SYW275 – Making Decisions in Scrapbooking

[00:00:07] Do you have any regrets in scrapbooking? How do you overcome a false start? Today, I'm sharing my experiences and offering suggestions on these and a range of topics. 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.

[00:00:31] This is episode 275. In this episode, I'm answering listener questions. I'll address simplifying decision-making, returning to scrapbooking after a break, and tackling your backlog in a three-part series released in September 2024.

[00:00:52] Hello friends. I'm excited to be here and switch things up a little bit with a series of Q and A episodes. I get a lot of questions throughout the year, but I specifically reached out to our member community to ask them: what were the questions that were top of mind? And if you all enjoy this series, I will open it up to our broader listener community as well and we will do more in the future. I thought I would start off each of these episodes by sharing some of the things that I am excited about right now, because I don't always get a chance to discuss those in the interviews I have with our guests.

[00:01:39] So in order to tell you the thing that I'm excited about, I need to give you a little bit of context. Some of the episodes that are coming up after this series, the end of September and through October are really fascinating, great conversations that dig into motivations for change. And I think that will even support a lot of the experiences and advice that I'm sharing in this particular episode and in tackling the first question that I will get to here. And in those I was left with this desire to do more simple documentation. That I haven't felt like I've done a good job.

[00:02:29] The older I get the more my memory lapses. I know that I've always felt like, oh, I will remember that. And then I don't, but that is increasingly so, and I've come to terms that I will barely remember yesterday or last week. And so I want to create more of a practice of documentation of what's happening in our lives. Whether they're big or small moments, I feel like I do the observation.

[00:03:01] I try to soak in moments. I am taking some photos when it's appropriate, when I want to. I'm not photographing everything these days and part of that is my daughter is at an age where she prefers not to be photographed as much. And so I have this desire to jot things down more. Now I've tried this over the years in various formats but I've always felt perhaps a little restricted with too little space such as in a very small calendar or too open-ended with, you know, I want to be a journaler. I do sometimes write journal entries. Sometimes I hand write them. Sometimes I type them. But I'm considering that a very different thing. That is me processing my thoughts and feelings, working through stuff. Um, Unloading via words. Instead of unloading on my loved ones.

[00:04:07] If you know, you know, on that one. And so this is about memory keeping at its simplest form.

[00:04:17] And so my goal, my hope, my plan for 2025 is to use an A6, that's pretty small, Hobonichi to do that documentation. I hope to do it as daily as possible, but to just make sure I'm always writing something down and it's not about being pretty at all. There will be no decoration; I'm saving my stickers for my planner.

[00:04:47] I love my stickers in my planner. But this is just about having that reference to be a companion to my photos. So, particularly as I'm taking fewer photos, I need more of that data in between to fill in gaps, to connect stories and to round out the picture, if you will, because I'm not taking as many actual photos. So that's going to be a big focus for me in 2025, getting into this rhythm. I'm currently working on other habits in my life as well.

[00:05:29] And so I feel like this is maybe more doable than it has been in the past. And so I will keep everyone informed, but I am definitely excited about bringing this into my practice and actually making it one of the most important things alongside my photo management. All right. Let's dig into some questions. This first one comes from Lisa. And it's a really juicy one.

[00:05:58] So she writes: "What should be considered when contemplating a format change? I've always been a paper scrapbooker and find myself wanting less stuff and simplifying my decisions. I am intentional with taking pictures. And have stories and everyday life in mind. But I fall flat on execution. Because as a working mom of three, I typically only scrap at crops a handful of times each year. I don't know why, but I'm terrified to go digital. But I know it could allow me to do more in the moment versus at crops. Just curious how others have made this decision and if there were any regrets after considering pros and cons. So before I share my response, I want to invite you to the comments for each of these episodes to share your perspective, your experiences, and your reactions and your answers to these questions. As always, you can find the show notes for each episode at simplescrapper.com/syw and the episode number.

