and to consider the way they're presented.