SYW279 – Indexing Layouts and Scrapbooks

[00:00:19] Welcome to Scrapbook Your Way, the show that explores the breadth of ways to be a memory keeper today. I'm your host, Jennifer Wilson, owner of Simple Scrapper and author of The New Rules of Scrapbooking. This is episode 279. In this episode, I'm joined by Holly DeVore to chat about how indexing her layouts and albums fostered a more intentional creative process going forward.

[00:01:06] Hey Holly, welcome back to Scrapbook Your Way.

[00:01:09] Thank you for having me, Jennifer.

[00:01:11] For those who didn't hear you on your previous episode, which was episode number 222, um, can you share a little bit about yourself?

[00:01:21] Yes, of course. Um, so I live in Sacramento, California. I, um, have four children, uh, Lucas, who's eight. Naomi who is 6, Mason who is 4, and then Olivia, our newest, who just turned 7 months. Um, I have been married to my husband just over a decade and I love to read, I love to walk, um, love being outdoors whenever I can.

[00:01:52] Um, and yeah, that's the gist of, of me.

[00:01:56] Yes. Yes. And of course, scrapbooking.

[00:01:59] Yes. That too. Yes.

[00:02:03] So what is exciting you right now, both inside of your hobby and in your everyday life?

[00:02:08] Of course. Um, so right now in everyday life, we're getting ready to leave for Disneyland this weekend. We're all very, very excited for that. Um, and inside of scrapbooking, I'd say the most exciting thing right now is just tackling some, um, childhood albums for my kiddos. Um, that's where I'm most eager and most excited to work on right now, so, yeah.

[00:02:37] That's, that's exciting.

[00:02:39] So you know, being someone who lives in California, Disneyland is like, is obviously much, much closer than Florida. Like do you have like a strong preference of one of the other?

[00:02:50] Um, so I, we've been to both. Um, we love Disney World. But with the little kids, the, the flight is kind of brutal for us. Um, so, yeah. It's a lot, a lot of traveling, but we love, love Disney World. We loved it there. Um, Disneyland is closer for us. It's about an hour flight. So that's mainly why we prefer Disneyland. Um, but we love both. We, we don't have a, any preference. They're both wonderful to us.

[00:03:20] Very cool. Yes. All right. So what is on your memory keeping bucket list? So I always love to ask this to our guests because we all have stories that feel important to capture, but for one reason or another, we haven't told them yet. Maybe it felt intimidating or maybe we just, maybe even didn't think it was worthy of capturing, but do you have a story that feels important to you?

[00:03:40] Yes, um, most definitely this go around. I know I was reading this question from you and it was kind of hard for me to pinpoint. Um, but based on timing, just of where we're at right now in life. Um, I'm getting ready to kind of tell my story with some fertility issues before we had Olivia. Um, we went through, um, four losses before we had her.

[00:04:04] So I did journal and I did, um, document digitally when in real time while it was happening. Um, but I couldn't wrap my head around creating, something from it. It wasn't, it just didn't feel, it was too, it was too heavy. Um, but now that we have Olivia and she's our last child and, um, she was a huge surprise to us.

[00:04:32] So we just never thought it would happen. I just feel I'm ready to tell those stories. And for me, it's, it's important for me to tell that story. Because you know, when I'm out and about with my kids, no one would look at me and think, oh, she's never struggled with fertility issues. She has four children.

[00:04:51] Um, but I really want to tell that story. Because it was a big part of, of my life, um, during 2021 and 2022. And I also, um, want my kids to know they knew that I was going through, even though they're so little, they knew I was losing babies. But, um, I think it's also important for both of them to know that.

[00:05:14] Um, you know, they do have siblings in heaven looking after them. And, um, I think it's just a story that needs to be written down and shared, um, yeah, for both me and for my family. Yeah.