[00:07:08] So this is SYW275. Okay, here is my response and let's unpack this a little bit. So Lisa is wanting less stuff. That is a very specific objective in itself. And there's two sides to that coin. So less stuff is both about maybe starting to look at what you're not using, what you can let go of. But often the most important part is to start with your shopping habits. Are you getting subscriptions?

[00:07:47] Are you using them at a rate that you're happy with? Are you signing up for classes that come with products? Are you in a purchasing routine, either online or at local stores? So just thinking critically about how you're bringing in scrapbook supplies. And if that is supporting the way that you are creating right now. So I wanted to start there because you can simplify your hobby with regards to the stuff without changing how you've always scrapbooked. If you want to continue being a paper scrapbooker there's ways that we can support you in having a more streamlined hobby.

[00:08:39] Okay, now let's tackle another part of her question. So she's a working mom of three. And so she has a full life, a lot on her plate. She scrapbooks mostly at crops away from home.

[00:08:52] And so whether she's going to continue doing most of that, or she wants to do more of that at home, in between, what you need to look at is not necessarily the format but the types of scrapbooking that you love and value the most. If you've heard of my Focus Finder exercise, I often talk about importance times excitement. So, what is the intrinsic value?

[00:09:24] What is the legacy you want to leave with this project? Why does it mean something to you? And then, is it exciting to you? Is it interesting? Does it sound fun? Are there products and colors and textures and patterns that you want to use? Are the memories so vivid and fresh that you have to capture them now? And so when you're thinking about how to adjust your hobby, how to streamline when you're in a season of life where there's not a lot of time, you need to look at the types of activities, whether that's year long projects where you find a rhythm and consistency. Whether that's physical or digital. Whether you like individual layouts and building a collection of these layouts. Whether you like really small mini books or you like 6x8 projects that are time bound, more like Week in the Life and December Daily.

[00:10:24] There's so many ways to be a scrapbooker today, which of course we talk about on the show all the time. And so this is where you get to build a plate full of your favorites. And not everything is going to fit on that plate, but you have an opportunity to pick and choose. And that may be all the same format or it might be different formats.

[00:10:51] And so we'll, we'll go into more of that. But let's tackle another part of her question. So she says she's terrified to go digital. We need to understand why. Is it lack of technical savvy? Is it fear of not having the tactile experience? Of course, there's always hybrid scrapbooking where you are using your computer or device for part of the process and then printing things out and your final product is not just a printed image, but more traditional and tactile. Is it taking her out of that crop experience and putting it onto a device when we're on our devices all the time?

[00:11:36] I would really encourage Lisa to define what "going digital" means to her. And why there's the fear around it. Because simplifying, streamlining and wanting to be more mobile with your hobby or being able to scrapbook more in the everyday sense doesn't necessarily require going digital. It can help, but it can also create barriers if it's not fun for you, if it doesn't feel productive. I don't want you to feel backed into a corner .

[00:12:15] So my bottom line here is that a format change doesn't need to be a wholesale change from being a paper scrapbooker to a digital scrapbooker. You can have photo books, projects made with Canva, projects in the Project Life app, you can have digital-based work in your hobby alongside paper-based work.

[00:12:45] So maybe you do something like capturing a photo a day or your smaller everyday moments in some sort of digital format, that you can do on your preferred device. But then you still set aside time to work on the paper projects that you love the most. And those are the things that you take to the crops.

[00:13:09] All right.

[00:13:10] I hope that was helpful. This is a topic that we could talk about absolutely forever. Let me know what follow up questions you have. I think this is a really important topic because the foundation of what we want to help you do here is to make decisions easier and make decisions that fit your life today.

