Scrapbook Saturday: Plan on It: Finishing Your Project Albums

This post is part six of my series about overcoming creativity killers. You can read about creative roadblocks, stories to tell, using a kit, creative energy, and organizing supplies all on my blog.

One thing I have found that kills creativity, especially when working on a theme or vacation album is not knowing where to start. In this case, I think that a little pre-planning goes a long way. 

The steps I find helpful to finishing a project in a timely matter are as follows: 

1.  Set the intention or goal. 
2. Break down the steps into manageable pieces. 
3. Set time aside regularly to work on the project. 

It seems pretty simple, but I know it can sometimes feel overwhelming. To illustrate, here is how I finished a two-volume vacation album about a family trip in a few months.

In 2012, our family spent a week in Egypt exploring the ancient sites. 

It was a landmark trip that I had always dreamed of taking. I took so many pictures and collected memorabilia along the way. Right after the trip, I did the following:

• Edited, sorted, and organized the digital photos

• Wrote lists of the things we saw and did

• Made a list of funny stories I wanted to tell

• Wrote a few blog entries about the trip

• Sorted the photos I wanted to print in a separate folder

• Uploaded them to my favorite printing site

• Printed the pictures.

• Sorted the pictures and memorabilia into categories and stories.

• Put the pictures and memorabilia into page protectors in the order I wanted them to appear in the album.

• Found a kit collection of papers and embellishments to use for the album. I went with a Jillibeen soup collection because the papers reminded me of patterns and colors I saw in Egypt.

Then I let the project marinate for awhile. To be honest, I did nothing for three years. A year after the trip, we were super busy enjoying and exploring Saudi Arabia. Then we moved back to New York, bought a home, and had our sixth baby. Life was too busy for me to take on a project that size at the time. But I wasn't worried, because I had done some prep work already.This year, it was time to get serious about finishing the album. 

With everything in place, I began my project. Each day, I would pull out my binder of pictures and make one page. I didn't focus on the big picture or worry about how many pages I had to make because I had already done the work. 

Halfway through my project, I got really bored. I had finished the portion of our trip that was in Cairo and was about to work on pictures about Luxor. I was tired of the papers I was using and burnt out on making layouts. As luck would have it, I stopped at A.C. Moore and discovered there were some discounted Project Life albums and core kits. I bought two albums and a core kit that coordinated, more or less, with the papers I had used on the first half. I decided that I would split the album into two parts, so that it wouldn't jar the viewer with a different style of scrapbooking. I opted to do pocket pages for the rest of the trip. 

I also discovered a hidden stash of memorabilia that included postcards I purchased at the Valley of Kings. Cameras are not allowed in the tombs or even in the valley, so I bought postcards and a book to try and remember the amazing colors and scenes we saw in the tombs. I trimmed the postcards just a smidge and then loaded them up in the pocket pages. The second album was astoundingly easy and fast to complete.  

Because I used two different types of papers to complete the album, I did a few things to maintain a cohesive feel.

• I broke down the project into two albums covering two different places we saw. The first album covered our visit in Cairo. The second album covered our visit to Luxor. 
• I used a similar color scheme. Both collections included blues, oranges, reds, yellows, greens, and blacks. The Core kit contained cards that had similar patterns on a smaller scale. 
• I alternated using black or white for backgrounds in both volumes. 
• I used a variety of page sizes in both albums.
• The first page of the first volume coordinates with the final page in the second album. 
• The last page in volume 1 says, "Goodbye Cairo". The first page in the volume 2 says, "Hello Luxor".
• I included ephemera throughout both albums. 
• I used matching Project Life albums for both volumes. They are a matched set and signals to the reader they should be taken out together to look at.
• I used the same letter stickers in both albums. 

I am so proud of my albums because are completed. They are easy to access and my family can enjoy looking at them to remember our wonderful adventure. 

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