photo storage … NOT something that i’m good at … or something that i even have a system for. i don’t do so bad at our family photos. but then i add on all the photos i’ve taken of all our daycare friends … and that is when i start to feel overwhelmed. so many kids … from so many years. i did a rough count in my head … and i think we’ve had over 22 different kids in our daycare over the past 7 years. that’s a lot! and that also means a lot of photos. some i scrap … some i don’t scrap. so what do i do with them all?
take this layout … totally random pics of ariana from throughout just last year. i think one of these actually made it’s way onto a scrapbook layout. and i think 3 or 4 of them are in the “2007 Favorites” book i had made through shutterfly last year. but i still had these prints out in a pile. do i keep them in a regular photo album … in case i want to scrap them? if they’re in the photo book or on a layout … do i really need another copy floating around?
and what about this layout … totally random pics of ady from throughout just last year. i believe only one of those pics was on a layout … and i’m guessing a few made their way into the “2007 Favorites” photo book. the others are random … ones that honestly i probably wouldn’t scrap at first. but i still love them all. especially now that she’s not in our life anymore … i still want to hold onto the memories. but what do i do? stick them into a regular photo album … maybe scrap them one day?
i have serious issues with having photos in too many spots. and i’m really not looking for advice or anything (although i always love to hear what everyone else is finding works for them). i have read so many things on this … i have the books … i’ve debated on the systems that people rave about. but for me … i just havn’t figured it out yet. lol!
last year when i did that photo book through shutterfly … it was a light bulb moment. i realized that to make one of those every year was a brilliant idea. that way i get all the totally random photos in there … all the day-to-day pics that show our little life here with these kids. all the photos that i might not think to scrap … because they’re not technically perfect. and it sums up the year so nicely.
so with that idea in mind … i havn’t ordered any prints of my daycare photos for myself this year at all. for the parents, yes. but i usually like to print the pictures myself if i’m going to scrap them. so why order all these extra prints. i know i’ll make a book at the end of the year. and why do i want all these extra pics … if they’re going to be in the book? then i’ll have the same photos in numerous places. what if i order a copy of the pic … and then decide to scrap that pic, only i print it myself to get the size and borders that i want? then i have it on a layout, in the book at the end of the year, and i still have an actual print of the pic laying around too? that is when i feel even more overwhelmed … because i have too many photos in too many places.
this is where i found myself yesterday during naptime … sorting through my stack of daycare photos that i have collected over the last year or two. i actually have been doing daycare for almost 7 years … but i’ve already solved this problem with the first 5 years worth of photos. lol! so as i went through the photos … i started pulling out the ones that i’ve already scrapped … or the ones that were in the “2007 Favorites” photo book … put them in the “toss” pile. then some of them were pretty similiar to other photos … so i’d stick those in the “toss” pile. i actually had a pretty big stack to toss … and i did just that … threw them all in the garbage. then about an hour later … i pulled them back out.
i just couldn’t do it … couldn’t get rid of them. and then i remembered these layouts that i did a few months ago. not great layouts by any means … but great memories and less photos laying around in random piles. so that is how i came to create these 3 layouts since yesterday … the two here and the one in the post from this morning. i just picked out some photos … cropped them without even measuring or planning … and then arranged them onto a layout. i know it probably looks like i planned and measured … but i seriously just cropped without thought … and they just managed to all fit together so nicely. then i dug out some older product … even some super old product. didn’t worry about journaling. didn’t feel the pressure of making anything jaw-dropping or innovative. just had fun … good, simple fun! and managed to get 22 photos taken care of on just 3 layouts … how awesome is that?
and the thing that i love the most about these layouts? that none of these photos necessarily go together … most were taken at different times and in different places. they don’t match … they’re all random. but when put together on a layout … they look like they were meant to go together. they tell a story … even without words. every photo on there means something to me. i can remember taking every single one … what we were doing and who else was there … and why they’re all giving me the looks they’re giving me. i treasure every photo here … every memory. and i am so glad that i took the time to put them all together … to hang out in our albums for years and years.
i know … this is what scrapbooking is all about! i know this … i read this … i understand this. but sometimes i get away from it a little … and spend too much time trying to make incredible, fanastic layouts that are perfect in every way. but i always seem to come back to this type of scrapping every few months … and i love it.
Laura Vegas 
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