[00:13:32] Our next question comes from Diana. And she actually has 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 parts to the question, but I think it will help lead us through this thought process really well. So, what I'm going to do here is read you all of her questions and then we'll go through one by one and I'll share my thoughts. So question number one. What have you found helpful when returning to scrapbooking after a break? Number two. How did you actually get started again in terms of organizing supplies, photos, taking on a challenge, planning a specific project or something else? Number three. Did you have some false starts? What were some of the initial pitfalls before you got into a rhythm and what helped overcome them?

[00:14:25] Number four. How do you cope with that desire to catch up, which can leave you feeling quite overwhelmed? Were there some good enough decisions that you had to make? And number five. Is there anything you'd wish you'd done while you weren't actively scrapbooking that could have made it easier to start again?

[00:14:50] All right.

[00:14:50] Let's work through these. So returning to scrapbooking after a break is such a common question. We all go through different stages of life, where we're not able to get to our scrapbooking, where we don't necessarily make it a priority or we're not able to make it a priority. And so it's normal to have pauses in our hobby. I think big picture I always want to encourage everyone to remember that no matter how long it has been since you last scrapbooked, you are still a scrapbooker.

[00:15:28] Okay. Let's tackle her first question. What have you found helpful when returning? So the first thing that's top of mind for me is to take on a directed project. Such as follow along with some instructions to make a layout, make a mini book, make a crafty thing. It doesn't even necessarily have to be in the same style or format that you used before, or even would like to use in the future? It's about getting your hands dirty, if you will, whether that's in a tactile project or even a digital project, but following along. And kind of recovering some of that muscle memory of creating. It also can very quickly remind you of aspects of creating that you enjoy and maybe the parts that you don't enjoy as much.

[00:16:27] So I definitely recommend starting very, very small with specific things that you can follow along with , whether it's a sketch challenge or a particular kit that you have that may be came with instructions. Anything you can do to reduce the number of decisions and just start making something. And there's no need to figure out how it fits into your whole process or what part of your long list of memories the satisfies. It's about a warmup.

[00:17:02] It's about getting back into the groove. And so at the same time, when you're in this phase, I definitely recommend collecting inspiration whether with a Pinterest board or saves on Instagram or even just mentally taking in all the different types of ways to be a scrapbooker or memory keeper and figuring out what is interesting to you. But in this beginning phase limit your purchases. Because it's easy to get so excited because something has shifted for you and you're ready to dive in, and then all of a sudden you create so many paths for yourself that it makes it hard to choose what to actually work on. Because all of a sudden you have products for layouts and different projects, and maybe you bought some digital things or you bought a new tool or some new software.

[00:18:01] So definitely soak it all in. Take some notes. Process it. But don't fully dive in with purchases until you have a better sense of where you're headed.

[00:18:15] So then her next question is about how you actually get started again. And I always recommend that you start with new photos, photos that you took recently, that are the top of your camera roll, just added to your computer . Something that is fresh. Because there's nothing that can like stifle your feeling of progress as much as realizing, oh, well I haven't scrapped booked since this particular date in the past.

[00:18:46] And so I need to go back there. You may choose to go back there at some point. But if you're starting again, I recommend creating individual layouts or two-page spreads, if that's how you like to create. But about new photos, new stories, new memories. Because this is what's going to help you feel connected to what's going on right now.

[00:19:09] You'll be able to leverage the momentum that you have both about your hobby, as well as that story, because it's fresh in your mind.

[00:19:18] And so at the same time, as you've been collecting this inspiration and trying to figure out maybe how you want to be a scrapbooker, this is when you can also experiment with a few techniques. Seeing maybe what you like and don't like. Which direction do you might want to head with formats? This is where you can start doing some experimentation. And then Diana accurately here points out that you might have some false starts.

[00:19:47] You may get really excited about a particular format that maybe a lot of scrapbookers are using right now. And you realize, oh, that's just not for you. So you have to find a balance between experimentation. If you can do as much experimentation as you can, without acquisition of new things. That's awesome. And trying to balance that with observation and of course, some purchases so that you can dig in just a little bit more if you need to.

