More on Photo Organization

Storage Options:

· Cropper Hopper Photo Box-Step 1: Organize photos by decade into the sections of a photo box. This is my personal favorite as it holds 2000 photos. The dividers make it easy to being sorting & continue to use it for cold storage. It made it easier to then take each decade & break it down chronologically by year-season.

· Pioneer 3-up Photo Album-Step 2: Transfer photos that you plan to scrapbook into 3 up Album. Group these by double page spread into 1-2 sleeves in storage album labeled by the season, year. Extras are tossed remain in the Cropper Hopper Photo Box. Other brands I’ve bought, haven’t held up-Pioneer makes the best 3 up album. Seeing them at a glance will help you when you are flipping through pictures for inspiration.

· 2 drawer index card file; Great to file non-event photos into categories (much like tagging in the digital world), people, places & things in your life that do not fall into theme pages, or those photos that you want to scrapbook about personality, feelings and behind the scenes stories.

This next suggestion may a little outside of your box-but think about it a bit-this turned out to be some of my favorite layouts!!! Remember these are just photo organization suggestions, take what you like & leave the rest. I chose to only do people for the category drawers.

Category Drawers: Its easy to get focused on scrappin’ the “events” in our life because they happen so often (holidays, first day of school, birthday and there are enough to keep you croppin’ until the cows come home, B UT don’t forget the little moments in life are sometimes your kids want to know the most about. My mom did take those little moment pictures but I want to know what we were doing, what was she doing when we did that, how it made her feel to see us imitating her motherly chores, etc.

· Looking through your storage albums, pull pictures that don’t fall into events, your favorite photos, personality photos, etc.

· “Pull pictures that have a CONNECTION between generations, locations & events that aren’t bound by geography or chronology that captures the richness of your life and the people, places & things in it.” Stacy Julian.

Scrapbook Layout Storage: I chose Maude Asbury Albums -they hold 30-40 pages depending on depth-not recommended more than 3".

o Black Album - US (John, Tammy, Dane, Justin)

o Red Album - People we love (Mom, Dad, sisters, brothers, extended family, friends, other people you admire)

o Blue Album - Places we Go (travel, vacation or any other destination & place that’s part of personal story)

o Green Album - Things we Do (things we love, collect, spend money & time on, activities, traditions, accomplishments

Pitfalls

· Don’t over plan the next 5 years! Life happens & plans change, don’t set yourself up for disappointment

· “Life is crazy and the craziness is the fun part; life happens, let it”. Stacy Julian

· Sifting through boxes of photos robs you of your scrapbook time.

Photo storage allows your family to view pictures now & you can jot journaling notes as they look at them. Its easy to do-set the photos near the sofa & you can sort while watching TV & visiting with family. Break it down into small segments- 1 hour a day or more if you are having fun!!!

I hope this helps & motivates you to print & organize your photos!!

Sources: Stacy Julian Big Picture Scrapbooking & Photo Freedom

2fer Tuesday: All generic paper section

Happy Scrappin'