Information

[-Tracy-]

This just in:  Sydney would rather have the photo album, Bobby wants both.


Since I've been having serious problems scrapping, I've been rethinking *why* I scrap and how it was that I started. I looked at my older paper albums and notice that I actually did use to included journaling. *gasp* I know that my original purpose was to share photos and stories for my kids. I wonder how I evolved from doing that, to just making pretty pages.

Right now I have about 9-10 bulky 12x12 albums that only cover their lives from birth to age 10 or so. After that I went digi. Those layouts need to be printed and will obviously take up much less room, but still, look at my lo count, there's over 300 there. So that's several more albums on top of what I already have.

At some point, I started scrapping only the 'best' photos and I'm not really an event photographer or scrapper, so I'm left wondering, what am I doing this for?  I can admit it, over the last five years, it's been all about me-I do it for the creativeness. Honestly, they're just prettier versions of a family photo album.

But what will happen to that stuff when I'm gone?  Will anyone really care? I have to be honest, I don't know if I would want a dozen plus, huge, cumbersome albums of my family. No matter how nice they look.

I'm seriously thinking about taking those photos, removing them from the layouts (for those I don't have negatives for) and putting them into a smaller, traditional photo album with tags or cards, or something opposite them telling whatever I would say, in my own handwriting, if I were showing them to a friend. Less bulk, same idea. 

At least then, if my kids didn't want to keep all the big bulky stuff I've been making, the stories and photos would still be there.

What do you think? Think your kids will keep all your albums? How many do you have done so far and what age are you up to?

Just stuff I'm pondering.

[GRACEpunches5]

 i've been scraping before the kiddos were born so i am caught up until last week (i just haven't ordered the prints yet). but, anyways since my kids have always have grown up around the scrapbooks they absoulty love looking at them. i think they could spend all day looking all of them if i let them. they love looking at theirselves when they were younger and my oldest even brought one for show and tell to preschool. (which made my heart melt to pieces) i can't imagine not scrapping and weather they want them or not when i'm gone they get stuck with them!!!! it just seems like such a nice gift i have made for generations to come. they will always know about our little family in the big world

[ScrapGoo]

I don't have kids yet but I do this hobby for me.  I do it for the creative outlet and I like telling the stories but if my eventual children don't want my books I guess I really don't care.  Once I am gone it won't matter to me then! I just keep on creating for my own outlet/sanity/fun of it. 

[milmomma]

 I think they will keep them. I have about 15 albums full of stickers and some of photos from my dad. It includes his parents, and their parents. And tons of people I never got to meet but I love looking at. I pull them out atleast once a year. I have them in a tote cause we move often and are in small quaters so we keep what we can packed up. I vote you should keep them as they are. You put time, love and hard work into them and they will love that.

[-Tracy-]

My kids love looking at their books too, maybe I'm just in a poopy mood.

I think I would be overwhelmed with aaaallll those books and stuff.

[Henu_Nea]

 My kids better keep my albums cuz that's all they're getting in the will!!!! LOL

Seriously, I think my kids will keep my albums. They love looking at them now and I really try to instill them the sentimental value of certain things. Better than anything money can buy, ya know?

I think this should be a Challenge. Do a LO about why you started scrapping and what keeps you going.

The reason I started scrapping is a long story but it means a lot to me and I hope that my kids will want to keep that peice of me that I pour into my LOs to share with future generations. So that my grandkids and great-grandkids will get to know me better.

I think you should keep your albums the way they are, Tracy. I think you're kids will cherish them.

[craftyfool]

 I think they will keep them. I have about 15 albums full of stickers and some of photos from my dad. It includes his parents, and their parents. And tons of people I never got to meet but I love looking at. I pull them out atleast once a year. I have them in a tote cause we move often and are in small quaters so we keep what we can packed up. I vote you should keep them as they are. You put time, love and hard work into them and they will love that.

Ditto!  (except the part about the ones from your dad...which is very cool, btw)

My kids love to go back and look now and I don't think that will change.  I still love to go back and look at my old photo albums and baby book too!

BUT Tracy...I go thru this same pondering sometimes and really wonder WHY I do it.  I guess it's what others have said...creative outlet.  It's fun.  And like Jess said...once we're gone we won't care what they do with 'em!

[bigsmartass]

 It is a creative outlet for me...

And I am hopeful that the boys, or at least their wives/children, will one day appricate them.  My oldest is only 4 but he enjoys looking at them when I bring them out... although he claims the pictures of him when he was a baby are of his little brother!

[suslvgeo]

 I totally think Cole will. He enjoys looking at every page I make of him and like the poster above, he even wanted to take it to school so he could show his teacher a "story" I made.

I think he knows how important it is to me. It is a part of me, just like my family and the MIami Dolphins. It is something that when he thinks of me will automatically pop into his head. Will he keep them all? I am not sure, but even if he keeps one it would make me happy.

It is also healing for me to scrap, when things are tough, I tend to turn to it. So even if he does not want them (little ingrate ) I think I would keep doing it. I love hanging pages on my wall, just like I would buy a photo at an artstore, but these mean something to me. Does that make sense? or am I rambling....AGAIN.

[JeanG]

  I'm positive my kids will keep my albums and look at them often. I'm also pretty sure the grandkids will kepp them - they love to look at them.  After that, I have no idea, but they'll have brought enough good memories that they're definitely worth it.