[00:20:18] So it's about being really mindful and intentional. Seeing how others work on these particular projects. Watching videos or reels and really pay attention to the process that your fellow scrapbookers are using. To see what some of their pitfalls are with that particular project, whether they're working with a particular kit or they're doing a year long project, really pay attention to not just what it looks like but the words that they're using surrounding it.

[00:20:54] Are they trying to catch up? How much time does it take? So you want to think about how you like to create, the amount of time that you have to invest. And that will help you avoid some false starts, where you make this huge investment in a new way to scrapbook, a new direction, and then you can't finish.

[00:21:16] You can't make progress. So it's totally normal to have that. And I don't want you to feel like you've messed up. If you have one, we've all had. I have had so many false starts over the years. That is such a common thing that we experience as scrapbookers whether or not we're returning after a break or not, but we can all minimize the number of false starts we have by really being mindful, by doing a serious gut check about what is doable for us.

[00:21:51] And so I think another part of this in terms of avoiding false starts, is to start shoring up your accountability systems. So this could be starting with just an accountability buddy. Someone who has a similar level of interest and familiarity with scrapbooking as you do that you can bounce ideas off of. You could say, "Hey, should I start this project?"

[00:22:17] And they can help you troubleshoot and ask even more specific questions about how that project does or does not fit into your life. And then broader than that, of course, being a part of a community where you can get multiple perspectives and seeing how others tackle their projects and how they overcome their pitfalls can be huge because we're all going to have different strategies.

[00:22:45] And so I think, the takeaway here, 'cause she asked specifically about pitfalls before you got into a rhythm and we have found that the rhythm is what is more important than anything else. Because if you're showing up regularly, if you were creating consistently, you will be creating those opportunities for yourself to observe, to course correct, to make tweaks, to interact with others and get feedback and to troubleshoot and to just be thoughtful about your hobby. And you're much less likely to have a false start or to encounter a roadblock because you're in tune with what you're doing.

[00:23:32] All right.

[00:23:33] Switching gears here. She talks about catching up, feeling overwhelmed, and trying to make good enough decisions.

[00:23:41] And so we will all face this at some time in our scrapbooking, because there is a lot from the past that we haven't documented. Time is always moving forward. We are so lucky and we should be grateful that we get to take more photos tomorrow. And so with that, we have to develop new perspectives. So that this lack of never feeling caught up doesn't overwhelm us and hinder our progress and consistency in scrapbooking. So the first question that I would ask is what can you do from here forward? So for example, the documentation that I want to start with my Hobonichi for next year.

[00:24:24] That is a solution for me in terms of "I can do this going forward." So that I have more memories, more context for my photos to fall back on when I am eventually scrapbooking that particular time period or a memory from that time period.

[00:24:43] I think the similarly goes with how I recommend approaching photo management. It might take a while to organize all of your photos, but can you get organized starting with the next photo you take? What would that system look like? And then over time you can move past photos into that system, but at least you will have one and you'll be organized from here forward.

[00:25:10] In terms of projects and feeling more caught up, I often will encourage our members to think about summary projects. If you've been around here for a while, you might've heard of my Before Your Story album. This is an album that you can create that documents your birth to adulthood story; mine goes from my birth to my daughter's birth. You can do it, of course, for someone else. I've done one for my husband and I hope in the future to do some for my stepsons, from their birth to graduation from high school in a similar format. We've also had members do summaries of single seasons or summaries of a particular holiday over the years.

[00:25:58] What can you do that brings things together, that helps you feel more caught up on the things that are most important to you? If you can't literally do a layout for every single story that you'd like to capture from, whatever period of time you feel behind on, what types of projects can you do instead? So another one that I have done is a Fall album for the past decade.

[00:26:26] So I think I did this in 2022. And so I did it from 2012 to 2022, documenting all of our fall memories. I've really been interested in doing kind of an October Daily type of project. But we actually don't do a lot of Halloween things besides just simple decorating and trick or treating, maybe a trip to the pumpkin patch.