[00:05:27] Yes, for sure. I know. Yeah, I've kind of followed your journey and, um, I, feel like sometimes we have stories that we need others to understand, particularly our family members. Because they might go through that in their own lives someday. And, um, they may be, you know, challenging, of course, to, to document in real time, but we can reflect back and, and ensure that, so. Can't wait to see how you, how you do it.

[00:05:58] And also sharing with, um, with the crafting community. So mainly Instagram. I got so much support from them during that time. And so many messages of people that have suffered through, you know, infertility, um, IVF, miscarriage, um, all, all over the spectrum of, of loss and pain. And, it was just really, it was really comforting to know, um, that people were willing to share that part of them. And, um, it really actually helped me get through a lot of it because of them. Because It's hard to, it's weird to say, but my close family didn't really understand it. Because they never went through it.

[00:06:43] So it was hard to have conversations, but with technically strangers, but not strangers. Um, I was able to have open conversations. So I really, yeah. Thank the community for that. And yeah, it's been, it's definitely been a journey, but one that was helpful because of them. Yeah.

[00:07:00] Scrapbookers are just, we have like just an amazing community. Um, and I love how our hobby can kind of bring out the best in people. Um, you know, even though we, you know, have a lot of. May have differences between us, um, come from different backgrounds, but there are things that we share when it comes to the stories we're living. So it's something that we can all appreciate.

[00:07:24] Yes, I agree. Yeah.

[00:07:26] So as we mentioned, you were previously on the podcast. Um, this is one of our, My Way episodes before and we'll link it in the show notes. Cause you are our featured artist for that month. Um, for those listeners that may not have caught that episode, can you tell us a little bit more about how you have approached scrapbooking?

[00:07:42]

[00:07:42] Yes of course. So I consider myself relatively new to scrapbooking. I started, um, more traditional scrapbooking in 2020. Um, right now in this point of life, there's specific, um, projects that I've learned that I love and adore year after year. That is staying, um, pretty consistent. So, um, I have had a couple big changes this year.

[00:08:07] I am switching to some more digital products just because. Um, or digital albums, so I'm going to be printing out photo books. But that's probably the biggest change, mostly because I have the new baby and, time is, I guess, shrinking, um, right now. Just, it's just, the season. So, um, I've decided to switch to digital. So I can keep up with stories. Because my favorite type of storytelling is in real time. So, in the moment. It's pretty hard for me to go back and tell stories. I don't, feel as motivated. So, I just made that big shift and I'm working on a digital family yearbook. I do , daily documenting. And then physical, I will always have, and I'll say this now, I will always have Week in the Life and December Daily. Um, and then sprinkled in will be some travel, some little travel albums, mini books, but nothing, nothing too grand other than my Week in the Life and December Daily. So that's where I'm sitting at right now with scrapbooking. And it comes in different sizes. I love the 10x8, I love 6x8. Um, eight and a half by 11. I kind of love to do it all. It just keeps it exciting for me and how I document. Um, and yeah, that's the gist with where I'm at right now with, with scrapbooking. Yeah.

[00:09:30] I love how kind of the, the suite of things helps you, you know, keep the diversity of experience. Um, from making things a little bit faster with digital or more tactile with those very like boundary constrained projects so that we can finish them. Um, then, you know, adding something in for travel when, when those types of projects come up.

[00:09:53] When it comes to your, uh, digital to printed as photobook yearbook. How are you putting that together? Like what software, individual pages, photobook software, like etc.

[00:10:00] Perfect. Um, so I am using Canva right now. That's just where I'm the most well versed in.

[00:10:13] Um, I've been using it for about eight years. I used it when I was a digital planner back in the day. Um, and it's just something that comes with a lot of ease for me. I can have it on my phone. It's just super easy to navigate.

[00:10:27] Um, what I'm doing is building the whole photo book within Canva. And then, right now my system is uploading my yearbook pages a month at a time into the Mixbook software. Um, I was trying to use Blurb and I hope no one, I'm not, I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, but Blurb was very hard for me personally to work on, on my phone.

