From pages to albums

Yesterday a new class began for me. It started at the perfect time as I was getting "bored"---that feeling of wanting something new to challenge me. Perhaps that is the reason that I am a serial starter! Anyway...


Our first assignment was to assess where we stand with our albums at this point. Even though I feel as though my albums are a mess, I do actually have some rhyme and reason to them. For the most part, my layouts are filed chronologically. I also have "special albums"--Thomas the Tank, Summer 2007, Salem, New England trip, California, birthdays, Christmas, and pre-Christopher---you get the idea.  We aren't even talking about all of those layouts that haven't yet made it into an album.

My "album system" makes sense to me. I even know why it doesn't work well enough to allow newly made layouts to find a home---the post bound albums! I have always struggled to integrate new layouts into those albums. It gets to be a real pain (not to mention a huge undertaking) to move things around and file the new layouts. I guess it would be easier if I created in chronological order, but my creative brain doesn't work like that. My memory doesn't work like that. As a result of this challenge, I have stopped purchasing post bound albums and moved into D ring albums. They are sooo much easier with which to work.

Another part of our assignment on day one was to photograph our albums. I did that---sort of. I have albums stashed everywhere. I did photograph a section of them. I'm thinking that I need to gather them all up into one huge stack to adequately illustrate what I truly have. I'll need to do that anyway if I'm going to create a cohesive album flow.

Day two of class is all about photos--it makes total sense to me that if you're going to organize your albums, you need to organize your photos. In my mind, that would allow you to see the gaps in your stories and be able to better estimate how much space to leave in each album. Thanks to the Photo Flow class at jessicasprague.com, I'm well on my way to have my 2012 photos organized--even a chunk of 2011 photos are in process. I am still cataloging my library--it IS a process. I think for this part of Cover to Cover, I'll focus on situating those photos that are already printed. There is a loose chronological flow happening there, but not to the degree I'd like.