[00:26:49] We just don't have enough seasonal memories to document a single year, but we certainly have plenty over an entire decade.

[00:26:59] The types of summary projects that you could do is endless. But I want to encourage you to start thinking about your backlog of photos and stories a little bit differently, to make that feel more doable.

[00:27:17] And then kind of one sub point that I want to make is that, is there a rhythm that you would like to create in terms of addressing a backlog? And so what I often see, is for example Let's just say it's January. In January you're going to go back and look at previous January's photos and maybe work on those. Or it's, let's say it's January 14th.

[00:27:43] You're going to go look at January 14th of each year and just do that one day at a time. Or you can say, I want to focus specifically on 2016. I want to look for gaps in my storytelling. I want to look through my photos and make sure that everything important has been captured. And at a certain point, I will consider 2016 "done enough." It doesn't mean you might never scrapbook another story from 2016, but to know that you've captured the big stuff. And that's another conversation I have coming up in an episode where we talk about, whether it's selecting two memories or 10 memories, but making sure we are doing kind of a high level sweep for this level of satisfaction , so that we can feel more caught up.

[00:28:25] And then finally Diana asks about, is there anything you wish you would have done? And I certainly, as I mentioned earlier, wish that I had done more documentation and making sure that was kept in a single place. I have lots of documentation on social media, in various notes, apps and text messages and emails. But I don't have one single home for all of my documentation.

[00:28:52] And that's something that I would love to have a know that I would reference more if it was in that one place.

[00:29:01] To draw this all together, for Diana and for our listeners... if you're returning to scrapbooking after a break, I want you to leverage the stories that you're living right now to get excited about scrapbooking again.

[00:29:17] I want you to follow along with directed projects, whether they're small or even a little bit bigger. So that you can reduce the number of decisions that you need to make while you're getting your feet wet again. And then I want you to open your mind to experimentation, to different ways that you can approach your hobby. And to figure out what's going to serve you best going forward.

[00:29:43] So our first two questions focused on decision-making and thinking more big picture about our hobby. And these next two are more specific about photos. Now, one thing that I want to point out before we dive in, is that at Simple Scrapper we organize our year into six creative journeys. So every two month period, starting with January and February has a particular theme. Now, it doesn't mean we're not touching all those themes throughout the year. But we try to organize some of our conversations, our classes, and our experiences around helping support you on this particular theme. And so the rhythm goes habits, organization, storytelling, photos, projects, and planning. So as of right now, we're in our projects creative journey. And specifically helping our members finish their projects with our class called The Finishing Project. And so I want to mention that because from here forward, I've actually organized a lot of our questions are around these particular themes because no matter what you're doing in scrapbooking, these six themes are the foundation upon which our actual creating is built. And so by touching all of these throughout the year, we're building you a stronger foundation for being a consistent scrapbooker.

[00:31:21] And so with that, these next two questions, as I said, focus on our photo libraries and scrapbooking with a particular challenge with photos. Okay.

[00:31:32] So this question here from Nitza. She says, " a few years back, I created a separate photo library on my Mac when it was called iPhoto." She was trying to group them by year and to segregate photos from a previous experience. Now she wants to merge them back together into one library so that she can manage them more effectively, lessen maintenance and making sure that the library gets updated, but she knows that she has duplicates and she might like to hide some photos from that original library. So she says, "I feel like this is a big project that I put off each year. Do you have any recommendations on merging photo libraries?" And so Nitza actually had a reply here from Christine. So Christine points out that Apple Photos has a find duplicates feature that can help you. So what I'm going to do for this one is, I am going to link some resources in the show notes for the episode that are specific to merging Apple photo libraries and dealing with those duplicates. I'm also going to link to a video and a blog post that I have on my broader perspective on duplicate management. Because for some of us, more broadly, and I don't actually think this applies to Nitza's situation, we may want to combine our libraries in a more manual way. I certainly feel like software has a role and is increasingly powerful to be able to actually find duplicates for us. But I also want to recommend that you fully understand where all your photos live. And how they are being managed by whatever software you are using. And so this often means reading the documentation, watching videos, often from the manufacturer about that particular software or operating system on your device. And so just developing a deeper knowledge and skill so that you feel comfortable with your photo library and can reduce that intimidation of these big projects.