[00:10:53] Um, so

[00:10:54] I would agree. That's true. So

[00:10:56] I was like, Oh, I don't want to, I love the, I love using, I've heard great things about like the price point. It looked great, but it was just hard for me to navigate. So I had a shift and um, went to Mixbook and it was very easy to upload PDFs. So, um, yeah. So I'm deciding to go with that company when it comes time to print them out. Yeah.

[00:11:21] Yeah. That totally makes sense. And I would say that for folks that are interested in photo books, like there's such a huge range these days of where you're going to have your optimal experience, like some are very much mobile focused, if not exclusively mobile, mobile focused, and others are like, No, you're not going to use your phone for this.

[00:11:41] Yeah.

[00:11:42] And that's okay. It's just important to know what you're like, know going in. Um, and how that connects to how you actually create. Because sometimes you end up creating like, uh, a barrier for yourself because you're not creating on the same device. You're going to make your book. So.

[00:12:00] Exactly, exactly.

[00:12:02] So today I want to talk about the kind of 2 different things that you've been working on. Um, you already mentioned this a little bit, but you're trying to find a place of caught up with your children's albums. And then you're also indexing all of your albums. So can you share a little like big picture about why these top, these efforts are top of mind for you?

[00:12:20] Yes, of course. So I'll go ahead and jump into the indexing part. Um, so I joined your community. And Peggy, I watched a video, like a rerun. So that was, um, and went in and she was discussing indexing and some of the examples she was giving with the community was, like indexing your ink pads. So you know what colors you have and so on. And I loved her ideas, they're so great. But it was hard for me to use some of them just because I'm more on the minimalist side. So I don't have a ton of tools or a ton of product. But it ignited an idea when it came to my albums. I was like, ooh, I can transfer this idea into indexing all of my physical albums.

[00:13:08] Um, and I love that because I want to look, so I basically have a PDF document. And what I did is I took a photo of every album that I own, and that's about 35 to 40 right now. And , what I did was I uploaded it into a PDF, and I made notes on what the album pertained, what year it was made, and then the size album.

[00:13:36] Um, and I love having this and I broke it out into categories. So I have like my December Daily category, Week in the Life, Project Life, and so on. So I broke it into categories. I wanted to do this now. Because I can see myself in the future 15 years down the road with quite the collection of albums. And I know at some point in time I'm going to have to start storing my albums.

[00:14:01] So, I just wanted to kind of start this now and build upon it. So as I complete albums, I can add it to my PDF document. And I basically have a running list of everything I own. Um, and what was wonderful, and what I wanted to add, um, I had a discussion with someone on my Instagram messaging once I started sharing this project. And they stated that they had over 200 albums in their home.

[00:14:31] Um, and that they were put away in bins. Which I think is pretty common to have, you know, they're, it's gonna be binned and put away somewhere, stored somewhere. Um, and she mentioned that she wanted to create a QR code, so basically, she would put the QR code. And I was like, you're brilliant, this is great, she wants to put it on the tote. So when she scans it, she'll know all the albums that are inside there, um, and what they are. And I was like, oh, that's just a great idea, so, yeah, it's, I think it's just a, a different way of thinking of indexing.

[00:15:06] I just never would have thought it, thought of it, unless I was hearing Peggy talking, but, and the community. But, um, yeah, that's the, that it's, to me, it was a small project because I don't have a ton of albums. Not 200 or 300, but, um, something that I think would be really helpful down the road. Yeah.

[00:15:24] So, so what did like doing this project, um, even though it, you know, it felt small and doable and I'm sure very satisfying, like what did you like take away from it? Um, are there any like changes you're going to make? Like, for example, your photo book project, did you already decide that before this or did that come after?

[00:15:43] The photo book actually came after. And I'm actually, while taking photos of albums and so on, I, I don't think I'll ever regret the albums I did. But it's, it does make me more aware of how many projects I was doing. Um, and, and just also, and also I'm like a beginner, so I think like with anything, we go in hard and have a ton of fun and do all the things, but now as I'm kind of,

[00:16:10] maturing through scrapbooking, I'm realizing, oh, I, these are the albums and the stories that really mean a lot to me, and this is what I want to focus on. So it, I can see the future. I'm not going to have as big of a collection. I'm probably maybe going to have, um, four or five albums tops per year. And that would include photo books as well.

