Monday, November 8, 2010

Album Organization

I've been scrapping for over a decade and in that time I have used every type of album and stored them in a million different ways. I've read Stacy Julian's method and I've followed Ali Edwards' blog on organization. I took bits and pieces of both to make something that works for me.

I knew that I wanted to display my albums in the family room and I wanted a streamlined look. I purchased these brown linen, 3-ring albums at Michael's and customized them with a title and a metal label holder on the binding.

I decided to go with the 3-ring albums because I wanted to be able to continue adding to the albums even though I do not scrap chronologically. The albums are by subject (Vacations, Celebrations, Christmas, Fall, Summer, Sports, School, Disney, Birthdays, Places we Go, Winter, Nicolas, etc.) and then they each have several volumes.


The top of the label stays the same and only the subject line on the bottom, in this case Disney, changes.

I wanted to keep my current pages separate so that they are easily accessible. When my family visits and on holidays, it's easier for them to pull out these four books below and "catch up" with what we've been up to rather than trying to skim through the last few pages of 15-20 scrapbooks on the shelf. The 2009-2010 books are filled with pages that I completed in those years, not pictures that were taken in those years. Basically, it's a library of my current work. I keep them on a separate shelf and they are linen in color. Soon, I will remove all of the 2009 pages and put them away in their respective subject scrapbooks. Then I will start filling these all over again with 2011 pages.


And last but not least, here's a view of the spine and how they look lined up in our bookcase. I have 18 and counting....


There are so many different ways to organize your scrapbooks. It's really a trial and error process and it's taken me years to find something that works for me. I hope this has been helpful in your future organizing endeavors!

6 comments:

Trish said...

I LOVE the idea of a "logo" for the front of your books!! I use the We R Memory Keepers and don't have the front window area, but maybe I can do that on the spine...COOL!

Julie Bonner said...

LOVE the look of this Nancy - I have these linen ones also - did you actually push the brad of the metal bookplate through the binding of the album to attach it?? I really like being able to see what each album is even up on the shelf. Great idea with the albums of recent work - I definitely need to get organizing!!! Thanks for sharing :)

jamie said...

i have a similar idea going with my albums. for each child they have a different color. and now i have returned to organizing my albums by year, although do not actually scrapbook that way.
great post!

Debbi Tehrani said...

You mean the pages are actually supposed to go in books???

I seriously need a system because I have about 4 feet of layouts stacked up and not in book! Love your system and they way your books look. Thanks for sharing your ideas!

pickmepam said...

i love the streamlined look! very nice!

Yara said...

Nic:

Love your system! Great idea about the current layouts system! Because, I try to rearrange immediately in the respective albums, after completing each layout, and it is always a mess when I find found out a album needs sheet protectors. Then I need to procrastinate. I will use your idea, definitely!! Thanks so much!!