English 111: Process

Process to complete a project:  One of my favorite hobbies is scrapbooking.  I didn't start scrapbooking for real until 2005 when I was invited to a cropping get-together.  I had made some of my own very crude "scrapbooks" prior to that time, but nothing I honestly like showing off.  But since then, I have created enough albums to at least feel like an "old pro" as far as scrapbooking is concerned. 

As a side note, I feel it important to say that I have begun doing scrapbooks digitally (on the computer) and having them printed in books by Creative Memories, but since this is a fairly recent undertaking for me, I'm going to focus my attention in this blog on writing about my scrapbooking process as far as paper scrapbooks go.

Scrapbooking (or "cropping" as it is often called) begins for me well before I ever open an album.  Even as I am involved in different activies, I am thinking about the pictures that I'm taking and how I'll want to crop them:  the type of album I'll use, the paper, stickers, and so on.  I attempt to take pictures that will fulfill the image(s) that I've created in my mind regarding that particular album.  I already know that certain pictures will have dominance in the album while others will be more involved with a collage-type of page.  For example, I have been completing a scrapbook for each year my son is in school that is focused on nothing but school.  It is now a tradition that the first picture in the album is of my son standing under the arch leading in to his school on the first day of school.  He patiently stands in the right place and allows me to take his picture.  He's entering 4th grade this year, so his patience is starting to run out!  I've promised him that he only needs to do this as long as he's at Ellendale. 

(This idea actually lead me to create a special page in my neice's graduation album that I created where I have a picture of her on her first day of kindergarten--in front of her house--and a picture of her in her cap and gown in the same spot.  It's one of my favorite pages in that album!)

From there, the next step is to order the album if I haven't already done so.  For my son's school albums, I chose an 8x10 album.  When Creative Memories decided to quit making/selling them a few years ago, since I'd started using them for his school albums, I had to go ahead and purchase enough (including the paper) to at least get us through 5th grade.  I wanted that level of consistency. I will also purchase any extra special papers, stickers, etc. that I already know I'll need for that particular album.  I bought school stickers years ago that I continue to use each year for each school album.  I have stickers for each year of elementary school in particular.

As I have the pictures or classwork Samuel has completed that I want to put in the album, I always scrapbook when I have several hours to work so I won't be interrupted.  (I scrapbook every 2nd Friday of the month from 6 to midnight at my Consultant's house!) 

(This is already getting long, so I'm going to try to quit being so wordy from here on!)

Before I begin putting anything into the album, I'll sort through what I need crop and put them in the order I want to go in the album.  I like to work with the paper in the album and the album open in front of me.  I have all of my materials for cropping within reach:  paper, stickers, cutting supplies, pens, M&M's, a soft drink (typically), etc., etc., etc.

I will lay out my page and get an eye-ball view of it.  Once I have it the way I want it to be and I like the way it looks, I'll "glue" everything down on the page and then move on to the next page, completing it the same way.  I typically save my journaling for the last step to complete--after I've completely finished the whole album.  Sometimes I'll do it as I go along, but most of the time journaling is the last thing I do to complete each page.

For my son's school albums, we have a tradition at the end of the school year where we do his handprints and footprints to complete the album.  

Then, I put the protective cover sheets over each page in the album, make sure I've labled the album in the front if I didn't do it sooner, show it to my son--and whoever else I can coerce into looking at it--and place it on the shelf to be shown off whenever someone comes over!!!

Most of the time this does not really mean BEGINNING a whole new album.  I am typically working on several albums at the same time, so finishing one album just frees me to either devote more time to another album I'm working on or to begin another album that's been nesting in my head--for a while!