[00:16:34] So it's, it's bringing, it's shedding light on the fact of, no, I'm not going to have totes and totes and totes of albums currently, I don't think. But, um, it could change in the future. But, yeah, it's definitely making me more mindful of space. Especially, we live in California. We don't have, I mean, just the homes are ridiculously priced here, so, we don't have a ton of space or a ton of extra storage. Um, so, it just makes the most sense to, you know, pick the albums and the stories that I most want to tell and just focus on those. Yeah.

[00:17:10] This is kind of a weird question, but do you anticipate, like, future FOMO about, oh, I really want to do this, but it really doesn't fit into my repertoire and it would take up a lot of space. So I probably shouldn't, but I really want to. Are you like, Are you

[00:17:24] following my train of thought here?

[00:17:27] Oh, yeah. No, I get what you're saying. Like if there's something in the future that comes up, I mean,

[00:17:32] if I can see it being interchangeable, so let's say that it's a different form of documenting family yearly moments, I can see that where I can interchange it. But just adding, I can't see myself adding on.

[00:17:47] I feel like we cover so much right now. I mean, so much can be covered in a family, family yearbook for me. So much is covered in Week in the Life for me. Um, those like everyday moments. Um, Yeah, I can't really, yeah, I can't really see, but you know, we have to see what the future, what the future holds too, for scrapbooking. We haven't, we can never really call it.

[00:18:12] Yeah. So like have, have 12 by 12 layouts ever been like something that you really wanted to dive into?

[00:18:18] So that's funny. So my childhood albums for my kids are actually going to be 12 by 12 albums.

[00:18:26] Okay. Okay.

[00:18:28] People always make fun of me there. I'm like, I'm so excited. I'm going to do 12 by 12. They're like, Holly, that's old school. That's like traditional old school. I was like, Oh, okay. Like, they're like, you're going back in time. I'm like, but for me, the childhood albums, I love it in a big 12 by 12. So, yeah, I'm excited to dive.

[00:18:45] Okay. Let's talk more about that. So like when you started this year, like what, you know, you have now four children, what, what was like your starting point? What were you working with? And then, you know, how did you kind of assess the lay of the land?

[00:19:01] Yeah, of course. So, um, so something I have not jumped into were childhood albums. So basically an album that's specific for each child and their own memories. Um, didn't touch it. I felt pretty overwhelmed and intimidated by the idea. And another big reason is I did not know which format I wanted to go, go into. I tried the six by eight.

[00:19:26] I didn't love it. It was just too small for me. Um, I tried pocket pages and that was just a little too hodgepodgey for me as well. So then I was sitting on it and I was like, okay, I just, just make a decision, just go for it, start the albums. And I decided to go with the 12x12. I think, for me, I wanted to be able to play more. So I wanted to be able to create more, I don't know, I just wanted more space.

[00:19:55] And I love the, uh, the embellishment part of it. Like for how my brain works, it just made the most sense. So I decided to go with the 12 by 12. So once I decided on size, I was like, yes, here we go. Um, and then I came up with a system. And I decided, so I have, I have the four kiddos, but one was born this year. So technically I'm working on the three oldest kids. So I'm going backwards, so my oldest was born in 2016, and then I'm starting on 2023.

[00:20:30] So I'm doing batch work and then I'm cycling through. So what I'm doing is, so, my three oldest kids, I went through Google Photos and I picked 10 to 12 moments for each child. And then I printed them all out. Cut them all down. And then I chose my paper and embellishments. So I did that each year at a time.

[00:20:54] So I just completed 2023, 2022, 2021, and then 2020. Um, and I'm just doing, and it's very, and also I want to say they're very simple layouts. There's nothing really like intricate or not a lot of things going into it. It's really just journaling, embellishing, and playing with paper. Um, so, yeah, that's, that's how I started.