[baltoscrapper]

 Mason also likes to look at pictures and he's only 8. I can imagine when he is 18 or 25 (and getting married) that he and his future bride will love looking at pages of him as a little kid. Like Sus's Cole, Mason also loves every page I do and I think it makes him proud and makes him feel loved that HE is my hobby.  I hope he keeps them, but that's not for me to worry about. If he gets rid of them, than he is the one getting rid of the documents of our family history. He's sentimental, so I really don't think he'd do that anyway.

[bigsmartass]

 BTW, I plan (And sometimes already do) to add more journaling to the back of the pages.  Even if I don't want to journal on the front, there will be info on the back to let my kids know more of the story or why the photo was special to me, etc.  I think it would be awsome to have something like this from my grandma. 

If they don't want the bulk of it later they could always pay to have them professionally scanned and saved that way.  I do usually make my pages thin anyways, I don't like a lot of added bulk or weight.

[-Tracy-]

 I think my kids like seeing the pictures themselves, not necessarily all the stuff that's going on around them.

I'll have to ask Syd when she gets home, to see what her opinion is.

[MLee]

 Year before last I had to stop and re-evaluate what I was doing. Primarily because I was spending a lot of my time and our money doing it. Mostly time and space too. Even if it is a hobby and I love it, it is one that I got into to preserve memories and stories.

So, if I had gone from pereserving the stories to making art, was it really art or a self-indulgent hobby that was taking more of my time than a normal hobby would take? Was I spending more money doing this than I would on a normal hobby? More than DH would playing golf, for example? The answer was yes.

I then readjusted my thinking and the way I did my pages. I no longer cared about making pages for design teams, in fact I gave up all of them up except one and sometimes I will take on a 2nd one just for fun and on the condition that I scrap in my style and I don't have to change.

Then I made sure that I started "real" photos again - photos of things that mattered, where we were in our lives and what we were doing, what the kids were and are interested in. I went back to including heritage photos, photos of my chidhood. I started doing holiday photos again - not all of them but enough so that the kids can have memories of them years from now. I stopped caring if I used the "just released" products or if I was using stuff from my stash. If it was pretty and it matched, it got used.

If there isn't journaling on the front, then it's on the back. I print out all of the pages that I do - digi and paper - so that they're tangible, real things to hold and keep, to talk about and reaffirm the memories now so that they can retell the stories later.

That's just me. I don't want a bunch of pretty pages that don't mean anything to anyone after I'm gone. When my grandparents died we agonized over throwing things away but there was just so much stuff that had to go and I don't want my life to be like that. I want what is left of me to be things that someone will want to keep. So yeah, I have a lot of albums but, gosh darn it, I've made those pages relevant and they BETTER love them!! OR I'll come back and haunt the heck out of them!!

[Dianedi]

I've always scrapbooked for myself as an outlet. As a result, I definitely have my fair share of bulky 12x12 albums. 

Luckily for me, I usually scan my layouts as I create them to post online. I always keep a high resolution version of the layout with the intention of creating digital books to give to both of my kids. I save them on DVD's also. That way, they don't have to figure out how to divide up the books and they can have smaller albums. Plus, they'll have them on disk. I won't feel as guilty about leaving behind an entire houseful of bulky pretty layouts. Those will probably be falling apart by the time I'm gone anyway! 

[-Tracy-]

 

I don't want a bunch of pretty pages that don't mean anything to anyone after I'm gone. When my grandparents died we agonized over throwing things away but there was just so much stuff that had to go and I don't want my life to be like that.

This is exactly what I'm talking about!

When my kids go through the mounds of my scrapbooking, are they really gonna want 10 pages that say Cherish or Love or 100% Boy? I'm committing scrapbooking heresy here, but really I think it's time for me to downsize and get back to what I meant to do in the beginning. And do it in some form or fashion that is not going to overwhelm my kids when I'm dead.

That's just me though.

[craftyfool]

  So yeah, I have a lot of albums but, gosh darn it, I've made those pages relevant and they BETTER love them!! OR I'll come back and haunt the heck out of them!!

Tee heeeeee...I completely agree!  And I think I'm going to tell my kids just that! 

[nun69]

 my kids enjoy looking through my scrapbooks and I do it to preserve their childhood memories...they might not always remeber that in the month of Feb 2009 that...

1. mom got to ride a camel
2. Ben wrote some really kewl things at school to celebrate Martin Luther King's b-day
3. that ALL the kids enjoyed cupcakes for Ben's b-day
4. Abby got to go "choppin" {shopping} with dad all by herself...




and for example, Abby may have never realized how/why her parent's came about giving her her name without this LO....


so don't get me wrong, I think I have alot of LO's out there that don't really say much, but to me I want the kids to look back and remember what was special about that photo, vacation, event, etc and enjoy remembering and I am not a very expressive person IN PERSON, but I am very expresive in my journaling and I want my kids to know that I may not always SAY it, but I am always THINKING it...

that's WHY I scrap ALL the time {and I paper scrap!}

[-Tracy-]

 That's cool that you stayed true to why you started in the first place Angie. Wish I could say the same.

[montana_girl]

 Do I think my son will keep all of my albums?  No... but I have already told BF if anything happens to me, then my DS is to go through the albums and pick the pages he wants to keep, then BF can go through and get what he wants, then the rest of family can go through the pages that are left and take what they want.  Hopefully when all is said and done, all the pages will have a home.  They won't be the albums as I did them, but at least everyone will have something.  I just don't want "force" my son to take albums that he doesn't care about, I'd rather he had pages that truly meant something to him. 

As for "why" do I do this?  Because I love to scrapbook.  I love putting the pictures on the page and telling the story behind the pictures.  And there are some great stories in my albums.  Looking back through the albums , the pages with the most journaling tend to be my favorites.