[00:33:55] So sometimes when you do things more manually, for example, moving files from place to place, making outlines on a spreadsheet or on paper, so that you're kind of double checking yourself can really boost your confidence that you are doing it the way you need to do it. I would also say the enlisting a buddy on this, whether that's someone in your family or even someone online where you can screen share with, where you can talk through the process. And that might help reduce any potential nervousness because you have a second set of eyes to make sure that what you're moving from point A to point B is the right thing.

[00:34:40] I hope that's helpful. It is sometimes hard when we have very specific technical things, but there's almost always a tutorial out there that can help you. So don't be afraid to Google, particularly nowadays with AI responses. Now I'm not in any way saying that they are always accurate, but they actually can help you sometimes get to the right information a little bit faster.

[00:35:07] All right now, Tina has a little bit of a different question, and this is something that I have dealt with over and over again, because. Well, let me just read it for you. So she asked, "What are your suggestions for scrapbooking poor quality photos? I have boxes of snapshots taken decades ago that tell wonderful stories, but are awful photos." Okay.

[00:35:29] So there's a couple of different ways to approach this. So if she has actual boxes of snapshots, I would start by scanning them. Because this freezes that image in time, in terms of any kind of acid degradation from how they were stored or what was in the original material of the photos themselves. So we want to make sure that photos don't fade or yellow and are protected from anything that we might physically do with them in the future.

[00:36:03] And so with that, when you can scan them, we can often do editing corrections. We can turn them black and white. We can also maybe adjust the size. And so it's actually a better situation to have prints or negatives or slides that you can scan than it is to have very poor quality digital photos.

[00:36:33] So I would say, as a starter here, Tina is in a pretty strong position.

[00:36:38] Let's continue on the prints and how I would handle them.

[00:36:43] Some folks do like to go ahead and scrapbook them as is. But as I said, I would prefer to scan them. And then reprint them for my scrapbooking. And that's so that I can keep them safe. And I don't have to worry about how my scrapbooking might impact that particular photo, particularly if I want to do more creative things like putting embellishments or journaling on top. It just depends on how old these photos are, but that's kind of the first thing.

[00:37:16] When you do have a digital image of your original physical item, you can, as I said, turn it black and white, and that can often make a photo look more polished and fit in with your supplies or not detract because of the coloring, perhaps it's kind of yellow or more vintage looking.

[00:37:38] And it can de emphasize any like blurriness, out of focus , or any other issues with the image. Now it's also a choice. You may not like the style of black and white images. And so with that, I also think that sometimes you just, you go with the flow.

[00:37:58] And so the biggest suggestion I actually have, and this is whether or not you have a high quality scan of your print or you have a very tiny digital image from circa 2001 that's 400 by 600 pixels... is to print your photos very small. Two inches by three inches tends to be the sweet spot that I have found. And while you might want not want to do this for just one photo, if you do lots of them together you can create quite an impact and tell your story in a way that deemphasizes the poor quality of the photos. And to be honest, I do this whether or not those photos are old and poor quality or even new and poor quality because we can take just as bad photos with our phones today. Maybe your lens was a little bit smudged. Maybe the lighting was terrible. When you can print things a little bit smaller and or make that choice of turning it black and white, that can deemphasize the quality of the photos.

[00:39:16] Friends. This was fun. I hope you enjoyed this style of episode. I will be back next week with another set of questions. I can't wait to find out what you think about my responses in the comments for this one. And as always, please remember that you have permission to Scrapbook Your Way.