[00:21:20] That's where it's going. Um, and another thing like, cause I've been sharing it a lot on social media. Another big question people were asking was like, how do you just choose 10, 10 photos per year? Like, how do you do that? And something I wanted to remind people was, for me, I need this to be manageable.

[00:21:40] It's something, if I went in saying, Oh, I need a document every little moment. I kind of freeze up and I stop. And it would just have been put into the corner. But knowing how my mind works, I needed to have a set number. So it gave me constraints. And then it also gave me momentum because I'm seeing progress.

[00:22:02] I'm like, yes, I knocked out three kids for this year, move on to the next year. And I just kept going and going. Um, and another thing is the rules in our heads. So I tell myself, I'm like, oh no, I forgot this story. So I just jot it down and I'll get back to it in a year or two or whatever in the future.

[00:22:24] But knowing that you have the capability to always go back and add moments. But if you want to gain some traction, make this project doable for you. Um, I think is the biggest, biggest takeaway for what I learned.

[00:22:38] Oh, that's, that's amazing. I love that perspective so much. I, you know, I'm doing the math here. So about, let's just say like 10 stories per year per kid, you have three kids that you're doing this for right now and you've done three years. So do you have three pretty full albums at this point?

[00:22:54] Oh yeah. So there, the Mason, so I shared it on my Instagram, his 12 by 12 is full. So that was four years of documenting. Um, and another thing I was thinking too is like, hey, you know, I'm not, my goal isn't to say, oh, here, take these, you know, when you leave the house or whatever it may be. That's not necessarily my goal. But I do want to keep in mind, if they do want to take the albums, like.

[00:23:21] Mm hmm.

[00:23:21] Tops, maybe 5 to 6 12x12s, tops. Um, and I think, for me, that doesn't seem overwhelming. That's easily, we can put in a bucket, store it away, whatever it may be, um, And they can stay home with me too. It's, it's not something we have to send off. But yeah, if I can fit four to six years and each 12 by 12 album, that's a huge win for me. Yeah. And space and all of that.

[00:23:49] Well, even like I would think of like about 30 pages is tends to be an album depending on how thick you scrapbook. Um, and so that's like, that's three years. Three times six is 18 years. So, you know, five or six albums seems really doable. Um, and of course, if it's more, it's more. But as you said, like, if you can just say, I'm just going to pick 10 that stand out. You know, the cream that's risen to the top and you can always do more. Uh, I love that. And I think that's going to help so many of our listeners.

[00:24:19] Yeah, and I'm, I'm excited because I love the conversation of, you know, I've had a lot of conversations where people are like, oh, you know, my kid's 17, my kid's 18, I want to finish an album before they graduate. Like, that was probably one of the biggest conversations. They're like, I haven't touched anything.

[00:24:38] And for when we were having the conversation, they're like, you know what? Um, I can just do two layouts per year. Like a conversation I had with my friend Jen. She's like, I can do two a year and I can get this done before they graduate. And I was like, that's amazing. Too, that's going to be a nice amount of stories in an album that you can send home with them or send away with them if they want to take it.

[00:25:01] Whatever it may be. Um, but it's doable. Like you're making it feasible. It's not this overwhelming, huge, taxing project. It's, it's manageable and it's a beautiful album that you can send off with your kids. So, yeah.

[00:25:18] Most Well and that I think is even easier than what you're doing. Because like finding the two for the year of like what were like the big milestones or the big changes, um, like that I think is even easier to notice. Um, than, you know, picking, you know, 10 or more. Um, so yeah, that would be an awesome project. And I know that there's a lot of, um, stressed out moms of high schoolers who are, are thinking about those types of projects. Or you you know. some are already like avid scrapbookers that maybe have not done something that specific. And of course, even somebody who's, not really a scrapbooker. Um, you know, our listeners may have friends like that, even just like picking, okay, like let's pick two photos per year. And we can make a little album, um, for, for your kid's graduation party. So. So, much possibility there.

[00:26:14] Oh, yeah.

[00:26:15] Okay. So can you review again, like where you are right now?

[00:26:18] Of course. So right now, so 2020 has been completed. Um, that one, that year is interesting for me because I noticed I didn't have a ton of pictures, but I also had my third kid that year. So that could be why too, in the mix of the pandemic. Um, so, um, So 2020 was completed.

[00:26:36] That was pretty easy to knock out. Um, so now I just need 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019 for Naomi and Lucas. And as I'm going backward in time, I'm knocking out kids. So I'm having less to document. Which has been really nice. So, um, I want to say the hardest part is done now because Mason's completed. Now I just have my two oldest kids.

[00:27:04] Um, and I have more of a clearer picture of what I'm doing in the batch working. Um, so yeah, that's where I'm at now. I'm hoping to get it done by December 1st. Because December Daily is going to be my sole focus, um, when December hits. Um, and also that's another reason why I went digital for my family yearbook. So that started back in July. I switched to digital because I wanted my, the childhood albums I'm working on right now to be my main focus. So, I had to do those big shifts so I could get this, it's a pretty big project, knocked out and done. Um, and, and that's where I'm sitting at, yeah, right now. And. How it came about. Yeah.

[00:27:48] I think those are just really smart, intentional decisions because you're figuring out how, how to balance all the desires you have and then how can we tweak it, you know, to make it your way. Um, in order to, you know, have the, the best possible scrapbooking scenario that we have. You know, obviously, if we all had all the time, all the money, all of the creative energy, um, you know, who knows what we might do, but that's not realistic. That's not what we have. We have our own constraints and our own creative interests. Um, and so if you can find some sort of balance, it's amazing.

[00:28:24] No, I agree. Most definitely.

[00:28:27] So, okay, let, maybe let's do a little bit of a preview for how are you thinking about next year? Is it just I'm, you know, I'm full speed on finishing this by December, December Daily. And then it's basically, you know, three projects. When are you going to start your, your daughter, new daughter's, um, uh, album, you know, what's, what's next.

[00:28:49] Yeah, so for, so really I'm not touching, I've done 2024, 12 by 12 layouts for all the kids. I've done a few here and there.

[00:28:59] Um, but it's not a priority. So what I like to like remind myself, is that even though I'm technically not scrapbooking 2024, let's say, right now. I am still documenting. And I think this is such a good reminder for everyone that when life is shifting or seasons are shifting or whatever's happening at work or in your home or health. You're always documenting. You're always taking photos. There's always moments that you're living and documenting. Whether you're journaling or whether you're snapping a photo, you're documenting. So, I like to remind myself that. Because for next year, so right now I'm working in a daily planner. And I'm putting photos in my daily planner every day and I'm jotting down what I'm doing every hour.

[00:29:55] I'm jotting down big things that are happening with me personally or with the kids, whatever it may be, I'm documenting. And it takes me probably 10 minutes a day, it's all digital. So next year in 2024 or 2025, um, when I look back on 2024 to start putting pictures together of what I want to document of myself and my children, whatever it may be, I have that already in my phone.

[00:30:22] So I'm not, I used to have issues, like my anxiety, I used to get so upset when I did not get a chance to scrapbook. It would bug me. I was like, gosh, can't just sit down for 20 minutes and finish a layout. It gave me anxiety. And so I had to remind myself, you have everything you need. You have your photos, you have your words. No, you can't sit down and scrapbook, but we can get to it, next month, next year, whatever it may be. So that's where I'm sitting at right now when it comes to future documenting. Um, I don't like to use the word up to date, but I have a flow now. Let's just say that I have a flow and I'm going to have a process.

[00:31:04] I'm going to knock out two layouts per kid per month. And I also batch work. So I'm picking one design. So like, so I know you have the sketch and templates in your community. Oh my gosh, and you can pick like the number of photos, you can pick the size layout, you can pick the design, it's just amazing.

[00:31:27] So, what I'll do is I'll go search on there, like, oh I have three photos. I'll screenshot a template, and then that's what I use for all four kids. So I'm doing the same design for all four kids. That doesn't matter to me because they're all going in different albums. And I'm batch working. I'm like cutting up the papers all the same and I'm even using the same paper pack so. And the same embellishment pack. And I can knock out four layouts in an hour because I'm following and batch working it.

[00:31:58] But yeah, so that's my goal for next year is just to keep following that system, keeping it simple. I'm not going to be the person, maybe it'll be in the future, but I can't be the person right now that spends an hour on one layout. Making this beautiful, I mean, yes, beautiful designs, I need to be a little more, um, wise with my time. Because I, I just need to make it simple and stick with that if I want to get my stories told. Um, and yeah, so that's just the, the process right now that I'm keeping up with. Yeah.

[00:32:31] So I have two follow up questions and they're different, but if I don't say them both, I'm going to forget them. So one is like, what are you actually using to do your daily documentation? Is it like Day One or something else? And then the second question is, if I can get the words to formulate because I'm already forgetting it. Um, oh, if there's like, for example, you're going to Disneyland or maybe you go to the pumpkin patch this fall, um, are you sometimes creating layouts for your four kids with the same or similar stories, or are they all typically different stories for each kid?

[00:33:08] A good question. Oh my gosh. Yeah, that's perfect. So let me answer the first, the daily documenting. So that I am using the Passion Planner. So what's wonderful is she offers free digital downloads. So I, um, downloaded her daily planner. I own her physical daily planner, but I downloaded the digital set it up in Canva as an eight and a half by 11 size.

[00:33:36] So it has on the left side it has an hourly timetable with multiple boxes. Um and then it has like a mood tracker, so I suffer with anxiety and stuff, so I like to use a mood tracker, how I'm feeling so on. And to be aware of when my anxiety is starting to rev up and stuff. And then on the right side it's like a dot grid, it's blank. And what I usually do there is I can do some free writing, so whether it's journaling. Or I'm going to put a collage template and drop all the photos I took from that day into a collage. Um, so yeah, that's my daily, what I'm doing daily. Um,

[00:34:17] That's super cool.

[00:34:19] I love it, it's so, I don't know how to explain it, I was never good at documenting, like, things that my kids said, or just these like minute details, but now that I have that daily planner, I'm catching so much more. It's just so much more intentional. And I'm loving it. It's just, I'm having so much fun. Um, yeah, so that's daily. And then what you pointed out with the, the photos, the similar

[00:34:46] photos. That's exactly, it's so funny. I'm like, I told my husband, I was like, we need to start doing different stuff. Because year after year of the childhood albums, I'm like, oh, here we are at Bishop's Pumpkin Farm again.

[00:35:01] Here we are at, you know, the same things we're and I was like, we need to try a different farm. I was just joking. We love it there. But, um, yeah, that's exactly what I'm doing. So I'm pulling. So like, let's say we go to the Splash Pad. I have three different photos of each child at the Splash Pad at some point in time, and I'm batch working similar stories.

[00:35:23] So, it's that thought process, process two of, oh, if I want to use only one paper pack, which one's going to make the most sense for these stories I'm telling? So, that's right on the money, what, what we're doing and what makes the most sense, yeah.

[00:35:37] Sure. Sure. Yeah. I think that's that's a really common question of folks that have multiple children. How are you, um, Kind of making sure that, like, we can easily get something in everyone's album. If that's, you know, that's your process and that's important to you. Um, and also, obviously, they all have their own milestones and memories too. So, how are you keeping track of, like, the layouts that you want to create as you're going through your photos. Um, like, how are you planning? Um, what comes next?

[00:36:12] So I have a document within Canva and it's a yearly calendar and it's broken out by month. So what I'm doing, I actually, you could do it digitally, but I print them out all physically. And I have them on my scrapbook desk. So when 2023, when I started there, I pulled out Lucas's 2023 document, Naomi and Mason.

[00:36:39] And then I look at my, so I saved all the photos in a folder on my phone. So I have 2023 Lucas, 20, and so on. And then, um, what I did is it's all chronological. So I would look at the photos and it'll show me, okay, January, we did a snow day in Lake Tahoe. So I would write that memory down, with the date.

[00:37:01] So as I completed the layouts, I put a little check mark or a highlight on the, the physical paper. So I'm saving those. I have a little four by six storage container. I'm saving all of those in a container so I know what I completed. Or I know also if I want to go back, let's say in five years, I want to go back to 2023 and document some more memories.

[00:37:26] I can see what's already completed. And, um, you know, fill in whatever other stories I would want to for that timeframe. Yeah.

[00:37:36] I love your blend of both like using Canva for more than just design. You're using it as like, uh, a planner, like an active tool that you're working within, not just to create a finished project. And then also when you need something physical, you're, you know, getting things into that physical format as well. Because they travel better with our physical items.

[00:37:58] Exactly. Exactly. Yes.

[00:38:01] Oh my gosh, this has been so insightful. Uh, if you had to step back and share some advice for our listeners who kind of want to have the same sense of control that you have around, like, around your albums and your scrapbooking, what, what advice might that be?

[00:38:15] I would say, so I think this is also a personality thing. So I'm a.

[00:38:22] I mean, it's fair. Yeah.

[00:38:23] A highly anxious person. I'm highly just a bunch of different things. So for me having a plan and having some control over, you know, my scrapbooking really helps me get things done. Um, but if I had to give advice, I would definitely say start small.

[00:38:44] Especially with projects that seem really big and overwhelming, start small. I would say make a step by step plan before even jumping into a project. Have a plan of, okay, these are the pictures I'm going to print, or today these are the photos that I'm going to go through and see which ones I want to put in my album.

[00:39:04] Whatever it may be, just start small. I always think when we look at a big project, the big picture, it can freeze us up. So just sitting down, taking 10 minutes at night. To do a little bit of planning, I think goes a long way. Um, yeah, that's probably my biggest advice. Yeah, when it comes to wrapping our heads around bigger projects.

[00:39:29] Yeah.

[00:39:29] Oh, for sure. I can tell why you were attracted to becoming a member because it seems like a lot of the things we do like fall right in line with the way your brain naturally works. So I've been so glad to have you in there.

[00:39:41] Oh, it's so, and yeah, the community's been so welcoming and great. And yeah, and it helps you kind of just wrap your head. There's a lot that goes behind actually scrapbooking. I mean, there's so many steps and also having people to run ideas off of so many different minds and how we work and what makes sense to us. Um, it's just, yeah, it's a great place. Great place to be. Yeah.

[00:40:07] Thank you so much for spending time with me and sharing all these details. Can you share where our listeners can find you online and anything you might be working on? It sounds like we're going to be seeing some December Daily pages at some point here.

[00:40:19] Yeah. Oh, I can't wait. I can't, it's going to be fun. Um, so for, um, I'm mainly just on Instagram right now. So just my name, Holly DeVore underscore. Um, nothing big coming up. I do share a lot of my stories of what I'm working on. Um, so kind of behind the scenes and. Just my thought process with scrapbooking, but yeah, nothing big.

[00:40:44] Just, uh, yeah, just kind of.

[00:40:47] Keep it on. Yeah,

[00:40:49] Being in the trenches right now, but.

[00:40:51] For sure. That's, that's a victory in itself with a baby and a puppy. So

[00:40:56] Yeah, like they keep me busy and no, yeah, nothing big coming up other than that and just trying to, trying to keep scrapbooking in my life as much as I can because, you know, it's a big, big part of it. So, yeah.

[00:41:09] Again, thank you so much for chatting.

[00:41:11] Thank you. Thanks for having me.

[00:41:13] Yes. And for all of our listeners, please remember that you have permission to scrapbook your way.